Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Baptism

Josiah was baptized this past weekend! We had tons of fun and I think it was one of the most entertaining baptisms I've recently seen. Now Caleb and I are not from backgrounds where babies are normally baptized; that is, until the last few years we were used to seeing grown adults being baptized who could behave themselves. It was hilarious to watch our beautiful baby boy become the center of attention in a crowd of hundreds: and those were just his God parents!

Well, not really, but close! Caleb and I were a little confused. We thought that "sponsor" was a person or persons who supported you while your child was getting baptized and who were committing to walking with you as a family and helping Josiah to learn about Christ....so we asked the people in our lives here in Arizona who are like family to us and who we expect to help us to raise our young man right! Well, first, I introduced my grand plan for 5 families to stand with us as we had Josiah baptised to our friend Bev. She cried and said she would be honored to be up there with us. I let her know who else we were planning to ask and she thought it was a great idea. Well then our lives came to a sudden halt when Armondo died and I never got around to asking the rest of our "family" to join us on stage. So it was a few weeks before the "event" when Bev kindly mentioned to me that she was pretty sure no one else knew about our plan for baptism or their role as our "sponsors". Over the next few days I appologized to the remaining four families and basically listened to them inform me that they already had plans for October 25th and wouldn't be around to see the baptism let alone take part in the blessed event!

Thankfully, they were kidding (Bev had gotten to them first) and we had all our closest friends here stand with us at the baptism. Only a few days before the baptism did we find out that it was highly unusual for that many people to be "god parents" to a child. (the church secretary told us when she couldn't fit all the names on his certificate). Well, I say the more the marrier, but apparently it is customary for a child to have one or two god parents...so we spent some time informing ours about how good they have it because they can be off-the-hook for at least some of the many requirements that a god parent is required to do, then we spent some more time joking about the prayer and greeting card schedule we could put them all on to accomplish the combined responsibiltiy of their new role! We are so excited to have, like 12 God parents and I am sure Josiah is too....hmmmm, who should be pick if we have another child?

The stage was made all the more crowed when Pastor asked all the children in the congregation to come forward so he could teach them all about baptism while he actually performed one! It was a big day at church. Caleb's students who had finished 3 years of confirmation classes were also being confirmed this Sunday so they too looked on from the stage area. It was very good timing to say the least since Josiah's baptism and the kid's confirmation falling on the same day meant that Caleb only had to wear a suit once....two birds with one stone.

Josiah was quite the charactor! First, he nodded and smiled on cue when Pastor asked him if he was ready! quite cute! Second, he started crying mid way through the baptism and third, felt much better after he threw up all over himself! He was all smiles after that! It was all the more adorable that this was the first baptism that was shown as live feed on the huge monitors...it was larger than life barf, let me tell you!







It was a big weekend for Josiah, not only did he "become he newest member of God's family" he also got his first taste of ice cream, thanks to his new god parents! Is THAT what god parents are supposed to do?

Also, Josiah got to turn around and say goodbye to his car seat while riding in his jogger! big day since he HATES his car seat. He absolutely loves to be outside and to look out at all that is going on outdoors, so this was pretty huge! he loved it. The family walks will never be the same!



Sunday, October 18, 2009

Bars and Tattoos

We innocently accepted an invitation by some good friends this weekend to go out with them for pizza and dancing. It became clear when we met them at the pizza PUB that we had brought our baby to a bar. I guess it wasn't really a bar bar, it could be considered a family restaurant, I guess. But I couldn't stop thinking about a very funny scene from "Sweet Home Alabama". Not one of my proudest moments.

It was my 30th birthday this weekend, which many of you know judging by my facebook page! Caleb and I had some close friends stay with Josiah and we hit the town. By hit the town I mean we went out to dinner and Caleb wore pants and a dress shirt rather than cargo shorts and a free-camp-tee. We are both now officially in our 30's!

Then we went to a church picnic where I put a stick-on football tattoo on Josiah without even thinking to look at what kind of ink or whatever they use on the tattoos. So in one weekend, we took him with us to a bar, then left him with a babysitter so we could go out, then defiled his little body with a tattoo. I think "Parents of the Year" is just around the corner!




Si went to the doctor last week and all is well! He weighs 12 pounds, 2 ounces. Not that the stats are either specific or important, but he is in the 10-25% in weight and head circumference and the 25-50% for height (tall and skinny). He is a healthy, happy boy!



Caleb and I have been pretty pathetic when it comes to this adorable little boy! The other day we hugged and cuddled Josiah and then put him to bed...then within a few minutes we were both sitting in our office on two seperate lap tops, both looking at pictures of Josiah online.
Then, as we were brousing the isles of Gymboree for cute clothes for Si, we came to the realization that we were supposed to be on a date and there we were shopping for our child.
I was having a conversation with Caleb's mother, Becky the other day and explained to her how we always keep the car seat in the new van and then Caleb or I, whichever one of us is not with Si, takes the old car in to work. Becky then pointed out to me that really, Josiah has his own car and Caleb and I share the old beater. :)
We just can't get enough of him. We think he is the greatest!


Sunday, October 11, 2009

3 months already

Our beautiful boy is 3 months old already! Time is flying by and I am just praying that he won't grow too quickly out of his cuddle stage! High school feels like it's just around the corner! Here is just a quick update of some pictures from the last week or two...Notice that many to most of them are on some continuum between out-of-focus and just-plain-blurry! I think that means that we do need to "splurge" for some professional (Walmart or it's equivilant) photos for some of the big milestone months...you know: 3 mo, 6 mo, 9 mo and so on! We think he is adorable blurry or not but that is probably because we see him in person all the time. Maybe you all would like some professional pics. Anyway, here are the unprofessional ones: Hope you like. Maybe this week will yeild enough time to run by a studio. We also have a doctor's apointment this week, so I'll let you know how that goes...just a well visit and some shots.




One of the students in our youth group is swimming this year so Josiah and I like to go to support her and to get some wading experience.

Josiah in his "snuggie"

So, Si will not be hiking in this anytime soon! Maybe next year! Caleb is like "what? he fits!" Also, yes, this picture is taken in our bathroom...apparently Caleb was carrying him around in the pack right before he needed to take a shower.

He is so happy, what a good natured kiddo

Tummy-time is a lot more interesting when Shep is the object/target of Si's affection!

Daddy and Baby hitt'n the books. At least Caleb is wearing clothes.

Cas was in town last week with some friends and stayed with me for a couple days before she went home. We celebrated our upcoming 30th birthdays with some shopping and sushi!


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Any port in a storm...

We had a wonderful time in San Antonio a few weeks ago and if there is one thing we learned it's that Josiah is a little social butterfly. There was never a shortage of people wanting to cuddle him and he was all too happy to oblige!
Oma and Si hit it off great! It was almost everyone's first time meeting him so he was passed around a ton...if his parents had any reservations about the child-passing we got over it really quickly!

Caleb's mom, Becky and Si chatting it up!

This is Caleb's brother, John and his father, Steve. The whole family stayed together at this amazing 100-year-old house a few blocks from where the wedding reception was held. It was a perfect location and a beautiful place to stay! We all felt so at peace when we walked in the door...which is good because not all aspects of our trip were stress free! Thankfully, the house and the company were!

Josiah slept the entire wedding and reception...I have no idea who we got so lucky...he actually slept that night as well. We must have really tired him out, or over-stimulated the heck out of him...maybe the sleeping was just a well-developed coping mechanism. Either way, he behaved beautifully considering one parent was a bridesmaid and the other was reading scripture in the wedding, we were initially a little concerned about who has to take the baby out of the church if he starts screaming in the middle of the ceremony. (that's a hard thing to just ask someone in the family to do-at a wedding!) but thankfully we had lots of volunteers and we didn't end up needing a runner anyway.
Just for the record, he also did an amazing job on the plane both to and from San Antonio! Slept the whole way and didn't even seem to notice the pressure changes! thank goodness. I like to think I have no problem being embarrassed of a screaming child but I am not sure I was yet prepared for a two-hour flight with no escape...not quite the same as the grocery store.

Joel and his new bride Ali drove from Houston to see us, the baby and the wedding...in that order I like to think!

Bringing the families together...one baby at a time! This is Sarah's new father-in-law dancing with Si at the reception. I am glad someone was taking pictures because I had no idea where Josiah was for much of the reception! Horrible mom, huh?!
Danny claimed Josiah from the very beginning! We are so thankful for so many people to love our kiddo!

The beautiful bride looking incredibly relaxed and de-stressed: Good job, Sarah!

What an awesome vacation! It has been some time since I have experienced more fun with family or more drama in one week! You gotta love weddings! Notice there are no pictures of the actual wedding. That's because we didn't take any. Having a child has not made Caleb and I any better and taking pictures. I wish we were but it is apparently not in our DNA. I seriously think once in a while, I have to take some pictures so I can put them on the blog! So if someone sends me some wedding pics I would be glad to put them on...(I probably don't need to clarify, but I will put them on if they are pictures of Sarah's wedding, not just any wedding!)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fall is here!

Just a few cute pictures of Josiah from the last several weeks. We can hardly believe how fast the time has flown by. Si is 12 weeks old (3 months on the 10th). He is a happy, healthy kid; smiling and trying to giggle all the time now! We love it! It just keeps getting better and better.






Josiah cuddling up with Grandpa Fields in San Antonio. Grandpa calls it "wrestling" but we know the truth! Don't they look cozy! We spent a week in San Antonio in September for Aunt Sarah's wedding. I think there are some wonderful pictures from our time there....only most of them were not taken by us. So I will post them when I get them from other generous family members.

This is one of our favorite positions in the world these days! Nothing better than taking a nap with baby bear on our chest. Don't worry, they are not going hunting.

He is still the spitting image of Caleb if you ask me! Caleb thinks that must mean he is the most adorable man on the planet since Si is so adorable! Josiah is around 12 lbs now, officially doubling his birth weight! He surprised us in Texas by rolling over for the first time! We were very excited but we haven't seen it again yet...not that we don't practice every day!
The weather here is finally starting to cool down a little and is even in the eighties this week! So we are getting to spend a lot more time outdoors! Si LOVES it outside...so far so good, we are really hoping he is an outdoor kid naturally rather than a video game kid. Not that he will have much of a choice, what with all the rules we'll have against TV and stuff! Just kidding, you can remind me of that when we have three kids and put movies on all day long just to keep some kind of peace and sanity...but good to have ideals for now, right?! Anyway, Si loves to lay on his blanket outside and we took a long walk yesterday with him in the Bjourn. He is doing so well with his head and neck strength, I think hiking in the backpack is just around the corner! Yeah for fall in Arizona!

Si is sleeping great at night and thankfully enough during the days that we are able to get a tiny, and I mean tiny, amount of work done. FYI, I typed this entire thing one-handed (left handed!). Just one of the many one-handed tricks I'velearned...so no comments about typos!
I will post more when I have two hands and some pictures from vacation!