this week - almost crawling, Christmas, emphasis

I am so ridiculously far behind on posts, mostly because my computer won't work with blogger anymore -ugh. Anyway, here's just a quick overview of the past few days...

* Reid is almost crawling! I CANNOT believe it! It's way too early for that and he still seems like such a baby to me - how could he be almost crawling already?! I'm not ready for this. But apparently he is. For the past week, he's been getting up on all fours and then dropping down after a few seconds. Last night, he stayed up on all fours for awhile and just kept rocking back and forth, ending up lunging himself forward. Today he did it every time I put him down on the floor or in his crib. He must be anxious to keep up with his sister who literally runs circles around him all day!

* Friday evening we went out with my parents to see the big Christmas tree and Santa at the shopping area by their house. As soon as Sierra saw the tree, she got SOOOO excited and kept saying "YOOK (look)! Christmas! YAY!!" over and over. She stood at the bottom of the tree and just looked up, amazed at how big it was. Then she had fun looking at her reflection in all of the giant ornament balls, pointing out each color. Santa was on a break, so we waited a little bit (short line and free, by the way!). She was very excited to see Santa...until she actually saw Santa...and then wanted nothing to do with him. So I had to hold her in the pictures. She stopped crying when he gave her a candy cane, but still would not even touch him. We considered it a practice run since it was spontaneous and the kids were wearing a pink butterfly dress and a blue striped shirt - not quite the Christmas outfits that go in the typical Santa picture. So we'll try again later. Maybe she can be bribed, knowing there's a candy cane at the end of the deal...  :)

* We put up our Christmas tree at home last night and some other decorations and Sierra loves it all. I LOVE seeing the joy spread across her face every time she sees it. Priceless. She calls all of it "Christmas". She points to the tree and says "Yook! It's Christmas! Can I touch it?". She pointed to the lights outside our neighbors' house today and said "WoW! Yook, Mommy! It's Christmas!". So. Precious.

* Sierra is so expressive and has her own way of emphasizing certain things that she's excited about when she talks. Here are a few examples from the last couple of days:
"That's a PURPLE PURPLE balloon!"
"No, Mommy. We are NOT NOT NOT going home!"
"Goo going to sit RIGHT RIGHT there."

Reid is 5 months

I was late with the 3 month post, completely skipped his 4 month post, now I'm a week late with the 5 month... and half of his pictures have his big sister in them too...can you tell he's the 2nd child? poor little guy!

here it goes...i'll do the LONG series of photos first, and then the long recap at the bottom...

 all smiles

 getting better at sitting up

 "i will get you, puppy!"

 "daddy, you're funny"

 S: "this is myyyy Goo"

i love how much reid loves his sister. he is fascinated by her every move!

 S: "no Reid, no ma'am, do not touch"

 2 against 1, trying to get smiles

 sierra's thinking 'haha, your hair stands straight up!"

 ...so she helps him keep it down

 i LOVE this one...too bad kyle and i were casting all sorts of shadows on them

 "here his beyee button! i found it!"

 we've begun the teething process

"ok, are we done yet? i'm pooped"

(this post was drafted 2-3 weeks ago. Reid will be 6 months next week so I'll update again then)

It's been a full month and a half since the last post. Reid is getting more vocal, probably trying to talk over his chatterbox sister. He squeals ALL the time, in a very loud, happy, high-pitch tone. He hasn't really started with any consonant sounds yet, but when you talk to him with "mamama, dadada", etc. he just giggles and thinks it's hilarious. He likes to blow raspberries and make sounds with his lips. He is drooling like crazy (pediatrician confirmed this week that his gums are swollen and teeth are coming!) and puts everything in his mouth.

He is getting better at sitting up, but still tumbles over after not too long. His favorite place to be is in the exersaucer, which is also a jumper. He LOVES to jump/bounce. When you stand him up on his feet, he immediately bends his legs and then extends them - jumping over and over. He laughs the most when he's on his back. It's common for him to laugh when getting his diaper changed (unless he's really hungry!!) - sometimes he starts giggling as soon as I start to take his diaper off and sometimes as soon as the wipee touches him. And I'm talking real laughing - often deep belly laughing. It's precious. And he is so easy to get to smile. All you have to do is look at him and he flashes he big sweet smile - it really does light up his whole face. He is so happy and easy to please!

We've been trying rice cereal but he hasn't been such a fan yet. We're about to add veggie/fruit to the mix and I'm sure that will help.

We have been through some strange stages with sleep. He sure had us spoiled at 6 weeks, sleeping through the night! There were a couple weeks this last month that he was getting up 2-3 times at night to eat! It. Was. Exhausting. We upped the dose of his reflux meds and I took a few days to nurse him every 2.5 hours and that seemed to do the trick. Then he just woke up in the early morning hours (4am-5am), ate and went back to sleep until I woke him up around 8am. He was consistently asleep by 7pm at the latest, so definitely getting a full night. Naps also have been crazy. There was a stage of only taking 1 nap a day. Thankfully it was a long nap (2.5 - 3 hrs) and at the same time as Sierra's nap. I can't believe a 5 month old baby and a 2 year old toddler have the same nap schedule. But I guess it just worked. He also takes a fair share of cat naps in the car/carseat as we're out and about. I'm much more relaxed about naps with this second kiddo...and that is a very good thing. (just ask Kyle!)

Reid still adores his sister. She now loves to make him laugh and tries all the time, which he thinks is so fun. He still hasn't figured out what her crying/fits are all about - they make him laugh too. But his favorite is watching her walk up and down the stairs - this gets big belly laughs...oh, and touching her hair - he thinks that's pretty funny too! Sierra likes to put his bibs on, put toys in his mouth, pat his head, help feed him, wake him up, talk to him in the car, and she is quick to tell me when he spits up, drools or is "sad because he hungy/want to go night night".

Reid is a sweet sweet baby!

Sierra Speak

* "goodbyeeee, see you later morning" (she combines 'see you later' with 'see you in the morning')

* when she's pretend talking on the phone, she says "whatchyou talking about?" (i think this is because when i see her on the phone, i ask her 'who are you talking to? what are you talking about?', so then she asks that exact question.)

* some of her phone conversations:
- "heyow, yeah, whatchyou talking about? how are youuuu? ok, ok...ok, ok, ok, ok, i know, weawy? weawy? (really) ok ok ok okok...goodbyeeee. i yove you so so so so much. goodbyeeee" (makes me laugh...i guess that's what we sound like!)

* the other day she put her left foot in time out for kicking her right foot. this is how it went:
"no ma'am, no. time out." (talking to the left foot).
"i yove you so so so so much. i give (forgive) you." (said while hugging her left foot)

* she's gotten really good at retelling stories that happened in the past. two of her favorites right now are a trip we took to the zoo and a petting zoo experience - both last month...
- (shaking her head) "i non't like the goats! i like the bunnies. and i like the piggies. i non't like the goats! i non't like the horsies." (this is very accurate - she was not a fan of the bigger animals!!)
- (about the zoo) "i cry. i non't like the monkeys. i sad. i cry. monkeys are nice. i non't like the monkeys. i like the enenants (elephants). i feed the birdies. blue birdie fly away. i feed the green birdie. i non't want to touch snake. i like the fish." (again, totally accurate!)

Halloween

we had a really fun evening! poppa, lala, auntie meli, uncle matt and peyton came over for some pictures together and then we hit the neighborhood - along with some friends. we probably only knocked on 3 doors but walked a good ways, stopping to visit with all the other neighbors who were out and ended at a block party with jumpy castles. we should definitely get out with our neighbors more often! it was a beautiful cool night and sierra had a BLAST! i'm still debating whether or not to let her have any candy (i know, i'm a mean mom!) - she still has not had any to this day so she doesn't know what she's missing...i know she'll be addicted as soon as she tries a piece, so why not wait just a little longer  :)

a HUGE (blog) thank you to my mom, who put together/made all of sierra's costume!!! it was PRECIOUS!!!!!

ok, here are just some of the tons of pictures i took...

 look at that tail! it was amazing (and notice the pumpkins sierra painted on display)

 doing some kind of cat sound

 cats make lots of sounds

 our little green monster

 not sure why the ground was so captivating, but hard to get them all looking up

 admiring one another's costumes  :)

 the puppy wasn't too sure if the monster was a nice one...

 she loves her poppa and lala

 this was the first house we stopped at (we know them). this is what sierra said as she knocked, "knock knock! we here!"

 cute little kitty waiting patiently (though still had no idea what she was waiting for at this point)

 kitty suddenly got tired and sat in the middle of the street for a quick rest

 i love how she would hold her tail :)

 with friend, knox, who was dressed like a beach ball (his family was the 4 seasons - summer, fall, winter, spring...so cute and creative!). these two were up way past their bedtime but had so much fun!

Pumpkins

we never made it out last year to a pumpkin patch ...and of course this year we waited until the last minute so we ended up just going to the closest one. i wouldn't exactly call it a "patch", but at least there were some pumpkins to take pictures with.

here are a bunch - they tell the store of our visit, for memory's sake ...great pictures are hard to come by these days with 2 squirmy ones! ...and we were looking particularly thrown together at the last minute this morning, haha! enjoy:

 the first one she picked up was kind of moldy! eww! and i didn't notice until now that you can hardly see her pigtails...and her bangs fell down before we even got out of the car - oops :)

 reid's shoe disappeared sometime between leaving the house and sitting on the haystack (later to be found in the car, probably taken off by his big sister!). he was practicing his model stare here

 he woke up from his nap not just with his normal red cheeks and nose, but also with a red forehead! what a cutie.

 she wouldn't look at the camera! ...notice the drool - she's finally getting one of the 4 teeth she's still missing

 first attempt at a family shot - looking right into the sun...

 nice timing little man for a blowout!

 ok, i'll humor you..but this is the smile you're getting

 sweet girl

 petting the "so so so big" pumpkins

 talking to something or someone

 not too sure about this...

 right before he put his mouth to it!

 i told her to give the pumpkin a big hug...interesting hug, huh!?

 she picked one for reid first

 and then for herself (i think she looks like my cousin michaela in this picture!)

 haha, look at reid's outfit - the only spare pants i had after his blowout...and this time neither of the cute shoes on anymore!

 this is the best one we got folks, here you have it

"cheeeeese"