And time goes by...

He has RISEN indeed! I hope that everyone enjoyed and truly set aside time to reflect upon the meaning of this glorious weekend. Don't let it end, continue to seek His love and truth.

The last we wrote we were heading to Boston for my (grandmother) Nannie's funeral. It was a beautiful ceremony and wonderful to be with our Baldwin side family. Right before we left, we got a scare as Reece was crying for hours and after a rush to the doctor's office we found out that he had ear infections. Luckily we got him on antibiotics and started praying for peaceful travels. Prayers were answered. Reece was AMAZING, as always (I am his mom and this is my blog, so I will brag often and enthusiastically). He was so good and quiet on the plane both to and from, was great while we stayed in a hotel, slept wonderful at night, even sat quietly during the funeral service, and had an overall great attitude the entire trip. Reece did demonstrate his first signs of jealousy during the trip ---- my dad was playing with Reece and then pick up my cousin's little boy and when Reece turned around and saw dad holding Nolan, man was he mad. Reece's face and stance just froze, then he scrunched up his nose and just stared at my dad. It was so funny. He quickly forgot his jealousy though when he made a couple of new friends shortly after the funeral - Molly the dog and Max, Callie, and Cleo the cats. We stayed a couple of nights with Aunt Sharon and Uncle Robert and their kids, the aforementioned pets. Reece loved having Molly chase him around the house and the two of them played so well together. They even developed a secret language and used it to share their food (I was seriously grossed out when I caught Reece allowing Molly to lick his food and then Reece would proceed with eating it... ugh).

Once we got back to Indy we were all drained from the travels and had to take a few days to truly recuperate. However, now we are hitting everything full force. Joe is reading, writing and hitting the books again. I have taken on another project that is going to eat up a lot of my time in the evenings. Reece is chatting all the time (still sounds Chinese more than actual words, but using sign language a lot), can climb up and down stairs, can climb off couches and beds, loves to tackle Joe, can drink from a big boy cup, and we had to get a new car seat due to size - he is now weighing over 31 pounds and we will go Wednesday for even more updated stats.

Today, we went to Easter Service with my parents over on the west side of town. I think it was the first time in years that my entire family actually went to service together. It was nice have everyone there. Afterwards we had dinner and then did an egg hunt with Grant and Reece. I really didn't think that Reece would have any interest in the hunt except to throw the first egg he found. Well, we had three rooms - a Grant room, a Reece room, and a combined room. While Grant was hunting in his egg room, we took Reece into his room to see if he would want to 'hunt'. To our surprise, Reece picked up the basket and went right to work. He would laugh every time he found an egg, and while yes he did throw an egg or two, he had so much fun searching and finding the hidden treasures. He did such a great job looking behind chairs and in plants and behind doors. I was very impressed! I was even more impressed with Grant, this 4 year-old came and helped his baby cousin and was a saint about it. While they were searching in their combined room Grant would steer Reece in the direction of some of the eggs and then if he thought that Reece wouldn't find it himself - Grant would get it, show it to Reece and then put it in Reece's basket for him. They were SO cute together. Of course, Grant kept wanting to hug his younger cousin and protect him, and all the while Reece just wanted to tackle Grant --- guess I better get use to watching football games. :)

Reece is really in a fun stage right now, I know that I will probably say this about every stage we go through; but I love how he actually understands what Joe and I are telling him and will shake his head yes or no in response and then do something to demonstrate that he really does understand what we are saying. I love when he runs to me with his arms wide open and gives me the biggest hug and then a sloppy wet kiss (yes, I thought I would always hate those wet kisses, but I truly adore them). And best of all, I love his laughs ---- there is nothing, nothing better than his laughs. They are so sweet and innocent... and even cuter when he squints his eyes and wrinkles his nose. Can you tell that we adore this kid?