***Deep Sigh**

All I have to say is this-
I got up at 6:15 this morning and walked 3 miles. After that, without taking a shower, I went to Walmart and bought a deep cleaner for our carpet. The carpet in the living room looked really bad where the boy had spit up on it several times and the dog always rubs his body on it. So, I cleaned the carpet this morning and it looked really good. I left it to dry while I went to school. Now, it is early evening and Steve set the boy on the carpet to crawl around while we are getting ready to go to Walmart and Lowes, and yes....the boy spit up! *Sigh*

Ping Pong balls and Flip Flops

So Josiah's new favorite toy, believe it or not, is a ping pong ball. He will roll it around on the floor and go flopping/scooching after it. Once he has retrieved it, the ball ends up....yes, in his mouth. It is the funniest thing. It is a bit too big for him to hold in his mouth, so after a couple of seconds it goes shooting out and across the floor and the cycle starts again!

Steve and I had a great time on our date tonight. We ate at Chipotle and then we went to the mall. We were looking for a belt for the little man. We looked in two different stores. No belt, but we came away with a pair of pajamas and two pairs of flip-flops. (One for now and one for next year.) I have decided that baby flip flops just have to be the cutest thing ever.

Date Night Tonight!!

Tonight is a date night. I am so very excited. We are dropping the boy off with my parents and Steve and I are going out for some one on one time. We are going to eat at Chipotle (mainly because I am eating vegan this week and can get a vegetarian burrito there). We might also go to the mall and walk around. I don't know what all else....I am just happy to have some time with my sweetie. Don't get me wrong, I love the little mister, but I don't mind a break from him every now and then. Especially when Steve gets a break too at the same time and we can focus on our own relationship. Steve had better watch out, because I am going to be focusing on him A LOT tonight!! :) HAHA!!!

My kid does tricks

Like it or not, my kid does tricks. Well, they might not be tricks, but my friend (we will call her Jane) thinks so. She was here at my house on Saturday and it came time for my son to get his bottle. As always, I made him say please before I gave it to him. He doesn't say it with his mouth (he can't talk yet --duh). He says it in sign language. The proper way to say please in sign language is to rub your hand on your chest. I tried getting him to learn it that way, but he consistenly puts his hands together as if he were begging. Anyway, I know what he means and when he says please, I give him his bottle, puffs, or whatever other food item he is asking for. My friend Jane was appalled at this and told Josiah that before long we would be teaching him to roll over and bark. Not so....our child is not an animal. He is a human being. One that is going to know his manners. And yes, I will teach them to him, and yes, I will make him practice them even when he doesn't want to. He will grow up to be polite.....like it or not!



And for his other trick, my mom showed him this one. She taught him to wave bye-bye. He doesn't do this correctly either, but it is terribly cute. He waves goodbye to himself. Just try it the next time he is around. It will definitely make you smile!

Worn out...

Tonight I am just plain worn out. I have had a really busy week and I think it finally caught up with me. We had company Friday night and Saturday afternoon/evening. We went to another church tonight to see a play that our friends were in and then to friends' house for pizza afterwards. Since the house is basically clean, I am going to try to sleep in tomorrow, as much as the boy will let me. I am hoping that since it is 10:00 and I just put him to bed he will sleep in a little bit.
Other than that, no exciting news. I will try to find something better to blog about in the next couple of days. I just thought I had better put something up here for Sarah to read. She probably has been bored when she visited my page this last week.
Goodbye for now....

Forward motion

Yes, he did it. Josiah actually moved forward today. It wasn't a complete crawl, but he pushed himself in such a way to propel himself in a forward motion. Up to this point he was only moving backwards and spinning around in circles. It won't be long now and he will be mobile. Are we ready for this?? Probably not. :)

Doctor Doctor

Yep, that's right. Two doctors in one day for Josiah. Thankfully there were no shots involved. Only a prick of the finger. He didn't even cry. Just looked at his finger bleeding with a look on his face that said, "Wow, cool!! What is that??" He is officially 30.5 inches long (97+%), 20 lbs. 5 oz (40%) and had a head circumference of 18.5 inches. The doctor said he is healthy and can start eating some yogurt. Woohoo! Can't wait to give it to him.

Doctor #2 said that he has to wear his helmet for another two months. It is helping, but is not completely finished doing its work. That is okay. They loosened it and he put it right back on.

Swimming lessons

Josiah had his first swimming lesson today. The teacher told me that I shouldn't expect too much out of him since he is so young. She said to work toward him splashing and kicking his legs. When he first got in the water, I was holding him and he would just lay there as I pulled him around. Then I showed him how to kick his feet. After a little bit he started doing it on his own. He was then splashing and kicking at the same time. I think he is going to like swimming, therefore, I think his daddy should put a pool in the backyard!! :) Actually, I am saving for the pool. I am just not quite there yet. Here are some pics (of course.) We have video too, but I don't know how to put it on here.

What an afternoon!

I don't know what happened at 3:30....but it sure wasn't a good thing. I have decided try "mystery shopping" on the side every now and then. Today was my first shop at Harris Teeter. You can't write notes in the store, so I had written down just a few brief instructions on my "grocery list". Unfortunately, I didn't list everything that I was supposed to do or notice while I was in the store. I didn't realize it until I got home and was filling out the survey form online. After being a bit frustrated over my lack of competence, I decided to take a break and go over to my parents' house to drop off some food for Josiah. I left the form up on the computer screen, hopped on the lawn mower so I could get their more quickly and headed out. I put my bottle of water along with the garage door opener in the cup holder of the lawn mower. I noticed on the way that the mower wasn't going as fast as I remembered last time, but figured I just had some lever in the wrong place. When I got off at my parents and started to head in the house, I looked back and the mower and realized that the front tire was flat. That is why it was going to slow. I go in the house, call Steve and he came to look at it and try to fix it. There was nothing that could be done. He had to call Sears and set up an appointment to get it fixed. He pushed the mower off the driveway onto the grass and I went to get the garage door opener and water out of the cup. The garage door opener was missing. I had to walk all the way from my parents house to ours looking for it in the grass. I couldn't find it. Steve decided to backtrack from our house to my parents, and he was able to find it about a third of the way there. I was so relieved. I then came in the house and decided to try to finish the survey and send it in to Harris Teeter. As I went to sit down at the computer, I realized that while we were gone, the power had gone out. (It had gone off at my parents' house while I was there). The survey that I had filled out part way was gone. Arrgh!!! Well, anyway, I have since calmed down and been able to relax. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for me! Fortunately it is Friday and the weekend will soon be here!!

Back To Work

Spring Break is over. Today I go back to work. Now I know that it is only for 45 minutes, but it is still work nonetheless. Besides, the planning and prep time for my class is usually longer than the 45 minutes it takes to teach it. I did pretty good with my "To Do" list for Spring Break. I accomplished everything except cooking a new dish and riding around Salem Lake. I only half finished my closet though, so I don't know if that counts or not.
Anyway, back to work on lesson plans....

Funeral, Food and Freaky relatives

We went to Minnesota over the weekend for my grandmother's funeral. It was a nice service and she looked very peaceful. It was freezing cold outside, and I thought my feet were going to freeze at the graveside. The minister must have been cold too, because the service there was very short.

Despite the sadness of losing my grandmother, we did have a wonderful time visiting with my relatives. All of my 10 aunts and uncles were there along with 22 of my 35 cousins and some of my second cousins. It seemed that all we did all weekend long was eat. I still feel full from it all. Somebody (I can't remember who) donated a HUGE box of chocolate covered peanut clusters to the family. We ate and ate and ate those. We even brought home two big baggies full of them and there were still tons left. And of course we had all the usual casseroles, cakes, and fried chicken that families have when they get together.

My cousin Tera and I did have a bit of an adventure concerning our cousin Paul. He basically "stalked" us all weekend, wanting to be where we were and butting into every conversation we were trying to have. He is older than both of us, but has always had a reputation of being a ladies man. I wanted to yell out really loudly, "I am your COUSIN, leave me alone!!" but didn't quite have the guts. Steve did come between the two of us a few times and did his best to protect me. For that I am very thankful.

The boy was great the whole time. He slept better away than he does here at home. Here is my favorite picture of him from the trip. We had been walking around the mall of America for a while and stopped to get something to eat. I gave him a baby cookie to chew on to keep him happy while we were eating. He was so tired that he fell asleep while he was eating it. Such a sweet sight!

what a shot!

So here is the next greatest Josiah picture. I do believe it has to be one of the best yet. It was completely by accident. I was trying to take a picture of him making a face, and Steve put the spoon out to give him another bite of food. Turned out to be an excellent photo!!