New Addition and The Hat Phase...

We have a new niece/cousin! Lauren Olivia Davis was born on January 17th at a healthy 9 pounds 11oz.
Congratulations Ben, Marlo and Jillian on the new addition to the family. We are so excited that Lauren is here, she is absolutely beautiful.

Now that we have a child, I realize I will never take good health for granted again. It seems as if we will have a week with just a runny nose and then BAM... Reece gets hit with something else. Days after his pneumonia we thought all was well; however our poor baby caught something from somewhere (I know, this will be my motto for the next year or two) and was up all night literally throwing up all over his room numerous times throughout the night. My heart went out to him and I truly wished I could be sick instead. He was so tired and weak; the little guy didn't know what was going on and just kept looking at us with those big blue eyes asking for help. Ugh... it was killing me! But God is amazing and Reece finally got a peacefully night of sleep (after changing the sheets 3 times and his outfit 4 times) and although he currently has a runny nose - he is an active, chatty and very happy child. Hmmm... who does he get the chatty genes from? :)

During the past week Reece has decided that hats are 'in' for him. He would grab Samantha's hat every time she was here and run away with it and so I decided to find a bunch of his hats and leave them around the house for his amusement (and to hopefully prevent trouble). I never imagined that he would really enjoy putting them on and run around here like a mad man. The best part is when he tries to put them on himself. He gets them above his head for a split second but they end up around his neck like a scarf. Speaking of... I caught him with my scarf today, that might be his next phase. We'll wait and see.

Here are a few additional pictures. Reece enjoyed spending time with his grandmama and gpapa a couple of weekends ago, he received lots of attention from g-mama and lots of chasing around the couch from g-papa.

Then yesterday Joe and Reece took a long nap (they miss football being on tv) --- this next picture is Joe sleeping with Reece when he was only a few months old.

Wow... time flies!

Happy New Year...

Yep, you got it, we're a little late on the New Year's greeting. Big shocker, eh? Not much of an excuse here, we've had quite a bit of down-time since our last blog after Christmas. Of course a fair portion of that down-time saw the three of us flat on our backs with a serious case of the 'icks'.
Those of you who are already parents surely understand (and probably better than we do) when I tell you we had our first case of family sickness. All three of us, down-and-out, nobody wanting to touch or speak to one another...but needing each other desperately.
On January 2nd we hit the doctor's office to get Reece checked out, and to our surprise he had a double ear infection and viral pneumonia. So, after three or four days of whining and waiting and flushing and blowing and chucking and checking, we managed to get most of the way back to normal.
Once Reece got back to normal, we realized how much he's talking. We're certain that he knows what he's saying, and pretty soon hopefully he'll either teach us his language or start to learn ours. He seems to say ball, but who knows...i guess those are pretty logical sounds to put together without any intention whatsoever. Speaking of balls, you've got to check out the Denniston family blog (over there on the right) January 3rd post...classic.
Also on the balls topic, Reece started playing soccer tonight! It is fantastic to watch him run around and dribble balloons or little soccer balls. He's a natural...no bias whatsoever on my part:)
Other odds and ends...we had a great New Year's Eve with Dan and Brooke our fun neighbors, and also enjoyed Sam's 1-year birthday party this past weekend.
Final update is that school has started back up for me, and I head to Terre Haute this weekend. I'm so grateful to Lisa for her love and support, and for a great work-place where my boss and coworkers are understanding and supportive.
Hope you're all doing well.