Blessed

I know I have been blogging a lot lately, but that what happens when your child is sick and goes back to 3 naps a day. I hate that she is sick, but I can't say I mind the extra nap ;)

I wanted to share a few things I have received from people in the last week or so that have really touched my life. I am so very blessed to have a beautiful, healthy baby girl, a loving (and very helpful!) hubby, and family and friends that are such a positive influence on us. Some very insightful people have sent me e-mails in the past week that I want to recognize. Amidst all of the economy troubles and "end of the world" feelings going on in America right now, I want to be thankful for the positive people in my life that remind me to relish in Reese's childhood and all of the blessings God has given me. Here are some comments from some very wise people:

"Reesey is about to blast off and charge into the future. She is primed and ready and you can tell she is ½ step from jumping up and running around. My day was definitely brightened!" - Grandfreddie's comments, after receiving the "jazz hands" photo of Reese

"Enjoy the fact that right now, Reese’s boundaries are the walls of your house. Because later it will be the fence of your yard, then not past a certain house on the block, and so on. To us, it all seemed to happen in a flash." - Vicki, a previous MOB (mother-of-the-bride) and friend of mine

"Oh my, but this message made me get a bit weepy. So loving and sweet and from the heart.You are a wonderful mother Lindy and my dearest daughter. Reesey is so blessed to have you, as well as Jeff who is a great dad. The greatest gift that parents can give their children is a loving solid Christian relationship, which is what you two have. May this love continue to grow in your home. I'm so proud of your 36th street team. Keep moving forward!
love you,
mom" - My sweet mom who after receiving our 36th Street holiday e-mail wrote in an e-mail to all of us with how well Bethany was doing and how proud of us she was. I wrote her back thanking her for always being such a supportive mom and this is what she wrote back to me. I have to say that I do love that I am her "dearest daughter" but I am her ONLY daughter! ;)

Thank you to all that have touched and continue to touch my life. I am extremely blessed and thank God for all of you!

Santa, Take One

My Monday playgroup met at the mall to have our kid's photo taken with Santa. I was completely expecting for Reese to freak out. She has had a little separation anxiety lately and I was just waiting for the meltdown (but I selfishly still wanted a photo of her with Santa, screaming and all). I got Reese all dressed up in her Christmas outfit from her Grandmarnie, patent leather shoes and all, and we were on our way! As you can tell from the photos, she LOVED Santa. Or should I say she ignored Santa but loved Mommy smiling and waving "Hi Reese!" and the photographer waving a hand puppet around. She was all smiles and we left happily with our first photo with Santa! Merry Christmas!!!

Totally confused, but fortunately we distracted her...

Looking at Mommy
And for the 1st Official Photo with Santa!!!

Poor Baby!

Reese has hit another milestone (although one we are not too excited about) - she has her first illness :( Poor baby! It started with a runny/stuffy nose and on Tuesday when she got up from her nap, she was so rosy and flushed. I thought she was just happy to see me and then I got her out of her crib and I instantly new she had a fever. I am not a crazy temperature taker, so I always worry that I may not know when she is running a fever. But I KNEW. She was hot. I took her temp and it was 99.9 degrees. She was happy as a clam but I just thought the world was ending.

I rushed her to the first appointment the doctor's office had. We sat in the sick child side which seemed weird because she was clapping, waving, and laughing at all the visibly sick children. One mother even commented that Reese should be in the well child side, she was so happy!

I am really happy I took Reese into the doctor. It was what I expected - it went to the ears :( I had many ear infections growing up, so I was worried about this. Looks like she got some kind of virus like a cold and it went to her ears. The doctor seemed surprised that she was eating and sleeping as normal. He seemed to think she might not feel too good the next day. He was right! Our normally great sleeper is waking up after 30 minutes into her naps, waking up every hour until about 9pm, and then waking us at 5:45am. This is VERY early to the parents that are used to have to wake her up (she would sleep until 8:30am every day if we let her).

She is still happy during the day, but we are a little house-bound. It is cold and yucky out, so we have just been playing indoors with a quick walk in the stroller here and there. Her fever seems to have vanished, so hopefully she is getting better. I am now kicking myself for exclaiming proudly at her 9 month appointment, "Reese is 9 months old and has never been sick!". Dr. H looked at me and said he was going to ignore that I said that. He knew it, I jinxed myself!

Jazz Hands and A Month of Firsts

Reese has had a very busy month. She has mastered clapping, waving, saying "Bye" (which at first sounded like "buh" but now sounds a little more like bye), she finally said "Dada" several times one day (and hasn't said it again since - what a tease!), fed herself with a spoon, and stood all alone without the help of a chair or Mama's hand!

She is still our happy, beautiful little girl who still LOVES to sleep more than anything, just a little more active. She is so active these days, I can't even get her to stay on her back for 30 seconds while I put her PJs on. I end up putting an arm in here and a leg in there and taking about 10 minutes until every snap is done. All the while she is happily kicking, giggling, standing, and into EVERYTHING.

36th Street had some new head shots taken because we have added 2 awesome coordinators since our last photos were taken. Resha and I took the girls along and they got into our table of jewelry. The photographer, Jennifer Nichols (who took Reese's super cute 2 month photos with the red chair!!!), couldn't resist snapping a few photos of them. This was also Reese's first time to wear a necklace and practice "jazz hands"...next thing you know I will be telling her to go wipe that lipstick off before leaving the house!

JAZZ HANDS!!!

This cracks me up. Caroline is patting Reese on the head and she is only 4 months older than her! Reese will pay her back one day when she is a foot taller than her ;)

Clapping

This was her finale. Yeah!

Love the scarves!

LOVE this camera angle. Our legs look so long!

Reese smiling in the stroller even though it was freezing outside

Turkey, Georgia Style

I've been bad about blogging lately. Why is life always so crazy? I know it is for everyone, all the people I talk to when asked "How are you?" respond, "busy busy". I told Resha it is going to catch up to America. Hopefully the result will be longer European-like vacations and siestas and not people going postal.


Sorry, I digress... for Reese's first Thanksgiving, we went to the great state of Georgia to visit her Grandmarnie and Grandfreddie (what we have now named him or should I say he named him that himself when he signed a note that way!). We had a great time, the scenery was gorgeous where they live, and Reese had a ball with their new dog Larry!


They were a little worried that Larry would be too hyper for Reese. Well when we first arrived, we were putting bags down and Larry started running in circles around Reese and jumping up and down. Reese started squealing with delight. It was a match made in heaven.

Reese also got to spend quality time with her Godfather, Uncle Mike and his fiance Barbara. We nicknamed her Aunt Barb. She had a blast playing with Reese and trying to teach her to snap (picture below!).

We also got to see some good friends while on our trip. We saw Shannon and Bryan who live in Atlanta. Shannon is one of my best oldest friends from growing up and her husband Bryan is such a great guy and so much fun to be around. We also took a short weekend getaway sans Reese to Knoxville, TN to see Carrie and Ed. Carrie was my roommate for 3 years in college and lived to tell about it. We had a great time with them and loved Knoxville rain and all. Ed taught us a ton about Bluegrass while we were there and we discovered the Bluegrass music station on our TV!

Here are some highlights from our trip:

The jet setter. We were on TV! We were interviewed about traveling with children. Reese Riddell made her KVUE debut!!

The belle of the ball in her pretty dress that Grandmarnie bought her for the first wedding she would attend.

Reese cuddling with her Grandmarnie

Me and Shannon on The Riddell Deck

Shannon, Bryan, and Reese

Aunt Barb teaching Reese to snap

RR in her Thanksgiving outfit from Gamma Laine and Gampa Ken

Fred proudly displaying his turkey. It was delicious!

Reese LOVED Thanksgiving dinner! She smashed turkey and dressing all throughout her hair.

Me, Grandmarnie, Reese, and Babs

So pretty! We drove to a nearby lake after Thanksgiving dinner for some family photos.

We got this one putting the camera on a tri-pod!

Larry proudly standing by

Reese upset about something

Carrie and Ed in Knoxville

Me and Carrie before the U. of Tenn game

Me and Jeff, having fun with no baby for the weekend!

Our little Ladybug

The oh-so-talented Tyler and Olivia Schmitt are in one of my play groups. They are amazing professional photographers and had a little portrait party a few weeks ago for all the kids in play group. All of us brought our kids in their Halloween costumes and I of course had to get a photo of Reese sitting in a UT helmet before she got too big. The pretty little flower is Reese's bff Caroline (who said "Bye Reese" last week btw!). Here are some of our favorites of our Ladybug.

Mama for real

So I am never sure if Reese knows that I am "Mama" or if she just happens to be babbling "Mama" or "Mom" when I am around. Friday night she showed me that she knows I am the real Mama. She was a little fussy and tired after a long day of traveling back from Houston and Halloween festivities. Jeff was holding her and she cried out "Mama" and reached for me. I took her in my arms and my heart about burst with love. She knows me by name, she knows I am her "Mama"! Jeff then grumbled, "She doesn't say Dada and she doesn't want me after not seeing me for 3 days." I think he was a little sad but I secretly loved that she knows my name :)

Happy Fall!

The Jones took our family photo in the Pumpkin Patch in early October. We thought they turned out great and had a lot of fun in the process!

Being silly

Our happy girl!

Eating some grass...

Sucking her thumb any chance she gets.

Having fun with Daddy

Mommy made me wear this silly shirt that makes me look like I have no neck with football player shoulders. And she said I would look cute!