O Tannenbaum

I really wanted to go all out for Christmas this year. It's Joey's second, but the first one he'll have a clue for. I've been bugging Joe to hang the lights on the house for at least the last two weeks. We still don't have lights up on the house, but we do have a tree. First things first. We had to rearrange some furniture and then clean up before we could bring the tree in the house.

Look who is Mommy's big helper! Once he saw me pushing the swiffer everywhere, that's all he wanted to do. So I took the top half off the post so that it was his size, and away he went!

This is our tree, in various stages of decorating. You can see in the first picture that it was just a little tall for our living room, but once Joe chopped the top branch off, it was perfect! We put it up yesterday and let it open up over night. Then today we put on the lights and ornaments, and of course the star on top! (You can see it if you look closely at the last picture.) And yes, those are presents under the tree. I went to Kohl's on Friday and am just about done. The only real thing left is to decide if I'm wrapping the presents for PA before our after our flight home.

The little guy definitely approves. The kiddie gate we bought might be the best idea yet. We can use it for at least a few years to keep him (and the dog) away from the presents.

Family Business

Last night we had our second Thanksgiving dinner, at Molly and Luis's house. The above picture is (roughly) all of the friends from high school with their babies. Yes, there are 10 kids pictured - one who is two and a half years old, the rest ranging from four to fourteen months. And someone is expecting this spring! (NOT ME!!) There's even one kiddo missing - the patriarch of the group, who is six. One big happy family.

Give Thanks and Praises

This Thanksgiving, I have much to be thankful for, not least of which is the little guy picture here.

And here, with his favorite cousin Shae ... (yes, an oldie but goodie)

And here, with his second cousin Hannah on Thanksgiving Day 2009.

I have a wonderful husband, an adorable son, a loving family, supportive friends, and a rewarding job. What more could a girl ask for?

When I Saw [Him] Standing There

Our morning routine has gotten, well, somewhat routine. I get showered while Joe watches Joey, and then while I finish getting ready, Joey plays in his bedroom. So far it's been working out.

This was the scene of the crime yesterday morning. He's figured out how to open his drawers, and the onesies were strewn everywhere! He looks so innocent just standing there, though, doesn't he?

We've also been working on "head, shoulders, knees, and toes." He has "head" down!

And he's still trying to drink out of the adult cups. This one was empty, but he does get some practice when Mommy is holding the cup.

Joey has also figured out that he can crawl under the end table. (Like I said, he loves to crawl under or through things, like an obstacle course.) I wasn't sure what he wanted but ...

Turns out our little one is interested in gaining some knowledge.

He really looks like he's ready to read the book, doesn't he? He loves to play with books, apparently even the real ones.

Manic Mechanic

I meant to blog about these pictures last night, but I was feeling sluggish and bleh, so you get them now.

Joey loves playing with his toy cars. He especially loves moving the "elevator" up and down on the repair garage. OK, I'm sure he really just likes the noise it makes, but it is cool.

He also loves to roll them on the hardwood floors. The Mickey Mouse one rolls the best. (I think it's because it's made out of metal and all the others are 100% plastic.) Soon he'll want all the Matchbox cars!

Bright Lights, Big City

Sunday didn't have the best start. Joey woke up at 5:15 and would not go back to sleep. I thought for sure he'd go back to sleep, but no. Around 9:30 I decided to take him food shopping, to get out of the house and feel like I'd accomplished something during my very long morning. Big mistake. He was tired and wanted me to hold him the whole time. Do you know how hard it is to hold a baby and push a shopping cart? Near impossible.

He did take a nice long nap, and woke up ready to conquer the day.

Or watch Daddy hang the Christmas lights.

This is how it started. It ended with no lights hung. But the gutters are clean!

Junk Food Junkie

The little bugger is doing much better today. Woke up with a 100 degree fever, but that was already down to 99 by the time he woke up from his first nap. He still has a bit of a cough and a runny nose, but even that has gotten better.

Joey's been eating a ton of finger food, and he absolutely loved these Gerber crunchies, so we thought we'd see how he did with Cheetos. We wanted to get him the white cheddar ones so that they weren't as messy, but they didn't have them at Target. Oh well. You should see him with them. He gets this smile like he thinks he's getting the coolest treat in the world. And I think he was even taunting the dog earlier. Too cute!

He still loves to play peek-a-boo. He'll just pick up the cloth diaper and throw it over his head, waiting for someone to ask, "Where is Joey?" The punch-line smile is priceless.

Sometimes he misses his head and it ends up behind him. But he still has fun!

Bread and Water

Today was not a good day for the little guy. He didn't sleep well last night from the coughing and the post-nasal drip. And then I got the call at 10:45 that I had to pick him up from daycare because he was running a fever (101.9). He was very lethargic, barely evening holding up his head, so I called the pediatrician, gave him some baby Tylenol, and put him down for a nap. He slept for two hours, and woke up refreshed. Nowhere near 100%, but at least he felt like playing. And eating.

Joey loves his buttered bread. I've been cutting the slice of bread into quarters, but he usually ends up shoving the whole thing in his mouth. (I know he knows how to take bites because he'll bite his waffles.) I figured I'd cute the bread into six pieces this afternoon, but he still shoved the whole thing in his mouth. It is pretty cute to watch.

He ate lunch fine. (He actually liked the veggie burger the second time around.) Took another nap this afternoon, and is back in bed now. Didn't really eat dinner, but as long as he keeps drinking a bit, I'm not going to worry too much yet. His fever did get back up above 102 as I was putting him to bed (it had gone down around 100), but we'll see how tonight goes. I'll keep you posted.

The Space Between

If you've ever been to our house, you know the livig room is not especially big, and there really isn't much for Joey to pull himself up on (except the couches and the tv stand, both of which his uses). I had seen him using the exersaucers at school, so I figured I'd haul ours out of the basement, and let him use it as additional standing support. He did use it for a bit, and then he had some ideas of his own.

Instead of walking or crawling around it, he took great pleasure in crawling THROUGH it. For no real reason at all. I don't even think he really played with the toys on the other side. Just enjoyed figuring out how to get into the thing and then out the other side.

My cute little explorer! We'll have to get some cool obstacle courses for him. They'll of course take up the entire living room, but what's more fun than watching him play? Oh, that's right - playing with him!

Nightmare on My Street

Daddy mentioned that these pj's looked a little Freddy Krueger, so I figured I'd post them up for a vote. What do you think? (And yes, I would've preferred a face shot, too, but they all sucked this morning, so this is what you get.)

Paparazzi

You may have heard me mention once or twice before how much Joey loves The Family Guy. We were playing Wednesday night when the theme song came on.

Need I say more?

He immediately assumed his favorite tv-watching position, on the floor, with a great view of the tv. (Honestly, our living room is not that big, so pretty much anywhere would have a great view of the set.)

And I think he's finally figuring out the paparazzi and the camera's flash. You can see here that after the first flash he squinted a bit, protecting those baby blues from the big flash.

Stand

Joey's been doing lots of standing these days. Doesn't even need a ledge to pull up on. He uses his sneakers much like an experience climber would use their shoes - he digs in and just pushes, trusting the traction he gets. He especially loves to climb on the door in the hallway and pull off the door hanging our friend Christine's son, Kenai, made for us many moons ago. He gets a kick out of.

He also loves to climb up on the refrigerator and pull the magnets off. We don't have many in reach (I've moved quite a few downstairs), but he especially enjoys the Simpsons magnet. Like father, like son.

Killing Me Softly

Let me start this entry with a quick "no, I'm not trying to kill you" to my sister. She's creating a cousins calendar (check out some sample months at rockle-riffraff), and the theme for August is bath time. I promise, I am not trying to ruin your life and make you change any of the photos. But if you so choose, that's up to you.

As you all know, Joey loves bath time. And my camera. So needless to say he was going to do everything in his power to get the camera into the bath tub on Sunday night. Fortunately, Mommy prevailed.

I don't think I even need to comment on this photo. Once again, he is entirely soaked of his own splashing.

This was the crazy hair we had tonight. I think I had officially wet his hair with the wash cloth as I was getting ready to wash it. You can see how fine it is, but he is definitely getting more every day. And you can't see it in this shot, but there is a new little bud of a tooth on the bottom. He's been drooling a lot (literally the spit would just continuously stream from his mouth), so we figured something was cutting, but I finally saw it on last night.

My Buddy and Me

Joey loves his doggy. And Ginny tolerates him well enough. From this picture, you might actually think they like each other. I think in about six more months, when Joey's chasing her everywhere, they'll be best friends. In the meantime, at least there's no biting (from either one).

Ring Out Ahoya

It was an absolutely gorgeous Saturday, so while Daddy raked the leaves, Mommy and Joey had an impromptu photo session.

When we cleaned out the wood last summer, we kept this one log. I thought it would be perfect as an extra seat around the firepit (which we still haven't used yet), but turns out it's also the perfect height to allow Joey to stand outside. And standing is key, because he does not like the feel of the grass on his hands. I guess the fall grass feels different from summer grass; he crawled around just fine in the yard in August.

This is Joey imitating Pop-Pop ... I mean Popeye. Sometimes kids do the darnedest things.

I also wanted to see if Joey would cry the second I put him in the pile of leaves. I'm a horrible mom, I know, but I know lots of kids who love the leaves, so I wanted to see Joey's reaction. Apparently he likes them. He also likes when Daddy twirls the rake like a drum major, but that's a different blog all together.

And I couldn't decide between the above two pictures, so you get them both. I don't have a lot of pictures of Joey in profile, and I think that's a shame because he has a cute head. It's also very cool to see how deep in thought he is while investigating the leaves. I love seeing him try to figure the world out.

Where Are You Going?

This was Joey this morning, watching as Daddy went out to put the diaper bag and his backpack in the car. He just had to see what Daddy was up to! And if you look closely, you can see that he stands on his toes just like his Mommy did when she was little.

Backseat Driver

This weekend we bought Joey a new carseat for Daddy's car. Now he has armrests and a cupholder and a snack tray (which isn't yet installed because he'd just figure out to flip it over and dump all the snacks out anyway). He was so excited this morning that he didn't have to go in the baby carrier that was still rear-facing. We've had him forward facing in my car for at least a month now, but since we only had that one carseat, he had to make due with the old one in Daddy's car.

That blur is Joey waving "hi!" to everyone. That's what happens when you use the camera on your phone with no flash and have a happy one-year-old.

The Cheerleader

While we were catching the end of the Bears game, Joey and I were working on our touchdown celebration. So now when we cheer "touchdown!" Joey knows what to do. We'll see if he remembers for next weekend.

Fall into Sleep

We've been having some trouble sleeping ever since the time change. Or really the day after. Joey's been getting up between 5:15 and 5:30, and going to bed at 6:30 at night. Really, we'd keep him up later (trying to get back on the 7:00pm-6:30am schedule), but he can't even keep his eyes open.

Here he is this morning, with Daddy, as I was leaving for work. The good news from Des Plaines is that Daddy's going off furlough after this week. The bad news is he has to go back to working on Fridays.

Today was also Joey's one-year check-up. Everything looks good. Over 22 pounds, and tracking well for his percentiles. He also got his MMR and chicken pox shots. Daddy said he was a trooper!

And this was greeting me at 5:30 when I walked into the living room from cleaning up dinner. I knew Joey was fussy (you couldn't miss the crabbing), but then it got quiet. I thought maybe he was drinking from his sippy or playing. Nope. Passed out in Daddy's arms. And Daddy couldn't have been happier. I still don't understand the power he has over that boy. If Joey's even slightly tired and Daddy's holding him, lights out. Here's hoping he sleeps through the night, or at least goes back to sleep after the bottle. Mommy wouldn't mind sleeping in until 6 or 7.

Motownphilly

Yes, folks, baseball season is over. It stuck around a little longer than usual, at least for Mommy and the folks back east. It was fun, but now it's time to move on.

In that spirit, Joey is already cheering on his two favorite (Chicago) winter teams - the Bears and Blackhawks. (If anyone wants to donate some Philly green or orange and black, we'll proudly wear the colors.) This should cover us at least until April. And don't worry ... I got the Blackhawks jacket in a 3T, so it'll last at least a year. (Sleeves were made to be rolled!)

Stand on Your Own Head

While we were getting ready this morning, we let Joey crawl around the bedroom. Unfortunately, he finally figured out he could climb up on the shelves we have behind the bed. Looks like Mommy's going to have to keep the bedroom even more organized. In the meantime, Daddy came in, and instead of turning around to see him, Joey just leaned his head back until it was upside-down. A little exorcist-ish, no? He'll be doing round-off back-handsprings in no time!

Feign Amnesia

Things have been a bit busy at work, so I'm posting some oldies but goodies.

When my family came out to visit, everyone was more than happy to get in on the bath action. Really, there's just something about watching how much he enjoys splashing around. It's just gives you the warm fuzzies.

And here's an alternate view of Halloween, a week early. Joey did not want to pose for these, and Shae dressed up as a butterfly. (Her real costume was Dorothy. Check out the pictures here and keep scrolling down.) Ah, next year, when Joey actually wants to dress up. That will be fun.