Friday, February 15, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 50)

 7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 207)

1) We'll just title this Quick Takes "Welcome Baby John!" since I've been meaning to do a post announcing our sweet John's birth, but just haven't gotten around to it.
John Francis
2/7/13  10:43am
8lb.  20.25in.
2) I've been trying really hard to take as many pictures of John as I did of Joseph, but I've had to remind myself several times to take pictures and we already missed the "mommy, daddy and baby" picture in the hospital. Oh well. Here are a bunch of other pictures to make up for that.
Daddy and John (dodging the camera)
3) This was taken in the 3.2 seconds Joseph stayed on the chair. Despite what it looks like in this picture, Joseph wasn't the least bit interested in his baby brother. He was interested in all the cool stuff in my hospital room and wanted to get back to causing trouble.

4) Don't worry - Joseph has showed interest in his little brother since then and even enjoys posing for pictures. We've had to do a lot explaining about how the bouncy seat is John's chair - it isn't for Joseph to sit or play on (especially when John is in the bouncy). I'm happy to report that we are casualty free thus far.

5) Grandpa came to visit for a few days and made us some delicious food. Joseph loved having his Grandpa around. He got pretty spoiled by Grandpa. Grandpa let him watch him cook (by holding Joseph for ridiculous amounts of time while preparing food). Grandpa read the same books over and over and over...and over and over and over. And Grandpa, of course, played basketball with him. But don't worry, Grandpa also got a chance to hold baby John :)


6) Have I mentioned that John LOVES his pacifier? It's true. He loves it a lot. 
Don't even think about taking my paci away.
7) On a related (but not cute) note. I weighed myself today. I knew I shouldn't have done that. These pictures should make up for that mistake, no?

7a) Our first mommy, daddy and John photo - to make up for the missed pic in the hospital. Bonus: Will is smiling and his eyes are open (and John isn't completely blocking his face)!

Thanks to Jen for hosting!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Christmas 2012

I realize this post is extremely late, but I wanted to share some a bunch of photos from our Christmas in Florida.

We'll start with our day at Magic Kingdom.
We spent our first full day in Florida at Disney's Magic Kingdom. This was Joseph's 2nd ex-utero trip to the Magic Kingdom. We took him for his first visit last February when he was about 7 months old. (We're very blessed that his Grandpa works for Disney and can get us in for free when we come visit!) I think Joseph was able to enjoy and take in a lot more this time around. It will be exciting to see how each visit is different.

One of the first things we did when we got to Magic Kingdom was go to the new Monster's Inc. show. We also took Joseph to see Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Luckily, he likes the characters even though they're huge compared to him.

I really wanted to take Joseph on the Dumbo ride while we were there. The line was crazy long, but they have a play area for the kids to play while you are waiting. You get a little buzzer (like at a restaurant) to tell you when it's your turn to ride. So smart!!

We, of course, had to go on It's a Small World and a few other rides as well. Joseph really seemed to enjoy his day and was completely worn out by the end of the day. I look forward to many more visits to  the magical land of Disney World!


Most of the rest of our Christmas vacation was spent relaxing and visiting with Grandpa and Aunt Tiffany. We took Joseph on walks pretty much every day and took him to a nearby park a couple times. He loves parks and makes friends so easily. I, of course, had to take a bunch of pictures.

Joseph really started to get the hang of opening presents this Christmas. He's so cute when he opens things because he hands every. single. tiny. scrap of paper (and there are LOTS of little scraps when he's opening things) to us to throw away. It's definitely better than having to pick up all those little pieces after he's done - that's for sure!

Joseph really enjoyed hanging out with his Grandpa and Aunt Tiffany. And he loves the giant teddy bear that Granpa has!

Friday, February 1, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 49)

7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 202)

1) Today is going to be a whirlwind of a day. It starts with a doctor's appointment (that hopefully shows labor is imminent) immediately followed by me hosting mom's group (most likely my last mom's group before the arrival of #2). Then this afternoon I head to a 3-day silent retreat. Hopefully Joseph will get a nap in there somewhere so I have a chance to get ready for the retreat.

2) I'm super excited about this retreat. First of all, it's a silent retreat. I've only been on one other silent retreat, and I loved it. It should be a good, relaxing, spiritually engaging time. Although I am a little worried about being away from Joseph for two nights. It will be my first time being away from him for even one night let alone two. But that's part of the reason we're doing this - to prepare Joseph (and me) for my hospital stay.

3) I found this website that tells you your chances of going into labor on a given day this week. Being the math nerd that I am, and wanting this baby out means I pretty much love it and check it on the daily. Not that me checking some website is going to get the baby out, but I like to know my odds for going into labor on any particular day.

4) I think I've mentioned before that Joseph's vocabulary is taking off, and it's true. He mimics words like crazy now. He pretty much tries to say everything we say and does a fairly good job pronouncing words. It's so nice that he's (generally) able to communicate what he wants now. We don't always understand, but our communication seems to get better by the day, and that's really nice.

5) Joseph loves numbers and counting. I will often let him watch Sesame Street (usually once a day), but occasionally he gets a little bored (the fairy portion bores him most days) so he goes and plays with his toys during the "boring" parts, but as soon as someone starts counting he perks up and runs back to the TV. It's pretty cute to watch. He also tries to say the numbers back to the TV and will dance along with the characters when they're counting. I can tell he's really interested and that makes me so happy! He's taken a particular liking to the number 9. So, when we count with him he says "9" anytime he doesn't know the next number. He can also point out the number 9 in his counting books (although he frequently thinks the number 6 is 9). He will often flip to the page with the number 9 and say "nine!" in the most southern accent you can imagine - it really sounds more like "nahn!"

6) My Christmas post is coming soon (finally), but here's a picture that didn't make it into the post (or maybe it will make it in, who knows). This was taken as soon as we let Joseph out of the stroller at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Instead of going into the Monster's Inc. show he just sat down on this ledge of concrete. Go figure. He was in the most magical place on earth and he wanted to sit here. Don't worry - it didn't last too long before he moved on to bigger and better things.

7) Have a lovely weekend!!

Thanks to Jen for hosting. Now go check out some more Quick Takes!