Reed - 6 Months

If I had to stop and just blurt out the things that stand out the most to me about you at this age I would say ...
- Your thighs - people are always commenting on how huge and squishy your legs are and jokingly saying things like "Why don't you feed this boy?!"
- Your hair - we cut some of your crazy hairs from the sides this month, but kept your long waves in the front. People always remark on your "curly red hair" and really your hair all over your head is getting so thick. It's so different than Lillian's fine, pale blond hair!
- (Not) Sleeping - really you are a pretty good napper with two naps a day usually totaling up to 4 hrs or so AND you go down pretty easy, but you are still getting up twice a night every night.  You go to sleep around 7:30-8:30pm every night and start your day anywhere from 5:30am to 8am depending on the day.

   

You are pretty happy now and more tolerant of the car seat especially if I ride in the back and you can see me.  I still feel like I hold you a lot during the day but I'm not sure if that's just me not giving you a chance to be happy alone playing or if its necessary.  If you are in need of consoling however you want me to stand and sway; you don't even let me sit and rock you to sleep at night.

You are not quite "sitting" but I think that is largely for lack of me working with you on it as much as I should. You do great at tummy time and have even got up on your knees a handful of times but you haven't mastered the 'tripod' to sit for any extended period of time.

In addition to getting up on your knees, you had a couple other milestones this month like your first tooth breaking thru (the bottom right at about 5 1/2 months), your first haircut and your first trip to the beach.  You are such a beautiful beautiful baby boy.

(Above: Reed before haircut. Below: Reed after haircut.)

 

Lillian and Reed's First Trip to the Beach

Well, it seems that the second child gets to experience things earlier in life (I remember this from watching my little brother get to do things at a younger age than I did them) and the beach is the first of such things for our two littles who enjoyed their first trip to the beach this summer!

At the start of June when the weather was still relatively mild (for Texas) we met up with Michael's brothers' families, and Michael's parents in Galveston to kick off Summer with a little family vacation.

We stayed at Pointe West, a little group of condos slightly removed from the main part of Galveston, where each family had their own room and bathroom and shared living and kitchen so we could enjoy visiting and relaxing together after the kids went to bed - cute condo with a great little setup.

We arrived in Galveston on Friday afternoon and set out to see the beach.  Although Reed was tired and a little fussy, as you can hear on the video, Lillian marched herself into the wind toward the boardwalk that would take us over to the beach saying "I'na see the ocean! I'na go to beach!" the whole way.  An apparent product of our preparation she seemed completely underwhelmed by the vastness or noise of the ocean - better than scared I guess.   She kept pointing toward the water and walking forward and even stomped over the seaweed to get to the waters edge (this surprised me most), but then was a little unnerved by the water coming up to wash over her feet.  She did have her moments of not wanting to walk on the sand and get her feet dirty, but compared to the stories I have heard about MY first trip to the ocean where I ran screaming the other direction, I would say she handled it pretty well!

By 6:30 am every day the kids were all up and at 'em, but we fueled up on coffee and good breakfasts and had a great time watching the almost-3-year-old, 2-year old, 11 month old and 5 month old play together.  We did a beach day and a pool day and part of one day with some rainy weather and just lounging around the house.  We played on the playground in the neighborhood, did a lazy river over at one of the other pools, flew kites, fed sea gulls - all classic beach activities.  It was fun in spite of our exhaustion and I'm happy that we ended up where we did (originally we'd entertained a bigger beach endeavor like Gulf Shores) with the kids at the ages they are....

Monday night, our last night in town, me, Michael and the brother and sis-in-law that remained went out for a nice dinner while Nana and Papa watched the kids.  It was the perfect ending to our busy time there in Galveston and a very yummy meal at Rudy and Paco's.

Post-Galveston a wise woman pointed out that there is a large difference between 'vacations' and 'traveling with family' when you have children this age and though I couldn't agree with this statement more, these are the experiences that make the best memories and I look forward to "traveling with our family' again!