Thanksgiving Blessings

I hope everyone out there reading this had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did. We had the whole family over to our house for dinner. As we all went around the table saying what we are thankful for, I began to realize that this time last year I couldn't have even imagined how many blessings we would be given this year. Not only that we are all healthy and happy, but that by having Joe in our lives our family has come so much closer together. It's amazing that you can have a puzzle piece missing and not even realize it until it clicks in. As a side note, in case you were all wondering, in addition to family, Alex was thankful for electronics and Maddie was thankful for chicken. Go figure.

On Saturday we put up Christmas decorations. I was going to turn on Christmas music while we decorated the tree, but I thought it was cute that in the absence of anything else, Paul and the girls were singing Teddybear Picnic (see last post in case you are wondering).

I love going through all the boxes of decorations every year. One of my favorite items is the Nativity set my Mom got us. The set is from Israel and is carved from Israeli olive wood. As I got it out of the box and set it up, I remembered that last year, we couldn't keep Cloudy (our cat) away from it. (Tina - yes....same cat that peed in your suitcase) She kept getting up on the wine cabinet where we had it set up and we'd find her licking baby Jesus. And when she wasn't there, inevitably there was a pool of cat spit under one of the nativity animals. No sooner had I opened my mouth to ask Paul and the girls if we wanted to take bets on how long it would be before Cloudy found her long lost friend baby Jesus again, and there she was! We had to take a picture so you could all see that I couldn't make this up. For some reason this year she's become fond of the donkey.....not sure what's going on there.

Christmas is my favorite time of year and I can't wait to share this with Joe. His first Christmas! He's really into ripping up paper, magazines, kleenex, and whatever else he can get his tiny hands on. So I'm going to wrap EVERYTHING and let him have at it. It is not lost on me that this year, he will probably enjoy the paper and not even realize what's inside the paper. That's ok too.

Speaking of ripping up paper....I asked Paul if Joe is different than the girls were when they were small. I was curious if there was a big gender difference. He said he's definitely more restless and squirmy than the girls were. For example, Paul said he could sit and read a book with the girls. Joe just wants to tear up the pages of the book. If he's awake, he wants to be reaching for things and grabbing. When we put him in his bumbo seat now he practically pushes the tray off when he's turning around in the seat reaching for whatever he can reach behind him. I think maybe he's just more "boy" which is a good thing since he is a boy. Although if this is a sign of things to come.....I'm tired just thinking about it. He's been getting closer and closer to crawling here in the last few days. He's been spinning around in a circle on his belly for a while. But now that he's really interested in reaching for things, he gets frustrated if he can't get to them. So he's started getting his knees up under him and rocking back and forth in the crawling position. Let the baby proofing commence.

Teddybear Picnic

Alex came home the other day and said that they got their cross country track pictures back and that she actually likes them! This coming from one of the people who will hardly ever let me take her picture let alone put her picture out here. She said "I look sexy." So, of course I had to capitalize on the opportunity and scan it in for everyone. It is a pretty great picture.



We got a chance to see a sneak peak of Maddie's solo dance. It's amazing. I was really, really impressed. She is so graceful and her turns are beautiful. It made me realize how much she grown up in the last few years. She's been practicing a ton! This year she's doing 7 dances...a solo, a duet, group pom, group jazz, group lyrical, group kick and group hip hop. She practices about 10 - 12 hrs a week. It makes me tired just thinking about it. But, she loves it! Their first competition is in February. (Which happens to also be when track season starts up for Alex....weekends will be CRAZY!)


Joe started getting a little bit of a runny nose over the last few days and I think I'm finally catching on. Runny nose = more teeth. Sure enough, he has two more coming in up top! That's a total of 6 now in case you are keeping count. He seems so much more like a boy and less like a baby every day. He tried apples today and really liked them! After a month of just veggies and rice cereal I could almost hear him saying "FINALLY!"


We've also discovered that he has a favorite song now. It can make him stop crying on a dime, and smile and laugh like nothing else. So we have it in the car and play it all the time. And when we aren't in the car, he gets Mommy's version. The song is "Teddybear Picnic." Not very popular, but much loved in our house. Well, Joe loves it. Alex, Maddie and Paul think it's creepy. Creepy or not, it works. Paul has tried to jump on the bandwagon, but for anyone who knows him, you know he can't remember a lyric to save his life. Unless the song was popular before the year 2000. Teddybear Picnic is no exception. His version makes it somehow a Christmas song, and the Teddybear's are having breakfast instead of a picnic, and then it morphs into a song from The Wizard of Oz. But....it has the same tune so Joe loves it just the same. I really would have thought that after hearing it 50,000 times by now he would have learned the words. No such luck.
I'll try to get a good little video of Joe reacting to the song.....hold me to that promise.

The latest news on the homefront

We now officially have two front teeth poking through. And....he bites. Hard.



In other big Joe news....he's started saying Mama. The first time he said it I wasn't even there! I missed it! But Alex called to tell me about it. And now he says it alot. And mostly when he's cranky. We've unleashed a beast. It's so sad too. He'll wake up from his nap and stick out his lower lip and start saying "mamamamama." I can't tell if he is really associating it with me yet. But even if he's not, he still said mama first!

I've been asked recently whether this is supposed to be just a Joe blog, or if it's supposed to be for the whole family. My answer to that is that its supposed to be for the whole family....but Joe is the only one who will let me take their picture and put it on the blog for the most part. Everyone else is old enough to veto it and I get A LOT of vetos. I also get a lot of back of the head shots and hand in front of the face poses. And I'm the one taking the pictures....so you don't get to see much of me in here. I'm going to keep trying, but no promises.

Pretty boring week...

Other than his two front teeth popping out, not much happening around here lately. We are laying low in preparation for the upcoming holiday's.

Here's a picture of Joe typing me a message.


I was looking on the internet and he just reached for the keyboard and started typing. I pulled up a blank Word document and let him go at it. Here's what he typed:

Lk;;asdo-m.k.2902ikepe a ao9
tTTTTTTTTTTTT

Anyone know a cryptographer? I'm sure it's pure brilliance and I'm just not smart enough to decipher it's hidden meaning.

He's been giggling some lately. Which is a big change from his normal silent laugh. I tried to capture it. It's hard enough to get him to laugh, let alone do it over and over so I get a good take. Here's the best I could get. Appreciate the effort if not the product.



And here are a few other random pictures from the week. Enjoy!

Joe on our walk. He's in his stroller without the carseat now!


No, we aren't letting him take the car out alone until next year. Don't worry.