Time apart

     Andrew has now been in Reno a week and I miss him tons and I'm sure Reed does too, and he would say so if he could talk, I can't wait for the next three weeks to go by so we can be together again.  The great part is that when that happens we will be moving into our new house.  I wish I had pictures to put up, but sadly we saw so many houses that weekend we went to Reno we were unsure as to what house we were going to put an offer on, which means we took no pictures of any of them.  Also, there are currently tenants living in the house and they aren't happy about being forced to move out and have refused to let our realtor go in and take more pictures for us.  Either way we are super excited to go from living in 600 square feet to now having over 1600 sq ft.  One dilemma I have found living in a house with a yard is that Rio does not like to be outside in a yard and will jump any and all fences when he feels that he doesn't want to stay locked up anymore.  I don't know what we are going to do with this, but it's sure annoying to open the front door to go get the mail and have the dog greet you on the front porch.

     Reed is getting so big I can't believe how fast things are happening.  He now crawls regularly and is constantly on the move.  Either pulling himself up on your legs or furniture, usually to get to your food, or crawling across the room to get to the dog or cat.  I'm afraid that he might be walking in the next month and it scares me to have such a little guy walking around and getting into so much more.  After a rough adjustment moving to different places he is finally back to sleeping through the night, which has definitely been a blessing for me.  We are so blessed to have a boy with such a sweet disposition.  He is so great to tag along where ever I go and is usually very pleasant.  He has really come to enjoy the dog and my dad's cat.  He tries to crawl to them and pet them, only to have them immediately get up and move.  Sometimes he gets to them without them noticing and just giggles as he starts to stroke and pet, very hard, and them usually grab a fistful of fur.  At this point is when the cat turns around to try and bat at whatever is causing it discomfort and then runaway.  Reed also likes to play ball with Rio.  Rio will bring the ball to Reed and then he plays with it for awhile until Rio gets sick of waiting for him to throw it and then decides to take the toy back and play with it by himself.  That's when Reed laughs and waits to get the ball brought back to him, cause Rio suffers from constant short term memory loss, so after a couple of minutes wants someone to throw the ball again and drops it at Reed's feet.  It's really funny to watch.

First family bike ride

Today we decided it was time for a family bike ride, even if it was raining outside we were determined to go. We had to figure out how to put the bike attachment onto Andrew's bike and connect the trailer to the Chariot, but it went pretty quick and off we went.  Reed loved it, well I think he did because he was asleep for half of it. I sure do look forward to more of these rides in the future. 

Syndergaard family fun time

Well a few weeks ago we were able to get together up in Idaho Falls with all the Syndergaards.  We spent our time doing so many fun things but most of all just seeing everyone was so great.

Reed

Our new scooter!!

     So the past few weeks have been filled with lots of new adventures and good times.  I started a baby swim class with Reed and its been a lot of fun.  I thought that it's never to young to start loving the water and so even though the class said for 6 months and older I enrolled us anyways.  He has loved being in the water, even with it being a cool 82 degrees he hasn't cried about it.  We started off by learning how to get in the water with your infant and then the proper ways to carry your baby.  The teacher gave us toys to give to the babies, well everyone else is over the age of 1 so I can only really call Reed a baby, so they will associate good things with the water.  Reed liked the water from the first minute and loved sucking on his toy while floating in my arms.  The second day of class our teacher had us work on submersions, ya you heard me right.  Andrew was able to take his lunch break and come over to the pool and watch as I purposefully dunked our four and a half month old in the pool.  We thought for sure we would have a screaming baby once he surfaced, but he surprised us both with only frowny faces and a few cries.  He really is a great and happy baby that tolerates his mom even dunking him.  Andrew and I had a lot of fun watching the other parents dunk their kids and the different techniques they used.  You can tell a lot about how a person parents just by watching them in a baby swim class, you see those that are very cautious and nervous and even after the teacher says to work on submersions they say they can't and their child is too nervous( well actually the parent was too nervous in this case) and then there were the parents who jumped right in and went under with their little ones to show them how it works.  We had a great time and I look forward to finishing the class next week and letting him get use to the water more.
     Reed and my daily chores consist of taking out the dog for regular bathroom breaks, watering and weeding the garden each morning and usually 30-60 mins of stroller time for Reed with me either jogging or roller bladding behind it.  He loves the Chariot and I am so grateful for this because we use it a lot and I'm hoping he will continue to love it when we pull him behind our bikes in the future. 
     Here is our latest venture, a 2002 Honda Metropolitan II.  We picked it up off of KSL and are so excited to get 115 mpg.  Andrew will be using it to drive to work and then we both will probably use it to run errands to the store or back and forth from our storage garage.  It currently tops out at less than 30 miles per hour, but I've been doing some research online and found out how we can get it to go faster with a few modifications.  I'm excited to work on it with my brother Damon and get it to go hopefully at least 40 miles per hour, that way were not going to be run off the road cause were going so slow. 
     Once my maternity leave ended at the end of April we decided I wouldn't go back to work at the ED, but would continue to work one weekend night a week with AirMed.  It's hard for me to leave, even if it is just one night a week, but it helps us save a little money and gives Andrew some good one on one time with Reed and that's just precious. 
     For Father's day Andrew went fishing and took little Reed with him, it didn't matter that Reed slept for most of the fishing trip the point is that he's under 5 months and has already been fishing twice.  Andrew likes getting him started young and is hoping to help Reed love fishing, because his mom really isn't that fond of it. 

Life as we now know it...well, as I think I know it!

 
  First things first, I love being a mom and having Andrew as my husband only makes motherhood that much sweeter.  He is the best dad and I must admit I feel like he is enjoying babyhood a lot more than me.  Don't get me wrong I love Reed with all my heart and he makes everything I do so much sweeter, but what I love even more is looking at him and then day-dreaming about the little boy he will become and all of the camping trips we will take together, the bike rides we'll go on and how I'll teach him to play soccer as soon as he can walk, maybe sooner.  I love imagining our family trips and wondering if Reed will take after me and be a chatter box,

 or will he be like his dad, a little more reserved and quiet as a kid?

 Who knows, only time will tell.

     As awesome as these last few months have been I still find myself wondering how different things would be if my own mother was here to help me along this journey.  Sometimes I find myself having conversations with her about Reed and motherhood.  I wonder how much she is around and if she is watching me as often as I'm thinking about her and wishing she could be here with me. It is at these times that I think back to the talk I gave at her memorial service when I said, "Mut loved us, that is for sure, but what she wanted us to know even more was how much the Savior loved us and always had," because now is the time when I feel my mothers love through my Savior. While she was here she taught me to love Him and His teachings so much more and now that she is gone it is these teachings that bring me back to her.  I still have days where I wish she could see me as a mother and I imagine the conversations we would have; I would complain about something not going right in my life and then she would begin to tell me about this story she just read about a woman who had no legs and only one arm and was raising two girls by herself and then I would immediately feel dumb and guilty and would stop my whining.

     These past few months with Reed have been so glorious and wonderful that it's hard to put into words the feelings of my heart and how happy we really are.  Maybe it's because I waited so long to get here or that my spirit was always in such a hurry to move forward, but I feel like I was always supposed to be a wife and mother.  I love having conversations with Andrew about our family and the other children we want to have and things we want to accomplish together.  I love that I found someone who loves and respects everything about womanhood, motherhood and my individual characteristics Since the day we started dating Andrew has always treated me so well and that has been one of the greatest things I love and cherish about him.  So, to him I say, come home already and let's watch some episodes of The Office and Modern Family, and to everyone else I say thanks for reading and we will have many more blogs to come, with lots of pics and funny stories.
   

     P.S- This isn't a post unless we mention Rio. So.... I love our dog... but I hate stepping on one of his bones in the middle of the night when I have to get up to feed Reed and the first word out of my mouth are always, 'piss that hurts.' I feel instantly bad because my mom hated that word due to the fact that  it was so un-ladylike.  Oh well, I still love the fur ball.