1 Year Old! Happy Birthday Baby : )

Checking out your new bobby car - from mama and papa

Dearest Joshua Miles,

Today, you are one year old!!!! I can't imagine where this last year has gone, but gone it has...the first year of your life! It has been a wonderful year and privilege to watch you grow and develop. I have been so blessed to be able to take a year off from work to be with you (and your brother) full time in this crucial year. German laws are great when it comes to having babies, the government paid us 67% of my income to stay home and take care of you. But now it is back to work, and until we find sufficient day care, you are coming to the office with mama.

Today we had a lot of your baby friends over for a party in the morning, in total 6 babies (all around a year old) and 6 mamas . Unfortunately, just in time for your birthday, your papa got real sick, a nasty virus. I have been hoping and praying you don't catch it. Anyhow, you made it through the day without catching it. Papa stayed home from work and was quarantined to the bedroom. The first thing you discovered this morning was your bobby car in the living room with a big bow on it. You seemed to like it well enough, even if you haven't figured it out yet.

From our play group you are the youngest, Paula is one month older and Max two months. We have been meeting regularly with the mamas and babies from my birthing class. You are the oldest there, two weeks after you follows Lilo, then Maximilian, 3 weeks after you is Janick and a little more than a month after you came Paul. All these babies came to your babyparty. You didn't like your cake one bit, as I knew you wouldn't, you don't really like anything sweet. The other babies ate some of it, it was a carrot cake sweetened with apple sauce and cream cheese sweetened with agave frosting. The mamas all had double chocolate brownies that I made and chili with cornbread for lunch. In the evening we lit another candle for you and your cake, I hoped you would at least play with it. Instead it landed on the floor : ) Ah well, maybe you will be more in to cake for your second birthday!

Saturday we have a party planned with the Bittls ( Lena, Bernhard, Mareile and Charlie) as well as the Piacentinis (Christian, Tina, Valentino and Marcel) - you get two birthday parties! Hope we don't spoil you totally rotten : )

Lots of love, Your Mama

Showing your sceptical side : )

Gorgeous Boy

11 months and still a baldy!

PLAYING WITH MAMA'S CELL PHONE

Dear little Joshi,

oh where, oh where has all the time gone? It is hard to believe at the end of this month you will be having your first birthday! It's crazy!
Meanwhile here are a few notes on you:
You have started pointing at everything which gets your attention...you always say, da...or des....
and look at me with questioning eyes cause you want to know what it is. You ask the same items in each room with a persistent regularity. You can show mama where her eyes and nose are, but haven't gotten it down to showing us where your nose is yet.

You protest and fight sleep like none other. We believe you have a special talent for staying awake, and even after you fall asleep, staying alert as to whether mama is still next to you or not.
You have started walking a bit, but still prefer to crawl...it is more secure and faster, however you have developed a funny method of crawling on your feet and hands with your butt in the air, so that your knees aren't touching the ground. Or the variation crawling on one foot and one knee. It is hilarious.

CRAWLING JOSHI STYLE

When you don't want to eat what I am giving you, or you are full, you hide your eyes with your hands...you think, if mama can't see me, she can't feed me. This makes me hysterical.
You got your sixth tooth (upper front) finally end of February....you have been using your teeth to bite (crackers, mommy's shoulder, etc....)You have taken to grabbing the spoon with your teeth and not letting go, while grinning ear to ear, you look like popeye the sailor man.

Your absolute favorite foods lately have been plain yogurt and avocados. You usually have plain yogurt for breakfast. You are still not eating anything other than rice crackers by yourself. Anytime I give you food to self feed, it all lands straight on the floor! It would seem you want to have mommy feed you a bit longer still.

NOODLES FOR PLAYING

As for the rest you are just now starting to grow some hair, very slowly....your peach fuzz is getting longer. But for now you are still my little baldy and I love it : )) I love smoozing on your soft little head.

Love, your adoring mama

Future musician?

First steps!

Yesterday afternoon, Joshi took his first steps! He was so proud of himself! It will be no time now before he is walking : ) He is still practicing his standing and isn't so steady yet, but he is already attempting to walk, it is cute!!!!

Joshi and his step stool : )

10 months and counting!

WEARING JEANS RAPPER STYLE

Dear Joshi,

Yesterday you turned 10 months old. This last month of development has been nothing short of amazing. It is sad at the same time too, to watch you get so big, you are starting to loose your baby-ness and starting to turn in to a toddler. As much as I am looking forward to your getting bigger and learning so many new things, I am also at the same time sad to let the baby you go, cause it was such a wonderful time. I do think though, having a baby is so much work and so exhausting as well as enlightening, if it weren't for the fact that the time flies by so fast, I don't think most parents would survive it.

This last month has been both wonderful and difficult, as I suspect most of parenthood is. What has been difficult for us is you being sick pretty much since before Christmas....until a week in to the January you had a stomach virus and after only five days or so of being pretty healthy, you got a nasty cold...that has been going on for about two weeks now. Teething has been really bugging you, especially having a cold to go along with it. You are therefore extremely needy and attached to mama most of the time like a suction cup. Sometimes, I can hardly leave the room without you having a melt down, as your separation anxiety and need for comfort are going on full force. If you wake in the night, if Papa goes to calm you down, you are super upset, cause you want mama actually. Even if he is holding you and I am next to him, that is not enough....you want mama and you scream and cry until you are in my arms, then all is well with the world again. Total mama's boy.
Since you have figured out how to stand up in your crib, it has been even more difficult to get you to sleep....you fight sleep as it is, even if you are dead tired, are rubbing your eyes and are nearly asleep, you decide to flip over and pull up to standing and crying to come out. I lay you back down, kiss you and tell you to go to sleep, then I rub your belly/head or hold your hand - let it go, let you try to fall asleep (and this is after nursing and rocking in the chair for 30-45 minutes. We do the up, down, up, down game for a while (if you keep getting up, I leave the room, let you stand and cry for a minute or two) come back in and say Joshua...it is time to go to sleep now and lay you back down. This whole thing went on for two hours the other night (with your mama getting madder and madder!) Finally I told you in no uncertain terms, mama wants you to go to sleep now! You complained a bit, but I did not budge, and you dared not get up again, you laid there for about 10 minutes staring at me with your blinking eyes until you finally, finally fell asleep. It was January 12th when you first figured out you could stand up in your crib (you have been standing everywhere else much longer, but without the sleeping bag around you of course) and you have been doing the crib standing-instead-of-sleeping, thing ever since. You even stand up in your sleep or half sleep! Anyhow, you end up in our bed after hours anyhow, and as long as you are next to mama, you sleep pretty sound. Even though you are 10 months old now, you are still nighttime nursing with the gusto of a 4 month old. I am considering night weaning you pretty soon here, in hopes it will push you to detach a little bit from mama, only enough to let others care for you as well, that is.

YOUR ANGELIC LOOK WEARING YOUR NEW HAT

You are developing like mad...it seems like nothing was happening for so long with the mobility and now it is like the flood gates have been opened and in this ninth month there has been no stopping you (okay, not like we would try really)! You started really crawling around and exploring on January 3rd, this was the first time it occurred to you that you are mobile and can determine where you go. You discovered you could follow mama when she leaves the room (instead of sitting there helplessly crying) on January 8th, when you followed me and the vacuum cleaner around the place. Since then that has become one of your favorite activities. If get out the vacuum you come "running". On January 10th it was the first time you realized you could leave Mama and go off elsewhere. We were in the bathroom and apparently it got boring for you so you ventured off into the hallway.
In the kitchen we have a plastic stepping stool. You love to play with it. You discovered you can pull up on it and since January 21st you have been pushing it around the kitchen, practicing your walking on your own. Since this last Monday, January 31st, you have been practicing standing on your own... when Mama is sitting on the floor you crawl up to me, let me help you up to standing and you push my hands away and practice standing by yourself. And you giggle caused you are so pleased with yourself when it works. You usually hold out about 5 seconds, but today you did it for a whole 30 seconds! It was so adorable with how pleased you were with yourself. I praised you and kissed you and told you what a big boy you are. You also practice walking around the apartment with Papa (mama refrains from this usually in order to save her poor back : ) )
You also have been waving to everyone, more to say hi than bye-bye actually...it is so cute, even strangers we meet in the store, you wave hello to them.
You have been really interested lately in exploring mama and papa's faces...which is sometimes annoying but still cute...You pull on ears, are fascinated with sticking your fingers up our noses and in our mouths, scratching on our teeth. One thing I have to commend you on, as wriggly as you are in all your mobility, you are still able to sit on mama's lap and hold still while she trims your finger nails. You only try once or twice to grab at the scissors, but I tell you, let mama do it and you do! I am always so proud of you for this and I tell you so :)
Other activities you really enjoy are: following the cat around, visiting and pounding on the bunny cage, looking at your books ( you love to stand at the sofa table where all your books are piled and look through them one by one, discarding them afterwards to the floor naturally) and playing with Papa's old turntable .
I wonder if in my next post, I will talk about how you are starting to walk!

Love, your adoring Mother

BITING YOUR LITTLE LAMB'S BUTT

STANDING ALL BY YOURSELF - SUCH PRIDE!

Fun with hairbands