Josh's First Christmas

Merry Christmas! We went to Kristy's mom's house for the 23rd-24th. Here is a picture of Josh with Grammy and Ron.


They gave him a beautiful toy box. Unfortunately, the bear was a little scary!


Josh got to spend time with his Grandpa Mel and Cheryl on the 23rd. Sorry- we forgot to take the camera there!




While we were in Fort Wayne, Josh's eye started running. We took him to a doctor there on the 23rd to have him diagnosed with an infected tear duct. We began eye drops. By late afternoon Christmas Eve, he had a temperature of 102.5. It turns out that Josh had a double ear infection. His temperature did not drop until the 28th. He missed all of the Lawrance Christmas parties. At the pediatrician, we were referred to an ear, nose, throat doctor. This was his 4th or 5th ear infection since August or September. That appointment is Jan 6.

Despite him not feeling well, we got an adorable picture on Christmas morning- Enjoy!

Breakfast at Bethlehem

On Saturday morning, Josh and Kristy had the privilege of being in East 91st Street Christian Church's children's program, Breakfast in Bethlehem. There were two performances.

After each, families could get their pictures taken with the "actors". Josh did great on stage. He even laid in the manger a

little. When he got uncomfortable there, I was able to pick him up. Unfortunately for the second performance photo op, he had had it. We should have used a stunt double doll for those pictures. Those poor families with a screaming baby Jesus. He was exhausted and slept while we ran two errands and the whole way home.

Daddy wanted his picture taken with the "stars".

Josh's First Thanksgiving

Josh had his first Thanksgiving.

Mom was determined to get a picture of Josh and the turkey. Well, apparently, turkeys are scary.

Maybe Grandpa Lawrance could help us get a turkey picture. Nope. So far Josh hasn't eaten meat. Maybe he thinks he is a vegetarian.

Saturday night, we had Thanksgiving with the Wannemachers. Josh was thrilled to be with his big boy cousins. When 14 month old Cashtain (second from left) got there, Josh came crawling really fast across the room to get to him. Lucas (third from left) spent a lot of time playing with Josh. You can tell that he has a little brother. He's great with babies. Corey (far left) didn't want to be in the picture. However, when we asked him to "hold" Cashtain like Lucas was holding Josh, he was eager to be in the picture. Can you say "reverse psychology"?

What have you bought for $3.14 lately?

As most people reading this know, I have a great relationship with my sister-in-law, Megan. One of the things that we have in common is that we both LOVE to save money. She introduced me to the art of coupon blogs. These are websites that match up sales to coupons.

Proctor and Gamble has monthly coupons. There are always good sales to go with these coupons. Megan and I will often go get extra newspapers on P&G week because of these deals. One of the "high value" coupons this month was a buy any Secret deodorant and get $5 off any Olay bar soap or body wash. This week at Walgreens, they had Olay bars on sale for $2. Then you can buy a sample size Secret for $0.99. This left $3.01 of the $5 coupons as a "moneymaker". I had 4 of these coupons today. I bought all the pictured deodorant, Olay and the diapers for a whopping $2.42. (Could've saved more if I'd have had a Huggies coupon!)

Then, the register spit out a $1 and a $2 Jingle Buck coupon. I applied those to the cookies and the wipes for a total second order of $0.72.

This was $36.30 worth of regularly priced merchandise for $3.14. Thanks sis for giving me such a fun hobby!

Josh Video (3 of 3)

This was Josh crawling, trying to get to his doggie. Hasn't quite made it yet!

Josh Video (2 of 3)

Josh LOVED it when daddy got out a NERF gun that Grandma Lawrance got (for daddy) a while back. It was REALLY funny!

Josh Videos (Post 1 of 3)

We had quite a few videos stored up on our camera that we just downloaded. Here are a few of the better ones. The first one shows Josh in an extremely good mood after coming home.

Baby Dedication

Our church practices baby dedication instead of infant baptism. You'll find that Mary and Joseph did a similar thing for Jesus in Luke 2:22. Yesterday, was this day at East 91st. Ken and I had the extreme joy of going up in front of our church, the same church that both of us had been baptized in and where we'd gotten married, to commit to raise our first born in a Christian home. We've been really looking forward to this event.

We also got to stand up front with some of our dear friends, the Browns and the Hiscocks. April Brown, Margaret Hiscock and I were all pregnant with Sophia, Emmet, and Josh at the same time. My sister-in-law Megan was the first of the 2010 pregnancy crew. Jenn Chester is expecting our gang's #5 of the 2010-2011 baby boom.

This was the first time that we had all 4 of the babies in the same place. We just had to get pictures of that. Too bad Josh was only interested in taking off his sock!

We were extremely blessed to have 26 of our friends and family back for lunch after the service. Pictures of the party can be found here.

Mommy's Little Pumpkin

We had Josh's pictures taken at JCPenneys a few weeks ago. We were very happy with them. Josh's great pumpkin

Naked babies are so cute!

Go Colts!

Little Man in Khakis

Sick yesterday better today

Josh was sick yesterday. He has had several colds and two ear infections, but this was the first time that he had a high fever. We started to suspect an ear infection when he woke up in the middle of the night both Saturday and Sunday night. I schedule an appointment for him Monday afternoon to have his ear looked at by the doctor. Before we got to that point, daycare called stating that he had a fever. By the time we got to the doctor's, his fever was 102.3 degrees. He was very fussy- not my usual happy baby. The only smile I got all afternoon was when I picked him up at daycare. Doctor Maves stated that he was borderline on another ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic. Ken and I prepared for a long night. It was a long afternoon. The only thing that made him happy was being strapped to us in the Baby Bjorn. We took turns walking with him. The Tylenol and antibiotic kicked in by 10:00 PM and the baby slept until 8:00 AM. He woke up with a 99.5 degree temp and was back to being our happy baby. He has to stay home from daycare for 24 hours after his fever breaks.

Last Tuesday, Josh's daycare report stated that he was beginning to army crawl after toys. They have a smooth mat for the children, so I think that it is easier for him to move. We haven't seen him do it yet. He much prefers to roll around to get his toys. He can really cruise around the floor by rolling. Yesterday he also learned another trick. He found his tongue. He'll even stick his out when you stick yours out.

Josh's first Colts game

Josh got to go to his first Colts game this weekend. It was breast cancer awareness month, so the Colts did special thing such as give out signs and pink ribbons. Josh preferred to eat the sign.
Some friends of ours who took their infant to a game suggested we put hearing protection on him. We borrowed a set from other friends. Josh was more upset by the protection than he was from the noise.
And proved so by sleeping through the entire third quarter. Josh has Ken's looks and my personality (social/extroverted). Ken begrudgingly said that Josh also has my Sunday football habits- taking a nap.

Mr. Poopypants

Every parent has at least one poop story. Ken and I got one this weekend. I put Josh in his jumper in the bathroom doorway while I took a shower Saturday. I heard him jumping energetically and squealing with delight. I got out of the shower to find him grinning from ear to ear jumping in a pile of poop. He had gone through the diaper, through the legs of the jumper onto the floor. His socks were dark brown with strands of dog hair ground in. There was poop on the tile and on the carpet. I wish we would have taken a picture of this adventure...

Cousins

The first weekend in October we went to Ken's parents' house. My sweet husband and his father got up with the baby Saturday morning. They forced me to go back to bed. I fell back to sleep to the sounds of three generations of Lawrance men's voices. It was pretty special to hear. Here is a picture of Josh and his grandpa in their jammies.

Josh had a good time with his cousin Allison. The two of them played with toys on a blanket in the family room for hours. Most of the time they were big kid and sat up, but other time they chose tummy time. Check out the blue eyes on both of them. Ethan has them, too.











Soon, though, Allison showed Josh what a girl with a big brother is like. She took him down. It became a daddy competition- whose baby could take the other one down the most. Allison won on Saturday and Josh on Sunday. It seemed to be a pretty even match. Josh was facinated by Allison's buttons.






We took a ton of pictures that weekend. This is the only one that we have where both babies are smiling. Isn't it adorable!

Growing boy

Josh had his "six month" appointment a little late (9/20) since his doctor was out of the country. Dr. Maves was very pleased with his development especially his sitting. He is still long and skinny. He weighs 15 lbs 7 oz (6th percentile) and is 28" long (81st percentile).

Josh's sitting is getting much better. He also is moving really well on his back and stomach. He rolls and rotates to get all of his toys. He's not quick enough to get the dog, but he sure would like to catch her.

Josh also started eating vegetables. He's eaten squash and sweet potatoes so far. He tries to "help" with the eating process. This involves either grabbing the spoon or "helping" the food into his mouth with his fingers. This morning he got oatmeal all over his face.

Tonight Josh watched the Colts with Daddy. Then Daddy became the Colt!

Oprah with the Lawrance gals

Over Labor Day weekend, Ken's mom Peg told me that her dream was to go to the Oprah show. When I got home, I decided to look into getting tickets. Believe it or not, they had tickets for Wed-Friday of the following week. I called Peg up and asked her if she was interested. She was free on Thursday, so I "entered" for tickets. The next day, I got an e-mail saying that I had gotten tickets for me and 3 guests. My sister-in-law Megan was free, so mother-in-law and two daughters-in-law started planning their trip.

We decided to get a hotel in northern IN on Wed night. This was a good thing because the traffic and construction made for a long drive. We made it a really girlie night with dinner and doing our nails. Thursday morning we drove from Merrillville to Chicago.

We got a parking spot in the lot right across from Oprah's studio. We went into line a little after 10:00. Then came the waiting game. We went through security and waited until 12:15 when they took us into the studio. Oprah's guest was Ingrid Bettancourt, a woman who had survived 6.5 years as a hostage in the Amazon jungle. It wasn't the happiest of topics, but it certainly was fun to be there. After the taping of our episode, Oprah changed outfits to tape a segment for her animal show. They brought in a really small horse for the segment. We wished that we would have seen the entire animal episode, but at least we saw a little.

It was a wonderful trip. I'm so lucky to have so much fun with my in-laws.

Our 6.5 month old boy

We've been neglecting our blog. Here is Josh's 6-month picture. We noticed that he was jumping a lot in his exersaucer, so we thought we'd try the jumper. He likes it a little, but we have problems using it. It requires a door jam, so the only places that it works are in our bathrooms. I've been putting him in it while I get ready for work.
Developmentally, Josh is moving. He's perfected the art of getting to his toys with a combination of rolling and rotating on his blanket. He's also started sitting in the last two weeks. Here he is happily showing off his sitting skill. (He's a super happy baby which is very fun!)

However, when he laughs too hard or grabs for a toy, he falls over.

Toys are really getting fun. Here he is with a toy that Mommy remembers playing with as a child. Josh takes the rings off of the stick. The next thing to learn will be putting them back on it.

Mommy got Josh his first trucks at a garage sale this weekend. Josh proceeded to push them over so that he can spin the wheels. Oh, well, whatever makes him happy.
I don't have a picture of it, but Josh rode in the grocery cart for the first time today. He's still not the most stable, so he fell over a couple of times. Overall, he liked being able to look at everything and everyone. He's a really social baby.

New pictures

We've updated our pictures on our Picasa site. There are some really cute ones of Jeff's new puppy and Josh.

Big boy- eating his first cereal with his first tooth

This was a big weekend for Josh. He cut his first tooth. It is his top right. We're not sure if it is the second from middle or his incisor. Ken has nicknamed him Snaggletooth.

Sunday night, we decided it was time to start feeding him baby cereal. He looked so small in that big high chair. It was clearly time for him to begin eating. He had no trouble with the texture or with spitting it out. He opened his mouth continually for more.

At the end, we let him play with the spoon. He even got it his mouth the right way. Granted, these days, everything goes in his mouth.

Sports Josh

Grammy Wannemacher found Josh an exersaucer at a garage sale. He wasn't sure about it at first, but now really likes it.

We took Josh to his first sporting event Saturday night. National Starch annually takes all of their employees and families to an Indianapolis Indians game. Unfortunately, it didn't start until 7:00, only an hour before Josh's bedtime. Despite that, he was such a trooper. He sat on our laps (and those of Ken's co-workers) and just watched everything around him. He'll be ready for Butler games in a few months!

August 6-8

We are a little behind on our blogging. We went up to North Webster the weekend of August 6-8. Josh went on his first boat ride. He didn't like it too much. He fussed and then fell asleep in Ken's arms.

We came home Sunday night because East 91st Street Christian church and two other churches had a large worship service downtown at Veteran's Plaza. It was a great experience. They had a tent for families with small children. It became somewhat of a CrossRoads reunion. CrossRoads was the young adults ministry where Ken and I met. Jason and Margaret (Foltz) Hiscock and Rachel (Fretz) and Matt Whitaker all met their spouse through the ministry. Now we all had our first sons within 2.5 months of one another. Our Josh and Rachel and Matt's Josh were hot and tired by the time we took this picture. Emmet was laid back and relaxed as usual.

Uncle Jeff came to visit on the 8th. He and our missionary friend Alicia really got Josh laughing. Enjoy!

Friday Fun

Josh had a busy Friday. Mom's office had a picnic. Since Josh's daycare is across the street, she picked him up and brought him to the party. He was a big hit. He got passed from person to person. Here he is with office manager, Peggy Gillam.

Friday night, we all went to visit Blake and Leigh Anne Dearing and their daughters, Ava and Lucy. (Biggest sister Ruby was at Grandma Gerber's.) Blake and Leigh Anne are special friends of Ken. Leigh Anne was his cheer partner in high school and Blake was the one who showed Ken what being a Christian is all about. Lucy is another of the 2009-2010 baby boom. She was born in December.

5 months- Oh How He's Grown

It is so hard to believe that our baby is five months old. Time has just flown by. For those of you who do not see Josh much, here is a little comparison.

In his Pack-n-Play at 4 days and today.

For my environmental friends, I wanted to provide an update on Josh's tree. It is alive- at least it was before this photo. Josh is not quite a gardener. We got to the tree and he grabbed the leaves and tried to put them in his mouth.

Ken requested that I post this last picture.