From one beach to another

Gerry's early birthday present from his parents this year was a trip to visit them in their new home in Florida. We were hoping to get some warm Florida sun, but while the weather was not as cooperative as we had hoped (only occassionally hitting low seventies and usually grey), we still had a wonderful time!

Our first day there was the coolest, requiring some layering to play outside, but we were bound and determined to be outside! One of Reed's favorite features at Grandma and Grandpa's house was the garden, filled with agates. He'd pick them carefully out of the garden and deposit them in waiting hands or sometimes, the pool.

Gerry's folks have a couple of Shih tzus (Florida dogs!) and they waited "patiently" for any cracker bits that Reed might "accidentally" drop. You’d have the same look on your face that Reed’s wearing here if two dogs almost as big as you were watching you, hungry-eyed, while you snacked!

It didn't take Reed long to figure out that if he pointed at where Grandma kept her animal crackers, he would promptly be rewarded with an animal cracker for each hand.

Gerry's folks only live a few miles from the beach so we made several trips. Reed has a bit of an aversion to getting his hands messy, but we didn't know that this aversion applied to his feet too, so when I tried to put him down on the beach for the first time, he curled his legs up as far as he could to avoid touching the sand.

Reed's first sand castle. Okay, this is really just a pile, but give him a break, he's only 14 months old!

The family out on the beach.

Three generations of the men in the family.

Reed does his best impression of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

The difficulty in getting a baby to look where you want him to. "No Mommy, you look here!"

We found some shells for Reed to take home. Shortly this picture was taken, Gerry and I noticed Reed playing with half of what had started as a whole sand dollor. I quickly scooped the other half out of his mouth as Gerry noticed that the shell still contained its deceased resident. Yuck!! In typical mom fashion, I worried for the next 24 hours that Reed had swallowed some of it and was sure to get some bizarre food poisoning, but he was just fine.

It was a wonderful visit and I look forward to the next time we'll get to visit our Florida home!

And our New Year's

We spent a wonderful few days over New Year’s in Pacific Beach with our friends Dave and Sarah, and their son Robbie. The three of them are currently living in Tokyo, and prior to that, lived in San Francisco so we don’t get to see them all that often, and cherish every opportunity that we do! (BTW, I owe a thank you to Dave for sharing their pics with us so quickly, as our camera was on the blink for most of the trip.)

We did a lot of walking on the beach and the weather was fairly cooperative. At least it didn't rain! It was fairly windy, and it turns out that Reed is just like his mommy when it comes to wind, he doesn't like it one bit!

Reed's first walk on the beach!

It was really fun watching Robbie and Reed play together. Robbie is 4 months older than Reed, so in some ways, every time we see him, we get a sneak peak at Reed's future. Here the boys are having a drum circle!

Reed and Robbie are definitely distinct individuals. Both boys are very sweet, but where Robbie is gregarious and independent (here Robbie gives Reed a hug), Reed, at least initially, is quite shy and prefers to stay close to me. It took Reed the better part of the 4 day trip to decide that he could play on his own without needing mommy quite so intensely. It's okay though, I wouldn't trade my little snuggler for anything (although I do sometimes miss going to the bathroom alone...)

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Perhaps the only down side, is that I was reminded of how much I really love these friends and now miss them more than I did before.

Our Christmas

Well, it was a busy, but wonderful holiday season for us this year! We geared up for Christmas by baking some Christmas cookies... Okay, Gerry baked the Christmas cookies while I said, "no, don't make them, we'll just eat them", but they were good. Here's Reed enjoying his first ever Christmas cookie.
We got up early on Christmas morning, and wouldn't you know it? Santa came!! "If I give you a cute look, can I start opening my presents??"

Reed got lots of new books...

And toys. This one seems to be his post-Christmas favorite. It has lots of noisy buttons and Reed loves it! Despite the obvious appeal of all the buttons, his favorite feature seems to be the seat, which lifts up to reveal a small storage compartment. He likes to hide a toy in it, after which he gives a great dramatic gasp, then lifts the seat, gasps again, and pulls the toy out, then we start all over again. It's VERY cute.

And it snowed on Christmas day! This was a first for both Reed and I, as I don't ever recall having seen it snow on Christmas. So of course, we had to get the wagon out and go for a walk.

After dinner, to celebrate the fact that Reed can now eat a nearly normal diet, we let him have the cake he couldn't have on his birthday. Only Reed didn't want it! Perhaps I shouldn't have fed him dinner first, but I didn't want him to get hyped up on sugar just before bed. He didn't want anything to do with it though, so no cake covered baby pictures for us!!

Here he goes!

Here comes Trouble!

-Gerry