Well, hello tooth!

So I guess he really was teething. I still am not sure if is also happens to be sick, or if it was all just tooth related. But this morning, Joshua kept fighting the bottle and grabbing my hand and trying to shove my fingers in his mouth. Eventually I gave up and let him, and to my surprise more than just gums chomped my finger! So I pried his little mouth open and sure enough, the little tip of the bottom right tooth is sticking out! I tried to take a picture of it, but he wouldn't let me... so here is a random picture of him looking cute, because it feels weird to not to post a picture when I write something.

Sweet 'Stache

Dear Joshua:

Please stop waking up at 4:30 in the morning. 

Lately, Joshua has been waking up earlier and earlier in the morning. No matter when he goes to bed. He used to be a perfect 9pm - 6am sleeper, but not so much now! He usually is in bed between 8 and 9 still but he has been getting up either every couple hours throughout the night, or way too early! 

The worst is, I can't tell if he has a cold, or is sick, or if he is just teething. Who knows, maybe this is just one of those things that happens? He is my first, so obviously it is all new to me! I just hope he gets over this soon and goes back to his good sleep habits soon. Maybe he is just testing us? Is this one of those things where I am supposed to let him "cry it out" even though is is screaming like someone is murdering him in the next room? Any advise is welcome from all you Mamas (and Dads) out there! All I know is THIS Mama needs some sleep! I am not one who functions well on little sleep . . . thank goodness for coffee!

This is what I want Joshua to do (sleep!):

This is what I want Joshua to NOT do (not the swimming, just the screaming):

He's an ambi-roller

I am proud to announce that our boy can roll over both ways now! He still gets stuck on his belly though. I am not sure he has figured out that he knows how to roll from his belly to his back, but he has done it quite a few times now! He usually ends up doing it when he is reaching for something when on his belly. He still rolls onto his bells and gets angry because he is there though, I am pretty sure it's out of frustration. He wants to crawl and go where he wants to go very badly and he can't do it yet. Sometimes when he kicks his legs hard enough he ends up moving forward some, and he can push backwards on his arms and spin on his belly, but no real crawling yet!

This weekend Krista came up to spend the weekend before he birthday with us. Joshua was very happy to play with Auntie and was all smiles for most of the time. Sunday he spent the whole day with Jay while Krista and I spent a much needed day away in Boston. We went to the ICA and to see Cirque du Soleil. Was a really great day! It was hot and sunny, we had one storm roll through but didn't hit until after we were in the show, so, perfect timing!

Joshua also had his first veggie this weekend. I gave him sweet potato first and he loved it! He ate his whole bottle first then I had dished out his usual half a jar of baby food for him, he ate all that and still looked hungry so I gave him the rest of the jay, and he ate it all! I was surprised, especially since it was his first time eating it, usually it takes him a couple days to adjust to a new flavor/texture! That's all that is new for now. Next week we will be going to the pediatrician for Joshua's 6 month checkup/shots. So I'll update again then, if not sooner!

happy sweet potato face!

A trip to the beach!

Yesterday Joshua got to see the ocean for the first time! We went to Salisbury beach to his great Grammy Nicki's birthday. The weather was nice and the water was cold and Joshua was pretty good over all. He was still being sort of fussy because he has been teething. Hopefully those teeth will start popping through sooner rather than later!

not so sure about the sand

guess it's not that bad!

let the screaming begin!

with Grammy Kelley

with Great Grampy Brian

Joshua is 5 months old!

Joshua turned 5 months old on July 18th. These are some of the photos from his monthly monkey photos! You can see the full set on his flickr page, link is on the right.

Joshua rolling over - the video

Joshua turns a new leaf...err, side...

right after he rolled over for the first time

JOSHUA CAN ROLL OVER! (but only from his back to his tummy) the problem now is, he won't stay still on his back, he just rolls right over and can't get back onto his back. The problem with this, is he doesn't really like being on his belly much, because he wants to crawl, and he can't quite do it, he just rotates now. So after a little bit on his belly he is mad and wants to be back on his back. I suppose if we let his holler long enough he would have to figure it out! But who really wants to let that happen... and who knows how long it will be haha.

Today Joshua and I also went to Concord to Market Days. We met up with Rosalyn and his cousins Maddy and Colin. All parties had an enjoyable time, with very minimal whining or tantrums from anyone! We went and saw Jen and Paul from Wiley Hill Mudworks and Becca who makes jewelry at the arts market that was going on there. THEN we went to head home after a long hot day in the 100 degree sun, and alas, my ca wouldn't start. My starter is broke... thank goodness for AAA and that it FINALLY started (of course after AAA had gotten there) and I think it's still under warranty, we shall see! But that is neither here, nor there!

Joshua will be 5 months old tomorrow so there will be lots of new pictures up on the flickr page and hopefully I can video tape him rolling over too. And it's almost time to introduce a new flavor of baby food! So far he has eaten banana, apple, and apple flavored rice cereal.

That's all I've got for now! Will update with photos tomorrow when I take them.

on the floor of rosalyn's office

Joshua with Colin, Madelyn, and Rosalyn

Hey Ma, look what I can do!

Had a mini photo-shoot today before the "official" 5 month shoot that will take place on Sunday when he turns 5 months old. He was just being too cute today to not take some pictures! And he was sitting up all by himself, kinda. Still very hunched over, but he can hold himself up for awhile now! Soon comes the crawling and the walking. I am told I only "think" I want this to happen, and once they do I will wish he would stay where I leave him. Only time will tell!

I think we are going to be in trouble soon... Someone is starting to sit up :)

He's a traveling man!

For the past 3 days, Joshua has not spent a whole day at home! Thursday he was at his Great Grammy's house, Friday was Grandpa's day and this weekend we took a road-trip back to gool ol' Florence, Massachusetts to visit the family! This was only the second time he has made the 2.5 hour drive down with us, but it won't be the last!

He did not enjoy the ride down as much as we would have liked, he napped for maybe an hour, talked to himself for about a half an hour, and fussed the rest of the time. I think he was having a bad teething day though, he was biting everything hard and seemed just sort of unsettled all day. Today he was in a better mood and the ride home was much smoother. He napped for 2 hours and talk to himself and looked out the window the rest of the time, hooray!

He got to spend some time outside on the farm with meme and pepe and visited with his grand meme as well. Overall, he was in pretty good spirits and we had a great trip! Hopefully we will get to visit again soon!

Eating his bananas

With auntie Krista

With Meme and Pepe

With Great Meme

Distance makes the heart grow fonder?

I am thinking this is true over the past couple of days. Yesterday was the first day Joshua has been away at someone else's house all day, without either Jay or I there also. This month is busy for Jay at work so he has overtime and is only getting sundays off for awhile so on all the days I usually go into the office, Joshua is visiting with family!

Yesterday I got up bright and early at 5am so I could shower and get ready for work before Joshua woke up (or so I thought). Once he gets up it's harder to get much done because he has been sleeping all night and wants to play and be entertained. So I get in the shower thinking all is well and get out to a screaming baby in the next room. Not sure if he heard me get up and it woke him, I was very quiet, but I have been told babies have a sense about these things. Anywho, Jay was getting him changed, so I went to make his bottle. Once he ate he was happy as a clam again so I laid him down with some toys so I could finish getting ready.

Around 7am I had everyone packed up for the day, loaded all of my work things into the car, all of Joshua's things, and last but not least, Joshua. We headed down to Windham to drop him off at Grammy Jan's house. He has been there before but not a whole lot so he was checking everything out and taking it all in when we first got there, but he didn't seem too rattled by it. So I handed him off and headed out to work in Exeter... turns out the way I went was the long way and it took me 2 hours from the time I left my house until i got to work, OY!

As soon as I hopped back in my car I missed him already. Now, don't get me wrong, I always miss him when I am away from him, but for some reason, when I know he is at our house it seems less. Maybe it is because I know what happens at our house and what he does everyday. Leaving him somewhere else adds that element of unknown, even though I knew he would be completely fine! But needless to say, by 5pm I was more than ready to go pick up my baby and cover him in kisses! 

Today His Grandpa came to get him and bring him to his house for the day and after work I will be driving over there to pick him back up, and it's the same as it was yesterday! I miss my baby!

We have been very lucky that I work where I do so far, they have been more than accommodating with my schedule, so now I am trying to get in more when I can. Since he was 2 weeks old I've been going into the office 2 days a week when Jay is home and working from home the rest of the time, it's work out amazingly. We are also very lucky, and blessed to have the family and friends we have to are always more than willing to help us out! So thank you all very much, you know who you are, we couldn't do it without you! Until next time!...

Marvin hasn't made it into the blog yet, so here he is... in all his cat glory.

Joshua, meet banana, banana, Joshua...

The past few days we have been introducing Joshua to solids and the concept of eating sitting up and off a spoon. Up until today he never really understood why I kept shoving the spoon full of mush into his mouth. Even when he liked what was on the spoon he would make the funniest grimace and frown and sometimes spit it out. 

We learned he does NOT like rice cereal. We were told that should be the first thing introduced, so we introduced it, and he reintroduced it to the table and the floor by throwing it up every time. Almost immediately after eating it. He would make a gagging noise and a really disgusted face and spit it out. Kinda funny, wasteful, but funny. 

So after doing some research, talking to friends with babies, and checking with his pediatrician, we decided it was OK to skip the cereal (at least for now) and begin with simple, single ingredient baby foods, like bananas, apple sauce, and sweet potato. So we started with bananas. The first couple times he only ate a couple bites before getting frustrated at it. But not today! Today at lunch time i fed him his usual 4oz. of formula (he gets 6 when it's not a baby food time of day!) and scooped out a couple tablespoons of baby banana mush.

He slurped down the milk, belched a good belch and i propped him up in his Bebe-pod chair and attached the tray. The first couple bites I had to trick him to open his mouth still, making sill faces and noises to make him smile then sneakily shoving in the spoon. But once he realized how it all worked, and that he liked the bananas he kept opening up and eating on his own!

Once the bowl was empty except for the little bits around the edges, I handed him the spoon and the bowl since he kept trying to grab it out of my hand and "help" while i was feeding him. He proceeded to get bananas all over himself, lick the bowl and the spoon, and had a gran ol' time doing it! see photos below... (I wish bananas were another color, he had it all over him but you can hardly tell from the photos! soon enough though he'll be eating carrots and peas and I will wish they weren't all over him... I can see the laundry now!)

all done!!

that's it?!

You sure there's no more... let me check...

found some!

Joshua making fart noises

I told everyone he did this now but I could never get him to do it on camera. Now he does it back to you if you do it to him sometimes. 

Baby's first 4th

Joshua had a busy first 4th of July yesterday. We played at home during the morning and then went to Grandpa Ed's house to swim and BBQ. We were a little nervous because last time he was out in the heat for a long time he ended up with a wicked heat/diaper rash. But it seems that it was more the humidity rather than the heat that did it to him because he did great yesterday! 

He ate a couple times and swam in the pool. He seems to like the big pool now on a hot day as long as we go in with him and get him used to the water first. He was in the pool but a pretty good amount of time too! We adopted an extra pack 'n' play from great Grammy Jan, so we left it there since they will be babysitting on some fridays so I can go into the office more often. Joshua even took a good nap while we were there, which he did not so last time. 

When we got home he was exhausted. Our neighbors were having a big BBQ out back though so we went out with him and visited with neighbors and friends before giving Joshua his last bottle and putting him to bed. He did great there too, he smiled and blew bubbles at everyone and wasn't even scared of the fireworks. As soon as his head touched his mattress though, he was out like a light!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!

Mmmm, Dragonfly

Poor Dragonfly, he knew Joshua liked him, he just didn't know in what way, until today. Meet Dragonfly, Joshua's new most favorite thing to teeth on.

His diaper is full . . . full of fashion!

Ha... that commercial, which I'm sure you have all seen by now, if both annoying and funny. (Here's the link for the Huggies Jean Diaper Commercial if you haven't seen it yet!)

But, anyways, I bought some, they were on sale and I have a coupon. I never thought I would give in and do it, but I must admit he looks pretty stinkin' cute in "jean" diapers.

This weekend is promising to be busy and very HOT! They are saying it will be in the 90s on the 4th. Luckily everywhere we are planning to go has a swimming pool, phew! 

Henceforth, he shall be called, Scarface.

No matter how short I clip these darn baby claw-fingernails, or file them, he always manages to find a way to scratch himself on the face. Except now that he found his feet too, he's got scratches on his feet, legs, belly, AND face. I think this is the most he's ever had on his face at one time though.

(and this second picture is just too cute not to post)