A little early

Our church had their Easter egg hunt and visit with the bunny last weekend to beat the rush of Palm Sunday and then Easter itself. The event was at 1:00 which is right in the middle of Joseph's nap time so he was barely keeping his eyes open and crashed out on the car ride home, but he loved the bunny! As soon as he saw it he started saying, "phhhh, phhhh, phhh" which is what the bunny says, or at least what I taught him that the bunny says. Rich was questioning it but with your arms up like a bunny I think it is a great noise for one!

Joseph giving the bunny a hug (or going in for a hug at least!)

Hands in the mouth constantly right now-his second molar is about to pop through

"Phhhh, phhh, phhhh"

Bluebonnets

To be an official Texan it seems as if one must experience the bluebonnets in bloom-kind of like the big waves in Hawaii during the month of December-they make the news, people rush out to take pictures and everyone talks about them. They are the state flower and are only in bloom for about one month so like good Texans we had to get some pictures.

Joseph wasn't real impressed-they were scratchy and he wanted to run

He did stop to smell the flowers on his way through the field

Pretty much how the photo shoot went

The bluebonnets were right next to a huge grassy field which Joseph was much more interested so the photo shoot soon ended up like this...although the pictures look a little promiscuous, I promise they were behaving!

Happy to be running around!

What a week!

Our weeks seem to get busier and busier as Joseph gets older, which is great and I am sure the upcoming years will only get busier. Instead of breaking the week into smaller blog posts, here is a recap of our busy but very fun week!

Last Saturday we had not one, but two birthday parties to attend so we split the time evenly and celebrated one of his friend's from bootcamp birthday with a clown and then went to a friend from our Tuesday playgroup for cake and presents! Busy, but fun afternoon!

On Sunday, we had a nice surprise as my cousin Kevin who is a senior at Notre Dame was in Houston for his spring break tour with the glee club. Rich and I made it a date night and went out to dinner and then went to Kevin's concert. Wow, what a talented group of young men! It was a nice combination of traditional Catholic, Irish songs and then more pop songs (think along the lines of the television show, The Sing-off). We didn't have a lot of time with Kevin but it was great to catch up quickly and just to see family is always a treat!

On Monday we had boot camp and then that afternoon hit up the park with friends...sorry no photos this day!

Tuesday was boot camp again and then our playgroup with our neighborhood group at a nearby park. Normally we meet at a home but with the beautiful weather we are trying to be outside as much as possible. And Tuesday night was the Miranda Lambert concert and rodeo for me! So fun!

The rodeo is prior to the concert-this part was called the calf scrambler where they let a bunch of calves out into the arena and highschoolers chase them and then catch them (with their bare hands), rope them, and then bring them into the middle of the arena. If they are successful they get to keep the calf...only in Texas!

Wednesday was the usual story and song time at the library, church playgroup and then a walk and park in the afternoon with our good friends.

Joseph and Claire hugging before our walk

On Thursday Joseph and I hosted a playdate at our home for some of our friends from boot camp. It ended up being 12 moms and 16 kiddos so was definitely busy but so fun and nice to see everyone not in workout gear!

Friday was boot camp again and then played at the fountains and at the park at Market Street after. We love Market Street, which is a darling little area with a ton of great shops and restaurants and there always seems to be fun events and activities for families.

He LOVED the fountains!

This was my favorite part of the entire week! The fountains stopped and Joseph started signing "more" emphatically! I couldn't stop laughing! Whoever was in charge must know baby sign because they came back on shortly!!

By Saturday we were pretty tuckered out but had one more birthday party for Joseph's friend from our neighborhood playgroup and then went to celebrate St. Patricks' Day at Waterway square (similar to Market street) to enjoy a free concert with friends.

Joseph and Claire dancing the night away!

BFFs!

Lots of people out and about celebrating St. Patrick's Day!

Such a fun and busy week and we are looking forward to this coming week!

15 months!

Joseph turned 15 months on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012. Happy 15 months little guy! What a fun and very busy stage this is! As I write this I am watching him on the monitor as he is running from one end of his crib to the other and every once in awhile stops and does a downward facing dog type of move in the middle. I'd say he is about ready to get up for the day! So, yes, he is pretty much running everywhere now instead of walking, has learned to climb on to the couch and our dining room chairs, and is just on the go from morning to night! The transition from 2 naps to 1 is getting better-closer to an hour and a half now instead of 50 minutes (that was a long 2 weeks!) and we are staying hopeful that it will continue to lengthen as he gets more used to it. His vocabulary seems to develop on a weekly if not daily basis. His favorites are da da, dog, duck, ball, truck, car and the absolute favorite of belly button (buh buh). My feelings are hurt a little that I don't make the favorites list but his actions show that he does love me a whole lot so that is a little comforting! He uses sign frequently and watching him sign "please" just melts my heart. We just hope that his manners are as good as they are now with the sign once he starts talking. He loves to give hugs and kisses and has mastered the kiss sound effect-watch out ladies! Oh, and he LOVES to roar! At a birthday party last weekend he received a little lion that sticks on the car window so whenever we drive anywhere he points to the lion and roars almost the entire time. We'll be sure to take it down on our next longer road trip!

Oh and the biggest milestone of all is that we have seen glimpses of a temper tantrum!! Ahhh! Not yet! Nothing full blown yet but he does this adorable thing (I say adorable now as it hasn't turned into a full blown event) where he stomps his feet really fast and yesterday as he was trying to drink the gutter water off the side of the house and I took him away he did lie down face first on the ground for about 5 seconds but then got up as if nothing has happened-so I am sure they are coming! He is full of personality so I only expect that when they do come they'll be over the top as well :) Not this sweet little boy though, right?

He did have his 15 month well baby check up, which included 2 shots. He weighs 25 lbs, 4 ozs which is in the 60th percentile and was 31 inches long...which means that he shrunk in the past 2 months!! He was pretty squirmy so the nurse couldn't get an accurate measurement so we're not exactly sure where he stands but he is growing!

Happy 15 months little buddy. We love you!

E-I-E-I-O

Joseph LOVES animals so when a friend invited us to Old MacDonald farm we had to say yes. The farm has a huge petting zoo, playground, train ride, pony ride and lots of space for kids to run. We packed a picnic lunch and had a great morning!

I felt so bad for Joseph here, but of course had to get a picture-second to animals, he loves balls the most, and he ran across the field yelling, "ba ba ba" and then he got there and he couldn't reach it. It made me laugh a little :)

He walked up to every animal with his hands open wide and loved petting them-this was after leaving the goat pen he wanted to go back for one last touch!

I think this was his favorite-he started giggling when he sat on the pony for the first time and just kept petting it and smiling throughout the entire ride!

A huge pile of hay to run in and swing when he gets a little older

Helping to feed

And just a few more fun shots...

Exploring the teepee

Checked it all out, ready to go!

Joseph's language

It has been so neat to watch Joseph's language emerge and develop the past few months. He is pretty talkative and has some of the basics down, for example: dad, mom (ma), duck, dog, ball (ba), truck (druk), bye, Poppa and Pop Pop, and of course his favorite, belly button (buh buh)! My favorite part of watching his language develop though is just the string of sounds that he will put together that mimic a real conversation. It reminds of me of my sister Lindsay who used to have complete conversations like this with all of us, especially on long car rides. Aunt Lindsay, we need you to come to Texas so you can understand what Joseph is saying. Oh, and by the way, Lindsay was about 8 when she used to talk like this-it was her own secret language that somehow we all understood :)

The Children's Museum

Last week we ventured out of our little bubble of The Woodlands to downtown Houston to check out The Children's Museum with friends. The museum is huge and awesome but definitely geared toward older kids. They did have a very large toddler area so we hung out there for most of the time which was still a great time. We look forward to visiting again but will probably wait another year or so, especially since we have a children's museum 5 minutes from our home which is perfect for Joseph's age now.

As you can tell from the photos, he was having a blast!

He was a huge fan of pumping gas!