Photos

I have posted 53 new photos on flickr. You can access them by clicking on any of the pictures in the column to the right of this paragraph... Enjoy!

Christmas

Joshua had a wonderful Christmas. He loved the time spent with Aunt Trina and Uncle Josh. In the beginning, he would only go to them for 5-10 minutes at a time. But, after a couple of days, he was very comfortable and only came to me for eating and changing needs. He took naps with them and played.

On Friday, we all went to my parent's house for the weekend. Aunt Jill and Aunt Tara were there and Aunt Amy, Tio Omar, Dylan and Stephanie came, too. We had a fun weekend of eating, sleeping, playing and opening lots and lots of presents! Christmas morning with 13 people is quite an adventure!! Santa figured out where everyone was and made sure there were presents for everyone. Joshua received many clothes, toys, a bond and a stroller.

On Monday, before going home and before the 3 hour 'packing-the-car' event, we took Joshua for a walk in his new stroller. He was quite comfortable and slept for most of the trip. He woke up just as we were arriving home. He is looking forward to many, many more walks. I liked how smooth of a ride he had and my back liked not having to carry Bruiser for a little while.

Now, we are home and getting back into our daily routine. Joshua had a tough time with naps as he didn't want to miss a thing! Makes for a not so agreeable baby. But, last night, he slept from 10:30-5:45. Oh, and I don't want to forget, he had two highlights. Last Wednesday, he grasped and held on to a toy for the first time and yesterday, he squealed with pleasure for the first time. It is so fun to see him developing every day.

visit

Joshua has been having a lot of fun with Aunt Trina and Uncle Josh. We have a ton of picture but just haven't posted them... not too helpful, eh? There are 3 new ones on flickr. One with him playing with his new puppets from his Auntie and Uncle. He loves them! Especially the camel and the tarantula. We are planning to go to Philadelphia or Brandywine Valley (near Philly) today. More to come...

Movies!

Ok, I finally got some movies compressed - but not edited, so you are hereby forewarned... The easiest way to get them is to just use your browser's mechanism for "Downloading the linked file", I didn't use embedded QuickTime...

Without further ado, here they are


Reading to Joshua... About 5 MB.


Josh hanging out with Dad... Around 11 MB.


Josh gets a bath! Very cute. Around 27 MB.


Joshua's first playing session! Very long, and possibly boring to someone other than his parents ;-). Around 38 MB.

Have fun, and hopefully we won't overuse the Godfather's bandwidth.

2 month check up

Joshua weighed in at 14 lbs 9 oz and 25.25 inches long. The dr said he was, 'Off the charts', 'The size of a 4 month old!'. He received three shots of vaccines today and did well. After the appointment I was nursing him and had not put his clothes back on yet. I did cover the appropriate area but he peed and it looked like I wet MY pants. Guess I didn't have him covered the right way!

Reading

This photo was taken last Sunday while visiting Grandma V.'s house after church. Joshua loves to read.

Happy Birthday!

Joshua is 2 months old today. We will take his picture later by the Christmas tree. Last night we had a fire in the fireplace. Joshua liked that. He fell asleep in my arms while I rocked and read to him. It was picture-perfect.

Oh Poop!

Joshua managed to surprise Jason, Grandma V. and me yesterday. He pooped while Grandma was holding him. She was standing and had him upright when to everyone's surprise his hard work came dripping out his pant leg, ewww!! Only wish we had saved a shot of that for posterity.

Joshua has begun having new wonderful routines including sleeping 4-5 hours a night and taking a long nap in the middle of the day. That said, he still has screaming fits 1-2 times a week and likes to fight sleep. But I am feeling a bit more human now that he is sleeping more soundly at night.

Dinner with the Andreen's

Yesterday, Joshua had two highlights. First, he enjoyed a long walk in the beautiful weather with Kim and Ellianna. He rode in the front carrier facing forward and taking in all the new sights. Later, Ryan, Kim and Ellie returned for dinner. Both little ones behaved fairly well during dinner and then they played on the floor together afterwards. Ellie was so sweet and stroked Joshua's head when he started crying! She is 5 months old tomorrow and Josh will be 2 months next Wednesday.

Playtime!

What a cutie!! Joshua just yesterday started reallly playing on his little floor gym. He smiles and bats at the toys hanging down and then they move and make noise. He gets all excited and starts moving his arms and legs. He coos and chortles at them too. It is great!

Thanksgiving

Joshua has had a busy few days here. On Wednesday evening he went to Ron and Christine's house for dinner. I don't know that he will be invited back however, he screamed his way through dinner and the rest of the evening until just before we left at 10:30pm.



Thursday was Thanksgiving and after getting up slowly, we made our way to Grandma and Grandad Vasbinder's house for dinner. We arrived early and enjoyed just hanging out and helping where we could. Great Grandma held Joshua until just before dinner when he decided to wake up. Luckily, Thursday was nothing like Wednesday and he only cried a little.



Friday, Joshua got up with me to go shopping. Just couldn't resist those Black Friday sales!! We only hit one store and were home by lunchtime. It wasn't too bad except for the weather. It was 23 degrees outside!!



Friday evening, we went to dinner with Carie, Joshua's Godmother. He slept through that meal giving us a nice dinnere where we both were able to sit and enjoy!

Saturday and Sunday were lazy days. But, on Saturday, Joshua did enjoy a conversation with Grandma and Grandpa Owens through video chat.

Christmas shopping

Joshua went Christmas shopping with Mommy yesterday. He picked out a couple items for himself, including these super cute shoes from Old Navy.

On the way to Grandma's House

On Saturday Joshua packed his bags (toys, diapers, several changes of clothes) and headed over to Grandma and Grandad's house to have his first visit without Mommy and Daddy. Mom and Dad went to see Goblet of Fire, their first outing without the little munchkin. Here he is in his new overalls all ready to go!



While at Grandma's, Joshua enjoyed a visit from Mom Beam. They snuggled until Mommy returned home from the movies...



Later that day, Aunt Amy and the gang joined everyone at Grandma's for an early Thanksgiving dinner.



Today, Joshua made his way to church for the first time. Everyone was so excited to meet him! When he arrived he was awake but quiet. He fell asleep part way through the service and never screamed once! What a good boy.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

On Tuesday, Joshua went to visit Grandma, Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa. Over lunch he met Mrs. Debbie Morrison and while visiting Great Grandma & Grandpa he also met their friend Kay. He was very polite and slept (instead of screaming) the whole time. He and Grandpa shared a few guy moments on the couch after he woke from his nap...



On Wednesday, Joshua met his Aunt Jo for the first time when she came into town. He liked the way she held him just right...



On Thursday, Joshua had a laid back day of reading, napping and eating. In the afternoon, he enjoyed a visit from Miss Kim and Ellie.

Joshua had been having longer periods of alert/play time and has been enjoying his swing. He also likes to lay on the changing table and look around. He held on to his caterpillar toy for the first time tonight. He is starting to establish a bit of a routine and generally has a period of awakefulness in the morning followed by a light nap. When he wakes up he is usually alert until mid afternoon when he takes another nap. Then he fusses in the evening and goes to bed between 8 and 11pm.

Photos at Flickr...

Don't forget to check out our photos at http://www.flickr.com. We often put more pictures up there than we post here. Just click on the pictures on the right of the page and it should take you there. I don't think it makes you login - but registration is free anyway...

A little under the weather

Joshua has stuffy nose that started Friday morning. We are not sure if it is from the fire we had in the fireplace Thursday or a cold. He has not been around anyone sick that we know of. In any case, he is making lots of frowning faces and snargling sounds.



Yesterday, Grandma and Grandad V. came over and we all went for a hike along the Susquehanna river. Joshua enjoyed the hike through closed eyelids. He does like being outside and walking and is always calm when doing so.

Happy Birthday!

Joshua found his hands tonight and was touching them together and playing with them :-) He is one month old today! Happy birthday, Joshua!

Reading Lessons

Tuesday was a busy day for Joshua. He and Mommy went to the breast feeding support group in the morning. His weight yesterday was 13 lbs, 1 oz. Then Joshie tooled around Walmart in the front carrier while Mommy shopped. When Jason returned home from work, he read Harry Potter to Joshua (since he was in a good mood and not screaming). Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Monday, Monday

Joshua had a good day today (even though he is suffering from the evening fussies now). He let Mommy take a shower this morning, while he rocked in his rocker. Then he read several books, the baby animals was his favorite. In the afternoon, he took a walk in his front carrier up to see Miss Kim and Ellianna. Both Ellie and Josh napped and ate while the Mommies visited. He took a long 2 hour nap in the afternoon. When Daddy got home the photoshoot began. Here are a few of the best ones:

Another Drs. Appt.

Joshua visited the dr. again on Friday for a re-check of one of his screening tests. The nurse also weighed him...12 lbs, 8 oz. He has gained about 1 lb a week! No wonder he eats all the time!

More sleeping and errands

Unfortunately, Tuesday night's sleep was not as successful as Monday's and Joshie was up every hour on the hour. However, we still had a fun day with Grandma V.



In the morning, we planted mums outside. Joshua loves the front carrier so he helped by quietly hanging out in the carrier. Joshua also loves reading and Grandma read him a story while he touched the pages.



We ran a couple of errands to Target & Gabriel Bros (clothes store) where Josh received the attention of the pharmacist and cashier. Everyone is always amazed at his size and alertness compared to his age.

Grandma went home in the afternoon and Mommy & Daddy spent the later part of the evening soothing Joshie. He did sleep from 11pm-3am and then from 4am-6am which was a huge accomplishment. We won't get too excited about it though as the trend is not likely to continue.

Right now, he is sleeping, grunting and squeaking while I type.

Visit from Grandma V.

Last night Joshie was soothed back to sleep with head-rubbing... a first!

Today, we went for a walk and Josh subsequently screamed himself to sleep while grandma changed his diapers. We then took a small errand trip which Josh slept through---all in all a pretty low key day. The only highlight was our car seat adventure: it seems as though Josh has already outgrown the car seat (either that or I can't adjust the straps properly). Either way, we had to install our other seat instead.

Dad was at work. How fun.

Screamie, Screamie, Halloweenie!

Daddy went back to work today and Joshua kept Mommy quite busy by staying awake, alert, and demanding all day. Even still, he's squeaking while lying on Mom's chest at 9:19 PM.

First up, we have Joshua on Auntie Jill's shoulder:



Isn't he the cutest?? Next up, we have the "Mad Baby"! Don't cross him, or he'll drip milk on you!



Kimberly and Ryan stopped by with Ellianna to show us her costume... the little peapod was as adorable as ever. She was sleeping. Josh was... awake. Not shown is Ryan in his Fred Flintstone outfit (we didn't want to scare away the viewers ;-)



And finally, the little trick-r-treater himself. Don't be fooled. His eyes were only closed for a few minutes.



Time for bed. Josh just stopped screaming, and Daddy has a sore throat. Nota Bene: the fact that he stopped screaming does not imply the peace will last for long!

Playing!

Oh yes, almost forgot to mention that Josh "played" for the first time yesterday morning! So what do I mean by play? Well, we laid him down on his activity blanket with the hanging characters... they rotate, jump up and down, and make some noise. At first he wasn't too interested, but eventually he stared at them (or at least in their general direction), and started batting at them with his "gross motor skills" while maintaining interest. Very cool :-)

Last night

Ok, so we didn't make a post yesterday! Instead, we were having an enjoyable social evening with Tara, Jill, and Christopher. We had some nice appetizers, listened to music, and talked about the baby (and took turns consoling him when he decided to scream).

Speaking of the Joshua, we'll have some more pictures posted after we upgrade the flickr account.

Our activities for the day:

• Wake up (this took a long time...)
• Visit the mall (get an Airport Extreme to replace the ailing D-Link wireless router)
• Trader Joe's (to get the yummy appetizers)
• Home for some fun!

A grand day out...

Mommy, Joshie, Auntie Jill and Auntie Tara went on a little trip today. We picked out some new clothes at Osh Kosh... he gave the thumbs up or down on Mommy's selections, as he hung around in the front carrier.

After a light snack in the car, we stopped at Target for a few necessities---and then it was on to home for naptime and dinner!

Dad stayed home to mow the lawn. How fun.

Aunt Tara and da baby...

After dinner, Auntie Tara had some time with da baby... Joshie smiles for the camera.

Just kickin' it...

and hanging out.

Joshua is out cold...

or, simply in shutdown mode from stimulation overload... but isn't he cute?

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First post...

...trivial. Now let's see what flock can do!