A post a day--Dec. 27: Happy Birthday, dear Jojo!!!

Today is my little sis's birthday!!  So I wanted to use this post to send her birthday wishes across the miles. :)  (Don't worry, I called her and sang over the phone too . . . only I had to sing to her answering machine because she didn't answer!!  But that's OK, I will catch up with her and chat one of these days. :))  Anyway, in honor of her birthday, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of "then and now" pictures with you all.  This first picture is probably close to 30 years old . . . maybe more like 28-29?  My mom might know.  Anyway, this was taken at Story Land, as is quite obvious. :)  I have no idea why we look so solemn!  Maybe we were sad because we were going to be leaving soon?  Or maybe we were having sharing issues with the cotton candy?  At any rate, here we are, forever immortalized in the Story Land frame.  (I'm the one on the left, by the way . . . Jojo is the cutie on the right!)

On Columbus Day 2012, we visited Story Land together again; this time we had a lot bigger group!  We thought it would be fun to recreate the photo.  It was a spur of the moment idea and I hadn't looked at the above photo for ages, so we didn't exactly recreate it accurately . . . but I have to say we look a lot more cheerful. :)  It was interesting to see that the frame and sign are totally different than they were 30ish years ago . . . I wonder how often they change them?

Joanna is my very favorite sister (OK, she's my only sister!) and we have always been very close.  Even though we live many states apart now, we still have that special bond and every time we are together it's easy to pick up where we left off.  We have a lot in common but we are different in a lot of ways, too.  Maybe that is partly why we get along so well! :)  She is a great sister and a dear friend, and I'm blessed to have her in my life!  So, happy birthday, dear Jojo!  May you have many more wonderful years ahead!

Josiah at 8 months

Today is Josiah's 8 month birthday, and this also happens to be my 600th post!! I thought it would be fun to celebrate 2 milestones together. :)

Josiah's newest skill, as I mentioned last week, is crawling! He's getting very good at it, and the Christmas tree is no longer safe. Actually, he was very mobile even before he started crawling, but now he's much faster, so I have to watch him more closely. It's great, though, because he will happily play on the floor for a lot longer now that he's so good at sitting and going places.
He's a very sociable fellow and loves to smile at people, and giggle at his brother and sister. Last night we got together with our friends Elijah & Sarah and Elijah's parents, and Josiah took to Elijah and snuggled on his shoulder, which is unusual because he's not that much of a snuggler. I'd say he's definitely a "people person" though-so far, anyway! He recently started saying "Dadadadada"--not sure if he is specifically using it in reference to his Daddy or not, but it's cute anyway. :)

He isn't eating any baby food yet, although we sometimes give him little bits of soft food off our plates, which he seems to enjoy. I'll probably start him on some cereal pretty soon; I'm kinda lazy and am holding out as long as possible. :) He's definitely still getting plenty of calories from nursing; he's a solid little man. Not sure how much he weighs, as he doesn't have another checkup till January. He doesn't have any teeth yet. I thought he was teething a few weeks ago; he was extra fussy and has a lot of strange diapers going on, but if it was teeth, they haven't popped through yet. It will be interesting to see how he compares to the other kids--Sam got his at 6 months, pretty average, but Julia didn't get any till 11 months. My sister's kids got their first at 4 months! I'm kind of glad mine tend toward getting them later. :)Josiah is such a little blessing; he's mostly a very cheerful little guy and a lot of fun. I am trying to hang onto his babyhood because it is rushing by too fast!