A Picture Update

I know it has been forever since I have blogged, let alone blogged pictures. Tonight I am feeling better (recovering from the flu) and I finally have the mental energy to do this. Work has drained everything I have to give for the past 6 weeks. So we are all glad in this house that I am adjusting to full time employment and to the day to day challenges that I deal with at work. I can now say that I am starting to enjoy what I am doing. Which is saying alot since only a couple of weeks ago, I was crying every night!

Anyway, enough about me:) Josiah is doing awsome! He is becoming more and more fun the older he gets. He is also becoming more and more busy the older he gets, but we are also adjusting to this new found energy! His favorite things right now are:

1. Cruising the table for food


2. Doing a crazy funky dance while he walks. I think you have to see it to understand this, but he sticks his chest out then pulls it back while shaking his head...very funny.


3. He can do all the motions to "If You're Happy and You Know it Clap your Hands" He learned this at day care!! I love singing it for him just to see him clap and stomp his feet.


4. Climbing on everything as you will see in the pictures below.


5. Eating with a spoon. He is even starting to load the food onto his fork by himself.


6. Responding to remarks such as: Where do you go to take a bath--> he stops whatever he's doing, walks to the bathroom door and bangs on it. Are you hungry --> heads right for his high chair.


7. No matter what song is playing...as soon as MICKEY MOUSE comes on he starts marching with a big smile on his face. His idea of marching is stomping one foot or if he is moving forward he lifts his right foot way up in the air. Ever since we started listening to the Disney CD he has perked up and started kicking his feet in the high chair whenever that song comes on. It can't be coincidence that the theme in his bedroom is Mickey Mouse:)


8. He now has 12 teeth. The 12th tooth (a one year molar) is still giving him trouble pushing through. He got 3 of the 4 molars at the same time. I guess that's the way to go!!


9. Weight: 26 1/2 lbs


10. Height: 31 inches.

A MUCH OVERDUE UPDATE OF PICTURES

Spending some good ole fashion quality time together.
Something we all cherish greatly these days.

Eating a big boy meal. Mac n' Cheese and a Sloppy Joe!

Both of these pictures are examples of him cruising for food. The 1st one shows him cruising the table. And more recently he has figured out that he drops alot of food and he is now cruising his high chair for food. As if we never feed the kid!!

Daddy's boy! The first picture is of Josiah driving daddy's remote control car. Notice how he is holding it correctly. He just picked it after studying Dan and could do it. The next one is of course Josiah measuring things:)

These two pictures are of Josiah in serious play. The 1st one is something that he loves doing. Those are tile spacers in that little container and he will spend minutes taking them out and putting them back in. The other picture is of him trying to decide which movie to watch:)

These 3 pictures are all good examples of either mischief or exploration, depending on how you look at it:) The 1st is obviously him climbing, something he loves to perfect right now. The 2nd is of him climbing in the cupboard. What you can't see is all the stuff that he is throwing out of the cupboard. And the 3rd picture is of him in the bathtub. I was in another room and came to find him, only to find him in the tub. He had climbed in. The night before he had dragged the bath towel into the tub and now he was completely soaked playing in it! Guess I have learned to take care of messes as they happen!

Loving his little couch in only a diaper and mismatched socks! He now has snack time before bed and we put a Baby Einstein in or something like that. He loves it.

To tired to snack! He was so tuckered out that night...that I just had to get a picture.

Just being cute! The first one he is clapping his hands while I sing "If you're Happy and you Know it". The second one is of all of his pacifiers. Always one in the mouth and one in each hand with a few to spare around the edge of the crib. But that is the only time he gets his pacifiers. That is unless he sneaks into his bedroom and steals them out of his crib, which he has been known to do on occassion.

Had to get a picture of all the cute roles and the one of him sticking his gut out is just priceless! What a little man:)

And Last but not Least: The Big Hair Cut!!

BEFORE

AFTER

He is enjoying a much deserved snack after a long tortorous hair cut. I had avoided cutting his hair for about 2 almost 3 months. I knew it was going to be tough. But we had a plan. We put his high chair in the middle of the kitchen, filled the tray with water and lined the floor with towels. Well that worked for about 5 minutes. Then Dad had to come in to entertain. We put his music on, Dan was blowing bubbles, splashing in the water, making funny faces. We couldn't use clippers because his hair is sooo fine, so I had to cut it with scissors (the baby ones). So it was pretty tough to try and get it even. But after about 20 minutes...we had a whole new boy. He looks so different to me! I can hardly believe its the same kid.

Cute dog story!

I was telling Buster to "GET" because he was trying to steal food out of Josiah's hand. A minute later Josiah got right into Buster's face and said "Go, go, go" and he actually got Buster to move out of his way. Very cute! Probably had to be there! But this is just one more sign that he fully understands what we are saying and now is trying to mimic us more and more. Tickle, tickle is a cute mimic too. When we get to tickling him we always say "tickle, tickle, tickle" And now he will join us in ticka, ticka ticka. Again...too cute!

Posting from Work, Yay!!

I am so excited that bloglines and blogspot is not blocked by the firewall at work:) Yah! Althought I don't have much down time to add updates, I should be able to add tidbits here and there. However I am just borrowing someones password to get passed the firewall today. So I don't officially have access to the internet yesterday. This was just a little piece of heaven offered up to me today!

Work is very stressful. I am now working in a temp position at EDS full time on the GMOnline helpdesk for Windows XP. We have gone through 2 weeks of training, which if I have time later I will write about, but for now...just know that it was a really tough experience and the trainer was a real prick. Now that we are on the phones actually taking calls, things are a bit better until the trainer guys is the only around to answer calls. He makes you feel stupid whenever you ask him a question. I don't deal with that well...and I don't deal with hearing him talking down to everyone around me. But we have a great supervisor and the trainer guy is only on the floor answering questions 1 day a week:) Yay!! Today just happened to be the day. So I am a bit crabby about it!

It has been an extremely emotional roller coaster these past 4 weeks. Putting Josiah in day care full time, from the stand point that I am not with him very much any more. From the stand point of the day care provider, we could not be more blessed. Kim and Steve are wonderful and they love Josiah to pieces:) As do the rest of the kids at the day care. But still a huge jump from 3 days a week to full time. We are slowly adjusting to the new schedule and Dan is pitching in on alot! We have had lots of "discussions" over the past 4 weeks trying to get adjusted to everything. And we are slowly getting there...back to some sense of normalcy...but not quite there yet.

well the end of my day is almost here. I will have to post more at a later date. But just know that things are going along at a steady pace most days...and Josiah is growing and becoming more busy by the minute:)

Little Man in a Big Chair (Jan./2007)

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

4 months old

5 Months Old 6 Months Old

7 Months Old 8 months old

9 Months Old

And Finally Little Man in a Big Chair Returns with his

12 Months
(1 Year Old)

January 2nd, 2007

Haven't felt like blogging of late!

Sorry I haven't blogged in quite awhile. I started back to work full time last week and I have just not felt like blogging at all. So I am still on a little hiatus. Will be back some day soon I hope:) But just to tide you over...a couple of pictures of the little man.

Merry Christmas

Josiah becomes and Elf

If you thought I was cute as an elf, wait until you see this:)


http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=f6b52c95aa364665449633dG06122406

I Just Made a Total Elf of Myself

This is the funniest thing ever!! Thanks Mindy!! Check this out by clicking on the link below:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=6513de43c56c235b221e980G06122018

Prayers for a Potential Job

I was called today from a temp agency that I had applied with for a potential job at EDS. It would be from Jan. through March. The pay was very good and from everything I hear they are a great company to work for. So I am really hoping that it works out (that is if it is meant to be). I would love to find a place that I fit in and that I could start building a career. Not to say that a temp job would turn permanent, but who know's once you get in. The temp agency said that I testing excellently, so that shouldn't be a problem and with my experience I should be a shoe in for a temp. Lets cross our fingers!!

A Day Home with my Boy

It was a great day today! Josiah was in much better spirits. For some reason I always forget that he is affected by the shots he has to get for at least 5 days. He is fussy and winey the whole time. Only now his fussy and winey mean that it seems as though he was changing his little personality. But in actuality he is just older now and the way he show his crankiness is different. Granted he is definately becoming more independent like all the books say he will. But he isn't quite so vocal. He is still a momma's boy right now. All of the sudden he doesn't want me to leave the room. But I am pretty sure that this is a pretty universal thing with 1 year olds. I do love it when I come home and he is chanting "ma ma ma ma"

Prayers for a friend

A very close friend of mine went in for a routine prenatal check up. It was her 6 month check up. The pregnancy had been going along great, no complications at all. When they checked for the fetal heartbeat they couldn't find one, so they tried with an ultrasound and discovered that the baby had died. Absolutely heart renching. I still can't believe that this is happening to her and her husband. And prayers is all we can give at this time, so please keep her in your prayers over the next several months. From what I have read and heard...it will be a very long recovery back to any semblance of a normal life.

A New Phase

Josiah has entered a new phase, one that I am struggling with. Up to this point I have not been bothered that much by crying, early mornings, sleepless nights, 10 toys going at once, running from one thing to the next. But this one is starting to get to me...the one they call INDEPENDENCE!!

The fun thing about a 1 year old becoming independent is that they want to be left alone and do things on their own one second and then they want to cling to you the next. And you never know which one you're going to get. But the best part is the yelling and screaming. If he isn't getting what he wants or if something is going exactly his way he now yells, grunts and screams really loudly. Great fun to take him to restaraunts. Granted he is not always yelling and yes he is still the sweet little angel most of the time. And the yelling is even funny a lot of the time. But when it is a contest of wills (his against mine), that's when I struggle. For example; diaper changing. Let me explain. Today he had a poopy diaper and of course I needed to change it. Lately he has started to really fight me when I am changing his diaper (poopy or wet). But today was an exception. Not only did he fight me, but he rolled and kicked and screamed all the while, I had his legs in my hands and I was trying to wipe him. But no it doesn't stop there...the kid clenches his little butt cheeks so tightly together that I could barely wipe him. That little stinker. He was mad, I was mad. I did get him changed, but then he wouldn't let me put his pants on...so he went to bed without his pants on. I had had it!! 15 minutes later I had to go in and put pants on him and his socks back on because he wouldn't go to sleep without his pants on. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!! I was so relieved when all was silent and there was no more grunting and yelling at me!!

I think Josiah's terrible 2's have already begun!! He was such a sweet, quiet infant, but that I believe that period has ended and we have begun a new phase. One that I really am looking forward to...I will just need the patience that every mother prays for as their children begin to become independent.

Favorite Picture of the Month: November

I think this is my favorite picture to date! Isn't he just precious!!

Josiah's 1st 1st Birthday Party

The theme for this party, as you can see by the cake, was MICKEY MOUSE!! I had plates and napkins left over from the baby shower my friends from college through for me, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use them. The absolutely wonderful cake decorating was done by Julie's (Dan's mom) neighbor and the pastors wife. The did an incredible job. They used a picture I had printed out to decorate the big cake and the little one has the picture on top. They thought that would be best since the black frosting really stains bad. I was grateful not to have black stained all over Josiah at the end of the cake smashing:)

We invited everyone in church to join us for lunch. It worked out perfectly. At first we weren't sure we would have enough food, but as usual we had plenty for everyone plus leftovers!!

This was the first picture I had taken with my new hair do. Kelly did a wonderful job of coloring and cutting my hair while we were up in the UP. It took me a little bit to get used to and I had to brush off a negative comment right away, but now I love it:)

Josiah absolutely loved being sung to. When we started singing "Happy Birthday" to him and everyone was looking at him...he was just giddy:) Definately going to take more after his mom in that category than his shy dad:)

It didn't take him long to get right into the spirit of the 1st birthday cake!!!

Since we were at the church and there was no bath tub to throw him into, we had to improvise!! I think he had just as much fun taking a bath in the kitchen sink as he did getting messy and digging into the cake.

Brayden was the ever helpful best bud and helped Josiah open his presents:) I think they both had more fun with the paper than with the presents!!!

That is until we put him on his new Winnie the Pooh fire truck. He loved and still loves that car. It has buttons, music and within an hour he figured out how to get on and off it by himself. It has been the best gift thus far:)

Overall I think Josiah had a really fun time and we were glad that so many joined us for the festivities. He got many wonderful gifts and had a fun time getting all messy and eating cake:)