All I Want For Christmas

If Reece secretly asked Santa for his two front teeth this Christmas, I think his wish will be coming true. Or more like: Christmas will come early. His one front tooth is almost in, and the other one is well on its way. But this is great news for Reece, he can now join in on feasting on delicious Christmas treats, instead of just gumming egg nog. He can happily munch on frosted Christmas cookies, holiday fudge and perhaps even fruitcake! Or maybe not. But at least he'll have a beautiful, big toothy grin to happily flash us on Christmas morning while he plays with wrapping paper. (Which I'm sure he'll enjoy much more than any present he receives.)  

Reece's Christmas and smile will now definitely be MERRY AND BRIGHT!! :)

Our Little Baby Vampire!

It's kinda scary how very belated I am with posting these Halloween pics. But no matter, cute baby pictures of Reece, whether dressed up as a vampire or not, are always velcome . . . eeer, welcome. :)

Check out his hand . . . he already got hold of a leaf. And it's been
about, umm . . . six seconds. :) He sure loves the foliage.

Happy Baby Vampire!

Playing with grass and twigs. Haha, what else would he be doing?
 Actually cooperating? Umm . . . not our little vampire. :) 

And he may as well have been a vampire flying around with his little vampire wings during this photo shoot, because he wouldn't keep still for one second. Or stay on his Halloween blanket.

Vampire squishy face. I just want to kiss those cheeks. :)

Standing!!

Watching the world go by.

Finally sitting still on the blanket. Good little vampire. :)

Spreading his wings . . .

The cutest vampire. Ever.

I love his little faces. I was actually yelling at the camera in
this moment. True story. So I think he was studying me,
wondering what his crazy mother was up to. Hahah.

But with these precious and maybe scary (spooky vampire?) pictures I still captured what I was aiming for, our precious child/vampire being all Happy Halloweeny. :)

A Whole Lotta Mustang Love

In honor of SMU being Conference USA West Champs, I thought I'd put a few pictures up of my handsome Mustangs!

A kiss for the baby pony! :)

A future SMU football star. And he doesn't even know it yet. :)

Yes! Yes! SMU won! SMU WON!!!

My pretty blues match my jersey perfectly. As they should.

GO SMU!! PONY UP!!

Dreaming of riding Puruna. Probably.

Reece's First Thanksgiving! GOBBLE!! GOBBLE!!

Pumpkins, Football and Loungewear pretty much sums up Reece's First Thanksgiving. 

Pumpkins make me smile! :)

While scrolling through the first Thanksgiving I shared with my baby, I came up with the question: If you don't actually celebrate an actual Thanksgiving, can you rightfully call it that? Or is it just another day?

This is MY pumpkin! :)

Let's take Reece's Thanksgiving/day for instance:

Reece didn't watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade because he likes to nap, and prefers blocks to giant floating balloons. He didn't help in the kitchen, because he actually prefers chewing on kitchen appliances. He didn't give thanks, because well, he's to young to know what that is. Even though he started off in the right place clad in roomy loungewear, perfect for heavy feasting, he didn't eat turkey or stuffing or pumpkin pie, because he had his own baby Thanksgiving feast. And also rejects most human food. (He happily ate Gerber Sweet Potatoes and Turkey, Green Beans and Cinnamon Apples if you're interested. Which yes, he did gobble right up.)

He did though take to, why yes, the pumpkins and gourds he joyfully grabbed at from the tablescape. And after his afternoon/well into evening nap (which me and Ella shared as well, or I probably would call mine a coma), he did decide to join in on the Thanksgiving Day tradition and play with a football and watch a few minutes of football with his Daddy. But then it was off to play with his toys again. Thanksgiving forgotten.

So, can we call that a Thanksgiving? WHY, OF COURSE WE CAN! Even though it may have just been another day for him, it was a special day for every else. Because every one who came to share this day with us got to share in Reece's First Thanksgiving. Everyone got to watch him smile, laugh, and happily interact with his loving family. Everyone got to hug and kiss and love on a baby who may have thought he was just enjoying himself on another day, but really isn't every day "just another day"? Reece didn't see/notice/care about any of the Thanksgiving things we center our fourth November Thursday around each year. So let's be Reece for a second and see what he saw on Thanksgiving day. Let's be Reece and take away the feast and foods and turkey napkins. Take away the football and heaping plates. Take away the sink full of dishes and stuffed tummies, and what do you have left? What did Reece see? Love, family and togetherness. And that's the most important thing out there and definitely something to be thankful for.

SO HAPPY THANKSGIVING INDEED!

 

I'm quite comfy in my Thanksgiving PJ's from Bunny.

Throw the football to me - I'll catch it! :)

See, I caught it! Muahah all mine now!

Watching bits of a football game. For about three seconds.

Sitting like a little gentleman in the chair. :)

Sweet baby boy.

Boys and their football. :) Look at their glazed over looks.

Still a tad bit groggy from our Turkey Day naps.

And if those three things are part of every single day, every day we should remember to give thanks a little more. And whether or not Reece ever noticed anything Thanksgiving-y, I was THANKFUL for every single second of this special day that I had my little baby to share with on this wonderful, family filled, overflowing plate day with my precious Reece. And that's all that matters. :)

The Delight of Pumpkin Patches, Flowers and the Top of Heads. Yes, in that order.

Being November and all, a trip to a pumpkin patch is just inevitable. Especially when you have a wee one to place on pumpkins. Too bad when it comes to pumpkins, my baby doesn't have a face. Or  . . . let me rephrase that. My baby doesn't have a face in pictures. Because like ferns, pumpkins are new, big, shiny orange balls that need to be studied.

My lovely idea of beautiful baby pumpkin patch pictures kinda went bust. As far as pictures go, I have pumpkins. Because they don't have to look at the camera and smile. And I have me smiling. Because I do what I'm told. And I have pretty blonde hair that belongs to my baby. But that's about it. But hair is nice.

I see a Reece face! But it's only because
he wasn't facing any pumpkins. :)

Look at all those PUMPKINS!!

I was letting him pull those leaves (some of them right off!) to his little heart's desire,
(I'm a bad parent, I know), but the good parent thought it wasn't a good idea, hah.

LOOK AT THE CAMERA REECE!

A Pumpkin House in the Storybook Pumpkin Village! :)

Reece looking at a house full of pumpkins and made
of pumpkins. This must have been his dream come true.

I used to think I had a little knack for getting Reece to look at the camera. I was proud of myself for my "Mommy talent" and it's ability to yield smiles in the camera's direction. I would do whatever I had to do, whether it be clapping, dancing, whistling, just basically carrying on like some escaped wacko from an asylum.  But it always worked. Until today that is. Today I just looked like a freak, and nothing to show for it. But there's always next year. Because as far as I know, and from looking at these pictures, they'll be plenty of pumpkins to go around next year. I mean, it's not like they're going extinct or anything. When it comes to extinct, the only thing missing and no where to be found was Reece's smile. Or him looking in any sort of upward direction. But that's okay. Tops of heads can be pretty too. Or at least I can pretend they are.

A rainbow of pumpkins.

Town folk in the village.

Looking down at, you guessed it: PUMPKINS! At least he looks
cute when he looks down. What can I say? Gotta stay positive. :)

This was either Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty's
house. But I'm leaning towards Sleeping Beauty.

LOOK UP AT THE CAMERA! This is where we pretty much gave up on
pumpkin patch baby pictures. Sigh. And I'll spare you all the rest of our tries. 

Smiling in a Pumpkin Window! (The secret was he
 was enjoying looking at Daddy.)

Now as I go through and look once more (probably my eighty millionth time, I'm kinda obsessed with pictures of my baby, and taking them for that matter) at the pictures we took that day, I come to find Reece in fact did look at the camera actually more than once. Just not in the spots I wanted him to. Not when he was surrounded by pumpkins sitting on a bale of hay. Not when he was sitting on pumpkins. Crawling through pumpkins. Or sitting by me surrounded by pumpkins. But I guess that's just how life goes: You can't always get exactly what you want, so you just need to work with what you have. So I'll now just enjoy the many pictures I have when we weren't surrounded by pumpkins, because as it turns out, when you take the baby out of the pumpkin patch, his face will finally grace you with its presence. So we have flower baby pictures, nature baby pictures, water baby pictures, or you can just see for yourself. The rest of the day concluded with actual Reece face pictures that I'm quite happy with. And yes, manymany of them. I really did try to only pick a few, but you should know, what's below is a few. I did though say I had a problem with taking way too many. :)

Pretty gardens.

You want to pick some flowers Reece? Sure, go right ahead! :)

                                    

The Three Weigands. :)

Grabbing at leaves! :) Maybe I should give Reece a
rake, and see what happens.

Secret Garden.

Our precious bear.

Daddy hugs.

Yaaay for waterfalls! Yippee! :)

Reece just loves water, haha. And if he was able
 I know he would have dove right in.

If I was granted three wishes, one would be to never have blurry pictures again.
I despise blurriness. And I despise ones that takes blurry pictures. Oops. 

Father and Son at a lilly pond. :)

While I still wonder if I had acted more like a psychopath while trying to get Reece to look up at me and the camera, if I would have gotten the pictures I wanted, I'll never really know if that would have worked. All I do know is that while not looking at me, Reece was thoroughly enjoying himself. And in the back of my mind I have a little picture of next year at the pumpkin patch with an almost two year old Reece sitting quietly, politely doing what he's told as he sits on the bale of hale surrounded by pumpkins smiling sweetly at the camera for Mommy and Daddy, I wonder if a part of me will miss my little baby's love for staring at pumpkins and refusing to look at me. Whether or not I do, and whether or not in years to come I finally have perfect pumpkin patch pictures in frames, all I do know for sure, is Reece sure keeps life interesting. And I wouldn't change one bit of that!

Reece waves BYE to you! :)