As I was finishing up Joshua's photo book of his first year, I was remembering what it was like this time last year. For one thing, my house was WAY cleaner, and quieter. I am positive we did NOT have this much snow. And I was HUGE! I was 18 days away from bringing our little Bubba into the world, and didn't even know it. So crazy! Anyways, Since I didn't start this thing until Joshua was four months old, I figured I'd share some of my favorite belly pics that my good friend Sarah McKay took of me. She is an amazing photographer (I know a few of those now haha). Check out more of her work HERE.
And yes, we did find a snow covered field and walk though it. As I recall, I was wearing clogs (not a good choice) I had cold wet feet by the end of it, but it was all worth it! I don't think we meant to end up in a snowy field really, but I believe our first plan (whatever that was) did not work for whatever reason.
So, until the next post, enjoy looking at pictures of my belly full of baby. I'm not going to lie. I kind of miss the stretchy waisted jeans, even though I missed my normal jeans when I couldn't wear them.
Yesterday Joshua and I took a roadtrip to visit some of my good friends, and Joshua's newest friend, Nicholas (who is adorable, and tiny still!) A little while ago I met Rebecca Deaton of Rebecca Deaton photography, at my friend's baby shower. She is an AMAZING photographer and was nice enough to set up a makeshift studio in the house and do Joshua's (almost) one year photo shoot! I wanted to get some professional photos done to put in his photo book that is being printed as we speak. (I had a coupon to get a free one through Kodak which was about to expire... so maybe I procrastinated a bit. Big deal.)
I wanted to find him a "I'm 1" hat, or something like that, but then I realized that he probably would not keep it on his head anyways.
Joshua turned 11 months old on the 18th, I tried taking pictures that day but Mr. Wiggly was not having it. So I took some more today when he was feeling for up to the task. We even got some pics with Marvin (the cat) who decided to make himself at home inside of Joshua's toy box.
So some things Joshua likes to do at 11 months:
Dance to Journey. (I have video proof... need to upload someday)
Wave franticly at everyone
Share (he has just started doing this, it's really cute)
Give hugs (but only on his time)
Give kisses
Bite me (which always starts as a kiss and turns into me getting my nose, cheek, head, hand...etc.. bitten.)
Eat everything that fits in his mouth (this has not changed)
He cruises quickly along all the walls and furniture. I am pretty sure if he were brave enough he could let go and walk, but we aren't quite there yet, and he won't let us help him.
Play with the dog and cat, who are surprisingly good with him. No nips, or scratches or anything!
Babble non-stop
Scream like he's being murdered in a horror movie
Play with the cell phones, remote controls, and other non toy objects.
Climb on stairs, mama, the dog.
I think that's all that's new. We have a little social butterfly on our hands. Most days when we need to go out into public Joshua is charming the crowd with his babbling, smiling, and overall cuteness. Here are some of the photos I got of him while he wasn't moving too fast. There are many more on flickr, link to the right, as always!
Did not want to do this on the 18th haha
Kissing Marvin
Is this a new toy, Mom?
How do I get him outa here?
His favorite monkey.
He loves to tackle Mr.Monkey and hug him...so cute
With Joshua's first birthday approaching, and my work load increasing between my full-time job and freelance, I have been playing with the idea of enrolling Joshua in day care part-time. I have ready things like, children who go to day care, develop social and language skills faster than children who do not. But on the other hand, I also know that children who go to day care get sick a lot more often than children who don't.
I was browsing around online at lunch time, just to see what there was locally. Generally, I think most day care facilities prices are ridiculous for most people in this bad economy. But, I did stumble upon a place right in Exeter, where my office is, that offers part-time and per-day day care rates. It would be $50 per day or $225 a week once Joshua turns one next month. I don't really like the idea of day care for a few reasons, like I said before, kids get sick more often when they go to day care, also it's very expensive and we don't have much as it is. But I can't help wondering if he might benefit some from going one day a week. When I am at home with him I am juggling working, him, and all of the other household chores. If he went in one day a week, it would normalize my schedule some, in that I wouldn't have to stay up till all hours of the night to finish a days work when he goes to bed and things finally settle down. And maybe it would help him develop and learn things that a trained teacher/provider can teach more easily that I can, and shouldn't I give him every advantage that I can?
I may fill in the form for more information and the schedule an interview. Can't hurt anyways. I still need to talk to the man of the house about this one. I have a feeling it won't be received well, but we'll see! Any ideas or thought are day care are more than welcome! I'm curious how other people feel about this topic.
I can not believe how fast this past year has gone! And I can only imagine what this next year has in store! Last year we rung in the new year quietly here at home as I was full of baby and about ready to pop and could not stay awake to save my life. This year, however, we celebrated with the Manchester Monarchs and the Great Baby Race!
The great baby race is something that the Monarchs do every year at their annual new years eve hockey game (who knew!) It was a crawling race, the babies would be disqualified for standing or walking/running. Oh, and a special thanks to Michelle, who pointed us to the WMUR link and sign up form for this, we never would have known about it otherwise!
So, needless to say, Joshua got in! There were seven other little ones "racing" for prizes. Top three finishers got great prizes from Tiny Totland which is down in the mills in Manchester. There was a solid wood toy box, a Wooden rocking horse, and a wooden rocking chair. And the winners got their pick in the order they placed.
Joshua was in surprisingly good spirits since he hadn't napped well during the day. I was half expecting a mental breakdown for one of many reasons. 1. We were sitting down for a long period of time (for a ten month old), 2. It was very loud in there, 3. There were strobe lights at times, 4. Mascot, 5. The game start time was 7pm, the race was between the first two periods, and his bedtime is usually between 7:30 and 8. But we brought a lot of snacks for him and his sippy cup (I swear all the kid does is eat some days!) and he did well! He only whimpered a couple of times, not even a real cry.
The Race:
So we met up with the other parents and babies at the predetermined meeting spot at the twelve minute mark of the first period and headed down to a room to wait to be brought out onto the ice. We were given the rules, and all the babies were given little kid sized Monarchs jerseys with their "lane number" on the back. Joshua was number 3.
They let us out onto the ice and introduced all of the babies in order on the jumbo-tron and we all lined up. One parent was on one end of the carpet with the little ones in arm, and the other parents was at the other end with their baby's favorite toy, snack, or whatever they wanted to bring to try to get that baby to crawl at maximum speed to the them.
On the "GO!," Joshua took off with only one other baby in front of him, he was doing good! Then, he spotted the baby ahead of him (who was 17 months-old by the way . . . 'nuff said *ahem* cheaters *ahem* (I kid) ) so Joshua started crawling across the mat diagonally after him. And of course, right in the middle of the mat was a little piece of dirt, or a twig, something, and Joshua spotted it and decided he should taste it, luckily one of the staff heard me shouting to get it away from him and took it away before I had to. He was not pleased with that and proceeded to sit in the middle of the mat and cry for a few seconds on his knees.
Because it was so loud in there, he couldn't hear me shouting, and was too distracted with everything else to be able to pick me out across the mat. One of the other sets of parents had brought a shiny silver ball with a bell in it for their baby (who was not crawling at all.) So they tried rolling the ball back and forth to catch his eye, and it caught Joshua's instead. Once he saw it go across he went after it and eventually saw me and his puff snacks and came crawl-running over for a second place win!
He picked himself out the toy box, he already had one of each of the prizes, but the toy box we figured would be handy because we could keep one in the living room where we are most of the time while the other stays in his bedroom.
After the game:
A bunch of the other people who came to cheer Joshua on came back to our house after for Chinese and drinks while counting down to the new year. Totally off topic, BUT, I got the best fortune EVER... and I quote, "Good clothes open many doors. Go Shopping." I think it's my favorite of all time!
So all-in-all we had a very exciting and fun night and were very happy to share it with some of our favorite people! Below I posted a you tube video someone (no one we know) took of the baby race... Joshua's the one who sits in the middle. Of course. and some photos people took for us. Enjoy! And happy new year everyone, bring it on 2011!
Hi! I'm Anna, Joshua is my first little one. He is growing like a weed and is constant trouble now that he is mobile! I'm a busy gal, between working full-time, freelance work, blogging, and chasing a baby, I don't have much free time, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
