Jojo on the move

Check out these big smiles!

Wiggles, rolls and push-ups 

Zerberts...need I say more?

And he crawls! (just a little)

Josiah - 7 months

I'm jumping out of chronological order here to post some 7-month pictures of Jojo. This kid is growing like a weed and never stops moving. You may wonder why several of my pictures look blurry, especially if you look at Jojo's legs. Not the camera--that's bicycle boy, who is constantly pumping up and down. He will be a natural on a bike when the time comes! 

Much larger than the bear

 

 This picture is getting harder to take--he was trying to eat the blocks. Also--interesting to point out--when we left St. Louis, I only brought one of the two number blocks (which has 1-6 on it). I figured there was no way I'd need the block with #7 before we'd move and have a house. Ha! We made it by two weeks. And really, the whole selling a house and buying a house process went pretty quickly, so it appears that I was just naive back in September.

 Blue-eyed cutie!

This is how you'll find Josiah much of the time these days. He pulls up to standing. He's now getting daring and letting go, which ends in a wipeout. This morning, it seemed like a switch flipped--he gets into crawling position, and instead of going backwards, he's making forward progress. He also (I think) went from crawling to sitting, though I didn't see it happen. I just saw the before and after positions, and I highly doubt Thomas helped him. The only "help" Thomas gives Jojo is to knock him over or pull on an arm to tip him over.

New house sneak peek

 We closed on our new house on Friday, February 24th and celebrated that and TJ's birthday with pizza and ice cream sandwiches at the new house.

 First dinner at the house!

 Our family in front of the new house

TJ's birthday present from us: a new bike. An empty house was the perfect place to learn how to ride it! Now that we have furniture, he's relegated to the basement. 

We're now 12 days in to living at the new house, and we love it! Space, light, a garage, a blank slate of cream walls just waiting for me to add color to...!

There is still plenty to unpack, but we've made lots of progress. More pictures of the house, the boxes,  and our first visitors to follow in the coming days.

Random pre-move pics

A few more pictures from before the move:

 The boys helped pack. Not really...Thomas kept emptying boxes of packed clothes. Josiah just wanted to stand up next to the boxes.

 As Josiah gets older/bigger and more interactive, we've had so much fun watching the boys react to each other. There's still a lot of pushing, hitting, and taking away of toys, but there are also tons of hugs and love.

And don't forget a little wrestling! Jojo gets manhandled by Thomas, who definitely doesn't understand the size difference. But 90% of the time, Jojo has a big grin on his face.

 During the packing process, Thomas decided to lay in the drawer I'd just emptied in his room.

 I *may* have closed the drawer while he was in it (just for a few seconds). Not a popular move!

 Here's our big stander. Josiah's new philosophy is "why sit or lay when you can stand?!?!" He locks his legs when you try to make him sit. He is very proud of his standing abilities.

Ed and I bought this hat in Peru a couple years ago. We meant it to fit TJ the winter he turned 2. We were a bit off on sizing, but realized it fits Josiah now. Could this kid and hat combo be any cuter?!

Jenn and Pat come to visit

I'm back at blogging...packing/moving + 5 days of technician visits to get the Internet functioning properly + unpacking + work deadlines = some blog downtime. Time to catch up!

Jenn and Pat came to visit us on our last weekend in the apartment. Thanks for coming to visit us! When you come see us at the new house, we won't make you share a room with Thomas! :)

 We celebrated Pat's 30th and TJ's 3rd birthday with another construction-themed cake.

 Their gift to Thomas: plastic food to go with a surprise gift that's coming soon (betcha can't guess what...!). Both boys really love the food.

 Apparently we don't feed this one enough! Here he's gnawing on a chicken leg.

 And Josiah also decided he'd like to be more mobile. With Jenn's encouragement, he pulls himself up to standing. She also caught him scooting backwards.

Standing on Uncle Pat.

You Are My Sunshine

When I was born, my dad bought me a stuffed elephant that played the song "You Are My Sunshine." Ever since both of the boys were born, I've been singing them that song. I shouldn't be surprised that Thomas has picked up the words--that kid mimics EVERYTHING he hears, and his song repertoire is quite impressive.
What's not quite as impressive is his pitch. Either he has inherited my tone deaf-ness, or hearing my singing it out of key for the last three years has given him a bad example to mimic. He often asks me to sing "the sunshine song," and recently he has been singing it to Josiah. Very sweet!

I also want to point out that Jojo was fussy before TJ started singing--so he's not reacting to the serenading!                                      

3 years old!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

It's hard to believe that our sweet TJ is 3 years old today! It's cliche to say, but it has been a fast 3 years! We started out the day with donuts for breakfast--yum! Assuming all goes smoothly, we'll celebrate as a family tomorrow night at our new house with pizza and ice cream.