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?

Cuts, Shades and Goodbyes...

Again - the one thing I didn't truly believe from all of you with wisdom of a toddler, was the sickness that either you or your little one may have for during a number of months. Reece was so healthy for the first year, and I swear, since January someone in this household has been sick every week (typically Reece). This past week it was me - ugh, I caught the dreaded strep throat monster who has been ransacking all the schools, businesses and homes in the area. IT was horrible! God was amazing as always, and protected Joe as he needed to be in Terre Haute for classes and Reece escaped healthy (except for a little yeast infection).

We took Reece to get a professional hair cut. Yes, I said professional. Joe and I enjoy cutting Reece's hair, yet we figured the poor boy deserved to have someone who knows what they are actually doing to clean it up and give it shape. But really, what kid would prefer to go to a store where they get to sit in a car, play with a steering wheel, have a pretty young lady cut their hair and all the while watch 'Diego' on a tv? Personally, I would think that Reece would prefer to sit on my lap in the bathroom bawling at the sight of Joe coming at him with the clippers, kicking trying to escape, and at the end look like he just crawled out of the movie 'Edward Scissorhands'. I guess some choices are just easier than others.

This coming week was going to be a little get-a-way for us. Time for Joe to take a break from school and a chance to visit some of my mom's family. We had plans to head to New Hampshire to see my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Robert, and my grandmother (Nannie). However, we sadly received news that Nannie passed away last night. This wonderful woman of God was a true inspiration and I am extremely sad that I didn't make it out there again before her passing, but what a blessing that we already had tickets and I won't have to go alone - both Joe and Reece can be there for the funeral as well. Nannie was 92 and let me tell you, this woman was strong! Strong in her faith, strong in her convictions, strong in her love, and mentally strong. She has been through more in her life, through the death of her husband, loss of her son, loss of other family, physical pain and yet she never doubter, not once, that her Lord and Saviour was there to care for her. She always had words of wisdom to pass on to those of us willing to listen. May I praise my Lord as willingly and comlpetely as Nannie - that is my goal!

Fun with Nana...

It was a lot of fun to have Nana visit for a long weekend. She hung out with Reece while Lisa and I were able to go to Weber Grill on Friday night for a Valentine's dinner. That place was great - you should definitely try it out. The rest of the weekend was just good hang-out time. Reece entertained us for hours with his new deep laugh.
I'm not in the writing mood...so I'll just post a few great pictures. Have a great week!

Valentine's Day...

We hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day.
Reece blew kisses out to all his fans and family.





He picked two for his Valentine -- Frances the Frog, and Maggie the Monkey. He loves taking the monkey for rides around the house in his walker. I tried getting a great picture, but man this kid can move! I was lucky enough though to sneak a picture of Reece snuggling with the frog. I love watching him talk and play with his stuffed animals -- it is sooo cute.



Our Valentine's Day was a busy one, we started with a bath and decided to run around the house in the robe that my Aunt June gave Reece when he was born. Yes, this is for a newborn and so you can see that it didn't quite fit; but Reece was loving it anyway. He strutted (does he have any other walk?) all over the upstairs proud to be wearing the robe and showing off his skin.


Later that morning, we finished getting ready, and fresh from a nap, headed to Anderson University to see daddy (and so Reece could flirt with all the girls). Reece had a blast roaming the halls, peeking into classes, and eating at the Haven. He couldn't resist waving to all the college kids as they walked by, probably either in a hurry to get to class or craving a snack... what a transition -- it was just over 10 years ago that I was there in school... I think the highlight of the visit for Reece was getting to act like a big guy. Reece showed us what he will look like when it is his turn to go to work.

After leaving the University, Reece and I drove over to my parent's house for a quick visit. He spent the afternoon trying to chase the cat under the beds, climbing up and down the stairs, chasing Papa around the kitchen island, and convincing Grandmama that he can have cookies.

We love you all!

Breathing, painting, and stylin'

What a fun week! Even with the "downs" of life, like having to put Reece on a daily breathing machine regiment, we are so incredibly blessed.

For the last two Saturdays now we've spent time at New Life painting some life into the place. It has been a lot of fun getting together with church family and throwing some coats of paint on the bright white walls. This weekend the eight grown-up Davis/Daniels/Denniston/Galema's and the seven youngsters took over the church lobby (Narthex for you old-timers) to add a little green to the hallways and a second coat of yellow. Here's a great picture of the little ones with their snacks...they were incredibly well-behaved for us both weeks! We spent more than 6 hours both Saturdays, and they hardly complained at all. They didn't even hurt each other...Reece's rug-burned nose is a standard result from early stages of Ring-around-the-rosie...

Yes, as you read in the first sentence of this post we have a health-update on the little guy. It seems that he's still having some adverse effects (or is it affects?) from the pneumonia last month. Dr. Rupp (pediatrician extraordinaire)thinks that Reece will need to be on this breathing machine for at least a few months to treat some coughing and shortness of breath that he's been experiencing for the past several weeks. Keep him in your prayers - it would be great if this is something that can be treated and grown out of.

Reece's favorite new trick is to climb up on his overstuffed Red chair, over the arm of the couch onto his face, and then to slide off of the couch...then start it all over again. It keeps him (and us) entertained for a long time! The climbing thing is pretty new - up until a couple of weeks ago he was relatively unadventurous, but now he's getting a little more daring. We often catch him standing on the car seat of his little orange speedster, rocking back and forth, clapping, and smiling ear-to-ear.

Happy Valentine's day to all of you. We look forward to celebrating this weekend with a dinner "out on the town" Friday night.

Paint, Ribs and TV - what more can you ask for...

What a week. I spent the majority of it chasing Reece off of toys, chairs and anything else that he could find to climb. It is so much fun to watch him figure out how to work those legs and hike them up on everything and what a glorious feeling it must be to have no fear. I vaguely remember that feeling (something like the first time I went skiing, until it hit me later in the day what it could feel like if I really bit it)... Reece loves to climb into his massive toy car and then stand on the seat and try to balance. On Monday as he was trying to clap and cheer while standing on the seat, the car rolled forward and so did Reece - right into our entertainment center. Luckily there is only a small scar on his head.

Reece is also into pointing out different animals to us. He loves to get up from his nap and point to each one in his room (he gets down on the floor and rubs over the animals in his rug), he will point and grunt until we called out the name of the animal. He also likes to watch anything with animals in it on TV. Here he wanted to get up close and personal with a cartoon.

On Saturday, we spent the day at our church helping in a work day. We went and painted some of the walls of the main entry way, it looks great! It is amazing what a little bit of color can do. The whole feel of the place has a lift of life to it. I loved the building and loved the white features and so I wasn't too sure how the color would look, but now that we have a splash of color we are inspired to help get the rest of the building done. We are going back again this weekend to try and paint the hallways. This will mean a lot more detail work.. but we are up for it. Reece was absolutely fantastic while we were there all day. Of course, he was busy figuring out that if he lifted one side of a small table then all of the toys would go sliding to the other side and over onto the floor. He got a big laugh out of this!

This last picture was one of Joe's highlights of the week. Brooke and Dan are behaving and sticking to their healthy eating habits and so donated their spare ribs to our household of 'we'll eat anything'. He had a great time cooking these ribs to perfection and we had two nights of wonderful meals. Thanks!

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.