A few more notable activities!

I few things I forgot to mention in the previous post.

Joshua claps for everything now, if he even thinks you are going to clap he will clap too! If you put your hand up and say "high five" he puts his hand on your hand and laughs!

He has started blowing kisses, if I blow him a kiss, he blows me one back too, although he more sucks his lips in than blowing the kisses out, but I know what he is trying to do and it puts a smile on my face everytime!

At mealtime I have started to put Joshua's food on his tray along with his drink in his sippy cup, previously he would eat his food but only take his cup if I offered it to him. Today I noticed that he will eat a bit of food and then pick up his sippy cup and have a drink, put it down, eat some more and go back for another drink.

Happy 1st Birthday to My Sweet Boy

The day has come, Joshua is now one! I thought I would be much more emotional about today than I am.

The last week has been rather rough since Joshua has had a bad cold, Chris hurt his back and then I got sick. Chris' back is much better than it was and now Joshua and I seem to be feeling much better, we need to be better by Sunday for his birthday party!



I took Joshua for his one year appointment with his new doctor and they said he is doing very well. He weights 21 lb 6 oz (exactly the same as 11 months) and he is 29 inches long. The doctor did comment that he had a big head, 18 inches, but that he wasn't concerned about it, kind of made me what how big is too big?

I have been trying to encourage Joshua to walk or at least stand on his own but he has no interest in it, why when he can get everywhere he wants to by crawling. I will stand him up and as soon as I try and release his fingers he sits down, doesn't fall he immediatly sits on his bum. He will walk if I hold his hands and he will walk along the walls and the furniture, he just won't let go.

He continues to sleep well, although not while he is sick, he averages about 12 - 13 hours a night, which the doctor said I should be openly bragging about, and he has one to two naps a day. He seems to nap very well at the dayhome in the afternoon, usually around two to three hours.

He loves to eat, and will eat just about everything that is put in front of him, especially if he gets to feed himself. His favourites are cheese, bananas, toast, steamed sweet potatoe fries, peaches and mandarine oranges. I have also given his grilled cheese sandwiches and he loves those.

O Canada

Today marks the last day of my Maternity Leave, I have really appreciated being a Canadian during this time, it has enabled me to be able to stay home and enjoy my time with Joshua for an entire year! Joshua starts full-time in daycare at the beginning of March, but we have been taking him for a few hours most days so that he can get used to it. The first few days were rough but now he is a champ and when I drop him off with Janice I pass him over, he gives me a grunt and I leave. When I pick him up he is so happy, arms flapping, legs wiggling, I love it!

I return to work on Monday, and I am trying to be as positive as I can, I love the adult interaction and the people I work with are amazing, I will miss those who have left while I have been gone though!

New and Wonderful Pictures?

I got a new camera (Canon Rebel XT) for my birthday along with a fabulous telephoto lens, I am so excited! Hopefully this will encourage me to get back to posting more pics since my "old" camera had a bit of accident so now the only way I get pictures off of it is by inserting the memory card into the computer and it was a bit of a hastle because I currently have my work computer set up so I had to do a lot of switching around just to post some pics!

Celebrating Mum's Birthday

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend. On Saturday we had a great dinner with Chris' family at Japanese Village (YUMMY)! I was unsure if I was up to the challenge of bringing Joshua out with us, and to be honest I was looking forward to an evening out on our own, but we decided to bring him along with us, and was I ever happy that we did. We sat in the area where they prepare your meal on the grill in front of you and Joshua was fascinated by the entire process!

Wild and Wonderful Web Video's

We spent some time with Joshua and the video camera on Wednesday night and captured some of his favourite activities.

Peek A Boo!



How Many Times will Daddy Pick up the Ball for Me!



More Fun with Balls!



As you can tell, Joshua loves playing with balls, he could play indepentaly with a ball for quite a while. He loves to pick them up, throw them and chase after them. What is even more fun is playing soccer with Chris and I!

Pics from Today

Here are some pictures of Joshua today!

This is Joshua demonstrating his new crawl style. I think that the hard floor hurts his knees.

Enjoying lunch time!

Eleven Months

Joshua turned 11 months yesterday, he continues to be such a wonderfully happy baby. At this point he still has no interest in walking since he can get everywhere he needs to by crawling. I have tried tempting him to grab things that are just out his reach, but instead of taking a tiny step he gets down, crawls to me, stands up and grabs the object. He almost seems afraid to stand on his own sometimes. His favourite things seem to be climbing the stairs, dropping his ball into his Leap Frog table, and throwing things and chasing after them (some items he likes to throw are balls, drum sticks, and empty containers). He finally is showing an interest in books, for the last few months he would not let me show him a book, he doesn't like me reading to him but he does like sitting down and looking at the pictures on his own. I figure it's a start and if he lets me I point at the pictures and say hat they are.

Baby proofing is in full swing in our house. Our main floor is becoming a bit of a prison, we have a baby gate blocking the stairs and a baby gate blocking the front entrance (keeping him out of the cat food).

I have recently found a dayhome that is just down the street, we also have him registered in a daycare, but we like the idea of a dayhome, at least when he is younger. He will start going to daycare at the beginning of Febraury, I will take a few times a week for a few hours at a time to see how he does. When I originally took to see the home he was really happy and he loved the lady who will be taking care of him, so much so that he didn't want to come back to me when we were leaving. It is very hard thinking about leaving your child in someone else's care, but it is something that I need to get used to, and quickly since I go back to work on February 25th.

Pictures to come soon!

Oilers Fan

Today we decided to brave the crowds and stand in line to get some autographs for Joshua's jersey. There were different spots set up around West Edmonton Mall today with different members of the Edmonton Oilers signing autographs today. I normally don't get caught up with autographs but we thought it would really cool to get Joshua's itty bitty jersey signed. We decided to stand in line for Sam Gagner and Steve Staios' autographs. We were suprised that the line moved as quickly as it did and that Joshua was in a great mood the entire time.

"Give me that camera"

Sam Gagne

Fernando Pisani (Fernando!!!)

These shoes are made for walking

Joshua got his first pair of walking shoes for Christmas (thanks Great Grandpa). I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what he would need and I quickly realized that Alberta is missing one very important children's shop, Kiddie Kobbler, this chain is all over Ontario but no where else really. In Alberta there are no real children's shoe stores which made finding a good fair of first shoes quite a challenge. As luck would have it we were walking through West Edmonton Mall before Christmas and came a cross and store called GEOX. I had heard of this brand before when I was in a Kiddie Kobbler in Ontario so I stopped in and was delighted to find a fairly good selection of children's shoes. So we got a pair of cute brown one's that had velcro on them, only to realize that his foot were far to narrow for velcro so we went back and exchanged them for a pair that lace up. The new ones are a much better fit and stay on his feet very well.

More Christmas Celebrations!

To finish off our Christmas posts!

On Christmas afternoon we went out to my Aunt and Uncle's house and celebrated with about 20 other relatives, it was a great time. Unfortunately we missed the wagon ride with everyone, but Joshua got his very own Daddy drawn sled ride (thanks Opa and Nona). Later on Joshua enjoyed spending time with relatives and had a great time laughing with Auntie Meaghan and Marc!

43 days to go, I am so not ready for this.

I can't believe it, in 43 days my wee boy turns One. When I think to much about it I become overwhelmed with everything from happiness to sadnees that he growing up so quickly and soon I will be returning to work I won't get to see him every day.

I am trying to decide how carried away to get with his birthday I see some people going all out and I think why bother he won't remember, but the other part of me wants to do it ALL; minus the clown of course, but maybe a petting zoo ;). So what is a happy medium that both Chris and I can agree on? Tough question, but I suppose I should start thinking about it soon. One thing is for sure, there will be cake smashing!

10 Months

Well Joshua's 10 month milestone has come and gone and I completely missed posting about it. Unfortunately it was the same day that we got into a car accident, we are all fine, so I was without a car for 2 weeks and didn't get Joshua to the Well Baby Clinic to get weighed so I have no idea how much he weighs right now.

He is crawling everywhere now and getting into everything, sure makes it more difficult to get things done. He has also started climbing the stairs and will go all the way to the top if I let. In the beginning it was great because he couldn't figure out how to climb the step from the living room to the kitchen dining room so it was like he was in a giant playpen, unfortunately that didn't last long! He loves crawling over the the big windows in the living room and staring out the windows, especially when we had someone working on our garage!

I am happy to report that Joshua is sleeping through the night (in his crib) again, it took a while to get back to this point, but it has been great to sleep again. His daytime naps are a bit out of wack, but I am more than willing to live with that if it means that I can sleep through the night.

He continues to amaze us everyday and its hard to believe he is 10 months old already.

Happy New Year

OK so I am a bit late with my New Years post!

Joshua had a quiet evening at home sleeping while Grandma looked after him and Chris and I got to spend a quient evening with friends, it was a great night but I was sure exhausted the next day from being up so late and having to get up so early to take care of Joshua!

I have decided to make some resolutions this year, in the past I have not really made any so I this is essentially my first shot at it.

1. Make sure I update the blog more often than I am, my goal is at least 3 time a week!
2. Get back in to exercising!
3. Get my house into tip-top shape before I go back to work!
4. Read more!
5. Keep in better touch with my friends!

I hope that everyone has a very happy and healthy 2008!

Christmas Morning

We had a lovely Chrismas Morning, Grandma, Auntie Sarah and Auntie Emma came over to open presents at our house. It was the first time we have ever opened presents in our own how and the first time we have really had any presents under our tree. Joshua was fascinated by all the presents that appeared under the tree while he was asleep and attempted to climb the mountain.

We all received wonderful gifts, Joshua got lots of toys and clothes.

Christmas Eve I

I am little behind so here I go.

The holiday's were wonderful for us! Christmas Eve we went to Mass, we went much earlier than in previous years to accomodate Joshua's bedtime. Joshua was very good through the entire mass, mainly because he fell asleep on Auntie Sarah.

After Mass we came home and got Joshua ready for bed and he opened up his Christmas pjs from us, this is a tradition that I wanted start and then he got ready for bed and Chris, Angela, Sarah, Emma and I had nice evening in with lots of food.

Some Early Christmas Presents

On the Saturday before Christmas Opa and Nona came to drop off some presents for Joshua, since i figured he would have more than enough to open on Christmas morning we opened a few together.



It was a lot of fun, Joshua got his very first ride on Digger and a new pair of Edmonton Oilers pajamas, since he outgrew his first pair a long time ago.

Finally Crawling

What an exciting morning we have had today, Joshua has finally started crawling, it is still a bit slow and a bit shakey, but he has finally progressed from his thrusting movements. For a month and a half now he has been fairly mobile, but this movement involved him thrusting around the house, getting up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth and shooting himself forward, he was not understanding that he needed to use his arms, until this morning. He also started being able to sit himself up on his own and he has started to climb me. I know not all babies learn to crawl and "apparently" the norm for sitting up on their own was 11 months but I was getting a bit anxious for him to meet these milestones. He has also started climbing the step from the living room to the kitchen/dining room so he can get all over our main floor. Good thing we moved our playpen on to the mainfloor, otherwise I don't know how I would get anything done.

Waldo

Meet the newest addition to our family, Waldo. We picked him up for the Edmonton Humane Society a week ago. He is 3 months old and is a wonderful kitten so far. Joshua loves watching and Scott, the bunny, has been enjoying putting him in his place!

Family Pictures