3 Big Things

Three pretty big things happened in our life this week:

1. JP and I went on a date for the first time since Jonathan was born (that was over 11 months ago if you're keeping track!) Yes, you might call us crazy and that's ok. Or you might say I'm way too over the top or a control freak mom and that's ok too. I just love my kid and want to spend as much time as possible with him and the three of us as a family. (We did hope and pray for him for over a year, you know!) But we knew the time had come and my mom kept him while JP and I went to our "special occasion" place, the Melting Pot. We had a wonderful dinner, still had plenty to talk about with each other :), and we don't even think Jonathan knew we left - he did great! It was a good night.

2. Jonathan took his first steps! He took about 4-5 steps from JP to me. You would have thought he cured cancer or something the way we carried on with him! :) The boy will never have low self-esteem if we have any say in it! Also to update everyone, he's also waving hello/goodbye, saying "daddy" and "dog", blowing kisses, and giving 5. He also mimics the sounds for "thank you" and Jesus. (He doesn't have those consonants down yet, but we just KNOW that's what he's saying!) :) I know I haven't done well keeping this updated so I wanted everyone to know those accomplishments too!

3. Sadly, this week our sweet friends Justin and Brooke Olvey are moving to pastor a church in Silas, AL. Their family has been such an encouragement and joy these past 3 years or so and we hate that they are leaving. Seminary is such a transitional place to have friends and you always know that everyone will leave one day, but it doesn't make it any easier when it actually happens. But, God has called all of us to follow where He leads, no matter when or where and we know God will bless their lives and their labor in Silas. Besides, you never know how ministers' lives may cross in the future!

Overall it's been a good week and we hope everyone else is getting the year off to a great start as well!

Roll Tide!

I almost messed up my new year's resolution this first full week of January, but whew, I made it! Our first official weekly post of 2010, and I didn't have to think hard about what to write this week! Roll Tide! It's been 17 long years since our last national championship and it was such a nice win! I was in 6th grade the last time we held this title. We had some good friends over to watch the game and thankfully we had a great game to watch!
Jonathan didn't even make it through the first half but I'm sure he'll remember it well from the stories his daddy will tell. :) I was in his room rocking him to sleep and he had just closed his eyes when someone made an interception. I know this because all 5 adults in our living room (about 7 feet from Jonathan's room) yelled "interception!" Our sweet boy picked up his head, said "Daddy?" and laid his head back down and dozed off.
There have been many lessons on my relationship with the Lord that God has taught me through Jonathan, but this one was particularly special. Would I be able to recognize my heavenly Father's voice like Jonathan can recognize his earthly father's voice? I hope so, but I know that many days the most important voice I could listen to is drowned out by so many other pointless noises. I hope that I'm able to hear His voice better and better this year and teach my son to do the same!

Catching up

Let me begin by saying that my New Years resolution is to post something on here at least once a week! :) I'm such a slacker! Anyway, I wanted to catch everyone up on our busy lives these past few months. We had a great October and Halloween. Jonathan dressed up as an elephant (roll tide!) and was the cutest one I've ever seen, if I do say so myself! It was fun for me and JP to do Trunk or Treats and other fun kid stuff like that with him for the first time since we were kids.

Thanksgiving was also good. JP's parents came to our apartment a few days before Thanksgiving day and then we traveled up to Birmingham on Thursday (I had to work Thanksgiving eve). We laughed, ate way too much, shopped at ungodly hours and even had a Wii bowling tournament (Aunt Kassi won!).

We've had a great Christmas season so far. JP finished up his first semester of PhD work and we're all still alive! :) Hopefully we've all learned some things to make the following semesters easier for him and us. I was worried that Jonathan would want to play with our Christmas tree but it's really more of the presents under the tree that he's interested in. He's already mostly unwrapped one! Fortunately he's clueless so we're ok. :) We took him to see Santa last night and he did good. He looked up at him like "who are you?" and then got upset when he saw me and JP just standing there looking at him from far away. Oh well, we got a cute picture. :) He's SO active all the time! No wonder he sleeps so well! I've thought back several times this holiday season to our lives last year. I was big and pregnant and we had NO IDEA how our lives would change! But I'm SO glad they have! Jonathan is such a blessing and the most precious gift we've ever received. Thank you Lord! Merry Christmas everyone!

Making noise

Jonathan's Gran and Pop (JP's parents) gave him a stack of blocks that sit on top of a plastic disc. He has discovered that it's way more fun to just throw the plastic disc around than to actually play with the blocks! He throws it (preferably on the tile floor), screams at the loud noise, chases it down, picks it up, and does the whole thing all over again and again. He started screaming at loud noises this weekend while we cheered for the Bama game. It's a happy scream, like he's trying to join in! :) I caught a little bit of this activity on video this afternoon (about 15 secs), but he kept busy with it for about 20 minutes!

Fall day in the Frech Quarter

My parents came to town this past weekend and since it was a BEAUTIFUL fall day on Friday, we decided to spend the afternoon in the French Quarter. Since people who live here in New Orleans really only go to the quarter if visitors are in town, it was a special treat! We walked through the French Market (not very stroller friendly), around Jackson Square, and then down the Riverwalk, where Jonathan got to see his first boat. After finishing the night off with some seafood (my mom and I had shrimp, the only seafood we eat) we headed back home and kept Jonathan awake in the car so he would sleep in his bed instead :)! We didn't have any beignets but sometimes you just can't stop at Cafe du Monde when you have a sleepy 8 month old! That's just one of the many ways our lives have changed as parents. But if you see the sweet, handsome boy in these pictures, you'll understand why we are MORE than ok with the life change!

He was curious about the grass...he hasn't played in it much because the grass behind our apartment has lots of ants in it :(

Fun balloons

As part of our birthday celebration weekend a few weeks ago, we went to eat at Pancho's, a newer restaurant in town. It was yummy (especially the sopapillas!) but the best part was the balloons they gave Jonathan when we left! Your focus sure does change when you have kids. :)

We wish he would have gotten them before we left because it was a great distraction and would have enabled us to have a slower, longer dinner, but he had a good time playing with them when we got home. Ironically, I had just read the night before about how you shouldn't let babies play with balloons because they're a choking hazard, but we just really supervised him with them and kept them from his mouth because he loved them so much! They died the next day and he had forgotten all about them by then, but they sure were fun while they lasted!

A long overdue update

So apparently I'm very bad at blogging! It's been 3 weeks since I've written anything, and my child has changed so much! He's 7 1/2 months old now and pretty much changed overnight a few weeks ago. He started crawling, pulling up and got 2 teeth all within a week! So needless to say, our lives have changed as well (including slowly baby-proofing the apartment!). He now sits up at the table while we eat, and does great when we take him out. He's graduated to the 2's of baby food and has even started eating some rice cakes and fruit out of his handheld strainer thingy (a person favorite of mine!). He sleeps great at night and takes 2 naps during the day. We're just enjoying watching him grow and develop a little personality!
Here are some recent pictures and a couple of videos. One is a little snippet of him crawling, and the other is my absolute most favorite video of him. He's laughing as I bounce a ball and make a noise in front of him. I don't know what was so funny about it, but we haven't been able to replicate it! Enjoy!

showing off my 2 teeth

handsome blue eyes!

first time he stood up in his crib

trying to eat a banana AND drink my water at the same time :)