Sunday, June 27, 2010

Ten Months Old

It was a month full of achievements for Mr. Josh. He kicked off month 10 by sitting up, starting to crawl, and pulling up and that was all in the first weekend. By the end of the first week, he had advanced from two to three strides at a time to a full-fledged crawler. These days he is anywhere and everywhere and constantly pulling up to standing. He hasn't quite mastered the art of cruising yet but I am sure that will come momentarily. He definitely loves his new mobility and has reminded us that we need to be on guard since everything goes into his mouth.

Additionally, at the start of month 10, the little guy had zero teeth. Now as the month closes out, he has four that have broken through the gums and two that are really close. Thankfully he has been a good sport with teething since it has been pretty well constant for the past several weeks. The new teeth must feel somewhat funny to him because his tongue is constantly hanging out his mouth to one side or the other as evidenced by most of the recent photos posted on this blog. The best is when the tongue is hanging out and the drool is pouring down.

We have made the transition to primarily table foods this month and the boy loves it. So far he hasn't met anything that he didn't like other than canned peaches possibly. One of the favorite foods of both Emma and Josh is black beans, which is great because I use them a lot especially during the summer.

I really can't believe that we only have two more months until the little boy is a year old and can't wait to see what he does in his eleventh month. My personal wish is to finally hear him say "Mama" but we'll see!



Thursday, June 24, 2010

Ode to Emma

Seems like all posts lately have been primarily devoted to the little boy and whether that is truly the case or not, it is time to pay homage to Miss Emma who loves nothing more than to walk around in my shoes or "kwoppy kwops" as she calls them. I think this is derived from the fact that they go klop, klop when she walks but the "l" has become a "w" and well, there you have it.

Does it mean that we frequent Starbucks too much when Emma starts referring to the one we stop at on the way to daycare as "our Starbucks" and if we go to a different location, tells us that she wants to go to "ours"?

One of the new things when Emma and Josh are riding in the car is for her to look over at him and start yelling "Well hello Josh" over and over. Eventually she will stop and say "I'm loud". Yes you are but you are also entertaining your little brother so by all means, carry on.

Every Thursday morning they go to Chapel at daycare. Every week we ask Emma what Pastor talked about and without fail, her standard answer is "God the Father". How can you argue that one?

Tonight as Brad was leaving the house to go to a dinner, he told Emma that he loved her very much. She responded with "I love you very much too Daddy and I love Josh"; my heart melted.

That is just a few highlights of the darling Miss Em and here are a few photos of her enjoying her new sandbox.





Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A Visit with Uncle Dale


Dale got to come down last week on business so we were lucky enough to get to spend a couple of evenings with him. We went out for dinner at The Faded Rose, which was Emma's favorite place for frog legs back in the day. I don't think that she has had frog legs since Dale's visit last July so she immediately turned up her nose at the frog legs with the typical "I no like them". Lo and behold, she was convinced to try one and three frog legs later, our little connoisseur was back. The little man got to try them as well and loved them but then again, I don't think I have met a food yet that the little man does not like. Emma really enjoyed having Uncle Dale here and not just because he bought her ice cream. We hope he can come back soon again!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Birthday Season!

I was unaware but apparently birthday season kicks off near the end of May. We have already celebrated with a couple of Emma's friends and had to turn down a couple of invitations due to conflicts. There are several more parties in the upcoming weeks. If I had a monthly budget, I would definitely have to add a birthday present expenditure. The weekend before last, we got to go celebrate with Derek who just turned 3. There was water, grilled burgers and hot dogs, cake, and snow cones. What more could you ask for in a party? Here are a few photos that were snapped by our hostess Renee.





Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Monday, June 14, 2010

Lots of Company

We have had our fair share of visitors to our hot and humid city of late. About two weeks ago, Grandma came to visit and Cap stopped in for about a day as well. Emma had a great time and didn't let a little fever get her down too much. Then last weekend, Bo and Gram came to see us. We have tried our best to stay busy in spite of the weather. The one good thing about this weather is that the neighborhood pool is at the perfect temperature in my estimation. Tomorrow Uncle Dale will be in town on business and get to spend a couple of nights with us; Emma cannot wait! Emma has loved having all of the extra attention and Josh has done his best to demonstrate lots of new skills including his increasing desire to stand now that the crawling is under control. Speaking of crawling, Josh and Emma had a ball the other night playing a little game of chase. Emma would run down the hall and dive onto her belly where she would wait for Josh to come and get her. Once he finally got there, he would give her a little touch on the leg or foot and she would take off down the hall the other way to flop down somewhere and wait again. They were both cracking up the entire time. Emma totally demonstrated some patience as it would take some time for Josh to catch her but he would always get there. Here are a few photos from the past two weekends.


Thursday, June 10, 2010

Happy Birthday Brad!

Since your birthday last year, you started a new job...
Ran your first 1/2 marathon in too many years...


Welcomed this handsome little man into our family and...


Watched this little girl continue to grow into a beautiful little lady...


We hope you have a great birthday and while we aren't expecting so many major changes before your next birthday, I can promise that we'll try to make it lots of fun. Happy, happy birthday!!!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Moving On Up!

Emma was promoted to the three year old class yesterday. Two spots opened up this week so out of fairness, they moved up the two oldest in Emma's class on Monday. As it turns out, one of them really missed his friends so as the third oldest, Emma was given the opportunity to move up to the "big kid class". It sounds like Emma was a little jealous that her friend Annie got to go to the big kid class on Monday so she was eager to make the move yesterday. After two days, the transition has been seamless. She has done great and is enjoying the additional freedom that comes with being among the three year olds. For instance, they are allowed to retrieve and stow stuff in their cubbies by themselves. Overall, the daily routine is pretty similar although shifted by about 1/2 hour, which is actually more close to what Emma does at home anyhow. I am sure that Emma will miss her BFF, Libby, but they'll be reunited before long and I'm sure they'll still get to play together at times. After her first day, one of Emma's teachers asked her how she liked her new class and she responded that she liked all the new toys but she still had to go home with Mommy, Daddy, and Josh as if we could ever forget that little sweetheart. We are not surprised at all by how well Emma has adapted; she'll definitely be ready to show the rest of her friends the ropes when they all get promoted in August.

Monday, June 7, 2010

A Big Week!

Last week was a big week for the little man. As I noted in his nine month update, he started sitting up shortly after his check-up. By Memorial Day, he had started to make some real progress with crawling, going 1 or 2 strides forward. Throughout the week, Josh continued to progress each day and as of last Saturday is now a full-fledged crawler. Josh also decided that Memorial Day would be a great time to pull himself up for the first time. Of course, he decided to make his move while in the bathtub. Brad and I generally bathe Emma and Josh together at the same time but on this particular night, Brad was hanging some pictures downstairs so I told him I had it under control. It was all I could do to get Emma washed while trying to keep one hand on Josh since every time I set him down, he would stand right back up. I definitely won't be attempting any baths solo for a while. To round out the week, the little man cut his first two teeth. He really wasn't showing any of the classic signs of teething but there they were. May the rest of them come in so easy. Good job on all your new accomplishments little man. Now it's time to work on "Mama"!