Reid's First Down!

On Saturday we celebrated Reid's 1st birthday!

We always keep our birthday parties pretty small, with just family and friends who are like family.

I found the invite here.

And I found free printables on Pinterest for some of the other decorations.  I stenciled the banner and made the felt football field.  I had the ONE letters from Carter's party and just repainted them!

 Christian made the field goal post that started as decor and also became a ring toss and a backyard game!

I painted the NFL "one" logo for the front door.  Christian jokes that everything I make looks awesome from 3 feet away.  I admit that I am no perfectionist and I get things done pretty quick, when it comes to party decorations.

I never really work this way, procrastinator I am not, but having 2 children makes everything harder so I was crafting for 2 days during naptime and during The Voice leading up to the party.

By far the coolest part of the party was the cake.  She made it exactly how I hoped and even better!

Reid demolished the smash cake and both of us had to change after that.  But he only had 2 little licks of cake from my fingers.

The kids played pin the football on the field goal, bean bag toss, and Christian made a field goal for kicking inflatable footballs through it and a ring toss.

After lunch the kids headed outside for a game of football in the backyard.

Then we opened presents. And the kids took home their goodie bag of "super bowl rings"  (ring pops), Reese's peanut butter footballs, and an inflatable football.

I think everyone had a fun day and I'm happy to have these memories and pictures for Reid one day!

  

One year ago..

I'm a little happy, a little sad, and it doesn't even feel real.  One year ago I woke up and was still exhausted.  I laid in bed for 2 hours that day then mustered up the strength to go to a tailgate party.  And a few hours later had a contraction and 2 hours later Reid was born.

That seems like a lifetime ago.  But today it is one year.

His party is over.  He smashed his cake, played, ripped open presents, we sang, went out to dinner, and read lots of books.  And tonight I held him and rocked extra long as I replayed last year.

In the hospital I cried (sobbed) for days after Carter was born but with Reid I was just happy.  I was able to walk around and wasn't in excruciating pain like with Carter.  I was scared that the year ahead would be filled with a screaming baby, but Reid surprised us and was more calm.  He let other people hold him and sat in a bouncy chair and he slept in a room full of noise.

In the first few days my only sad feelings were felt for Carter.  His whole world changed and I worried about him.  He was a momma's boy and Christian had to work hard (and took on the role of "Mr. Fun Pants" to take over some of what I did.)  Everything was a game and super fun and eventually Carter began to buy into it.  (Later Christian had to revise his ways, as Mr. Fun Pants couldn't survive forever.)

When Carter was one it was a celebration of survival.  That was a tough year- nothing could have prepared me for Carter's babyhood.  And although Reid was a happier baby he still was up multiple times a night and I was still laying in bed with insomnia.  I really tried to take it all in with him.  I think back to the year and remember that first month with such fondness (and obviously blocked out all the night wakings.)

When Reid was 5 days old we took him to Thanksgiving.

When he was 7 days old we decorated our Christmas tree and showed him each ornament as we hung them (and he slept through it all.)

And he slept through his first visit with Santa too.

Things were obviously different this time because he and I were out running errands to target and bed bath & beyond when he was only a few weeks old (with Carter I didn't dare take him in a store for months- he screamed that much.)

For the first 2 months Carter still went to daycare so I got to spend those early days with just Reid, usually snuggled on my chest, nursing and sleeping.  And I remember the fussy nights too.  I would rock him and dance in the dark in the kitchen with Christmas Canon and a Dido song on repeat.  

Then in February Carter stayed home and it was an adjustment and I spent so much time rocking Reid to sleep and rushing to play with Carter.  It was tough.  I felt stretched.  I was trying to do everything and felt like I was doing nothing well.

Adjusting to two was tiring.  Reid never took a bottle so I was very limited with time away.  In one year the longest I've been away from him is 5 hours (for Carter's field trip.)

I have spent countless hours breastfeeding him and rocking him and smooching his chubby cheeks.  I wish I could bottle up his cheeks and his big smiles.

And somehow we made it to today. And I can't decide if I want to freeze time, rewind and do it all over, or keep moving forward.

But everyday I am so grateful for these boys and for this life we live.

Halloween 2015

On Thursday night we carved our pumpkin.  Carter decided he wanted a scary Jack-o-lantern this year so he picked the face from the book 5 Little Pumpkins for us to re-create.  

Then Friday night was Trick or Treat.  My parents came over for dinner and then handed out candy while we went trick or treating in our neighborhood.  Carter loved it!  Reid loved it too, but he and I came home for bedtime after a few houses.

Over the summer Carter decided he was going to be a superhero for Halloween.  How he learned about super heroes, I'm not really sure.  Since he had no idea who the commercialized super heroes were like Superman, Captain America etc. I was really hoping to keep it generic.  I was so happy when I saw this "KaPow" cape and mask in a store on the boardwalk so we bought it in August.   At the last minute I made the wrist bands and my mom made the belt and boot covers.  He loved it and we thought it was pretty cute!

the mask did give him some problems, like seeing out of it!  So most of the time he took it off or pushed it onto his forehead

And Reid wore the hand-me-down Old Navy pumpkin that Carter wore when he was 18 months old!

As usual, taking a picture of both boys was quite a challenge.  Every picture was blurry or Carter was making a weird face or Reid was knocking over the pumpkins...but just as I was giving up Carter turns to Reid and pats him on the head (so endearingly, of course) and says "I love you, little pumpkin."  And Reid just stared up at him.

Big brothers really ARE superheroes.

Saturday morning Carter came into our bedroom before bunny (his clock) woke up and said, "Is it still trick or treating?"  Luckily it was Halloween so we got him dressed in his costume again for a Halloween parade.  We met friends there and I joked that it wasn't his best showing as he clung to Christian's leg for the first 20 minutes.  Not napping much last week and the excitement of it all was catching up to him!  But eventually he warmed up and enjoyed the parade and more candy.

 And later that day we found this on our front porch:

We were "ghost'd" with a little bucket of goodies from someone in our neighborhood!  But here's the problem...the directions said to ghost someone else in our neighborhood before Halloween.  But it was Halloween.  So we're thinking of starting a "gooble" or something...what do you think?