7 months old!

Josiah is now 7 months old and still as sweet as can be. We celebrated his 7 month birthday by taking a day to go to the beach, which turned out to be not too nice of a day so we decided to just go for a walk on the beach and boardwalk. Josiah received his first tooth popping through his gums on his 7 month birthday, tried some chicken for the first time and attempted a little crawling. He is still not a crawler yet but he won't be long! I am still making all of his baby food, but I have to tell you now that he is on stage 2 foods, it is getting a little harder. I decided I am going to take one day out of the week to prepare Josiah's food for the whole week. I have been doing it just at his dinner time which also is the time that I have to make dinner for Josh and I so it has been getting a little overwhelming trying to make Josiah's dinner, our dinner and feed Josiah all at the same time. In order to make dinner time less hectic I am going to make his just one day a week.

Also, our time of separation anxiety seems to be gone now. Josiah has been putting himself to sleep again at night and doing the same now for most of his naps. Occasionally I have to rock him sometimes at nap time but I don't mind :) His behavior has just totally confirmed Josh and my beliefs that you should not leave your baby to cry it out. It seems to be really popular lately and I know everyone has their own way of doing things, we just feel like it is wrong. I always aim to comfort Josiah in his time of need and I have never felt he has cried just to cry, there has always been a reason even if I didn't see one at the time. I know a lot of people let their babies cry when they go through the separation anxiety thing, but isn't that going to make them feel even more insecure to be left crying? I read a statement in our bible study book that we were going through at church. It is on marriage and family... It basically said that age 0-5 is the MOST critical and influential time in a child's life. WOW! Josh and I always want to be parents that are there for our children unconditionally. No matter how tired or emotionally spent we are. I feel so honored that the Lord has entrusted me with the responsibility of raising a child to give Him glory.

On another note the weather here in the deep south has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Josiah and I have been taking a lot of walks lately which has been great or we will just sit outside on a blanket with some toys. He already loves the outdoors which I am so thankful for. I am also super excited for this weekend. Josh is taking me to dinner at one of my favorite places, Indochine, for some Thai food. Tomorrow I have a hair client and friends coming over for dinner, and Josh has off Monday so I think we are going to go strawberry picking :) I have been really busy this month with a bunch of different things: mostly hair, some photography, and a little nannying as well. Thank you God for your continued blessings!

A week away...

I think our bout with the separation anxiety is over... it's hard to tell, but I am pretty sure :) Josiah and I have been staying with my parents at the beach while Josh is out of town, so it is hard to tell since he has been up anyway since he is not sleeping in his bed like he is used to. Also, Josiah had his first fever the other day. He had a fever and a stuffy nose. He still has a little bit of a stuffy nose but it does seem like it is finally going away after almost a week of it, poor little guy. Even though he has been sick he is still a happy little camper, I tell ya I continue to count my blessings on this little one! I never knew I could have this much love growing inside me for someone. I am soooo thankful that I get to be home with him to see him grow and change everyday, even though we do without some things since I am not bringing in any income. Josh works hard, drives a ridiculously long commute, and still has energy to come home and play with Josiah and spend some time with me before hitting the pillow. He also helps tremendously on the weekends, so that I can have a little time to myself. I have such a great hubby and I am so blessed by his dedication to our family and the love he has for Josiah and I. This week while he has been gone has been a huge reminder of how special and rare a man like Josh is. God is so good for bringing us together! P.s. this post is kind of scattered, I am trying to write with a million things going on in the back ground. Just wanted to share some of my current thoughts :)

Separation Anxiety?

Now that Josiah is 6 and a half months there have been some things coming into action.
First, off Josiah has been a sleeping through the night baby 95 percent of the time since
he was 12 weeks old. We also had our nightly routine of getting him dressed for bed, nursed, and read a book then put him to bed awake and he would put himself to sleep. Since turning 6 months he has started waking up in the middle of the night just wanting to be held and rocked and we can no longer put him to bed awake without him screaming. I was looking over our paper that we got from our pediatrician the other day while I was wondering what the heck is going on with my well behaved baby. The paper said that at this age babies tend to have separation anxiety kick in. Ahhhh, now it makes sense! So for now we have resorted to rocking Josiah to sleep at night and cuddling him and rocking if he happens to wake up in the middle of the night too, which thankfully he has been waking around 5:30 for that which is not aweful I suppose.... I guess for now we will just wait it out and pray that this phase will go away soon. I never want my baby to feel insecure or worried that mommy or daddy will not be there for him when he needs us. In other news, Josiah continues to be a joy to all. I really thought that people just stop and stare at babies when they are newborns because they are small and cute and well, who doesn't love a nice new baby? However, whenever we are out Josiah continues to atract attention wherever we are. He is starting to raise his hands when he wants to be picked up, is eating more and more solid foods and my new favorite thing he does is says " rooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar" when asked " what does the bear say?" He is such a joy and I am constantly learning so much from him about life. I just want him to stay my sweet, innocent, little boy for forever :)

Roly Poly | Salisbury MD Baby Photographer

Take a look at Josiah's 6 month pictures we had done when we went to MD to see all of his new cousins:

We think they are really great!

Roly Poly Salisbury MD Baby Photographer

Josiah is 5 months old!

Josiah turned 5 months old last week... He has started becoming very interested in things and anything his little hands can reach he is after them. It is so fun watching him see things for the first time. About 2 weeks ago he found his feet for the first time and was really interested in them. He had his jammies on and they had monkeys on the feet. He about fell over going after the monkeys. He loves to play and thankfully with the weather being so nice lately we have been outside quite a bit. We have been going for walks in the park, and laying outside on a blanket with some toys. He has started eating more solid foods now and I have really enjoyed making them for him. I know I am saving so much money by making it and I know its better for him too. So far he has had peas, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, and prunes. He loves them all. I was going to wait a while before introducing fruits to his diet, but we have noticed with the introduction to solids it has made him a little constipated, so I decided to add in some prunes with his breakfast or dinner to help keep him regular. The things you talk about after you have a baby is amazing :) Any way, we are seriously enjoying all seasons of this little boy's life. He continues to be a joy and a constant blessing. You don't know how many compliments we constantly get that our baby is " the happiest baby we have ever seen" and " he is just the cutest baby". Obviously it flatters us very much that other people also love our precious little one. I feel very blessed to have such a good ,happy baby. Trust me he does have his moments where I want to pull my hair out, but 9 times out of 10 he is truly amazing. I feel so overwhelmed at the love that I have for my little boy. There is no love like the love of a mother and her baby and that I am sure! It is a constant reminder of how much my heavenly father loves each of us. There is nothing that my baby can do to make me not love him. No hair pulling, spit up, or poopie diapers are ever a burden and nothing that I wouldn't do to help him when he is upset. If having a baby doesn't draw you closer to the Lord then I don't know what will. I continue to be so very thankful for my little one and hope I never complain about anything that Josiah does that does not fit into my perfect little box. There are so many people out there that don't have the priviledge of having their own children and I never want to take that for granted. On another note, for Valentines Day my boys and I went on a walk around Greenfield Lake, and out to dinner to our friend's restaraunt. It was delish!

My 25th Birthday!

On January 28th, I turned 25 :) I always get excited for birthdays, but this one was super special. Not only am I now a quarter of a century year old, but I have been married to an amazing man for 3 and a half years, and now have a beautiful baby boy. I am sooooooooo blessed! Because 25 is sort of a big year, and I really feel like this is a land mark year beacuse of all I have, we decided to celebrate big! On my birthday my hubby made me a delicious dinner and surprised me with beautiful diamond earrings, something I have always wanted! Then we went out for dessert with some great friends. Then this weekend we had a big bash! I decided I wanted to have an excuse to dress up, so I decided on " A night on the red carpet" theme. We all dressed up as someone in Hollywood and went to " The Little Dipper" for some delicious fondue! The night was fabulous, we had a visit from some Spice Girls, Elton John, Audrey Hepburn, Magnum P.I. and June Cleaver.... fun was had by all! I feel so blessed to be 25 and to be where I am at in life. Here are some pics of the night...

more snow pics!

For some reason blogger was acting funny when I went to go load pics on my post... here are more from our snow day!