Great Grandpa Jones has been kind enough to make several pieces of homemade wood furniture. This post is about the bookcases that he made (one for each of our boys). We have had Arden's for 4 years, but never stained or polyurethaned it until now. We got Reed's bookcase several weeks ago, but it never came into the house until it was finished. We forgot to take before photos of Reed's bookcase (the larger one), but it was the same difference as Arden's (the smaller one).
The wood is from trees that were on Great Grandpa Whipple's old farm. We will forever cherish the cherry furniture that was given to us from Great Grandpa Jones and our late Great Grandpa Whipple...thank you both for such wonderful gifts!
We chose to not use a stain at all, just a semi-gloss polyurethane that would allow the natural beauty of the wood show through.
Arden's bookcase before and after:
We have decided to use Arden's bookcase for some books and lots of toys:
Reed's bookcase (after):
Arden's bookcase was also temporarily used by daddy for a couple of days:
So many March Madness basketball games, so little time!
We have not traveled much with Reed yet, but we recently took a trip to PA to visit both of our families. This visit was the first time that anyone on my side of the family (other than my mom) met Reed. The trip included time on Gma and Gpa's farm, which was the first time Reed has ever been in a barn too.
Reed with Grandpa:
We had just walked into the barn...not sure if Reed was scared or just had bugged out eyes for no reason (he didn't cry so I doubt he was scared):
I think Arden looks like a real farmer in this photo:
We dressed Reed in the "snow suit" to keep him warm, but it also had the benefits of keeping him clean and holding in his pacifier:
It may have been Reed's first visit to the farm (and he looked very cute the whole time), but Arden overshadowed Reed as you can see in the video below. Warning, the video is 5 minutes long!
We were very nervous that Arden was going to fall with the pitch fork, but he never did (nor has he ever in previous visits either)....we still think that we might try to find a toy rake or pitch fork that would be safer for him to use in the future.
Arden has been going to the dentist every 6 months since he was a year old, but it wasn't until he was 3 that he started being a big boy and getting through the visit without needing mommy to hold him, etc. Now that he's comfortable at the dentist I took the chance to get some photos to show how brave he is and great of an example he is setting for Reed (we're sure that the tv has a part in his good behavior).
The pink stuff is to make sure the dentist thoroughly cleans every tooth:
He always gets a balloon, bouncy ball and other small toys for being a great patient:
Mommy and daddy have both run out of leave from work, so Reed has started attending daycare (aka school). We started referring to daycare as school once Arden started learning his alphabet and doing more than just playing during the day.
It will be challenging each morning when the boys are dropped off at school since Arden wants to be the special helper and go into the baby room. I guess we need to try to get out of the house even earlier to allow for the extra delays.
The teachers said that Reed had a great first day and he's a happy baby. We expect him to continue to have good days until the special "new baby" treatment ends. He was allowed to sleep in the swing a lot today and we suspect that he was held more than usual too. He only napped about 2 hours total (spread across 3 naps), so he was very tired tonight (so tired that he fell sound asleep during his bedtime bottle and needed mommy to wake him up to finish it).
We hope that Reed being at daycare will help Arden with improving his behavior since he knows that he has to set a good example for his little brother.
Reed in his car seat ready to go to school (we aren't sure why he looks scared, but it's a funny photo):
Arden being a proud big brother (Reed is in his car seat even though you can't see him):
Reed being held by Ms. Anna as mommy was leaving:
Reed has been interested in eating solid food for awhile, but we were waiting until the doctors approved of him starting. He is high risk for food allergies (family history of food allergies, environmental allergies and asthma), so they wanted to wait at least until 5 months of age. They also recommended getting him skin tested for food allergies.
His skin testing showed that he is allergic to eggs, just like his older brother used to be. So not only have we started over with bottles, diapers, etc. but also an egg allergy. We are hopeful that Reed will overcome his allergy in a few years like Arden did.
Reed is not officially allergic to any other foods that he was tested for (milk, corn, wheat, oat, apples, bananas). However, with his history of formula intolerances we suspect that he has a sensitivity to milk and/or corn....which is different than an allergy and can't be tested for.
We started Reed on oatmeal cereal and he is really enjoying it. He is still very messy due to his tongue pushing the food out, but he's starting to learn how to suck it in and push it back in his mouth sometimes already. We have figured out in the past couple of days that even though he likes his cereal he still prefers his bottle. We have to feed him cereal after his bottle or he won't take the cereal (screams for a bottle instead). Cereal also has to be within an hour after his bottle or he tries to refuse it and demand another bottle. Arden never seemed to care when we fed him solid food because he didn't like to drink his bottles.
Reed's transition to solids will continue to be a slow process since the doctors don't want us to rush into anything other than cereal for a few weeks.
Reed "yelling" at daddy to go faster, which isn't really possible when Reed is spitting so much of it back out:
Reed now also gets to sit in his highchair and play with toys while the rest of us are eating. I'm not sure why I didn't think to get out the highchair earlier so he could be part of the meal even before he was eating solids. As you can see from the video he still doesn't have a lot of hand/arm control, so he's quite dangerous with his toys.
