Reece is 7 months!

Wow! We're getting closer and closer to a year...I'm so not ready for that.

At 7 months Reece weighs about 17 pounds. He can still wear his 6 month clothes, but 9 month really fits him better. (We're just squeezing him into those 6 month summer clothes because I don't want to buy bigger ones) He wears a size 3 diaper and a 2.5 shoe. (We just had him fitted for shoes a few weeks ago but he doesn't actually wear them yet)

Sleep at 7 months is slowly improving...He's not waking up every hour at night anymore but he's still up more than I would like :/ He gets his bedtime bottle (so we can give him the reflux meds) around 7 and then is up at 1 on a good night and then again around 4 or so. If it's not a good night he's up around 11, 2 and then up at 5 for the day. When he wakes up around 5 every morning, Ryan takes him downstairs and can almost always get him back to sleep on the couch until 6:30 or so. But if I get up with him at 5, he thinks it's time to play. Needless to say, Daddy gets up almost every morning. Ha!

He still takes 30 minute naps every 2 and a half hours or so.

Reece still nurses during the day and gets a bottle in the morning and evening for reflux meds. He is also eating all three solid meals! He eats oatmeal with some kind of fruit mixed in for breakfast and then a veggie with fruit mixed in for lunch and dinner. He will not eat fruit by itself, it has to be hidden in something else. His favorites are sweet potatoes, green beans and squash. He can drink water from a sippy cup.

He LOVES puffs, and isn't really a fan of the yogurt melts yet. I gave him cheerios for the first time today and he didn't really like those either. He has tried small bites of banana, white potatoes, peach, mandarin oranges and zuccini.

Reece has been crawling for a while and is now a pro at pulling up and is even beginning to cruise the furniture. He likes to hold onto things with one hand but hasn't tried standing alone yet. He loves to crawl all over Mom and Dad like his own personal jungle gym.

He still loves Hailey (and now her toys and books). Hailey is pretty good about letting him hold some of them but the coveted Paw Patrol toys are off limits. She also loves to call to me from the other room, "Mom, come look at your son!" and show me what he's doing.

Reece loves to wait at the front door for Daddy in the afternoons and is trying so hard to sneak and climb the stairs

now he even tries to sneak Hailey's juice cups. (He can't figure out how to get anything out of it, but he tries!)

Reece LOVES bathtime! If we're in the bathroom upstairs for any reason during the day he crawls over, pulls up on the tub and starts banging his hands on it like "Let me in!" In the tub he is now sitting alone and loves to splash!

We love you busy boy!

Grandparents Chapel

Last week the kids and I drove to Charlotte on Thursday right after preschool. Hailey of course stayed awake until the last 20 minutes and Reece, not wanting to change it up a bit, slept for 30 minutes and screamed for 2 hours. ;)

Friday was Grandparents Chapel at HGCS, the biggest reason we came! Grams has a tradition of showing off her grandkids at the beginning of chapel and we wouldn't miss it. It would be Reece's first time on stage. Ha! We occupied ourselves in the morning at Grams' house by playing with her bracelets. ;)

Unfortunately, chapel was during naptime but Hailey took a little catnap on the way to the church and Reece did to! When we got there, we met up with Julie and went to get Mack from his daycare class. These two love each other! They held hands all the way to the sanctuary.

Tucker joined us on the front row when his class came in and then the big three ate fruit snacks while we waited for it to begin. Reece was just content to look around at all the people.

Grams called them up on stage at the very beginning. Reece was oblivious, Tucker and Mack were kind of in awe and Hailey...oh Hailey, just watch her face in these pictures
Calmly watching Grams introduce Reece,

 then Mack. Now realizing everyone is looking at me

 Now Grams is talking about her. See her cute grin?!

 And the wave...what a crowd pleaser

Well then, Grams asked her to say her Bible verse...I wish I could upload the video but this will have to do. Sweet Hailey got so excited she pulled up her dress (she had on bloomers, don't worry) and got quite the laugh/gasp from the audience. She said her Bible verse so well, but I don't think anyone heard because they were laughing :(

Oh well, we tried. Hailey was quite in her element on stage and I think she was a little sad to have to get down. One day baby girl.
Mack said a Bible verse too.

We watched Tucker's class sing a song then decided it was time to leave. We were heading to Mimi's house!

We spent Friday afternoon, night and Saturday morning with Mimi and Poppi. Rebecca came over and so did Paw Paw. It is such a blessing that we have two families that love us and our kids so well. I know it is a rarity these days, but I feel as much at home at the Epleys house as I do my own parents and for that I am so grateful.
Poppi brought Hailey some goodies home from work. These silly glasses were a hit

And Reece really enjoyed Bobo (Beau) this time.

We are lucky Beau is so clam with the kids!

Saturday afternoon we headed back to Raleigh to see Daddy and get ready for the busy week ahead! But we are lucky! Mimi and Poppi are coming here next weekend!

Our Visit to the Fire Station

Last week our neighbor set up a tour of the local fire station for us! A new one recently opened just a few minutes down the street from our neighborhood so our "cul-de-sac" crew loaded up for a fun visit.

The firefighters were SO nice and welcoming to us and the kids. A few of them even came out to our cards to help us herd all of the little ones inside!

First all of the kids got to look in the fire trucks. They got to climb inside and look around as well as sit and "drive" it. Of course Hailey had to bring Marshall the fire dog from Paw Patrol. ;) Her first question to the fire fighters was if they had a "dalmatian" too. Ha!

Then one of the fire fighters dressed up in the fire gear to show the kids what it looked like, as well as tell them if they were ever in a fire not to be afraid of someone dressed like that. I was kind of surprised but Hailey wasn't at all nervous as she watched him add more and more gear and even the mask didn't bother her. She even gave him a high five!

Then we went inside too look around the station. They showed us their kitchen, where they relax and watch TV, their bunk room and their weight room. We even visited the fire chief in his office and Hailey took a turn in his chair.

there were also two babies with us!

After checking everything out, they gave the kids fire hats, coloring books and stickers. The kids loved it! We had such a great time visiting our firefighters!

First Day of Preschool

Prepare yourself for picture overload. Thursday, September 3rd was Hailey's first day of preschool. She is going two days a week this year.

She was excited to go! All morning she couldn't wait to get dressed and get her lunchbox. She did ask if she could take Hippie (her lovey) with her. I told her that she could take it, but it needed to stay in her bag. If she felt sad then she could give him a quick hug.
Can you tell she was excited?!

By the time we got to school she was kind of done with pictures but we had to get a few more.

She walked in the door and didn't look back. We had to get her attention to tell her goodbye!

When we picked Hailey up after lunch, she was talking a mile a minute. She wanted to tell us all about her day and her new friends. My favorite was "Carton" (carson). She was excited that he had a Paw Patrol lunchbox and water bottle. I met Carson's mom the next week and she said that he talked about Hailey all weekend. ;)

She had a great first day and was excited to go back! I can't wait to see how she grows this year!

A Week of Firsts

The first week in September was a week of firsts for Hailey! She had her...

first dentist appointment.
Which she did awesome at! She sat so still in the chair and let them clean her teeth and the dentist examine them. I was impressed! Her favorite part was the "water gun" that they squirted in your mouth to rinse out the toothpaste with. ;)

That same week Hailey had "Meet the Teacher" day at her preschool. She got to go explore her classroom and meet her teachers for the year. She kept telling me she was "a teeny bit nervous" on the way there but she walked in like she owned the room and started chatting up her teachers about my little ponies and farm animals. She jumped right in and started playing pretend with the phone in the room calling "Lemon" from Strawberry Shortcake.

The next day (Thursday September 3) was her official first day of preschool! I'll do a whole post with tons more pics later but here is one...or two for you now.

And lastly in our week of firsts, Hailey's first time in "big church"! Earlier in the week Hailey asked if she could come with Ryan and I to the big service. We thought it would be a great way for her to see us worship and experience more of what corporate worship is about. Unfortunately Ryan was on a mission trip to Boston the weekend that she asked to go, but we still did it. Hailey did pretty well! She had a snack and colored for a while. She got antsy towards the end but did really well considering. As we were leaving to pick up Reece in the nursery she said, "Mommy, can I come to big church every week?"

My little girl is growing up too fast...