Joseph is 9 Months Old!

I know I say this every month, but I can't believe that our little guy is 9 months old already!  I always knew I would love my kids, but this little guy honestly makes my heart so happy I feel like it might burst sometimes.  Instead of letting me rock him to sleep, he prefers to be put in bed where he goes to sleep himself, but, throughout the day, he will randomly crawl over to me and give me a hug or kiss which just melts my heart.  He now knows how to clap, wave, and give high fives, although he doesn't always feel like "performing" when asked.  Joseph is definitely all boy!  Instead of going aroung obstacles, he crawls right over them.  Even if it takes him multiple attempts, once he sets his mind to it, he will do it.  He loves playing with balls and anything with wheels as well as reading books. 

Joseph - 9 Months



Joseph currently thinks drinking out of Joe's cups is one of the coolest things ever!

Joseph and Daddy at the Super Bowl party we attended.

My friend, Amber, is currently in the photography class after the one we took together.  One of her recent assignments was to recreate a photo she found in a publication.  She asked if I would be willing to let Joseph be her subject for the picture and, of course, I agreed.  This first picture is the recreation.  The rest are just us having fun since he was all dressed up.

He wasn't really giving out smiles that day, but he wasn't unhappy either.  He was just good ol neutral, go with the flow Joseph

Can you guess where I was standing during this next one?

I think I'll give this one to his future wife someday. :)

Valentine's Photo Shoot

As Joseph has become mobile, he has also become harder and harder to photograph by myself.  I knew that I wanted to set up a Valentine's day shoot for him so we could send cards out to our family, I just didn't realize how hard it would be. 

The original "plan" was to take his pictures outside.  After many failed attempts during which he was constantly trying to crawl away, I finally grabbed my heart buntings off the mantle, decorated his crib, and threw him in there.  Luckily, his crib is next to a window and it was a beautiful day so I had decent lighting to work with. 

He is quite the ham and prefers to give me his closed lip, stretched neck smile over a genuine one. 

He also likes to talk a lot, even during photo shoots.  I'm not sure if he gets that from me or Sam, but it allows him to fit right into the Parks family.

  

 The finaly product was this sweet little Valentine's Day card that I think really captures his personality.

Story Time

Yesterday, I took Joseph to the public library for baby story time (a class designed for children birth to 12 months old that includes a few songs with movement, a couple of super short books, and a little free play time with the other babies there) and he had a blast!  For a while now, Joseph has enjoyed sitting in my lap while I read a book to him and occasionally sitting in front of me while I read to him "teacher style," so when I found out about story time, I knew I had to take him.  One of my goals is to raise a baby that enjoys reading as much as I do.  So far, I think I'm succeeding :)

The smile that melts my heart.

His eyebrows are always so expressive.

When I uploaded these phone pics to the computer, I realized that I could have gotten some really cool shots had I taken my actual camera and spent more than 2 minutes taking pictures... J just might have a library photo shoot in his future. 

Joseph is 8 Months Old!

My little boy is growing up way too fast!  It's hard to believe he's already 2/3 of a year old.  Considering how little I had to write about in his last monthly update, I feel like I have tons to write about this time.  He's still a champion eater especiallly when it comes to food off of my plate.  Especially when I eat ice cream and he thinks he needs a bite for every one I take (don't worry, he just gets the vanilla ice cream sans toppings).  He has also fallen in love with cuties (you know, those mini orange like fruits) which are a pain to feed him because I have to dig the meat out of the skin.  Although he's been saying dada for a while now, he finally said mama for the first time this month (on my birthday!).  Previously, he would babble dadadadadada when happy and mamamamama when upset or in need of something, but now he will say the correct two syllable word when he wants our attention.  We now have a crawler in the Parks house which has helped make him a much happier baby.  And, as of this morning, he has a tooth!  See, I told you he had a productive month, I think he was making up for being lazy last month. 

 Joseph - 8 Months

Joseph got his first hair cut this month.  It wasn't much of a cut since he just needed his bangs and the hair over his ears trimmed, but we documented it anyway.  Since I was afraid I would take off too much (I'm kind of a fan of his old man comb-over), Sam and Joseph stopped by while I was getting my hair cut so Kayla could do it. 

He also graduated to a big boy car seat (I ordered it online and didn't realize just how big it was going to be).  He wasn't a fan of it the night we were adjusting the straps in the house, but is fine riding in it in the car. 

This semester, I'm watching a friend's little boy two days a week.  Both boys are used to having the undivided attention of their caregiver, so it has been great for both of them.  It's sweet to see them learning how to play with each other and share.  Look how cute they are on our daily walk. 

In addition to crawling, Joseph can now go from crawling to sitting position by himself.

Sweet Bella has been adjusting well to Joseph's newfound mobility.  On this evening, Joseph crawled over to her causing her to get up and walk away leaving her toy behind.  When she realized he was playing with it, she walked over and, after looking to us for permission, ever so gently pulled it out from under his leg.  Joseph didn't even realize what happened.

Watch out, he's a man on the move.

His scrunchy face smile gets me every time!

The Case of the Missing Necklace

Mid-December, I lost my necklace.  Not just any necklace, my Aubrey necklace.  The necklace I wear every single day.  I take my necklace off an average of once a day because if I blow dry my hair with it on it burns my skin.  On this particular Monday night, I took my necklace off in the living room and placed it (feet side up as always) on the table between two chairs.  When I went to put my necklace back on the next morning (I must have been super tired to go to sleep without it because I normally sleep with my hand wrapped around it), it wasn't where I thought I left it.  I looked for it for 30 minutes or so before the boss called and I had to go to work.  When he went down for a nap, I resumed looking for my necklace.  I spent both of his entire nap times that day looking for my necklace.  I kept thinking it has to be in this house somewhere, maybe Bella's tail hit it and it flew under a piece of furniture, what if one of the dogs ate it (our dogs are both way past the eating random stuff stage, but it still crossed my mind). 

That night, after tucking Joseph in bed, I went out to the garage where Sam was working to tell him I still couldn't find my necklace and I broke down.  I'm talking heaving shoulders, can't catch your breath crying.  I even told him it was worse than losing my wedding ring because at least I would still have him.  Through it all, he just kept hugging me and telling me that everything would be ok.  He said that if we didn't find it by my birthday he would order me a new one.  I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.

The next day, I continued my frantically searching the house while Joseph was sleeping routine.  I didn't pick up dog poo or vacuum the house out of fear of losing my necklace forever.  I looked under every piece of furniture with a flashlight thinking it would reflect the light when hit.

Thursday things got real.  I was hosting bunco that night and had to clean my house that hadn't been touched at all the last couple of days due to my missing necklace.  It was also the day before trash day and I knew that I wouldn't be able to put the trash out unless I looked through it (I had already gone through the trash can in the house).  As soon as Joseph went down for morning nap, I grabbed the baby monitor and went outside. I'm glad that all of our neighbors were at work because I searched through every single item in our entire big blue trash can while sitting in our driveway.  It wasn't there.  After lunch, I asked a neighbor who works half days to watch Joseph so I could carefully vacuum.  I flipped every piece of furniture in our living room except for the way too heavy couch while I was vacuuming.  I still didn't find it. 

I started to admit to myself that I might have really lost it for good.  I went about my afternoon preparing for the girls to come over.  When Sam got home, I was in the kitchen dipping oreo pops.  He said, "I have something for you."  I turned around and immediately started hysterically crying when I saw him holding my necklace.  He then told me that he had my necklace the entire time because he had been talking to a jeweler about adding a diamond to it since he knew it would be pointless to buy me new jewelry (I don't even wear my engagement ring or the anniversary band I just had to have 97% of the time {I do wear my wedding band 100% of the time}).  When I finally calmed down, he asked if I was mad at him.  I honestly told him that I wasn't mad, just relieved to have one of my most prized possessions back. 

When I reflected back on the last few days, it all made sense.  That's why he barely helped me look for it.  That's why he just kept hugging me the first night when I was crying (he admitted that he was hugging me so I wouldn't see him laughing and he almost gave it back right then because he felt so bad).  That's why he wanted me to wait so long before ordering a new one. 

Oh, and in case you are wondering, no, they didn't add a diamond because they were afraid they would mess it up which is just fine with me. 

This picture was taken 2 1/2 years ago when it was still shiny and new.

Christmas 2012

I know this is a little late, but I'm going to write a quick Christmas recap anyway.  I won't go into too much detail. I just want to document Joseph's first Christmas on the ol blog before I forget. 

Our first Christmas was an impromptu get-together with Sam's family in Tulsa at his brother's house.  We don't normally get together with both brothers and his parents at the same time since we celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine, but it was nice to see everyone including the girlfriends (they don't come to Thanksgiving...yet :).

The boys got matching sweaters.  This is the pose I got when I asked them if I could take a picture.

Of course Joseph got to see Santa (I might have crashed my friend's husband's work Christmas party for this opportunity),

although he preferred Mrs. Clause.

Aren't my friend's kids adorable!

The days leading up to Christmas and Christmas day goes as follows.  We spent lots of time with cousin Bryar.

Stayed the night at Gammy's house.

Visited great-grandparents.

Fell in love with Uncle Blake.

Knocked over a Christmas tree.

Stayed the night at Papa Joe's.

Visited another set of great-grandparents.

Wrestled with Bryar.

Wore matching pajamas.

And got tired of having our picture taken.