Update on Our Little Joseph

Joseph is just about 16 months old.

We went to the doctor today and here are his stats:

Age: 1 year 3 months

Height: 30.5 inches ~ 26%

Weight: 19.4 pounds ~ 1%

Word Count: 10ish ~ not sure if I've forgotten any

Ma-ma ~ he says this for me, and just about anything else, including his dad

Da-da ~ sometimes Dad-dy

Hi ~ most times it's just a wave, but he's said it when pretending to talk on the phone

Ba-ba ~ bye-bye, with a cute wave of his hand

Ow ~ said very carefully, almost like an Oh

Uh-Oh! ~ usually after throwing/dumping his food or crayons or something all over

Whoo-hoo! ~ with his arms up in the air

Uh-huh ~ an excited noise and shaking of his fists when he's saying yes

No ~ accompanied by the shaking of his head a whole bunch of times

Wow ~ sounds like his Ow, but with the W in front

More ~ especially used at mealtimes

Mwah ~ when blowing or giving kisses

Monkey noise ~ points at his chest with his fingers and says, "ee-ee!"

Lion noise ~ whispered "ah"

Cow noise ~ "boo"

Snake noise ~ "ssss"

His version of sign language isn't quite ASL, but he signs:

Hi ~ waves his hand

Bye-bye ~ waves his hand

Blows kisses ~ moves one hand away from mouth

Thank you ~ very similar to blowing kisses

Please ~ rubs his two hands together as if brushing them off

More ~ either the same as please, or he claps his fingertips together

Drink ~ rubs his index finger on his thumb

Yay ~ claps his hands

Come here, or Give it to me ~ opens and closes his hand like he's beckoning you

Come with me ~ he pulls on your finger and guides you to what he wants

Where is it? ~ shrugs with two hands in the air

Tickle ~ he swipes your neck with his hand and sniggers

High five ~ gives a high five

Knuckles ~ winds up and punches your knuckles with his little fist

All done ~ two hands in the air

Amen ~ same as 'all done'

Overall, our baby boy is healthy and happy!

He went from having 5 teeth to 10 in just a week, and he is still popping out some more, poor kid. The Monday before we went out of town, he got a 104 fever. He was so sad, hot, and miserable. Finally, he started feeling better Thursday afternoon.

One of his favorite big boy things to do is to feed himself... he's getting better, but we've had quite our share of mealtime messes, as you can see below:

Pudding! YUM!

This is fresh corn on the cob... just shucked, not cooked at all. He polished it off, though! He loves corn on the cob.

Joseph LOVES ice-cream! This was during our Utah trip. Everyone was having sundaes, and he ate 3 bowls of ice-cream. They were Joseph-sized bowls, (so just a couple spoonfuls) but still!

He helped me make cookies the other night... sort of. This is his version of helping:

'They're gonna be good, mom!'

I know what you're thinking... we feed our child so healthy... he DOES eat fruits and veggies and all that good stuff, I promise!

Time to clean up!

He usually gets a bath to clean up, but this time we used the sink. To him it doesn't matter, as long as he gets to play in the water!

Joseph loves other kids. He has some cute, fun friends that he likes to play with. He's his father's son, in that he loves frisbees and balls. He thinks he has rights to any and all of them. He also enjoys water and rocks-either together or separate, he can play forever. He never took a binki much as a baby, but once he started teething again (after his first 4 teeth) he found it comforting. So, he loves his binki now, but still only needs it when he's tired for the most part. He finds my hair very comforting as well. When he's tired, you know it because he'll suddenly want to hold your hair. He recognizes the scriptures, Jesus, and prayer. And he likes for mom and dad to sing to him before bed, followed by a kiss from each of us. Yes, I walk out of his room each night almost in tears because he's so precious and sweet. We love our little Joseph and are so happy to be his parents. I think there is no joy greater than that of being a parent.

Green Thumb??!

So, you might say I've gotten a green thumb all of a sudden. I've just had this urge to plant and grow things! So, right before Memorial Day, Jopes and I planted some...

Gladiolus

This is what ours look like right now:

We also planted some Peas!

There are 15 little sprouts that look something like this:

And, we planted some Liliums.

Sadly, this pot was sitting furthest from the house and kind of drowned in all the rain we got. So there is only one sprouting up so far, out of five... but at least there is one!

BUT APPARENTLY THAT WASN'T ENOUGH...

for yesterday, we planted a 5' sunflower for Joseph in his own little pot.

And Jopes planted a whole bunch of Mammoth Sunflowers back behind our apartment, along the canal side of the fence. He's hoping for something nicer to look at back there than the current gas station billboard.

AND THEN LAST NIGHT,

we planted Strawberries.

All our other plants started as either seeds or bulbs, but these, as you can see, were already started for us. Let's hope we can keep them alive! We all love strawberries. Joseph eats them faster than you can cut the green thing out of them! (Seriously, he shoved a good sized strawberry into his mouth, green stem and all, and devoured it clean).

Oh, and here's our little guy, who is 100% boy.

And can I tell you that we learned...

he loves dirt.

I took his pajama shirt off to put some clothes on, but before I could slip a shirt over his head, he threw a handful of dirt over his shoulder, which of course went right down his diaper (also notice the dirt smeared all down his arm). So he played this way until we were all done with the dirt and was so very happy. :) I sure do love my little boy!

The Idaho Falls Zoo!!

On Memorial Day, we went to the zoo with Becca (who got some better pictures on her camera) and some friends; Mike, Summer & Paxton, and Walter, Aria & Luca. It was the perfect size zoo for our one-year-olds, and we even enjoyed it, too!

Of course, the little boys all enjoyed the monkeys...

This is the particular monkey they are looking at in the picture above...

Joseph's absolute favorite was the lion, though.

According to Joseph, a lion says, "ahh" (whispered softly). Bet you didn't know lions were so quiet!

They had a male and a female lion. The female was sleeping at first, but then she got up and came closer:

Here's a FANTASTIC shot (not taken by me) of the zebras. :)

The little baby was just off by itself, looking much cuter.

It was a fun day and we plan on going back again!

NOW...

Cute Story:

Last Sunday morning, Jopes was getting ready for his morning meetings and was ready for his tie. So, Joseph and I went to pick one out for him. After picking one, I gave it to Joseph to take to his dad. He did, but once he got to him, he instead decided to put the tie around his own neck. He took the two sides of the tie and smooshed them together as if that would tie it into a perfect knot around his neck. It was very cute.

He has a little bow tie (thanks Elann!) that he wears every Sunday now and he absolutely loves it, too. Probably because it makes him look so handsome. Even the married girls in our ward go ga-ga over him. ;)

Summer Friends and a Delicious Nectarine!

Joseph LOVES playing with friends! He gets so excited whenever we mention one of them and is so thrilled to see them!

We live straight across the parking lot from Luke and Lindsay, and the two kids just love each other. It's so fun to see them play together. I was in class when these were taken, but I love these pictures!

Joseph and Nora:

We had planned on going to the zoo on Saturday, but it was too cold, so we instead went to Walter and Aria's. It was fun and the boys had fun together, as usual.

Joseph and Luca:

watching Saturday's blizzard...

just chillin'

Joseph had his first nectarine last night and devoured more than half of it! He loved it! His Aunt Becca tried getting some good pictures, but also got some goofy ones... enjoy!

I LOVE my little guy!

My First Sewing Project!

My mom got me a sewing machine for Christmas. (Thanks, Mama!)

So, I decided that it would be fun to make something... I was thinking a blessing dress for our little girl, but the winning project ended up being sheets for the kids' beds!

We got a cradle for the new baby when she comes, so I made the sheet for her first, and it turned out PERFECT! I couldn't be happier with it.

I was nervous about getting the elastic and everything right, and I did! YaY!

I was so pleased, I let Jopes take my picture. :-P

And here is the finished product, just waiting for a little baby to come! :)

Next, I tried doing one of the sheets for Joseph's bed. He still mostly sleeps in his crib, but we wanted to get a toddler bed for when we move the new baby to the crib. Being so excited about my new project, we went ahead and got it. Anyway, we got two materials for him, since they were the same theme, just different patterns. I still have to make the second sheet, but here is the first.

Oh. And the sides are brown, because we found out we didn't have enough material to make the whole sheet out of the patterned material. AHH! So, we went to Walmart and just bought some brown for the sides. This sheet didn't fit as snug as the cradle sheet. It's a little too loose, so it kind of slides around on the bed. I hope the second sheet turns out better. We'll see!

Regardless of the fit, Joseph loves his new sheet! He points at all the animals on it and says, "boo! boo!" (his noise for what a cow says)

Pretend I'm not in this one, and it's cute to see him sleeping in his "big boy" bed. He thinks he's so cool. :D

We love our little guy!

Lots of Pictures from April... with more to come!! :D

Here's a little of what we (especially little Joseph) have been up to lately...