So you think you can dance

Dear Santa,

My name is Trent, and I am eleven months old. I really liked you when I met you a couple of weeks ago. {You should feel special, because I don't go to just anyone.}

This year, for my first Christmas, I would like to feel good. You see Santa, I have a pretty bad cold. Two nights ago I only slept for a few hours. {And I remembered why I started sleeping through the night. Mommy and Daddy aren't fun in the middle of the night.} Last night I slept all night, but I still feel pretty puny. I've already had four ear infections, so another one will probably mean tubes in my ears.

I want to feel good this Christmas, so I can play with my cousins. You don't even have to bring me presents, Santa.

Mommy gave me the best present of all this morning. It was sitting on top of my toy basket when I woke up from my nap. I was so excited!! I've been wanting one of these for a long time! Mommy and Daddy don't even say, "No touch" when I touch this one!

It's my very own remote! I take it everywhere I go, and I even tried to eat it. {It's weird that it doesn't change the channels when I push the buttons like the other one did, but I'll keep working on it.}

So if you'll just make sure I'm well for Christmas, I will be a happy boy.

And if you really want to bring me something, you can bring me a real phone.

Thanks Santa!

Love,

Trent

Hanging around the house

Since it's been raining so much lately, we have spent a good bit of time inside. Here are some of Trent's favorite things to do indoors...

Clap: He loves to clap blocks, toys, etc. He refuses to clap his hands. Our guess is because hands don't make as much noise.

Open and close cabinets: He will do this for a long time, and sometimes I let him {supervised, or course.}

Books: He loves books right now. He especially likes turning the pages, regardless of whether or not you are finished reading them:)

Cruising: He loves to cruise the couches, pull off the pillows, and take breaks to "drum" on the couch.

Crawl: He crawls all the way down the hall {and we have a long hall.} He greeted daddy tonight, laughing, crawling, and squealing.

Teethe: He may only have 3 teeth right now, but we can see a few more. We expect 2-3 to break through soon.

Eat: Last, but certainly not least, we've been trying new foods. I don't like cheese {I know it's crazy, but I really don't like it!}, but it's Mike's favorite food. It looks like Trent will like it too.

I hope you enjoyed this super exciting post, ha!

One of my better ideas...

I decided to let a professional handle our Christmas card this year. Mari Wilkes did a great job with Trent's 3 months and 8 months pictures, so I signed up for one of her Holiday Mini Sessions. She snapped pictures for 15 minutes {yes, you read that correctly- it only took 15 minutes} and still managed to make it hard to decide which one to pick! She also designed the cards.

One of the many reasons I looked forward to Trent's arrival was my assumption that I'd never be in another Christmas card picture. Yipee!! Or not... Mike strongly believes that the whole family needs to be on the Christmas card. When he requested that we all cheese it up for this year's card, I requested that none of our family members be behind the camera. So, Mari was our compromise:) She made it so easy that this might become a Reed family tradition.

Here are some of my favorites...

Our cards are going out tomorrow, so I didn't post the picture we used on the cards. I've had the cards for two weeks, but I've been waiting on my Christmas return address labels. They still haven't arrived, {I guess I shouldn't be shocked, since I only paid $4 for them} so I gave up tonight and used my stamp.

We have received some of the cutest cards this year!! I love checking the mail around Christmas time. Even Mike looks at the cards when he gets home. Christmas cards really are a great tradition!

11 months

This morning Mike reminded me that today is December 11th, which is one month from January 11th... Trent's first birthday! We are just having a small family gathering for his big day, but I probably need to figure out the details {date, time, invitations, theme, cake, presents, etc.} I'm starting to feel like a bad mom for being so behind in planning. So I'll move on...

Our big boy has decided he no longer wants to be rocked at night. I wasn't ready for this one. He always seemed to enjoy the 5-10 minutes of rocking before bedtime, and it was one of my favorite parts of the day. I tried to tell him it was part of our routine, but he pushes off of me and looks at the crib, as if he's saying, "Just put me in there. I'll go to sleep."

He can also wave and say "hey" now. Unfortunately, when we wave and say "bye bye," he often says "da da." We'll keep working on that one:) We hear "ma ma" sometimes, but usually it's in a whiney voice. "Da da" is his favorite thing to say; we even heard it for a few minutes at 4:00 this morning {don't worry, this was totally random, and he went back to sleep within minutes.} Last weekend I taught him to throw his arms up in the air when I say "touchdown!" He usually laughs when he does it, and I think it's pretty cute. Disclaimer: I'm 99.9% sure he will not do any of these things for you if you happen to see us, as I've learned that children like to make us parents look crazy when we ask them to perform on demand.

He's still not walking by himself, but he's cruising furniture pretty well. And he still only has 2.5 teeth! He has two on the bottom, and one has cut through on the top. He sure can put away some food for a boy without teeth.

Cruising with Mama D and Trevor

Random photo shoot last weekend

Now those are some chunky hands and fingers!

He was pitching a little fit, and I pulled out the camera. He didn't like it.

Santa

One of Trent's parents loved Santa as a baby, and one of Trent's parents hated Santa. Can you guess who loved him and who hated him?

Here's a hint...

Yes, I loved Santa! {Maybe I've always liked men with big eyebrows!}

Mike was not a fan of Santa as a baby. There is a hilarious picture of Mike and Jeffrey, his twin brother, sitting in Santa's lap with tear-stained faces. {Too bad the picture is in a frame in Opp.}

We predicted that Trent would be like his daddy and cry when he saw Santa. We took him Monday night {in the rain} and bought the cheapest package. We were shocked...

Our little man liked Santa. Mike thinks it was the facial hair; he likes facial hair. We decided since he did so well with Santa, we'd reward him with a train ride and a ride on the carousel.

A new smile and Thanksgiving

This is his new smile. Isn't it funny? He was all smiles this week, and I was one relieved proud mommy. {He was diagnosed with his 4th ear infection Tuesday afternoon, so I was a little skeptical.} Thanks to his favorite Praise Baby DVD, this CD, and cheerios, the drive to Opp Wednesday was uneventful.

He had lots of fun with Mimi, Papa, and the rest of the Reed clan- especially cousin Hannah:) Mimi cooked an awesome Thanksgiving dinner, and Papa is probably sore from lifting our 26 pounds of love.

Mike and I went to the Iron Bowl, and Mama D and Daddy G kept Trent. Tracy tried to get a good picture of the boys, but it didn't work out very well. Here's one of my personal favorites...

Daddy G tried to help the situation. He was not successful...

Mama D stepped in, but she couldn't handle Trenter either... {Please tell me this happens during your photo sessions!}

However, these guys came over yesterday and did a great job...

We had a great Thanksgiving! Thank you God for our many blessings!

We are praying for another blessing this week. Mike has scans Tuesday, and we will find out if his new treatment is working. He looks and feels great, so we're hoping for good news. You can visit his site for more details.