For those of you who have no idea what an RSS feed is and just want to get alerted via email when there are new photos and blog posts about Reed, you can subscribe via email.

The email subscription box on the side of the blog is just to subscribe to the blog content — entering your email into the box in this post and clicking Subscribe will update you both when we post to the blog and when new photos of Reed are posted to Flickr.

I believe this will send each photo as a separate email, so be prepared that if we upload 20 pictures of Reed, you’ll get 20 emails each with a separate picture. If you want to receive just one alert per day (and only if new stuff is posted) you can create a Yahoo! Alert (note, you will be prompted to log into Yahoo! and if you don’t already have an account, you’ll be able to create a free one then). On the alerts page, you’ll need to enter the RSS feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/reedfeed and then under “Choose how often you want Alerts delivered” click on the radio button next to “Once a day, if there are changes.” Then make sure that it’s set to deliver to your email address. That way, if we email 20 photos in one day and 2 the next day, you’ll only get one email each day. And if we don’t upload anything, you won’t be bothered at all.

What a flirt!

I take very little credit for his personality. I used to be a big believer in nurture over nature, but Reed’s personality is definitely something he was born with. Obviously, we could have screwed him up by not giving him a safe and loving environment, but he was definitely meant to be a sweet, happy, easy-going, social and flirty little guy. He seems to have gotten the best pieces of Adam’s and my personalities. Lucky him. Lucky us!

Poor little guy is still dealing with recurrent ear infections. I feel like he’s constantly on antibiotics — the last course was extended to 15 days since his ears were still looking pink after 10. This week, we’ve started putting him in the shower with one of us every night in the hopes that the steam will help his ears drain better. I don’t know if it’s working, but what we have discovered is that he LOVES the shower. In spite of his illnesses, he’s usually in a really good mood. He has his moments of whining, crying and sulking, but much less than I’d expect from someone who has gotten three teeth and two ear infections over the past three weeks. I was thinking today about how much his moods impact my own. When he’s happy and having a day like he was on Saturday, I’m happy. When he’s feeling crappy — like he was this morning when his gums were hurting — I feel terrible (helpless, frustrated, worried).

Here’s a short movie of my happy guy that Adam took while we were getting him ready for bed. Reed was in one of those happy/lovey moods where he dives on us and tries to french kiss us, but I got the upper hand and started kissing his belly. Here is his reaction:

Adam and I are the luckiest people in the world — or at least I feel that way when I hear Reed laugh.

It is hard to believe that Meredith and I have been together that long.

But looking back, we’ve been through a great deal together in that time, both personally and professionally –
We got married; Meredith switched careers and wrote a book; my company moved into fields that were totally unanticipated (and lots more fun); we had a wonderful baby; and we moved across the country, to beautiful (frigid) Vermont. I feel like I’ve led a charmed life this past 7 years.

This morning when driving alone after dropping Reed off at day care, I did something exceptionally pin-headed. The mountain road that I usually take to get home looked clear, and I was driving above the speed limit, and not paying much attention to what I was doing.

As I crested the hill and started to descend, I realized that the road was actually not clear, and that there was instead blowing snow and black ice beneath.

Picking up speed with no way to slow down I was at the completely at the mercy of physics to get me through in one piece.

For those few brief seconds, all I could think about was Meredith. At first I could hear her voice in my head (”Idiot! I can’t believe you’re going to die this way!) And then I thought how sad i’d be to leave her behind. And how much i’d miss her.

Fortunately, as I made it to the bottom of the hill and up the other side, I was able to get control of the car with only minor tail-wagging. Crisis averted, and lesson learned.

But the incident this morning just reinforced in my own mind that Meredith is truly the most important person in my life, and I love her to bits. I couldn’t imagine what life would be like without her there.

Happy Anniversary, hon.

Meredith’s brother Scott and his fiance Miriam came up to visit. It was great seeing Scott again and nice to finally meet Miriam.

They make a cute couple, and boy, Reed went nuts over them. He immediately jumped into their arms and started playing with them like they were long, lost friends. It was fun to watch.

OMG.. More people to Jump on!

We all had a blast and I hope that we can schedule some time in NYC to see them this summer.

Their visit was a nice change of pace for Reed, who the past two weeks has been socked with RSV and a double-ear infection (his 4th so far since December.) While all of that was happening, he also cut his first two teeth.

They are sharper than they look

He’s getting back to his usual happy self now, so it seems like the RSV is behind him and the otitis media is improving.

If the infections keep recurring, he’s probably on his way to getting tubes. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that he grows out of it.

Since the last time meredith updated this blog, Reed has crossed a whole bunch of milestones.

He’s learned to crawl properly, a skill he’s using to maximal effect.

He’s also learned to then stand up well (with help), and pull up on just about any object in the house. Which has led to cruising, something he learned in a matter of a week or two. And he’s become ridiculously strong — he can easily move the chairs in the dining room on his own, and pick up his baby bath, which he loves to fling on the hardwood floors. The loud CRASH is intoxicating to him… Mommy and Daddy can live without it.

Remorseless Eating Machine

His energy level is off the charts, and we have no idea where this comes from. According to my mother, i was more of a sit-around-and-stuff-my-face kind of baby, and Meredith was also a rather low-action infant as well. So he is truly his own man.

Just this past week, he’s gotten much better about feeding himself finger-food, and we’ve started to let him eat some adult food with us at dinner. He is gastronomically brave, and will eat just about anything placed in front of him (except prunes). A proper trencherman, he’s ballooned to 19+ pounds, and has the cutest beer belly i’ve ever seen.

Finally, he’s gotten really chatty this month. His favorite word so far (much to Meredith’s horror) is “dada”, but I’m certain he has no idea what it means — everything and everyone is “dada”. Sometimes he’ll just sit in his crib and carry on a conversation with himself for a half-hour or more, and dada will figure prominently in the monologue.

Meredith’s brother Scott is coming to visit with his fiance Miriam in the next couple of weeks, and I think he’s going to be shocked when he sees Reed. The last time he visited (over the summer), Reed was more like a doll. He would just sort of sit there in your arms and not do too much. Now he’s a full-fledged little boy who is more likely to flash you a devilish grin & jump on top of you than sit still and be cradled.

Through it all he remains incredibly lovable and adorable. His mother and I are very fortunate to have him in our lives!

Our little guy has definitely become a lot more mobile since my last post. There is literally no chance that if you leave him for a minute he will be where you left him. Changing and dressing him has become especially challenging as he wants to roll over and hop away as soon as he’s put on the changing table. Toys often help to distract him long enough to get a diaper on, but I still get a lot of bare Reed booty staring me in the face. He gets a very mischievous smile when he does it, so I think he knows exactly what he’s doing.

the daily stander

Reed is not exactly crawling, but at this point, I think he’s decided that his lunging is good enough for his purposes. He sort of leaps like a frog to get from point A to point B. He can get across a room to whatever he needs, so why bother learning to crawl? I suspect he will go straight from what he’s doing now to walking. Reed’s already standing up for long periods of time when holding onto things and can pull himself up pretty nicely as well. He’s obsessed with pulling himself up on Adam and me, and we’re starting to feel like glorified pieces of furniture. He’s done a little cruising, though he’s still pretty clumsy at that. He has a toy that allows him to walk around in circles (it’s a huge hit here), so I think that’s helping him to understand the mechanics of walking.

On the illness front, I finally ended up being the well one while both of my boys got sick (that didn’t last very long since I spent all-day yesterday throwing up from some unknown illness/toxin — fun). Last week, we learned that Reed had an ear infection (which wasn’t even what we’d taken him to the doctor for; he’d just been very congested and coughing). They put Reed on amoxicillin for a 10-day course. The morning after we gave him his first dose, I noticed a little spot of eczema on his cheek. The next day, I noticed a little more under his eye. The following night, he was covered in a red rash, and we had to bring him to the ER. They diagnosed him as having had an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin, gave us another antibiotic, and told us to watch his breathing (instead of letting us give him Benadryl — I suspect the ER doc just didn’t want to be responsible for suggesting a dose for such a little guy). Reed’s doing fine now — he’s still a bit itchy, but the rash is nearly gone. Adam and I both don’t have any drug allergies, so it was a little scary seeing Reed have such a response. He seems to be doing well though on the new antibiotic.

Reed has become an absolute pig recently — he’s often eating two four-ounce jars of baby food in a single sitting. He’s particularly obsessed with yogurt and will sit with his mouth wide open before I even get the container open! He actually knows what the container looks like! We still haven’t found anything that he won’t eat, though there are certainly things he likes better than others. Green beans, pears and raspberries, apples and apricots, and winter squash are definitely favorites. He’s eaten chicken and turkey too, but we haven’t tried him on beef or fish yet. I feel very fortunate that he’s not picky about foods — already he’s eaten things that I didn’t try until I was an adult!

One of Reed’s favorite things these days — and a surefire way to “de-crank” him when he’s in a bad mood — is taking a bath. Now that Reed can sit up in the

Bath buddies

bath, he loves being in there, and could probably spend hours playing in the water if it wouldn’t get cold. He has some bath toys that he plays with, but he likes to see and touch his little boy parts (which he’s become extremely curious about since he doesn’t get to see them much during the day). I usually only bathe him every other day, but if he’s in a bad mood, I’ll put him in the tub on off-days and just won’t soap him up. It makes him so happy to be there, and it immediately calms him down. He doesn’t tend to be a moody baby, but sometimes he gets a little overstimulated and this tends to help him chill out. Calgon take me away!

We have no plans for the winter break (I get a week off) other than baby-proofing, since I don’t fool myself that Reed is going to stay in his little “playzone” area forever. It should be a relaxing end of the year with my two favorite guys in the world.

Happy holidays to all of my friends and family reading this! We’re grateful to have you in our lives!

He is growing up quickly; just in the last couple of months he’s seemingly gone from being an “infant” (ie, an eating/pooping machine), to being a real “little boy”, with a distinct personality. He’s happy, curious, and always fun to be around.

The “fun” part was something I didn’t expect. We really do have a good time playing together. There are few things that I like more than making him crack up laughing by letting him pull on my hair or by making ‘undignified’ noises with my mouth. In retrospect, he’s a perfect match for me — we both have juvenile senses of humor. (Much to his mommy’s dismay.)

So while the first seven months have been lots of hard work, I know that going forward we’re going to have great times together.

making a ruckus!

Sitting dragon

Since he was 5 months old, Reed’s been working on his sitting skills. On his six-month birthday (October 17th), Reed finally mastered sitting up. Now, he can stay up for 20 minutes or more and seems to really enjoy playing while seated. He’s also gotten very good at creeping and turning his body around while on his stomach. I told Adam that I predict he’ll be crawling within the next 3 weeks.

He’s well past the age where we can just leave him somewhere and expect him to be in that same place when we come back. Adam was on the phone while watching Reed, and when he looked back a couple of minutes later, Reed was halfway under the sofa! So we bought him this awesome playzone to keep him safe and occupied. We actually bought two and put them together, so he has this huge portion of the living room (more than 50% of it!) to make trouble in. He’s really been enjoying himself in it (it has activities and music) and we can walk into the kitchen to get something and know he’ll be safe. Next thing I want to do is get him a play mat for that area, since our carpets are really getting abused by his drooling and spitting up.

Every time I start to worry about a developmental milestone he should be reaching, he manages to achieve it. I was a little concerned that he was still only talking in vowels (since the book I read said he should be using consonants by around six months) and a few days later he was babbling with plenty of consonants (mamama, bababa, etc.). He’s stayed around the 50th percentile for height and weight. Talk about going by the book! It’s funny, because everyone always comments that he’s such a big baby and looks so much older than he is. I know I shouldn’t worry about milestones and all that since every child goes at their own pace and that’s only an average, but it is still nice to know that he’s so textbook.

Go ask Reed. He'll eat anything!

Reed’s eating a huge variety of solid foods now. His favorite, if you’d believe it, is green beans. Clearly he does not take after his mother who was so picky she ate almost nothing as a child. He also really likes peaches, butternut squash, sweet potato and even tart things like pears and raspberries. I can’t think of a single food he’s outright rejected, though prunes haven’t been a big hit (who can blame him?). The only time he doesn’t eat something is when he’s not in the mood for eating anything. He’s now eating in his highchair and really seems to enjoy being in there at dinnertime. When I think of all the digestive problems he had just two months ago, I feel so grateful for how well he’s doing now.

We decided not to go to Chicago for Thanksgiving because of the risk of H1N1 and seasonal flu. Getting on a plane and going to a big city just seemed like a really dangerous thing to do right now with an infant. Reed hasn’t gotten vaccinated against either flu yet since he just turned 6 months and neither is available here right now. Next week there is an H1N1 clinic in town, so we hope to get him the first of the two shots he’ll need to be immune to that (they need to be given 4 weeks apart, so it’s a real pain). He’s also on a waiting list at our pediatrician. With him being in daycare, and H1N1 now being widespread in Vermont, I fear that he’ll get one or the other illness before he can get fully vaccinated, but there’s very little we can do to prevent it. Just have to hope for the best. I got the H1N1 nasal vaccine and my regular flu shot, so at least I know I won’t bring it home from work with me. I managed to go 17 years without getting a single shot and I’ve gotten several since getting pregnant with Reed. All for love.