Halloween Mask

Joseph calls any decoration related to Halloween, "Halloween masks."  We walk to our neighbor's house at least once a day to look at their "Halloween masks" in their front yard.  On Thursday he received a package from his Great Grandma D (GGD) and his Great Aunt Cindy which included his very own "halloween mask"-which were really skeleton pajamas.  He was SO excited about them.  We opened the package right before bathtime which was perfect because he wanted to wear them immediately so after bath he was all set for bed.  So, that was Thursday night.  On Friday he was excited about them as he woke up that morning and I washed them and before dinner he found them on the dryer so asked to put them on.  He wore them for dinner and then after bath asked to wear them to bed again.  All was good with the skeleton pjs!  However, about 10 minutes after we put him down he started crying, almost screaming, in bed.  I went up and he kept saying "Halloween masks go away, Halloween masks throw away."  I picked him out of his crib and he was trying to take them off continually saying "Halloween masks throw away"  The only thing that we could think of is maybe they were really glowing this night and it freaked him out.  The next morning he woke up and wanted confirmation that they really were all gone.  Needless to say we haven't pulled them out again but thankfully did get this super cute picture the first night he had them on.  Oh well!  Thanks Aunt Cindy and GGD for the Halloween package and for thinking of Joseph-hopefully he'll get over his fright soon!

30 weeks

Can't believe 30 weeks is here already!  Had a doctor's appointment this week and baby girl is still measuring big but all looks great.  I start going every 2 weeks now for appointments which makes it seem like she really is going to be here soon.  We decided on a doula this past weekend and are excited about having her support since I am hoping to have a vbac.
We meant to take a picture at 29 weeks since that is when I have one with Joseph but the week just flew by and soon enough we were at 30 weeks so here is a belly comparison from Joseph at 29 weeks and baby girl at 30 weeks.  I can't believe how much bigger my belly looks this time around-and I don't think I can blame it on the picture being a week later.  My weight gain is exactly the same so at least hoping most of it is going to my belly instead of my bottom :)
           29 weeks with Joseph-                                30 weeks with baby girl
              September 12, 2010                                        October 15, 2012

How did this happen?

How did it happen that our little baby now seems like such a big boy??  

I swear just a few weeks ago he was just saying 2-3 word phrases and now he is up to 4-5.  We have no problem understanding what he wants and when he wants it (we do have to interpret for others every once in awhile though!)  His stubborn/independent side is definitely blossoming which basically is a nice way of saying when he wants something he will definitely let you know and it can be challenging to change his mind.  He definitely has some favorites right now such as the "march" song on one of the cds in the car (cd #2, track #14 to be exact) and he will say "march, march" and then "Daddy/Mama sing" so we all have this song memorized and listen and sing to it repeatedly!  His sense of humor is in full swing as he loves "scaring" Daddy and when he sees either of us laughing he just glows!  He is still such a sweet little boy though and I always melt when he will just lean over and give me a kiss (which happens often when I'm reading a book to him) or if I am sitting on the floor he will come over and hug me around the neck from behind.  Everyone says once they become a big brother or big sister they seem even bigger so we are really trying to enjoy these next few months when he is still our baby!!  Love you little buddy!

"Men fix the room"

The construction on our bonus room is complete.  We are super happy with the work and are really impressed that they got everything done in just 5 days.  Joseph LOVED the general contractor, "Mr. Josh" and still talks about him even though they have been done for almost a week now.  When Josh left for the very last time he honked his horn so Joseph keeps talking about "Mr. Josh beep horn".  During the construction I kept telling him that there were men here to fix the room so he would say "Men fix the room" whenever anybody came in the house or walked upstairs.  We are going to use the room as a playroom for now and eventually an office and we hit up Ikea and Target today for the first of some of the organizational storage pieces for the room (and an easel that I just couldn't resist!)  Rich commented that it really looks like it just came as part of the house so I guess that is all you can ask for!  Here are a few pictures of the change-

The room before-it was basically as soon as you walked up the stairs to the right-just an open space, and I just never was crazy about having an open space up there.

 First day-demolition!  We found out that there was 2 1/2 feet of empty space behind the wall so they knocked down a wall to give us extra square footage and they also knocked down the 2 alcoves next to the window which were both just dead space.

 How the room looked like for the first few days.

 Before the floors went in...starting to look like a room!

 Almost done!

 And complete!  These next pictures are dark but the idea is there.  

Once the room is furnished and set up we'll take some more pictures!  Joseph loves dancing and jumping around in the room and it will be so nice to have a "home" for the toys-although I am sure they will continue to be scattered around the house!  Next project is painting the rest of the bedrooms and the hallways and then we'll work on getting the nursery ready for our baby girl...just about 2 months to go-hoping to get it all done! 

First Fall Weekend

Fall arrived in Texas this weekend!  We are loving the crisp air, the first signs of leaves changing and pulling out some of our warmer wardrobe; however, I think the best thing about it is that we never have to put our flip flops/slippahs away.  For example, Saturday it was 82 so we were in shorts and slippahs but on Sunday it was high 60s, low 70s...this may drive some people crazy but we love that the warm weather doesn't completely disappear!  Plus knowing that it won't get much cooler than the cool days now is a great thing, too!  

We enjoyed the first fall weekend by doing some of the normal things...

swim lessons: 

 Choo-chooing with Daddy

 washing the cars:

and playing at the park. 

We tried a few new things this weekend, too.

We checked out a Greek festival in a fun downtown area of Houston with friends 

 Not so graceful but he made it down and was all smiles!

 This one was an "obstacle course" and he wasn't quite tall enough to get over one of the parts so his friend Elsie pulled him up-it was the cutest thing to watch!

 And on Sunday since the weather was cooler we decided to bake some pumpkin cookies-new recipe (hence the computer on the island) but they were good enough for Rich to bring into work to share with co-workers so we'll use it again!

 Such a good helper!

Homebound

We began construction on our upstairs bonus room this past week to expand the room and to close off the open space with a wall and french doors so we were home much more than we normally are.  The time actually flew by and I had a long list of things that I wanted to accomplish over the week and most of them are still on the list so not really sure where the time went.  Actually, here are some photos of where the time went:

Two of the days we had friends come over to play, which definitely made the week fly by.  One of the days we had an impromptu pool party so without bringing bathing suits the kids did a little skinny dipping and LOVED it!  Gotta love 80 degree weather in October!

 How mischievous does he look here?  We were playing peek-a-boo around the chair and I just couldn't resist this face!!  

Lots of exploring around our house...

And I also couldn't resist taking this photo of his feet-October 3rd, 2012

Train of thought

Joseph is saying 2-3 word phrases/sentences now so I wanted to document some of them because they are just too cute.  I just love watching and listening to his train of thought when he says things.  When he repeats things they are always in the same order which just makes us laugh.

We have found that timeouts aren't super effective with Joseph recently but he does respond very well to how we are "feeling".  He is definitely an empathetic little guy.  He will often ask throughout the day: "Mama happy?" "Mama sad?" And if when he does something he isn't supposed to it seems to work better if we say "That makes mama/daddy sad" because then he'll usually say, "Mama sad, no Mama happy" then he'll say "hug" and come give us a hug and a kiss...it doesn't always work but definitely have seen better results with this then just telling him "no."

When we are outside and he sees a runner he always says, "Run fast" followed by "Run shoes" and then normally "Daddy run fast"

Same thing goes for when we see bike riders-he always says: "Ride bicycles" and then followed by "helmet"

I have two friends that have had babies within the past month and he has been talking incessantly about one of them and the conversation goes like this:  "Baby Tucker" "Kiss his feet" "hit babies" "mama sad" "mama Happy"  "hug"" kiss"(not sure where the "hit babies" came from but he has been saying it for about the past two weeks-thankfully he is very sweet when he is around babies but it is a little embarrassing hearing him say it)

Whenever he eats yogurt he always says "mess"

Everytime we drive by the fire station he begins by saying "fire station" and then "fire truck" and then will say yell "garage" and then either "inside" or "outside" depending on where the firetruck is located at that time

And finally, a few weeks ago at the church nursery two of the ladies that watch the kids were playing high five with Joseph (high five, to the side, down low, too slow) and he LOVED it!  The ladies were telling us how he had his big belly laugh going on and was just cracking up the whole time.  Well since then he says many times throughout the days, "High five ladies" which I just think is so cute.  All he wants to do is play high five but associates it with the ladies at the church!

And just some fun pictures from the last week...a blog post isn't complete without pictures!
Playing in a friend's backyard-notice he isn't wearing shoes-I threw those socks out when we got home!

 It was his buddy's 2nd birthday and the party had a pinata so all the kids got a turn!  So fun!

 Stretching with Daddy before a run.

 Loves his bicycle and he is finally big enough to reach the pedals and go on his own!

 "I'm mess" he kept saying after doing some fingerpainting-straight to the tub we went!

 One day after boot camp there were firefighters doing a practice exercise on the lake so all of the tkids were loving watching them and were even given hats!

Lastly, just a cute shot of him walking over to the park one evening.