Joshua is sitting up!

I know, my little guy gets a little slighted with the updates and postings! But here is one, even though it's short, all about him! Our little guy is now a few days short of 6 months!! Yes, that's 6 months!! I'm still pulling my jaw up from the floor, I'm in awe of how fast his first 6 months have gone by! Joshua is an angel. He is so, so, so (I can't emphasize it enough) content!! He is such a sweetheart, and he's got a smile to melt for!! I only have to look at him for him to smile at me--how cute is that. He's always smiling (well, seems that way to me). His sleep at night could be better, but I shouldn't complain. That little guy wakes up, eats and goes right back to sleep (I should knock on wood now, before I jinx myself). The last couple of nights, he's been waking up only twice. His day naps are awesome, he takes 3 a day. I am not quite sure how long the naps are, because he could be in his swing wide awake and content as can be. kateli was never like that; I think our baby girl would start screaming as soon as her eyes opened after naptime! Anyway, our little guy loves to play. He doesn't enjoy tummy time as much as his little cousin does, ( I think Daniela could spend all day playing on her tummy), but he does last a good few minutes. Joshua loves to play in his exersaucer, and on his playmat. He also really enjoys laying on his quilt playing with either his feet or any toy that I give to him. Now, as of a few days ago he really enjoys sitting up and playing with toys in front of him. He's sitting up--well, not technically sitting up by himself--I put him down in a sitting position, but he sits there by himself for a while playing. He's got some really strong abs because he rocks back and forth and maintains his balance. Now, I still have to stay close by because sometimes he gets a bit too excited and will push back--so I have to be there to catch him!! I'll have to post some pics of the kids next time.

Boys can be CUTEYs too

Who says boys can't be cute too. You hear about how cute things are for little girls, the little frilly things, hats, skirts, little bows for their hair etc etc...Yes, you don't have to tell me that it's fun to do. I've done that with my little girl. I could not resist getting her something each time I went out shopping. There are lots of things, cute things, beautiful things, for little girls--but who says you can't find little cute things for little boys too. Well, let me show you my little boys feet in his new sandals--granted these are size 00, and I didn't find them myself. My good friend Maria bought these for her son, and now has passed them on to Joshua. Tell me if they are not CUTE! They go perfect with his surfer tummy mat!

Joshua is 6 weeks old; Kateli is 8 days short of 22 months

The little people in our home are growing so fast. Joshua will be 6 weeks old tomorrow; Kateli is 8 days short of 22 months old (don't know how many weeks that is, and not enough time on my hands to figure it out :) ) The weeks are flying by. Kateli is talking up a storm--she's got words coming out the whazoo (sp?). She has both spanish and english words--more english than spanish. I'm convinced that she's saying more english words than spanish because the first words in english have less syllables than in spanish! I'm hoping, though, that eventually she will start to speak in spanish. Anyway, Joshua is now weighing 11 pounds, as of Friday this week. He's a cutie pie....

Joshua in his bouncy chair

Kateli this morning, with bow in her hair

The three of us this morning before going out to breakfast

Joshua in his surfer tummy time mat


We've had a fun and eventful weekend--we've gotten work done around the house, but also had time for fun with the kids (well, Joshua doesn't really know fun yet!!). Saturday we went out to breakfast at Panera; daddy then spent most of the day chiseling away the brick hearth and is almost complete. I spent the afternoon watching the kids, nursing and entertaining kateli so she would stay out of daddy's way. Then in the afternoon our plan was to go to Build-a-bear and get Joshua a bear and then head to dinner at the cheesecake factory. However, when we got to the restaurant to put our name on the waiting list, the wait was only 35 to 50 mins, so we decided to just let Kateli run in the play area at the mall--we will do the build a bear another day. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and Kateli did the funniest thing--and the first time that she has "regressed" to some babying. She has been self feeding for a while now, and uses utensils pretty well for her age. Well, last night she was wanting some of daddies fries, but refused to eat any of her chicken. Our condition was that she had to eat some chicken before she could have a fry. So, she looked at us, thought for a second and then picked up a piece of her chicken. She turned to Dan, with the piece of chicken in her hand and signed "help" to him--she wanted daddy to feed her. And he did, and she got this little grin on her face, which I love to see, but have not been able to capture on picture. She only ate the chicken while daddy was putting it in her mouth, and then she got the fry that she wanted.

Here is daddy feeding Kateli chicken here is Kateli eating her fry (on her own)

Here is kateli smiling at a little boy sitting at the table behind us--you will notice, she's got something in between her teeth--that little gap is so cute!

and today we went to the Olive Garden for lunch after church. Daddy and I were making a Kateli sandwich, which she was giggling about, but when it came to taking a picture, I was the only one in for the shot--both daddy and Kateli looked away! :)

Joshua is 5 weeks old

Well, our little guy was 5 weeks yesterday. He's doing really well. Growing fast!! These are pictures that I took of him this morning after our outing to the church for my bible study. He is having a lot more awake time these days, which we are finding are essential for him to sleep better at night. He's sleeping better at night. We've moved him out of our room and into the office. He does a lot better when he's not hearing us wrestle and toss at night. Needless to say, I sleep a lot better too because I'm not waking up with every little sound that he makes. Joshua is a grunter, so he'll be fast asleep and making lots of grunt noises that at night woke me up thinking that he was up for a feeding. I've learned better....

Juggling two kids

A good friend of ours gave me this beautiful Mei Tai (fancy name for a carrier) which comes in really handy when Joshua wants to be near mommy's heart (in other words he does not want to be left alone).

I can carry Joshua around the house, and still have my hands freed up for other things. Most times it's for my toddler, Katherine, who decides she wants "up peeas" when I'm carrying Joshua--don't be deceived, I don't always give in, but once in a while this is what I look like....

Joshua is 1 month old

Our little guy was a month old yesterday!! It doesn't seem like that long ago that we had him; time is just flying. I took him in for his 1 month checkup this morning. The doctor said he is thriving and doing very well. He's got a little bit of a stuffy nose, but it is not interfering with his appetite. Joshua weighed 10 lbs 1 oz this morning, that is 5 ozs short of a 4 lb overall gain since birth in ONE month!! This child is growing so fast!!! He measured 20 1/2 inches. He is in the 50% for weight and 25% for length. Here are some pics that I took of him this morning. Enjoy.

Also, you can see the latest 1 month photo shoot that we had with Maria last weekend. Her pictures are posted here: http://mfphotographybymaria.blogspot.com/2007/09/joshua-1-month-photos.html

Stuffy stuffy

It's monday night, and we've had quite a day! We had to make another run to the doctor's this morning. Joshua's fussiness and discomfort from last week made a 180 degree turn. He woke up on Saturday morning and was happy as could be. But, he did wake up stuffy--poor baby was having a hard time breathing. It lasted the entire weekend, so this morning I opted for having the doctor listen to him and make sure that the congestion was not in his chest. The doctor confirmed that it was only nasal congestion and suggested the treatment that we have been doing--humidifier, elevating the head of his pak n play, saline and suction a few times a day. So, we've just got to wait it out and wait for this to pass. The nurse did weigh Joshua again this morning--he weighed in at 9lbs 11ozs (he really only weighs 9 lbs 9 ozs, I reweighed him again without his onesie and with a clean diaper after the nurse walked out of the examining room). WOW!! Is he growing fast or what!!!??? YIKES!!!

If due dates really amounted to much...

Joshua is now a day short of being 4 weeks!! Sometimes it's still surreal to me that I have a 4 week old!! He should only be a week old, if we go by due dates anyway! Don't get me wrong, I love that my little boy came early, it's just incredible to me how early he came, and how unprepared we were at the time.

So, back to the present. Yes, he is going to be 4 weeks old tomorrow!! He is getting so big so fast! He doesn't look like a newborn anymore; my little guy has put on over 3 pounds since being born!! I took him in to the doctor's yesterday afternoon and got a weight check on him. I was amazed to hear that he's now weighing 9lbs 3ozs--he was just 7lbs 10ozs last Tuesday!!! AMAZING!!! Needless to say, he is filling out beautifully! With Katherine being my first, and remembering at the rate that she grew (which to me seemed really fast as well), this little boy is just blowing my mind away. I looked through some old email last night, and found the 4month update on Katherine. At 4 months Kateli was weighing in at 12 lbs and some change. I really think that Joshua is going to hit that mark much sooner than 4 months, but we'll see. Anyway, we had a friend come into town this morning to take pictures of our little guy--his 1st month pictures already! She did a wonderful job and I know that she got some really good shots--but I won't see them for a few days. I couldn't wait to post pics of my little guy in his cute little outfit, so I took some that I could post! Enjoy!

Joshua is 3 weeks old

Joshua is almost 3 weeks old!

Time is flying!!! Joshua is nearly 3 weeks old!! What a wonderful blessing he is to our family! Our little guy is doing great! We are all doing well, now that we've all recovered from a mild cold that came over us last week. We were lucky that little Joshua didn't catch it.

We have yet to see a completed kitchen, yet it's nearly there, I suppose. The plastic wall has come down, the cabinets installed, tile completed, backsplash done, but not grouted, all appliances are in working order--so that's progress, right? There are still things that need to get done, and we are anxious for them to be completed. I'm so ready to have my house back, and to not have to wait each day to see if anyone shows up for work. I want to be free to get up in the morning and walk around in my PJ's if I so please all day long. As it has been the last few weeks is that I have to get up and shower and get ready for the day--this is not something that I'm ready to do early in the morning, especially with new baby who keeps us up half the night nursing!! oh well, I guess eventually (hopefully SOONER than LATER) it will get done! The kids have been doing well with all the kitchen work going on. There is not much loud work being done anymore, so at least we have quiet during the day. Kateli is napping well in the afternoon--I've learned though that she doesn't fall asleep soon after I lay her down. She stays up for nearly an hour playing and talking with her stuffed animals in the crib. Eventually she does fall asleep and gets some rest. As far as Joshua, he's still sleeping a lot. The last couple of days though, he's been going through a growth spurt because he has been wanting to nurse round the clock, it seems. Today has been slower, and he's been sleeping more--so that gives me a break to update the blog as well as get other things done around the house.

We've had a new addition to our family--on Tuesday this week (Aug 28th) my sister delivered a beautiful baby girl!! We were all waiting anxiously for the arrival of my first niece, and third grandchild for my parents. Daniela Sophia was born weighing 7lbs 12ozs and measuring 19in! Joshua is catching up to his cousin quickly in weight. I took him for a weight check on Tuesday (same day as Daniela's bday) and he was up to 7lbs 10ozs (with onesie on). He's gaining weight SO FAST!!! I've heard that it's normal for a baby to gain 1/2oz to 1 oz per day--well, my little guy has surpassed that and is gaining about 2.6ozs a day!!! Our next appt at the dr's is on the 13th, so we'll see what he's up to at 1 month old! Last weekend Joshua had his first photo shoot. Our friends from Edmond, drove up to Tulsa so that Maria could take newborn pics of our little man. You can see some of the shots that she got at her website http://mfphotographybymaria.blogspot.com I'm having a hard time choosing a picture for Joshua's birth announcement. Maria is very creative and talented with photography, and is starting her business--so she's chosen our son as her first newborn project--which we much appreciate!

Here are some recent pics of my babies!

Home from the hospital...

So, it's been a few days since I last updated the blog. As you may imagine, my spare time these days is pretty limited. I thought I was busy with one monkey before, two is a lot more work and that's that Joshua is still at the stage where all he does is sleep, poop, pee, and eat.

Our arrival home with a newborn was great. My mother in law was able to fly in to help us out with Kateli the night that Joshua was born. She stayed with us for a little under a week and what a blessing that was. She was great. She got up in the mornings with Kateli and let us sleep in with our little guy to catch up on our sleep deprivation from feedings and such. It was so great to have her here and give Kateli the attention that my little girl was needing at such a transitional phase for us. I don't know how we would have managed without grandma here. On Saturday my mom flew in to meet little Joshua. She made a quick weekend trip just to meet her new grandson, and went home quickly because she doesn't want to miss the birth of my sister's daughter (due any day now)....who could blame her. Anyway, so Kateli had the time of her life this week. It was all about her with grandmas!!! It is amazing how well she has accepted her little brother, she's not jealous (just a BIT disobedient, I have found now that my help is gone and it's just me and the kids during the day)--she wakes up asking for him, and at the sound of his first cry she is the one to pop up and say "baby"....as I get her after her nap, she looks up at me and smiles, and the first thing out of her mouth is "baby, shhh"....she thinks he is sleeping and we need to be quiet for him.

Joshua has been doing great. He's eating like a champ. Once we got passed the many billirubin tests that the doctor ordered (he had like 4 or 5 done since getting home from the hospital) until he saw a score that was lower than the previous one--we've been doing great. Finally, Monday this week the nurse called us back and said, baby's levels are down so you don't need to take him in for more tests--which was a great relief. At his first doctor's appt, the day after we were released from the hospital, Joshua had dropped 10 ounces from his birth weight. I took him in on Monday to do a weight check and he was back up, just 1 ounce shy of his birth weight...I was so excited!! He gained 9 ounces in a matter of 4 days!! We're doing something right!!!

Here are some pics to share from these last few days...

WHAT A SURPRISE!!

Wow!!! What a whirlwind of a weekend ending!!! Our son made a surprise appearance 3 weeks ahead of schedule! Yep, he's here--healthy and beautiful (ok, handsome) as can be! We were discharged from hospital today, so you can imagine how ready I am to hit the sack, but I wanted to post a few pics. I'll post more later, as well as our birth story. Just to sum everything up, I woke up Sunday morning with regular contractions, went to the hospital to get checked and was admitted right then and there. Our son arrived at 4:41pm, weighing 6lbs 6ozs and measuring 19 3/4" Sunday afternoon!!! I feel so blessed to have been able to deliver him natural through a successful VBAC! Here are some pics....