My favorite family picture of 2009.

Avery Is POTTY TRAINED (Well Sort-of)

We did it!! I vowed to embark on this adventure by Thanksgiving and though I waited until the weekend before, at least I can say I stuck to my goal! Granny M took Quinn for 24 hours while Avery and I locked ourselves indoors with lots of thirst-creating foods and every kind of fun kid-drink on the market. Avery ran around half naked while we made pictures with glitter, colors, paints, chalk, made play-dough, watched her favorite shows and all kinds of fun stuff to entertain ourselves as we waited for potty opportunities. After a few no-so-fun-for-mom accidents, we figured it out and had almost total success for the next few days. A week and a half later, we are still going strong, but still in diapers for naps and nighttime. In short, it was a lot harder than I expected and I'm still left wondering how people profess to do "potty training in a day". They are be either lying/exaggerating or they are a lot smarter than I am because it took us about 3 days and we are still "training". And how much longer will I be living on this limited 2-minute margin for error? It makes shopping and car trips rather challenging.

She did it!!

Snacking in the basket

Marshmellows are the perfect reward

Full Moon

New York, Our Last Trip Before the Baby

This is it. My last little get-a-way before I'm a beached pregnant whale. We headed up to New York with Roberto and Debra to see the opening of a little off-broadway play called Made In Heaven. It was just the perfect short get-a-way I needed. We ate, hung out with friends, made merry and spent a day in pampered oblivion at FACE and Fakkai on 5th Ave. I can't say exactly why, but it was the best trip I've ever taken to the City! Maybe it was the fun time with friends with out a kid curfew or that it was a nice escape with Bill after his brutal 6 weeks of trial and travel. For sure, having my husband all to myself for 2 full days was the biggest highlight. I didn't even do any shopping and it was still the best!

Halloween 2009

The Washmons and The Reids were the Bedrock crew for Halloween this year. Surely that was obvious from the picture. I wish I had more pictures of all the cute costumes from the party, but I was glad to just have these two. It was a hectic day and I left my camera.

Poor Quinn is going to really hate me when he's older for making him a purple dinosaur. But I had no choice. We needed a Dino to complete the family. Too bad you can't see the cute spots and tail on his back. He was a hoot to watch in his costume. The funniest was that when Avery first saw him in costume, she kept tackling him and hugging him like he was one of her stuffed animals. She's such a nut.

And forget Quinn, can we talk about that hideous wig I'm wearing?!? I think I'll use it again next year and go as Lucille Ball.

Fall Pictures

The Pumkin Patch

Hay ride at Sweet Berry Farms

My Little Man is Getting So Big!

Look at that grin! I just downloaded this pic from my camera to my computer today and I couldn't believe this is my baby boy! Who is this kid? He looks so grown up.

The red car -- Avery's red car -- has recently led to many baby brawls, because Quinn loves riding/sitting in it while making car sounds. Avery doesn't like that because "That's Avery's, Mommy. No Quinn can ride it." Thankfully Aunt Wendy et. al. got Quinn his own green one for his birthday. I've been keeping it in the house because he wants to sit in it all day long tinkering with buttons, honking the horn, rolling the wheels, etc. I have to admit, this boy stuff is more fun than I thought. I love it.

It's another GIRL for the Reids!!!!

I can't believe it's really a girl! I was so sure it was a boy that when the sonogram nurse said "it's a girl", I screamed!! I'm so excited!! I can't help but think this is the perfect mix for our family. My sweet little Quinn will stay my special little man and Avery will get to have a sister.

Hairs to a New Me...

Shocked Bill on my 34th b-day with a new darker do. Don't ask what got into me, but I was itching for a little change, so here it is. I've been blond all my life and was always curious about going to the darker side, so I figured why not. Perhaps it might make me look a little more like my kids. :-) Feedback has been mixed lots of people love it and plenty of people beg me to go back to blond.

Update!

It's been 8 months since my last post! Ugh! Where does all my time go?? I told myself I had to post at least something today to kick start my blog again. So here it is. An updated picture of the clan. We took this at the lake house last month and it's my favorite. My sweet husband and his clones!

Updates: Quinn is standing and almost walking and flirts with every girl he sees. Avery talks up a storm and thinks she rules the world. I've gone from blond to brunette in hopes of looking more like the rest of my family. And Bill, well, he's busy as ever and traveling like a mad man on a bunch of new cases.

We took the family and my sister's girls to NYC the week before last and we're headed to Cape Cod to see Bill's mom next week. Babies and airplanes...wow, a whole new frontier!

More to come hopefully soon.

The Great Debate

Trying to identify any physical resemblance of Misty in either of the two kiddos has become a very common debate in the Reid house. Primarily because I've told Bill that a 3rd baby is out of the question because it's just going to be another spitting image of him. Don't get me wrong, like all mothers, I sincerely believe my kids are the most beautiful creatures on the planet!! It's just that my dream of having a little girl (or boy) who looks like me is never going to happen with my husband's dominating Sicilian genetics! I've recently come to terms with this reality, but Bill is still hoping that he hasn't lost his chances of having a family of 5. Every day he tries to convince me: "Look Quinn's eyes are going to be blue like yours, I think Quinn is looking more and more like you every day."

Meanwhile, everyone who is around my daughter has the same reaction: "my gosh she looks just like her father!!!" So, to put the case to rest I thought I'd compare Quinn at 3 months to Avery at his same age. If we all accept the base fact that Avery looks just like Bill, it should only stand to reason that if Avery and Quinn look alike, Quinn must look just like Bill also. ( Didn't we do something like this in geometry to prove the measurements of an isosceles triangle?).

So here goes. You be the judge. Is there any reason to continue the debate......

Quinn (above)
Avery (below)

Quinn at 3 Months

Quinn is almost 3 months. Finally, he slept for 8 hours last night and I'm hoping this is a reoccurring trend. Of course Avery made up for him by waking up twice asking for "mommy". (Still can't figure out why daddy is her favorite during the day but it's only mommy at night!?!?) Anyway, Quinn is getting really cute and cuddly (i.e. he's a chunker). He's starting to coo and smile a lot. Now that he can hold his head up, he loves investigating and smiling at the world around him. I'm pleased to say that so far, he's a very good, mellow baby -- a trait which certainly isn't from his father. :-)

Chillin' with mom

Squeaky (the dog) has yet again been demoted, but she's still

hanging on to her post by endearing herself to the competition.

My Little Angels

So sweet you could just eat them up!!!

The swimsuit and hula skirt

Avery received a special package from Hawaii yesterday. It was from our friends Pam and Don who are vacationing there for several months. As you can see, we didn't have to wait until summer time to use the hula skirt.

Thanks Aunt Pammy and Uncle Don!!!
(below is Avery with Aunt Pammy at the lake house in August)

Thanksgiving Miracle

It takes a miracle to get our families together to take a picture. But it's simply impossible to get everyone to look at the camera and smile at the same time!!! While it may not look like much to the passing observer, the picture below is the result of divine intervention! (Imagine: kids whining and arguing, babies crying, mothers and fathers yelling while 2 people are furiously snapping photos saying "smile"and "look over here" all the while chickens and dogs are periodically wandering by.) Next year we'll just go to a professional!!

In front of Ganny & Grandpa's Barn

Thanksgiving 2008

Halloween

Quinn at Home

Now that little Quinn is home, Avery has started warming up to him a bit more. She likes to point out his hands, toes, eyes and ears (shown below) and now wants to see absolutely everything going on at the changing table. The best was when Avery got to put stickers on her baby brother -- that was the turning point for her. Ever since, we'll find her racing down the hall to his room calling "ba-by, ba-by" and wants to see or touch him. A max of 2 minutes is her span of interest, then its on to a more interesting book or toy, but it's a great improvement from what we saw in the hospital!

Reid -- Party of 4!!

Well here he is!!! William T Reid V "Quinn" was born on October 9 -2008. He weighed in at 7 lbs and 14 oz. He's a little angel and I just can't stop kissing and loving on him!! When he was first born he was looked exactly like his big sis, Avery (which means exactly like dad), but now he's filling out looking a little more like mommy. We spent an extra 2 days in the hospital because of low temperatures and threats of jaundice, but we got home on Monday with a clean bill of health. I'm getting little sleep, but hanging in there overall thanks to the help of my mom and dad this week. Bill is taking good care of us and is ecstatic to have a WTR the fifth in the house.

The best pictures are of big sister's reaction to her brother the first couple of times they met in the hospital.

Thanks for all of the kind wishes and thoughts. We (i.e. Misty) are hoping to come up for air next week and return some calls and emails.

Morning of Quinn's arrival

First meeting - "take 1"

First meeting - "take 2"

Second meeting - yep, she's still crying

Quinn and Daddy

Quinn and Grandma Reid

Auntie Anne & Sean

Uncle Pete & Aunt Wendy

Grandpa

Cousin Kelsie

Cousin Baylie

Close up

Quinn's Room