Category Archives: Uncategorized

March 11, 2018 ~ 42 weeks

I love this picture of Reid even though it is out of focus. Our morning time is one of my favorite times of the day. He’s only up a short bit before going down for his first nap, but he is happy and fun and I love that I get to see him and put him down for a nap before I leave for the day. And that belly! He’s got the widest and happiest smile. He’s a really happy baby but don’t let us fool you, he has his temperamental moments too. He knows what he wants and when it gets taken away he’ll let you know he’s unhappy! He’s pulling himself up to his knees and will stand at things if you place him that way, but he’s not yet pulled himself up on his own.  I struggle with control and order but I’ve been intentional about letting Reid and Griffin explore and make messes and just be kids.  How did I ever become such a control freak that thrives on order? Ugh, it can be paralyzing so I’m trying really hard to let go of that or at least lessen up! Both kids find so much joy and fun in the littlest things so I’m working hard to encourage that and not be such a rule maker or enforcer. Tooth number 5 has popped through, lower right (left when looking at him!). One of his mad faces, lol! Almost buddy, you just have your legs twisted! Finn loves painting and coloring. Here he is with his thundercloud masterpiece.  Dinner at Panera after Tuesday night soccer. I’m glad I’ve still been able to leave work early to take Finn for the end of Session 3.  Crazy hair!Preschool artwork! Brothers having fun together and being in “jail”.  Brutus.  He’s always around, especially when there is food. Isn’t he pretty? Look at our little Lils with bone on her nose snuggling with Hailey in her puppy days.  Just a typical day around here.  Lots of crawling around and climbing all over the dogs.  Pretty boy and girl! Happy birthday to me! A macaron in bed at 6:30 am! And a beautiful flower arrangement! We attended a Millcreek social on my birthday (which was a Friday this year) so that was pretty much our night.  On Saturday we headed to Mansfield to celebrate birthday’s for Amy and me. We met up at Malabar Farm’s Maple Syrup Days. Reid was tired and it was super cold (and we didn’t bring him a coat, what?) so he and I stayed in the car while everyone had some fun on the farm. Thankful for the good pics from Amy and Kevin! And the bunny birthday cake tradition continues thanks to my hubby! He picked up the supplies this year again and assembled everything in Mansfield before our family birthday dinner. Griffin and Greta had a pretty swell time decorating this year. Look at those happy faces.  Graham loves to talk to and play with Reid. He usually gets in some good snuggle time too. And Grandma loves her baby snuggles too :).  Another happy day with Debs! Amy came out to Millcreek this week to snap some staff and plant photos. I wondered around with her and loved seeing the in-bloom hellebores.  Just wish the weather was cooperating more so that everyone in the garden centers would want to see these beauties too! Greta loved being on the tractors and golf carts.  Our Marketing director and myself have been working on some facility enhancements. This week some new artwork went up in the lobby of the main office and in the main hallway. Looks nice!

March 4, 2018 ~ 41 weeks

This guy really enjoys his meal time! He’s been trying out all kinds of flavors over the last few weeks. His favorite is pumpkin, apple, peach, and cinnamon – it’s kind of like pumpkin pie! His mid-afternoon lunch is the meal he eats the most. I’m often amazed at how much he eats when I read what Debbie puts in the app. He usually eats two pouches, several pieces of pears (another favorite) and other fruit, peas and corn (both he seems to like also). He’s drinking both formula and breastmilk mixed together most times but we’ve also given him just formula if we’re on the go and he’s ok with that too.  Kevin’s work schedule is still pretty heavy so he often leaves early in the morning and gets home after both kids are in bed. On this night he got home while it was still light out and Reid hadn’t gone to bed yet (so it was before 7!) so we captured a happy photo.  Griffin was so excited to have his Daddy come to Dads and Donuts at preschool this week. They began with an early morning breakfast at Bob Evans with piggy pancakes and sausage. At school Griffin loved showing Kevin all around his classroom, playing dinosaurs, playing connect four (a hit!), and giving him the tie that he colored for him. Miss Laura also read each child’s paper about their Dad.  One of Griffin’s classmates, Riley, had a birthday party at Recreations Outlet in Powell on Sunday. He is one of four boys in his class this year (16 girls) so the party was mostly girls and a princess theme! But he really loved playing all kinds of sports for an hour or so and climbing all over the playsets and jumping on the trampoline.  Locker Soccer continues on Tuesday’s with Coach Aaron. Griffin really enjoys the different drills that they do and of course getting a stamp at the end of the session. Toward the end of the season session they give out goal cards about the kids progress that also has a free smoothie card on it from Planet Smoothie. This week we headed right from soccer to Planet Smoothie for a treat. I really like how the coach the classes at Locker Soccer and the philosophy of the kids learning through having fun rather than by strict drills and rule following. Finn has been testing pushing back the last couple weeks at home when he’s been asked to do things or given instructions. It’s interesting to see how he also does the same here and there at soccer yet Coach Aaron doesn’t draw attention to it. He just does little things like rather than sitting in the team stretch circle he will sit farther away against the wall and do his stretches there. Then after a few minutes he usually joins all the others. He’s typically pretty shy so it’s interesting to see him do his own thing in a group setting.  Driveway hockey continues on Wyndbend. These kids (and Brian) sure love to play together.  And here are a few from Finn’s days at home this week. He baked some cupcakes with Debbie and made crossants. We also had a Power Rangers photo session to get his birthday party invite put together! And here is one more of my store helper. I ran to Target early on Sunday morning and Finn wanted to come with me. We took the Jeep with newly installed car seats for a short trip.

February 25, 2018 ~ 40 weeks

Check out that smile and that new tooth! You can see that the others won’t be far behind either! Teething doesn’t really seem to bother Reid at all. He definitely gets a running nose right before he gets a tooth but that is just about his only symptom!

Reid saw Dr. Wilde this week for his 9 month check up. He is hitting all the developmental milestones for crawling (still mostly army crawling at this point), sitting, transitioning between positions, etc. He’s definitely a happy baby – nearly all the time! His weight gain was pretty low, less than 4 ounces since his 6 month check up which was two and half months ago. I was a bit worried about it, but the doctor didn’t even bring it up. He said he noticed it and that we’ll watch it. He did have an ear infection in that time and was on some medicine. His appetite seems normal though and he’s eating some solid foods too. He weighed 17 pounds 6.4 ounces (13th percentile), was 28″ (36th percentile, up an inch), and his head measured 46 cm (79th percentile).  Wednesday was Griffin’s Kindergarten screening at Tyler Run. He was a bit nervous but I tried to encourage him and tell him it would be like some fun games. As soon as we got there and he got started he seemed to enjoy it. He waited a bit between the different stations so we hung out some then and at the end when we waited to go over the results of his “games”. He did really well and got an overall 20/20. He was super excited to receive a Tyler Run water bottle (you know mom, like the football players use) and a tiger pencil. After his screening we ran home to take Brutus to the vet to recheck his ear and then we headed to Graeter’s for a special afternoon treat :).  And here are a few others from our week. A president’s day piece of artwork from preschool, Griffin going to bed with all of his lovies (yikes!), and a night of Brutus being too tired to leave Finn’s room so he slept in there with him for a bit. 

This girl. I went to let her in this afternoon and she was COVERED in dirt! I don’t know what she was doing out there but she ended up with a bath!And here is Reid at the beginning of this week.  By the end his top tooth popped through. It was nice enough for us to take a walk after work this evening. He loves riding in his big boy seat in the stroller 🙂 Griffin really loves hanging out and playing with Cole and Cooper. They’ve been playing a lot of driveway hockey and on this night Mr. Brian made dinner for Finn too. So lucky to have great neighbors!

Finn got outside with the nicer weather this week with Debbie during the week also. He sure loves doing anything he can outside – usually sports!

And here are a couple of videos. Brian took the boys playing hockey. And we were grateful that Jim and Pat were able to come up on Saturday to watch Reid while Kevin and I attended the Grace Marriage workshop at NPC. Finn went along with us for the day and played with other friends in the childcare there.  During the afternoon they sent us the video of Reid jamming on what used to be his big brothers motorbike. He loves it! And the funny thing is I have a video of Finn jumping and snorting very similar to this when he was 9 1/2 months old!