Update on Joshua

Joshua has been very, very, slowly entering the world of food. He loves avocado; here he is eating the little bit that was left in the peel. He would not give it up until he had sucked every last bit out of the peel. The only problem is that he gets a terrible stomachache for days whenever he eats. We can't figure it out, so we are going extremely slowly.



Diaper changing and getting dressed has become quite the challenge. He just starts arching and flipping and crawling away. I end up having to pin him down just to get his diaper on.



Joshua loves to help me "clean up". He sits there and opens and closes the cupboard door and pulls all the Tupperware out. Then he pulls up on the dishwasher and pulls out all the dishes.



Joshua is getting really good at pulling up on things. He loves using the knobs of our armoire, but then will loose his grip and bonk his head (so sad). He is so determined to figure it out that he won't stop doing it. Until he gets stronger I have been putting pillows in a circle around him to fall on.



I had to put a picture of our cat, Figaro, on here for my dad and sister. She is Joshua's best friend (although Caleb finds that ridiculous), so he crawls after her all day and tries to grab her ears and fur. I try to teach him to be soft but it has not worked to well yet. Luckily she has been very patient with him...so far.

Joshua's Dream Come True (AKA Musings of an anesthetized mind...)

Friday I had a hernia repair, my first and hopefully last surgery of my life. It wasn't too bad. We had to be there at 6 am for a 7:25 operation. I was able to stay with Joshua and Caleb up through all of my pre-op. This was wonderful because Joshua was really tired because of his rude awakening at 5:30 am in 5 degree weather. I got to nurse him one last time and get him all calm before they rolled me away.

I opted for the least amount of drugs as possible for the surgery, to avoid getting passing it along to Joshua. Consequently, I was awake and alert (or at least thought I was). Before they rolled me away to the OR they gave me a mild sedative that made me fell like a had butterflies flying around in my head, and Caleb said I sounded really drunk, but I thought I was totally normal. I was talking to the Doctor and anesthesiologist the whole time during the operation, thinking I was having a normal coherent conversation, but most likely not. They just put some local on the area where they cut, which was strange because i could feel them touching and tugging at my stomach, but the sedative made me not care. Anyway it went great and only took an hour before I was in recovery with Joshua and Caleb again. Joshua slept most of the time I was gone, but was very nervous of all the people that kept attacking his mommy and insisted on sitting right by me, and crying when ever someone came near.

Since the surgery I have been pretty sore, and have to walk all hunched over or it pulls on the incision. I have also been too sore to carry Joshua. He loves it since all I do is sit down on the ground on a pillow and let him crawl all over and play. He loves that I can't get up and do other things. I am always right there, so he crawls over to see me, and then back to his toys, etc. I'm sure it's what he's always dreamed of: his mommy and his toys together all day long.

Anyway I am starting to feel much better already; everything is healing great.

Moving up in the World!

So Joshua has been crawling like mad. Every day he gets a little faster and more daring. We have had a lot of head bonks, but most of the time he bonks and stops to think and then keeps on moving, although if it is bad one he always needs his mommy.

He is a bit of an over achiever and is not content down on his hands and knees, so he has began climbing, which is the source of all the bad head bonks. He pulls himself up on everything and will stand there and talk and talk, like he is saying look what I can do! He stands at the dishwasher, bathtub, chairs... but these yellow boxes are his favorite because he can climb up them.

Vegan, Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

So these may sound gross to the average reader of our blog, but they are the only dessert I get. Joshua still has a protein intolerance, and gets blood in his stool anytime I eat dairy, soy, nuts, or eggs, so I have gone vegan, besides eating meat. Also I am hypoglycemic, and don't eat any refined sugars, but am a health nut so wont eat NutraSweet or any other artificial stuff. I usually sweeten with Agave nectar, or pure Vermont maple syrup. Anyway, a was craving a treat so went to the health food store to see if I could find anything, I found these wonderful chocolate chip cookies that were 4 dollars each! I got one to satisfy the craving, but couldn't justify anymore than that. Instead I took the ingredient list and tried to figure out how to make them. After several failed attempts I finally figured them out, and have had request from some family members for the recipe. So here it is:

1/2 Cup Safflower oil

1 Cup pure Vermont Maple Syrup ( no Aunt Jemima or Log cabin. This needs the real deal)

Mix

Mix and then add

1 Tbl Baking Powder

1 Tbl Water

Add

2 Tbl Arrowroot Powder (it is hard to find but doesn't work without it)

1 Tsp Vanilla

1 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Cups Flour

Mix

Add

One handful Grain sweetened Dark chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes

I think they're best really light and doughy.

Joshua is Crawling!

So when we left for California Joshua was scooting, gradually he got the army crawl down, and two days after we got home he started crawling! He is still stow and unstable but everyday is getting better.

New Years in Utah

I recently had my computer die. So unfortunately we lost a few pictures, mainly the ones from Utah and of our own little Christmas. Luckily Caleb was able to save all our other pictures.

This is one of the only pictures we have, I look great :). Joshua got a really cute farm, and loves it. He sucks on the animals and barn all day.


We had a great time in Utah. We played games, saw a movie, went skiing and snowshoeing. We had a great time seeing everyone, and spending time with them. As usual the trip went to fast.

Christmas

Christmas came early this year. I left for California on the 11th so we had Christmas eve on the 10th, with Christmas dinner, story and all, and opened our presents and ate cinnamon rolls and a big breakfast on the 11th. Then I flew out to California with Joshua. Caleb joined us in California on the 21st well almost the 22nd by the time his flight finally came in. We were so excited to see him.

On Christmas Sunday Ezra and Joshua had matching Christmas outfits. They looked very cute, except Joshua's was soaked with drool by the time we got to Church. Grandma was so excited to have Joshua there and kept giving him kisses and getting red lipstick on him, so he always looked rosy.



Since we finally had someone there to take a picture of our family we tried to take a family picture. Except Caleb decided to grow out a beard while I was away, I am trying to get him to set a date to shave it off. We'll see how it goes.




On Sunday was also Braddock's 1st birthday so the whole family went down to John and Kimberlee's to celebrate.



On Christmas eve my parents, Scott and Elizabeth, and us made a traditional Christmas eve dinner, read the Christmas story and opened one present. All the boys got matching cowboy pajama's. Elizabeth, mom and I all went shopping together, and hit all the same Christmas sales, so the boys ended up with a lot of matching clothes. :)



Christmas morning we had a huge breakfast with cinnamon rolls, and opened presents. Elizabeth, Scott and the boys came over for breakfast and to show us their presents. Caleb's favorite part of Christmas morning was helping the little boys put all their Playmobile stuff together, and then playing with them.




Then in the afternoon we went down to Travis and Susan's for the traditional Christmas dinner with the whole family. We ate, opened presents and played games. Kristin had got a really fun game for her play station called Sing Star, so we were all having singing show downs. Caleb and Elizabeth were getting very competitive, but Elizabeth won everyone in the end.



The week after Christmas we went on Joshua's first picnic, he loved laying in the sunshine and crawling out on the grass for the first time. Then I pushed him in the swing for the first time and he was so excited! Elijah and Isaac loved Joshua and were always hugging him and playing with him. He loved his cousins and thought they were so funny.



Bath time in Grandma's sink with Ezra.



One day we decided to take an adventure walk on one of the beach paths. Caleb, my dad and I walked for five miles, and Elizabeth and Scott ran for like nine miles with the two older boys on bikes. The boys slept really well that night. Afterwards we walked on the beach for a little bit. I love the ocean, and have a really hard time living away from it. So every time we go to California I have to walk along the beach and stick my feet in the sand to get grounded again.




We had so much fun in California, and I loved all the time I got to be outside in the sunshine and all the time we got to spend with my family. We were really busy the whole time and the trip went way to fast as usual. On New Years Eve we flew out to Utah to spend a week with Caleb's family, and are leaving to go home tomorrow. I will write a post about that trip when we get home.

I had to share my favorite view in the whole world, it makes me feel at home when ever I see it. To me it is the most beautiful view in the whole world.

Sitting up

Joshua is just learning to sit up. He sits but as soon as he sees something interesting he lunges and topples over. He is very jealous of his older cousins and wants to sit and move like them. They crawl all around and over him. He scoots as fast as he can to get to them but as soon as he gets there they have crawled away. So he is very motivated.


He loves the sunshine and playing with the shadows.

More Snow

While Kathryn has been out in California enjoying the warm weather and shorts and T-shirt, I've been shoveling snow in between snow storms. All week we were hearing about the big Nor'easter that was supposed to hit and leave 18-24 inches of snow on Sunday. That morning I was woken up by a call from the Bishopric so that we could let the ward know that church was cancelled because of the weather. All told, we have well over 2 feet of snow on the ground now, plus it just started snowing again...Maybe I'll get out skiing before I leave town this weekend.

The Babies

Joshua and I have been in California visiting my family. We have been very busy, and have been having lots of fun. Of course we really miss daddy, and can't wait for him to be here next week. He is hopefully studying hard without any distraction.

Tonight the family all came up for a BBQ and to see Joshua. Since we had the three youngest grandkids together we tried to take a picture of them. Getting a 12, 9 and 6 month old to sit and pose turned out to be quite the adventure. They were crawling all over and poor little Joshua was watching his two older cousins and was trying to keep up by scooting and rolling all over.

Joshua, Braddock and Ezra

After lots of attempts and clapping and shaking toys this is the best we got. They all had fun, but we were all pretty worn out. It was great to see everyone.

We have movement...

Joshua is learning to move himself around. He's not too quick yet, but I'm sure he'll soon be crawling all over the place. Hopefully this re-post fixes the sound glitch.