Training for Everest

Joe had his one-year doctor's appointment and passed with flying colors. He is still off the chart for height and head circumference and barely on the chart for weight. The calculations over the past 12 months have come in and his final height should range between (drum roll....)

6 feet 2 inches to 6 feet 4 inches! Holy cow!

My brother is 6'4" (and I, at 5'9" am 5 inches taller than the average lady), so it's not a complete shock, but it does pretty much guarantee that Joe is going to be (possibly a lot) taller than his daddy. Exciting! The world needs more gentle giants.

Also taking him to new and exciting heights is his newfound love of climbing. He loves to climb up stairs, playground equipment and anything else that he can get leverage on.


This video shows the climber in action. Be sure to listen carefully to hear Joe's conversation with me. He's definitely trying to chat nowadays!



In child care news, Joe Daddy and I met with an awesome lady who has two kids and is looking to watch a third out of her house in a nearby town. We tested the waters with a quick 'playdate' and her older child (a boy who is almost 3) just fell in love with Joe. They played together and Joe followed him around and it was pretty amazing. As with most people around these parts, she has a huge house full of amazing toys and a big backyard with a playground. The kicker is that the amount she said she would charge us is almost half of what we are paying now. So, a child care change might be in our future. As always, I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I have already received flowers and my first ever professional massage! It was quite lovely. I've had a couple of great meals and of course, I've gotten to spend time with my wonderful boys. In addition, I substitute taught in P-ton Regional Schools for the first time on Friday and got this lovely note from one of the kids at the end of the day. I think I'll keep it in my back pocket in case I need a little reminder that I rock. :) Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful momma's out there! You rock!

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

I cannot believe it has been a whole year. It went by so quickly and yet it feels like he's always been with us. We had a small gathering of Joey's closest adult friends and ate cake and ice cream -- and opened presents of course! Since it was Easter, Joey's cake was in the shape of a baby chick.


I also made a regular cake for the adults separately so that Joey could destroy his cake as much as he wanted and we could still eat too.


Here's Joe opening up one of his presents -- he's moved up to a full set of keys on his baby piano! He had mastered his 4 key baby piano, so it was clearly time to move on up, even if the box said "18 months+".


Here's the birthday group (minus Joe Daddy who was taking the picture).


And here is the obligatory "baby stuffing his face with cake" birthday photo.


Finally, at long last, I am ready to reveal my birthday blog surprise.

I can't put into words how wonderful it was to watch Joe develop this year and how much I love him. He is everything that anyone could ever want in a child and more. Rather than write out a 'retrospective' of the year, I decided to make a video. Without further ado, here it is:

(Great!) Granny Franny and (Great!) Aunt Ka-Ka

Joe Daddy's grandmother and aunt came to visit and were here for a little over four days! It wasn't enough, so hopefully they will come back again before we leave the area. They got to tour Philadelphia, New York City and P-ton (of course), but most importantly, they got to meet little Joseph. We miss you already! Come back soon!



Click here to see all the pictures!

Joe's birthday is coming up on Sunday. I just can't believe it. I'm cooking up something very special for the blog. I better not say anymore about his first birthday, lest I start crying on the computer keyboard. Everybody knows, it's first birthdays and the next thing you know, college. To tide you over until the next post, here's a few more pictures from this week:

V-Day, Walking and the Haircut from Hell

We are now less than a month from Joe's first birthday. Time is just flying by!

Joe made many sweet Valentine's Day crafts at school and also tasted his first cupcake. He seemed shocked by it at first, but when it was all said and done he was happy and covered in cake crumbs and frosting. It was a nice test run for his first birthday cake. I'll start getting the tarps and hoses ready now.



Joe now uses the full regular tub for his baths. He likes having the extra space to splash around. Also, he can play with his boats and other toys now! He's SUCH a big boy!


In less than a month, Joe will transition into a regular car seat and will likely start using a regular umbrella stroller (when he's not running around on foot) which will make outings much easier. We decided to let him sit up like a big boy in the grocery cart at Sams. He was a little hesitant at first, but he's getting used to it.


Joe got his first haircut and it was probably the most traumatizing thing (for me) since his birth. There's a haircut place in P-ton that is supposed to be "especially for children". Naturally, I thought that I should take Joe there for his first haircut. It was a milestone and I wanted it to be special.


Looking back on it, I now realize that essentially, I took Joe to a circus, had him tied down to a chair and had clowns attack him. He screamed louder and cried harder than he ever has before and after about 10 minutes of this, I couldn't take it any longer, snatched him up and walked right out the door with him mid-haircut. Luckily, Joe Daddy was there, so he took care of the remaining business (and gave them a piece of his mind) and we went home. From now on, either I'm cutting his hair or he's going to be like Samson and his long flowing hair will be his strength. No more clown-cuts!

To end on a much happier note, Joe is now walking. When I play with him in his room and he gets bored, he just stands up and walks out. Sometimes, I'll just see him walk by down the hallway. It's pretty amazing. I wanted you to see, so I just took this video while creating this blog post. Enjoy!

Baby Steps

Joseph Asher just turned 10 months old and I'm pretty sure he's not my baby anymore, he's my TODDLER! He only has a couple bottles of formula a day, instead drinking juice out of a sippy cup. Also, he's eating regular table food now. He loves macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, baked beans-- the only thing he refuses to eat are bananas (he takes after Aunt M!) and anything green (green beans, peas, spinach). He loves fruits though-- apples, oranges, pears, grapes, strawberries. The kiddo has a sweet tooth.

Speaking of teeth, he has at least FOUR now! The two front teeth on the top are kind of crooked and have a sizable gap between them. I guess he takes after mom that way. They haven't come completely in, so we can't tell if they are going to slowly move towards each other or not. We'll see! Just in case, I'll start a change jar marked "orthodontist".

The two biggest changes for Joe (that are possibly related) are that he has started full time day care and has taken his first steps! That's right, after almost four painful years of semi-unemployment, I finally got a full-time job in my field. So, Joe is now going full-time to the day care where he had been going one or two days a week. He LOVES it. There are three other older boys and a younger girl and a younger boy. He follows the older boys everywhere they go! Of course, because they are walking, he wants to walk too. He's trying very hard! Check out the video:



His personality is still sweet, friendly and full of happiness. Joe Daddy cut a hole in Joe's favorite big box and they played peekaboo together yesterday. Enjoy!

Joe's 1st Professional Photo Shoot

While in Georgia, my brother surprised us with a photo session for me, Joe Daddy, Joe, himself and his son. It was a lot of fun! The pictures turned out great! I put a tiny sample here, but if you want to see the whole set, click here!






Joe turned TEN months old a couple of days ago. I can hardly believe he's so old already! I will update soon with a Joe Progress Report. Until then, enjoy Joe's photo shoot!
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Where Do I Begin?!

The past six weeks have been a whirlwind, which you might have guessed since the blog went on hiatus. Well, we're BACK and I have come with almost 200 pictures, so hopefully you'll forgive me. Some of these pictures have a weird date stamp in the corner -- my camera must have been going out after so many pictures! I'll edit them eventually.

Let's start where we left off: GRANDMAS!



Joe Daddy's Momma (henceforth referred to as Joe Grandma) had a business trip to NYC and stopped in for a day to see Joe. It went fabulously. Joe Grandma was fantastic with Joe (no big surprise since she has two young kids herself). She was sweet and playful and Joe had a great time with her. After that, I felt like I should throw caution to the wind and invite my mom out too. My mother will henceforth be referred to as Joe MomMom. Her anxiety level is pretty high, but Joe's feathers didn't get ruffled and he seemed to enjoy her excitement. It is sad that Joe only got to see real blood relatives once during his first year, but hopefully that will improve over time. It would be a shame for our families to miss out on such a great kiddo. Click here for the set of pictures and videos from the Grandma/MomMom trips.




Next came Aunt M's New Years trip. We went down to DC and snagged Uncle J too and had a great time for Joey's first NYE. This was also the beginning of our two week adventure down the east coast. The first stop was DC where we got to see Uncle J's place for the first time and take a tour of the US Botanical Garden. Click here for the set of pictures and videos from the NYE trip.




The next leg of the journey was Virginia where we met up with Joe Daddy's Aunt Kim and Uncle Walter. Words really can't describe how fantastic it was to see them. I guess the best thing I can say is that it felt like home... or what I guess home is supposed to feel like. Joe LOVED hanging out with them and crawling around with Walter on the floor. I can't believe it took us so long to go visit them when we've been out here on the coast for so long. I also can't wait to see them again. Click here for the set of pictures and video from the Virginia leg of the trip.




Finally, we went down to Georgia to see my brother for the first time in about four years. My last trip to see him went poorly, so we were somewhat apprehensive going into it, but it turned out to be absolutely amazing. My bro has done a lot of growing up since the last time I saw him, thanks no doubt to having a little boy of his own (Christian). Joe followed Christian everywhere he went, we had a great time with Christian's Momma's family, did a lot of radio stuff (my bro is a station manager / morning show host), and just had a fabulous time all around. I also had the best BBQ I've ever had in my entire life. I can't wait to go back again! Click here for the set of pictures and video from the Georgia leg of the trip.

Since coming back, we got our Earth's Best prize loot! Diapers and wipes and food galore! It was definitely worth the hour of effort to make the video!


Also, I got to visit the boys I used to nanny and they got to spend some quality time with Joe. I love seeing my "practice kids"! I know I'm a better person and a better mom because of the experience I had raising them for 2+ years.



I'm sorry I got so behind on updating the blog, but I promise that I'm back and I'm going to update again in the next day or two with details about Joe's growth and pictures from his first ever professional photo shoot! Get excited!