Joseph Stephen - Seven Months Old

Dear Joseph,

Even though I was adamant that you would be called Joe or Joseph, you have acquired a couple of nicknames. They include: Baby Joe, JoJo, Joe Bean, and Joey. It seams as if everyone has a nickname for you! I can't say that I like the fact that you have nicknames, but it has gotten so out of control that I often find myself using one of them! Daddy's favorite nickname for you is Joe Bean, Peter calls you Joey, Matthew refers to you as JoJo, and William calls you Joe Beeeeeeean. Speaking of William, he loves you to death! However, sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between the Love and Death. Sometimes he is so sweet to you, but there are other instances when we find him trying to sit on you/hug you. We are trying to emphasize being gentle! You get your revenge though. When he is asleep, you crawl over to him and start pounding on him, pulling his hair, and try to sit on him! It is actually very comical.

It is amazing how much you have changed in the past month. You are sitting up independently and are on the verge of crawling. You will get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth. It will not be long before you are very mobile!

Currently, you weigh approximately 20 pounds and wear 9-12 month clothes. You appear to be going through a growth spurt and will eat anything! In addition to enjoying most Gerber baby foods, you devour graham crackers. You simply cannot get the cracker into your mouth fast enough! It creates quite a mess.

Joseph, you are such an amazing little boy and bring such joy to our lives each and every day!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Cousins

Madison - 1 1/2, William - 2,
Kennedy - 7 Months, Peter - 8, Matthew - 10, Joseph - 6 Months

We were very lucky to have my step-sister Jodi and her family fly up to spend Thanksgiving with our family this year. While they were here, we decided to take some pictures of the six cousins together. Jodi, Matt, Madison, and Kennedy came out to Jamieson for the photo shoot. We were very lucky and found some time in between thunderstorms to take some shots. I thought the photos turned out pretty well considering the lack of attention span of the kids, especially the youngest four! Trying to get four children ages two and under to stay focused and look at the camera can be quite challenging! We had a lot of fun though and can't wait to see them again!

Jump!

Joseph Stephen - Six Months Old

Joseph,

This month has been a month of firsts. Unfortunately, they have not been very good firsts! To begin, you had your first night away from Mommy this month. I think it was more difficult for me though because you seemed to adjust beautifully. This month, William had to stay the night in the hospital with croup, so I stayed with him. While we were at the hospital, you stayed with Mema. You seemed to really enjoy your time with Mema because the two of you just cuddled all day and night while William was in the hospital.

A few days after William came home from the hospital, you developed your first cold. Fortunately, your cold did not develop into croup like it did with William. You did have a runny nose, congestion, and a pretty bad cough. It is so pitiful when you are sick because there really are not a lot of treatment options available. We tried to make you as comfortable as possible, and you handled your first cold like a champ!

This month, you also tried your first real food. We temporarily introduced you to sweet potatoes and applesauce and you loved them. I say temporarily because we are putting off giving you baby food for a short time because of your eczema. According to the doctor, eczema can sometimes be induced by food allergies. As a result, we are transitioning you from Similac Sensitive to Enfamil Nutramigen which is a hypoallergenic formula. We are hoping that this transition has a positive effect on your eczema. Although you do not seem to like the new formula as well as the old formula, if it will help clear up your eczema it will be worth it! While we are making this transition and seeing if it makes a difference, we are not introducing any other foods into your diet so we can be certain that any changes are a result of the formula and not a different food.

You continue to grow and become more and more active every day! Currently, you weigh 19 pounds, 11 ounces and are 27 1/4 inches tall. One of your favorite activities is scooting around in your walker and follow your brothers around the house. It is amazing how accurately you can navigate corners and doorways with the walker. If you are not able to get to where you are going, you back up and try, try again!

We have been so busy this last month that I did not take your six month photo with your six month sticker! Fortunately though, we took photos with your cousins Madison and Kennedy while they were here for Thanksgiving. You looked so handsome and performed beautifully during the photo session!

We love you so much!

Mommy and Daddy

Purdum's Pumpkin Patch

 

Each year, we try to go to Purdum's Pumpkin Patch to find the perfect pumpkin. Purdum's has an expansive patch and offers free tractor rides to and from the pumpkins which is always fun for the boys. This year was a very special trip because Toby was able to go with us. In the 10 years we have been going to Purdum's to pick out pumpkins, this is the first year he was able to go with us. Although it was a very cold fall afternoon, we had a lot of fun and found some perfect pumpkins to carve!

 



 

 

Ralph S. Mouse

Have you ever read the book Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Clearly? I did, and I hated it. Do you want to know why? Because I hate mice! Even cartoon mice! In my mind, they are dirty, filthy rodents. Despite this fact, there are a million movies and books with mice - Cinderella, Aristocats, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, I could go on for hours. I am not sure what the infatuation is with these hideous little creatures!

Now to the real reason for this post. On Sunday, Matthew and I were up at about 6:00 a.m. I was working on block sets (yay!) in the kitchen and he was reading a book in the recliner. All of a sudden, I saw a MOUSE skitter across the kitchen floor and under the refrigerator! I immediately was disgusted and wanted to move out of my house. Yes, when I have a mouse in my house, I literally want to move out. I hate them that much! Since moving is not really an option, I whispered to Matthew to get a mouse trap and set it by the refrigerator to see if we could catch the gross rodent. While he was walking to the refrigerator with the set trap, the damn mouse ran from the refrigerator to the stove. So, Matthew got another trap and proceeded to set one on each side of the stove. Our plan was to catch the mouse regardless of which way he came out.

Throughout the day, we continued to check the traps and no mouse. Then, I checked and the trap was GONE! No, I am not joking - GONE! At first I thought that Matthew was trying to pull a prank on me and that we caught the mouse and he had disposed of it without me knowing. However, to this day he pinky swears that he did not do it. You know, to a fifth grader pinky swearing is serious stuff! Matthew and I have concluded that one of two things have happened, and they are both bad! Option 1 - we caught the mouse, he was still alive, and he is somewhere in our house dragging the trap behind him. Gross, I know, but better than Option 2. Option 2 - William found the mouse in the trap and did something with it. The thought of this happening absolutely horrifies me!

On Sunday, Matthew was convinced that Option 2 had happened. As a result, he started interrogating William. This was pretty comical.

Matthew: William did you find a mouse?
William: Yes.
Matthew: Where did you put the mouse?
William: The mouse is on the t.v.!

William was watching the movie Aristocats - and of course it has a mouse in it! Matthew continued to ask William about the mouse and the trap all day without any luck.

Today is Tuesday and we still have not found the mouse trap. However, this morning while Toby was getting Matthew and Peter up for school, he saw a mouse. I keep telling myself that it was the same mouse and that we only have one mouse in our house. Positive thoughts right! All I know is if we do not remedy this problem quickly, Toby is on his own - I am moving out!

Family Photo Shoot

In August, O2 Photography in Boise, Idaho held a contest on Facebook to find their 2012 Model Family. I knew that they took excellent photos because they had taken the photos and my sister Tiffany's wedding. As a result, I decided to enter the contest by submitting a short description of our family and the reasons that we would be a good choice for the 2012 Model Family. A few days after entering, I received a message that we were chosen as one of the top 10 families to receive a free photo shoot. After the 10 families were photographed, O2 Photography would choose the Model Family and that family would receive a complete photo package free! I was so excited at the opportunity to receive a free photo package, so I started selecting outfits for the big day! As you can probably imagine, Toby was less than thrilled; he really does not enjoy family photo shoots.

In late August, we drove to Eagle, Idaho to meet Jerry and Jennifer from O2 Photography. The location they chose was perfect; there was an old milk barn and old corrals in the background. The setting fit our family's lifestyle perfectly! It was miserably hot, but everyone performed beautifully!

A few weeks later, the 2012 Model Family was announced and it was not us. Even though we did not win the huge photo package, we did receive a free photo shoot and 8 x 10. In addition, we purchased a couple of prints to display in our home.

Joseph - 3 Months Old

William - 2 Years Old

Peter - 8 Years Old

Matthew - 10 Years Old

Halloween

We had an eventful Halloween this year with a Halloween party and traditional Halloween trick-or-treating. Since William was two, I thought that he would love Halloween, so I purchased him this golfer costume:

No, that is not William in the costume, it is a model because William refused to put the costume on. I purchased the costume a few weeks before Halloween, so Matthew and Peter kept trying to get him to wear it around the house because it was so cute. We could never convince William that wearing the costume was a good idea.

A couple of days before Halloween, we were at Wal-Mart and they had this costume on clearance:

William was so excited about this costume because he LOVES Thomas the Train. He was even trying to open the package in the shopping cart! We thought that we finally had found a costume that William would wear. Again, he would not put on the costume. He simply enjoyed looking at the costume instead of wearing it.

The weekend before Halloween, we attended a family Halloween party at the McGourty's house. Everyone was dressed up except for William. He refused to wear either of the costumes I had purchased for him. Peter went as Dracula, Matthew went as a hillbilly, Joseph went as a skeleton, I was Little Red Riding Hood, and Toby was The Big Bad Wolf! We had a lot of fun visiting with friends and playing games.

By the time Halloween day arrived, Matthew and Peter did not want to dress up. It was a long day because we had school and then Peter had basketball practice until 5:15. Due to the fact that it was a school night and we got a late start, we only went to a handful of houses. Again, William would not wear his costume, so I called my mom and asked her to pick up some Halloween shirts for all four boys on her way home. The boys all looked very handsome in their shirts! Maybe next year William will be a little more interested in Halloween and we will be more festive. Trick-or-treat!

Weaning Time!

Fall is such a busy time at the McBride household. One of the major events that takes place in the Fall is weaning the calves from their mothers. This is a multi-step process that involves a lot of time and help. A few weeks ago, Matthew, Peter, Joseph, William and I had the day off while Toby was bringing a group of cows home to wean. As a result, we were recruited to help! Matthew and Peter did an amazing job helping to gather the cows and bring them to the feedlot while Willim, Joseph, and I blocked roads for the crew. It was so fun for William to watch the cows as they came into the feedlot.

Overall, it was a very busy and productive day. With all of the help, Toby was able to wean around process around 300 calves that day! I am sure missed our help when he weaned the other two groups!

Mama and Joe waiting for the cows.

Watching the Cloud of Dust

Here they come!

Moo!

Toby

Matthew

Travis

Peter and Fidel

The Crew

This is one tired, dusty boy!

Peter

Fidel

Matthew

Matthew

Joseph Stephen - Five Months Old

 

 Joseph,

During the past month, you have developed many new skills! It seems as if you are learning something new every single day. I cannot believe how quickly you are growing! First, the basics - you are wearing six to nine month clothes and weigh approximately 18 pounds. You are still a very good eater and consume between six and eight ounces of formula. However, you are still waking up once or twice during the night. After eating though, you go right back to sleep. In addition, you are still taking a couple of short naps and typically one longer nap during the day.

Everything you can reach goes into your mouth! Even though we cannot see any little teeth yet, I do not believe that it will be long before your pearly whites break through. We really have to be aware of what is in your reach and even out of your reach because if you can grab it, it will end up in your mouth. The fact that you are becoming so mobile has made this even more important. When laying on the floor, you are getting very proficient at traveling by rolling over multiple times to get to your desired location. Sometimes, you even roll over so many times that you end up on the wood floor, and this makes you very mad! You are also able to travel very well in your walker. You have become very skilled at navigating your walker around the house and following everyone! It is very cute, because your little legs and arms get moving and propel you to your desired location!



Teething

You seem to have a couple of favorite toys. Your Moose is always within reach and keeps you entertained for quite some time. You enjoy shaking him, biting his ears, and pulling on his legs and arms. You also sometimes can be found playing with your pacifier. You usually only use the pacifier when you are tired. It seems to help you relax and sleep when you get tired and cranky. However, when you are not tired and the pacifier is within reach, you enjoy playing with it by taking it out of your mouth, examining it, moving it from hand to hand, and placing it back into your mouth. You repeat this process regularly!

When you were a couple of months old, you developed eczema. At first, we are able to keep the skin problem somewhat under control. During the past month though, it has become very irritating for you. In fact, it has become so irritating that you have begun scratching yourself. The scratching is the worst when you are asleep. You will go to sleep without any marks and wake up looking like a cat has scratched your scalp, forehead, and cheeks. It is pitiful! To try to relieve your discomfort, we have started using a laundry detergent that is free of any dyes or perfumes, only bathe you when absolutely necessary, and have stopped using any soap when we bathe you. In addition, I have been keeping your finger nails clipped very short to try to minimize the severity of the cuts. On occasion, we will also place a stocking cap on your head and socks on your hands so you cannot scratch as easily; this has not been a popular treatment option with you though. It makes you very made when you have to wear socks on your hands! We have also experimented with various ointments and creams suggested by doctors, friends, and the Internet to try to give you some relief. So far, we have not had much luck, but will continue searching until we can make you more comfortable!

We love you very much!

Mommy and Daddy




Brotherly Love