Happy 1st Birthday!!!

My oh so sweet baby boy.  We just celebrated his very first birthday and it was so nice!  I will post pictures of the party next, but I have limited time while he is napping to take advantage of:)  If I do this  while he's awake and mobile, I have mass destruction to clean up afterwards.  

I put off taking his 1 year pictures for a week because he was miserably sick with a high fever for 2 days (might have something to do with cutting 3 teeth at once last week) and then over the weekend, I got sick.  We are all back to bright and shiny status now and here are a few from this morning.

 A few things I want to remember about this stage -

- Reid started taking a few steps here and there a few weeks ago, but now he's pretty much walking.  It's all he wants to do.  Walk, walk and walk some more.  My days have become endless games of tag it feels like.  Chasing after him.  He looks so cute though; His arms all stretched out like Frankenstein to balance and he claps for himself when he makes it to the next piece of furniture successfully.  He spent about 2 weeks with his little Lightning McQueen car going from one end of the house to the other.  He wiped out pretty often (see movie below), but he's a resilient little guy!

- He is THE cuddliest baby.  Virtually every time I pick him up, he snuggles into my neck and lays his head on my shoulder while he softly babbles and coos.  I love it so much.  It warms my heart every time.  I have a friend who said she wished she could bottle up the feeling from her baby hugs and I have to agree.  I know I will miss that feeling years down the road.  I just want to keep it and recall it forever.

- When he's being hugged, he doesn't wrap his arms around your neck.  He tucks them down by his sides in between you.  Since he was new, Jake has been the master at getting him to sleep.  When he would rock him to sleep he would always tuck his arms down and then tightly wrap a blanket over him so his arms stayed there.  Now he just does it on his own.

- He's always been a very happy, smiley baby.  Lately though, he's taken his smiles to a whole new level. He does a funny, scrunchy face, like it's the maximum smile.  The only bad part of it is, it makes me laugh every time.  When he's getting into something he's not supposed to and I get after him, he does the face and I laugh.  I have the same reaction as Cam on Modern Family in the "Little Bo Bleep " episode, when Lily swears.  I'm single-handedly encouraging bad behavior because I can't keep it together.  I mean really though, look at his smile.

Out with us at dinner sporting his new favorite smile.

- He just started to figure out the phone.  He loves our phones.  Now he puts it up to his head and tries to talk.

- He can say Dada, Mama, Yeah (with a nod), and waves goodbye.

- He thinks it's great fun to piece by piece throw everything off of his high chair tray - while looking right at me with total baby attitude as he moves his hand over the edge and casually drops it.  All the while, never breaking eye contact.

- He's finally sleeping amazingly well!  He sleeps from 8pm to about 7:30am.  I knew that I missed sleep, but this last month of glorious sleep has been life changing for me...ha ha.  Seriously.  Amazing.

Running errands.

- He dances.  When music comes on he stops what he's doing and bends his little knees up and down.  LOVE.  He also loves to wrestle with Jake.  He thinks it the best thing ever.

-He gets super excited when Jake gets home from work.  I'm usually cooking dinner while he plays on the floor and when he hears the front door open, he makes a dash for the door to see dad.

- He'll eat anything as long as it's not baby food and he's a great eater.  I'm done nursing (major victory there) and he takes a bottle really well.  His wonderful appetite definitely showed at his 1 year appointment when he jumped again in the growth charts.  He's now in the 50th for height (previously the 25th) and the 28th for weight (previously the 15th).

We're just in love with this little guy and am amazed every day with the changes as he grows so quickly.  Happy Birthday Reid.  Love you so much!!!