Joseph Stephen - Nine Months

Dear Joseph,

Oh sweet boy, I cannot believe how quickly you are growing! It seems like you have transformed from our baby boy to a toddler overnight.

Gone are the days of having you play on a blanket with your toys. As soon as we set you on the floor, you are gone! This month, your crawling has transitioned from your initial army crawl to a full hands and knees crawl, and boy are you fast! Also this month, you have started to pull yourself up to furniture. I cannot believe that our baby is standing and developing the skills to walk!

You have always been a talkative boy, but this month you learned how to produce actual words. Your first word was Mama and your second was baba. This is really not a surprise because it is evident that you are Mama's boy. You do just fine at daycare and when other people watch you; however, you definitely prefer Mama. I don't mind at all though, as I am savoring every minute of having you as my baby because I know how quickly you will grow! One of my favorite times of the day is rocking you to sleep each evening after everyone else has gone to bed.

You currently weigh 21 pounds and are wearing clothes that are fairly true to size. You are wearing 9-12 month clothes which is a drastic change from each of your brothers. Matthew, Peter, and William were all such big babies that they were wearing clothing sizes that were almost double their age. It has been nice because you have been able to wear each size much longer than your brothers.

We began introducing you to normal food this month, and you love it! It seems as if you actually prefer the food we are eating over the baby food. Even though we are still trying to feed you the remaining baby food that we have, you do not seem interested. Instead, you try to get the food that is on the table. Once you finish the baby food we have, we will transition you to eating only the food that we eat! It will be very easy, as we have not found any food that you will not eat. If we set it on your plate, you eat it. I swear that you are the best eater in the family right now! I am happy to report that even though we have been introducing you to a variety of foods, your eczema has not flared up too much. You continue to have a few spots that appear on your back, but your face continues to be clear!

You are such a delightful and happy boy Joseph. You bring such joy to our lives, and it is so amazing to watch you grow and develop new skills each day!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Matthew's 11th Birthday

This year, Matthew requested that we have his birthday party at the Willowcreek Store. This worked out well for me because I didn't have to prepare my house for a party! Bev and her staff served up delicious french dip sandwiches, fries, and a salad bar. The food was excellent. We also had red velvet cake, chocolate cake, a cheesecake, and of course Baskin-Robbins ice cream. Matthew had so much fun celebrating his 11th birthday surrounded by family and friends!

Peter, Luke, William, Matthew, Joseph, and Lauren

Opening Presents

What a handsome young man!

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!