Navigating Nine Months

How to describe our little guy at nine months? Well, he is personable, smiley, kind of shy when mom's not around, short-tempered and loud in the middle of the night, too cool to sleep through the night (or maybe, as Adam suggests, he just misses me), and perhaps most notable... everywhere! He pulls himself up on nearly anything he can reach. He is particularly fond of my legs, and once or twice Michaela's art easel has thrown him for a loop when it refused to tolerate his climbing by falling over. He still has just two teeth, but seems to gnaw anything in sight, as well, so perhaps sometime soon we'll be seeing more chompers (I feel as if I've been saying that for a while).

At Grammy and Papi's the morning of his 9-month-aversary

He loves his big sister and tries to be involved with whatever she is doing. This has become less amusing to Michaela lately, and we have to keep putting her books and toys with little pieces at ever-increasing heights to keep them out of harm's way.

He's started clapping all the time, usually when he's happy or excited. It was fun to see him clapping during worship time while the rest of us were singing (and not clapping).

Blueberry picking. He supervised from the stroller.

He takes two naps a day and is now supposed to be eating three solid meals per day. He loves food and eating and my challenge is getting enough to keep up with him. He's doing some finger foods and watermelon seems to be a big favorite right now.

Josiah likes wrestling on the floor with Adam and Michaela, is pretty interested in water and the little wading pool, and thoroughly loves bath time. He's outgrown his baby bathtub and sits in the big tub all by himself. I don't have enough hands to bathe both at the same time and also referee the wildness of big sister toppling over little brother. He is almost steady enough to combine the two, and I look forward to cutting down bathtime by half!

And I couldn't leave out Michaela when I put a picture of Josiah blueberry picking. To be fair in my reporting, Michaela did pick 0.6 pounds all by herself - she really did a great job!

Michaela blueberry "picking" - I kept hearing her repeat, "Mmmm, I like blueberries."

oy vey

The Spanish major in me is proud to hear my daughter walking around reading Buenas Noches Luna (Goodnight Moon, in Spanish). That parental pride is overshadowed, however, by my chagrin over her saying, jibberish jibberish jibberish "moon-o." And then her informing me that Spanish is a little hard to say.

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!

Greatness

We are soooo thankful for wonderful great-grandparents who set an excellent example of commitment and caring for us and for our children. Plus, all three of them are just really cute.

too much cuteness

 Like many of you, I sure can't wait for summer weather to arrive and stay for a while. We got a delightful taste of summer on Mother's Day weekend, while we were up in Washington with Adam's family. On Sunday after church, we pulled out the sprinkler and let the kids go wild while still dressed in their Sunday clothes. As I repeatedly tell Michaela when something spills on her clothes, "It's just water; it will dry." You may notice from the photos, though, she doesn't seem too shy around intentional wetness... she's been asking about the swimming pool for weeks.

New Nephew!

Just over a month ago, Adam and I got a new nephew, and Michaela and Josiah got a new little cousin. Welcome little Liam to the fun! Congratulations Abbey and David on your new addition! It feels a little bit crazy to get together with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and their two little ones, our two little ones, and the grandparents all at the same time. Restful is not a word that comes to mind. However, we know that these are the years that will fly by so quickly and we will think of fondly very often. I feel so blessed that our kids will grow up with cousins close in age and geographically near, as well. 

I love being an aunt! All the pressure is off!

Cutie pie Liam David

Greyson was excited to play with cousin Josiah

Giving him a little loving

Seven

Josiah has been seven months old for about two weeks now, and I have yet to do the monthly post. We are seeing changes in him by the day right now. He is very close to crawling. He army crawls everywhere he wants to go with little hindrance (unless he gets stuck under a piece of furniture). We had the pleasure of my cousins visiting this week with their 5-month-old, and Josiah got so excited about his cousin that he got up on his hands and knees and rocked back and forth. Although these times culminated in a faceplant, a true crawl is near at hand. He's also cut two teeth, with what I believe to be two or three more on the way. Also, he's started saying my name!  "Mamamama" while looking directly at the table leg, or some other inanimate object. It still warms my mother's heart. We are really enjoying this youngest member of our family. And even though Michaela is looking forward to the time when "Josiah is bigger to play with" I can't help but hope to keep him at this age a little longer. If he would only sleep through the night.

Josiah's first time sitting as a big boy in the double stroller.
Affectionately labeled "the bus."

I love swinging! Oh, the wind in my hair!

Nurturing the inner musician

Yum!

Driver's education