Six Months

Wow, Six Months already...it is so hard to believe.  Like Justin's mom says, "It seems like we just got him."  And, it's so true, especially the word "got" because he has been such a gift.  This baby boy is so darn sweet, smiley and continues to be so laid back.  God has completed our family with all the right puzzle pieces.  We all fit together so nicely.  So, at 6 months, what is our youngest up to??

Sleeping- 3 naps a day, 11-12 hours at night
Eating-four bottles a day (4-6 oz.) and rice/oatmeal with fruit or veggie twice a day
Playing-all the time!
Has cut one bottom tooth and the other one will most likely be through tomorrow.  This means LOTS of drool
Prefers to suck his left middle finger over a pacifier, especially when sleepy
Rubs his eyes when he is sleepy which the other two never did, very cute
Wears 9-12 months clothes (even though he and Brice were born in complete opposite seasons, I have been able to use a lot of Brice's things!)
Rolls and scoots where he wants to go.
Will get up on hands and knees and rock back and forth
Can sit unassisted for about 30 seconds- 1minute
Will lay his head on your shoulder if sleepy and just snuggle up, melts me every time!

 Nice hair, huh?  Gets that from his Daddy!

 Brice and Anna at 6 months.

Five Months, in review

In four days, Kyle will be six months.  I seriously don't like thinking about this at all because that means half of his first year has passed.  Anyway, here are some pictures of him during his Fifth Month, in review.  These were actually not taken on the same day even though he is wearing the same outfit.  He is growing so fast that if something fits, I have to dress him in it multiple times to get the most use out of it.  Aunt Blaire actually gave him this outfit for Christmas.

 And, yes the boy is teething like mad.  The bottom left tooth is probably three days from poking through.  I can see the little opening in his gums where it will pop out.  He has handled it as if nothing is going on.  Seriously. Best. Baby. Ever!

 He was lying on his back and grabbed onto the blanket and pulled it over his head when he rolled over.

This weekend holds a basketball game, and a play date, so far...  Also, changed the blog background to Valentine's Day themed.  I am not a huge celebrator of Valentine's Day.  I think it's a lot of Hallmark bologna.  Justin will tell you I am not the romantic one!  But, I do think it's important to tell those you love that you do love them.  And, we LOVE our almost Valentine's Day boy, Brice. :)  Birthday fun to come in February!

Cast and Crew

Can't believe my last post was almost two weeks ago, eek!  There are always post ideas floating around in my head but then when I sit down to type them out, they have either left my head or I'm too tired to put forth the effort.  Sad, but true.  I seem to be tired all the time.  All three kids can't sleep all night long or past 7 on the same morning.  We just bought Anna a clock so I'm going to work on getting her to recognize the numbers on the clock and hopefully that will help keep her in her room longer.  Although, I am skeptical because she just likes to be reassured that the whole family hasn't up and left her.  She is the lightest sleeper and will wake with just the slightest noise.  I have tried using a sound machine in her room but she doesn't like it on so...

Anyway, Anna's sleep habits could be a post on their own.  I was thinking the other day that I always post on the events of our life but not the day to day goings on here at the house.  I know I am going to remember the big events, the Christmas mornings, the baptisms but what I will WANT to remember and might not are the little things that the kids do and say on an everyday basis.  Such as right this second, Brice is throwing a ball against the fridge giving me five million reasons that he can't go do something productive and that I haven't "played" with him in three days.  He is also asking for hot chocolate and Anna is asking for more "pink chocolate milk" as if I haven't fed them breakfast.  It's ten til nine, they've had their breakfast.  I will do a post on our day to day activities soon I hope.

What I wanted to write about today was Anna and her fascination with "being" different characters.  She loves to pretend and Brice did too at this age.  Right now she loves any female character and like Brice said the other day, "Of course, you are always the MAIN character."!!  Not only is she the main character of the family but she assigns us supporting roles.  So, without further ado, here is the Cast and Crew of the Reynolds family in different stories...

Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins-Anna
Bert-Daddy
Michael-Brice
The mom-Mommy
one of the penguins-Kyle

Here she is dressed as Mary Poppins in the white and red dress when they ride the horses.  She has informed me that she wants to be Mary Poppins for Halloween.  Yes, it's January.

Beauty and the Beast
Belle-Anna
Beast-Daddy
Lumiere (the candlestick)-Brice
Wardrobe-Mommy
Cogsworth (the clock)-Kyle

Alice in Wonderland
Alice-Anna
Mad Hatter-Daddy
Rabbit-Brice
Queen of Hearts-Mommy
Caterpillar-Kyle (pretty sure that Kyle fits this description as he is very mellow as if he had been eating shrooms!  Praying this never happens in real life.)

Her Christmas dress is her Alice in Wonderland dress with the black shoes.

Doodlebops (our least favorite, if you have ever seen this show, you know why)
Deedee-Anna
Rooney-Daddy (poor Justin)
Moe-Brice
Maz-Mommy
Moose-Kyle

She LOVES this outfit and being Deedee Doodle.  It is sort of like her ballerina shirts last year...need I say more??

She also like to be Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, Rapunzel, etc, etc.  When she is pretending to be these characters, she likes us to call her by the name.  Every so often I will refer to her as whomever and she will say, "No, I'm just Anna."  Thank goodness she knows the difference between reality and fantasy.  Sometimes, I wonder!

God Bless Kyle

This past weekend was very busy starting with Kyle's baptism.  We had quite the crowd there at the church but it was so nice because it ended up being a private baptism.  My sister and cousin are the godparents and both of them traveled in to be with us for this special time.  After Kyle's baptism, my mom gave a bridal shower for Jonathan's fiance, Mollie.  So, the tally of family was let's see...the five of us+both sets of our parents (4)+ both of our sisters (2)+my cousins and their significant others (4)+ my aunt and uncle(2)=17!!!  Mom and I purposely planned both on the same weekend since my family would be traveling in from Charlotte, St. Louis and Chicago.  It was such a busy but fun weekend.  Kyle was a sweet boy and did great throughout the little ceremony.  He still smells like the oils the deacon blessed him with despite having a bath.  Every time I get him up from a nap, I feel like I'm back in Italy walking into a church.

Here are some pictures from the day and then today I dressed him back up in order to take some more pictures.  I've done this with the other two as well.

Anna's 3 year Stats

Our little Anna is not so little anymore!  I took her on the 27th for her check-up.  She was not very chatty but Dr. J knows her from Kyle's appointments so she knows that she does talk quite a bit when it's not her in the spotlight.  Everything checked out great and I'm not sure if I had mentioned it before but she also had a cardiology check up on the 5th of December.  It was her best appointment yet and they don't want to see her until Summer of 2013.  Wahoo!  Makes my heart feel good.  So, she is healthy, healthy and the only thing we have to work on is her sassy-ness and middle of the night visits. 

Her weight was 32 lbs, 8oz (67%) and her height was 38.25 inches (70%).  She is turning into a square!  Kidding of course, but this is the highest percentile her weight has ever been.  I looked up Brice's stats and he was a square, 39 lbs and 39 inches!  This was also his highest percentage as far as weight, must be a three year old thing.  Anyway, that is all for now, just wanted to let inquiring minds know.  We are getting ready for Kyle's baptism tomorrow and will have lots of family here for it.  Below are the daily shananigans of Anna.  Typical outfit, holding a wand and Brice putting a pencil in front of the lens while I take the picture...

Goals of 2012

Are you wondering where I have been?  I am alive and have Christmas pictures, but I feel like it was ages ago now because we have been putting decorations away and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  I have packed up so much and reorganized rooms and closets.  I think I worked 12 hours straight on New Year's Eve so that meant I did NOT stay up to see the ball drop.  I am kind of sad to see 2011 go.  It was such an awesome year for our family. 
We completed it and in the best way possible.  Kyle.  He has completed our family and at the same time filled up my heart all over again.  He turned five months old on the 31st and his little personality is just emerging and he is still the happiest, calmest baby I have ever been around.  There are nights when I put him in the crib and tear up knowing that he is my last and for sure my last.  Side story real quick:  Went to the mall with my mom the day after Christmas and saw a lady who was very pregnant and I did not envy her one. little. bit.  When you know, you know, right?  I know.  Anyway, that doesn't make it any easier that this sweet baby is making it hard to watch him grow so fast!

I also haven't blogged because the last time I did, I tried to change one of the sidebar pictures of Kyle and it told me I was at my limit.  I am going to try and post pictures on this post and see if it will allow me to do that.  I have contacted a couple of people about this issue and also about turning what I have blogged into a book.  So, my near future posts may be few and far between.  One of my goals this year is to: Stay off the computer and be in my life more.  Sometimes I feel as though I am too caught up in preserving all these memories instead of just enjoying them.  I love taking pictures and being able to look back at them and also all the scrapbooks I do. Goal #2:  complete some (3) scrapbooks.  Goal #3: Sit back and enjoy-this kind of goes hand in hand with Goal #1 but I don't feel like I have to concentrate all of my energy on growing another human being and all the concerns that go with that.  I just want to let my body be.  Not that I am just going be a blob, I do plan to work out more.  Goal #4:  Do for others and involve the kids in this.  (I am open for suggestions on this such as what has worked for you, what your kids have enjoyed doing, etc.)  I am trying to be realistic about these goals so we will see what happens.

 Kyle in the exersaucer..he loves it and jabbers the whole time he is in it!

 At Justin's Nana's house.  Did realize how grumpy Anna looks.  Oops.

 Jack stopped bouncing like Tigger long enough to get in a picture!

 At my parents' for Christmas Eve dinner.

 Not only did she get a Sleeping Beauty dress, she also got a Belle dress=lots of costume changes going on.  The girl is a fashionista!

Brice's favorite gift of the night...Harry Potter legos of Hogwarts.  He did awesome building the first two of three parts.  Then he tried to connect the two and they fell apart.  Guess who finished it yesterday??

 None of my pictures of Christmas morning were post-worthy so here we are at the Reynolds on Christmas morning. 

 Pa got Brice tickets to a Georgia basketball game where the Dawgs went to OT and won!  What a lucky kid.

And since Christmas has been over, I have been trying to keep the kids busy but I'm just going to say that we are all over being around each other.  We need to resume normal life!  School. Work. Sleep.  What have you...18 days of freedom is too dang long!  Here is a picture of Anna from New Years Day...talk about pent up energy!