Opening Presents

The picture above is of Josiah with his Mimi and GP presents. The thing around him is a book that folds out to make little fort. It's about the ocean, so it's like he's swimming with all the creatures. The other funny thing about the picture is he's wearing a pair of shoes they sent him. He totally didn't know what to do with them; they obviously felt very funny, and he couldn't quite walk right in them.

Here is video of Josiah opening some of his birthday presents. The squeezing in the first video is particularly funny. The second one is of him opening Parker and Rachel's present, so it's mostly so they can see his reaction.

Birthday Picnic

As mentioned previously, we had a birthday picnic with the Stewarts. Kate and Lexi were super sweet to "baby" Josiah. They gave him one of their toys, one they knew he would like, and also Where the Wild Things Are, which was lacking from our collection!


























Lexi wanted Josiah to ride down the slide on her lap. He loved it (and was closely monitored).

























Lexi also helped him walk on the tricky mulch playground.

First Birthday, the Video

First Birthday: The Cupcake Pictures

For Josiah's birthday, we kept it pretty simple. First, we had a picnic lunch with the Stewart girls (pictures coming soon). Our small group normally meets for dinner and Bible study on Thursdays, so it worked out perfectly to celebrate with them. In the picture above, you can see Josiah's "da" at seeing the candle.

And a bit of confusion at it being placed right in front of him. As you'll see in a soon-to-be-posted video, he followed in his Momma's footsteps and tried to grab the candle.

It took a minute, but he figured it out.

Umm...I think he liked it.

Kudos to Chris, who did a very thorough job documenting this important event.

Last Year, At Almost This Time...

All the cliches apply:
My how he's grown
We can't imagine life without him.
It changes your life.
What a difference a year makes.
Time goes by so fast.
It's such a blessing.

Happy Birthday to our Josiah!

A Year in Bear

In honor of Josiah's first birthday tomorrow...

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

I'm a Fan

I have a tendency to get really excited/evangelistic about things that I'm a fan of. A few past examples: Jesus (everything else should pale in comparison), UNC, barbecue, the South, smoothies, Peeps...

All this is to say, here are a few things that I've been thrilled with lately.

• Don't Make Me Count to Three! By Ginger Plowman

We haven't gotten into too much discipline yet, but reading this was great preparation for the task. Like Shepherding Your Child's Heart, it focuses on getting to the root of the child's behavior - the sinful attitude driving it - instead of merely molding a child's outward manners. She gave lots of real life examples and Scripture references, not just to make her point, but also Bible verses to share with your children when you're instructing them on how to look more like Christ. Highly recommend it to all parents.

• Adore and Tremble by Daniel Renstrom

The first CD of one our worship leaders from Providence. I love it because 1) it leads me to worship. 2) it reminds of Scripture. 3) it makes me miss Providence (sniff, sniff).

• Baby Mum-Mum

Apparently from Australia, but I saw them on a friend's blog and picked them up a Wal-Mart. Why do I like them? Baked, veggie-flavored, low in sugar and salt. They have been a lifesaver for car trips and grocery store trips. The crackers are long (as long as you don't break them; they are a bit fragile), so I don't have to keep popping them like Cheerios.

• Bloglines.com
  I think I was late in cluing in to this, but it consolidates your blogs, so you can just check one page and see who has updated recently. Great for me who has number friends who rarely update their sites. The one drawback is it doesn't work on private/password-protected sites. "Saves" me lots of time, as if checking blogs were the most productive use of my time.
  
  
• Jefferson County Public Libraries
  I've blogged on them before, but since having a child, I have a new appreciation for them. I went to a free music program this summer at one of them. It's a great place to go on a rainy day. Josiah gets fresh toys and books and gets to look at other kids play. Plus, there are several within a 15-minute drive of our house. Lest you were concerned about a Josiah-free post, here are some pictures:
  

Sandy and Smokey

Josiah has met my parents' cat, Smokey, and dog, Sandy, before. But this is the first time he's been able to chase them. He's totally fascinated with them and followed them all around the house. It was like having several new toys. They were good sports about it.

Sandy is looking for a hand-out, and Josiah provided. He thought it was hilarious when the dog ate out of his hand.

Courtesy of Kelly

Kelly took some cute shots of Josiah on the playground, so I've stolen them for the blog. She and Mom and Jonathan took him there while I got a professional (aka non-Great Clips) haircut. It was a birthday present from Mom and Dad - I loved it!

"BA" as Josiah calls it.

Family Pictures

We also took advantage of the weekend to take some family pictures.

And I nabbed some of just me and the boy, since we have so many of him with his Dad.

One-Year Portraits

Even though he's not a year quite yet, I went ahead and did some portraits of him this weekend. This is my favorite. What you don't see if Kelly doing a tap dance behind me to get him to laugh.

A close second.
And I just want to smooch him!

Some fish-face outtakes: