It's Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood!

Since today was the first really nice day that we have had in a while, and the mud outside our house has started to dry, I decided to take Joshua for a nice long walk and he even wore sunscreen for the first time. It was a beautiful day and Joshua enjoyed looking around, although by the end of our walk he was pretty tired so I lay his seat down he took a bit of a nap!

Laughter Inducing!

Oh No

Joshua has discovered that he can blow bubbles when he is eating, and he thinks it is great fun, I on the other hand may need to start pulling out the tarp to protect myself. I will try and get a picture and post it.

Sweet Potatoes are a hit!

... and thank goodness, because I have a lot of them!

Flower Fascination

Joshua seems quite fascinated with the flowers on our kitchen counter. Every time we go passed t hem he tries to grab on. We let him get up close and he ripped off one of the flower buds.

Finally

After 3 months of testing it out Joshua has finally figured out the fun of the Jolly Jumper. Previously he just thought is was just a great place to hang out.

6 Months Old

I really don't know where the last six months have gone, they seem to have vanished without me knowing. Joshua is still an amazing little man, and we can't get over how great of a baby is. He laughs and smiles at everything and is rarely fussy. It doesn't matter where we take him he smiles at everyone. I knew I would love being a mother, but I never anticipated that i would love it this much.


At moments I think that he could start crawling at any time and then others I think he isn't even close. We are trying to get him crawling before he and I go home to see my family so that Chris doesn't miss it. We recently purchased a web cam so that Chris will be able to see him frequently. As much as I am looking forward to my trip I know Chris will miss his time with Joshua and Joshua will miss his Daddy, oh and Chris and I will miss each other too!

I have officially returned to work, although only for 5 hours a week and my employer is allowing me to work from home, I will go into the office whenever I need to. It is nice to get back into something that requires me to use my brain, even if only for a few hours a week. I miss work but I still think leaving him at daycare will be one of the hardest things I have ever done.

Playdate Fun

Since there are a few of us who have babies close in age now we decided to start a weekly play group. So every week Brenda and Summer; Adrianna and Tyler; and Joshua and I all get together for play date. We alternate house and have an entire afternoon together were the babies can interact together. The babies are each separated by a couple of months, Summer is 8 1/2 months, Joshua six months, and Tyler is 2 1/2 months, it is really neat to see the different stages of development. (Watch Summer scoot around while we were taking pictures - she is definitely more mobile than the boys are, we figure she should get her shots in while she still can!)



Today we went to the library near our house and participated in story time. Summer was fascinated with all the toddlers running around, Joshua was fascinated with his blanket and Tyler had a great nap. This weeks theme was dragons, they read George and the Dragon, The Paper Bag Princess, and a few other stories. At the end of story time a little boy went up to his mom, pointed at Joshua and said "Mommy that baby has no hair." It was so cute and I chuckle to myself when ever I think about it.

Fun with Food

After starting solids a couple of weeks ago I decided that Joshua wasn't quite ready for the full experience so we took a break for about a week or so. We started back last week and it is going so much better now! I have now introduced Rice, Oatmeal and Barley cereal and they seem to be going over fairly well. Each time I introduce a new cereal he doesn't really know what to think and starts gagging immediately, but by the third time he has it he does much better. I have been offering him cereal in the morning about an hour after we get up and he has his first nursing session of the day and then I offer him more around our dinner time, now that he has tried a variety of cereals I can offer him different things in the morning and the evening.

I am bit confused with the latest bit of advise that I received that suggests starting meats and cereals first as opposed to the traditional cereals, vegetables, fruits and then meats. The nurse said it was because babies need the iron, but all of the cereals that I buy are fortified with iron so I am not sure it is really necessary. Oh well I guess I should make an appointment with our doctor and find out his opinion on the subject.

Congratulations Deanna and Brian!

We had the pleasure of attending our friend Deanna's wedding this past weekend (one of the triplets). The bride looked stunning, and the day went off beautifully, minus the rain!

Joshua got to go to his first wedding and he received complements after the ceremony on how quiet he was, we sat at the back just in case and were prepared to sneak out the door if he started fussing.

Some New Toys

The three of us spent the evening at Wal-mart a couple of nights ago. Our intention was to run in a pick up a few things but he started pouring outside so we decided to stick inside until the rain slowed down, over an hour later we finally decided to head home anyways. During our time inside we roamed endlessly through the baby and toy departments and ended up with some new joys for Joshua, Fisher Price Stack and Roll Cups and Roll-A-Round balls, at this point he seems most interested in the balls because he can roll them around while he is on his stomach.

Watch out for Flying Food!

Last Monday I gave in and decided to start Joshua on solid foods, they recommend waiting until babies are 6 months old, but I figured he was close enough! His first food adventure was with rice cereal. I initially made it with water, since he didn't seem to thrilled with it, I have been making it with breast milk since and he seems a bit better with it. I start with one tablespoon of cereal and then add enough milk to make it quite runny. I have finding that once he is about part way through then I can thicken it up a bit because he has gotten used to the taste but doesn't like the consistency, once I put a bit more cereal into the mix he seems much happier.

Here he is after his first taste, he was really unsure what to make of this new taste.

Barn Yard Fun!

On Sunday afternoon I took Joshua out to my Aunt and Uncles farm, it wasn't our first visit out there but it was Joshua's first experience with barnyard animals!

Later that afternoon Joshua spent watching, Poppa and Geoff play Crib in preparation for Monday tournament, I will need to find out if they still hold their title as Champions!

Dance, Dance

This past Saturday we went to a barbecue at our friends Clayton and Brenda's. Joshua got to hang out with his friend Summer. I think they may have had the most fun out of everyone there, check our their dancing!

Preparing for Solids

Joshua's next big milestone is rapidly approaching, the beginning of solid foods! Up to this point Joshua has only ever experience breast milk, so this should be a very interesting experience for all three of us. I have decided, for now at least, to make all of the foods on my own, minus the cereals. So far I have our freezer stocked with peas, yellow beans, carrots, and enough sweet potatoes to feed our neighborhood. So far the task has been fairly enjoyable, I set the vegetables to steam on the stove and carry on with my normal routine, once they are soft enough I throw them in the blender until they are smooth, then I pour them into ice cube tray to freeze. Once they are frozen I toss them in a freezer bag to store. Joshua sits in the Bumbo and watches quite closesly as I prepare everything.

Woo Hoo

After months of having difficulty logging into this blog site, I have finally been able to do it the right way. Since at least January in order to update this blog I have had to view another blog and leave a comment so that I can log in. I have just installed Firefox, which is another Internet browser, and SUCCESS.

I promise to post regularly now!