Fun in Pictures

I have posted a bunch of pictures of our everyday life.  Be warned…there are lots of them.

Have you noticed an increase in posts lately?  I thought that once Josiah turned one and the monthly prompts to post updates ended that I’d do less and less.  We splurged for our birthdays and got a laptop several weeks ago so that I could be more effective with budgeting, bill paying, my job search and such.  Our old laptop died over a year ago and replacing it just hasn’t been in the budget, but good sales and extra jobs made it possible.  It was making me miserable to spend each of Josiah’s naptimes, and therefore my only free time, sitting at our desktop in the corner of our bedroom, so now I am flexible and getting so much done, including blogging.  Whether or not that part is productive, I don't know, but it documents memories and shares them with loved ones, at least.

Anyway, here are some pictures I couldn’t help but share.  We were all out in our pasture enjoying the beautiful weather and playing in the weeds, I mean wildflowers. I love my little boy’s scrunched-face smile!

   He’s becoming such a little boy rather than a baby.

I really love this picture, but it is too bad there is a shadow on his happy face.

 

And some fun at Grandma’s house: Josiah loves this pink hand-me-down car from Savannah!

Grandma bought this awesome water table for them to play with

…and finally, we bought Josiah this water mat and have been waiting until it warmed up to use it.  I pulled it out yesterday and he loved it, but he was freezing in a matter of minutes (a downfall of living in the country and having cold well water). Driving his beloved car in his swimmies after drying off and warming up a little.  You can see his pursed lips making car noises!

Car Seat Safety

Jacob, Josiah and I got a “car seat checkup” this morning through the Safe Kids Coalition.  They do this every other Wednesday (I think) at the Farmer’s Market.  We did this once before when Josiah was just a few months old and it was great.  I had to get over my pride to go because I thought I was smart enough to be able to figure out how to install a car seat and that programs like this were not for parents like me!  But I figured that if something they showed me may save my son’s life, then my pride shouldn’t get in the way.  As it turns out, we learned a lot!  If one of the seemingly minute details that they corrected made him safer, then I’m happy, especially since it didn’t even make things more difficult for me.

One thing we learned today is that while it is still the law, the AAP no longer supports the recommendation to turn kids forward facing at 20 pounds and 12 months.  Now they say to go to the upper weight limits of the seat or around 18-24 months.  They also said that most of the pediatricians are not up to speed with this???  Mine didn’t mention it and I didn’t ask.  I know this is a milestone people really look forward to, but they explained the reasoning behind it quite convincingly.  We had planned to keep Josiah facing rearwards anyway because he was happy and we were happy, so why not keep him safer?

At any rate, this is a great informational and practical experience that I recommend.  It is so easy and doesn’t take long.  They did our two vehicles and two seats in less than 30 minutes.  We also bought a convertible seat from them for $45 as a spare for Jacob’s truck.  We expected it to be cheap, but it is a very nice seat…especially for a backup.  We may take ours back and buy another!  While they were working on our seats, they gave Josiah bubbles and a beanie baby for entertainment – you can’t ask for much more.

You must have an appointment to participate.  Go to http://www.shandssafekids.org/car-seat-check/ to sign up.  It is free, but they do appreciate donations.  Afterwards you can visit Weecycle just down the road!

Park Fun and Catching Bees!

I was sad that Jacob had to work today, but it allowed me to get my house cleaned up, floors mopped and some laundry done this morning while Josiah napped. After lunch, since Savannah is here for a visit, mom and I took her and Josiah to our new park find. Except for a father and son on the baseball field, we had the park to ourselves. The weather was perfect and we had a great time.

Savannah was so excited to take her babydoll to the park.

Josiah got to practice his walking, which seems to have improved dramatically overnight – no kidding.

Look Grandma…no thumb! Whenever Josiah is unsure about things he sucks his thumb and last time we were at the park he sucked it going down every slide, but today he seemed less worried.

Cutie pie!

We’ll see what Jacob has to say about this!

I couldn’t choose between the next three pictures. Savannah loves to “help” Josiah walk.

Savannah and Josiah got to enjoy sharing a chocolate chip cookie before we left the park and now they are both taking nice long (hopefully) naps. Grandma is cooking us dinner and Jacob should be home for a little evening fun.

Oh, and I should put in a little plug for Jacob since he did have a bit of excitement himself today…or at least he was excited about it. As some of you know, Jacob has a fairly new hobby of beekeeping. Unless you know anything about bees, the significance of this may be lost to you, but I’ll try to explain. While he was building a barn near some bee hives his friend owns, he noticed one hive was about to swarm (leave the hive for good – a financial loss and frustration), so he got another hive box and captured them. I don’t really know how one does this (which is an embarrassment since beekeeping runs in my family), but apparently he was successful. It was his first time to catch a swarm so he was happy. I’m glad he had a highlight to his day.

Our Crazy Easter

Josiah got a stuffed lamb, 3 books and several plastic eggs filled with puffs and crackers in the Easter basket we gave him.

Showing his mouthful of treats.

Happy Boy!

This was definitely a crazy Easter.  Josiah was miserable last week because he was cutting molars.  Lets just say we missed or cut short many naps, used lots of Motrin and Tylenol, changed several shirts soaked with saliva, and wiped his nose more times than I would want to count.   Thus we were a little leery about heading out of town for the weekend, but we bravely packed our bags and left home (with a late start) on Saturday morning.

We headed to Jacob’s sister, Carla’s home to celebrate with his side of the family.  We were too late for lunch, but were just in time for the Easter Egg “Hunt”.  We had ages 6 months to 5 years old hunting eggs, so Carla had the idea of color coordinating eggs for each kid with appropriate prizes in each one and hidden appropriately for each age.  Josiah just enjoyed putting each egg in his bucket each time it was dumped out for him.

Later, at Granny and Papa’s house, his toothaches and our headaches began.  After one missed nap, lots of fussing, some Motrin, family picture taking, dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and some more Motrin, we finally were able to get Josiah settled in bed for the night just before midnight.  I felt so sorry for the little guy, but for the most part he was a trooper.  It was a LONG DAY!

Granny bought Josiah and Mikayla matching clothes for Easter pictures.  Jacob was not too happy with the choice of lavender and says he gets to pick the next matching set of clothes.  I hope Mikayla likes camo!

 

We had planned on going to Sunrise Service at church, but when I could hardly rouse Josiah at 6:30 am, I decided to ditch that idea so that he could sleep another hour and just go to breakfast at the church.  I know it is rude just to go for the food, but Granny and Papa really wanted to show him off to their church family.

Unfortunately my grandmother had to have surgery on Wednesday and had some complications that kept her from leaving the hospital until Easter Sunday, so after breakfast we headed to Gram and Deda’s where I cooked a meal for a very toned down Easter celebration for part of our family.  Poor Gram wasn’t even allowed to eat solids!

Josiah sat this second Easter Egg Hunt out, so this is what it looks like when a nearly three year old gets to hunt 3 dozen eggs by herself! 

Needless to say, we were all happy to see home and our own beds where we all slept like rocks. 

More Birthday Pictures

Here are two more pictures from Josiah’s birthday party that I liked.

What Weaning Means To Me

I started weaning Josiah at his first birthday and I have taken it slowly to avoid problems for myself and because he had a decreased appetite for a week while teething. We are now down to only night feedings which will end this week. I figured I’d keep it up while we were out of town this weekend for Easter to make it easier to put him to bed in a new place. I’m so glad it all went well and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I have to admit, I will miss it on some level.  Here is what weaning means to me:

* No more breakfast in bed – this is where, on occasion, Jacob was sweet enough to go get Josiah and bring him to me in bed so that Josiah could nurse and I didn’t have to get up to do it.

*Wearing whatever I want without thinking about if I will need to nurse while wearing it and if it is amenable to nursing.

*Wearing any bra I want!

*I MIGHT be able to sleep in if Jacob agrees to get Josiah up, feed him, and take him out one Saturday morning. I haven’t slept in in over a year! Some days I long for it.

*Being able to be away from both Josiah and my pump at the same time for more than a few hours at a time. Or, maybe I’ll get to be home by myself for once!

*Not having to work at stocking up milk! Does anyone happen to need any? I have some leftover.

*Not being able to use nursing to comfort him when nothing else will. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to use nursing solely for that purpose, but I was reminded of its usefulness last week when he was crying continuously and couldn’t sleep. It made me not want to wean!

*And sadly, the end of that special, unique bond with my sweet son where I can give him no one else can.

Speaking of our bond…Josiah has emerged from the separation anxiety stage! It is a wonderful thing because it means that I don’t have to have him clinging to me when we are at parties and such and our friends and family can enjoy him, too. BUT I’m also strangely sad that I am no longer his one and only. I can see his relationship with Jacob blossoming more when he is just as content in his arms as mine when we are out, which makes me very happy, but it is also bittersweet. I realized the other day that soon I will be replaced as the most important person in his life by his buddies, then girlfriends (hopefully ones I like and not too many of them!), then God willing, a wife and children. That is how it should be, but it just seems like it will come too quickly. Oh well, if that natural progression doesn’t happen, I’ll be worried. No man should be attached to his mom at 30!

And because a wise woman (ahem, Katie) once said “what good is a blog without a picture?”, here ya go!  This is the box his new carseat came in.  He and the cat both love it.

He also loves his John Deere which he usually rides facing forwards, I promise.  It is scary watching him get on it because he perches precariously on top before straddling it.