Joseph is TWO!!!

It's so hard to believe that our sweet little boy is already two years old!  I had planned on writing this prior to his birthday so I could post it on the actual day, but I've been at a loss of words as to what to say.  Nothing I can think of to write seems sufficient for this marvelous boy, so I guess I'll just do my best.  He has truly put a Band-Aid on my heart.  I couldn't imagine life without him.

Joseph,
I love you more than I can ever express.  When I tell you that I love you, you usually respond one of two ways.  Most of the time, you reply, "I wuv you, Mommy."  Sometimes, you simply say, "I know."  I want you to always know that I love you and there is nothing you can ever do to change that, that's why I tell you so often. 

You give hugs and kisses freely to all family members.  Sometimes you declare "famwy hug" and reach out for all of us.  Family hugs are now one of my favorite things.

The phrase I hear out of your mouth more often than any other these days is "Momma, wook at me!"  This is usually followed by you doing something you think is really cool.  You have an amazing attitude about everything and celebrate even the smallest accomplishments, both for you and your sister.

You have a very inquisitive mind.  You will manipulate an object until you figure out how and why it works.  There have been a few casualties due to this curiosity.  Your daddy loves that you want to figure stuff out and encourages you when you get frustrated.  You often say, "Oh no, it bwoke." and "I fix it."

Speaking of daddy, you love him and want to do everything he does!  You mimic daddy all the way from wanting to drink tea with dinner like him (you usually settle for milk) to using the exact tool he is using at the moment when working in the garage.  The other day, you opened the front door, pretended to walk in, said, "I'm home," then came over and gave me a kiss, just like you see your daddy do every night.

You are a funny kid which is great because you love to make people laugh.  Even friends of mine with kids your age are amazed at some of the funny things you say.  If you don't have anything funny to say, you make a face at me.  This often happens when I look in the rearview mirror to check on you guys at stop lights.

One of your funny faces is an exaggerated smile.  It makes me laugh every time!

You have two speeds: sleeping and running.  In fact, you often say, "Momma, run!" even when we are just walking through the house to your bedroom to change your diaper.  You seriously run any time you can.  It's an adorable run, too, with your little fists pumping the air as you go.

I think it's safe to say cousin Bryar is your best friend right now.  You're always excited to facetime with him!  There have also been times when I've told you we need to get ready to go to a playdate with someone and you've responded with, "No.  Pway Bryar."

This is when Bryar called and sang you "Happy Birthday" on, well, your birthday.

You also love your sister.  Even though we refer to her as Sarah most of the time, you have taken to calling her Sissy (although you have recently started calling her Sarah which makes me a tiny bit sad).  You are very protective of her and always make sure she has what she needs.  I've joked that she will never need to talk or walk because you bring her everything she could possibly want/need.  I really think you do this because you don't like listening to her cry.

I often dress you and your sister in coordinating clothes.  Some day I will stop, but for now you don't mind.  

You even ask for a matching shirt sometimes (especially if she is wearing a "Funder" or Pete shirt).

Every night and at nap time, you want tucked in with your feet sticking out the bottom of your blanket, bear under one arm, frog under the other.  This happens after we brush your teeth, read books, and say a prayer.  You love your routines, yet you are still able to go with the flow when we need you to.  I love this about you.  When you wake up, you stand in your crib (yes, you still sleep in a crib) and announce, "I weady get up now." repeatedly until we get you. 

I hope and pray you always stay as sweet and considerate as you are now.  You use good manners most of the time including saying please and thank you and holding the door open for people.  You share your toys without hesitation (most of the time) and use gentle touches with your friends.  You have an ornery streak, but it's all in good fun and not at other people's expense.  You are so loved by everyone in your family!

 

I can't wait to see how you grow this year!  They say the twos are difficult, but I have a feeling they will be just as much fun as the last two years have been.  

I love you more than you'll ever know!
Momma


For Joseph's birthday this year, all he asked for was cake and ice cream.  Sam came up with a shirt idea for him to wear on his special day based on his requests (it says cake and ice cream day). 

Since we were out of town on his actual birthday, we didn't get to have a party that day.  We did make sure we ate some cake and ice cream, though.

We celebrated at home a couple of weeks later.  It was a simple event with minimal decorations.  We grilled steaks and hamburgers and had an ice cream cake.  Joseph even wore the same cake and ice cream day shirt.  Sometimes even crafty (or so they think) mommas desire a laid back party.

Joseph is 18 Months Old

Where has the time gone?!  It seems like just the other day we were celebrating Joseph's first birthday, now he's half way to two years old!  Just thinking about him being one and a half makes me tear up a little.  To say Joseph's world has changed in the last couple of months is an understatement.  He is an amazing big brother (much better than I was afraid he would be)!  We have to keep a close eye on him around Sarah since he is still a little wobbly sometimes and thinks he can do things (like lift her) that he can't, but I truly think he would never intentionally harm her.  When Sarah cries, Joseph says, "noooo" (in an I want her to feel better and not cry way) and runs around the room trying to find a paci for her or starts rocking her.  He will also get blankets, diapers, and bottles for her when asked. 

Joseph has been great about sharing all of his baby things with Sarah, but we recently found the one thing he doesn't want to share, his taggie blanket.  I got it out for Sarah the other day and he was fine with her having it for a while.  He even played oh no (his version of peek-a-boo) with her using it.  When it was time for Joseph to go to bed, Sarah was still awake and the taggie was on her lap.  I asked him if he wanted to give her a kiss goodnight (as he often does), and he just stood there looking at her.  He watched her for a minute or two, took a deep breath, grabbed his taggie, and took off running.  I followed him to see where he was going and found him in his bedroom trying to open the dresser drawer.  I opened the drawer for him and he put the taggie in, shut the drawer, and walked off.  I guess I need to break out the sewing stuff and make Sarah a taggie of her own.

Joseph is also in love with lotion and Germ-X right now.  Anytime he spies some, he thinks he needs a squirt on his hands.  He promptly rubs them together until the substance is no longer visible. 

Oh, he also loves to dance right now which is hilarious because he basically bounces up and down with his arms sticking out while spinning in a circle.  I'm afraid he is developing my dance skills.  And he talks all. the. time (what can I say, he is our child).  He can tell you some animals and sounds and tons of basic words like more, eat, go, outside, and all done as well as body parts, clothing pieces, and baby items, but prefers to say sentences (although you can't understand most of what he's saying) and will say the same thing over and over until you finally guess correctly or he gives up.  Just last night, when we were keeping him up for a little bit because he bumped his head really hard right before bath time, he came up to me and said "me wanna go sweep."

Since we just did family maternity pictures and family newborn pictures (I promise, I will post them someday), Joseph didn't get an 18 month photo shoot, so I made sure I took a few myself.  He might not be dressed to impress, and the backgrounds might leave a lot to be desired, but this is our little guy being who he is at our house.

His cheese face makes me laugh every time he does it!

Isn't he handsome!

He was telling me something in this one.

He still loves his car (and I couldn't decide which picture I liked best).

Flashback to Joseph playing with that car when he was 9 months old.

Concentrating

"What, mom?"

Watching the dogs play.

 Happy 18 months, baby boy!  I can't wait to see what the future holds for you!

Joseph is 16 Months Old!

My sweet little boy is 16 months old today!  He is definitely not a baby anymore which is both encouraging and sad at the same time.  At his 15 month check up a couple of weeks ago, he was 31 inches tall and weighed just over 25 pounds.  That puts him just under 50% in height and just over 50% in weight or, as I like to say, perfectly average :).  I'm not even sure how many teeth he has because he has some partial molars and I'm not sure how to count them, but he does have four teeth each on top and bottom in front as well as canines starting to come in.  He still loves his "daw-guhs" and does a great job petting them gently (don't worry, they are never unsupervised).  Speaking of cute words he says, he says "yum-may" when he likes what he's eating (we hear this at almost every meal) and walks around saying "hewo" into his pretend phone (although he doesn't like to talk into the real phone).  He also tries to say sentences, but we can only understand a word or two if we are lucky.  He will repeat the exact same "sentence" three or four times before giving up on us understanding. 

Joseph is also into everything!  He has learned how to push chairs around then climb onto them to get what he wants off of tables and counters.  He also likes to hide in places like the bottom cabinet in the hall (he can shut the door completely behind him) and will sit there quietly while you look for him then come out giggling (this has caused momma a little stress).  Most of the time when he hides, he does it right in front of you then says "oh no" because he hears me say, "oh no, Joseph is missing."

With all the appointments and such that we've had going on lately, I haven't really taken many pictures, but I do have a few to share with you. 

Sam's grandpa had a birthday in August, so we went to his parents house to celebrate.  While we were there, Joseph helped Uncle Ben and Grandpa Parks adjust the pedals on his tractor in hopes that he could finally reach them.

Uncle Josh even helped push him around for a little while. 

I don't know if I ever mentioned it or not, but my boys got me a family zoo pass for Mother's Day.  Joseph and I have taken advantage of this by stopping at the zoo anytime we find ourselves in the city with a little free time.  To be honest, I plan appointments in the city for either late afternoon or early morning so we can go to the zoo.

Sometimes, we even have friends join us.

On this particular day, I had an appointment with my high risk doctor too.  Doesn't Joseph look thrilled.

The only part of the ultrasound he cared about was when you could see and hear the heart beating (when they turned that part off he said "again, again").

If you ever see my husband when he is dressed casually, he probably has on a shirt for a band he likes.  I couldn't pass up this Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt when I saw it for Joseph.  Sam was even a good sport and dressed alike for the day. 

We also recently met up with cousin Bryar and Aunt Moo at Papa Joe's.  My dad pulled a tractor he was working on up into the backyard for the boys to explore which made their day!  Here is Bryar as it approached.

They got to climb up in the cab and pretend to drive (they weren't happy about pausing for a picture).

 As well as explore the outside.

Peanut heard all the commotion and decided to see what was going on, the boys were excited to see Peanut too.

I love that Joseph has a cousin so close in age!  There is no telling what kind of trouble these two will get into together as they get older!

Joseph's 12 Month Update (a Couple Months Late)

I realize that Joseph is already 14 months old, but I want to write a quick 12 month post for him so I can have his entire first year printed into a book since I'm not doing a good job keeping up with a baby book.  Since the hubs got me a new computer for our anniversary, I should be able to do a better job keeping everyone updated on the Parks family happenings now :). 

On Saturday, May 18, our little Joseph turned one year old.  At the time, he would only walk about three steps between two people.  He had six teeth (four on top, two on bottom).  He was still getting a night time bottle, but drank out of a sippy cup the rest of the day.  He had completely weaned himself off of baby food and ate anything and everything we were eating. 

Joseph - 12 Months



(Since his birthday was on a Saturday, I decided to use this picture instead of trying to get another picture in a solid white onesie.)

 

 

 We met up with Cousin Bryar at Papa Joe's house one afternoon.  This is how they felt about taking pictures.

We also visited their Great-Grandparents McMahan while we were there.



Joseph is 11 Months Old!

Can you believe I haven't blogged since Joseph's 10 month post?  I know some of you have noticed because you have oh so politely reminded me :).  Don't worry, I have pictures from Easter and a visit with cousin Bryar that I will share at a later time (let's just say pregnancy plus a very active infant/toddler has left little time for household chores much less blogging).  For now, I wanted to get Joseph's 11 month post up. 

Where oh where have the last eleven months gone!?!?  It seems like just yesterday we were driving to Durant in the late evening hours for what turned out to be a false alarm (more on that when I publish Joseph's story on his birthday)!  To say this little boy has me wrapped around his finger would be an understatement.  His unprompted hugs bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye while turning my heart to mush.  He also has a smile that can light up a room. 

Joseph has continued to be a good eater and rarely gets baby food anymore.  For the most part, he eats what Sam and I eat for every meal (which really makes me stop and think about what Sam and I are eating) plus snacks in between.  I have officially taken his morning bottle away and now give him formula in a sippy cup with breakfast instead.  In the next couple of weeks, I will take away his other during the day bottles, but I'm not ready to give up the night time bottle yet (it's one of the few times he's willing to let me rock him). 

He shows no interest in walking yet.  I think it's because he can get places so quickly crawling (the little guy is fast!) and walking takes longer.  In fact, his lack of desire to walk resulted in his first sentence the other day.  While bringing Joseph in from the back yard, Sam grabbed Joseph's hands and was helping him walk to the door.  After a few steps, Joseph started trying to pull downward out of Sam's hands so he could crawl and said, "No no Dada."  I had to stop myself from laughing.  If this is a sign of things to come and the stubborn will of our child, we might be in trouble. 

In other news, Joseph has four teeth (two central ones on bottom and fangs on top).  And weighs in at a hefty 24 pounds. 

 Joseph - 11 Months



Sitting at the table, one of his favorite places.

This is a classic Joseph look.

Joseph loves this puzzle.

I love his leg dimples.

Notice he's not laying on the fabric this month.  We tried, we really did, it just wasn't happening.  And then I was so eager to get a picture of him smiling I got everything crooked (photography fail).