Joseph Stephen - Eight Months Old

Dear Joseph,

We have a crawler! You started crawling this month and are so happy that you can now follow your brothers around the house. Your method of crawling is quite unorthodox, as you do not get up on your hands and knees to travel. Instead, your crawl can best be described as an army crawl. Your belly does not leave the floor, you pull with your arms, and push with your legs. You have become quite fast using this method! Here is a video:

Because of your increased activity, you really have not gained any weight this month. You are holding steady at 20 pounds. Instead, your weight has been redistributed, as you have quickly moved into 12 month clothes. As you have gotten older, you have developed a love of food. You will eat anything and must be going through a growth spurt because you seem to constantly be hungry. The bottle does not satisfy you very often; you would much rather have real food. You continue to love your pacifier and require it most evenings to go to sleep.

This month, your first two teeth broke through. It seemed like you were working on those teeth forever! The two bottom, front teeth broke through within days of one another and are very visible when you flash your handsome smile!

Your two bottom teeth are so cute!

At the beginning of the year, you developed a base case of croup. Early in the evening, you acquired a barking cough. It was still early, so I contacted the on-call pediatrician and she advised that if the cough seemed to get worse or if you started having difficulty breathing that we should go to the emergency room. Because all of your brothers have had croup at one time or another, we were familiar with the signs and continued to stay up with you through the night. Your dad and I would take shifts sitting with you wrapped up in a warm blanket outside, as the cold air can help calm the inflamed airway. If we sat outside with you, your breathing seemed to improve; however, within a few minutes of returning to the house your symptoms would worsen. Finally, at 2:30 a.m., I decided to take you to the emergency room. Upon arriving at the emergency room, we were immediately seen and the doctors began administering medication to help improve your breathing. After trying multiple treatment options, we finally found one that worked. Luckily, you were not admitted to the hospital, and we were able to return home late in the morning. It was an exhausting night for everyone!

Joseph, you are the happiest little boy. You are happy from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep in the evening. You are starting to develop quite the personality and even a little temper. We have found that if you do not get picked up when you want picked up or removed from your high chair when you are done, you throw a little fit! You have also decided that you are too busy to have your diaper changed, as it is a struggle to get you to lay still while we are changing you. You have things to do and people to see! 

We absolutely adore you and your sweet personality and can't believe how quickly the last eight months have gone by!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

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!