Christmas Pics

This year, we spent Christmas in Brunswick (at my sister-in-law Janine's home). Because my parents live in Snellville and Jimmy's are in Boca Raton, FL, we switch off holidays each year. It works out well for everyone that way! Anyway, Christmas morning was so much fun. Cameryn really understood the excitement of presents/Santa this year and was a joy to watch. Reid was still too young to care about much of anything other than the wrapping paper, but that was o.k. too. I (of course) managed to leave my camera at home, so no pics from Christmas day. We did take video, but I haven't figured out how to transfer the video from our camcorder to my computer. The pics below are from "Christmas" with my parents, Chris, Tina and Owen. We actually celebrated and opened presents about two weeks into January, but that was just fine. We all had a wonderful time and as you can see by the pics, Reid REALLY enjoyed his new Tonka truck :-) Cameryn received a leotard, tutu and ballet slippers from Mimi and Grampy and was surprised to find out she was starting gymnastics too! Should be fun!

Halloween 2009

For the fourth year in a row, we spent Halloween over at my brother and sister-in-laws home. As many of you know, we are far and away the youngest family in our neighborhood; its a gorgeous place to live, but its not so great for trick-or-treating! Chris, Tina and Owen's neighborhood on the other hand is slam packed with young ones. Cameryn decided to be a Butterfly Princess (again). It was a bit too cold for Reid to go out, so he was designated as the door greeter with Mimi & Grampy :-) I did put his cousin's Yoda head piece on though - just for pictures! Enjoy...

Pictures

Just a sneak peek at some of the professional pics we had done of Cameryn & Reid this past weekend...they are so darned cute!

Reid is Walking!!!

Reid took his first two steps Friday night and it was no stopping him after that! He continued to toddle around all day Saturday and even surprised us by dribbling Cameryn's little pink soccer ball around. It's just amazing to us that he moved from crawling to full blown walking in two months...what a little overachiever :-)

Reid's Creative Side

Reid had a BLAST last week 'painting' at daycare! He and two other babies were present on this particular day and apparently he was the only one who jumped right on in. From these pics you can just imagine what he looks like after eating spaghetti for dinner :-)

I'm Back!

After a 4 week hiatus, I'm baaack! I know, you can hardly contain yourselves ;-) So, to catch you all up quickly, here is what has transpired with the Nardello's over the last month.

• Reid turned ONE July 10th!!! It was emotional in so many ways, but we are so proud that our baby boy is so healthy and happy! He weighs 18 1/2 pounds and has finally made it onto the full term baby growth chart for weight (5%) and head size (50%!). Still quite a bit shorter than the average 12 mo. old...I know, SHOCKING! He's also walking as long as he is holding onto something. We are making the transition from bottle to sippy cup and are also beginning to introduce whole milk! Such a big boy :-)
• We went to NY for a wedding and spent a nice long week with family. I certainly have learned however that vaca with two little ones is NOT very relaxing! A side note about this...on the way home we decided to fly standby...not the best idea. We called ahead and were assured that there were 15+ seats available on the noon flight, so we headed down two hours early and checked Reid's car seat (bad idea). Needless to say we did not get out on the noon flight and the next flight out was delayed until almost 4pm. Trying to entertain a 1 year old and a 3 year old for 5+ hours is not my idea of fun. Anyway, they had 2 seats available on the 4pm flight, so I decided I could channel my inner wonder woman and fly BY MYSELF with both kids. Really they were both very good on the plane (except Cameryn fell asleep and peed all over her seat cushion...nice.) and Jimmy made it to Atlanta on the next flight shortly after us. WHEW!
• This coming Saturday Jimmy and I are attending my 10 year high school reunion - I'm very excited to see some old friends!

A Precious Gift

For the better part of this difficult and emotional year I have felt a particular pain when I think about how the boys never spent time together in the 'outside world.' After my emergency c-section they were whisked away and put in separate incubators, Reid on C-PAP and Jameson on a ventilator. I can't tell you how many times I've wished that I could have just had ONE picture of the boys side by side. Unfortunately that has been an impossibility...until now.

My dear friend Aja has given me a such a precious gift. She is an incredibly talented artist and offered to draw a portrait of the boys together. I sent her what few pictures of Jameson I had along with a few pictures of Reid. This portrait came in the mail today. I am literally crying as I write this blog...tears of joy to finally have a picture of the boys together...tears of sadness for what I wish could have been and ultimately tears of gratitude for this amazing friend of mine. She has been such a huge part of my support system over the last year and words can never express my gratitude to her.

Aja, thank you so much - this picture will forever have a special place in our home and in our hearts.