Celebrations!!

This month started off with celebrations for my 10 year anniversary at work. It amazes me that it has been so long. It's such a grown-up place to be in life having worked somewhere for 10 years. I am so lucky to have the job I have. I love what I do and the people I work with. We had a lunch celebration with some of my closest co-worker friends. Then, in staff meeting my boss reflected on the last ten years and poked fun at my excel knowledge. Then there was a nice reception with yummy food so people could come visit and reminisce. It was fun to talk about all the crazy memories and reflect on how much things have changed.

This week has been full of birthday festivities. What I have been blown away by with this birthday is how caught off-guard I have been. I'm usually pretty in tune with things going on around me. I'm not a snoop, rather, I am just "aware" - I tend to pick up on clues. But this year I'm apparently out of it. Either I've been too busy, focused or distracted. Maybe all of the above.

Tuesday was the first of my birthday celebrations. There is a group of girls at work that get together for lunch every other week on Tuesdays. Since that's my day at home, I usually go every other time. To my surprise there were cupcakes and ice cream and toppings to consume. Can't go wrong with any of that in my book. All of us girls love to bake and share recipes and it is just so much fun to have homemade sweets!

Yesterday morning my team at work suddenly appeared at my desk with cake and ice cream. This was 10:30 in the morning mind you. My love for ice cream has apparently become common knowledge. YAY!! Then I went to lunch with some friends for my birthday and when I came back there were surprises on my desk. There was a photo frame with a message from my husband and a picture of a camera. This one really confused me. I called Jim right away thinking maybe he had put this stuff on my desk and maybe he was still in the area. Turns out it was done by a couple girls at work who like to have birthday messages from people's spouses. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.

The picture of the camera was to tell me Jim got me a new camera for my birthday. I've been wanting to get a little digital camera that I can just carry in my purse. I love my big fancy camera, but don't always like to lug it around. This camera can also take video. We'll have to see if this will just be our new video camera or if we still want to shop for an official camera just for video. But I'm so excited to finally have digital video so I can share videos online.

Here is my boy rolling over...

Another birthday gift is that I will be getting my first date night since Joshua's birth. Tomorrow night Jim and I are going to go out to dinner and probably country dancing. I think it will be really nice to get out.

Joshua's gift to me is looking like it will be his first tooth. My mom had thought yesterday that she was feeling something sharp in his gums; but when I picked him up, she wasn't feeling it anymore. But last night I definitely felt sharpness. It's so hard to look in his mouth because the moment you pull his lip down, his tongue instantaneously covers the gums. But I couldn't see anything protruding last night. But today I'm pretty sure I can see the smallest hint of his tooth. It is such a major milestone and very exciting to me.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of all my celebrations. I am really feeling how much God has blessed my life!

Do You Know What Day It Is?

MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

And 9 months till Christmas. Just sayin'.

Joshua is Such a Giver

My boy is so sweet. He loves his mommy. In fact so much so that he is learning to give me presents.

I'm pretty sure it's a conscious decision.

You see, he's giving me the gift of poo.

Yep.

Joshua is watched by grandparents on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday mornings this week I have received HUGE blowouts from the boy. Did I say HUGE? Because I really meant HUGE!!! Such a sweet boy. He's done it occasionally, but I'm starting to wonder if it's becoming more consistent. I'm still waiting for today's gift. I know it's coming.

I think it's because he misses me so much and he wants to share with me what he worked on while I was away. "Look, mama! I saved it just for you!"

Isn't that sweet? Mm-Hmm. Yep.

Today's package hasn't arrived yet and I'm sure the longer we wait, the more special it will be!

And don't get me started on how giving he is with the drool...


My sweet boy.

Busy Weekend

We had quite a busy weekend...

Saturday I had two kids birthday parties to go to - a first birthday and a second birthday. I was worried about Joshua surviving both so I mapped out his entire day to make sure he fed enough times and that he got enough sleep. Since we just changed his schedule from a three hour cycle to a 3.5 hour cycle, this actually made the day a bit easier.

First was Silas' first birthday. It's amazing that a year has gone by already. His mom, Andrea, and I are hoping Josh and Silas will grow up to be best friends!

I have always been a big fan of the kids making a mess with their first birthday cake. It just is so frikkin' cute and funny. I think the adults have just as much fun watching. Andrea had made a cake in the shape of a gigantic cupcake and decorated it like Elmo. It took a while to get started, but eventually Silas went to town with Elmo.





What I didn't get a shot of was his legs when he was pulled out of the chair. Before he really realized he could eat the cake, Silas was just rubbing the frosting on his legs. Andrea was smart enough to have taken his pants off beforehand.

In the late afternoon we had Ryan's second birthday party. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera to this party. But Joshua got to see his betrothed, Josie. She is three days older than Joshua and it seems to be a tradition in my husband's family for the men to marry older women, so we're already priming Josh for this. At this party we sat these two next to each other and they were immediately holding hands. It was the cutest thing ever.

Jim and I just got new cell phones so we tried taking pictures of them with it, but it was just too slow. Then I realized that the phones also take video.

So in one day Joshua got to spend time with his best friend (according to his parents) and his girlfriend (according to his parents). Hmmm, I'm sure someday we'll let him pick his own relationships. ;-)

Sunday we decided to officially start taking Joshua to the nursery at church. It has become work to try to keep him quiet in the cry room at church and I'm not really able to pay attention to the service. The biggest reason we have been waiting is just to get past flu season. Hopefully the risk is not as great now. He seemed to do wonderful. Unfortunately we had to ask the nursery folks to feed him a bottle because good ol' mom and dad FORGOT to change the clocks. So his feedings started an hour late for the day. We slowly adjusted the schedule throughout the day and all was well. I don't get the sense that Josh has been affected by the time change at all. It doesn't typically seem to affect me much.

Sunday afternoon my cousin, Cindy, from Indiana and her best friend came over for a visit. They were in town to attend the Care and Kindness Conference my parents are involved in putting on. Cindy was so great with Josh - he would smile big and laugh at her.


And this morning at 4am, Joshua (and Cindy) got to experience a first earthquake. Did he really experience it? Probably not. Jim and I were on our feet in an instant and then just stood in our room waiting to see if it was going to keep going or get worse. Joshua didn't make a peep. It's funny, though, how my fears are changing now that I have a son. I used to like when we had earthquakes - they are never really that bad and they just become a fun thing to share stories about. But now that Joshua is here, I don't want anymore earthquakes. My biggest fear this morning was that it was a pre-shock. At least Cindy and her friend got to have the full California experience - Shake and Bake!!