Josiah is eleven months old today! In only one month, he will be a year old...hard to believe. Here are a few things he's been up to:

Pulling himself up onto everything in sight. He is a climber for sure! We are just working on the climbing down part...not always graceful, but he does either turn himself around and scoot off,

or go head first like a wheel barrel.

Walking! Well, I should say stepping. In the past couple of weeks, Josiah taken two or three steps at a time without holding on. Any day now, he'll break free!

For now, he uses his walker. He's like a little old man, flinging it around, and pushing stuff out of his way. He even mutters sometimes as he walks.

Josiah has been definitely starting the tantrums, and we can tell he is going to be quite strong-willed. Anyone know of any good books for this that do not involve physical torture? We are on the hunt for some strategies!

Josiah is saying several words in context, so we know that he is quite sure of the purpose. He says 'done', 'down' (these two sound very similar, but the 'down' has a bit of a twang! He also uses 'down' when he means up), 'again', 'amen', 'no', 'duckie', and of course 'mom' and 'dad'. Sometimes I think he is saying other words, but the results are inconclusive so far. He has to prove it to me before it makes it onto his baby calendar!


Things he is enjoying: our first family camping trip (pictures of this will follow soon), his new play group at my gym, mega-blocks (a lot!), mega-block building wall, his push walker, balls, farm set, and books. Oh, and wrestling, peek-a-boo, chase, and tickling...we are now the recipients of tickles. Here is Josiah on the floor with Mr. Dragon, his favorite wrestling opponent.

Our little guy is growing fast. Since he was a new baby, many strangers have mistaken Josiah to be a little (or a lot) older than he is. The worst one was a couple of weeks ago, when someone asked me if he was potty trained. I told them that he wasn't, but that I'd love to have some tips on how to toilet train a ten-month-old baby! I think I'll just enjoy his last month as a real baby, and save the training for a bit later!

My sleeping baby is back! Thankfully, Josiah seems to be back to his normal self. He is napping for about 1-1.5 hours in the morning, and at least 2 hours in the afternoon. He is also going to bed fairly well again. The unfortunate thing is that he is now not taking his bottles as frequently- I think he might be weaning off of them. Sometimes, before his naps, he doesn't take any of his bottle at all! Below is a picture of one of those times. He fell asleep in the car and went straight to his crib for the rest of his nap. The bottle thing makes me sad. I am losing my baby- time for a new one!

Who Knew

Who knew that Little Swimmers could be so handy!

Who knew that Josiah would look so good in pink!

Who knew that Little Swimmers are actually made for boys and girls...really, the outside of the package gave no indication (Well, maybe a small hint. I just didn't see the mermaid. Must have been in my sleep deprived haze a couple of weeks ago!). Good thing we have several pairs of cute, manly swim trunks to hide these babies, 'cause I'm too cheap not to use them all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jenn/Mom!

Just some B-Day pics of Jenn [Mom] over the past 9 years!

We love you! Josiah & Chris.

Here are pictures of Josiah's first trip to the beach (in July). He had to eat before enjoying the fun. Here he is, watching the ocean, just waiting to go for it!

Crawling on the sand bar...

Splashing in the waves!

This video is the only one we got of Josiah in the water. It was quite cold because July was not very sunny in this part of the country, so it was a brief swim.

Here are Chris and Josiah drying off.

This is Josiah after the whole experience. I think he really liked it!

On the way home from the beach, Josiah started doing this for the first time.

He has often put his feet in his mouth, but never like this. It scared me at first, because I thought he was choking on something, but now we know without even looking what is going on (and yes, this happens regularly now!). I can't get used to it. It still grosses me out!

We love the beach, and are happy to be able to enjoy it with Josiah now too. Maybe next year, he won't eat quite as much sand!

~Have you ever been so tired, that you just needed your baby to nap, if only for a short time?

~Have you ever done everything possible to make the nap happen, waking the baby into a greater state of alertness than when the nap started?

~ Have you ever been so desperate that you loaded the baby into the car, and drove around aimlessly in hopes that he would fall asleep?

~ Have you ever stopped for coffee so that you wouldn't fall asleep while you were driving the tired, screaming baby around?

~ Have you ever been so tired, that when you did stop for coffee, you paid, and then drove away without the coffee...

Summer Fun

Here are a few pictures (and video of Josiah) in his swimming pool for the first time.

It was an early birthday gift, but he didn't get to enjoy it until the weather warmed up.

He loves it, and now tries to lunge out of our arms every time we walk by to go inside.

This week, we've had frogs come to visit in the pool. I got them out, but they found their way back while Josiah was still swimming. We both chased them around, although I think for very different reasons!

Here is a video of his first time in his own pool. I think the water was a bit cool. You can hear his grunting sounds, which usually indicate over-the-top excitement and happiness! It's what he does when he just doesn't know what else to do, and his whole body shakes- kind of funny!