We had a "Memorial Day" playdate on Monday, and all the kids looked great in their red-white-and blues!
Love this one of Vivian - isn't she precious?
Meera and Joseph are teeny-tiny buddies. Oh her outfit!
Caught you, Cole!
Rachel and Lily enjoying the park
Well, If it qualifies. He said "Hi Dada" this morning when he rolled over and saw T.J.! It was definitely not a fluke. Pretty neat!
He also had what appeared to be his first "tantrum" today. He got really mad and sort of threw himself onto me while screaming when he didn't get his way. I'm sure hitting the floor kicking and screaming is next! Yey for todder-hood!
Joseph learned how to work the light switch today! It was really cute. He fipped it on and off about, oh 50 times before I got bored/tired of holding onto him.
Other fun stuff:
He rarely eats books anymore! It's so nice to let him play with them finally, instead of monitoring him to make sure he doesn't choke on cardboard.
I gave him a big sticker today. Absolutely hilarious. He thought it was pretty amusing when it stuck to everything. I thought he'd freak out after a while of it being stuck to his hands, but he thought it was great!
Sleep is improving! T.J. is my hero - he's been doing the night time job since last FRIDAY. Wow. I've slept 6 hours straight every night since then, and I feel like a new woman. I've made breakfast two days in a row, now (pancakes and bacon, eggs and toast), and I'm trying to get stuff organized around here.
Joseph got another hair cut. He looks very dashing. I will post pictures soon. Now it's time for me to shower and get ready for knit night!
Last week we went to Rosemary Beach, FL with our friends Sara and Mike and their daughter, Megan, who is Joseph's age. Sara organizes my super-awesome mom's group, so we spend a lot of time together already. It was great to spend time as a couple; besides getting fun adult time, 4 adults vs. 2 kids makes things easy!
We spent some time at the beach (Joseph didn't think much of the sand, but he liked watching everyone else play), some time in the pool, and lots of time just relaxing. It was a great vacation.
Joseph did well in the car - it's a 7 hour drive from Atlanta, and he was a real champ. We did the first ride at night which worked out since he could sleep most of the way. The ride home was more challenging for him, but we stopped a few times and let him stretch his legs and he did ok then, too.
Getting the hang of the sun and sand
Trapped! Guess we know where Megan gets her hugging from!
Daddy even enjoyed the beach since he had Joseph to hang out with!
Building castles
Is there anything more fun than a cell phone? Not in Joseph's world.
Some days I get annoyed that T.J. does not check the blog. Other days, it's probably a good thing.
Today is one of those days.
I needed to check the fit, and well, he was the only baby handy.
Sorry Joseph, we promise we won't tell anyone, except our closest 250 blog readers. 
And maybe facebook.My ensemble for our St. Paddy's day baby, Ella, is finished! Well, possibly. I'm considering ripping back the top to make it longer... it's much larger than I'd anticipated width-wise, so it could use some more length. Grr.
ANYWAY. It's still super cute, so here it is:
This morning, after pulling myself out of the fog that only comes from getting a night's sleep in one-hour increments, I was watching Joseph play with a bunch of cd cases (yes, I tend to be more lenient in a sleep-induced haze, at least he didn't pull the tower over). He had one in his hand, then in BOTH hands. He was not hanging on to anything! He was standing. ALL BY HIMSELF! He did it for about 5 seconds before falling back on his bum.
He did it 2 other times today, as well! What an all-star!
Being the super-awesome mom that I am, I managed to catch him doing it at the park this afternoon on my phone:
Remember when you were a kid, and getting to go to a sleep over was the BIGGEST DEAL IN THE WORLD? Or when you were in high school and NEEDED to go to the movies, or you would die?
It wasn't the biggest thing in the world. You weren't really going to die. That time passed, and in retrospect it's so trivial.
I'm sure that's how people feel about their child's baby years in retrospect. However, as I am in the throes of sleep issues, I have no perspective. There is no forest. Only trees. Trees that stay awake all night long. Trees that have prevented me sleeping more than 4 hours for 14 MONTHS. Yes, I have not slept more than 4 hours straight for 14 months. I tell you this so you know WHY I'm doing what we're doing.
The things that we were doing (bed sharing, nursing to sleep and on demand all night) are no longer working. Our bed isn't big enough for the three of us anymore. Joseph doesn't fall asleep nursing anymore, and I can't handle nursing all night anymore with a kid who then will not go back to sleep. The post partum depression drugs aren't strong enough for this kind of mental torture!
On Sunday, T.J. and I moved out. Joseph is now the proud owner of a bedroom. All to himself. And I'm determined to get him to sleep there. All night. Well, at least most of it. After reading many books, websites, message boards, and talking to friends, we've decided to go with Dr. Jay Gordon's night weaning plan. He promises me a full night's sleep in two weeks time. I picked this program for several reasons:
1) He advocates this for toddlers, not babies
2) He is a huge proponent of cosleeping, and recommends this only if it's not working for YOU
3) I read his book "Good Nights" and it really helped me be secure with the choices we made when Joseph was a baby. (I need to remember this point).
So wish us luck. I really want to do this, now. I want to stop complaining about Joseph's sleep. And I want to move towards my goal of 8 hours of sleep on my birthday at the end of the month.
We've been on vacation, and he learned his first word from his friend! He is now an expert at saying "hi". It's super cute, and he is very proud of himself. We're proud of him, too! I'll try to get it on video asap.
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