Homecoming and Birthday Parties...

I know we say it a lot, but what a busy week. Earlier in the week we had our typical babysitting arrangements. This week Reece was great for Brooke and Dan and was also good for Jenessa. Sam was also great for us on Tuesday. Tuesday night we drove to Dan and Brooke's studio for Reece's Halloween photos. We wanted to capture his first costume experience with some great pictures and since Brooke and Dan are having a Halloween special in their studio we just couldn't pass it up (let me know if you want their info too). What a handsome monkey!!

On Wednesday night we had the other Davis clan stay with us. It was so much fun to have Joe's brother Ben, Marlo and Jillian with us Wednesday night and Thursday. Jillian was practicing her big sister skills (Marlo is due in January) and I must say she will be an excellent helper. Dan, Joe's brother-in-law, came to stay Thursday night and we all were able to enjoy dinner together.

On Friday, Joe went to Terre Haute for his weekend of classes and as soon as he was out the door Reece and I were busy with party preparations. Joe's birthday is on October 19th and he is turning 30. Since he was going to miss Anderson's homecoming I wanted to make sure he came home to a great celebration. Friday was spent buying food, icing cookies and finalizing details. Kristen Townsend flew into town for the party and homecoming festivities, but the poor thing didn't get to the house until 2:30am and then had to drive back in the morning for her luggage. Sorry Kristen! I hope you enjoyed your tour of Indiana (she gets lost everywhere) if I ever hit the lottery (of course I need to start playing) then I am going to get you a navigation system - I didn't realize anyone could get so lost much! :) We loved having you. Thanks for coming!

Saturday morning I did my last minute pickups and then we (Reece, Mom Davis, Kristen and I) got ready and went to the University for the street fair. Of course we were behind schedule all day, but it was great to see so many friends! While we were there I got a great picture with my nieces. Unfortunately Reece wasn't in his social mood.

After the street fair we were trying to hurry because we got word Joe was already on his way home. Luckily a crew met at my house just after 1pm and we piled everything into vehicles and headed for the neighborhood clubhouse. Before everything was finished at the clubhouse I had to hurry back to our house and beat Joe there. The hard part of the day was finding a reason to get Joe down to the clubhouse. I knew he would have suspicions no matter what I said, but I tried the "we are having an emergency neighborhood meeting". The definite sign of a party for Joe was seeing his brother's car in front of the clubhouse. I do think he was surprised (a little).

I will now pass the computer over and let Joe finish this blog. Before I do though I cannot thank my parents, Mom Davis, Jamie and Melissa, Kendra and David, Andi, Marlo and Kristen enough --- thank you all for your hard work setting up, during and after the party!

(Joe is now typing...)

What a great party! Although I can't say I was totally surprised that something was going on, I was completely surprised at the number and variety of people...and at the food/decorations/fun. As soon as Lisa said there was an "emergency meeting" that we had to get to, I kinda thought something might be going on. But as I walked in and saw the crowd, I was really overwhelmed. Great friends. Thanks to all of you who were here to celebrate with me. I've decided that the whole "30" thing is a good career move, so it really doesn't bother me too much.

The sad part of the party day was the fact that Reece was feeling really lousy. Just as we were getting ready to walk out the door to the "emergency meeting" we got the feeling he wasn't doing so hot. As the party was winding down, Lisa and her mom had to take him to the Immediate Care center in Anderson to get checked out.

After a few hours of mingling and eating (way too much) we wrapped up the afternoon with some clean-up. A major highlight would have to be the 15 minutes Jason Wiard (one of my good college friends) spent standing on the top wrung of a 10-foot ladder to get the balloons un-wrapped from the ceiling fan.

Soon after that, Lisa returned from the Immediate Care with a happier baby Reece and she encouraged me to go out with my buddies Nate, Tim and Brent. What a great wife! We went to Ale Emporium to share some pizza and old stories. It was a great early birthday celebration all the way around. And thanks to everyone for their prayers - Reece is feeling much better today. He is happy and enjoyed playing with his walker and other toys. Have a great week.

Can he overcome his genes?

Reece had his first music lesson this week while hanging out with Levi and Lydia (and Jenessa of course). The question is, can he overcome his genes and actually be a musician? Isn't it crazy to think ahead a few years to all of the possible things that these little guys could do/be? Sorry to get mushy, but it's pretty incredible. Thanks God...good stuff.
As for updates...the main thing is that he's definitely hit a clingy mommy/daddy stage. He's gotta be driving Jenessa and Brooke nuts when they watch him. We're so greatful to them (and others) who partner with us in raising the little guy.
The only excitement of the week was a late night last night with Grandmama, Papa, Kendra/David/Grant. They hung out in Plainfield at Metropolis - which made Lisa excited for the Saxony development to be completed. And I'm really excited for the Waffle House to be completed (just across the street from our neighborhood). Chocolate Chip Pecan Waffles...it doesn't get much better.
Have a good week-

A very Sick week...

I guess you win some and lose others... and we lost a lot of time, food, (and I'll stop there) this past week. Reece has had a runny nose for a couple of weeks, but like everything else we have chalked it up to teething. In fact, his nose actually seemed a little clearer on Sunday -- right about the same time that Joe started feeling very nauseous. Poor Joe, he spent all Sunday night and Monday losing every meal he had in his body. He dropped Reece off at Brooke and Dan's not even knowing what he was saying or where he was. Luckily after sleeping all day and taking it easy in the evening, he felt much better by Tuesday morning. In fact, Tuesday was a great day all around. Reece and Sam played nicely at the house with me, they were both in wonderful moods and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately Wednesday morning Reece decided it was his turn. He graced me with his 6am bottle --- right before I was suppose to head out the door for work. Then he lost his breakfast all over himself in the car, just before Joe dropped him off at the Denniston's; and it continued all day. My poor baby just didn't feel right and there was nothing we could do. I had to put him on an all liquid diet --- yes, all liquid -- have you seen this kid eat? I think he was making these faces in disgust for not receiving food. He didn't care if it wouldn't stay in his stomach. Thursday morning was rough...Reece didn't know what he wanted or how he felt or how to express it; I felt completely helpless and yes, I will admit it - I didn't think I could take the crying anymore. Reece fell into a deep sleep around 11:45 and when he woke up around 1pm he was the happiest little boy! What a relief! It was so much fun to dance around with him and to hear his laughter instead of the crying. So, we had a quiet Thursday evening and an uneventful Friday morning. I did stay home from work just in case Reece was still contagious from whatever he and Joe had; but since everything looked great I took him to the mall. We bought some new pajamas and some shoes. He is walking everywhere (as long as he is holding on to something) so I figured we better find a good pair of shoes. On Friday evening we decided to go to the Pendleton Homecoming Parade. What a great night! The weather was beautiful. Reece was only frightened a few times by loud sirens or cars and I think he really did enjoy it overall. Unfortunately, I started taking a turn for the worse. By the time we got back to the car I was begging Joe to hurry home. I thought that I had escaped the illness in the house, but nope - over the next 24 hours I think I lost about 10 pounds (which is great, but not the way I wanted to do it). What a week. It is now late Sunday night and all is well. In fact, Reece has been WONDERFUL this weekend and exceptionally happy. We apologize for not showing pictures earlier - but he now has two teeth. And watch out because he loves to try and bite toes. Ouch (not to mention gross)! I pray that you have a great week and stay healthy!

Another A+

Several fun trips and experiences since the last blog. Reece had his 9-month birthday and doctor visit on September 11 - he weighed in at a whopping 25 lbs. and measured 29.75 inches long...which is in the 95th and 96th percentiles respectively. So we've confirmed that he's got daddy's build and mommy's height. Big winner. Here are a couple of pictures from the pede's office. This is nurse Stephanie on the left, and Dr. Cathy on the right.

Last Thursday, I took on the task of trying to be a mother of two. I have a renewed respect for mothers of two...and especially mothers of twins. Reece, Sam and Grandmama Baker accompanied me on a trip to the dentist and the mall. At the mall, we spent some quality time in a dressing room to stretch the little ones' legs, and Reece loved having someone in front of him in the stroller to pick on. They did great, and we really enjoy spending time with Baby Brand (mom and dad are cool, too).

Reece got to spend time on campus both Friday and Saturday. On Friday he hung out with Christy and Dan Kihm for a while while Joe got some homework stuff done. On Saturday we went to a soccer match and ate lunch in the Haven. Reece said he is excited to be a Raven some day. Then on Saturday evening Nana Davis and Jenny Watkins stopped by our house for a while on the way home from a conference in Indy. It was great to have a few hours of quality Nana time.

Saturday was also day #10 for the Amish friendship bread that was passed along by our #1 comment poster Suzy Thompson! Thanks for the great bread Suzy...I squeezed, mixed and baked it to perfection (Joe's word). Great stuff!

Sunday night we had small group at our house...mostly just fun fellowship time with a few other families from the church. We pulled out the blow-up jungle gym and all of the kids had a good time.

This Tuesday Reece got to take his first trip to the zoo, along with the Daniels clan. It was a lot of fun, Reece was so good and tried to take everything in. He was facinated by the turtles and penguins the most...but here are a few pictures from all over the place...

Flirting, Hot Dogs and Birthday Cake...

No rest for the weary and Reece is trying to prove he can do without sleep. He is currently wanting to resist any bottles and all naps. I am not sure what he is trying to prove, but hopefully we will get through it. We go and see Dr. Cathy tomorrow and we will get the latest stats and what the future holds. Perhaps we can stop with the formula and bottles and go to milk and maybe Reece will be within the charts on weight and height... but my guess is he is still off all charts! :)

As for the last couple of days, Reece was once again hitting on the girls. This time it was Isabella. She is an older woman (by 12 days) and her mother is a good friend of mine. Amy and I were roommates in college. Amy, Suzy T., Becky B. and I were having lunch and all the while Reece and Bella were enjoying the company of each other. Aren't they cute!

We also spent an evening celebrating a belated birthday for Papa (my - Lisa's dad). A few weeks ago on his birthday we had 4 members of the family all come down with various illnesses - but luckily we have all recovered and could finally wish dad a Happy Birthday! Reece had a great time and enjoyed trying to steal toys from his older cousin.

And as can see by this picture, we spent Sunday afternoon resting. Sunday morning we had a great church service and then stay around church for the famous Heavenly Hotdog Feast. The church kicks off the fall session with a fun pitchin centered around all sorts of themed hot dogs (yes, I know it sounds tasty doesn't it - but really not bad). Reece came home and took a long nap and then turned around and fell asleep again in Joe's arms. Needless to say, Reece was in the best mood after that!

Oh, and I couldn't resist taking this picture... Reece was dragging his blanket all over the living room and it made me flash back to when he was only a week old and we would swaddle him in it. Wow- time flies. Again, isn't he the cutest thing ever!

Labor Day fun...

We started out the weekend with one of those Friday-afternoon-in-traffic drives down to New Albany, IN to see Grandma D (Joe's grandma). In addition to the stop and go all around I-465, Reece decided he didn't want to be strapped down, so we had a loud drive. But it was worth the effort, we had a great 23 hours in Southern Indiana! Friday night we were greeted with a full meal of baked chicken, mashed potatos and gravy and grandma's famous corn bread. Oh my...we ate way too much. Then, to top it off we had a still-warm peach cobler and ice cream. Reece was thrilled with the mashed potatos that he got to try. It seems like Reece has probably been ready for table food for months...but we're just now getting comfortable with the idea. He had his second taste of grown-up food the next morning with grandma's perfect biscuits. By the way, don't bother counting the calories that we're listing off here...it was a crazy couple of meals. To walk it off, we went to the Bass Pro Shop to let Reece see the fish and wild animals. It was a lot of fun to see him react to everything. Then, at McCallister's Deli for lunch, Reece got to try roast beef, cheese and potatos - to be followed up with his full dinner when he got home. He may have actually eaten more over the two days than we did! Reece had so much fun with grandma that he already asked if we can go back some time. We didn't tell him the secret about grandma moving to Muncie soon...hopefully it will happen yet this summer. The "big finish" of the weekend was when grandma pulled out the collection of Smurf glasses from 1982 that are still in mint condition. She sent them home with us...so now you are all invited over to join us for cookies and milk - out of the sweet Smurf glasses.

After a great church service on Sunday, we headed home to pick up the house in preparation for Joe to have over his mentor group - 17 freshmen that he helps with academic advising. Meanwhile, Reece and I took off to spend the night over at Grandmama Baker's house in Brownsburg. It was nice to just relax and spend some time with mom - Reece had a lot of fun looking at the cat, clapping (his newest trick), and playing with Gmama Baker's toys. He also got to sit out on the deck and watch the humming birds - it was amazing how close they would fly to his head. Then, we learned that he loves to listen to us sing Deep and Wide - check out the big cheesy pics. Uncle Jamie and aunt Melissa stopped by to see Reece on Monday morning - Reece was proud to wear the Red Sox hat for a few minutes, but he was afraid his dad wouldn't be too happy (he's a Braves fan).

We winded down this evening with playing chase around the house. Hope you have a great week!

We can't keep up...

We know, we know...it's been a while. Enough about that.
We're having a tougher time keeping up with Reece than we are the blog. He doesn't stop moving! We heard it from all of you, and from everyone else that it all changes when he begins crawling, and it certainly has. As I type, hes playing with a DVD (The Pursuit of Happyness), pulling on a cord for the monitor and trying to change the channel of the tv. But he's so happy...that it's worth the effort. He's pulling himself up, cruising along the furniture, bumping his head, standing on his own for a couple of seconds at a time, learning to fall on his butt, eating a little bit of everything, and sleeping well. He's definitely a mommy's boy right now when he's tired, but he knows Daddy's the go-to play guy.
I started class this weekend, so life is going to change on that front as well. For those of you who don't know, I'm attending Indiana State University to do a Ph.D. program in Higher Ed. Administration. So, lots of reading, writing and research in my future. Lisa and Reece have been incredibly supportive so far...and I think we're going to make it.
Another fun episode was a week ago Friday when Lisa and Reece got in their first fight. I think Reece won...he recovered a lot quicker than Lisa did. He had a major attitude while at the church for a couple of hours and Lisa wasn't able to get any work done. So now we've figured out a system for Lisa to get to work without Reece at all. On Monday and Friday Reece hangs out with Brooke and Sam across the street. Then Lisa brings Sam over to hang out with us while Brooke gets some work done. And on Wednesdays, Jenessa, Lydia and Levi let Reece spend time with them. We are sooooo appreciative of these close friends.

Here are a couple of good pics from Reece's recent crawls and adventures.

Surprise.. Surprise...

Now, let me answer the question that just popped into your head --- I am not pregnant! Okay, now that we have that taken care of. The surprise was actually for my mom. Her 60th birthday is on the 19th and we wanted to help her celebrate... So we were able to keep plans quiet for 8 months (even with everyone together at my cousin's wedding -- Aunt Ruth almost slipped, but recovered nicely). It was fun to sneak 4 of her 5 sisters into town without mom's knowledge. Dad was able to get mom to the restaurant without suspicion (well, without much suspicion that is). The best part of the night was as mom entered into the banquet hall; she saw us (the kids) and gave a nice smile -- you could tell she was happy to see us and happy that we would try and surprise her (she had a feeling we wanted to do 'something'), BUT then we turned on the remaining lights and that is when she saw her sisters. As you can see from the picture, she was overwhelmed. It was a priceless moment! Worth all the work, effort and 'issues' we had with planning this party.

There is too much to tell, but one side story is that mom had a number of friends in town for a convention and she kept opening her home for guests. I spent numerous nights tracking people down and informing them they could NOT stay at her house due to the surprise party and the number of family coming into town. It was a great weekend. The 'sisters' were able to catch up and got to watch mom's 8mm films which we had turned into a DVD. The film had mom and dad's wedding, some early vacations and a couple of Christmas' with the Baldwin Clan (mom's family).

We spent a lot of time on Saturday at Jamie and Melissa's house, my brother and sister-in-law. They have a new home and were kind enough to let us all come over and swim in their pool. Reece thoroughly enjoyed the pool and of course all the attention. Here he is with my brother. Aren't they studs!

Reece was once again a dream baby all weekend, even with a tooth starting to come through. He had a few moments of shrieking (but I would be screaming too if I had something trying to push through my gums). I think Joe's favorite moment all weekend was having Waffle House cuisine with Uncle Robert and my dad. They may have been a little slower the rest of the day, but all three seemed to enjoy their meals (or maybe it was the White Castle they had the night before -- men and their food).

Reece did get to spend some time with his cousin Grant. They always have a good time together, unfortunately the weekend ended a little bumpy. As you can see, Grant was being so kind and letting his little cousin crawl all over his track and grab at his train. Well, when the time came to pick it up, Grant did so with a little bit of force and clocked Reece right in the middle of the forehead. Poor Reece just started screaming and Grant just about curled up in a ball. But don't worry Grant --- Reece is okay and he says that he can't wait to play tackle football!

By the way, Reece is now 8 months old, starting to crawl, sprouting a tooth, and still the best baby ever!