Reid {1 Month}

Dear Reid,

 

Welcome to our family sweet boy! You have been with us for a month now, and my how time flies (beware- I am likely to say that every month!) But seriously...I cannot believe it has already been a month. On one hand it feels like we were just at the hospital awaiting your arrival, and on the other it feels like you've been with us all along.



At birth you were slightly heavier and slightly longer than your big sister. I guess you want to make sure you get bigger than her quickly (which is smart for your safety) because my how you put on the rolls fast! You went from 6 lbs 11 oz to 8 lbs in just 2 weeks! I can hardly keep up with your strict milk demands! Thus the nickname you received from Papa Grayson- "Piglet."

That name not only fits your bottomless pit, but also the snorting sounds you make. They are so stinkin' cute!! It is especially funny (sorry for laughing at you in your time of perceived need) when you get so worked up for your bottle that your snorting gets to where you can hardly stop to eat.

There's not a whole lot in the milestone category to address quite yet, but you are starting to hold your head up pretty well (careful of overcorrecting) and focus more on our faces. I LOVE when our eyes meet! I pretend you are saying, "I love you, Mom" even if you're really saying, "Hey, if I'm awake I must need a bottle or a diaper change. How about you get on that."

"Eat, sleep, poop," about sums up your life and your responsibilities right now. We've addressed the eating- hungry, hungry piglet. Poop is about the same for all babies. Now let's talk about "sleep." You are a fabulous sleeper, during the day. How is it that you and your sister both had your days and nights switched?! I like your sibling scheming has already begun! Last night I got a solid 3 1/2 hours straight and it felt like I had slept for a week! Generally, you are up every 2 hours on the dot. Remember, you have this thing about eating...a lot. Thankfully God gave me the ability to function semi-normally on very little sleep. If you and Miss Maddie could please talk things over and be a little nicer to Mommy, I would definitely appreciate it! You might even get rewarded in the form of fruit snacks when you get older, just a thought. ;)

So basically, we are in love! It didn't take long at all for you to steal ours and everyone else's hearts. We can already tell you are going to be a sweetheart like your sister! We are a very blessed family of four!

xoxo
Mommy

 

Reid's Newborn Pictures

I'm not going to say much in this post because pictures speak louder than words, and these pictures are so lovely they might actually be yelling. ;) We wanted to get newborn pictures done for Reid like we did for Madison, and after asking/calling around I found Tiffany! She only books 2 sessions a month because she has a beautiful family of 5 busy children (yes, FIVE!) so I was quite fortunate that she agreed to do our pictures. We will cherish them forever!! Enjoy...

 

 

 

Now comes the hard part- figuring out which ones to print out and where to put them. I have so many favorites!!! Family/Friends- if you see any specific one(s) you would like a copy of, let me know, and I'll send it your way!

First Week as a Family of 4!

An entire week has gone by with the addition of Reid to our family, and it has been quite wonderful! We can't even believe how blessed we are!

It is so amazing how quickly you forget about their size, their feeding times and their CUTENESS! I just want to cover him in kisses; I mean look at that face! Adorable!!

It makes me sad that I can hardly remember Madison at this stage because that means my memory for Reid will be just as blurry. *tear*  Thank goodness we have the ability to easily take lots and lots and lots (sorry baby boy) of pictures!!

So far, he sleeps longer between feedings during the day than at night, of course! Thankfully he is super good at going back to sleep so that this mama can squeeze in a few zzzzzzz's. Unfortunately, Big Sister Madison has not been sleeping so well, so let's change that to a few zz's. :( I'm sure we'll quickly settle into a routine, but until then, please blame any typos on an extreme lack of sleep! ;)

And speaking of Big Sister, this girl is in LOVE! Madison has been such a helper and gives Reid anywhere close 2,689 kisses a day! She is so gentle with him and so patient with me when I can't get her something due to feeding Reid. Their relationship is already blossoming and makes my mommy heart melt!!

Thanks to Reid's timing and my work's extended leave time, I will be getting from now until August off! Yay! :-D That being said, be prepared for lots more posts! I apologize in advance...

Welcome Baby Boy!!

Our family has officially grown by one beautiful baby boy! Reid Matthew Grygar joined us yesterday, April 17th at 10:02 am. He is 6 lbs 11 oz, 20" long and simply perfect!!

Ready, set, picture overload, GO...

Easter Festivities {Beware...it's long!}

Thanks to a wonderful 3-day weekend, we got to participate in pretty much anything Easter-ish that Waco had to offer. We started off our Friday by going to Storytime at the local library and doing a practice Easter egg hunt. You can check out all those pictures on my last Foto Friday post.

Saturday morning we headed to a local church's Easter egg hunt. I loved going to a church related one because they took the time to explain the story of Easter instead of just- here's a bunny and some eggs, go get candy. Of course Maddie was slightly more interested in the Lollipops, Skittles and Goldfish dispersed in the field (all of which top her Favorites chart...it's like they knew we were coming), but she will always be told about the TRUE meaning of Easter. We met up with some friends, but the two little ones were far too interested in the candy than each other.

Our second Easter egg hunt of the day was later that afternoon at the local park. This time Maddie got to practice with "real" Easter eggs instead of just picking candy up off the ground- which I'm not sure was very sanitary and we possibly should not have eaten it...oh well, let's not pretend, it didn't really bother us. I mean come on, it's candy we're talking about!!

At this event the Easter Bunny made an appearance. Maddie kept wanting to give him "fives" (High Five,) but every time we got close she changed her mind. Finally, after trial 452, she worked up the courage, and he got a very excited and fast "fives." She was quite proud of herself. So proud in fact that she wanted to do it again, so I figured that meant, "this is our chance for a picture with the Easter Bunny." I was wrong.

The next day was EASTER! Maddie was so good in church, and of course looked absolutely adorable in her Easter dress!

We had another egg hunt at the family Easter lunch, and let me tell you, this girl is a Pro-Egg Hunter now! Some of the eggs were filled with coins, and once this was discovered Miss Madison had to shake each one before it went into her Elmo basket.

Oh, and just to throw in a little yumminess- here is the food I brought to the family lunch! I'm not much for cooking, but I love the chance to bring crafts and food together!!



After lunch, we finally had the opportunity to give Maddie her Easter basket. In following tradition from my side of the family, I hid her basket and had her go find it. Smarty Pants found it pretty quick, and hearing her laughter at its discovery was simply adorable!

Oh, and don't be fooled. This Mama did not spend much on her basket- Thank you, Dollar Spot at Target!!

So that was our weekend. To say we are blessed would be the understatment of the year. God has given us so much, but most importantly He gave us His Son. I could never praise or thank Him enough for my beautiful family. He truly is an AWESOME God!

Reid's Nursery

Well, I can officially say we are ready for baby Reid! The nursery is for sure...our level of readiness is still arguable. ;)

I have never been much for "themes," so when it came to decorating for a boy I thought it would be safe to just stick with colors and patterns. I also wanted to stray from baby blue and brown, so I decided on navy blue, yellow and grey. When we I (let's be honest) decorated Madison's nursery we went ALL out...like painting stripes on the wall. Thank you, Pa for your help with that vision, you'll be happy to know I'm likely to never stray down that path again! You're welcome. So for Reid's wall, I just wanted to paint it a simple grey. It turned out looking blue-ish grey, but I still love it!

With the help of my mother-in-law, Janet (thank you, thank you, thank you!) the bedding- bed skirt, bumpers and quilt were all hand-made with lots of frustration love! I was super proud because this was my first BIG sewing project. I mostly helped Janet, but I get to take FULL credit for doing the quilt all. by. my. self! "I'm a big kid now!" :) I also made Reid's letters like I did Madison's. The bunting was sooo easy, and I just love how I was able to use left over fabric so it all matches!! No, I don't have an obsession with matching, how dare you ask! Oh, and before we move on to the next wall...another shout out to Brain a.k.a. Paw (my father-in-law) for humoring me with another hand-made toy organizer!

I ordered the valence and pillow off of etsy- don't you just LOVE that fabric! The ABC 123 blocks were one of the quickest projects I've ever done because I wasn't striving for perfection. I can almost hear the GASPS from all of you who know me! ;) But seriously, I'm talking like 20 minutes, maybe.

The adorable changing pad cover was another etsy purchase, for all of you keeping count (read: Brent). And where did the fabulous "Reid" sign come from? Oh, that would be from my amazing friend I have in Ohio- Lisa. It looks so perfect in his room! Thanks buddy!!

The last wall is mostly taken up by the two doors, but of course I couldn't let it go bare! I made the "Child of God" shelf using inspiration from etsy (See, Brent, I don't buy everything I see on there!) The signs are hard to read, but if you'd like to purchase uh, I mean, see an upclose version of them click here and here. They make wonderful gifts for baby showers, baby homecomings, baptisms, christenings, etc. ;) Couldn't help myself...

So there it is, and now we just wait! Anxious and eager to meet our SON! And it shouldn't be long- I'm almost at 38 weeks, so get your phone ringers on LOUD!

Foto Friday

Before I get to the pictures, I just want to verify that I do know how to spell "photo." I just get this wonderful happiness whenever I get to use alliteration. It's the teacher in me. Almost as good a feeling as a jar of freshly sharpened pencils!! ;)

Ok, ok...now onto our fun Friday! I had the day off, yay, so I took Maddie to the library for Storytime. Turned out that we also got to see the Easter Bunny and do an Easter egg hunt, so fun!! And the row of funny faces you see- that's Maddie telling me about the "little bug" she saw. So funny!

Then Grandma stopped by to give Maddie her Easter basket (notice it's Elmo- props to Grandma!) Needless to say, Good Friday was very good!!