Halloween in New Orleans

We spent Halloween weekend in New Orleans this year. Sandy and Bob had a vacation week in downtown so we drove over and met them. We went to the Audubon Zoo, which was super exciting for me, since my grandparents used to take me there when I was young. Reese had a blast, he loved the animals, especially the petting zoo (picture right). Randy and I also were able to hang out on Bourbon Street for a couple of nights. Our friend from college owns the bar the Blue Nile and showed us a wonderful time. In addition, my best friend from college, Megan Stanley was also going to be there so I met up with her and she was able to meet Reese.

Below are a few more pictures of our weekend.

Reese posing with the seals
Reese with Granny and Papa Adams at the Zoo
Megan and I saying our good-byes.

One of the most exciting things we did was trick-or-treating at relatives homes. My grandparents and my aunt opened their doors for one cute dragon this year. I think he received more candy from those two houses than if we would have knocked on 50 doors. My mom, who was also in town, in New Orleans was there to greet Reese not just at one of the homes but she actually left and went to the other house to open the door again.

Saints were on Monday Night Football so we watched the first quarter at my grandmas and Pan-pan, and my mom was there as well (picture right). Reese has become quite the Saints fan this year, who couldn't with that record! Then we headed over to the quarter with our friends Justin and Lynn to watch the rest of the Saints vs. Falcons game. It was exciting to be in the action of everything and cheering on the Saints with other fans. We then headed over to Harrah's to play slots, a favorite pastime of mine and Randy's, which we haven't been able to do in quite some time.

October in Review

As previously mentioned in my September in Review post, I am doing a quick recap on the three months that I was not blogging.

Here is what the Lillard's were up to for the month of October

Oh my goodness. In the beginning of October, Randy and I had to question whether our child was part monkey. He was climbing in and out of everything. One Saturday during Reese's morning nap I heard a thud and then a small whimper. I turned on the video monitor in his room and couldn't see him in his bed. I run into his room and see him sitting on the floor playing with a toy. That following Monday, I walked out of the livingroom while Reese was playing, walked back in to see that my child had managed to climb onto the recliner and onto the tv tray nearby. He was standing all the way up and was more than pleased with himself. Within a few days of that I walk into the kitchen to see Reese up on the dinner table grabbing a pacifier. He had used his truck to climb onto the chair and then onto the table.

Also in the beginning of the October, we spent one Sunday morning tailgating for the Texans game. It was a blast to see the little ones (Reese, Chase, Markus, and Samantha) playing together. They had constructed a play room right in the back of the Clem's SUV. The kids loved it and had plenty of toys to keep them busy. The kids were also able to sit on one of the police horses and kept wanting to go back to see the horse from then on. The pouring rain made it a miserable day, but everyone had a wonderful time anyway.

Towards the end of October, I began back to work. Currently, I work 24 hours a week and depending on the work load, I have the option to work more. Reese began daycare and seems to like it. Within the first two weeks of him being there, I received three phone calls to let me know that Reese had hurt himself. All very minor accidents but it is standard procedure to call with every scratch. His teachers tell me he is very active, loves to play outside and in general is very sweet. He loves outside time and they all laugh at him when he goes down the slide because he sits down way before he gets to the slide and begins to scoot on his bottom on the flat platform before he even reaches the slide.

At the end of October, Randy had the oppurtunity to go see a launch at Kennedy Space Center. He went to see the Ares 1-x launch, it was a test launch for the Ares 1 booster. He left here on a Sunday afternoon with our friend Brandon and drove to the cape, arriving there Monday around lunch time. The launch was scrubbed on Tuesday and launched on Wednesday morning. Two additional friends of Randy's, Jeremy and Alan, flew in and hitched a ride back. They all drove back Wednesday and arrived home Thursday morning early. Only to have to turn around to drive back to New Orleans with us for a vacation (more details about New Orleans in following blog) For a more detailed story visit our friend Brandon's blog with amazing pictures.

September in Review

This fall has been incredibly busy for us so I failed on updating my followers for September, October, and November. I decided to do a quick recap on each month (looking back) and then will hopefully get back on track of updating the blog.

Here is September.

September was spent coming to reality that we had a 1 year old. Time just blew right by us.

On September 20, the Lillard family all set out to go to Galveston Beach one last time before the weather was too cold. We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, a new favorite of the Lillard Family. Reese loves watching the animals move, make noise, and the simulated thunderstorms. We then headed down to the beach. Reese sat and played in the sand for about a millisecond and then wanted to climb the huge chunks of concrete against the seawall. In order to distract him, I grabbed Reese and brought him in the ocean with me. The water was warm but Reese has a one track mind and was whining because he only wanted to climb the concrete with the sharp edges and rhebar sticking out. Being the buzz kill mom that I am, I realized he wasn't going to stop climbing the rocks and we left and headed home.

At the end of September, our Texas Family all met up for the last home game of the season for the Astros. The Wellners, Sostarics, Clems, Ignacio, Medinas, and Brandon all went to root for the Astros as they ended a less than mediocre season. Well.... almost everyone rooted for the 'stros, the Clems rooted for the Reds. We had previously gone to a game in July with the munchkin, so I was prepared for how Reese would act and brought everything to keep him entertained. He mainly played with the seat and the gum stuck on the floor. It was not a crowded game and Reese was able to walk back and forth between our friends.

Over the last weekend in September, Reese and I joined Randy on his business trip to Austin. Although Randy was going to be tied up for work most of the time, I figured Reese and I could find plenty to do to stay busy. We met up with Shelley one evening for dinner, went to the Austin Children's Museum, and went swimming in the hotel pool. Reese's absolute favorite thing of all was the glass elevator and the fish pond in the lobby. If we were going anywhere we had to leave 10 minutes ahead of time so he could go and stare at the koi fish. He also loved the mini-fridge that was on his level and went and grabbed his juice anytime he pleased (picture right). Randy was able to go to dinner with us one evening, where we decided to go ahead and let Reese feed himself his very own ice cream cone. He ate the entire thing, and only managed to get a little on his face :) (picture below)

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Austin.

Reese in the glass elevator, looking down on the fish pond.

Reese overlooking the fish pond, he actually would try and climb up on the wall to get in.

Reese found a best friend right in our hotel room. He ran over to his new "friend" and played with him quite a bit in Austin. He probably thought it was so cool that his parents brought along a playmate for him.

Reese Stats!

I already blogged about what we did on his birthday but I failed to mention what all Reese can do:

First, we took him to the doctor where he was given 4 shots!! Poor Baby, he cried the most at this visit, but then again, he was never given 4 shots at once before. He had this pitiful face on him of "why are they doing this to me, oh not again, and again". He is heading up the percentile charts again. At his 9 month checkup he was in the 25th percentile for both weight and height. He weighs 22 pounds (35%) and is 29.5 inches long (45%).

Reese walks all over the place now! He is into everything. He occasionally lets his feet get to far ahead of his torso and falls down. He can carry a full size golf club among other things as he walks. He doesn't really mind if he falls down, just pulls back up and off he goes again.

He is basically eating all table foods on his own, with the exception of really runny foods such as oatmeal, soups, refried beans etc... He loves to use a fork to stab his food, although, he usually ends up with too much food on his fork to put in his mouth. He favors his right hand to eat with, throw items, and carry stuff with. Randy is left-handed and there are a few left-handed family members on both sides. It will be fun to see if he is a lefty or a righty.

He says a few words. His absolute favorite word is "doggie". He says it all the time and loves to play with his dogs at home. They are less than happy about this, especially Lexi. It keeps him busy chasing them around. He will repeat a word if we say it to him a few times but then will never say it again. We were teasing Lexi and calling her fat dog and Reese repeated just as clear as can be "fat doggie". Oops, I guess it is time to start putting on our filters as well :)

I have been working with Reese since he was 6 or so months old to learn how to clap. As early as he was waving bye-bye, I was also clapping all the time. I mean all the time, my hands are permanently red from clapping so much. Within the last month or so, I went into double time to teach him because I thought it would be so cute at his party when everyone clapped he would clap along. This week, 3 days after his party, he put his two little hands together and began to clap. Now, he loves to clap and does it all the time.

Here are the some of our favorites from his 1 year portraits. If some of these look blurry, its because the majority of the pictures were of him standing up and running for the camera. Pictures of him looking at the camera were few and far between!

Reese's Beach Bash

We officially celebrated our little man's 1st birthday by having a private beach party at "Lillard Beach". We had bought a large blow up pool a few months prior to his birthday, added in a kiddie pool or two, a little sand and BAM! our own private beach in our backyard. Most of our Texas Family were able to make it here. In addition, my parents, my sister, my niece, my god mother, my cousin, and my mother in law were all able to travel here for the party as well. A special thanks to everyone, I couldn't have done it without the help! Everyone helped bake, cook, and decorate. Arianna made signs welcoming everyone to the beach (picture above) and warning the guests of "high tides, shark sightings, and no diving in shallow water".

Reese had a blast walking in the garage - out of the garage, playing in the sand, splashing in the pool, and all the attention. I am so excited about how many friends Reese has that are so close to his age. We have a few more first birthday's to celebrate within the next few weeks, Chase, Markus, and Samantha. It is going to be so much fun watching all of them grow up together. Here is a picture of the four of them playing in the pool "together".

We had water balloon toss, the kids had a blast splashing in the pool, the adults had a good time splashing in the pool and then the moment everyone waits for on a first birthday, the eating of the official first birthday cake. My son doesn't let sweets go to waste. He ate way more cake than I had wanted. His cake was large for a one-year old but I had a mold of the number 1 and had to work with that. At one point, I had to stop him from eating anymore. Randy would have let him eat the entire thing if Nick and I had not intervened and allowed Nick to finish the cake. A big thanks to Nick for taking one for the team. Below is a video of Reese tearing into his cake.

We opened presents afterwards and it is now confirmed that Reese is spoiled. He received so many new things and even a few days later still enjoys playing with all of them. I was completely touched by how many people helped us in the celebration of Reese turning 1. It makes you realize that nothing else in the world matters but friends, family, and according to Reese, CAKE!!!