Seems I can't post pics here anymore for some technical reason, but wanted to invite you all to follow us on Facebook for pics and updates :o)

Fruit eater, mmm!

Sure hope our little man continues to love fruit. For breakfast today he had banana yogurt with some oatmeal mixed in to thicken it and a bunch of blueberries tossed in. He scooped out all the blueberries right away and he kept asking for more. He ate all that and 1/2 a banana. Then we went to the farm stand to feed the goats and get more fruit. We bought a bag of 5 mini blueberry donuts and strawberries. We sat on the picnic table for a snack and Joel wanted the strawberries first, then he ate a blueberry donut. For lunch he had scrambled eggs with cheese, applesauce, the other half of banana and cinnamon toast...he leaves most of the toast, only eats what he can dip in the applesauce. Now only if he'd eat veggies like this...

More baby signs

His signs now include More, Please and Thank You and All Done! I love seeing him communicating this way as well as verbally.

Baby signs

So, Joel learned the sign for more, well way back, can't recall exactly when, but sometime before 1 yr. He then just recently started signing all done (mind you we've been signing this and a few others to him for a while now). And even more recently he signs please...it's so cute! He kind of came up with his own versions like for please he rubs his tummy with 2 hands, again, it's so cute!

Joel's 18 month well check

He is 24# 11oz and 33.5 long. Surpassing his milestones and nice and healthy.

BOB Revolution

So, as if we didn't have enough strollers...Josh and myself too fell in love with the BOB Revolution on a recent trip to BuyBuyBaby. He says he wants to go running with Joel, we shall see ;o) I've heard so many great things about this stroller.

So far we have:
Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe travel system (got as a gift before JB was born) Nice stroller, but hardly use as it is SO big.
Maclaren Quest umbrella stroller (got off Freecycle a couple months back) Kept in Josh's car.
Combi Cosmo (bought new off Ebay last year some time) Hardly use as we don't like how it maneuvers.
Joovy Kooper (bought new off Ebay when Joel was 4 mos old) Kept in my car, gets a lot of use, love this stroller.
Zooper all terrain (bought at a consignment store before JB was born) Used more when JB was little, great in the snow.
2 Graco Metro Lites (both were free) 1 We brought to NV with us when JB was born. It went all over Las Vegas. The other I've been using more often lately for strawberry picking, etc...
Chicco umbrella stroller (bought at consignment shortly after JB was born) Kept in Mom & Dad's car.
We also have 2 umbrella strollers (that were free too) that I've put up on Craigslist for free.

Yes, we are stroller crazy...we just keep trying to find the one and Josh thinks the BOB is it! I sure hope so! It is due to arrive tomorrow. Can't wait to test drive it :O)

Rusty Jackson 6-23-00 to 6-12-10

We all miss you very much furry boy!

Sweet Rusty boy is so sick

We will be setting our Rusty free this Saturday morning. He will suffer no longer. We will miss him so very much and love him with all our hearts.

The Rainbow Bridge:
There's a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth. It is called the Rainbow Bridge because of its many colors. Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge is a verdant land of meadows, hills, and valleys with lush green grass.

When a beloved pet passes, the pet goes to this place. There is always food and water and warm spring weather. Old and ill and frail animals are made whole. They play all day with each other in the beautiful sunshine.

They are happy and content, but there is one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on Earth. So, each day, they run and play until the day comes when suddenly, one stops playing and looks up! The nose twitches! The eyes are staring! And this one suddenly runs from the group!

You have been seen, and when you and your special friend meet, you take him or her into your arms and embrace. Your face is kissed again and again, and you look once more into the eyes of your trusting pet.

Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together, never again to be separated...."

Author Anonymous

Catching up

Well after many, many months and lots of fun at playgroup, today was our last day. With Joel being a community child and lots of little ones on the wait list for his group, he is the first to go. A few of his friends with also be having their last days in group over the next month too. We gave his group leader, Charlotte a card and Joel gave her a hug and she told him she loved him and it has been so great to have up in group :o) We'll miss them, but they say they have him on a wait list to return ASAP.

I'm looking into other options for him like drop in gym or Gymboree. Also we'll probably be attending a weekly meet up at a few local playgrounds through out the coming months.

Wrigs and Rus went to the vet today. Rusty went for a blood pressure check...elevated :O( and he is down a little more in weight (not as much as I thought he'd be though). Poor guy isn't eat at all really, we are happy to get a few pieces of cheese into him or a few cookies...the past few days all he'll eat our Frosty Paws and McDonalds cheeseburger (patty only, wont touch the bun), but he is still so happy! He weighed 55.2.
Wrigley went for his pre neutering blood work (he'll be neutered next week) he weighed 51.2...I can't believe he is only 4 pounds lighter then Rust and he's almost as tall as Rusty too.

4th molar making it's appearance

I felt the sharpness of a little corner of his last molar coming in as I felt in his mouth while he brushed his teeth tonight.

After lunch today he let me know he was all finished by saying "all done"...clear as day!

He LOVES books, esp. books with any type of vehicle or tractor in it. He sees a tractor and immediately gets excited and exclaims "tractor" and when he sees a fire truck he makes a siren sound. I had the tv on to watch the 5pm news today and he comes in the room sees a car commercial says "yaaa" runs up to the tv and points to the car...he was so excited, LOL! Our boy is too cute!!

3 molars down

Joel's getting his 3rd molar (bottom L) now just one more (bottom R) to go, although no sign of it yet. We can't wait for our easy going little guy to return...darn molars!

Also, our little man is 16 months old today, wow!

Another haircut

Joel got his hair cut again yesterday...by his Grampy and me :O)
We went out to the mall tonight and stopped at Stride Rite to get his feet measured...they are now a size 5! Glad I got his sandals/summer shoes in 5's athough I have a feeling that he'll be needing a size 5 1/2 before summers over, luckily some of them are sized 5/6.

15 mos

Joel had his 15 mos well check this evening.
He is 31.5 long (59%), 23 lbs 7.5 oz (34%) (he was 23 lbs even at 12 mos. so he is plateauing...we can totally see that he is thinning out) and his HC was 18.

He is doing great! The NP told us "he is perfect"...ha, we already knew that, LOL!

Facinated with fire trucks

Joel is totally fascinated with big trucks, tractors, buses and fire trucks. Josh brought him to the firehouse Friday night and Fireman Tim showed him the big fire trucks, put the lights on for him and let him sit behind the wheel...wow! He got his own fireman hat too! He is carrying around his fire truck this morning, driving it on everything, LOL!
He's 14 months old and such a joy!!

Think now that Joel's molars are in his appetite is back

For breakfast today he ate a piece of blueberry corn bread, a bunch of cheerios, a mixed fruit cup, freeze dried strawberries, more cheerios and a cup of milk.
For snack he had a bowl of mango puffs and water.
For lunch he had a piece of cheddar cheese, a piece of smoked turkey, fresh blueberries, a piece of wheat toast with apple butter, dried mixed berries and raisins, a maple teething biscuit, 2 oz pear juice and 4 oz water.
We still have afternoon snack, dinner and bedtime milk and/or snack to go, LOL!

I was happy to see he ate the turkey, he also ate meatloaf, carrots and broccoli yesterday, he's been getting picky and not wanting to eat meat or veggies lately. Hope it was a short phase...I loved my good eater before...hope he's back!

Joel's got 2 of his molars in

We knew he was getting 2 more teeth on top on either side of his front teeth, but during a good tickle session today I saw that his 2 top molars are through, woh! Maybe that has a bit to do with his grumpiness and being so clingy lately.


On another note, Wrigley has lost 3 of his puppy teeth and already got 2 growing back in overnight.

Catching up

Joel got his second "real" hair cut yesterday...a bit shorter then last time and he looks SO cute!

He's repeating lots of words, most recent ones being yes and banana.

He's becoming a picky little eater, mind you he'd anything and everything up until the beginning of the month, now if he doesn't want something in his mouth he pulls it off his tongue. Hoping this is a short faze. He is content to eat all the cheese and blueberries he can...his 2 favorite foods right now.

He has both his top teeth through now and looks to be working on the 2 top ones on each side of the front 2.

He's changing so much each day. Today he sat at the little table in his playroom (we made our office into his playroom) and ate his snack of puffs sharing a few here and there (when he didn't think Mommy was looking) with his pal Wrigley.
He's been practicing with his shape sorter, stacking rings and puzzles and doing really well. He sits and plays pushing his cars/trucks/tractors along his road rug, plays with all the animals in his farm house moving them all around and is starting to shoot hoops in his basketball hoop. He is so much fun right now! I'm looking forward to Spring and Summer and playing outside with him.

With that said we are due for a snow storm tomorrow, agh!

Wrigley was 17 pounds last Thursday (the 11th). He's chewing on everything right now, most recent the tv remote, grrr! Love that cute fur ball to pieces though, LOL!

Yesterday was Valentines day and my 2 Valentines gave me a white gold and diamond heart pendant...Josh said because diamonds are his birthstone and a star because I'm the star of their lives, Awww! I love him!!

Stuff

Joel is 13 months old now, walking everywhere, talking and babbling like crazy. His 2nd (Left) top tooth is popping through.

Rusty is doing well, been on a phosphate binder as well as Prilosec type med and blood pressure med all twice a day. He's eating better (knock on wood almost back to normal) and playing more, just seems to feel better. He goes for blood work this Saturday. He went for a blood pressure check today and it is done some. He seems to really like the puppy, he naps with him on his bed, plays with his toys and watches out for him. He appears to have an ear infection in his L ear now so he'll also be getting meds for that.

Sammy is doing well...he still seems to be grumpy about the pup and Joel too STILL!!!
He is getting checked out this afternoon as he seems to have something upper resp. going on. He's been hacking, has watery eyes and according to my sister he sounds gurgly.

Wrigley goes for his 2nd puppy check up/shots/micro-chipping this afternoon (he was 13 pounds, 11.5 last time). He is doing well over all. He'll be starting puppy obedience classes on the 20th.

Josh, Joel and I will be going up to VT for the weekend. C & F will be keeping Wrigs...good luck!

Latest milestone: Talking a lot, he can say over 20 words (more every day).

He's always saying wazat (what's that), Mama, Daddy, Cindy, Fred, Sammy, Rusty, Wrigley, this, that, splash, grandpa, truck, firetruck, tractor, bus, night~night, moo, woof, baa, duck, light, meow, hi, hey, awww, mmm/yumyum, vroom for cars/trucks (that's all I can think of now).

Is that our son or a BEAR!!! OMG He is acting like such a bear...maybe his teeth coming in or??

Super~Fun bath time!

 

 

 

 

Joel wants to share his dinner with you...

 

Introducing Wrigley. Our 9 week old Golden Retriever puppy

 

 

Wrigley

Joel and Wrigley getting acquainted (1-14-10)

 

Wrigley gets his 1st bath (1-15-10)

 

Wrigley waits AKA sleeps as he waits for Joel to finish his bath

 

Super cuddly Wrigley and his Mama

 

Doggie stuff

Rusty went to the emergency vet in NH Monday am. We took him for blood work Sat. the results showed his crit dangerously low...we rushed him in for a blood transfusion which he didn't end up needing. We later found out the tube had a clot and that changed his values, he wasn't that ill, but while there they wanted to do an u/s of his kidneys and diuresis him for 48 hours. We weren't prepared to leave him. Anyway he did well and we took him home at 8 pm tonight. We missed him so much! The iv fluid treatments helped his lab values a little, the u/s showed a degenerative change (that they said was not awful, but not great either). He was also put on a blood pressure med as his pressure was hight and also prevacid for his stomach and the acids. We hope this bought him some more time with us. They wanted to keep him for another 48hrs, but we all feel he should just be home.

Josh and I have been thinking for a while now that we'd like to get a puppy and we feel now is a good time as we want the puppy to get to play with Rusty as Rust is such a love. So we've done research and we found ourselves a pup, yes things always happen at once. I thought it would take longer, but we think we found the one. We visited him tonight and of course, he is SO cute!!

We pray all 3 of them get along and I don't go too crazy taking care of 2 dogs, 1 toddler and a puppy...........

Joel's 1 yr PE stats

Weight: 23 pounds
Length: 30 inches
HC: 17 3/4

Weight & length put him in the 50 percentile and his head is still small ;O)

He says about 10 words. Newest one is fihtwuk (fire truck). He walks, dances, plays patty cake, itsy bitsy spider, bubbles~bubbles~splash, claps, does a few signs, makes truck/tractor sounds, etc...etc... he has come so far and is such a happy, happy boy!

His DR said he is advanced physically and mentally so we're not the only ones that thinks so, lol!

He got his blood drawn to check lead, cbc and iron (his best vein was on his hand so they did it there)...he didn't like that, poor baby!
DR also heard a slight heart murmur, first time they heard it. Seeing as he has already had a few completely normal echos they aren't worried about it.

We can't believe a year has gone by. Tomorrow, January 8th is the day that we came home from NV last year, Oh my goodness! And to think our little guy was 6 pounds and is now 23, was just over 19 inches long and is now 30.....wow!!

Walking

Joel started taking steps after turning 11 months old. He was walking between us up to 5 steps, then up to 14, but seemed more content to speed crawl every where. Today at the play space in the mall he walked every where. So I would say he is officially walking. Yay Joel!!

January 5th is one year since Grammy passed away :o(

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles

SPLASH! Is one of Joel's favorite things to do. We were folding laundry tonight and he grabs a pair of Daddy's underwear, LOL and throws them and himself forward on the floor yelling SPWASSSHHH!! He is too cute :o)

Happy New Year 2010!!