The Manley/Coleman Family

Reeve is a busy guy with a lot to do in his daily agenda. For example, we have to start our day practicing our standing up in the exersaucer . . .

. . . then there’s more standing up in the Pack and Play . . .

. . . a break for some lunch . . .

. . . followed by a good long nap.

Our photographer friend Steven Gross took some six month portraits.

http://www.stevenegross.com/reeve/

Take a look!

It’s time to retire the following three items: the swing, the Bumbo seat, and the activty mat. The activity mat no longer holds interest (and Rob and I will not miss the catchy tune it played ad nauseaum); the swing comes to a dead stop because Reeve is just too heavy; and the Bumbo, well, it said good through 14 months old. Pfffffttthhh. Reeve is so tall for his age, he can now stand rightup and flip himself out of it. So into retirement they go. Sayonara!

Daddy and Reeve play, while in the background, a cat fight occurs. All in a normal day here at Chez ManleyColeman:

We haven’t used the Moby Wrap for a few months due to the very cold weather. It’s just too hard to get Reeve suited up into his winter gear and then into the wrap. But since we had a very odd 70 degree weather day here today, we thought we’d take the wrap out  hibernation. Now Reeve is big enough to be facing out and looking around . . . great for a day like today! And this wrap feels way better on mommy’s back and shoulder’s than the Baby Bjorn carrier does. He happily spent a good hour in there total.

We’ve begun crawling . . .

. . . and eating cereal.

New games Reeve likes to play:

Blow on my tummy:

Watch the laundry spin:

These are just some cute pictures.

As ‘green’ people, we hate plastic. Reeve drinks out of glass bottles, plays with safe wood or natural rubber toys, and we just generally do our best to keep him away from potentially harmful products. We use safe non-toxic cleaning supplies, buy organic food, cloth diapers, etc.

Having said that, Reeve is no longer content to play on his activity mat. He wants action! His two favorite activities are standing up to bounce bounce bounce, and shoving things in his mouth. It was getting exhausting to constantly hold him up to accomplish these tasks. Plus we just needed a half hour here and there to get stuff done around the house, and putting him on the floor was proving to no longer be safe since he’s mastered rolling, scooting, and is starting to figure out crawling. Yikes! What to do?

Our part-time nanny had an exersaucer, and Reeve just loved it! He could stand, spin, grab, and eat things all at once in a contained environment. So we went to Craig’s List and got two . . . one for home and one for the office . . . and cleaned them up really well. We’re still not thrilled that he eats the plastic toys, but we ate plastic as kids and so far have survived. We had to resign ourselves that the benefits outweighed the risks on this one . . . it really is a huge help around the house. He can play happily while we brush our teeth, take showers, and make breakfast. So score one point for plastic toys. You win this round!