Our happy baby boy continues to grow at a fast pace! He is really beginning to hold on to things with his hands and is smiling much more in response to being talked to. He has started to go longer between feedings at night, sometimes 5 or 6 hours! I’m trying to pay more attention to his feeding pattern and get somewhat of a schedule started for when I return to work in another month or so. I have started pumping to build up a supply for when I do go back to work so I typically do that in the middle of the night. I have a pretty good routine where he wakes up and I feed him, once I change him I put him propped upright and nuzzled in my curved body pillow while I pump. He falls asleep really easily and after I’m finished putting the milk in the garage freezer and cleaning the bottles I move him to his bed. Easy peasy.  Though I’m still usually up about an hour by the time I do all of that and get my mind back to sleep mode. Reid is also beginning to talk a lot more with cooing and baby noises.

I love capturing Reid’s many expressions but it is rather difficult! Typically when I get my phone out or put it between his face and mine he stops his expression and just stares at the phone! Nonetheless I’ve captured a few of them this week.  Those cheeks! People often remark on Reid’s chubby cheeks. He was born with them and they aren’t going anywhere! Seems as though I had a chubby face when I was a babe. Below are some photos of me with my Grandma Kirk, my sister, and my sister and cousins Missy and Rob.
This was a great week for Griffin as he attended Vacation Bible School at our church! This was the first year he was old enough to go and he was so excited! The theme was Wildwood Forest and the church was transformed into such a cool place with trees and tents and outdoorsy things everywhere! It was each day of the week from 9-noon and he had so much fun! Each day they collected donations based on a theme (breakfast, dinner, baby supplies) so when he would get home we would set aside the next days donations and talk about them. He really loved that part. My sister Amy was asked to take photos throughout the week so we benefited from her taking many great shots! And his dino-spikes hair do was for crazy hair day 🙂 And on Sunday some children that attended VBS led off the church service by singing a few songs they learned throughout the week. Griffin was so shy! Turns out he had a breakfast cookie still in his hands when he went up in front (bad Mom, I should have made sure he finished it or asked him to give it to me!). He was so self conscious of using his hands for the motions while he was holding the cookie. I was sitting in the second row and trying to tell him to put it on the stage – but he was nervous to do that as toward the end of the school year the children were told they were no longer able to play in the worship room after school since the staff had discovered food and drinks on the piano and stage area. He was worried if he put the cookie down that he or someone would step on it and make a mess :(. Despite him not doing many of the motions and having a concerned look on his face, if you ask him if he enjoyed it he says yes! And when I asked him his favorite part of the day at the end of the night his reply was being up on stage at church and singing his songs. 

Griffin is still really loving being a big brother and being around Reid. He is so helpful! He loves to comfort him when he’s fussy or get things we need like a new outfit, burp cloth, diaper and the like. He regularly says “he’s just so cute!”. And he loves to play the “tackle” game where Reid tackles him down and then lays on his chest. Here I was trying to get a photo of both of their plain faces (no smiles) for comparison! And here are a few others from our week.  Sleepyheads, some patio water fun, Brutus always trying to insert himself for attention, Graeter’s, me trying to catch up on many previous weeks of blog posts, baseball, minions, etc.
On Saturday Mom came down and treated the girls to our annual pre-beach vacation pedicure. This was Greta’s first year joining us and we tried out a new place in Powell that was great! Thanks, Mom! Sunday after church we headed to Jim and Pat’s for a short visit. They had their new countertops installed this week in their kitchen and bathrooms and it looks fabulous! Reid was also able to meet Uncle Brett, Aunt Missy, Aunt Cookie and cousin Pierce for the first time.  I occasionally need to go into work for meetings and it’s becoming more difficult to take Reid with me so this week he had his first bottle, given to him by Griffin at the start! As it turns out it took Reid about 3 hours to drink 3 ounces (with several attempts throughout that time). He wasn’t overly frustrated but he wasn’t latching to the nipple of the bottle. So as I tried to feed it to him I had the revelation that I should try the brand of bottle that is the same brand as is pacifier (MAM) as the bottles I began with were what Finn used (Playtex) and were the same style as the pacifier that Reid does NOT like to use and spits out. So a quick trip to Target (which failed as they carry the MAM pacifier but not bottles) and then on to Babies are Us was in order. His next bottle he downed 2 ounces in 5 minutes! Whew, crisis averted! I was pretty stressed as I had a 4 hour work commitment the next day and I was freaking out about what I would do with Reid since I was leading and participating in a company wide meeting!   Reid’s closet is now almost complete! Kevin did a wonderful job building the drawer unit and updating the shelves and rods. We will need to get drawer faces for the front of the drawers (the top drawer is the changing table and then will transition to a drawer once we no longer need a changing table) and add clothes to the closet and we will be done.  Yay! One day I asked Griffin to go get dressed and he returned wearing this – complete with a belt.  This was his first time ever wearing a belt and he was so proud that he put it on a “fastened” it himself.  Oatmeal raisin cookies have been a weakness of mine! And here Finn is dropping them on the cookie sheet!And Brutus threw up a bit of stinky bile while in his crate this week and was in need of a bath, big time. He has the most unique coat – it’s so wiry and thick hair, but doesn’t retain water at all and he is dry very quickly. He is not really a fan of water very much!