Happy Cowloween

Today is Halloween, and although it's not Joshua's first one, he was only a couple weeks old for last year's, so that doesn't really count.  Still though, we decided he was a little too young to go out trick or treating, so he got dressed up in his costume and we stayed home and handed out candy to the trick or treaters.  We apparently underestimated how many people would come by, as we ran out of candy by 7:15.  We'll remember to buy more next year.

Couch Free to Good Home

After we moved into this house, we determined we didn't really have room for our old couch.  Recently, we found out Christine needed a couch.  Following the obvious logical conclusion, we decided that we should give our couch to her.  She came to pick it up today, and I helped her load it into the rental van and deliver it to her apartment.

A Different Kind of Pool Party

Today we went over to Nick and Cassie's house to watch the K-State game.  Joshua and Macyn had a fun time playing with Maycn's toys, and she was even very gracious when he took them from her.  At one point she had a cracker in her hand, and Joshua grabbed it out of her hand and put it straight into his mouth.  She showed little reaction, either because she was too stunned that someone just stole her food and ate it in front of her, or because she understood that he's a baby who doesn't understand sharing.  Either way, she handled it well.  Later they played in her inflatable pool which is currently serving as a ball pit.  The football game itself was terrible, so I'm trying to forget that part of the day, but at least Macyn and Joshua had a good time playing together, and Meghan and I had a great time with Nick and Cassie.

Sleeping Cow

Tonight we were going to take Joshua to the "Night of the Living Farm" event at Deanna Rose.  But he didn't end up taking an afternoon nap today, so he was extremely tired.  As we were driving there, he was so tired he cried most of the way and eventually fell asleep.  We decided that maybe tonight wasn't the night to go, so we headed back home.

Cleaning with Steam

We are giving our old couch to Christine, and before she picks it up, I'm steam cleaning it for her.  Since I had the steam cleaner out, I decided to steam clean some of our other pieces of furniture.  Here I work on our ottoman / baby-friendly coffee table.

These Boots Are Made for Walking (Indoors)

Now that the weather is getting colder, I have been struggling with what to do about Joshua's cold little feet. He takes off socks as fast as I can put them on. Footie pajamas make him trip. He has some cute little baby hard-soled athletic shoes he wears outside, but I think wearing outdoor shoes in the house is dirty and gross so I don't really want that habit to be started. So I decided slippers are the answer. I first tried the sock type, but he took those off immediately and I bought size 12-18 mos which was humongous on him. So then I tried these little fur-lined booties, which are going really well. He doesn't take them off that often and I got 6-12 mos so they fit him really well. They have soft leather soles which, while not slippery, are completely inappropriate for outside, but I want them to be worn indoors only so that's fine. So I think we have a winner.

Bust a Move

Joshua is in a phase now where he really likes to dance.  If he hears any kind of catchy tune, he starts dancing.  For his birthday he received a riding toy car (bus?) from Jason and Kelli, and it has a lot of buttons that can be pushed to make it play different songs.  He likes to push the buttons, which means there are a lot of songs being played, which means there is a lot of dancing.  Here he can't help but break it down while the car plays a little ditty.

Tending to the Livestock

Joshua got a new farm toy for his birthday from Julie and Andrew, and he loves it.  He likes to put the animals inside, though not necessarily in the right place.  He's not afraid to force the poor horse to live in the chicken coop.  Animal rights violations aside, he's a pretty good farm owner.  

Hadley's First Birthday Party

Today we went to Jason and Kelli's house for Hadley's first birthday party.  Hadley got some fun toys, and Joshua took it upon himself to help her break them in.  Jason's sister Terri was there, and she adores Joshua.  She was excited to hold him and feed him some ice cream cake.  Tony was there too, but despite his best efforts managed to do little more than photobomb.

Tilden Time

Tonight we went over to our friends the Tildens' house. Joshua got to play with his little friend Lexi, and Donna made her delicious lasagna. We had a really fun time with them, as we always do, with lots of laughs. Earlier in the day, K-State smashed KU, so I'm still wearing my gameday shirt.

One-Year Checkup

I really like to take Joshua to his checkup doctor appointments, and today I continued the trend by taking him to his one-year checkup.  He's still perfectly healthy with no problems whatsoever.  He is only in the 20th percentile for weight and 38th for height, but our pediatrician isn't concerned.  He's a very active baby, so his low weight is likely related to that.  Here she checks his lungs with the stethoscope while he's distracted by the new book he got from her.

A Temporary Change in Diet

Last night I needed to feed the dogs their dinner, but we didn't have any more dogfood in the kitchen. We buy our pet food at Costco in really large bags, so I went down to the basement to refill the kitchen supply and realized we were actually completely out of dogfood. It really didn't work to wake Joshua up and run to Walmart in the middle of the night so I plan to do that today. But our dogs get breakfast at 7:30am. Since we had no dogfood, they got catfood for breakfast. They seemed to really enjoy it (well Terrence doesn't chew his food so it's hard to tell, but Natalie really seemed to like it more than her normal food) so I guess it was an okay one-time thing. It made me feel like a bad pet-owner though.

Racking Up the Miles

My manager, Dylan, and I both try to fly on Delta when we can, and both of us are getting close to the next frequent flier tier level as we get close to the end of the year.  We are each presenting at two different meetings this week, today in Chicago and tomorrow in Austin.  Fortunately for us, a Delta flight was the cheapest one between the two cities, and even better, it involved a layover in Atlanta, which meant big-time frequent flier miles for the trip.  Here we are in Atlanta before boarding our flight to Austin.

Birthday's Last Hurrah

We thought we were done with birthday presents, but today we went to the Becks and they gave Joshua what we think will be his last birthday present for the year. He got some textured bouncey balls. They are the perfect size for him and he loves that they are easy to grab and bounce so it was definitely a big hit.

Last Day with Grandma

Today was my mom's last day in Kansas until Thanksgiving so we went out to dinner to say goodbye and she also spent a lot of time with Joshua today. Here they are together on the couch.

Shapes with Grandma

Today we went over to Mom and Ron's house to celebrate Andrew's birthday.  We had a lot of fun playing games, including bocce ball in the backyard.  Joshua wasn't too interested in bocce ball, as he seemed to prefer trying to eat the mulch around the trees.  Since that's not part of a recommended diet for a baby, he ended up spending some quality time with Grandma learning about shapes.

A Happy Baby Birthday

Today we had Joshua's birthday party. Here he is with his cake, which after not being sure about at first, he decided he really liked it. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Birthday a little early

Tomorrow is Joshua's birthday party, but today he got a little bit of birthday early when his present from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Sam came. He got a music set with a drum, shakers, tambourine and some other things. He was really happy to have it and loves it, especially the drumsticks and shakers.

Cake Stand, That's C-A-K-E

Today I worked on my cake stands. This one is for Joshua's cake and some smaller treats. I bought it for $5 at walmart instead of making it, but I did add decor to make it farmy. And then I also made a larger one for the big cake out of a cake round and a can of beans. I had a really productive night. However, I realized cake sounds a lot like keg when I told Jason I finished my cake stands and he gave me a funny look and said, "What?"

12 Months

Today Joshua turned 12 months old. His birthday party is Saturday, but we celebrated as a family. He got to play on his new swingset and we had pizza for dinner, which is his favorite.

Sewing into the night

I decided I would make Joshua a felt playhouse for his birthday. I don't have a pattern, but have used several blogs online for inspiration. All of them said things like, "I would never sell these because they are so time-consuming" or "I would only make this for someone I really loved because it's so much work". So of course I'm like, "No problem. I'll start two weeks before his birthday even though I can only work on it during nap times and at night and I have plenty of other things I also need to get done." It's taking a longer time than I thought and it won't be ready for his actual birthday which is disappointing. But I am pretty close to being done so I think Thursday or Friday it will be finished. So this is me working on it at night.

Quarterly Meeting

Our regional sales team has quarterly meetings to go over the past quarter, plan sales strategy for the upcoming quarter, etc.  We're starting first thing in the morning, so those of us who aren't local to Chicago had to fly in tonight.  Some of the local team were available for dinner, so we met at a local restaurant.  Fortunately the weather is still nice, so we were able to eat outside.

Weekend Visit from Grandpa Jim

My dad was in the area this week to go to Dad's Weekend with Joanna.  On his way back home, he stopped by our house to see Joshua (and presumably us, but for some strange reason we aren't nearly the draw that Joshua seems to be).  He got in last night, and this morning we all went to church together and then he treated us to a great brunch at Houlihan's.  Joshua doesn't get to see him very often, so we were thankful that it worked out while he was here in Kansas. 

Supporting the 'Cats, Even While Mowing

Our new yard seems to have quite a bit more space than our old yard.  Since we're on a cul-de-sac, the back yard is quite a bit larger than the front yard (although the front yard is much smaller).  I love how much space it has, but I was hoping it wouldn't take too long to mow.  But today I mowed it, and found that it's not so bad.  In fact, it's not too much more total time than it took me to mow the old yard.  Today also happened to be game day, so I was of course wearing purple for the game.  I try to wear old shirts when I mow, so I made sure to dig out an old purple shirt so I could be wearing purple all day long, even while mowing. 

Meeting Great Grandma Jennie

Ron's mom, Jennie, lives in Ohio, but she is spending some time now with them in Lawrence.  She had never met Joshua, but she very frequently prays for us and for him.  Since she is now close to us, Mom and Ron brought her with them to Olathe so she could meet him.  They wanted to celebrate our birthdays, so we all went out to Chili's.  We had a fantastic meal (you can't go wrong with their famous baby back ribs), and it was great that Grandma Jennie finally got to meet Joshua.

Just a Number

Today Meghan took Joshua to MOPS, except the church which hosts this version of it apparently didn't want to pay the licensing fees, so it's like MOPS but is actually called Renew.  Anyway, as part of the registration process, Joshua was given a sticker to help identify him.  I found it interesting that he was prominently labeled with a transaction number.  Here's our little baby: Transaction #T35511297.     

Almost a Year

Today our Parents-as-Teachers educator came over to see Joshua. Besides bringing him fun toys to play with, she also conducted his one year assessment since he will be one next week. Nothing has really changed too much. He still is above average in all his motor skills and a little below average in his verbal skills, but still in the realm of normal for both. The one thing I thought was pretty funny is he does not give you a toy if you ask. In fact if you ask he avoids eye contact and ignores you. She said we should work on that so he will be prepared to share with other kids as he gets older. I myself am not a very good sharer so hopefully I didn't accidentally teach him that.

Great Dinner Near a Great Lake

I'm in Cleveland tonight, as our company is hosting an event tomorrow for prospects and customers.  There's a team of us who are here, so we met tonight for dinner at Michael Symon's Lola restaurant.  We did a lot of planning and strategy for tomorrow's event, all while enjoying extremely delicious food.  If you're going to have to do some work in the evening, this is the way to do it. 

Gate Engineer

Because we don't believe that teaching Joshua about gravity should be accomplished by letting him fall down stairs, we need to have a gate at the top of the stairs leading to the basement.  Pressure-mounted gates aren't approved for the top of stairs, so we were limited to hardware-mounted gates.  Because of the baseboard and the handrail, it's been almost impossible to find a gate that would work.  We finally found one, but it's still going to take some modification.  I'm having to break out a few engineering tricks to get it safely mounted on both walls.

Friends From Up North

Our friends Mike and Jenny were in town this weekend.  They live in Minnesota now, so we rarely get to see them.  We invited them over to our house for dinner, and we had a great meal (thanks to Meghan, of course).  They are expecting a baby in a few months, so perhaps next time we see them Joshua will have a new friend.

Best Wedding Party Gift Ever

Back in August, Jason and Kelli Keeler got married.  Jason's gift to the guys in his wedding party was tickets to today's K-State/Baylor game.  Baylor was undefeated and ranked 15th in the nation with Heisman Trophy candidate Robert Griffin III at QB.  But Bill Snyder did what Bill Snyder does.  Fielding a team with less talent than the opponent, K-State played tougher and got big plays at just the right moments, and they pulled off the upset, knocking off Baylor 36-35.  We had an awesome day driving down there, tailgating, and then screaming our way through a thrilling Cat victory.