Learning New Things

Joseph has been really busy lately, practicing eating finger foods and squirming around on his belly. He isn't crawling yet, but he can scoot around backwards. Just in the last few days I've noticed him pushing up onto his hands and knees and starting to rock.... crawling will be here before we know it!

He's also having lots of fun playing with his new big kid toys. He's starting to figure out how to make them sing and turn on.

Eating cheerios, puffs and baby mum-mums are his new favorite thing. He LOVES trying to feed himself. It's amazing how well he's getting - he can now pick up food with his one hand, pick the item off with the other and then put it in his mouth. Of course, many still end up in the bib...

All ready for winter in his new hat and mittens! Grandma and Granpa (yes, that's how he wants it spelled :) ) were in town for the weekend, and went shopping on Monday for new clothes. They've both lost a bunch of weight and needed new clothes. And of course we went along, Joseph came away with this adorable hat and mittens.

I love kids consignment sales!

This weekend is the semi-annual Just Between Friends kids consignment sale. I went last year and was amazed at the items people were selling - the building was the equivalent of a Best Buy, and it was filled with clothes, toys and baby gear, all at really good prices. This year I wanted to go as early as possible, and discovered that if I volunteered to work a 4 hour shift, I could attend a pre-sale, held 3 hours before the sale opened to first time moms, teachers and military. It also meant I could go on Wednesday afternoon, as opposed to Thursday morning, right before Joseph's morning nap time. Ashley worked her schedule so that she could come home early and babysit for me, so I could make this all happen. And man did I have a good time!

It was nice and quiet, and there weren't too many people there yet, so I actually was able to browse and not start grabbing things like crazy. The clothing racks were packed full, so I didn't spend too much time on them. The highlights of the sale, for me, were finding all of Joseph's 12 month pajamas and not spending more than $2 a pair (most are Carter's brand and hardly worn!), a few cute holiday and winter outfits, a booster seat chair for Grandma's house for $7, two Little Tikes tables and matching chairs (one set for our house, and one for Joe's office), a Little Tikes garden activity center, with the matching accessories, for $12, a few toys for Christmas (some were even brand new and still in the box), two winter hats, socks and his Halloween costume - brand new, still with the tags on, but without the high price! (He's going to be a giraffe :))

Sunday is half-price day, where everything left is sold at half price. Volunteers get to pre-shop the half price sale tomorrow afternoon, so depending on how our day is going, I may head back down and check the racks for more 12 and 18 month clothes. It's hard to predict what size he'll be wearing, since he's still so tall and skinny, and I know just wearing onesies in winter isn't going to cut it! Right now, he's just starting to fit into his 6 month shorts, and that's usually the case when he's wearing cloth diapers. I tried putting him in a pair of Baby Gap 6-12 month pants, and they were still really big on him.

The little guy is still doing great - he's rediscovered his ability to blow raspberries, and does it constantly now, especially while eating. I've tried to take a few videos, and will check them this weekend to see if it's worth posting them for you to see.

Bouncing Baby Boy

Joseph has discovered his ability to bounce now, and loves to do it while someone (or something) is singing to him. It's so cute! He still isn't any more mobile, unless he's on the hardwood floor and on his belly... then he's figured out how to push himself backwards. I think we're still months away from crawling.

He has taken to swinging while sitting straight up and hanging over his swing like a crazy kid - thank goodness for the safety buckle! He doesn't try this on his Little Lamb swing, but he does it on his little chair and in the swing Ashley and Mikael have at their house. It's so funny to watch, so we captured a video...

Even though he's not crawling, he's definitely keeping us on our toes now! Everything within his reach is subject to be grabbed and chewed on, whether it should be or not. Babyproofing the house is our next big parenting step!

House Party Fun

A few months ago I heard of a website called houseparty.com from one of the blogs I follow. It's a website that lists events various manufacturers and companies are looking for consumers to promote for them, through house parties, in exchange for free product. I've seen parties listed for Boboli pizza, Febreeze, Kraft foods, etc, and there are frequently parties tailored for kids. I applied to host a Fisher-Price party a month or two ago, and found out two weeks ago that I was selected. The catch? I have to promote and host a party for approximately 10 parents and their babies, ages 6 months to 36 months. The fun side? We are playing with 5 of the newest Fisher-Price toys on the market! The best part? We get to keep everything, at no cost to us!!

I received the two, stuffed to the top, boxes today, full of toys, diapers, and even batteries for the toys. Check it out -

All in all, we received 5 major toys, retailing over $200, plus diaper samples, free stacking toys, coupons, gift bags and tissue for 10 kids, along with a full package of diapers and batteries for the toys. It's an early Christmas for Joseph! :)

I don't know many people with babies/toddlers who live in KC, but there are a bunch of families on our street that I haven't met. Now that I know the toys are really coming, I'm going to pass out open house invites and see if we can't use the event to meet more of our neighbors. The party? Next Saturday afternoon. I figure if I have many of the freebie toys and diaper samples left over, I can always donate them to a local shelter.

I can't believe how easy the whole process has been. I'm definitely going to sign up for more parties in the future, and recommend the website to you!

Preview of Joseph's 6 month photos

As I mentioned earlier, we had Joseph's 6 month photos taken on Monday. We used Erin Ellibee, a friend of Lisa and Linda's. Today we got to see the preview of them.... they are so cute!

First solid food and Mizzou football game!

I had heard about these baby food puffs, called Baby Mum-Mums, that are like Cheeto Puffs consistency - they essentially dissolve in your mouth, that are a good first solid food for babies.They are just a puffed rice cereal with powdered vegetables, and (in my opinion) don't taste like much. I wasn't sure what Joseph would think of them, but we tried them over the weekend anyway.

He LOVES them! It takes him a while to get through one, but he really seems to enjoy holding it, sticking it in his mouth and gumming on it. No, still no teeth yet for this little guy.

Yesterday I was holding him while giving him one and noticed that as he was almost finished, he decided to show Molly what was in his hand. She was sitting about 6 inches away from him, watching intently. She was really good with him - sniffed at first, and then so delicately nibbled the remaining puff that was stuck to his palm. It's so fun to watch him feed himself, and hopefully this will be a good transition food to finger food, when he's ready for that.

Another big first this weekend? Mizzou football! We got the little guy all decked out in his Mizzou outfit and tried to get a few pictures with his Mizzou hat, but he doesn't like wearing hats currently... which turned into a really cute opportunity for pictures.

We had a few friends over to watch the game, and help finish some of the leftover beer from Joe's birthday party. Joseph got a chance to play with Aubrey, the daughter of Joe's college roommate, who is 19 months old. She was a good sport, as we don't have too many toys that an older baby would like, and they got along great!

Aubrey wanted to hold Joseph, and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. But he does like hamming it up for the camera!

No one is immune from Joseph's hair pulling now...

We had Joseph's 6 month photo session done yesterday. I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out! He had just woken up from a nap in the car and wasn't in a smiley mood. We tried our best to get him laughing and smiling, and managed to work a few smiles out of him. We should be getting the proofs in a week or so...

A Boy and His Dog

First, a few pictures from Saturday, thanks to Ashley for taking my camera around to document.

Check out that finished ceiling! :)

Yesterday, I had Joseph in his exersaucer playing and Molly decided she wanted to play fetch with her tennis ball. So I started tossing it for her (yes, inside the house) and Joseph watched intently. After a few minutes, he started reaching out for Molly and whining, so I thought he wanted to play with her.

Nope. He wanted her ball! Life lesson #1 - how to share. Molly did great with him, dropping the ball when I asked and not trying to grab it out of his hands.

It took a lot of effort to get these pictures, though. Molly would drop the ball until I picked up the camera and Joseph looked at me - clearly no one wanted the ball, so she'd grab it and try to run away with it.

Moving the ball to the other side of Joseph helped remedy the situation. Then Joseph kept alternating staring at the ball, which was just slightly out of reach, and the new TV (Joe's birthday present).

What's a boy to do? Ball or TV? Ball or TV? Hmmm...

Definitely his father's son - watching the TV won! And with those big ears just lying there, he decided to chew on them instead of the tennis ball. Molly just laid there the whole time, happy for the attention.

And then tried to roll onto her belly to get a belly rub for her good behavior! These two are having a lot of fun with each other, and while I don't leave them unattended, Molly has not given us any reason to think she'd do anything to harm him at all. Now we're just going to have to work on the distinction of which balls are Molly's and which are Joseph's.

Joe's 30th Birthday Party

This weekend was super busy, as we had Joe's 30th birthday and hosted a big party to celebrate. We had about 25 people over all day Saturday, including Joe's dad, who flew in for the event. Joe decided that he wanted to have an all day event, starting at 9am with disc golf, lunch from Oklahoma Joe's (I figured having the meal partially catered was much easier than trying to get drunk men to bbq safely!), beer pong and then drunken frisbee horseshoes. I spent the better part of the day cooking, refilling coolers and chip and dip trays, and making sure things were running smoothly. Everything was going great until mid-afternoon, when I realized that 7 seemed really warm. Turns out, he caught the cold Joe had earlier in the week, and was running a fever of 103 degrees by 5pm! My parents and sister had arrived a few hours earlier, and were happy to help me take care of the baby. We had already planned on having 7 stay with my parents at their hotel room, but his cold made him uncomfortably enough that he didn't nap well all day, and by bedtime he was really feeling badly.

I ordered pizzas for the remaining party-goers and went to the hotel with my parents to try to get 7 situated, before heading back home for Joe's birthday cake, cleaning and packing up to spend the night on the pull-out bed at the hotel. I knew 7 wasn't going to be sleeping well, as he was really congested. He woke a few times during the night, and I ended up letting him sleep next to me after rocking him back to sleep. He was soo surprised when he woke up for good in the morning!

I think Ashley took pictures of the party on my camera, but I haven't checked yet. We had a perfect day, lots of laughs and I am fairly certain that everyone had a blast. 7 even had fun hanging out with all of his grandparents and seeing everyone, even though he clearly wasn't feeling great.

Since Saturday, 7's slowly getting better. He's finally napping during the day again, and as I type is taking his first multiple hour nap in 5 days - much more like his healthy self.

We also had his 6 month check-up yesterday, so he got another round of shots. The shots, along with the cold made for a very unpleasant day yesterday. We were happy to learn that he'd gained almost a pound in the 2 weeks since we'd switched his medicine and upped the amount of food he's getting each day. Hooray!

He's still a tall skinny kid though:
Weight: 15 lbs 7 oz 25% percentile
Height: 27 1/2 inches 75-90% percentile
Head: 17 inches 50% percentile

Hopefully he'll continue to put on weight. Otherwise we're going to have issues this fall, as his 6-9 month pants are just right in length, but completely fall off because his waist and butt are too small to keep them up! :)