A Few Things.......

We went to Cabelas this weekend. Normally I avoid Cabelas on the weekend. It is a zoo! However I bought a pair of shoes and I wanted to exchange them for some different ones and i could not be patient and wait for Monday. All went well except for the LONG wait in a line that only had 3 people in it. I knew Reed would start crying for a bottle any minute. I just wanted to get out of there and get to the car to feed him. That didn't happen. I had to start feeding him while waiting. After checking out I decided that I would just sit on a bench outside finish taking care of Reed and let River people watch. As soon as I sat down and got a bottle going for Reed, River says " I have to go pee." I tell him he has to wait until I am done and we will go inside. he seems OK with this. After a bit he stars climbing around behind the bench. I keep saying get out from there, it's dirty blah, blah, blah. Of course River doesn't answer because he is busy peeing. When I finally look back there to see what is going on, all I see is a stream of pee! I just looked away and concentrated on Reed pretending I was still clueless. River comes out and announces, proud as can be " I'm all done now." Before we leave I notice pee running from behind the bench out to the side walk! What's a Mom to do?

Last night I got brave enough to take both kids out for a semi sit down dinner. We went to Doby's Pizza. Just a small, mostly take out place. While we were waiting for pizza, I tell River how I notice how much Reed likes to watch him. River started playing with his straw and laughing and Reed just kept busting out with big, long laughs at River. It was cracking us up. It ended up being a fun time and I enjoyed being out with my kids.

Yesterday River and I got our H1N1 vaccines. We got the nose mist. I felt a little run down today but am better tonite. River seems fine. He needs a second dose in 30 days. Reed is still at risk but less so if River and I are protected. I am so glad to have had this done. It opens some doors for getting out and about again. Story time here we come!!!

Reed is changing so much so quickly. He can sorta sit on his own. Can sometimes get himself unstuck from being on his tummy. Today I noticed that while he was on his tummy he was really trying to get his knees under him. He even got on his toes with his butt in the air. He loves to watch the world around him. So much so that it can be hard to get him to take a bottle, he gets so involved in checking things out. He is so cute and it goes so fast. I can't believe it.

October

October turned out to me a much less pleasant month. Thanks to the swine flu or H1N1 or what ever you want to call it. After my babysitter came down with a case of the regular flu the day after watching the kids, I decided it was best to keep the kids at home as much as possible. So there went our nice little routine. No more mall, story time or babysitters. Reed started teething too!

On more positive note Reed learned to do so much! At the beginning of the month he gave out his first real, hardy, full fledged laugh. It was at river and very cute. He learned to roll over from front to back and began to try to sit on his own. Reed is no longer content to just sit and look at his toys. He wants to move. To bad he gets "stuck" on his tummy and can't do complete rolls yet. He is still very sweet and easy to cheer up.

River seemed to have a more difficult time and I think Brian being gone started to take a toll on him for a time.

With the monotony of being at home so much the days start to flow together but we did have Halloween to look forward too. Papa and Grandma went to the pumpkin patch with us. River did all the rides, the carousel, train, big slide and pony rides. As always, he loved riding the tractor out to get pumpkins. I guess he is getting older though. He was actually interested in getting pumpkins instead of just getting back on the tractor. Papa helped River carve his pumpkins and we trick or treated with Aunt Lori, Uncle Jeremy and the cousins. Fortunately we had no rain the whole evening. I have to say, the best thing about River, he gets one piece of candy and he is so happy about it we could be done. After going to a few doors he did start to get it and he had a great time. Reed enjoyed a little snooze in his stroller but he looked so cute in his pumpkin outfit.

September

The first month of Brian's deployment went surprisingly well. The month flew by after working out a few kinks. I realized that I would need some time to myself and time to get things done. I had my sister watch them one afternoon a week and a very wonderful babysitter come in one morning a week. We also figured out a routine that worked well. I thought it would help River to adjust to Brian being gone if he had an activity to keep him busy. I signed him up for Tae Kwon Do. I thought he would enjoy it as he liked to play "ruff and tuff" so much. I thought wrong. He was very very unsure and shy. I could not get him to go out and participate let alone even look at the instructors. After 2 tries I gave up. The point was to do something fun and neither one of us was having fun. So, we went to the mall play area once a week, did story time and played outside. Before dinner I spent time playing with the boys. The boys would lay on the floor and I would tickle them and stuff. Reed is turning out to be a very sweet, good natured boy. This month we started to see his personality emerge. Lots of smiles. He is content to lay under his baby gym and look up at his toys.