Tag, you're it!

We were tagged by our blogging friends (who are WAY better bloggers than we are) Nate & Jen (http://www.babyhardin.blogspot.com/). We are supposed to post the photos from the 5th post of our blog. At that time I was 16 weeks pregnant with Josiah! That was before we saw the ultrasound pictures, before we knew he was a boy...wow, it is crazy how time flies. The only picture we posted on our 5th posting was to document Josiah's size...he was then weighing in at about 3 oz. and measured only about 5 inches long! He is now about 20 lbs and 30 inches long!! Can you imagine growing 25 inches in less than 1.5 years?

To keep this going - Genevieve & Mick - tag, you're it!!

E*trade baby

"Hey girl, can I hit you back?"

Josiah loves playing with phones, especially his grandma's Crackberry.

Happy Halloween

Josiah was not very happy today when I took him to the Parents as Teachers playcenter to show off his tiger costume for their Halloween celebration.
Here he is saying "I am SO over this":He got hot in his costume, so I unzipped it for him - only to uncover that he really is a tiger!

His friend Andrew is a horse this year - he did not want to sit by the tiger.
This picture is solely for the purpose of showing off his tail.
Happy Halloween!

Fall fun

On October 12th we went with some friends to a cider mill/pumpkin patch/corn maze. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed some yummy apple cider and donuts!

Here's Josiah at the cider mill (he could care less about the pumpkins):

Here we are in the corn maze...

...and the pumpkin patch:Josiah & I went to visit my parents this past Sunday through Tuesday. It was good to see them and relax. Josiah got to hang out with his 2nd cousins - he was especially enamored with Addision:
We got to have lunch with my aunts and grandma one day - here's Josiah with my aunt Naomi:
Josiah now has 4 teeth - 2 on top & 2 on bottom. He is now eating Cheerios and of course loves them. He is also practicing walking (not quite on his own yet, but it won't be long!).

Sears pictures

Mischief

Josiah is 10 months old and is definitely developing a mind of his own! Things that used to be easy and even fun are now challenging...for example, bathtime is like a wrestling match that I really only win 50% of the time if I'm lucky. Getting him dressed is the same story - sometimes he crawls around the house half dressed while he tries to get away from me.

He has figured out how to open some of the cabinets in the kitchen. This one is his favorite, and he loves to pull everything out that he can reach and use whatever he finds as teething toys. He figured out that we store the paper bags in the small space between the oven and the refrigerator - so now he likes to pull those out as well. Of course I had to take a picture with him carrying around a Jack Stack bag! I see a large amount of smoked ribs in his future.
Here he is at Jason's cousin's wedding (congrats Rachel!) dancing the night away with his cousin Trent.
He was exhausted at the end of the night, but he had a blast! Here he is with a 'I-got-to-stay-up-past-my-bedtime' mischievious grin.

We are having fun trying to corral him - he keeps us on our toes!

Updates on his growth:

*Last week we went to the doctor, and found out that he is in the 25th percentile for his weight and the 90th for height.

*This week he got one of his top teeth!

*He can now say the 'Ma' sound. I like to pretend that he's calling me mommy (after all, he is a genius).

*He is getting a little more graceful at going from a standing position back to a seated position (he used to just fall).

That's all I can think of for now. Have a great weekend!

Aaaautumn

On Monday it is officially fall! Yay! The weather has been amazing, and that puts everyone in a good mood.

Since my last posting...

*We visited Jason's family for Labor Day and had some cute pictures made! I will share those once I get the soft copies because the Sears picture website sucks. It was really fun to see everyone, and Josiah had a blast.

*I turned 31. Yes, I am old, but I still had a fun birthday!

*Jason's dad made a quick trip up to help us re-do our driveway. It looks great!!! Then my parents came and painted our under-construction-pantry and installed a light in it. We are excited to be making progress on house projects, and very thankful for our parents!

Here are some additional cute pictures of Josiah. He is super active and curious and loves to explore everything. Here he is happily digging in his toy box.
This picture was taken right before we went on a walk on one of the cooler days we had. I just thought he looked cute!
This is how he sleeps. Always on his stomach with his butt in the air; sometimes with a foot between the crib bars, or his head mashed into a corner.

He picked up a runny nose at church - here he is blowing a snot bubble and drooling simultaneously. He is so talented!
Happy fall everyone!

Crawling

Josiah really took off with his crawling on Monday evening. Then on Wednesday he started pulling himself up to standing! I went to get him from his crib and he was standing up, holding onto the bars, and laughing at me. He has been trying to stand up on his own ever since. He really has no sense of fear, and has been pulling himself up on Jason or I, and then letting go!

Here he is kneeling in his crib. I tried to get him to stand up for the picture but he was too worried about getting out of his crib (a.k.a. not having to go down for a nap).
Sorry for the shaky-ness of this video, but here he is crawling to me and trying to pull himself up. He didn't quite get there in the video - I think he was too interested in the camera.

He will be walking before we know it!! Yikes!

Sicko

So I guess I'm past due for my once-a-month posting, but here's what we've been up to.

In the 2nd half of July I got to visit with some of my dearest friends who (or is it whom?) I don't get to see very often. Genevieve was here from San Francisco and it was so great to see her and pass on what very small bit of baby advice I have. Joyce was also here from Chicago and it was really fun to catch up with her. I also got to hang out (on separate occasions) with Amy, Angela, and Kristin - it was so great to see all of you guys!!

The first week in August we went with my side of the family to Branson for vacation. We had fun just hanging out at the pool (Josiah loved the pool) and playing Settlers and relaxing - and Jason, my brother & my dad got to do some fly fishing.

It was a good trip, but the day we left Branson Josiah started running a fever. We kept giving him Tylonel and Motrin, but that evening it got up to 102.5 and I was freaking out a little bit. We were with Jason's side of the family at that point, and Jason's mom helped bring Josiah's fever down (and calm me down) by giving him a lukewarm bath. Josiah's fever broke on Monday so I thought maybe he was getting better. Long story short, I took him to see a friend who is a nurse later that week (thanks Janna!), and she told me that he had an ear infection - despite the fact that he was sleeping ok, not running a fever, and not acting sick! He's been on antibiotics for about a week now, and is doing much better.

Last week my dad called Jason to see if he could get off for a last minute fly fishing trip (those 2 should not be allowed to talk to each other!). So we took a 1 day trip which counts as Jason's graduation present. I didn't have much fun because I was not feeling well, taking care of a sick baby who did not want to sleep, and I literally got around 30 bug bites on a 1/3 mile hike in the woods. But Jason caught a nice rainbow trout and had a fun time fishing, and we found out that he looks really cute in waders!
Also in the past couple of weeks, Jason got a new job! He starts this coming Thursday and he is very excited about the new opportunity/challenge. It is a well deserved promotion and I am super proud of him.

Other than having his 1st full blown cold, here are the other things Josiah has been up to:

*He now has 2 (very sharp) teeth (can you see them?)! I would advise keeping your fingers out of his mouth.
*He is eating baby food twice a day - I am attempting to make most of it. So far he loves sweet potatoes, avacado, brown rice cereal, and bananas; but he is not a fan of zucchini, papaya, or oatmeal.

*He started crawling this past week...just a couple of paces at a time, but he is making forward progress (before he could only go backwards)!

*He grabs everything close to him - you have to be careful when handling any liquids around him - he loves to knock them out of your hand and onto the floor. This happened last week with his antibiotic (it went everywhere and we had to get another prescription), and this morning with some hot coffee.

*He is 8.5 months old, almost 17 lbs, and about 28" tall. He looks about the same size as a lot of his 1+ year old friends!

See you next month when I have time to post again!

LOL

Fun family time

First the most exciting news - Jason is DONE with his MBA! I am super proud of him, and Josiah and I are enjoying spending more time with him. He just got his grade from his last class today, and found out that he will be graduating "with distinction" (meaning his grades over the past 2.5 years are an A average!). He worked really hard and we are glad it's over!

Two weeks ago we took Josiah to his first Royals game. Jason was very excited about it, while I was somewhat indifferent. :) Luckily our seats were in the shade and the weather was nice, so we all had a good time.
Here's Josiah happily showing off his new shoes!
Josiah is sitting up like a champ. He still falls over sometimes, but he is really getting the hang of it!
Last weekend we went to Colorado to visit friends (thanks Lazar & Tzvetanka!) and enjoy the great outdoors. Josiah was a trooper and didn't complain too much about all the new situations we put him in! While we were there, he perfected his rolling over skills. Jason got to see him roll over for the 1st time - and 2nd, and 3rd, etc. He has not rolled over since we've been home - prompting us to think we should move to Colorado!
Here's Josiah with his friend Alexander in a bike trailer. We thought it would be fun to go for a nice easy bike ride. Josiah disagreed. Maybe seven months is too soon to try something like this. Hopefully he won't be too traumatized!
While we were there, Josiah decided to start rock climbing. He is not yet walking or even crawling, but he was able to scale the north face of this rock.
Here he is looking for his next handhold. Notice how effortless he makes this look - he is a natural.
Other random news - while we were gone I finished knitting a baby blanket that I've been working on (off and on) for almost 3 years. I tried to calculate how much of that time was actually spent knitting, and I think it was approximately 25 hours, although that is a conservative estimate. When I told Jason that estimate, he wanted to know why I couldn't have finished it in a day. And then I punched him.

Have a great week everyone!

Awwwww

I just had to share these cute pics! We had them taken at JCPenney with Josiah's cousins on my side of the family. We are planning on getting some official 6 month pictures made next month when he is 6 months from his due date and able to sit up on his own a little bit better.
I weighed Josiah today, and he is getting close to 15 lbs! He is too long to fit on the baby scale, so he may actually be 15 lbs since his legs were partially hanging off the end of the scale.
Have a great week everyone! Jason has ONE more class left (tomorrow night), and then he is done with school!!! YAY!

Don't Blink

Josiah is growing up so fast! He is now over 6 months old (5 months old from his due date). Last night he had rice cereal for the first time. I think he liked it because he was really excited - kicking his legs, "talking", and trying to grab the bowl while we fed him.

Here's a picture from after he was done with his cereal:

Other stuff he's been doing lately...

*He has rolled over from his tummy to his back a couple of times in the past week, but is still not rolling consisently. Not that I'm complaining - I know that when he does become mobile, our lives will take on a whole new level of complexity!

*He has been figuring out that he can make different noises. When he gets excited he sometimes does this high-pitched scream that can shatter glass up to 1/2 mile away.

*He is able to sit up by himself for several seconds at a time before losing his balance & falling over.

Josiah now knows who Jason and I are, enough to get upset if we leave him. We left him with friends for the first time last week (thanks Ray & Kate!) so we could go out to eat to celebrate our 4th anniversary. Ray & Kate reported that he cried for about the first hour we were gone before settling down. We had fun going out without him, but it was weird!

In other news - Jason has TWO class periods left until he is done with his MBA!!!! We are super excited. After next Wednesday he will be able to come home after work every day of the week! That hasn't happened very often in the past 2.5 years.

Here are some cute pics of when we were with Jason's family last weekend. Happy Friday!