10 Months Old

Joshua is now 10 months old.  He's been that old since May 12th.  It's been busy around here, so I haven't had time to sit down and organize my thoughts.  He has changed so much in just a months time.  Here is a list of some things he's doing at 10 months.

-walks all over the place with his push toys (When he does this he laughs and gets the goofiest grin on his face like he's so proud of himself...and we are proud, too!)

-says mama, dada, ba (ball), bye bye

-waves bye bye

-claps

-high fives

-sometimes will put his arms over his head when we say "how big is Joshua?"

-pulls up on EVERYTHING and can transfer from one thing to another

-makes the funniest faces and will repeat them if they make us laugh

-enjoys throwing himself on our pillows piled in the floor

-laughs all the time...soo cute!

-is eating a lot more table food (we are finally getting a handle on that gag reflex!) and eats just about everything we offer him

-favorite foods are yogurt and sweet potatoes, and feeding himself bananas

-seems to be learning the word "eat" and the sign for it because when I say that to him with the sign he goes over to his high chair

-enjoys beating two objects together (like today he had 2 star rings from his star stacker and seriously beat them together for 5 minutes until his arms finally tired out)

-can shoot baskets with his little basketball goal (he actually likes to put balls or really anything into boxes or baskets, etc)

-loves going for walks in the stroller

-loves to swing (when I take him on walks and we pass our neighborhood park he fusses if I don't  stop to let him swing for a little bit)

-still takes 2 naps a day for about 1.5-2 hours each

-is such a happy and well behaved baby and we are so thankful!!!

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day!  We dedicated Joshua at church in a special ceremony.  My mom and Granny came up to spend the night with us Saturday night so that they could get plenty of time in with Joshua.  Derek's parents and my sisters came up Sunday morning.  We really enjoyed having all of them at church with us!  I think they all enjoyed it, too.  We all came back to our house for lunch before everyone left for home.  Thanks for coming guys!  We had a great day!

I have to say, though, that Derek's mom had me laughing.  Our church has a band and puts the words to the songs we sing up on screens.  Donna made a comment after church about how the last time she went to our church we all sang songs.  We informed her that we did indeed sing songs that morning as well.  How could she have missed that?  Ha!  Apparently, she wasn't wearing her glasses and couldn't see the words on the screens, so she just assumed that the band members were singing for us.  Haha....Donna, you know I love you!

Mom, I know this is late, but I love you very much and couldn't ask for a better mother!

Unfortunately we didn't take pictures at church of the dedication with our camera, so I'll have to get one from someone else to post on here.  (Just imagine a super adorable baby boy with blond hair and blue eyes and you'll probably be picturing what Joshua looked like that day!)

Babies

Last weekend we spent our Saturday morning walking in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies.  The Credit Union has a big group that walks every year, and they raise a lot of money for the March of Dimes.  Derek's department had a State/Carolina dime war this year.  His department is split - the girls went to Carolina and the boys went to State.  They got donations from co-workers all around the operations center.  The team who raised the most money won.  The losers had to wear and support the winning team the whole week after the walk.  Well, the Wolfpack represented and State won!!  So the boys harassed the girls all week.  They took in every single piece of Wolfpack paraphernalia they own and decorated the girls' offices.  Derek even took our huge framed picture off the wall at our house and hung it up on his boss' wall in place of her Carolina framed picture.  I think the boys enjoyed their victory.

Back to the walk, though.  We got to see lots of friendly faces we hadn't seen in a while since Derek left his branch last year for the operations center.  Many of his old co-workers were expecting babies around the same time Joshua was born, so we got to see some of those babies.  My how all of our children have grown!

Walking this year seemed to take on a whole new meaning since we now have a baby.  I am so very thankful that Joshua is healthy and happy.  Thank you Lord for that!

Standing Tall

Did a ever mention that Joshua started pulling up to his feet on April 18th?!?  He finally made it past his knees!!  He and I were hanging out while Derek was away helping our friend Jeff Knapp with his proposal to April.  (Check out our Flickr page for cute pictures of the engagement.  The boys seemed to have a lot of fun being sneaky and getting things all ready for Jeff and April!)  While we were playing I looked away for just a minute and when I looked down at Joshua again he was standing up pulling everything out of his toy box.  I was so proud of him that I didn't even mind the fact that now all of his toys were on the floor.  Of course, pulling up has opened up a whole new world to him.  Climbing the stairs is now his favorite activity.  He starts crawling over to them, stops and turns to look to see if we're watching, and then bolts to the stairs and up he goes.  I have to say he's gotten pretty good at it, and has made it all the way up several times.  Don't worry, we stand behind him when we let him climb.  He's hilarious when he does it, though.  He laughs out loud at himself and has the biggest grin on his face!  We can tell he is just so proud of himself.

Oh the Stomach Bug

Where has the time gone?  We have been super busy since Joshua and I played hooky in my last post.  To start with updates, we'll visit the awful stomach bug that wouldn't go away.

The week after we thought Joshua's stomach bug had peaked we realized we were very wrong.  Have you ever seen a fountain of sorts spew from your child's mouth, and stand there in shock because you've never seen so much vomit, while your husband rushes in to pick up your child to keep him from gagging on the vomit?  Have you ever cleaned up brown vomit that stretched from one end of your child's bed to the other and down onto the carpet?

Well I have.  It's not fun.  It's actually rather unpleasant.  But you do it because you love your child more than anything, and you will do anything for them, especially when they are sick.  Now, we aren't entirely sure this was all the same illness.  There was almost a week separating the two.  I am happy to say that my energetic and happy little guy is back, and we are back into the full swing of climbing stairs and standing up on our own.

Playing Hooky

Joshua's stomach bug peaked on Wednesday (read....lots of clothing and diaper changes), so on Thursday we played hooky from work and child care.  Okay, okay, so we didn't really play hooky.  He actually wasn't allowed to go to Nichole's to stay because he had LOTS of dirtydiapers on Wednesday, and she likes them to be symptom free for 24 hours before they come back.  He seemed to be feeling a bit better by Thursday, so we had a great day just hanging out and playing!  We even went to Target to get a few things and get out of the house and went on a walk around our neighborhood.

He laughs so much now, and it is the sweetest little giggle I've ever heard.  I've got to figure out how to get our videos off the video camera, onto the computer, and uploaded to blogger so that I can let everyone see and hear just how adorable he is!  (We can get them onto the computer without a problem, but I always get an error message when I try to upload them on here.  I think it is b/c our video camera is an HD one.  Who knows?)  I'll leave you with some pictures of my sweet little boy from our day of hooky.

9 Months Old

Where has the time gone? My tiny baby is not so tiny anymore.

Joshua turned 9 months old on Sunday! We had his 9 month doctor visit yesterday. He didn't get any shots, but he did have to get his finger pricked and squeezed for another hemoglobin check. His number came back at a 10.5, which is the lowest it can be on the normal range, so he doesn't have to take his iron supplement anymore! He was NOT a fan of the finger prick/squeezing, but all in all he did really well and was a sweetie as usual for the doctor and nurse. Here are his 9 month stats:

Weight: 19 pounds 14.5 ounces (48th percentile)

Length: 28 3/4 inches (75th percentile)

Head: 17 3/4 inches (48th percentile)

He has actually lost some weight and feels lighter when we pick him up. This is because he's had a little stomach virus and let's just say we've changed a lot of dirty diapers in the last week.

Joshua is just as sweet and cute as ever! He started saying "ba" for ball on Sunday, and he knows exactly what he is talking about! It's so cute! Balls are definitely his toy of choice! He still isn't saying any mommas, but he is (we think) saying yaya for dada. He actually put the "d" sound on it a few times when we were at the beach. He is still only pulling up to his knees, but with just a little help from us he can go from his bottom to his feet without a pause! He can stand and hold onto anything for a good while before his legs get tired. We've gotten out one of his walking toys and are letting him get a feel for it. He isn't taking any steps behind it yet, but I'm sure it won't be long. We are also in the process of transitioning him to more solids/table food, too. The boy loves to eat! One of my favorite things he has been doing for about a month now is giving us hugs. It is so so sweet! He also gives us open mouth kisses! They're awesome but messy...ha! We love him so very much, and it's nice to get something in return from him when we hug and kiss on him!

Small Group Beach Trip

We had a fabulous trip to North Myrtle Beach this past weekend with our small group!  The weather was absolutely beautiful, which made it even better!  We headed down there Friday afternoon with our friends Brian and Becky.  Joshua slept a good bit of the way and was in a good mood the rest of the time, so that made for a good car ride!  Friday night we played games and enjoyed each other's company.  Saturday morning we got up and headed out to the beach.  Joshua and Ayden had a blast playing in the sand.  Joshua liked feeling the sand and of course eating it.  You'll have to check out our picture page to see all of the adorable pictures on the beach.  Joshua was way off his normal schedule/routine, but he was a little trooper.  After a nap we were at it again.  We headed down to the indoor pool where we introduced Joshua to swimming!  I think we may have a little fish on our hands!  He LOVED swimming!  Even though he wore himself out and was clearly tired, he did not want to get out for an afternoon nap.  Saturday night we went out to dinner and celebrated my birthday.  We packed a lot in to one day, but it was oh so fun!  Sunday morning we took the boys back out to the beach for a few minutes before heading home.  We had such a great time and can't wait to do it again!!

Wedding Weekend

Dave and Tricia Eshleman

Dave and Tricia got married March 28th!!  Their wedding was a lot of fun, and we got to see lots of friends we haven't seen in a while!  Friday night they had their rehearsal dinner at Casa Carbone in Raleigh.  It was a really good little Italian restaurant that we've never been to.  We had a great time sitting with Brooke and Jeremy and catching up.  The wedding on Saturday was beautiful, and the dessert reception was awesome!  There were so many yummy sweet treats that I was in heaven (you know I'm the girl who loves her sweets).  They even had an ice cream bar....so cool!  We had a great time and enjoyed celebrating such a sweet couple.

Jeremy, Jeff Knapp, Jared, Dave, Derek, and Jeff Sweemer

While we were participating in the wedding festivities my mom (Ya Ya), grandmother (Granny), and sister Angel came up to visit/babysit/spend the night.  It was so nice to see them!  We all had a great time, and Joshua enjoyed all of the attention!  Thanks for coming family!

March in Review

It seems like March came and went before we even really got a chance to flip the calendar page.  We started the month with a sick baby who got his father and mother both sick.  Joshua had his first antibiotic due to the pink eye and ear infection he got from his sickness while his mother took her own antibiotic for the sinus infection caused by her sickness.  He quickly started to feel better as soon as the antibiotic was started so that we could have our playdate with Addison and her mom Jen.  Then on we went to Ashley's bridal shower in Concord.  Joshua was so very loved on that day.  It is days like that that spoil him and make our lives harder b/c he expects that same amount of attention from momma and daddy when we get home.  Needless to say, I seem to put off household chores to spend extra time with my baby and then wonder at the end of the day or week what the heck happened to my house.  However, we will never have this stage back with sweet Joshua, so I am trying to take in every second of it!  He is just way too much fun for this momma to handle, and I thank God every day for such a blessing!

Ashley and Joshua at her bridal shower

Ashley and Erin

After Ashley's shower we stopped by to see Grandma and Ga Ga in Albemarle.  Joshua enjoyed driving a car and dressing up like his Ga Ga.

Joshua turned 8 months old on the 12th, and on that very same day started sitting up from lying down on his own.  He's such a smart little boy!

Some of Derek's family came to town for his cousin Jack's basketball game.  His high school was in the state championship and Jack is one of the stars of the team.  We really enjoyed seeing that family b/c we don't see them very often.  Joshua even did really well at the game considering it started at 7:30...Joshua's normal bedtime.  The next day we went to hang out with Shane and Anna and their new baby, Grace.  She slept most of the time we were there, but Joshua enjoyed drooling on his mother's face and playing with his friend Greg (Nichole's husband and Ayden's daddy).  Then my darling son started CRAWLING!  He has since become a pro and it is oh so cute!  It's so fun to go away from him and then get him to come to me since he's never been able to do this before!  I just love him crawling after me!!  He has also started pulling on our legs if he crawls to us and wants to be picked up!  I can't say it enough.....I love that kid!!!  Thank you Lord for such an awesome baby boy!!

This past weekend, the final one in March (although I feel like there have been 50 weekends in March), our friends Tricia and Dave got married!  It was a great wedding, but I'll write more in a separate post about that.  We also went to a double baby shower on Sunday for our friends Mallory & JP and Sarah & Mike.  Sadly we forgot our camera, so we don't have any pictures to share.  It was great fun to catch up with some old friends!

March was a fast and fantastic month with many milestones!  We can't wait to see what all April holds for our family.  I just have to say, though, that I need my baby boy to quit growing up so fast.  We love to see him reach milestones, but I just can't take the fact that tomorrow he will be graduating from high school!