Lovin' Life at 10 Months

While the newborn stage was oh-so-precious and the months of immobility and smiles were cute yet convenient, I LOVE THIS STAGE! Josiah has been blossoming this month as he has learned to interact more intentionally and has improved his mobility. I won’t bore you with my reminiscing, but suffice to say that he has stolen my heart and made me laugh more times than I can count. He has really started to imitate us more lately and it cracks me up. If I’m alone, I feel the urge to call someone and tell them what he just did every time he makes me laugh. Am I crazy? I also find myself looking at my own blog just to see the visible evidence of my blessed life – but I’ve done that for quite some time now. Here’s a synopsis of his life this month:

Josiah finally mastered the crawl this month but still reverts back to the army crawl when he’s tired out. He is pulling up on any and everything and is beginning to cruise along furniture more. I guess the next couple of months will be spent perfecting these skills until he starts walking. I hope he gets good soon because it breaks my heart when he falls and hits his head. Hey Annie, do you still have that helmet?

As I said, Josiah is mimicking us more frequently now with everything from the sounds to the gestures we make. His wave is gaining coordination (and kind of looks like a beauty queen wave – don’t tell Jacob), but he does not always do it at appropriate times. Jacob taught him to give high five this month, as well. He doesn't quite understand that he is supposed to completely straighten his hand out and hit your hand hard and fast, but he always touches his hand to yours and is good about not leaving you hangin'.

Along with the emergence of his charming personality, so does his opinionated side. He loves to arch his back and fuss when you take him away from something he wants. I know this will change soon, but for now it brings a smile to my face. I love knowing there is a little independent person in there that God gave me to mold and teach how to make good decisions. Hopefully I am successful in that duty. It really is a blessing when you think of it that way. Lets see if I think that when he is 2!

As far as diet goes, we are giving him pretty much everything unless it is on the definite no-no list. Although he did find a peanut on the floor the other day and I had to fish it out of his mouth. He lived. Josiah has a great appetite when we spoon feed him and also feeds himself quite well. This month he also learned to (and then quickly learned not to) blow raspberries while eating.

In health news…the week before Christmas, Josiah had a little bout of the sniffles followed by an ear infection the week of Christmas, so now he has had his second round of antibiotics in a month’s time. Thankfully he has recovered, appears healthy and happy, and has his appetite back so that we can get back to fattening him up!

He is still taking 2 nice long naps a day and he is so good at going to sleep. I am so spoiled by his good sleeping habits. I can lay him down and leave and he just rolls over and drifts off or plays in his crib until he is more tired and then lays down and sleeps. I particularly like it when he plays because it extends my free time!

I have posted most of this months pictures as Christmas pictures, but here are some from yesterday and today:

Josiah helping Daddy babyproof the house - an impossible task.

Bundled up to go outside.

Some giggles. Notice his feet in the second part of this video. They never stop. This is actually from last month. Forgive the terrible videography.

Warning...You may wish to turn down your volume. This is just a few seconds of what I frequently hear.

I realize this is bad highchair etiquette, but he was so cute and so proud of himself. Notice how he uses his foot to help him out at first.

Better Late Than Never

Here are some of the pictures my Uncle Tommy took of Josiah for his nine month pictures as well as of my mom and her grandbabies for Christmas. He did an awesome job! Since there were so many good ones, it was hard to pick just a few and with so much going on this month, it took me forever to get this post together. Enjoy!

That's my sweet baby with three teeth!

His overalls have horses all over them and his shirt is a sheriff shirt with horses, too. I love this outfit! I bought it the day we found out he was a boy. He was wearing boots, but kicked them off early on.

HA!


Check out his toes. He's constantly curling and stretching them.


It was tough to get them all behaving, smiling, and looking at the camera at the same time!

Do you see the gift nametags? There is even one for Nathan who is due to be born in February. I can't wait!


Josiah is not so sure about the loving hug he is getting from sweet Savannah.

Two of my favorite people.

He loved the giant ornaments!

Handsome man.

First Family Christmas

After 9 years of marriage, Jacob and I were excited to share our first Christmas with Josiah. We managed to celebrate with all of our family and still be home on Christmas day (a first for us). The Saturday before Christmas we celebrated with Jacob’s extended family and had a great time watching kids of the family interact and open presents. Josiah didn’t really understand opening presents at that point, but by Christmas morning he was getting the hang of it. That same night we had a more private Christmas with Jacob’s immediate family. It made for a LONG day, but we made some good memories and Josiah loved every minute of it. Thankfully he showed no signs of stranger anxiety.

Doesn't he look like such a big boy having fun on his new toy? Thanks Aunt Amy!

Sharing Dandy's lab with cousin Will. He LOVES Dandy! FYI - Will is Dandy's grandson, while Josiah is his great-grandson, yet will is 6 months younger.

Funny boy and funny daddy who did it to him.

Checkin' out his new gift from Granny.

Too bad he's scared of the real thing in our back yard! In his defense, the real thing is MUCH noisier.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandparents to celebrate with my extended family. We ate way too much and had lots of laughs playing Deda’s present game. Unfortunately, during the week Josiah got an ear infection and was recovering from that, so he didn’t have quite as much fun as before, but he still loved ripping paper!

Giving high fives to Daddy while being held by Grandpa.

Savannah opening the oven Grandpa made for her.

My sleepy boy opening gifts. It was way past bedtime before we opened gifts and he missed his afternoon nap.

Silly faces!

First taste of stawberries. He loved it!

PRESENTS!

By Christmas morning, Josiah was all about opening presents. He opened all of them no matter who they were for. I’m not sure how much paper he ate, but I know for a fact that I saw green in his mouth at one point and was unable to get it out in time. After presents, Josiah went down for a nap (and so did we for 2 whole hours!), then we went to Grandma’s for leftovers where Jesse and Savannah met up with us to eat. It made for a pretty perfect Christmas – mostly because of the extra sleep and the lack of running around!

He's getting good at this!

We bought these stackable cups just to give him a little something extra, but they turned out to be a hit.

See? Still holding the cup!

He loved the ball popper from Grandma.

Josiah teaching Savannah the army crawl.

Grandma's toy cabinet.

Our little dancer.

Poor Lilah just got a discarded bag, but she was happy.

At first I think Josiah thought he was in heaven with all of his new toys. Our living room is filled. He loves them! He is only just now going back to his old toy basket for some of his faithful standbys.

9 Years of Marital ________

Today is our ninth wedding anniversary! I can't believe that we are even old enough to say that. I only think of myself as 22 or 25 max. Oh well, at least it has been a great 9 years. It has been 13 years since we started dating on Friday the 13th of December in 1996. See? Good things can happen on Friday the 13th! One high school Christmas dance got the ball rolling.

Last night when we went to bed after getting Josiah to fall back asleep after waking up screaming, I asked Jacob to fill in the blank: 9 years of marital ______. It was kind of a trick question, but don't worry, he passed. I didn't know if he would try to make a joke or be too sappy in order to punish me for asking. However, he gave me a nice serious answer saying "fulfillment". When I asked him what he meant, he just said we have fulfilled so many of the dreams we started out with early on. I thought this was sweet, accurate, and a little funny seeing as how I was a half hour late coming to bed because of one of those little fulfilled dreams. Ironically, that little dream woke up screaming again right when we were both in a deep sleep an hour later. (FYI: that is not his norm, I think he is sick again.)

This year has brought so many changes, both positive and negative, as we have experienced the birth of a baby, job loss, another job search, and several other things mixed in there. I'll admit there were (and probably still will be) times that I have wondered if we would forget who we were as a couple, but each time I saw us emerge as an improved version of the "old us" and was encouraged. While we still hold out hope for some of the aspects of our life to change soon, overall we couldn't be happier with who we have become or the little family we have now grown into.

So Jacob, while I'm happy you are recognizing the fulfillment of our dreams, I hope you aren't feeling TOO fulfilled, because we have a lot more to look forward to! Like chocolate and cheese at the Melting Pot tonight.

Busy Weekend and Other Random Things

The question of the day for experienced parents: where can I get cheap pictures of Josiah with Santa? They are expensive at the mall, and I just want one to say I did it like any good parent should. Think about that while you read the rest of this.

This past weekend I didn't get anything done that I really needed to, but we did have lots of good times instead. After Josiah's morning nap on Saturday, we picked up Pastor Eli and his wife Silvana who are visiting the U.S. from Brazil this month. Eli coordinates the Brazilian side of things for Amazon Vision Ministries and has never been to the U.S. We took them to Sonny's BBQ where Annie and Chad joined us for a good ole fat-filled American meal. Eli was very careful to put just the right amount of BBQ sauce on each piece of meat individually.

Due to the weather, we racked our brains for something entertaining that we could do indoors. We ended up at the Florida Natural History Museum. Unfortunately, because of the rain and cold, the butterflies were not flying, so we didn't get to enjoy the butterfly garden, but the rest of the museum was good. They had never seen a mammoth skeleton or huge shark jaws, so they were amazed by these features. We visited the Amazon Adventures exhibit where Eli and Silvana knew one of the men in a video they showed. They quickly corrected all of the errors made!

This is my one and only picture from the weekend.

After the museum, we headed to the stadium so Eli could see "where the real Gators play". Keep in mind that the majority of Americans they are friends with are from Gainesville and are die hard Gators. They mentioned that they were disappointed that the Gators lost the one and only game they have ever seen. Later we took them to our sunday school class' Christmas party where we had a white elephant gift exchange and Silvana's fish scale nail files were a hit. By the way, I have some for you, Teri.



On Sunday, we went to church as usual (Josiah made it through nursery without crying!). After a quick lunch, Jacob drove Eli and Silvana to a church in our hometown to speak at the night service, while my brother, Caleb, and I took Josiah to the Gainesville Christmas Festival at our church to see my mom sing in the choir and play a peasant. Josiah did really well, but got excited during the crucifixion and screamed and laughed. Ooops! Afterwards we celebrated with Dairy Queen and then Josiah passed out in the car on the way home. It was a long weekend for him.

So, where's a cheap Santa to be found?

9 Months of Awe

Josiah tuned 9 months old on December 7th. It is no exaggeration to say that Jacob and I have been in awe of God over the last 9 months (18 months, really) by his amazing work as we watch Josiah grow. It is quite incredible how He creates each of us, complete and unique, in such a short time. Some may argue that it is just nature and God does not create each of us individually, but regardless, He created nature and that natural process and I am impressed! How can something that started off microscopic have 4 teeth and cause enough raucous to keep me on my toes just 18 months later?!?

Anyway, on to the main subject matter…

Josiah’s 9 month visit to the doctor revealed something we already knew…our little pipsqueak really IS LITTLE, as he fell below his growth curve. There is no major concern since he is right up there on all other developmental measures, but we have doctor’s orders to feed fatty foods frequently. Meats and cheeses, here we come! He is apparently “one of those high metabolism babies that need lots of food frequently,” thus his unceasing appetite. I think he is gearing up to eat us out of house and home as a teen!

This month he learned to get into a sitting position on his own and he has started pulling up. Learning to sit came from out of the blue. One day I literally turned away from him when he was on his belly for a matter of seconds and when I turned back around he was sitting up perfectly. From then on he did it like he’d been doing it for weeks. Pulling up, on the other hand, has been a work in progress. Mostly, he learned how to do it on the laundry basket (he loves laundry day), then he moved onto people, and now he is learning to pull up on furniture, as well.

As for crawling…he hasn’t perfected that yet. He is doing a modified army crawl that I can’t explain, but is quite effective. He lifts up off the floor with each forward motion, but comes back down to his belly in between. He still likes to get up on his hands and knees to rock and play, but hasn’t figured out how to stay up and get from point A to point B. Maybe next month.

Josiah’s left upper incisor finally finished coming in and his right is not far behind. He likes to use his new little incisors to bite fabric and pull back on it. This is all fine and good until it is your shirt he is biting and he pinches a piece of skin, too. You really have to be careful when he's cuddling! It appears that he is working on 2 or 3 more teeth now. Thankfully he is pretty good for it. I wish his hair would come in as fast! He still has reversed male pattern baldness, which ends up looking like a mohawk. He’s cute, regardless. If only I can keep Jacob from shaving his head…

This month also brought Josiah’s first bout with illness. He had a mild upper respiratory infection with a low grade fever. Thankfully we caught it very early and he recovered within days with a short course of antibiotics. Between sickness, teething, and attention from lots of strangers over Thanksgiving, Josiah also decided to develop intense stranger anxiety this month. Thankfully that seems to be subsiding somewhat, but I’m expecting it to stick around to some degree for awhile.

One last thing...our cats like to meow a lot and I think they do it just to annoy Jacob. One of my favorite things that Josiah started doing this month is mimicking them when one of them starts begging for something. It is by no means a perfect “meow”, but he looks straight at them and lets out a short high pitched squeal.

Here are some pictures from the month. It is always so hard to pick just a few.

Josiah's first time driving. He "drove" from my grandparents new house to the old one, but dont worry, they are on the same property not far apart.

Lovin' bathtime! Now that he pulls up, he totally scares me in the tub.

My cutiepie in the Exersaucer the doctor banned him from (he was jumping inappropriately on his foot in it).

Having fun with Daddy and showing off his first upper incisor. You can barely see the second poking through.


Ok, this picture looks a bit strange, but it demonstrates the cute thing he does now where he tucks his chin down and picks up his right shoulder and looks at you. It's cuter in person. He also cocks his head to the right a lot. Such a charmer!

Hello!

Like any good kid, he loves laundry baskets.

My sweetie after finishing his Cheerios snack.

Thankful for Relationships

Be forewarned that this blog is full of randomness. I'll start of with Josiah's fall pictures in his not-so-Halloween costume, since he didn't wear it until 2-3 weeks after Halloween. We took these in our front yard in front of our split rail fence.

Thanksgiving weekend was crazy, to say the least. Josiah was teething and had his first upper respiratory infection (which later spread to me, and then Jacob’s eye) and was put on antibiotics early in the week. We waited until Thursday at lunchtime to travel to my grandparent’s house for dinner in order to avoid traffic, which turned out to be a good plan. We had a great time with my family and spent the night in my grandparent’s brand new 30 year old never-been-slept-in house (I know that doesn’t make sense, but it’s a long explanation). It was very nice!

Grandma rocking and singing to her very tired grandbabies in my great-grandfather's rocker.

Josiah and Uncle Caleb.

The next day we went to my Uncle’s house so that he could take some 9 month pictures of Josiah (a little early) and my mom’s annual Christmas pictures with her grandbabies. I’ll post those pictures at a later date.

After pictures we rushed to Jacob’s parent’s house to get ready for

night one of our 10 year high school reunion. We went to a small Christian school where we were with our classmates from elementary school through high school, so we were really looking forward to it. The first night was family BBQ night, so Josiah came along. We enjoyed catching up with many of our classmates and seeing what God was up to in their lives. It was actually kind of amazing to talk to some of them and see everyone’s kids. It must have been a wild night because we all came home with Josiah’s spit up stains on our shirts and Josiah came home without his pants (diaper leak) and zonked out.

Our old classmates and their kids. This picture is hardly worth posting since you can't really see everyone, but it is the memory that counts.

On Saturday we had another Thanksgiving meal with Jacob’s immediate family followed by yet more Christmas pictures of the grandchildren. Then we made the rounds to visit more with my high school friend, Laura, and her husband, Thadd (who graduated with my brother). It was good catching up with them since they are now missionaries in Germany and have also recently had their first baby, Lilli. After coffee with Laura and Thadd, we visited with Annie, our Cross Country and Track teammate. FYI: Annie and I were on a state champ relay team three years in a row! Then we had a fun dinner with several old friends and ditched the rest of the reunion due to the cold weather.

Laura and Thadd with Lilli.

Mikayla and Josiah in their Christmas best. Excuse Josiah's white socks - he has no black ones.

On Sunday, we had our annual Whitaker family reunion and Turkey Bucks Auction at my grandparent’s house. What is a Turkey Bucks Auction, you ask? We all bring our stuff we want to get rid of and we use fake money (turkey bucks) to bid on and buy it. I bought a pecan cracker, 2 electric edgers, and a 1x4 board (yes, I said a board. My mom is going to paint it to make something fabulous). I had to really fight for the pecan cracker!

I love this picture of Josiah with my grandparents!

Teddy, our auctioneer.

One of my cousins with the suitcase and cowboy hat he bought.

We finally came home on Monday and we were all so glad to get here – not that we didn’t have a great time, but it’s always good to be home. After being sick earlier in the week and then being rushed around all weekend and held by lots of different people, Josiah has now decided to have a bad case of separation anxiety. It is bad enough that sometimes Jacob can’t even hold him. It is a bit endearing to me, but mostly it is difficult since I can’t get anything done. Oh well!