Vacation!

Not wanting to blog while out-of-town, I took paper notes while on vacation. It then has taken me 3 weeks to sit down and type them out. (A few pictures below, more are here.)


Thursday, November 3

We left Indy for Florida late afternoon on the 3rd. Traveling with a 1.5 year old is a challenge. First of all, there is no longer advanced seating for families with small children. We had to lug our carry-on luggage, the car seat and the baby through the aisle with everyone else. We then got moved a row out of the row behind the exit row. This really jammed up traffic since we displaced other people. Hot and sweaty, we settled in for the 2-hour flight. Josh started kicking the seat in front of him. Ken offered to switch seats with the gentleman, but he refused. We then felt the need to distract Josh from kicking. We read, colored, ate, and then did it all over again. It was a really long trip.




Ken's dad, Chuck, picked us up from the Tampa airport around 7:30 and we drove the hour south to Siesta Key. We settled into the villa and tried to put Josh to sleep. He wouldn't sleep and woke up in the middle of the night screaming. It was a new place, so I slept in the room with him.


Friday, Nov 4

We took Josh to the beach. He LOVED the sand. He picked up two fistfuls and squealed with delight. The picture below is his reaction to seeing the ocean for the first time. We took him down to the water and he clung to my leg. I'm glad he had fear of the ocean. He doesn't have much of a fear of anything else.



Happy boy...


We swam in the pool. Josh enjoyed playing with the pool toys and riding in the "hippo boat".

Saturday, Nov 5- Happy anniversary!


Chuck noticed that MacDill base was having an airshow. Chuck had trained there 30+ years prior when he was in the service. Back to Tampa, we drove. It was fun to hear Chuck's memories of the Air Force. Josh did really well considering the show was right over nap time. We spread out a blanket with toys. Other children gravitated over to us, so we ended up with 5 playing with Josh's toys. It was fun watching Ken and his dad bond over their shared love of planes.





Sunday, Nov 6

We went to Tampa again to attend South Tampa Fellowship Church. The minister from our church in Germany is the head pastor there now. We went to church and then out to lunch with the pastor's wife, two of their boys, and another friend from Germany who was in the States to assist with their worship ministry. It was fun to reconnect with old friends.



Monday, Nov 7

We built sand castles on the beach. Ken said it best, "Going to the beach is so much more fun with a kid." After that, we showered and hit the pool. Josh and Ken took a nap while "Poppy" and Mommy took a 4 mile beach walk. My feet were sore after that one due to the exfoliating sand and shells.

Ken took me out for our anniversary dinner to the Columbia. It is a Cuban/Spanish restaurant. Chuck babysat Josh. The whole trip was a really good opportunity for Chuck and Josh to bond.

Tuesday-Wednesday

We spent more time at the beach and pool. I also walked Josh down to a community park. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short since the tree trimmers were dropping branches in the park. Tuesday, Mommy worked for an afternoon while Josh and Daddy played. On Wednesday, all four of us went out to dinner at Philppi Creek, Chuck's favorite local restaurant.

Thursday

We headed back to Indy. Fortunately for us, Josh slept most of the flight. We stepped out of the airport to snow flurries. Vacation over!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

September 9 will go down in Lawrance family history. At 11:00 as I was leaving a meeting, I got a call from our daycare center. Come quickly, Josh has fallen and knocked out his front teeth. I rushed to daycare calling the pediatrician on my way. She referred me to a pediatric dentist. When I reached Josh, blood was gushing out of his mouth and he was screaming.

The daycare director drove me directly to Fishers Pediatric Dentistry. They were excellent. They took x-rays and learned that he had fractured the bone that his teeth were in, so they could not save the teeth. He had to have them removed. Fortunately, the permanent teeth were not damaged. It was his front center right and the one to the right of it. To make sure that Josh was getting the best care, they even called in an oral surgeon from two doors down. The recommended that we not go back during the procedure. We could hear him screaming, but knew that he was in good hands. When he got back to us, he quickly fell asleep in my arms. The pain was gone.

Children are so resilient. He napped well that afternoon and was back to his normal personality afterward. He even slept through the night.

He will have a "hockey player" gap in his mouth until his permanent teeth come in around age 7. There is a chance that that front teeth will come in uneven and he'll need braces. Other than that, he should be fine long-term.

We have pictures taken by the dentist. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to see them. They are a bit gruesome for the blog!

Josh's summer in review

I have been negligent once again in updating this blog. I’ve been taking Josh notes over the last few months. Here are some glimpses of the life and times of Joshua William…

Some of you may remember that I planted some seeds when Josh was a month old. Here is his tree!

Aggie is Josh's buddy. He wants to be just like her, so he fusses until I put the collar on him. I took it away that day and he bawled.

"Little Hands on the Farm" at the Indiana State Fair.

Josh with his cousins, Ethan and Allison. Happy Fourth of July.

Playing in the sprinkler.

Pool with Daddy.

June 14: He went through a phase after an ear infection where he put everything in his ears. He didn’t understand that peas are not the same as cotton balls. Last night Ken went up in the attic and some insulation fell. This morning it was in Josh’s ears.

He’s picking up words daily. At this time his words included: apple, “she” (fishie), “bopper” (diaper), ball, ma ma, da da, “tee” (teeth), uh oh (this was his first word), and “boo” (book).

He loves to read books. He will page through them alone. His favorites are: “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “How Big?” and “The Hungry Caterpiller”. He does motions to the first two.

He has started learning animal sounds. “Key” (kitty) say “mou” and the cow says “ooo”.

We’ve been teaching him baby sign language for words that he cannot say. He knows how to sign: more, milk, eat, drink, and please.

June 21: Josh woke up and started talking to himself. He was saying “Key mou” (Kitty meow).

June 22: Josh continues to pick up words. He has added: eat, ear, baa (sheep sound), and “pee” (piggy). All dogs are “Add-ies” (after our dog, Aggie).

July 5: After breakfast, Josh went straight to his books. We had spent the weekend at the lake and he missed his toys. He collected a few books and took them to the bottom step of the stairwell to “read”.

July 6: Josh picked up his seahorse stuffed animal. I told him that it was a seahorse and he neighed.

July 14: We noticed Josh getting his first molars.

July 17: Josh learned a bad word this weekend, “MINE”.

July 19: Josh learned how to get up on the sofa.

Early August: Josh started speaking in two word sentences. Some of our favorite new words that he says are: “I cow” (I don’t know), “wower” (flower), “tur-dle” (turtle).

August 20: Josh ate his first meal at the table. It was only dry pancakes, but he thought he was big stuff. Now he thinks that the table is pretty cool. We caught him climbing up onto the chair and then up onto the table.

Baking with Mommy

We taught Josh the sign for help. He LOVES to help. To keep him from playing in the dog food, I let him “help” me pour the kibble into Aggie’s bowl. He helps put his clothes in the laundry basket and his toys away. I let him stand up on a chair to help bake zucchini bread a few weeks ago. He likes that so much that I cannot cook anything anymore without him wanting to help. We quickly had to teach the word “hot”. So now he says “hot” and blows (to cool hot food). It is adorable. We baked sugar cookies this weekend. He learned rapidly that cookie dough is yummy. I couldn’t stop him from eating it. I had to push his chair away from the counter to keep him out of it.

Helping Mommy water the "wowers".

September 1- Josh continues to learn words every day. I think that he looks like Ken but got his mom’s talkative personality. The only problem is pronunciation. He really likes trucks- especially dump trucks. Unfortunately he pronounces “truck” “fruck”. Adding the “dump”, often without the p, makes it sound like he is cursing at us. He got fussy in DSW shoe store and started begging for his truck. I had to explain to another customer that he wasn’t really saying what she thought he was saying.

September 5- Josh ate dog poop. I just wasn’t fast enough…

September 8- This will be a post in itself...

Race for the Cure

Our family did the Komen Race for the Cure last month. It was nice to spend time with our family and honor Grandma Lawrance. I was very proud of Josh who was such a trooper in the cold and drizzle. Here are some pix of the day.

Happy Easter

I've been posting most of our pictures on Facebook, but I wanted to give Josh's loyal blog readers a few Easter pictures. He was adorable with the eggs. Grandpa Mel gave Josh his first Easter basket.

Our Little Book Worm

When I was a child, I loved books. I couldn't wait each month until the school book order forms came out. Mom and Dad made me use my own money to buy books because I would otherwise buy too many. I would read in the car, on the bus, and even during class sometimes. When Josh was born, I envisioned myself reading to him every, even as a baby, so that he'd learn. Unfortunately, I did it a little, but didn't have time to do too much. Nonetheless, our son has really developed an interest in books. I say interest because his attention span is still pretty short. I think that he likes the physical aspect of holding books and turning pages. His favorite books are the Hungry Caterpillar and a book of Fairy Tales. Josh spent the weekend with Grammy Wannemacher. It was his first weekend away from his house without Mommy and Daddy. He got to sit in his rocker and read with Grammy. This past week at Daycare was the "Week of the Child". They invited parents and grandparents in to read to the children. Since Josh's grandparents live out-of-town, they couldn't come and read. However, Josh's great-grandparents live in town. Great-Grandma Davis came in to read the Hungry Caterpillar on Monday. He was a little shy and had to sit on Mommy's lap. He wasn't shy once Great-Grandpa Lawrance started reading the Fairy Tale book on Thursday. He got up on Pop's lap and tried to turn the pages before Pop was done with each.

Mommy's Helper

We got this picture last week after a St. Patrick's Day party.

These next pictures mean a lot to me. First, they were taken on a Friday afternoon. These types of memories are the reason that I'm working part time. It gives me time to create these moments.


Secondly, Josh is doing yard work with me. We bundled up and spent about two hours outside de-thatching the yard and edging. He started getting fussy when I started sweeping, so I held him and swept. He started getting heavy, so I put him down in front of me while I swept. I realized he was standing on his own and decided to see if he'd do it. He did, so I had to get the camera.

I've got so many memories of working outside with my parents and grandparents. I even had a weekly mowing job for my grandparents when I was in high school. Those $17 really added up!
I long for Josh to enjoy being outside as much as I do.

Communication

I think that I mentioned that Josh's first "word" was Aggie many months ago. Okay, it is more like "Ah-eeee". He does it every time he sees either a cat or a dog. Now he has two more pieces of communication. Any parent would hope that those would be Mama or Dada. He says those but doesn't seem to connect them to Ken or me. His first really clear word is "uh-oh". He says this any time he drops something or something falls. This morning, while I was changing his diaper, he decides to pull all the diapers and everything else off of the changing table "uh-oh"ing with each item.

Josh's other communication- "mmmmm" + smacking his lips. He does this when he wants to eat. I'm just convinced that this is because my food is so yummy!

Josh isn't walking yet, but he's close. Ms. Bobbie at daycare said he took two steps between the sink and the table yesterday.

Josh antics

For those of you who do not know, my job was eliminated last Friday. I have decided to open my own consulting business a few days a week and then spend more time with Josh the other days. Yesterday was my first consulting work day and today was my first Josh day.

Well, he woke up really early this morning and so he was tired and fussy by 9:30. I fed him and he fell asleep in my arms. I put him in bed and he started screaming. Assuming he'd cry himself to sleep, I let him cry for 10-15 minutes. He didn't stop. So I went in there to learn that while screaming, he had also started chewing on his crib. He had pieces of stain all over his mouth and several bite marks in the wood.

Needless to say, I'm going to Babies R Us today to see if they have crib guards that will work... I don't want him to damage his two little teeth.

Josh's Birthday Party

We wanted to share some pictures of Josh's first birthday party. We made a cupcake tree cake. After eating a huge meal, Josh still ate 3/4 of a cupcake. He didn't like the icing as much as the cake.

Josh's Grandpa Mel got him a wagon. The only way that we could get Josh and his cousin Allison to look at the camera was via a sippy cup. Oops, it got into the picture.

Great-grandma and Great-granddad got him a scooter car. It was popular with both babies.

Look what happened in a year...

One year ago, we were in the hospital learning how to be parents for the first time. Our little guy was getting littler and we were trying to get him to eat. Now the child eats dinner for an hour and a half. He loves all types of baby food and is getting used to eating big people food.

A year ago, Josh weighed 6lbs 9oz (before he started losing all that weight) and was 20 1/4". Now he is 18 lbs 9 oz. (Only the 3rd percentile for you statistical folks!) and 30 1/4" inches (67th percentile).

A year ago, he laid on his back and didn't go

anywhere. Now he is into EVERYTHING. He crawls really fast- especially when he is heading into some sort of mischief. He isn't walking yet, but he cruises along the sofa.

A year ago, he was toothless, now he's got two teeth and working on a third.

A year ago Ken and I fell in love with a little boy. Now we love him even more. Happy Birthday, Josh!

Happy Birthday, Josh!

It is so hard to believe that it has been a year since Joshua William Lawrance entered the world. Ken and I are so blessed to have him as a son. We love you dearly, son.

(We'll post some before and after pictures later today.)

11 month old (and three year old) mischief

Josh is getting so big. He is crawling everywhere and pulling up on furniture. He is also very curious. He's hearing the word "no" quite often these days. We took these pictures last week. The series gives you a snapshot of our lives these days. Picture the next few sentences in thought bubbles...

"Mommy, I'm helping you."

"Daddy's watching with that camera. Will I get in trouble?"

"Look at me now! I can help with the top shelf, too."

Josh isn't the only Lawrance boy with a little mischief. His cousin Ethan came over on Saturday while Mommy and Aunt Megan went to North Webster to help Grandpa. Ethan took his nap in the big boy bed at Uncle Ken's house. When his daddy came up to get him from his nap, this is what he found. And, no, Ethan does not have a really bad cold.