Happy First Birthday, Joshua!

At 3:34 pm on March 24, 2009, we welcomed Joshua Roger into the world.  In many ways, it seems like it's been so much longer than a year!  He's become such a huge part of our lives and our family.

March 20, 2010

Last weekend we had family and a handful of friends over to our house to celebrate.  We were so blessed to have a gorgeous sunny afternoon, so the party was outside.  Hard to believe that just a month ago we were under feet of snow!

My mom and I set up a taco bar for the adults.  It was a lot of work, but the end result was so yummy.

We got an Elmo cake and cupcakes from Sam's Club -- another big hit.  Joshua is mesmerized by Elmo (I'm wondering if someday a study will reveal that Elmo actually has hypnotic powers...).  Party favors were Sesame Street books.

The kids loved eating tacos, nuggets, and cake.  They also loved running around in the sun.  My friend Michelle brought some fun outdoor toys, and my brother Jason helped secure a moon bounce for us to use. 

After most of the guests had left and Joshua had taken a nap, it was gift time.  Joshua's cousins and sister had a great time "helping" him open his gifts.  And Joshua loves each item he got. 

One gift in particular touched Mommy and Daddy's heart as well: John's brother Jamie gave his nephew his own favorite teddy bear and book from when he was a boy.

March 24, 2010

We were supposed to celebrate Joshua's birthday today with our playgroup, but unfortunately Katie has a fever and we had to cancel the festivities.  We still had a fun day though.  Uncle Daniel came over for four hours and ate with us, played with us, and went with us on a walk (it was ANOTHER beautiful sunny day today).  Joshua and Katie got Elmo cake for both lunch and dinner.  And Joshua lit up every time Katie and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  He was absolutely adorable and joyful all day long.

Quick and Fun Facts

Joshua: Apparently Joshua pulled up from sitting to standing for the first time last night. He was crawling around in the family room and suddenly he was standing next to the couch holding on. Go Joshua! I was out on a girls' night so John is the lucky witness to this milestone.

Katie: Two funny things that Katie has said recently:

1. On several occasions Katie has mentioned "Joshua's other belly button." It took me awhile to realize that this is how she understands his different anatomical element. :-)

2. Tonight we were reading "I'll Teach My Dog A Lot of Words" by Michael Frith. We read the page below:

Her response to the bottom left picture?

"Is that JESUS??!!!!"

A Poem for John on his 36th Birthday

On November Sixth, Nineteen Ninety Eight,
We met up at ten for our fateful first date.
We both were surprised by our immediate connection
And spent several years deepening this affection.

We were meant for each other, we always knew,
And so, on July Seventh, Two Thousand and Two,
When you sang for me and your intentions professed,
You knew before you asked that my answer was yes.

On March Twenty-Second, Two Thousand and Three,
I was grafted into your family tree.
And though I cried as I said goodbye to our guests,
I knew as we left I was incredibly blessed.

In Two Thousand and Five we couldn’t stop crying
As we disappointed each other and loved ones kept dying.
But our marriage was made stronger by the trials we faced,
And God showed us anew the extent of His grace.

Two years later a daughter brought joy,
And two years after that, along came a boy.
Though parenthood definitely has moments of stress,
The heartwarming moments make up for the rest.

And John, as we enter Two Thousand and Ten,
Please know that I’d happily do this all over again.

He's Crawling!

After 10 1/2 months I had finally decided that Joshua was going to skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking. He could sit up by himself and even pull himself to a kneeling position by holding onto ledges. He had learned to get around by rolling and lunging, and anytime he tried to crawl he'd still end up either bellyflopping on the floor or backing himself underneath a bed or table. So today I spent awhile with him teaching him to keep his balance while standing and holding onto something. And he's doing it! See below.

A few hours and a nap later, I was playing with Joshua on the floor and I started to see him move his knees underneath himself in a way he never had before. Tonight John saw him do the same thing. So while Joshua is still very tentative about it, we are happy to announce that YES, he is crawling!

By the way, as excited as we are about these new developmental milestones, I must tell you my FAVORITE thing Joshua does. He headbangs! Katie did the Baby Dance, and Joshua headbangs. I don't know where he learned it, but it happens a lot when he hears music. He typically does it when he doesn't think I'm looking (I glance over to find him rocking out!), but today he was nice enough to headbang for the camera. See below.

Favorite Recipes: Chili

While I will never been as prolific as my friend Sarah, I thought I'd use this forum to occasionally post our favorite family recipes. Here's a yummy and easy chili recipe from my friend Amy. I'll be making it for the Superbowl on Sunday.

Chili

Ingredients:
4 lbs. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 28-oz. cans diced tomatoes
32 oz. frozen corn, thawed
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups salsa
1 1/2 cups water
2 tsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. pepper
shredded cheddar cheese for garnish

1. Brown ground beef and onion in skillet. Drain.
2. Put everything in a crockpot and heat for several hours.
3. Enjoy!

Joshua at 9 1/2 months

We had Joshua's 9-month check-up yesterday (about 2 wks late) and his stats are:

Head circumference: 46 cm (65%)
Length: 28 inches (45%)
Weight: 21 lbs., 11 oz. (65%)

I'm flabbergasted that his weight is only 65th percentile. My back begs to differ.

2009 in Review: Christmas

Christmas 2009 was a weeklong affair for our family. Every bit of it was a blessing.

This was Joshua's first Christmas. He learned that wrapping paper is more fun than what's inside, and that you have to eat it fast before Mommy and Daddy realize you've got it.

On the other end of the spectrum, this was the first year Katie could start to understand the concepts behind Christmas. If you ask her whose birthday Christmas is, she says it's Jesus' birthday. She has memorized the entire 16-line poem about Baby Jesus that's in her Toddler Bible. We kept Santa talk to a minimum this year and instead anticipated the birth of Baby Jesus. Katie also is totally enraptured by two Christmas specials: Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (my favorite Christmas special of all time) and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The weekend before Christmas, we were supposed to travel to visit my grandma and extended family, but we were snowed out. The weekend wasn't a total bust though. We were able to enjoy several feet of snow, and a few days later we ventured out to join some friends for a night of dinner and caroling. Katie enjoyed singing, playing simple musical instruments, and dancing around with her friends. And Jenn and Jeff, our hosts of the evening, were thoughtful enough to give each of the kids gifts that were especially suited to their personal interests. What a wonderful night.

On December 23, we travelled to John's parents' house, where we enjoyed a day and a half with his family. After a delicious home-cooked brunch on December 24, we gathered around the tree for presents.

Joshua's gifts that day included a personalized sippy cup, a fun whirling toy, his first set of blocks, a reindeer hat, a sock monkey jack-in-the-box...

... and of course, his favorite gift of all: Ribbon!


Poor Joshua was not amused when Daddy dressed him in the clothes that came on Katie's new camouflage-wearing stuffed moose.

Katie received several wonderful gifts as well, but the best was saved for last. Oma pulled out John's sister Laura's old baby doll and cradle, as well as several sets of clothes that Oma had handsewn this fall. Now Oma and Katie will have hours of fun dressing and undressing the baby doll -- a doll Oma and Katie have named "Baby Lucy" (since that's the name I had wanted to use for Katie).



Even the dogs got gifts! Here JPa presents Jamie's dog Brooks with the holiday tennis ball we bought him.

After naptime, we got dolled up and went out for Christmas Eve dinner. Katie wore the new snowman dress that Oma had just given her, and Joshua wore his Santa outfit.

After a wonderful 36 hours with John's family, we headed home to get a few Zzzz's before Christmas morning at my parents' house.

Every year, even when none of us were kids, Santa Claus has come to my parents' house. My mom makes all of us squeeze onto the stairs outside the closed-off living room while she walks through the living room and ooohs and aaahs over all the things that Santa has brought us. Then she walks over to the door, verbally tortures us some more, and finally lets us in. Each individual or family has an entire chair full of unwrapped gifts that Santa has brought us. Our family's chair is the one on the right -- you can see my mom peeking through the door delivering the verbal torture to those of us outside.

(I probably should explain the verbal torture -- she's just trying to get us excited and impatient -- her "Are you ready? Do you want to see what Santa brought you?" was very effective at increasing our anticipation when we were kids. Now she gets more reactions along the lines of, "Are you done yet, Mom, or can I go back to bed for awhile?")

Here are some photos of our family enjoying each other and the generous bounty of gifts.

The last photo is my brother Stephen with a John Calvin bobblehead doll that my parents had special-ordered for him -- although when Stephen opened the box, we discovered that Calvin's head must have bobbled a little too hard!

More photos, including Lindsey's homemade ribbons, Stephen holding Joshua while I took my turn at Scrabble, and Daniel pushing Joshua around in Joshua's new Tonka truck:

Dinner was supposed to be at 1 pm (Katie's naptime) but it wasn't ready till 3 pm, so we tried to encourage Katie to take a nap while she waited. John laid down to encourage her to sleep, and his efforts were successful in getting at least one person to sleep.

Merry Christmas, Santa Baby!

Finally, around 6 pm, we headed back home to celebrate our own family Christmas.

Here Katie opens her new (well, new to her; I bought it on eBay from a Goodwill store) Muppet Babies book of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. As soon as she opened it, she started "reading" us the stories of The Three Bears and Little Bo Peep!

And here is a video of Katie and Joshua playing with the musical instruments that Santa brought Katie at my parents' house:

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did.