Perfect Timing

What an incredible weekend we had recently. My parents are in the middle of a home remodel with painters and plastic everywhere and long overdue for a visit to see their grandson while Caleb and I were long overdue for a date night. So mom and dad flew down for the weekend! They got away from their makeshift studio apartment and paint fumes and got to spend some time in the sun with one of their favorite families :).

Josiah welcomed Mooma and Papa with open arms and Shep was rather fond of the added attention too!

We decided to check out the Wildlife zoo this weekend. It is on the other end of the desert, so we spend a lot of time trying to decide if it would be worth it. It was so worth it!

While Josiah is too young to really appreciate the regular zoo, he loved this one. there is an aquarium there that he loved and all the other animals were close enough for him to really see. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it! Better hurry, I have now heard that funding for the zoo is in question so it may not be around for long! (That will be a sad day.) Actually, we were wondering the whole time we were there why there weren't any PETA representatives picketing outside.

We'll just enjoy it while we have it!

8 months so soon

Josiah is 8 months old! WHAT?! How has that happened? Our little man is absolutely incredible. We can't believe he is growing up this fast. Month 7 was probably a great one for Josiah but it was a little crazy for his parents. Caleb and I had a whirl wind month of work which made our home life a little crazy too. The biggest thing we lacked was time together as a family (and sleep, but who's counting), I am sure there are others that can relate. We love that we don't have to use regular childcare, but we have felt a little more like "two ships passing in the night" that we envisioned in our initial "plan" for life after our child entered our world.

Well, we at least saw this season coming and we coped; I guess that is about as accurately as I can put it. We are at the end of 6 weeks of a lot of overtime, or as I like to think of it as a salaried employee; volunteerism. WE MADE IT and finally got a whole day as a family without so much as a work phone call to interrupt our time. We went to the zoo, hung out at home on the grass in the warm sunshine and just enjoyed being a family. I think it solidified the fact, for Josiah, that he does in fact have two parents.

Josiah thinks his dad is hilarious! Which is great for Caleb who doesn't always have the most generous audience for his jokes at our house!

We hadn't seen this guy yet. He seems to hide out whenever we come to the zoo; giving us a beautiful landscape of grass and dirt to view..Got you this time, Tiger.

Bananas are definitely one of Josiah's favorites, unfortunately we usually have to counter balance them with prunes which is not one of his favorites; not even close.

Within days of our beautiful, sunny zoo day, we had one of the most powerful rain storms I have seen. Our family had a blast bundling up and watching it from the porch. We don't see too much rain anymore, but this one was a doosy! Not like Oregon and Washington that just drip constantly, this was the real deal. Thankfully it only lasted 20 minutes and then we were right back to status quo; a status quo that I have come to love in my nearly four years so far in the desert.

Team in training

Here is a glimpse into play time at the Fields house. Josiah doesn't crawl yet but he can palm a basketball! Okay, not quite that, but we have brought out an assortment of balls and Si seems to be partial to the basktball at this point...or is it orange he's partial too? hmmm...

Josiah is doing much better for those of you who were worried. He was stricken with RSV + Sinus Infection + Ear Infection + Diarrhea + Diaper Rash...all at once. Poor little thing must have felt just awful but he was so brave! Besides being a little whinny, he was such a trooper! We have had breathing treatments and antibiotics for the last week and I think we are almost better. Still staying at home with him since he apparently is contageous until he is a-symptomatic as far as the RSV is concerned. That means no gym for now. Although I blame them anyway! When I brought Si to the doctor for this whole mess; she asked if Josiah had recently started daycare or something....hmmmm. Since we joined that darn gym I've been sick twice, Caleb once and low and behold, Si gets RSV. All those immunities, there is probably the equivelant of a force shield around the Fields house now. Nothing else is getting in here.

We have had a really busy February with work. Caleb and I are truely experiencing the "two ships passing in the night" thing for now as we finess our way through way too much work and not enough hours in the day. Thankfully we know this is a season (and a relatively short one) that we should be making our way diligently toward the end of. The light at the end of this tunnel is that my parents are coming for a visit next week and we have planned a date night and a work day (safety proofing and deep cleaning) into the weekend. Oh, who are we kidding, probably not the deep cleaning part so much, but at least we hope to be more organized and hope to alleviate some of the more glaring safety hazards in the house.

Here are some pictres of recent days. Does this look like a sick kid to you?!
We hear veggie sticks (shown above) are the best finger foods because they are so easy to hold and then desolve in your mouth. True, unfortunately I like them too, and don't really need vegitable flavored potato chips

Assuming the position; almost ready to take off! He really has stepped it up after we made sure his toys were just out of reach!

AFTER (above) BEFORE (below)

a picture says a thousand words

Splish-Splash!

Josiah turned 7 months old on the 10th! What a fun age! A friend with adult children told me that 8 months was her favorite--super fun and not able to talk back and/or run, I guess! I can't imagine loving any age more than the one we are currently experiencing. Josiah loves life and by extension, has made his parents appreciate every second we get to spend together!

Si is an expert "sitter" and becoming quite the accomplished "inch worm". Certainly not a crawler yet, but so cute as he works at getting to that toy that is just out of reach!

This little photo shoot happened on the day Si turned 7 months. I like to try to capture exactly what he looked like on each month birthday! Pretty cute, huh?

We are excited to announce that Josiah LOVES water! We were using that bucket bath; which was very cool and we liked it a lot, but I am not surprised, knowing our son, that he could hardly contain himself once we finally let him out of that confined space! FREEDOM! Si is a little fish, I can tell already! We stuck him in the big boy bath tub this week and I think he could have played for hours; maybe an option when I no longer have to hover over him on my knees.

We also attended our first "family swim" at the gym! Josiah couldn't wipe the smile off his face for hours! We didn't get a picture that even comes close to how cute he is or how much fun he had in the pool. The picture I will always have in my mind, however, is of this adorable little guy floating on his back with both arms "relaxing" behind his head, kicking and splashing his legs and smiling from ear to ear. So precious!

These two are the best! I have the best Valentines ever! This is why I get up each morning!!!

We shot this video when Si first got in the pool, he was not quite sure what was going on. Let me tell you it didn't take long for him to figure out that he was, in fact, in heaven!

sick days

Si and I have been sick all week. Stuffy nose, coughing, fever, chills, headache, sore throat...

Josiah is such a champ though, it's his mom who is complaining! Actually, the above symptoms are mine. Si seems to be escaping with the first two only! Thankfully! He has become accustomed to the bulb-suringe and even thinks it's kind of funny to get his snot suctioned out.

By the way, this is not a good time to ask about the gym. I thought I had a hard time in the last class I took because I am so out of shape, turns out I just had a fever! Anyway, in hopes of not spreading our germs we have not been back to the gym for a few days. We'll be back tomorrow, right?!

Here are a few pictures of our sick days together for the people who miss him most!