7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 43)

A friend of mine sent out a family update email today which has inspired me to write this post. I originally started this blog with the intention of keeping a journal of our family - I wanted something I could look back on to remember the little things that happened. Unfortunately, I've only been posting about major events lately and neglecting to record some of the more mundane and, to me, interesting parts of life. I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping up ... we'll see how it goes.

1) Joseph's naps have been very erratic lately. He went from taking two naps a day to not wanting to nap at all. I did push the two-nap thing a little through my 1st trimester, but he didn't seem to mind and would take two good naps for me. But literally the day I entered my 2nd trimester is when he started fighting his naps. And this past Saturday he went on a nap strike altogether. He tried to strike again on Sunday, but ended up falling asleep with me on the couch in the late afternoon. This week has continued to be a little rough on the nap front. And the fact that Joseph has been a little sick (just a runny nose, really) hasn't helped the matter. The only way I've been able to get him to nap is by holding him and singing him to sleep or having him nap in the car. Neither of which are very good options. He has even started rejecting his before-nap books. He'll let me read the first few pages then he shuts the book as if to say he isn't interested in napping.
He generally needs at least one nap or he gets super clingy/cranky. I'm just not sure what to do about it.

2) Joseph has recently started saying "mama." I think he quasi-associates it with me which is super exciting. He also tried to say "ok" yesterday a couple different times. It's very similar to "uh-oh" which is why I think he likes it. I also taught him to say "dirty" today. As in, "The dustpan is dirty. We don't reach in to grab the dirt mom just swept up" or "The trash can is dirty. We don't reach in to pull out used diapers."

3) Joseph has also been teething like crazy lately. Starting right around 13 months I noticed he was getting his baby molars in on the bottom. Those were soon followed by the top bi-cuspids (the teeth between the incisors and baby molars ... I think that's what they're called) which are still working their way in. But in the mean time his top baby molars and bottom bi-cuspids have started coming in as well. All but the bottom bi-cuspids have broken through the gums. So, within the course of one month he's gotten 6 (soon to be 8) teeth. Crazy!

4) My belly grew last night. It's so weird how that happens when you're pregnant. I mean - not that it's weird that it gets larger, but that you'll wake up and feel that it is larger than when you went to sleep the night before.

5) I've been on the hunt for a couch this week. With it being Labor Day weekend I figured I'd be able to get a good deal (and I can), but I can't seem to make a decision. I've found a few that I like, but for some reason I just can't take the plunge. I feel like it's a lot of money to spend and ever since Will and I came up with a yearly budget for me to spend on stuff for the house...well...I've been much more cautious with my spending. Pretty much all these couches would eat up the remainder of the budget for the year, and I'm not sure I'm ok with that. I'm leaning towards putting off the purchase until next year so I can just roll over some money from this year and combine it with next year's budget. That way I won't eat up my entire budget 4 months before the year is over. And this way I can buy a few other more necessary things before the baby arrives (ahem, a crib). There will be more sales, right?

6) Joseph has been obsessed with the book "Good Night, I Love You" lately. He'll have us read it anywhere from 4-10 times in a row. He's also still fairly obsessed with "Llama, Llama, Wakey Wake."

7a) Two of my mommy friends (you might know Lisa) moved to TX this week (one last weekend, one this weekend). I'm sad to see them go, but it gives me a liiiiiiittle more leverage for convincing Will that we should move to TX (like that's ever going to happen...). I can dream, right?

7b) I'm super excited for the long weekend. Yay for having my husband home for 3 days in a row!!!

Aaaand this basically turned into a 7 (errr...8) Quick Takes Friday, so I guess I shall publish it as such.

Joseph's First Birthday

Joseph turned ONE (!!!) last month. Yes, I realize this post is super tardy, but it took a while to get the pictures and then other stuff happened and yadda yadda yadda. I'll stop making excuses now.

Joseph's birthday was tons of fun. We are so fortunate that many of our family members were able to come into town to help us celebrate. It was so nice to be able to share the weekend with them, and I was delighted that Joseph was able to spend some extra time with family that he doesn't see very often. 

The general theme for the party was initially basketball then sort of morphed into a blue/orange/ polkadot/basketball party - all of which are awesome. I used the same format for the day of the party that my sister used for my neice, Clare's, 1st birthday. I especially liked that it allotted special time for family to celebrate before the chaos of the big birthday party. The day of the party format was: lunch and presents with family starting at noon then a cake party with both friends and family starting at 2.

I am so grateful to my family for their help with setting up. I had so many big plans and got waaaay behind. For some reason I thought I could do everything on my own - what was I thinking? Thankfully they were able to help me pull everything together and the party went really well. 

I "made" Joseph's basketball shirt for the party a few days ahead of time by painting his name and the number 1 on the back so it looked like a basketball jersey (sort of). The front already had a basketball on it. I tried to make his cake match his shirt, but I'm not sure how well I accomplished this goal. You be the judge (it was the first time I attempted to ice a cake....after my first disastrous attempt earlier in the day....so maybe you can cut me some slack).

Joseph didn't have too much interest in opening presents (sadly), but he did do a little. Tearing paper he understood and enjoyed fairly well, but pulling tissue paper out of a bag he didn't understand quite as much. He got lots of neat books and really enjoyed looking through them. About halfway through opening his presents he got tired and ended up having to go down for a nap.

(yes, I realize the 1 is crazy crooked)

After his little nap, Joseph geared up for the rambunctious part of the day.

The balloons were a huge hit. I didn't actually mean for them to be entertainment, but I think I'll just fill a room with balloons next year and call it a day. The kids went crazy over them!

After playing for a while it was time for some cake. I made a little basketball cake for Joseph while the big basketball jersey cake was for everyone else.

We gathered everyone in the kitchen, put Joseph in his high chair and everyone began to sing. I was surprised when Joseph nearly cried. He looked absolutely terrified. He's usually a little ham - always looking for attention from complete strangers. I think he was just shocked by everyone singing together and looking at him all at once??? Anyway, he survived.

It took some time, but he eventually ate his cake - and loved it!

After getting all sugared up the kids played a little more then everyone headed home. The family then spent some more time hanging out.

Notice the birthday banner - that I made with the help of my
sisters - at the top. This is the only picture I have of it.

We finished the weekend with a "photo shoot" of Joseph and Clare.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 42)

1) I haven't been blogging lately because I've been tired. So, I've pretty much been sleeping any time Joseph has been sleeping. Which means I get very little done online or around the house. Also, I feel like our life has been fairly boring. So, there's that. (Yes, I have posts on Joseph's birthday and my sister's wedding coming soon!)

2) I've been tired because...

...I've been busy growing another child.

3) We're super excited about it, and it's been killing me not telling anyone. But we prefer to wait until the second trimester to tell the big news. (A post about why we wait to tell is also in the works...)

4) Yes, we're going to find out whether we're having a boy or girl. We get to find out next month.

5) Since becoming pregnant I've seriously considered giving up on my new years resolution. Sweets seem to be even harder to avoid now. I very often just want a chocolate chip cookie. Or a brownie. Or anything chocolate-y.

6) I finally decided today at mom's group that I'm at least altering my resolution. Now I'm only giving up sweets Monday-Thursday. So, I'll treat myself on weekends and try not to go overboard on those three glorious weekend days.

7) We can't wait to meet this sweet baby around February 13, 2013!!

Happy weekend, ya'll!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 41)

1) Have you been watching the Olympics? And when I say Olympics I really mean, gymnastics (because, seriously, that's all anyone really cares about). I've been losing a lot of sleep lately staying up to watch, but wasn't team USA awesome? And isn't Gabby Douglass the cutest!? USA! USA! USA!

2) My sister's wedding last weekend was beautiful! I took some pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I hope to do a post on the wedding weekend soon. Congratulations Jeannette and Tom!

All the sister's at the rehearsal dinner - Dinora, Alyse, Betsy, Jeannette (the bride!) and Julia.

3) I've been pretty lazy this week. I started getting annoyed with myself sometime yesterday that nothing was getting done. Then I realized it's because I haven't made a to-do list lately. I didn't even make a grocery list this week and that resulted in my going to the grocery store 4 times this week (I have to go today for the 4th time - le sigh). You better believe that I'll be making a to-do list this afternoon.

4) My cousin talked to me a little bit about cloth diapers this past weekend and how much she loves them. I've been a little lazy using mine and have recently only aimed to use them once a week (so, about 16 cloth diapers a week). She inspired me and I decided after our conversations that I'm going to try to be more conscientious about using the diapers - I mean I spent all that money to buy them and now I'm just going out and buying disposables, it doesn't make much sense. My goal is to not have to buy any more disposable diapers until September.

5) Joseph just keeps getting more and more creative/persistent. He now knows how to move the kitchen island (it's on wheels, but they stay locked) so he can get into the cabinet. He has also discovered another cabinet that hasn't been child-proofed (it's in the corner behind out kitchen table, so it took him a while to discover it) and enjoys pulling random stuff out of there. I guess installing more child-proof locks will be on my to-do list for next week.
And did I mention that he can now reach a full hand-length onto our kitchen table and is thisclose to reaching onto the kitchen counters? Yikes.

6) The quickest way to get Joseph interested in a toy is to start cleaning it up. This is especially true of puzzles, mega blocks, linking rings or his stacking blocks. What's up with that?

7) Since I still haven't done a post for Joseph at 12 months (becausew I haven't uploaded those yet either...and I'm not so technologically advanced that I have a smart phone) I thought I'd share with you a few photos from our trip to HIlton Head this past June.

Hangin' with Auntie Dinora and Auntie Alyse

Meeting the indian with dad before our (very long, one-hour)
carriage ride (where Joseph was required to stay in one place.
for one hour - did I mention that already?)

Reading books with Grandpa.

Headed to the pool with Nanna.

Have a lovely weekend, ya'll!