More pictures from Joseph's birthday weekend

Snips 'n Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

That's what little 1-year-old boys are made of. Joseph turned 1 on Friday and a dog-themed birthday party at his grandparents' house in Nashville. Here are some highlights. . . more to come soon.

It had to happen eventually. . . .

With only a week and a half to go, I thought we'd make it through the whole first year without having to go to the doctor for a sick visit. But Joseph got a stomach bug Monday night and I finally got a taste of the "un-fun" part of being a mommy. But it looks like the end is in sight. Joseph has been able to keep down his liquids since last night (although we seemed to have a couple of "almost incidents" this morning) and even had a couple of bites of apple sauce. Poor kid just doesn't understand why we won't feed him. Here's a shot of our sweet boy this morning, still recovering. . . .

On a side note - even though I was expecting sickness eventually - there was something I was unprepared for. Immediately when Joseph would start to vomit, it would scare him and of course he would reach for me. Of course, I mean, where else would you turn? Sweet, right? Except for the vomit. . . . . We've been doing a lot of laundry.

On an additional side note - since we did have to go to the doctor, Joseph was weighed. The scales showed a whopping 24 lbs. and 12 oz. . . . and this was after a day of . . . well, you know. yuck.

7

We are up to 7 teeth! 3 on the top and 4 on the bottom.

Family picture

It's a rare occurance for us to all be in the same picture. . . . but Melinda happened to take one while she was here and I um, borrowed it.

Field Trip to Ft. Sumter

Melinda was in town visiting for a couple of days and we took a trip to Ft. Sumter. It was also Joseph's first experience on a boat. . . . . I'm not sure he realized it . . . .

Don't mind me . . .

I'm just going to take a little nap here. . . .

Climbing & Water Adventures

Part 1 - Climbing

Climbing is Joseph's new favorite thing. We don't have stairs inside - this is a good thing. He learned how to climb stairs a couple of months ago and is a pro at it. Especially once he figures out that someone is right behind him - and then he gets faster and louder.

But now he climbs on everything. The couch, the chair, the futon, the coffee table. And he's fast. Last week the guys were unloading stuff onto our front porch for the new bathroom. I left the room for a second. When I came back in, not only was Joseph on the futon, but he was on top of the big pillow and hanging over the back of the futon with his face pressed against the window so he could watch the unloading process.

The bad thing - depth perception. He has very little of this. He's started to get good at getting off the chair, couch and futon. . . although he still does it head first. But the coffee table is a different ballgame. He likes to climb on top and then turn around to sit. The problem being that the coffee table isn't very wide and by the time he turns around to sit - well, the portion of the coffee table in front of him is quite bigger than the portion behind him and he falls off backwards. Before grandparents start freaking out - I'm right behind him of course. But I do have to put the coffee table upside down on the couch if I'm going to leave the living room for any amount of time.

Eventually maybe I'll get pictures of this. Currently I'm much to preoccupied with making sure our little climber doesn't fall.

Part 2 - Water Adventures

We were in Atlanta this weekend for Labor Day. Unfortunately we forgot our camera. Joseph kept us so busy though, we probably wouldn't have had time to use it. He loves to explore everything and this new house was full of opportunities. He also loves to chase after things - and this house has 2 cats and an almost-3-year-old named Ella. He also loves computers and on Sunday afternoon there were about 7 guys sitting around the living room holding laptops and drafting their Fantasy Football teams. A 11-month-old computer-crazy boy's dream. Momma was quite weary of saying "no sir, Joseph!"

Yes - water adventures - getting to it. I mentioned the cats. Well where there are cats, there is a water dish. And where there is a water dish, there is Joseph - splashing in it, dropping things in it. Again and again "no sir, Joseph!" And then the ultimate revenge on Momma - quicker than you can say "he took my cell phone and dropped it in the water dish" . . . . well . . . . .

Having had some past experience with cell phones and water. . . . I quickly took it entirely apart, dried it with the hair dryer on cool and let it sit overnight. It works perfectly (so far).

Joseph's new room - before and after

These are the "before" pictures - or actually, the "mid-way" pictures since I thought about taking them after we had already put on a coat of primer. The walls were a deeper blue.

And here are the "after" pictures - Joseph's new room!

Coming soon - new bathroom . . . . . . currently in production.

11 Months Old!

Wow - my amazing powers of deduction tell me that this means Joseph is almost a year old. How time flies. Can you believe that 11 months ago Joseph looked like this?Now he is quite the big boy. . .

His favorite game is "Where is Joseph?!" - this is played several ways. If he initiates the game, then it starts by him standing behind one of us while we're sitting on the floor with his hands on our shoulders. We pretend to not know where he is and look around for him. . . . then you feel him start to walk to one side and a smiling little face pops around your shoulder. "Here I am!" Another way is when he disappears from the living room (usually into our room on a destruction mission) and one of us will say loudly - "where is Joseph? I don't know where he went!" Almost immediately we'll hear the "slap, slap, thump, thump" of our little crawler coming back into the living room as fast as he can with a grin from ear to ear. "Here I am!"

His favorite time of day is when Daddy comes home. Daddy used to feel like chopped liver because Momma got all the love . . . . she was the one with the food. But now Daddy is the source of much fun and entertainment. As soon as the key is in the lock, Joseph's little face swings towards me with raised eyebrows - "daddy?" I barely get out the "Da" in "Daddy's home!" before he's off towards the door like a shot.

He's taking more and more steps and becoming more sure of himself in the walking area. But we'll see how soon he actually starts up on his own.

He's a very determined little boy. Determined to get into and explore everything. Most of my day is spent reacting . . . . and picking up things.

And here's a picture I'm throwing in for fun - Joseph watching "Madagascar" . . .