"Update blog" has been on my to-do list for quite a while. I figured I should get around to it before this baby is born, because I know it won't happen afterwards. I always have such good ideas for things to write about and include pictures, but I think I'm going to do the Cliff Notes version for the sake of time and peace of mind. The last time I updated was Joseph's 18 month birthday, which was in February! Hello, procrastination. We're less than a month away from his Big Birthday Number Two! That's way too long and way too much has happened. Here are some of the highlights (in mostly pictures, because we know that's what everyone loves about a blog):
It was Easter! Here is Joseph hunting for eggs at his great-grandma's house, and our Easter baskets from Brian's mom.

He loves Cookie Monster, so that little toy is still one of his favorites.

In April we had the annual school tree plant with Brian's work. We thought we weren't going to get to go this year because Brian had other things to do that day, but he finished them really quickly so we were able to still make it. Joseph especially enjoyed tasting all the rocks and pieces of burnt wood at the site. I enjoyed the trilliums that were blooming, and Brian was left to do all the digging. (Not really; I did help him, and we both helped all the 5th graders there.)

I got to see Amy and Nola, my awesome ladies, for a girls' weekend at the beach house. I miss you guys so much! We MUST do this every year.

A firewood-cutting expedition...Joseph makes sure that these rocks aren't any more tasty than the ones at the tree plant.

He is actually eating real food here, not rocks.

My friend Robin from church (on the right in the picture below) moved away from Coos Bay up to Corvallis, but she came down to visit and have a baby shower! We three pregnant ladies are all due within a month of each other. Robin had her baby a few days ago, I'm due next week, and Adrienne (on the left) is due two weeks after me.

Joseph also got his first haircut! (You see how all of these should have had their own post...not at all related to each other and I'm skimming the details of all of them.) I loved his cute little curls but it was just getting out of control. Plus, when his hair was wet, it was on his shoulders! I knew we would be swimming a lot at Shasta, so we went in for his first trim. Brian's Aunt Connie has her own salon and got Joseph looking really handsome.

The "before" picture, ready to go in the balloon cape.

There's no going back now.

All finished!

Between that balloon in the background and the mirror, Joseph kept swiveling his head and poor Connie earned her money trying to catch him in one spot.

He looked so much older to me afterwards. No more little baby curls, but a real little boy. I kept doing double-takes for a day or two later.

In the middle of June was the annual family Shasta vacation. This may be the last year (but maybe not) and it was a really good one! Joseph loved the pool and swimming but was ambiguous about the loud and windy boat rides.

The Nuffers who were there for church. It was SO HOT in Redding that day.

Some cool relief!

Happy swimmers!

Jumping in to Dad. No fear!

Grandpa Kerr gives a little jumping encouragement and advice.

Out for a boat ride.

Henry and Amy. He wasn't the biggest fan of that life vest. Joseph wasn't either, last year.

Swimming under the bridge.

We could see little fishes swimming in the water!

Joseph takes his turn driving the boat. There's no minimum age, right?

One of the highlights was celebrating Grandma and Grandpa Kerr's 60th wedding anniversary with all the family. It was so much fun!

A repeat of last year's picture of the moms and babies. Awesome, Liz!

And the dads and babies! The little guys are all one and a bit. The big ones are 30 and something...

Then we had the Fourth of July and Joseph got to stay up late and watch the big fireworks...

And we did some little ones, too.

We visited Troutdale for the Nuffer grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary (which was a good time and awesome to get to see family) and went up to the top of Larch Mountain on a perfect day.

Brian's parents went out of town for a week and so we took care of their house while they were gone. I went over one afternoon to find that their old cat, Bell (short for Stinkerbell) had passed away. We dug her a grave the next day and had a little service for her. She was a good cat and will be missed.

Brian is getting Joseph started early on what he considers the best sport to play. :)

And those are some of our highlights from the last few months! Hopefully I won't wait another six months to update again.

I've been searching for videos and books to share with Joseph about new babies in the family and we've looked at quite a few, but he just isn't old enough to grasp the concept yet. One thing it has done is make me consider what it is like to go from having one child to two. I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed at first but eventually it'll be old hat. It touches me to think of Joseph as a big brother, teaching, sharing, and loving his little brother (along with hitting, taking from, and tackling him, of course.) I think having siblings is one of the best ways in life to learn about unselfishness, patience, working through problems, and acceptance. I hope that Joseph and his brother learn these things with each other. I know life changed a lot for Brian and I when Joseph came along, but now I wouldn't have it any other way! I think our hearts just keep expanding for all the people in our family and it doesn't take away from the other relationships but instead adds to them. I'm looking forward to having one more person to hold close in my heart. Stay tuned for birthdays and baby pictures, all in the next few weeks!

He's 18 months!

Joseph at 18 months

Height: 33 in. (close to 75^th percentile)

It's a good idea NOT to buy the child's costume a month before Halloween. You might end up a few inches short.

Weight: 25 lbs 8 oz. (about 50^th percentile)

Yes, I AM wearing an adult-sized hat.

Head: BIG (over 100^th percentile of normal)

Wears 18 month clothes though sometimes 12 (mostly pants) and sometimes 24 (mostly shirts).

Shoes are a 4 or 5.

Hair is getting longer in back, though not to his collar yet. Curls slightly just after a bath and always under his right ear. Light brown/blond.

I love this picture for more reasons than I can list. Especially his little belly button.

He loves to chase Vader around the house. She escapes by jumping up into the windowsill.

He has just started to climb up on the couches by himself. He’s been getting onto the coffee table and the hearth for a while now, and recently discovered that he can get from the hearth to one of the couches. 

He is big on words and knows about four letters. (I was wearing my London sweatshirt one day and he pointed to an O and said, “Wheel!” I said, No, that’s an O! He said, “Oh!” And then that day he kept finding the letter O in his books. He also picked up the letters  Y, E, and D from another one of my sweatshirts. Who knew my choice of tops would help my child’s literacy? I’m amazed.) I stop counting his words when he got to 100, about a month ago, but in the past few days he said alder, eat, tomato, moon, up, amen, and down for the first time. It’s funny what he has a word for and what he doesn’t. For example, he’s never said milk, pajamas, or diaper, definitely everyday words around here, but he does say jeans, engine, and goat. Some of his favorites are stinky, yucky, and gross…what a little boy. 

My favorite thing he says is the meow for a kitty. It is unbelievably cute and sweet.

He loves picking out his socks every morning from the sock basket.

The most exciting time of day for him is when the mail truck comes. He hears it down the street, pauses in whatever he is doing to look at me and say, “Mail!” over and over. If I get up, he runs to the door and tries to pull it open, saying, “Mail! Mail!”

Not so impressed by snow.

He still loves mirrors and always gives himself a kiss. If you tell him to give someone else a kiss, he’ll blow the kiss, which consists of opening his mouth and smacking his open hand on it a few times.

At church, nursery is the biggest blessing in his life (and ours!) He gets to play with toys, eat a snack, sing songs, and color with other kids instead of being herded by mom or dad.

Learning what an alder cone is on our nature walk.

When I tell him it’s time for a meal, he says, “Bite!” and runs to his high chair or the kitchen.

He loves climbing into things. His usuals are the Lego wagon, the newspaper basket next to the fireplace, and laundry baskets.  He also tries to climb into the lunch bag Brian uses and gets so frustrated that he can only get one foot in. At church on Sunday, he was playing with my keys in the hymnbook holder, and kept lifting his leg as if he were trying to climb in. He makes me laugh so much.

He is really good at hugs. He just holds on tight and squeezes! He also will say I love you if you say it to him first. It makes my heart melt.  

He also likes to say hole while attempting to stick his finger up your nose. :)

Oh, let me count the ways...

Things I Love...

...About Being Pregnant.

• lying on my front and feeling the little bump under me. Can't do this for much longer, but for now, it's still possible. It means, this is real!
• getting to rotate new clothes into the lineup! True, they're not the cutest clothes, and they're BIGGER than what I was wearing, but the point is, they're NEW! And I still count them as new if they came from the thrift store. Or I wore them my last pregnancy. Yep, still counts.
• ultrasounds. I live for these. I love getting to see that little body in there, kicking and squirming. I love the profile shots. I love seeing the heart flickering through the transparent skin. I love hearing that heartbeat. And I love the little hand gestures. I got a "Number One!" the last time I was there. :)
• No. More. Period. Glory, glory, hallelujah, there cannot be enough emphasis on this. No man will ever understand. This alone balances out the yuckiness of all that nausea.
• the understanding looks I get from other women once I'm showing. They've been there...they know.
• the knowledge that this, too, shall pass...and when it does, we'll have a new little one.
• the miracle of life. This is the absolute best part of being pregnant. Just knowing that a little person is growing and developing in there, that my body is nurturing his or hers, and that some day it will be an independent person walking and talking and living...that takes my breath away, every time I think about it. It is an honor and a privilege to partner with my husband and with God to bring to pass this miracle.

I always thought it would be different

August 30, 2011??!


That was the date of my last blog post.

What the heck have I been doing for the last five months? Oh yeah, reading other people's blogs.

So I figure that I'll start back up with small posts that don't require lots of work. Like uploading pictures. :) Although I think I just remembered one that would fit this pretty well, so you might get a picture anyway. Yay!

Here it is:

I woke up early the other morning and way lying in bed thinking about my siblings. I miss them. I miss how involved we all were in each other’s day-to-day lives when we were teenagers, even though we fought and didn’t always get along. It’s different now that we’re all adults, all married and with kids. We’re much nicer to each other but we also know less about each other. We see each other WAY less. I'm jealous of my siblings that live in the same state as other siblings. They can get together and do things on the spur of the moment. I only see my brothers and sister now at either our Shasta vacation or at Christmas. And at those times, we are busy busy busy and stressed and there are 15 little kids running around and it is incredibly difficult to have any kind of serious conversation and all the parents are tired and thus go to bed early instead of staying up late to talk with the other adults. 

My proposal: I hereby invite all of my siblings and their families to my house. Probably one family at a time, though; our house is pretty small. One shower. This way we avoid the large group stress. We’ll throw the extra mattress down on the floor in the office, the kids can camp out in the living room, and we can spend our days sliding down sand dunes, stomping in mud puddles, swimming in waterfalls, making pizzas, doing jigsaw puzzles, seeing the BIGGEST Douglas Fir in the WORLD, and our nights playing board games and catching up. I want to know my siblings better but also their spouses and my nieces and nephews, and for them to know us! Why are we spread out over three states? Why can’t we all live within an hour of each other and see each other on birthdays, holidays, nothing days, and not just once a year vacation days? Sigh. Come visit. Seriously.