Friday, July 20, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 40)

7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 181)


1) Joseph has a serious fascination with our floor vents. He greatly enjoys taking them out of the floor and playing with them. Luckily only one toy has made its way down the vent so far, but I'm working on fixing the vent issue. I looked online for ways to baby proof floor vents, but the options were abysmal. I think we're going to go with nailing them straight into the floor. But that means buying new vents with screw holes. If anyone has any other ideas I'm open to them.

2) The whole vent issue has made me start using time out with Joseph. He knows full well that he isn't supposed to take them out of the floor which he makes clear when he looks to see if I'm watching before taking them out. Sometimes he'll sit and wait by the vent until I walk or look away then as soon as I'm not watching he's pulls it up. He's been doing the same thing with the diapers and wipes. He enjoys taking them all out of their bin. He especially enjoys pulling each wipe out individually so we have a nice pile of wipes on the floor. But, Joseph is a fast learner and already knows he has to stay seated until I come to get him out of time out. He occasionally has to be reminded (by my looking in his direction), but I no longer have to take him back and sit him down 20 times during one time out.

3) A couple weeks ago I took Joseph to participate in an infant study at the University of Maryland. Joseph quite enjoyed the play time before and after, but wasn't such a fan of sitting on my lap and watching the "show." He didn't seem to mind the cap they put on him too much though.
I've always been intrigued by studies done by psychologists and was thrilled to be able to participate.


4) Joseph's birthday party was a success. I spent a lot of time stressing about it (thanks, Pinterest), but it turned out great. I don't have any pictures of it (yet). I put my sister in charge of taking pictures since I was busy with everything else, but hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon!!

5) One thing I will think twice about in the future is baking Joseph's birthday cake(s). Although the cakes I made tasted great I'm not sure it was worth the time and effort that I put into it. One of my cakes turned out looking like a disaster (but tasted amazing) and I couldn't even serve it at the party. The other 2 (the main cake and Joseph's crush cake) turned out well, but just took a lot of time to put together. And I'm not exactly the queen of icing either. We'll see how I feel about it next year, but I have a feeling I'll be leaving the cake up to the professionals from now on.

6) My sister is getting married next week! I can't wait to see her walk down the aisle. It makes me think back to my wedding. We had such a great day! Can you believe that she will be the third person in our family to marry someone they met on CatholicMatch.com? It's true. My oldest sister and I also met our husbands on Catholic Match. I'm pretty sure our family should be the poster family for that website.

7) Softball season (Part 1) is coming to an end. The play offs start this week for both of Will's softball leagues which means that he'll be home even more starting a couple weeks from now (until league #3 starts up in the fall). Joseph and I enjoy watching him play, but can't wait for him to be home!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Happy 1st Birthday, Joseph!

It was one year ago today that our sweet Joseph was born. I remember being told that this year would go by quickly, and I knew everyone who told me this was right but I am still amazed how much Joseph  has grown and learned in just one year.
[12 month picture coming soon]

At one year old he is walking around and trying new things every day. He enjoys a good chase and likes to tease us by coming toward us then - when he's a few steps away - turning around and walking/running in the other direction. He often giggles with delight during both of these games.

Joseph has also recently learned to put objects into containers. He'll take out everything from one box then put it all back before repeating the process. Sometimes he'll take the box to the next room before repeating the "take everything out then return it to the box"game.
He also enjoys pretending to give someone a toy then when they try to grab it he quickly takes it back. He'll do this several times before actually handing over the toy.

Joseph also has quite the sweet tooth (I don't know where he got that from...), so I took him for his very first ice cream cone today - he loved it!

Joseph is quite a talker, but still doesn't seem to want to say "mom" or "mama." His favorite words are "dada", "no" and "uh-oh" but he can also say "hi" and "yea." He has said what sounds like "mama" but not very often and not referring to me. We're working on it :)

Joseph is so much fun to have around and we are so blessed to have him in our lives. Happy birthday, sweet boy!!! We love you!