Growing and changing

Jonathan had his 1 year check up this week with the pediatrician and it was a good visit! He weighs 25 pounds and is almost 31 inches long! That's the 75th percentile for both but it sounds like so much bigger to me! He unfortunately got 3 shots (ouch!) but besides that everything went fine. We got the all clear to start cow's milk, and gave him some for the first time yesterday. He didn't like it! Well, let me clarify - he didn't like it out of his cup. He drank it just fine out of the bottle. Go figure. I guess it's a strange texture. Oh well! Guess we'll transition to milk and then get rid of the bottle. Dr. Collins said some kids do that and he'd rather them stay on the bottle longer than not drink milk. However, we tried the milk out of the cup again this morning and he drank some of it, so maybe we're just trying to figure this out. Hopefully this will be an easy transition!
We've also started giving him Cheerios and Goldfish! I know that doesn't sound dramatic but that is big boy food! :) He's at such a fun age right now too. He plays ball with you, laughs when you do silly things, and can even do the signs for milk and more! He's a smart little guy (if I do say so myself)! Here are just a few of the pictures from the party last weekend too!

Jonathan is 1!

My sweet little boy turned 1 year old yesterday! I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Everyone tells you how quickly it will go by, but when you actually experience it...it's SO fast! :) Birthdays have always been a very big deal in my family, so we've really made a big deal about his special day (or should I say weekend!). I've been talking all week about it to get him ready (even though he doesn't have a clue what's going on!) and the celebration officially began yesterday! For his actual birth day we went to one of our favorite pizza places on St. Charles for lunch (no pizza for him yet though!) and then took him to an indoor play area called The Monkey Room. He absolutely loved it! Then we came home and rested and went out to dinner with Gran, Pop and Uncle Ben. It was a terrific day!
We had his birthday party this afternoon at the gym here on campus. He had a great time playing with his little friend and neighbor, Gabe (who is also 1 year old). He didn't enjoy playing/eating his cake as much as I thought. He actually got a little upset at first! I think he didn't like having the frosting on his hands (his mother's child!). But after a few minutes he got into it a little more and played enough to appease his parents! We opened gifts and played with balls and balloons and I think he had a great time. He's taking a great nap right now so it must have worn him out at least!
The celebration continues tomorrow when Nana, Grandpa and Great grandmother Vail come to town for a few days. Nana and Grandpa weren't able to make it for the party because they were welcoming Jonathan's new cousin James to the world this weekend. So...we're having ANOTHER little party here at the house when they get here tomorrow complete with banners, balloons, and another little cake (maybe he'll like it better this time!). I told you birthdays are VERY important to me! :) Hopefully the Saints will win and the weekend will be a complete success! A friend from church took pictures at the party for us so I don't have them now, but will put some of them up when we get them in a few weeks after we get his portraits made too. I did post some pictures below that we made at the Monkey Room yesterday though.
Happy Birthday Jonathan! We're so glad God gave you to us one year ago and it's been the best year of our lives!

Who's that little boy?

Climbing the steps

Going down the slide

Trying to decide what to do next :)

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Another new game

Here's the new game that Jonathan likes to play with his toy basket. He (forcefully!) throws toys out and then puts them back in. Sometimes he also climbs in the basket in-between. It makes us smile and wonder if he'll like everything put away like his mother! :)

New discovery

So JP and I were eating dinner the other night and Jonathan is going back and forth, playing in his room and in the den. Well he was in his room for a few minutes and got quiet. Quiet is never good. We walked in and saw this...
He had been opening and closing the drawers but had never attempted to pull anything out! We caught him red-handed and he didn't care. He just kept pulling stuff out. He's a very determined little guy. :) He's all boy and I love it!

Now I'm trying to teach him that this isn't a fun new discovery for Mommy. We'll see how that goes!

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!