Our Thanksgiving & Josiah's appointment

Our Thanksgiving festivities started with Josiah going to the doctor. Nothing serious, just his two month check-up. We had everything packed up so we could head to St. Cloud and the cities immediately after the appointment.

Josiah's appointment went well. He weighs 12 lbs 4 oz and is 23 inches long. At this appointment he received his first set of shots. Not fun! I felt so bad for him. He had just drifted off to sleep when the lady gave him his first shot (he ended up getting 3 shots total). I felt like I needed to wake him and prepare him for the pain. He wasn't too happy about it, but didn't cry as bad as I had thought. What a trooper. Garrison was also very well behaved while Josiah received his shots. He just sat in Thomas' lap and watched the whole time. I'm sure he was wondering if he was next.

Once the appointment was over we were on our way to St. Cloud. (Oh... if I didn't mention it this was Wednesday morning, not Thanksgiving day.)

It's interesting having parents that don't get along and are in the process of getting a divorce. Who do you hang out with for the holidays? This year we ended up having breakfast with my dad at Perkins and then went to my parents house (I call it my parents house because it's too weird saying "moms house" when it's the house that my parents once lived in together) to have Thanksgiving with my mom.

It was nice getting together with my family, but an adjustment realizing that nothing will be "traditional" again.

It was great getting to meet my new little niece, Adeline. She is such a doll! And I have to say she looks just like her mommy. I couldn't see any of my brother in her. Maybe as she grows.

We attempted to get some cousin pictures, but with three small children and basically two of them brand new, it was pretty impossible. We did, however, manage to snap some, but had to have every camera ready and snapping as fast as the cameras could go.
Garrison was actually willing to sit and "hold" his brother so that we could snap some pictures. Aren't they adorable? Or is it just because I'm their mom and love them so much?
This is my favorite picture of Garrison and Josiah. Every time I look at this picture it makes me smile. Josiah looks a little concerned that Garrison's hand is approaching his neck. While Garrison has this I'm-taking-care-of-my-brother pose (arm around Josiah and hand "supporting" him from flopping forward).
Josiah was not happy in this picture. I think Uncle Tom was making fun of him. Which has nothing to do with why he's crying, but Josiah timed his crabbiness just right where it seemed like he was sad that Tom was making fun of him. Love the lip though. (Not sure why Josiah's hair looks red in some of these pictures. He does have brown hair.)
Here Uncle Tom and Josiah are finally on good terms. My brother couldn't get over how big Josiah was, but he's used to holding his little peanut.

My little niece, Adeline. Isn't she beautiful? This is such a great picture of her. I'm telling you she's a doll.
Oh, now she looks like her daddy. My parents have a few pictures of my brother like this. Only he has about three chins and drool hanging. It's hard for those little eyes to adjust to things.
And what a way to end the festivities, but with a nap. (Although, I think that this was taken after our Thanksgiving breakfast with my dad.)
After we had Thanksgiving with my family. We headed to Minneapolis to have Thanksgiving with Thomas' family. Thomas' brother James and his wife Shana had everyone over to their house for roast beef. Shana's a great cook! We spent Friday afternoon with them (Thomas' brothers Nate and James plus their wives Kathy and Shana and Nate and Kathy's two boys, Brody and Andrew.)

We headed home Saturday morning.

It was a nice time away, but it's good to be home now. It's hard on the boys to be away from home that long and be out of their routine. What am I saying? It's hard on me too.

Now it's time to put up the tree and get ready for CHRISTMAS!!

He's already 2 months!

Josiah is already two months! He's growing so fast that I call him my chunky monkey. I'm not sure how much he weighs. I'll know tomorrow after his two month doctors appointment, but he's mostly in 3 to 6 months clothing.

It so much fun having him in our family. He keeps Thomas and I on our feet. Just when we think we've got him figured out he goes and changes something on us.

The first few weeks, after he was born, were pretty rough on all of us. Josiah cried a lot. He cried almost the whole time he was awake. He didn't like anything we tried: swaddling, pacifier, bouncing, swinging, walking, patting his back and on and on. We ended up buying some gripe water, which seemed to really help him... for awhile. After about a week or two of the gripe water working he started crying often. I thought that maybe he was allergic to dairy, so I took dairy out of my diet. (That was incredibly hard for me. I drink milk all day long and have a bowl of cereal before I go to bed almost every night. It was one long week.) I'm back to having dairy and he's not fussy. I think that his digestive system just needed to mature a little. During this time of trying different things he was very gassy and now he's not.

Josiah is a pretty good sleeper... once he falls asleep. Getting Josiah to fall asleep is somewhat of a challenge. I've been working on trying to get him to go to sleep on his own, but it hasn't been working all that well and I'm not really forcing it too much. He likes to fall asleep in your arms or on my chest. A pacifier normally soothes him until it falls out. I'm trying to build up his sucking strength by lightly pulling on the pacifier once he's got a good suck going. The past week he has been sleeping 8 hours or more at night. The last two nights he's slept for 11 hours. It has been very nice to have a sleeping baby, but Thomas and I still get up a few times during the night just to make sure he's breathing. I think I'll do that for a very long time. I still get up and check on Garrison.

Josiah is a talker. He loves to talk to you and smile. He's been doing this since he was two weeks old. I love having "conversations" with him. His little coos are so cute and his smile melts my heart every time. I wonder if he'll talk early.

Josiah is also a strong little buddy. He can hold himself up pretty well while you hold him and he's been able to lift his head since he was about 2 weeks old.

A lot of people say that Josiah looks just like Garrison. That may be true, (I've said it many times myself) but he also has his own look to him and personality. It's going to be so much fun watching him grow and develop his personality as the years go by. We cannot wait, Josiah!

Welcome to our family, little man. We love you!

My 22 month old

Garrison is 22 months! Oh my goodness. Where has the time gone?

Every stage that he's been in is my favorite. There hasn't been a time in his life where I was longing for him to get to the next stage. At every milestone he amazes me and makes me so proud to be his mother. (not that he could do anything that wouldn't make me proud)

At 22 months he's starting to express himself way more than ever before. He makes me laugh with some of the things he comes up with, while at the same time making me so frustrated. I love that kid!

Garrison is starting to use some words. Here is a list of what he says: dad, mom (but doesn't say it very often), Aya for Aza, go-go or car-car for car, vroom when he plays with his cars, oof oof for dog, on, off (although on and off tend to sound the same), choo choo for train, oose for juice and if you get him in the right mood he can say book and other words if he concentrates on it.

He can also tell you where his head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly, hands, fingers, feet, toes and back are. He also knows where his arms and legs are, but sometimes gets confused.

Garrison loves to listen to music and dance. He has a move that we call the "chicken dance" which makes us laugh. It's hard to explain, but he flaps one arm while he does some kind of sideways hop thing. Maybe I can catch it on video sometime. Garrison also loves to drum. At church he loves watching Uncle Shane play the drums on stage. He takes the pens from the pews and pretends to drum with them.

Garrison also loves helping me bake. He's a great helper at putting the ingredients in the bowl and always wants to stir.

He's also becoming very independent and gets mad when we try to do things for him. He likes to brush his own teeth, eat on his own and sometimes gets mad when we dress him, put his coat and shoes on or wash his hair (he wants to put the shampoo in and scrub his head).

Garrison's favorite movies are Cars, anything Veggie Tales or Thomas the train. The kid can sometimes be obsessed.

He also has to have his duck when he goes to sleep and lately his favorite bedtime stories are "Old MacDonald", "Humpty Dumpty and friends" and "If you give a pig a pancake." Garrison has always been a good sleeper and lately he goes to bed between 7 and 8 and sleeps until 6 or 7. When he wakes up the first thing he does is yell for dad. I love it!

Garrison is also a big help when it comes to his brother Josiah. He loves trying to share things with him, but doesn't understand why he won't take them. When Josiah cries he likes to run over to him and either pet his head or pat his back and give him kisses. He's so cute to watch with Josiah. He's very caring and loving with him.

Garrison is very curious about life. He points at all kinds of things and asks us what it is by grunting. Sometimes he tries to say what it is and sometimes he doesn't. The other day he was standing on the couch leaning over the back looking outside. We live on a busy road and have vehicles going by all the time. Anytime a vehicle drove by he would say car, car, car, car, but then when a big semi would drive by he'd stop and stare. It was entertaining.

I'm so glad that God blessed me with him. I'm so proud to be his mom. I love you tons, Garrison!

Tom and Dawn

My brother is about to become a daddy!!! Tom, my brother, and his wife Dawn are at the hospital right now having their little baby girl. The last I heard (at 10 this morning) was that Dawn was at 5 centimeters and having back labor. Yuck! She went into labor at 10 pm on Monday night. That means she's going on 39 hours of labor (I'm writing this at 1 pm Wednesday). Oh, that poor girl.

If you could take a moment to pray for them that would be wonderful. I talked to Tom yesterday and he said that they hadn't slept much since she went into labor.

I'm so excited! I can't believe that my brother is going to be a daddy. I'll keep posting as I hear more. I can't wait to meet baby girl Williams.

update:
She has arrived!! Adeline Mae Williams arrived here this morning at 7:10. She weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. Congratulations Tom and Dawn!

dancing is so much fun

I love listening to Michael Jackson's music. Especially if I'm not in the greatest mood. Blasting some Billy Jean always makes me smile. You can't listen to it without moving your feet a little. When I was younger I loved dancing in front of the mirror and pretending I was performing. Guess Garrison loves to do that too.

outside fun

Here are some pictures from our time outside yesterday. It was nice to be out enjoying the fresh air. After we played in the leaves for awhile Garrison took out his new blue tricycle. He was having fun on it until he started down our driveway, which goes down hill, and the bike started to go too fast. As it started to pick up speed it rolled and he ended up hitting his head on the tar and scratched up his hands a little. That was the end of our outside time.

I also couldn't help sneaking inside to take a picture of Josiah sleeping in the swing while we were outside playing. He was so peaceful.

I'm back

We are finally back as a family and starting to get into a routine again. Two weeks ago we all left for the cities to hang out with family while Thomas took his classes at Bethel again. Thomas' mom, Sharon, flew in from California to help me out with Garrison and Josiah while Thomas was in school. We had a blast with her and I'm glad that Garrison and Josiah got to spend a whole week with their grandma because we don't get to see her that often. Thank you SO much Sharon!

Then the second week that Thomas was gone Garrison, Josiah, myself and Aza stayed home and my sister, Jackie, came to visit and help. We had a lot of fun with her too while she was here. Garrison and Jackie became great buddies while she was here. They hung out the entire week. Thank you for ALL your help Jackie!

Now, today, is the first day that we are back together and settling in. Doing wash, catching up on our week, daddy getting his boy time in with his sons. The bonus is that today it's 60 some degrees. So we are heading on out to go enjoy it.