Busy Busy

Since being on new medicine and adding a few more meals to the day, Joseph is back to his happy, toothless self. These couple of pictures were taken on his 6 month birthday... he's getting so big!

Joseph's latest trick? Napping on his belly! He still isn't a fan of being on his belly, but when he rolls over while sleeping (or maybe he's kinda awake, not really sure when he does it), he's taken to fussing for a bit, finding his thumb, and going back to sleep.

This started earlier this week, and now when we get him up from most naps and in the morning, he's on his belly and smiling!

Joe found him cuddling with a stuffed dog a few nights ago... He rolled onto his back from his side as Joe was taking the picture, but when he peeked in, he was wrapped up around the dog.

And in anticipation of Joe's big birthday party Saturday, we've been working like crazy to finish projects and get the house in tip top shape. We've done a bunch of yard work, swapped out some lights in the basement, finished the baseboard in the kitchen, and best of all, finished the screened porch! It only took 2 years, but now it's really done. This weekend I painted the ceiling trim pieces and scrubbed the porch and furniture, while Joe finished installing the exterior trim and fixed the light on the ceiling fan. We actually ate dinner on the porch for the first time last night, taking advantage of the breezy 70 degree night!

And this morning, we awoke to our tree trimmers showing up to tackle a few fruit trees that have been a huge pain, and trimmed up our big magnolias in the front. We have a large patch that has been too shady to get grass growing, and now hopefully that won't be a problem. And you can definitely see the house from the street!

This is the before (which was taken a couple of years ago). See the tree on the far right side of the picture, and the one tucked behind the fence? Those are gone now. As is a large branch from a tree you can't see that is close the curb. You can see it if you look closely - it was mainly dead limbs and we hadn't noticed how far it had grown into our trees.

Look at all that morning sunlight! Hopefully we'll have more success with seeding the yard this fall than we did this spring.

Now I have just a few more days to finish getting the house clean and ready for all of the visitors this weekend. Should be fun!

Happy Half Birthday Joseph!

Somehow our little guy is now 6 months old! Ashley and I used to love celebrating our half birthdays (mainly because we had summer birthdays and thus could only celebrate our half birthday in school with our friends) so we've decided to pass on the tradition with Joseph. I think we're going to take the little guy for ice cream at Murray's tonight! :)

We've continued our adventures into new baby foods. For the most part, he loves mealtime. Last week when we came down with what we assumed was food poisoning, Joseph seemed to have some issues of his own... so maybe we had a bug instead? Who knows. All I know is that for the first time ever, Joseph expressed some pretty strong disinterest in baby food...peaches. It was day 4 of trying them, so I think his belly may just have been upset, but check out this face!

Joseph also spends quite a bit of time playing in his exersaucer during the day. It keeps him pretty happy with all the toys to play with, and his ability to bouce and shake around.

This video is a couple minutes long and probably isn't that interesting to anyone other than grandparents and us, but it's a cute way for us to document just how much he's capable of now! :)

 

The other big accomplishment for this week? The little guy is now sitting up on his own! He'll still topple over from time to time, but he's really gaining a lot of core strength and ability to catch himself when he starts to lean.

A hard day's work

Lauren brought 7 by the office today when she was nice enough to drop off some stuff that I forgot at home. He decided that he wanted to try working for a while.

He was a big fan of the red tie that he had been trying to get a hold of since this morning.

But he did get tired of sitting there by himself a little faster than I normally do.

On a happier note...

7 is getting so close to sitting up on his own. He has done it, but his weeble wobbles and then he falls down. This is a picture that Lauren sent to me from her phone. They have been at the lake with her parents this weekend.

7 has very nearly outgrown his bathtubs and is showing an increased interest in bath toys so Lauren and his Grammy were bathing him in the sink so he had more room for rubber duckies, etc.

Rough Week

Man, things are not going well for the Jeppson family this week!

We had been discussing what to do with Lucy for over a year now, because she's not good around little kids, and more recently, had become more protective of Joseph. We don't think she'd ever intentionally hurt him, but any strangers or friends that come over were fair game in her eyes. We had met with a vet who specializes in animal behavior back in July about her, who advised that if kept separate from the family, she'd probably be ok with us, but her chances of getting adopted back out if we took her to a shelter were slim to none. He sent us home with some information on obedience and a handful of things to work on with her.

Over the last month, she'd gotten even better at being obedient. When it suited her. Joe and I started talking again about needing to remove her from our home, because we started talking about "when" she'd hurt someone next, not if. So we decided it would be better for her to have a happy day, go to the vet, and be put down, as opposed to us dropping her off at a shelter, where she'd have to take and pass a behavior test before being adoptable. Unfortunately for us, we made the decision Monday night, and Joe had time in his schedule Tuesday morning to take her to the vet, so that's what we did.

It's really quiet around the house without Lucy here anymore. Molly has never been one to bark at the mailman or howl hello to us, and without a partner to play with, it's just weird. Lucy was a good dog, but we know we did the right thing - if she ever did anything to Joseph (or anyone else for that matter) we wouldn't forgive ourselves.

I don't know how Joe made it through work all day yesterday, but he did. We didn't really feel like cooking dinner last night as we were both rather upset about the whole thing.

So we made a Digornio pizza after Joseph went to bed.

We still don't know why, but we both got food poisoning from the pizza, and spent most of the night waking up and running to the bathroom. Ewww.

Then Joseph woke up late, and we discovered that he'd gotten sick in the crib, which was really unusual for him. He nursed and seemed kinda out of it, and fussed like his belly was hurting him. Apparently he wasn't kidding, as about an hour after he ate, he projectile vomited all over himself. I've never seen a baby throw up that much! So we called the doctor for the second time in an hour (after trying to figure out what to do about our food poisoning) and managed to get an appointment for the baby.

We're changing his reflux medicine, and learned that he now weighs 14 lbs, 10 oz, which means his weight gain has continued to slow down. Hopefully things will get better on the new medicine for him. Joe stayed home from work, and we've been taking it easy today, trying to keep gatorade and saltines down.

It definitely hasn't been a very good week for us so far - things have to improve, right? 

So while at Grandma's, Joseph got his first set of bath toys. He is really good at identifying an object he wants and grabbing for it now, and bath toys were particularly intriguing.

I hate that he's almost outgrown the sink bathtub and is getting so close to moving up to real baths!

And seriously, how old is he looking now?? So much for the little baby we had a few months ago... Joseph is growing so fast!

The last new thing that happened while in St. Louis was something his Parsonage grandparents had been waiting for since he was born.... ice cream!

True to form, Grandpa gave him his first bites of ice cream while at dinner with my mom, mom's parents, Joseph's great-Nana and great-Papa, Jennifer, Pravin and me. He wasn't too sure what to make of it, but knew he didn't want to stop eating it, either!

Whistle While You Work

Wouldn't you want to buy a kayak from this little guy? :)

Last week Joseph and I stayed in St. Louis to visit with the grandparents and to help out at their store. Their office manager, Karen, started on her maternity leave, so they were going to be a little short handed. So we converted an unused office into baby central, complete with his pack and play for naps and changing table on the desk.

Each day, after his morning nap, Joseph would eat lunch on grandpa's desk. It had the most uncluttered space, and best viewing areas. He finished up trying squash and started on bananas while we were there. He loved them both!

He's also a big fan of his new chair, as am I. I had been using the bumbo to feed him, but in the last couple of weeks he'd gotten really squirmy. We definitely needed restraints! He is usually happy just to sit in the chair and play with his toys, particularly the rattle in the picture.

We sold 10 kayaks last week, one of our best weeks ever. Coincidence? I think not!

Best Birthday Yet!

I know I have a lot of updating to do, so I'll go back to a week ago Sunday, my 29th birthday. The three of us had gone to St. Louis for the weekend. On Sunday we woke up and opened presents, and planned out the day while Joseph was down for his morning nap. My parents were on their way back home from a trip to Chicago, Jennifer was in New Orleans with her boyfriend, and the weather was nice, so we decided to head to Grant's Farm for a while. Grant's Farm is this really neat park that is on Ulysses S. Grant's original farm, and has been turned into an open air zoo of sorts. The best part? It's free to attend! I have lots of memories of going to Grant's Farm as a kid, so I thought it would be fun to take Joseph, even though it's not exactly targeted for 5 month olds :)

This was Joseph's first time in the stroller without his car seat, and he did great! He seemed to take everything in, and enjoyed being able to look out at the animals.

The trip into the park starts with a tram ride through the zoo, where we saw buffalo, zebra, wild horses, deer, goats, huge fish and more, I'm sure. It's rather hit or miss if you'll see anything, because they are free to roam around the park grounds, so it was fun to be there on a day when the animals were out and about.

We took in a show about animals with fun talents. Joseph actually paid attention for the entire 20 minutes!

Then it was time to check out the animals in their pens. The goats are a big hit with all little kids - they allow you to go into their pen and feed them from bottles. We figured we'd stay outside this trip, since Joseph is so little, but he was definitely aware of the goats. They are well trained to stick their heads through the fence slats to get whatever they possibly can.

We didn't buy any bottles for the goats. Their response? It's ok, we'll just eat your stroller!

Because Grant's Farm is run by Anheuser Busch, they offer free samples of a few different beers on tap, and also house some of the clydesdales at the park. We took advantage of a free beer each, checked out the horse stables, and then headed back for the tram to the parking lot, as it was getting to be nap time.

Joe had fun playing with and tickling Joseph on the tram ride back.

We swung by my favorite ice cream place in St. Louis, Ted Drewes, on the way home to meet my parents. We all had a quick dinner at a new authentic Mexican restaurant before Joe had to head back to KC. Joseph and I stayed in St. Louis for the week, and my mom took me to the Sugarland concert that evening for my birthday, so Grandpa got to babysit Joseph.

It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays, hanging out with my boys and family!

Explaining cars to 7

As the 2 little girls fought over who got to sit in 7's car seat, I began to explain to 7 about why he is going to want a car of his own when he gets older.