Winter Photo Shoot

You definitely get a glimpse of his silly side in these pictures, don't you?  He's got a super sweet side too... but Josiah is definitely such a little ham!  He sure likes to make people laugh... and he's good at it!

So sad to see you go...

It happened last week and there was no stopping it.  That second nap of the day finally had to leave us... and I'm still quite sad.  I knew it was inevitable, but I was happy to hang on to it as long as we could.  But the time he was staying up between naps kept getting longer, and bedtime kept getting later, and I knew it was time.  So now Josiah's typical day is waking up around 6:45am, nap from 11:30-1:30 and bedtime at 7:30pm.   It's a stretch to keep him up until 11:30 every morning, but we've managed.  And after naptime, he starts getting pretty sleepy around 5:30 and that's been a bit tough too, but I'm sure he'll adjust soon.   He says "nap, sleepy, paci, blankie" and really wants to sleep! 

Now I just have to figure out how to work MY schedule around this!  I used to wait until his morning nap to get myself dressed for the day, but now I have to hop up as soon as I hear him start to wake in the morning and get myself showered and dressed super-quick before I get him up.  It does give us some longer stretches to be out and about though, so maybe that will be the positive side. :)

Long-Awaited Trip

I have always wanted to go to New York City at Christmas-time.  I've visited several times before, but never when it was all decked out in lights and Christmas cheer.  So for the last 3 years, I've told Mike that what I wanted for my 30th birthday was to go to NYC after Thanksgiving.  So that's what we did!  Our good friends, the Childress family, had recently moved up that way, so we got to enjoy visiting with them too!  We were gone for 4 days ~ leaving Josiah wasn't easy, but we knew he wouldn't appreciate the trip like we would!  I was amazed at all of the strollers I saw in the city ~ little babies being toted through the streets in the freezing cold... and everytime, I would think "I'm soooo glad we didn't bring Josiah!" 

Anyway, Mike and I had a much-needed time with just the two of us, and our trip was great from start to finish.  We stayed one night at the Broadway Hotel/Hostel on 101st Street on the Upper West Side... and that was such a GREAT location!  We ate delicious food, shopped on 5th Avenue, shopped in SoHo, explored Greenwich Village, Times Square, World Trade Center site, Washington Square, Hell's Kitchen, Chinatown & Little Italy and of course... all the Christmas decorations at Rockefeller Center.  We walked lots, rode the subway a bunch and just had a great time!  Here's a bunch of our pictures...

Fun in November

16 Months Old... going on 2!

What a fun age!  Josiah is definitely so much fun right now!  And words...words... words.  This smart little boy surprises us with new words every single day.  It's so fun!  We came up with at least 80 words tonight that he says clearly... (that's not counting the ones that maybe we can understand, but aren't exactly clear:  ie:  "man-o" = banana, "dammy" = Grammy) Good grief!  I wonder if he'll always be so verbal?  Maybe he takes after his Uncle Brett. :) 

here ya go, bless you, amen, outside, stop, ready, set, go, please, sit, down, shadow, up, dog, lion, night-night, nap, sleepy, messy, silly, happy, day, baby, i see you, come on, fish, highchair, open, close, peek-a-boo, water, juice, milk, chicken, cheese, salmon, rice, cracker, ice, lion, bird, light, oh boy, oh no, no, table, plate, shirt, napkin, food, taco, bye, hi, hello, see you later, fall down, movie, all done, that, snack, sip, taste, fork, medicine, moon, sun, Mommy, Daddy, Shelby, Lily, Abby, Mickey, play, rug, blocks, zoom, book, read, slide, running, hiding, windy, shoe, sock, eyes, nose, leg, hand, hiney, help, hat, paci, hot, ball, doll, cup, eat, waffle, truck, more, some, this, that, one, nine, big, wow...

Blog or Cook? Blog wins.

Who has time to blog?  Well... usually I do make time, but not much this month.  Our race to 2011 has begun.  We have 1 free weekend (this one) and that's it.  We started off our busy schedule with a trip to Raleigh last weekend.  We visited with our friends Suzanne, Aaron & Lily and had a great time.  Josiah slept like a champ in the pack-in-play... even sleeping in until almost 8 every morning (as opposed to 6:15 at home).  Mike and Aaron went to the NC State game and Mike was reminded how much he loves actually going to college football games.  Lily and Josiah (ie: Jo-Jo) had a blast playing together.  Good times.  We have this weekend free and then it's Thanksgiving, our long-anticipated trip to NY (yay!!!), trip to Fredericksburg & 2 Christmas parties, another big Christmas party, Christmas and then New Years!  Whew... and we were supposed to be moving right after then???  Holy moly - when am I supposed to search for a new place to live??  We might have to extend our stay until closer to the end of January! 

Other than the busyness... life is good.  Josiah is still talking up a storm.  He now says "Grandma" and "Grammy" much to their delight.  Most of the time his "G's" come out like "D's" - so it's more like "dam-ma" and "dammy"  LOL.  A few other new things we hear all the time now are "Here ya go," "please sit down," "all done," "all gone," "outside," "movie?" "happy day" (happy birthday), "woah... windy" and what does the turkey say?  "dobble-dobble-dobble-dobble"  among many others...  He definitely has a lot to say.  :)

Almost 16 months old and he's keeping up with the 2 year olds pretty well! :)
*and for the record... I did manage to cook too.  Thanks for taking a nice long nap Josiah!

Halloween Fun