I don't often post about church stuff on here, but I just had a really good feeling being at stake temple night Thursday night. Nathan went to the temple on Tuesday night because he was up in Lake Oswego for a financial thing, so he stayed home with Joshy while I went. And it wasn't JUST the Burgerville burgers and shakes that our stake president treated our van-load to afterward...I just really enjoyed being there and seeing so many other people gathered together in a very sacred place. I always enjoy going to the temple - it is such a break from the busy-ness and noise of the world - but usually we'll only see one or two people we know, rather than a whole room full of people we have at least seen before. The temple president and his wife spoke at the chapel session while we were there and they are really cool people. I ended up talking with the temple president afterwards also (which was really nice of him because it was already after 9!) because I had a bunch of random temple-related questions, and he was so helpful and kind and funny. Anyway, I guess it's hard to describe how I felt...but I just really enjoyed it and hope we'll make sure to go more often. So tonight there is an adult session of stake conference at the church at 7pm that I'm going to go to and then the general meeting of stake conference is tomorrow morning from 10-12. What a nice break from 12:30 church...it is just a really hard time to have church when you've got a baby. I have heard a lot of general agreement about that from all our friends who have babies.
Well I had planned to write more, but speaking of babies...mine just woke up from his nap and I'm quite certain he is now standing up in his crib pulling on the bars expressing his irritation that I have not yet come and gotten him (I mean it's been like TEN seconds - what a bad mom). So I'll write more later - sorry no pictures this time.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Another good thing
Another accomplishment for our home - last night I went to Target to spend some gift cards that we got for Christmas (thank you!!!), and one of the things that I got was some wonderful wall decor for Joshua's room. Seriously, every time I've gone in his room, I've been all sad about how bare his walls are...we had a couple of nice things on his wall, and then for Christmas he got three really cool animals that I put up right above his crib and he has been talking to them all the time ever since, BUT the rest of his walls were still pretty colorless. SO I got these cool adhesive jungle animals and put them up all over. They're incredibly easy to put up and to move around. I don't know how long they'll last, but they look wonderful right now. Joshy is hanging onto his gate thing right now, rather unhappy, so I'll post these pictures and then write more later. 
Pretty cool looking, huh?
Just thought a couple of Joshua might make a few of you happy. The calendar is updated, too!!
And Tracy, I know I need to post these things (and I got curtains for two rooms also!) on the Reclaiming Home blog...I'm just a terrible person. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Manda's thoughts
Uh oh...see this is what happened with me and my diaries when I was younger. Unless I was in the midst of a seemingly neverending drama about some boy (which apparently was fairly often), I had a hard time writing in my diary because I always felt like there was too much to catch up on. But I don't have to catch up on everything...this is just my thoughts, not necessarily my life story.
Anyway - things are going well! This weekend my parents came down and got to spend some time with us. It was a lot of fun - I'm so glad they were able to come, even though it was for a very short time. I'm so glad that Joshua so far hasn't shown any signs of the "stranger anxiety" that i've heard is inevitable. So we'll see. He's a good baby. We think he's getting some more teeth. He's SO proud of himself for the new skills he's learning with pulling himself up on his knees really easily, and sometimes pulling up to standing. And when we put him up standing next to the couch or one of the dining room chairs, he can sidestep or hold on with just one hand...it's so adorable to see him standing on his pudgy legs. It'll be so crazy when he's walking! He's crawling a lot more on his hands and knees now, rather than his tummy, though he can go FAST on his tummy. We have a long hallway and he loves to race down it shrieking and laughing that he is escaping so sneakily. He loves crawling into the bathroom also - the cold linoleum is fascinating to him. He pulled himself up on the bathtub and then had one of his few tantrums when he knocked the baby shampoo bottle into the tub and couldn't reach it. He was furious that mama wouldn't get it for him, so that was the end of climbing on the bathtub for awhile. His only major tantrums have occured related to his nail clippers. He never used to be particularly interested in them. He wanted to grab them, sure, but never with the incredible desperation that he does now. The hard part with that is that they're sharp, so I won't let him hold them for long now, but I can't just put them away and distract him with something else because I have to clip his nails, ya know? So I'm clipping the nails of a nearly hysterical squirming swatting little guy. It has become a double-teaming event, so that when both mama and dada are there, he's able to be much calmer about the whole experience. i'm grateful that at this point, his tantrums are pretty limited. His personality is really emerging, which is so wonderful, and I'm getting to know a very stubborn little Joshua! My pediatrician warned us that with his red hair, we were in for an adventure. Maybe there is truth in that after all.
So one of the most adorable things to report on this little guy is that other than mama and dada, the only really recognizable word he is consistently saying is "amen." It's mostly the "men" part, but we noticed it 5 days ago or so, and we were like...did he really just say amen? Nooo...well maybe. So now whenever we say prayers, we pay attention, and he nearly always says it! It's so cute. Often he says it a bit early, just to make sure he gets it in there, and then when we say it and look up at him, he has this huge grin on his face, so proud of himself and the praise we give him for this darling new accomplishment. We'll see if he does it at church today - we have only noticed him do it at home.
Things are going ok with the apartments - it's pretty slow right now, which is fine. We were worried that we were going to be evicting someone (this was the reference to cat poop in an earlier post), but the person is actually moving out anyway, so it's much less complicated.
Well my dear baby is waking up, so we'll get him some lunch and then get him ready for church!
I'll try to post more often, and I'll get some pictures up soon.
P.S. Read my husband's newest post - it cracks me up!
Anyway - things are going well! This weekend my parents came down and got to spend some time with us. It was a lot of fun - I'm so glad they were able to come, even though it was for a very short time. I'm so glad that Joshua so far hasn't shown any signs of the "stranger anxiety" that i've heard is inevitable. So we'll see. He's a good baby. We think he's getting some more teeth. He's SO proud of himself for the new skills he's learning with pulling himself up on his knees really easily, and sometimes pulling up to standing. And when we put him up standing next to the couch or one of the dining room chairs, he can sidestep or hold on with just one hand...it's so adorable to see him standing on his pudgy legs. It'll be so crazy when he's walking! He's crawling a lot more on his hands and knees now, rather than his tummy, though he can go FAST on his tummy. We have a long hallway and he loves to race down it shrieking and laughing that he is escaping so sneakily. He loves crawling into the bathroom also - the cold linoleum is fascinating to him. He pulled himself up on the bathtub and then had one of his few tantrums when he knocked the baby shampoo bottle into the tub and couldn't reach it. He was furious that mama wouldn't get it for him, so that was the end of climbing on the bathtub for awhile. His only major tantrums have occured related to his nail clippers. He never used to be particularly interested in them. He wanted to grab them, sure, but never with the incredible desperation that he does now. The hard part with that is that they're sharp, so I won't let him hold them for long now, but I can't just put them away and distract him with something else because I have to clip his nails, ya know? So I'm clipping the nails of a nearly hysterical squirming swatting little guy. It has become a double-teaming event, so that when both mama and dada are there, he's able to be much calmer about the whole experience. i'm grateful that at this point, his tantrums are pretty limited. His personality is really emerging, which is so wonderful, and I'm getting to know a very stubborn little Joshua! My pediatrician warned us that with his red hair, we were in for an adventure. Maybe there is truth in that after all.
So one of the most adorable things to report on this little guy is that other than mama and dada, the only really recognizable word he is consistently saying is "amen." It's mostly the "men" part, but we noticed it 5 days ago or so, and we were like...did he really just say amen? Nooo...well maybe. So now whenever we say prayers, we pay attention, and he nearly always says it! It's so cute. Often he says it a bit early, just to make sure he gets it in there, and then when we say it and look up at him, he has this huge grin on his face, so proud of himself and the praise we give him for this darling new accomplishment. We'll see if he does it at church today - we have only noticed him do it at home.
Things are going ok with the apartments - it's pretty slow right now, which is fine. We were worried that we were going to be evicting someone (this was the reference to cat poop in an earlier post), but the person is actually moving out anyway, so it's much less complicated.
Well my dear baby is waking up, so we'll get him some lunch and then get him ready for church!
I'll try to post more often, and I'll get some pictures up soon.
P.S. Read my husband's newest post - it cracks me up!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Dressers, groundhogs, and more
It's amazing what things can make you incredibly happy...like the computer monitor that finally ended up at the dump...like the dresser that finally got put together - and now the bedroom that has changed from a disaster zone of clothes and crap EVERYWHERE to a dresser crammed full of clothes, and two neat tidy boxes of things that need to be put somewhere other than those boxes. There is like a 6x8 foot square of EMPTY carpet right there in the bedroom. Trust me, that's amazing. So again we still need to get pictures put up (and RE-put up since we did put some up and then moved all the furniture). I wonder what it is about the two of us that has made us nearly completely inept at decorating our home. Hmmm... I'm tired and posting because I haven't posted in a long time and because my husband said I should.
Oh wait - I just re-read my subject line! February 2nd was a wonderful day - Groundhog's Day. My dear husband always remembers how special this day is to me...he got me chocolates, a cute card, a pot of very difficult to kill flowers (he knows me well), and some of my other favorite candies. Yum yum. I love Groundhog's Day - I have ever since I was little.
I think I'm distracted by stressful stuff related to cat poop, so I will post later when I'm not so stressed. Joshua's calendar is updated http://www.insanityinc.net/nathan/joshua/joshuacal.html and there is a new Joshua video up on youtube! http://www.youtube.com/user/skipdipdawg
I will post again soon - have a wonderful week.
Oh wait - I just re-read my subject line! February 2nd was a wonderful day - Groundhog's Day. My dear husband always remembers how special this day is to me...he got me chocolates, a cute card, a pot of very difficult to kill flowers (he knows me well), and some of my other favorite candies. Yum yum. I love Groundhog's Day - I have ever since I was little.
I think I'm distracted by stressful stuff related to cat poop, so I will post later when I'm not so stressed. Joshua's calendar is updated http://www.insanityinc.net/nathan/joshua/joshuacal.html and there is a new Joshua video up on youtube! http://www.youtube.com/user/skipdipdawg
I will post again soon - have a wonderful week.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Food
It is amazing how much of your life revolves around your baby's sleeping schedule for so many months, and then once they get that down (hopefully), the adventure of solid foods begins. Joshua did great at baby foods - rarely did he dislike one so much that he'd never eat it (probably peaches were his biggest dislike, but he'd eat the "peach cobbler dessert" one), and he was happily eating pretty much ONLY baby foods until a couple weeks ago. He had banana sometimes, and yogurt, but was not interested in any other solids really besides all the high priced commercial baby food crackers and puffed snacks and stuff - and Cheerios. So then he decided that he's WAY too mature to let us feed him. That's all fine and good if he'll EAT regular food, but he was rejecting pretty much everything I gave him.
Today was a glorious day! After about the 6th meal where I offered him green beans (his absolute favorite of the baby foods), he FINALLY ate them and really liked them. And THEN he ate peas and pasta also. We got him some freeze dried corn and bananas and strawberries (also commercial baby food stuff that is probably unnecessary...but what is a first time parent to do?), and he likes those, as well as fresh bananas. I haven't tried again with the white beans today - we'll keep up with that one. I think i'm done with offering peaches for awhile because he wouldn't put them in his mouth for the last few days, but today he did and he made this horrible face and threw it on the floor. So we'll wait awhile.
Oh and this is a story I must share. He still has some baby food left, and I haven't been making him fresh meat as of yet (i'm kind of worried I won't cook it enough or he'll choke or something), so i've still been giving him baby food meat. Side note: when he's super hungry or I'm suuuuper patient, he'll open up those stubbornly pursed lips and let me feed him a few bites before asserting his independence again. End side note. Ok, so yesterday I thought I'd try something...he LOVES straws, for who knows what reason. Not just using them, but looking at them, too. Crazy baby. Anyway, I mixed apple prune with turkey baby food and it was really thin (as baby food is), so I cut a straw pretty short and put it in the bowl and he enjoyed his very own turkey apple prune smoothie. Let me tell you - he loved it! Look for this option next time you're at Jamba Juice. yummm.
Today was a glorious day! After about the 6th meal where I offered him green beans (his absolute favorite of the baby foods), he FINALLY ate them and really liked them. And THEN he ate peas and pasta also. We got him some freeze dried corn and bananas and strawberries (also commercial baby food stuff that is probably unnecessary...but what is a first time parent to do?), and he likes those, as well as fresh bananas. I haven't tried again with the white beans today - we'll keep up with that one. I think i'm done with offering peaches for awhile because he wouldn't put them in his mouth for the last few days, but today he did and he made this horrible face and threw it on the floor. So we'll wait awhile.
Oh and this is a story I must share. He still has some baby food left, and I haven't been making him fresh meat as of yet (i'm kind of worried I won't cook it enough or he'll choke or something), so i've still been giving him baby food meat. Side note: when he's super hungry or I'm suuuuper patient, he'll open up those stubbornly pursed lips and let me feed him a few bites before asserting his independence again. End side note. Ok, so yesterday I thought I'd try something...he LOVES straws, for who knows what reason. Not just using them, but looking at them, too. Crazy baby. Anyway, I mixed apple prune with turkey baby food and it was really thin (as baby food is), so I cut a straw pretty short and put it in the bowl and he enjoyed his very own turkey apple prune smoothie. Let me tell you - he loved it! Look for this option next time you're at Jamba Juice. yummm.
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