Growing Boy

When John Reid turned one many people asked if I was sad that he was growing so fast. I was so excited for his birthday that didn't have those feelings until recently. John Reid is almost 15 months old and I can't get over how much he has grown in recent weeks. I'm grateful that the little kicks I'm feeling in my belly constantly remind me that a new little one it not far away. There are a few things I wanted to write down about him so we never forget this precious time...

-John Reid now has a morning routine where he asks to put on a "hat" as soon as we walk in to get him. It's important to note that his ball caps wont do, he wants one of his cowboy hats or any of Chris' hats. He wears it until it's time for breakfast and then just plays with them all day. He also get into the fridge in the mornings when he notices it's open (thankfully he can't open it yet). He grabs a yogurt, walks to his drawer and gets on his tip toes to retrieve a spoon and stands at his chair waiting for me to feed him. Yep... that's my big boy! 

-Lovies- Although he doesn't have a special blanket or plush stuffed animal, any will do the trick. He loves to put anything soft on the ground and "hug" them and make a precious "ahhhh" sound. He knows he's cute doing and and really enjoys when we ask him to share. He'll give us the item and we respond to it the same way he does! It's great! Oh, and he alway thinks it's hilarious to spell his stinky feet! We ask him "Are your feet stinky?" He gets them to his nose and cracks himself up. And yes, if they have been in shoes and socks they smell like a high school locker room!

-Shoes... especially cowboy boots! He attempts to try them all on.

-Balls- his favorite thing ever! He makes "baskets" with any item that will fit through another. Chris always makes a big deal when he does it, so now even if we are not looking he put's his hands in the air and shouts as to say "I just made the winning basket!" He responds the same way any time he sees a basket being made on TV (Which is often with the basketball finals on the screen seemingly non-stop)

-Books- He would look at and talk about them forever! 

-Talking and Signing- The only signing John Reid does is a mixture of MORE and PLEASE. Although it's not text book, it does the trick in communicating. He also loves to do the following animal noises: cow, horse, chicken, rooster, duck, cat and lion. And fish, elephant and snake have corresponding hand motions I'm still trying to get on video. He calls Chris "da" and finally calls me "mama." He also says "tie"(this was really his first word, he loves to play and look at daddy's tie when Chris is dressed for work) "outside," "hat", "hush," and "yes"

- Da (Dad)- John Reid is without a doubt a daddy's boy. Their amazing bond started at the very beginning when I wasn't good for much of anything in the hospital. It continued when Chris was able to come home for lunch for the first 5 months of his life. He never went more than 4-5 hours without seeing him. Anyway, John Reid gets sad every morning he leaves (we quickly move on and no real tears appear) and he knows the time of day we look out the window or go outside in expectations of Da's arrival home. This bond became even more evident when we started to really discipline him. John Reid's response to Chris' correction is priceless. Not only does he quickly correct the behavior, his lower lip puckers and he usually wants to crawl in his daddy's lap to say he's sorry. Mama... not so much! Which leads me to...

Disciple- Thankfully, John Reid has been very responsive to time outs. I have 3 parenting books on my night stand right now, all very different in theories and styles. Chris and I have great conversation at night about them and we are developing as a team on what we feel is best for him. 

This weekend marks the beginning of a 3 weekend series of travel. We are going to Tyler for Mothers Day, then to OKC next weekend and Birmingham for Memorial Weekend. So, we'll be update again soon.