ARCHIVE - April 27, 2009

Josh Journal 9/10 months

With how active Josh is, it is near impossible for me to get a journal done every month. So, this one is going to overlap into 10 months.

This little baby has just become more and more like a little boy. He is this fun little person now who is learning more each and every day. You can see it in his face. He waits then he'll proceed to do something new. This is an every day occurrence too!

He's ALMOST walking. Very, very close. Will stand on his own for about 5 seconds and maybe even take a step.

He is very light for his age. He is only in the 10th percentile and is 17 1/2 pounds (27 inches). Now we feed him 3-4 times a day with breast feeding ON TOP of that. His doctor isn't too concerned though. She said since he's so active, he is just burning a lot of calories. I remember Colin being this light as well. I'm thinking he'll fatten up soon.

Oh, we started "Operation Josh Sleep Through the Night For the Love of God" last night. AKA OJSTNFLG. Basically this means that Eric and I are sleeping on the pull out until we can get this guy to sleep through the night. Since he continues to get up to nurse, our doctor suggested not nursing him at all during the night. He is old enough now that he doesn't need to nurse 2-3 times every night. I've actually been wanting to do this for a while now, but he kept getting sick and it was never the right time. So, we'll see how tonight goes. Last night he got up around 8 times. Ugh...My goal is to have Josh in Colin's room by June. It will be quite tight in there with the new bunk beds. Oh well, I'm glad they get along.

Josh is starting to eat people food. He likes cheerios, grapes, and bread right now. I want to see if he likes egg yolks. He still loves his baby food too. We found a baby yogurt that has cereal in it that he really likes. He's a great eater!

Right now he is either skipping days and not pooping at all, or he is pooping three times a day. Some days he is a pooping machine!!!

As far as playing he is basically interested in anything Colin loves. It is quite hilarious. Colin is starting to be better about sharing. There are still some toys that are OFF LIMITS like his awesome toy dyson vacuum cleaner (as you all can imagine). Josh can play with the other vacuum cleaner though, surprisingly. I'm not sure if this is confusing him, but I let Josh play in Colin's room while Colin is at school. He has free range to play with whatever toy he wants. I normally have HGTV on in the background, and I'm on the bottom bunk with my computer or a book. I will of course play with him too, but he seems to be quite content exploring on his own which is a nice break for me. Besides Colin's toys, his favorite of HIS toys is his safari, air blowing toy that Debbie and Brian got him. He loves it!

Josh is pretty much always happy unless he is hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper. If he's in a bad mood, there is always a legitimate reason. He loves playing games. Peek a boo is his favorite. Or Colin will play his "I'm right here Josh" game which basically means he wants Josh to come and get him (baby tag I guess). He loves to be tickled by Daddy. Sometimes Daddy just takes both boys and tickles them at the same time. SO cute. He also is quite the dancer. Any time there is fun music on, he just bounces away. Maybe he'll have some rhythm and I can enroll him in some lessons!!!

All for now!!

Check out our you tube page. We got lots of videos of our boys!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf7QG1hDHqI

ARCHIVE - March 14, 2009

Josh Journal - 8 months

I'm a bit late on my journal for 8 months...apologies.

I can't be possible, but I love him even more than I did last month. He is just such a good, down to earth baby. So happy and so inquisitive. You can see in his face his eagerness of exploring everything. Such a smart kid!

The little guy is so fast! If you blink he's across the room. If you turn your head to look at something, before you know it he is across the apartment. It is crazy how fast he is! We are continuously baby proofing everything. Once we think things are OK in the kitchen, he starts getting into the recycles. Then Isis's food. Then the trash can (gross). We are going to invest in one of those nice stainless steel trash cans with the lid/foot pedal thingies.

He is starting to wave. It is so cute, he'll just wave and wave at nobody, but when we want him to wave to us he'll just sit there and stare at us. Hee Hee. He will also spontaniously clap. I sometimes have little jam sessions with the boys, and we get out all of Colin's instruments. Josh loves drums and his xylophone. He knows exactly how to use the stick to hit the instrument! What a smartie!

He is walking around furniture while holding on. He is so far ahead of most babies. I think most babies don't even start crawling until 8 months, and he started that when he was 6 months :) Colin has this big red truck, and Josh uses it as a walker (of course when Colin isn't around). Genius I tell you!!

Josh LOVES Isis. Like, sickly obsessed with her. He is always going up to her and grabbing a handful of fur. I really don't know who to feel more sorry for. Isis is completely getting hassled, but poor Josh is really gonna get it from her one of these days. I try and intervene, and she's nipped him some. He seems to not really care. Oh, but he will. A bite from Isis hurts like hell. I'm not going to be able to supervise their little "partnership" 24/7. Eric and I have been able to push the ottoman to the wall and push the car seat in front of it so Isis can have a place to sleep without getting hassled by Josh. But that's not going to hold him for long. The little man is persistent!

He's finally really enjoying solid foods. I'm still feeding him every 4 hours, but I'm not nursing quite as much. Maybe every 6 or so hours. I would like to get to the point where I nurse him first thing in the morning, nurse him once during the day, then nurse him right before he goes to sleep. Of course sleeping through the night would be amazing as well, but at this point I would just like him to only get up once. Some of his favorite foods are squash, any kind of fruit mixture, and yogurt.

As far as sleeping....ugh. He goes down at 8:30pm. Lately, he unfortunately gets up about 4 times a night. It really puts a toll on me, and I'm constantly tired. The little guy has a cold right now, but when he's better I'm hoping that we decrease that number a bit.

Josh is still madly in love with Colin. His face just lights up when Colin enters the room. And anything Colin plays with? Josh wants it immediately!! The whole sharing thing is coming along. Colin now doesn't completely freak when Josh plays with his toys. He doesn't like it, but he doesn't get as upset as he used to. They are so cute when they are just rolling around on the floor together. We still play "here comes Josh" and Eric plays "flying baby Josh". We have fun....when we aren't exhausted :)

Josh is very excited about light switches. He is always reaching for them. He hasn't successfully turned one on yet, but he will.

Yesterday, Josh stood by himself...no help at all! He has such strong legs!

He has had Dada down for awhile, but he's really starting to sound out Mama. He'll get there.

I love my baby so much!! What a sweet, sweet boy. We have such a good time during the day. We went to the park the other day and he actually had a fun time in the baby swing!! It was so cute!! With all the time I spend with Josh pretty much all day, I've decided to set aside special time with Colin. So, once a week Colin and I have a special date just the two of us!!

OK, that is all for now. 9 months are just around the corner :)

ARCHIVE - January 28, 2009

Josh Journal - 7 months

I can't believe my baby is already 7 months!!! This past month landed five (Yes, FIVE) big milestones. On January 2nd, Josh could officially sit up AND he started clapping. We still were careful to monitor his sitting, since he would fall back frequently. Colin loves for people to clap for him, so he was particularly excited when he learned how to clap. On Thursday, January 22nd he started tolerating solid foods (he would turn his head before this), crawling, and then the next day he completely pulled himself up. It was crazy!

Josh's crawl is HILARIOUS! He does the side step thing, trying to walk with his left foot, but the right foot crawls. It is quite odd, but I looked online and saw other babies that did it. It's just a funny thing babies do.

I'm trying very hard to do the whole tough love thing, but it is just so hard! I don't want to put him down because I know he'll cry. I know, I'm totally a whipped mama. I'm taking it in baby steps...I'm putting him in his crib during naps, but we've still been doing the whole co-sleeping at night thing. Eric had to put the mattress down two notches because Josh could topple over the rail. Just tonight we did the whole "leave him in there for 5 minutes at a time and let him soothe himself" thing until he fell asleep. It took him about 45 minutes of some heavy crying with us checking in and trying to soothe him, but he finally gave up and went to sleep. It was SO hard for me to do this, so I had to watch Lost and do my exercises to keep my brain off of the crying. I thought it would keep Colin up, but he's asleep too. It's 10:34pm, and BOTH kids are asleep IN THEIR OWN BEDS. This has NEVER happened. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I'm sure Josh will wake up at some point to eat, then he'll go back in bed to co-sleep with us.

I continue to be so in love with this little guy. He is such a joy to be around. Now that he is exploring, it is so much fun to watch him. I love to see what he gets excited about. And oh man, he loves Isis. I know, how could anybody love that grumpy cat, but wow...he thinks she hung the moon. Even when she swats at him for pinching her, he just laughs. Don't worry, she doesn't have claws.

He is also getting into EVERYTHING. Our entertainment center now holds Josh's toys, the dvd player, and the tivo. He can't screw up the tivo since it's only functional through the remote, but perhaps the dvd player is in trouble. I need to anchor several things to the wall as well. OH, and the all the cabinets need to be child proofed. So much to do!

I posted a video of Josh crawling so you guys can see his funny crawl. More Josh Journal in a month!

ARCHIVE - January 3, 2009

Josh Journal - 6 months


How is this possible? How can I keep falling in love with this baby over and over? Well, it is happening. My little sweetie is just adorable and so happy, and I love him!

Eric and I can't tell the difference between Josh and Colin's baby pictures. At first he had brown hair, now he is becoming a blonde just like his brother. They have the same eyes, same ears, same nose, and same mouth. It's hilarious.

As of today, Eric and I have officially said he's sitting up. He'll slouch down still or fall back, so we have to be there to steady him. But he is using his stomach muscles to stay seated for a good long while before he gets tired and starts his leaning tower of baby. He is so close to crawling. His legs are definitely strong enough, but his arms aren't quite ready yet.

Something else he did today that was fun, Eric taught him how to clap. He was clapping and then Josh started doing it. Colin will have fun with this! Everything Colin does, he wants us to clap for him. Always likes an audience, I wonder if he'll like to perform like me?

He still is not a fan of eating solids. Cereal is not his favorite. Even when we use breast milk. He tolerates apple sauce a little better. He won't open his mouth, so I have to sneak it in. Eric and I have a system. He makes him smile real big, then I stick the spoon in his mouth. The smile goes away pretty quickly, it's hilarious. He doesn't turn his nose up though like he does with cereal.

Josh is still so excited when he's around Colin. He just smiles this huge smile when he is in the same room with Colin. Even if Colin isn't paying him any attention, Josh's eyes are on him! Colin loves the game "Here comes Josh". It's pretty much me taking Josh and flying him on top of Colin. They both giggle so much when I do it.

I wish Josh was on a better schedule, but every day is never the same. Josh still gets up 1-2 times a night to eat. He takes 3-4 naps a day. On a good day he'll get up around 8am, take a nap around 10, eat when he gets up, sleep again around 3, eat when he gets up, another small cat nap in the evening, we'll try and give him some solid food, I'll nurse him then he's out for the night around 10 or 11 (hopefully). He'll get up around 1am and sometimes again at 4am or 5am. If he doesn't get up for that second feeding he'll get up really early, like around 6:30 or 7 (early for me at least).

OK, more next month!!!

ARCHIVE - Janurary 1, 2009

A reflection of 2008

Let's see...New baby? check. Quit my job after 8 years? check. Sold our house? check. Moved across the country? check!

I think this has been the busiest year of my life. At the beginning of the year I didn't know yet where we were moving. I just knew that we were. I think our options at that point were UC Berkeley, NYU, and University of Virginia. Glad we chose California!! We just wish we could have brought all our family and friends with us.

Getting the house ready to put on the market was difficult, but it was so worth it since we sold it in two days. We ended up not having a place to live for a while which was a little scary. It couldn't have worked out more perfect though because we ended up staying in a big, nice house for free. Sigh...stress for nothing.

Moving was hard. Not physically, but emotionally. It was hard leaving my friends. I haven't lived at home for 15 years, but at least my parents could drive up to Illinois to see us. Now, they have to fly which just makes things more complicated since my mom is deathly scared of flying. Sorry, Mom.


My best friend got married. In August she finally married her soul mate. I'm just so happy for her!!

It was also the year that Eric started law school. I think he likes it, but I know he just wants these three years to hurry up and be done. And after two bachelor degrees, a masters, a PhD, he keeps reassuring me that this is the last degree he is going to go for. I hope he's right!

Colin is totally talking! Looking back at January 2008, Colin has made leaps and bounds in progress with his expressing himself verbally. I really think it's because of his new preschool. His therapists rock! I think he'll be ready for kindergarten at least academically. I just hope he can make friends. That is my big worry.

The best thing that happened last year was my sweet baby Josh. He is just so amazing, I can't put it in words. I love his smile. I love his baby smell. I love his cute little feet. I love his laugh. I love watching him try to crawl. He is just so determined! Just a great baby, and a fun baby to be around all day. I feel this amazing bond with him that mostly has to do with me spending 24/7 with him. With me staying home and not working, the two of us are having a wonderful time getting to learn more about each other. I so enjoy teaching him about this wonderful world we live in!! That really goes for both kids :)

OK, here's to a fabulous 2009!!!

ARCHIVE - December 27, 2008

Colin can Write!

So, I don't know why....possibly me being wrapped up in Christmas shopping, reading, or watching Josh...but I have completely neglected to notice that my son can write. Tricia got Colin a really cool art easel for Christmas, and he was writing yesterday! He showed me an "A" then a "P"...thinking he could only do a handful of letters, I would then ask him to write a "K" which I think would be a difficult letter to learn. By George, he did it. He did EVERY letter I asked him to write. I don't remember knowing how to write when I was 4. My child is a genius. That is all.

ARCHIVE - November 26, 2008

Josh Journal - 5 months

I'm mad at myself for not journaling about my baby until now. I really have no excuses, I should have been doing it.

Joshua is 5 months and 3 days today. As I look down at him in his bouncy seat, all I think of is perfection. He is a gorgeous, sweet, amazing little man whom I love more than life itself. I never thought I would love another person like I love Colin, but it certainly happened. When I was pregnant, it depressed me thinking of sharing my love. What a silly thought, but it's true. Now I have so much love for this little guy AND Colin. I look at Josh and want to give him the entire world, shield him from all the hurt, provide him with all the support he'll ever need, and love him forever ever. He makes me so happy.

His expression towards Colin is priceless. He is in awe of his big brother. His face lights up every time they are near each other. Colin is doing better with holding him, and he constantly wants to give him kisses. Tonight he actually wanted me to leave Josh in his bed so they can sleep together. Oh, what a cutie, but that ain't happening quite yet.

I'm so glad we waited until Colin was older to have Josh. Most people I know like to get their pregnancies over with bam, bam...2 kids. Ugh. Colin at 2? And a newborn at the same time? Not a good idea for lots of reasons. With Colin being 4, he understands this whole baby thing and has learned to engage with him like any big brother would do. That makes me very happy.


OK, on to specifics. At this point in time, he has rolled over from his back to his tummy. He did this on November 19th at 1am in the morning, just 4 days shy of his 5 month birthday. I was up with him late, waiting on Eric to get home from his law school happy hour. It's almost like he was waiting for his daddy to get home so he could show off. He's such a belly laugher now. Everything is just so hilarious to him. Especially daddy. Eric can really get him laughing. His first laugh was a Friday night, September 12th, when we got home from our very first dinner party with friends here in California. He was 2 and a half months old. We didn't record his first smile. It was actually right away, he was smiling when we were still in the hospital. We had to stay in the hospital for 5 days due to my C section. At this time he is still getting up once or twice a night to eat. I'm hoping that will soon dwindle down to 0 when he eats more solids. He did start to eat rice cereal last week. Tried bananas, but he's not quite ready for them yet.

All for now!