Babble-box

For his first year of life, Josiah was a pretty silent dude (wellllll, unless he was crying). He had started babbling a tiny bit back before he had his shunt placement surgery, but had regressed in this milestone due to the hydrocephalus, and had not gained the milestone back until just a few weeks ago, when all of a sudden he found his voice in a big way. Our days are now filled with the joyous sounds of his baby babble. And, to my chagrin, he started with dadadada, and still has not managed to make a mamamama sound. :( Either way, it is music to our ears!  Listen closely...

The hokey-pokey

Our slightly shy, introverted daughter almost never sings or dances on camera. She will be singing and dancing unabashedly, but as soon as she spies me with the videocamera, she clams up.  So I was very happy to capture the following last week while we were home together! She is absolutely loving the Dora CD player that Grandma & Papa Beach sent her for her birthday. She will spend long periods of time in front of it just listening to her songs, and sometimes singing (or dancing) along.

Daddy and monsters

A couple of nights ago, Isabel had a rare occurrence of waking up crying pretty hard at about 11:30 pm. I went in there to see what was wrong, and the minute she saw me, she said "I want Daddy!" I figured this would warm Luke's heart, so I gladly went back to our bedroom and traded places with him. After he came back to bed, he told me that he asked Isabel if she had a bad dream. She said yes, and he asked her if it was about monsters. She said no, but wasn't able to tell him what it was about. So, the two of them had a long conversation about dreams, that they are only in our heads, and not real.  He told her that dreams are sometimes good, sometimes bad, but they are just things that we "think about while we are sleeping." She seemed to understand this and was pretty awake at this point, so to take her mind off of whatever she had been dreaming about, he told her about Grandma and Grandpa Beach's new paddleboat that she gets to ride on when we go down to Florida for Christmas this year. She got over her bad dream and went back to sleep just fine. 

Fast forward to this morning, when I went into her bedroom to get her ready for the day, and the day began like this:

I walk into her bedroom, and she immediately starts crying (real alligator tears and sobs, mind you). 
Isabel: "But I want Daaaaaddddyyy!:
Me: "Honey, Daddy isn't home right now."
Isabel (still crying): "But where is he?"
Me: "He is at work."
Isabel (still crying): "But is he going to come back?"
Me: "Of course he is going to come back! He will be here right after work this afternoon!"

I managed to get her calmed down enough to come downstairs with me. Much more composed, she continued our conversation:

Isabel: “I had a dream and wanted Daddy.”
Me: “The other night, when he came into your room, and he told you about Grandma and Papa’s new paddleboat?”
Isabel: “Noooooo! I had a dream and wanted Daddy!”
Me (the lightbulb came on that she may have had another bad dream before waking this morning): “This morning?”
Isabel: “Yeah.”
Me: “What did you have a dream about?”
Isabel: “Monsters. The pink one came and when I laid down to the side in my crib (here she demonstrates by laying on the floor on her side), he took me out of my house.”
Me: “But you know monsters aren’t real, right? They are just for pretend, in our heads.”
Isabel: “Right.” (Off she marches to her Tinkerbell chair to watch Barney, and hasn't brought up monsters for the rest of the day).

I sure wish we could get these conversations on video, but they are so spontaneous, I guess my “transcripts” will have to do!

Does she really have to grow up???

Ball boy

Thought you all might enjoy a video of Josiah playing with the ball toy that his godparents Jenna and Aaron got for him for his birthday. Josiah has a "mini" version of this on his Exersaucer and he loves putting the ball in and then watching it go down the track. Jenna suspected he would love this toy and she was right! It didn't take him long to figure out how it works! Enjoy!

A birthday cake do-over

Friday was my birthday, so I endeavored for the first time in my triple-decade-plus life to make a cake from scratch (scary, I know).  I gave myself a C+ on the process, because the cake fell in the middle a bit and I had to add 12 tablespoons of powdered sugar (which the recipe did not call for) to the frosting in order to thicken it enough to ice the cake with.  But, the finished product seemed to turn out well (aesthetically, at least!). 

We decided to put it to a family taste test.  We included Josiah in this taste test because you will recall from an earlier post that when we set his first birthday cake in front of him, he was not all that interested, what with his 102 degree fever and only two days away from being hospitalized with a nasty case of RSV. Who could blame him?? So this was the first birthday do-over for Josiah! We were hoping for a chocolatey mess, and the photos below will show you that is exactly what we got! 

Out of the gate, he is MUCH more enthused about the cake this time around than he was last time!

"Yeah, buddy! I know! Triple chocolate cake! Aren't we the luckiest kids in the whole world?!? Dig in, buddy!"

Oh yeah, definitely a hit! Look at that big toothy grin in the middle of the chocolate face!

"Dear Jesus, thank you for chocolate cake!"

Shoveling it in....

And when he was full, it was just as much fun to demolish and squish the cake between chubby fingers!

And, even better, a video of how much fun he thought it was!

After our cake antics were over, they were both stripped down and went straight into the bath. Their first ever together!



She's 3, He's 1 - A birthday party to remember

When the C household awoke on Saturday morning, our kids had two very different reactions:


Isabel was (in her words) "SO 'cited"
for the birthday party!

 

Josiah on the other hand had a 102 degree fever
and did not feel up to a party at all! He barely
felt up to being awake! Poor buddy.

  

After realizing that Josiah was sick, we sent out the appropriate "come-at-your-own-risk" warnings to all of our invited guests, and decided to proceed as planned with the Dora/Diego 3rd birthday/1st birthday bash!

Josiah not surprisingly slept much of the day leading up to the party, and even some during the party, but when he was awake, he was generally sitting in someone's lap quietly taking it all in! What a trooper!



Grandma Tina blessed the kids by making beautiful Dora and Diego birthday cakes! I can't wait until I can learn how to do this someday! They turned out amazingly and so many people commented on them!

Isabel was very excited to pose for a picture with her Dora cake, to have "Happy Birthday" sang to her, and to blow out the candles (which she did all by herself this year!) Josiah couldn't have cared less about his cake, but he humored Mommy by allowing us to put him in his highchair while we sang "Happy Birthday" (I must say Isabel was adorable standing right in front of Josiah and singing the song to him...how sweet!).  We put a piece of the Diego cake in front of him to see if he would have any interest. At first, he didn't have a clue what to do, so I took a bit of the frosting and stuck it in his mouth. That intrigued him and he did pick at the cake for a few minutes, but he was done pretty quickly and wanted out!







Josiah picked at his cake very disinterestedly...

 

...while Isabel literally licked her plate clean!








  The bunches of balloons were a big hit. Even Josiah perked up a little and was trying to bat the big blue balloon around. Isabel is so little I almost thought the big pink and purple bunch of Dora balloons would lift her right off the ground! :)



Isabel had fun stacking all of the new
books that she got for her birthday...



...and reading said books, one by one, in her classic Isabel
way. She also loved her pink princess boots. The minute
she opened them, they went right on her feet and were
not taken off for the remainder of the party! Thanks Aunt
Jessie, Isabel loves you!

And at the end of the day, we even coaxed a smile out of the under-the-weather birthday boy!

Kids - Mommy and Daddy can barely believe that you just turned 3 and 1! Every time we blink, you are learning something new and getting a little bit older. We love you so very much and know that you are going to achieve anything you set your mind to in this life. And our #1 prayer for you is that you will know the richness and blessing that comes with having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Happy birthday to both of you, and don't ever forget how very special you are! Love, Mommy and Daddy

Happy 1st birthday, Josiah!

I will never forget the events of one year ago today, which were sudden and unexpected, and resulted in God blessing us with a miraculous 4lb 9oz son, 8 weeks in advance of his due date.  "Little guy," as he was called for his first three days of life, was covered in immense amounts of prayer both before, during, and after his birth, and we will be eternally grateful to the friends and family who surrounded him and our family with those prayers, and who helped us in so many ways during the 44 days that he spent in the NICU.

This little guy was soon named Josiah David, and the story of how we chose his name is truly a testimony of God's providence, faithfulness, and provision. You can read about it here.

Josiah has continued to live up to the meaning of his name, "Healed by God" or "Supported by God." This past year has continued to be a medical battle for him, with his diagnosis of hydrocephalus which was treated by a VP shunt placement surgery in early November.  Josiah's story has touched many people, who have seen a glimpse of God's glory through his journey.



Today, on Josiah's first birthday, we are thankful to have a happy, healthy baby boy, who loves our doggie, choo-choo trains, riding on Daddy's shoulders, balls, and Cheerios!  He brings such joy to our lives and to the life of his big sister who loves him to pieces.

Happy birthday, Josiah! We love you!