Josiah--12 Months

Happy Birthday Josiah!

I'll have birthday party pictures and stories soon.

All By Myself

Two little moments to remember.

Yesterday morning Aliza very proudly pointed out to me that she made her own bed. She excitedly told me that that she did it "all by myself." Then she added that there were no holes at the foot of the bed. She had tucked the blanket in all around. My Mom says that when a child is capable of doing a task it is time to transfer responsibility. I think Aliza has earned herself a new job!

This noon I decided to have Aliza help me make the frosting for Josiah's birthday cake before she watched a DVD. We had about half the ingredients in the mixer when Josiah had a messy diaper and started fussing. I decided I better stop the frosting and change him which meant leaving Aliza downstairs on a chair looking longingly at the frosting. She was instructed to not turn on the mixer. When I came downstairs she couldn't wait to show me how she had helped. About 1/3 of the container of meringue powder was in the mixer bowl! She said, "Look Mommy, I did it all by myself!" The mixer wasn't on so I couldn't be mad. Thankfully she wasn't offended when I threw out the contents of the mixing bowl and we started again.

Scrap Around the World--Week 3

The destination was Greece and the assignment was to scrap about your favorite movie. I happened to remember that Jeremy has kept the movie tickets for the first movie we watched together (on our first date) in his wallet for the past 10 years. Pretty amazing! I rescued them and gave them a safe new home on this scrapbook page. The movie we saw was Runaway Bride. When Jeremy proposed to me he used the proposal from the end of the movie. That is the journaling.

This blog background is an attempt to start getting me motivated for birthday week around here. I have menus to plan, grocery shopping to do, food to prepare (Aliza's cake is decorated and in the freezer!), gifts to wrap and one to buy and a house to clean before Grandma and Grandpa come. There should be plenty of pictures. We've got Aliza, Josiah and Jeremy's birthday!

Moving Forward

You can tell who needs work and who doesn't by how fast they move! Brian has had our blueprints for about a week and so far we've had a painter, a mason and an electrician at our house to look at the job. Brian and the guys he works with spent 5 hours at our house studying the job and working on estimates. The painter presented me with a HUGE stack of paint samples to choose from.

Today we did a kitchen design for an estimate. We can make changes for quite a while yet and I already know of a couple things that I want to change. I can really start worrying about how all this is going to turn out. I've lost some sleep over it already. I think once the money is lined up and we have a safe place to live during the renovation I'll be just fine. Who knows what will be in store for this week!

Aliza in Concert

I had no idea how funny this would be when I recorded this. I held my camera at arm's length and turned the display so that Aliza could see herself. This is pure Aliza.

Scrap Around the World--Week 2

Last weeks clue was Barbados. Once you guessed the correct location you were sent a link to a beach picture. The challenge was to use two colors seen in the picture. I used blue and green and scraplifted my layout from a layout in Becky Higgins Sketches book. The colors are not quite true in the picture.

I am having way too much fun with this. I got the assignment this evening for this week. I can't wait. I never really thought about scrapping this. I'll post the end product.

Off and Running

Jeremy put together this together from video we took this evening. Josiah is walking more every day. Here he is not nearly as wobbly as he was the other day.

Valentine Surprise

I think this was my best Valentine's Day ever! Jeremy told me a couple weeks ago that he had babysitting lined up for Friday evening so that we could go on a date for Valentine's. I thought that was a lot of initiative on his part, but didn't really think anything of it. I took the children to my parents' house after their nap on Friday and headed back home for our date. When I got home Jeremy had roses on the counter and could hardly contain his excitement. We got in the car without him telling me anything. I played along until we were well out of our town and he pulled out a music CD that he had put together. Where I live there isn't much available between the city I live and 2 hours away. I started getting a little nervous and finally asked, "Are we picking up the children tonight?" He said no. I got a really panicky feeling in my stomach and asked "Are we picking up the children tomorrow?" He said yes. It took me a couple minutes to recover and after that we had a great time.

He had made reservations at the Macaroni Grill and at a hotel close by. He packed a picnic basket with our dessert and planned for us to visit a larger mall that I've been wanting to go to the next day. We didn't buy a thing but I enjoyed walking through Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids and he enjoyed showing me all the great things at the Apple Store.

I had a good laugh over what he packed for me and what was missing. I think he laughed too. He had to pack our stuff and the children's things in the hour I was gone to drop them off. Then he realized that I was planning to get ready after I came home so he had to put some things away so that I wouldn't figure it out. After I was in the car he ran back inside and filled his coat pockets with more essentials for me. (The toothpaste made it in the pocket, but the toothbrush didn't!!! And there was no make-up for the next day!) He knows what's really important though because my thyroid medicine made it in the pocket!

Good memories. Thanks, Jeremy, for a great time!

Grocery Shopping

This week I took my camera with me to the grocery store. I make a detailed list and buy only what is on the list, except for whatever Aliza declares is going to be her treat. That way I can shop at a breakneck speed. Most of the time I can't even recall what I've seen in the store because I know where everything is and so can blindly pick things of the shelves while concentrating on the busy bodies that are inside the cart.

So here we are at the end of our trip getting in line. Josiah is about ready to make a plunge out of the cart and Aliza is standing AGAIN!

Then I choose a line where the person in front of us has just finished unloading a large order because Aliza is my big helper and puts the groceries on the counter. This takes a while considering that she usually has some sort of snack or drink in one hand. She announces what each food item is and sometimes passionately throws it on the counter. Most cashiers are really nice to her.

Then as we walk out she waves and say "bye" to all the elderly gentlemen sitting at the front of the store. It's a weekly ritual. I've got it down to a science. And this week was the first time Aliza went in panties....no accidents!

Looky What's on my Counter!

It's blueprints! The estimated time was 6 weeks and 5 1/2 months later there are finally a set of blueprints sitting on my counter. Very exciting. Now we pass them on to my builder brother and work on getting building permits. Sorry it's a pretty awful picture.

A Few Little Baby Steps

There is a set of grandparents waiting to see these little steps. I think there are about 4 wobbly steps in this clip. Today is the first day I've seen Josiah stand without holding on to anything.

And since we are talking about Josiah....He's has perfected a defense mechanism. Biting. This afternoon Aliza tackled him and had her arm around his neck. He bit down. She had 7 teeth marks on her arm and the skin was almost broken. She cried and reprimanded Josiah by saying, "JOSHIAH, DON'T CHEW ME!"

For Documentation's Sake

I have to note that tonight Aliza had a BM in the potty!!!! It did not strike her as a big deal at all, but I was super duper pumped. I know that we are going to make it now.

It's been a week!

I love peeking in on my children when they sleep. It gives me hope for when they wake up. For all Babywise fans....I take full credit for the fact that this little guy even takes naps. Sleeping did not come naturally for him. And this isn't boring....he took his first steps this week! He is especially fond of climbing up the steps recently.

This is potty training week 4 and we are finally making some progress. Aliza has initiated going to the potty on two occasions now. I've had a couple accident free days this week which in itself gives me hope. I'm thinking it is going to be a couple months before I declare her "potty trained."

Just to make every other Mom feel normal. I seriously spent the week sitting on the floor playing, being a referee, getting super frustrated with Aliza's seeming lack of obedience and wondering how to channel Josiah's determination into positive places. Today was a social day and that was good. We had a play date with cousin Caleb. I talked on the phone this afternoon to a far away friend and we went out this evening. I need these days. They do my spirit good.

Scrap Around the World Challenge

I shouldn't have time or energy to do something like this. But in itself it is energizing. I looked forward to doing this layout all day even though I had no picture in my mind of how it was going to look and it kept evolving until it was finished.

I subscribe to a monthly scrapbook kit club. You can check out their site here. This week they started a challenge called Cruise Around the World in 8 Layouts. I think it was the Amazing Race fan in me that made it even catch my attention. Every Sunday a clue is issued and with a little research you figure out the city and the required theme of the page. You email the owner to make sure you are right then you create your layout, post it to the gallery and if you complete all 8 layouts then your name is put in a drawing.

So this time I totally played off the clue. The only requirement was that a heart be on the page. It happened that Jeremy and I did a lot of dating in Virginia so it was a great excuse to remember some fun times. I dug out some really old (like 10 years old) really bad pictures for this layout.