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.

We’re Lovin’ Spring!

The weather was absolutely beautiful Saturday!  (And the day before, but I was stuck inside all day.)  Jacob and I decided to do some yard work, so after feeding Josiah his breakfast and eating the chocolate chip muffins Jacob made for me and him, we went outside to start.  We decided that Jacob would work by himself while Josiah and I watched from the safety of his new wagon until Josiah went down for a morning nap.  So we walked around the yard while watching Jacob used his hedge trimmers, blower, and edger.  Josiah was amazed and at first he called “da da” repetitively, but Jacob couldn’t hear over his equipment, so he gave up and sucked his thumb instead.  Poor boy.

  “Da Da!”

He loves his new wagon!

After a few hours of weeding, trimming, spreading an endless amount of mulch, a nap, and lunch, we decided to pick up Grandma and head to a local park to check it out.  I had seen its sign weeks ago, but we had never seen it and didn’t even know it existed.  It actually turned out to be a very nice park with an up-to-date playground, pavilion, basketball courts, volleyball net, baseball diamond, and clean bathrooms in the middle of nowhere!  It is about 5 minutes from our house, so I anticipate many visits there when Josiah is a little older and better able to enjoy it.

The tunnel scared him a bit, but Daddy was brave! 

 Dry Day + Plastic Slide = Electric Hair

…always with a finger in his mouth…

Look at that potbelly!

After a bit of play, we returned to our yard work, yet another nap, and dinner on Grandma’s porch.  It made for a nice day, but we are all paying for it now with sinuses irritated by all the pollen in the air!  Jacob and I reminisced about how much we used to be able to accomplish in one day pre-Josiah, whether it be yard work, paperwork, our housework, but we wouldn’t give up the fun playtimes that now break up our productive time.  Who can resist the smiles of a one year old anyway?  I’m looking forward to a few more days of beautiful spring weather before the hot days of summer arrive.

I just had to add this next picture, too.  He loved the hay bale horse we set up at his party, so we did it one more time before returning the saddle to its rightful owner.

Josiah’s First Birthday Party

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We had such a good time celebrating Josiah’s first birthday with 60 or so of our friends and family.  I don’t think he ever realized he was the man of the hour, but he had a great time!  He loved riding the “horse”, smashing his cake, opening presents, and he even got to hang out afterwards and play with his new toys.  He particularly loved his top and blocks from Luke and his wagon from Granny and Papa!

My grandmother called me yesterday specifically to say what a good time she had at the party and to comment on what nice friends we have.  I couldn’t agree more.  She said you are all such nice people and it is obvious you love your kids a lot.  We are blessed to have so many great friends.  Thank you to each of you for helping to make it a great celebration of Josiah’s life.

Please take a look at the pictures and if there are any you would like to have of your kids or anything else, I’d be happy to print them or give you a better digital form.  There are a lot of them, I know, but I did narrow them down some!  If you have any good pictures from the day, I’d love to see them.

One Year Old…Cont’d!

This post is just for completion sake…sorry if it bores you.

Josiah went for his one year doctor appointment today and can I just say, “Woohoo!” If you remember from his nine month appointment, the doctor was concerned about his weight. He was always small (you can’t ask for much from a boy with his genes), but he had fallen off his previous growth curve for no apparent reason. Today, he had not only reached his previous growth curve, but surpassed it by a bit. His appetite has always been great, so I’m not sure what the deal was. I have been trying to pack in the calories by giving plenty of homemade chunky purees as well as his fill of finger foods at each meal. I long for the coming days when his meals won’t require quite as much effort, but we’ll stick with what works awhile longer.

Unfortunately this visit also involved one vaccine. Ouch! This was the first time I’ve ever heard him do a sobbing cry rather than a screaming or fussy one. That might have had to do with me getting him stuck in his shirt while redressing him…ooops! But it was over quick.

The doc was asking about his physical and verbal abilities and he is right on track. Apparently saying “uh oh” is a 15 month old ability, but he has been doing that for awhile - so proud! Now we are just waiting on the unassisted walk!

In other news, I forgot to mention in his one year update post that he cut his first molar on his birthday. He has at least one more and one incisor on the way so he’s drooling up a storm. Earth shattering news, I know. The other big news is that he got his first haircut.

Josiah’s first haircut!  It tickled him every time I tried to trim around his ears or at the nape of his neck.  That made it very difficult.  It didn’t help that Jacob hung over my shoulder very nervously and wouldn’t let me cut much.   Strange coming from a guy who wants to give his kid a buzz cut, right???

Can I PLEASE go outside, mom?

These next 4 pictures are from our trip south 2 weekends ago to celebrate 2 of Josiah’s cousins birthdays.  The two girls, Mikayla and Samantha were born on the 8th and Josiah was born on the 7th.

He was such a trooper that weekend.  We were all tired, but he was in good spirits when we made this pit stop on the way home to feed him and get him out of his seat.  What a good boy we have!

My sneaky little guy test-tasting his birthday cake while I wasn’t looking.  I forget he can reach the table top now.  Birthday party pictures to follow when I get organized.  If any of you have any good pictures from it, please share!

(Thanks Katie and Suzanne for the blogging tip!)

One Whole Year Old!

Hurray! Josiah is ONE! I’m not sure how or when it happened, but it did. My baby is officially not a baby anymore. (He still needs, and wants, me though – I just had to add that.) The other day I was in Target looking at all the infant stuff trying to find one particular item and I realized that despite how cute most of it was, I didn’t need any of it anymore. I’ve decided not to be saddened by it and all the phases we left behind, but instead to delight in all the new things that this age brings. There is a whole new world of experiences to be had out there and I plan to enjoy it with my little family.

One thing I’m truly excited about, although it is silly, is that the risk of SIDS supposedly drastically decreases at this point. I remind myself of that each night that I decide the house is too chilly to turn that silly ceiling fan on and I don’t want to feel anxious about it. I’m also excited that it is time for weaning, which we are partway through. The other big event to be excited about is the birthday cookout! (If you are reading this, you probably should have been invited. So, if you didn’t get your invite, I must have messed up your email address, so please let me know.) I’m trying to get Jacob to do a hay ride for the kids, what do you guys think?

Ok, about the Birthday Boy himself:

Josiah has started to stand on his own. We just happened to catch the first time on video, so that was special. He is really great at walking with something to hold onto, but he’s not ready to go out on his own quite yet. I’m hoping by Easter, though, wouldn’t that be fun? No rush, though.

Josiah is quite the little dancer as he bobs up and down to the beat of any song playing. The boy has rhythm! Grandma has noted this and has taken to teaching Josiah how to rap. This is a skill I did not know my mom had (actually, she has no skill at all, but it is funny anyway!) It is hilarious to watch Josiah try to mimic her bad rapping, but he enjoys it.

Lately we have been experimenting with letting Josiah feed himself with a spoon. We load the spoon up for him and as long as he is not too excited in taking the spoon from us, thus flinging the food, he is great at getting it into his mouth. In the last couple of days he has pushed the food around on his tray with the spoon, but he is not coordinated enough to scoop it up yet.

His two new signs are “eat” and “milk”. I think he has been doing it longer than I recognized, but it was very clear about a week ago and now I see it more often. He was doing “milk” with both hands very frequently and at odd times for a long time before I was sure about it. It kind of looked like a two-handed “bye bye”, yet different. Maybe he liked milk more than we knew or was trying to tell us to give him privacy???

He had two negative “firsts” this month. One is that he threw up. Gross, I know. And the other is that he got scratched across the forehead by the cat. He had taken to lying on the cat and rolling on her. One time in particular, he and Lilah were under his exersaucer and he was laying on her with his head twisted up to look at the toy from below. I noticed his elbow was digging into her gut and told Jacob it looked like it hurt (dumb me didn’t get up to help her and just expected her to take it like she always does), next thing we knew she had swatted him and ran out from under him. Ooops! Totally my fault. Lilah immediately came up to him to apologize and they made up on the spot. I’m just like my clients that I say are dumb for doing that kind of thing. Lesson learned and she will get her nails trimmed more often.

I usually attempt to limit how much I write for these monthly updates so as to not bore you nice people who actually read it, but I’m really struggling with not going on and on about this precious boy we have at this one year mark. It has been a wonderfully crazy year of changes that are nearly impossible to keep up with. I think after this mark I may only do these official updates every 3 months or so.

Here are some pictures and video of the big boy!

I think Josiah is ready for spring. He has taken to trying to pull his long sleeves off. We found him like this twice, once after some bedtime shenanigans after he finally fell asleep and once after we apparently left him in his crib too long in the morning.

Now that is talent!

Boys know how to make forts out of anything.


My precious baby! Can you see his single tear and 3 scratch marks from the cat on his forehead? He's happy anyway.

How to love on and play with a cat, according to Josiah. We are bad pet owners and parents, I know. Lilah goes wild when we play with this sewing measuring tape, but not so much when Josiah tries it.

Bathtime and bedtime giggles.

Walking with his tractor. At the end of the first clip you will also see him stand for just a second by himself and then celebrate it.

Jacob taught Josiah how to make elephant sounds...kind of.

One Year Pictures

Jacob and I took Josiah to get his first birthday pictures today so that we could have them back in time for his party. I always dread getting pictures made because Josiah is a bit shy and needs time to warm up to people and situations, then he is delightful. I try to plan on this and get there early so we can get used to things, but the photographers are always itching to get started and be done. Then of course they get in his face and make lots of noise to try to make him smile and it is usually all downhill from there. Oh well, we got a few cute shots:

Sucking on the finger the photographer kept pulling out of his mouth.

Not so sure about all this...


Hmmm...One...

A tentative half smile.

I brought the cupcake with visions of him mashing it up and having a blast. He enjoyed it, but preferred to just end this session.

Silly boy! Note the drool on his clothes. He loved eating the icing off my fingers, but just wiped it off of his own onto his clothes, legs, and blanket.

This is why I like taking pictures with my Uncle. We don't have to rush and they turn out great! Oh, and I get to take my time picking my favorites.