Life...Trickier

Life in our household just got more entertaining and busy. Check out Josiah who can now pull himself up on things and look for fun toys Michaela may have left behind that he can put in his mouth. These new moves also led to Adam and I having a discussion about lowering Josiah's crib, pronto.

Shed Season

My husband is a researcher. He comes up with an idea, then he thinks, and plans, and researches. He makes a draft and then he checks it out and drafts it again... until, at last, perfection is reached. At least that is the general idea, but one never knows for sure with home improvement projects. However, I proudly present the "shed project." Adam's goal was to build a shed to house big tools and other garage miscellany so that the garage, in turn, could house two cars, camping supplies, three strollers and a tricycle. More or less. Unfortunately it seems to usually be more. Here is the shed project, in pictures. A special shout-out goes out to our friend Doug for his invaluable assistance for the huge majority of one precious Saturday. And another mini shout-out to shed helper Michaela.

Step #1 - preparing the floor

Enter Kenji, construction dog

Deck completed!

Step #2 - Framing

All smiles (it's still early)

Hard at work

Look - there's a side wall!

Teamwork

All closed in - Michaela points to the shed interior

Adam's next calling might be as a roofer

Construction helper - she handed Adam roof pieces

All done! And as near to perfection as we could hope. 

Great job, everyone!!!

Eight Months! Can it be?!

Time for the ol' status report on Josiah at eight months. The more of life goes by, the more I notice it's difficult for me to retain even important details about life. Hence, blogging here about possibly mundane (to you) details. Though he's not officially crawling yet, Josiah is essentially completely mobile. He army crawls everywhere he wants to be and pulls himself up so he can reach the really exciting things (crayons, paper, playdough, leftover snacks...) on the top of Michaela's little white table. He can sit up on his own and enjoys using both hands to explore. He loves electrical cords, the vacuum cleaner, eating dirt off of my floor, and observing the cat and the dog. He thinks his big sister is amazing. Blowing raspberries on his belly sends him into giggles galore. He's fully jumping out of the bouncy chair where I used to strap him so I could shower, so now I can only shower while he's asleep. I tried yesterday to just let him crawl on the bathroom floor with his toys, but that's really not going to work since he can open the shower door, eats the dog bed, and it took him about 60 seconds to discover the garbage can, knock it over, chew on the plastic liner, and begin to explore its contents (before I could see how far he was getting, turn off the water, wrap a towel and jump across the bathroom). He's motivated. And learning the meaning of "no-no."

He's eating like a champ, probably weighs about 19 pounds and is on the verge between 9 month and 12 month clothing. He practices feeding himself with "puffs" which are baby finger food that essentially melt in his mouth. He gagged himself on toasty o's last week, but this week when I break them in half he is doing great with them. He's also doing soft pieces of fruit and avocado with his two teeth. I feel like more teeth are imminent. So far he hasn't met a food he doesn't like.

Sleep... sweet sleep. A couple of times he's slept from 7-6 which was wonderful. Two nights later he was waking up every 4 hours. Last night it was just one awakening in the middle of the night. He's so unpredictable! We've tried to let him cry it out a couple of nights, but his capacity for screeching long, loud, and stubbornly (say 1.5 hours?) is daunting. We're backing off on that as it really is easier on me to just get up, feed him, and put him back to bed than to listen to him cry. We'll see how he does and try it again later. Maybe - wishful thinking - he'll just do it on his own!

We love our little guy!

Young and In Love

Eight years ago today Adam and I celebrated the end of our engagement and the beginning of our marriage and life together. In fact, right now eight years ago, some of you had probably already sneaked ahead in line and were enjoying the snacks. I don't really remember if I ate any or not. In some ways it doesn't feel like that long ago, and in other ways (say... we have two children now... and a mortgage!) it seems like we've done quite a bit of journeying together. I love this man and I am so thankful that the Lord put him in my life. Adam, you're a wonderful husband, fantastic father, and I hope we have many more anniversaries to celebrate together.

Making it official!