Travel, Property, Swimming, SUMMER!

I bet you thought we had forgotten all about this little blog!

Well, it turns out that when an infant turns into a toddler and can move around freely there is less time to sit in front of a computer and go on about how adorable he is.  Rest assured, JP is still quite adorable.

He is rapidly approaching his 2^nd birthday and Josh and I (and really everyone else, let’s be honest) are convinced that JP is a genius. Do I sound biased?

He has a huge vocabulary and is speaking in sentences “Watch tractors Daddy’s computer” “More milk, Please!” “May I be excused, please?” (Though that last one sounds more like “maymecusemeese” we know what he’s trying to say and it’s damn cute.)

We just recently took down the gate at the bottom of the stairs. That was a big step for everyone. JP now has free run of the entire house and we can’t control if and when he goes upstairs. We did, however, leave the gate at the top of the stairs in place to prevent any accidental tumbles. So far so good. Josh and I will often remark how amazing it is that JP can sit in his room for longer and longer stretches of time busying himself with blocks or his train tracks (his favorite!). He’s always been rather independent but his attention span is getting longer and it’s just awesome to watch him focus so intently on whatever project he has going at the time.

Josh and I took a quick trip to Niagara Falls to watch his Aunt Beck get married to her longtime partner, Ann. It was a delightful trip full of family and sightseeing. Who knew the Canadians can make a decent wine?! Here we are in front of the falls :)

These last few days have brought a lot of much needed rain to the Central Texas. After a huge clap of thunder JP said “Airplane!” (sounds more like “airmane”) and Josh said, “Yeah, it does sounds like an airplane!” so with every subsequent thunder roll JP would jump up and down and squeal “Airmane! Airmane!”  Well played, Joshua!

He’s getting really good at saying “Please” and “Thank You” when asking for food or help. We’re doing everything we can to encourage the behavior and really look forward to showing him off in Cape Cod at the end of the month for the Forsyth Family Reunion.

Next week we start 2 weeks of swimming lessons at the Dittmar pool from 6:!0-6:40 every evening. He is already comfortable jumping in and going underwater. I look forward to seeing what he’ll learn next. I’m fairly confident he’s a water rat like his mom and uncles before him.

Josh and I have purchased a piece of property and hope to build a custom home in the next year. We are waiting to hear back from the builder to see if we can afford to build the house we’re dreaming of. In the meantime, Josh is still working from home and his travel schedule is about to pick back up. He’s been home for the past few weeks and it’s been delightful. He took some half days during the week of July 4^th and had a chance to spend a lot of time with JP. Those boys have a special relationship. I sure am lucky. J And so are they!

I am currently assigned to Fire Station 5-A on the East side of Austin. It’s a busy house and I like the crew but I hope to return to the C shift eventually. We were first in to a 2 Alarm fire last shift. It’s the first big fire I have made in quite a long time. My crew worked very hard and I was proud of them. I estimate that I pumped around 25,000 gallons of water!

Okay, that's it for now. Hope this tides you over until the next post!

:)

-L

20 months old already

It's been a long time since we have updated. And of course I am starting this post at the tail end of JP's nap so I don't have the time to elaborate on any of our recent events. So I will leave you with a couple of videos. Enjoy!

Fall is finally here!

It was FINALLY cooled down for a very long and very hot summer. We had over 90 days of 100+ degree weather. It was brutal. But that's behind us (though we're still in a significant drought and they forecast it to last for a long while...) and Halloween is tomorrow. Yay!!

We had our Halloween Party last night and there were some wonderful costumes. Josh and JP dressed up like John Waters from a video called "The Creep." They looked great. I was SuperMom with a cape that doubled as a blanky and a tool belt with everything a mom needs. I also had eyes on the back of my head :)

Here are some pics from the party.
Guy and Le won the best couples costume and Ax Dellert won Most Creepy. He really was in that Joker costume. Ewww. Julie and Erin were Snoopy and Woodstock. Most Creative for sure!


This morning we simply gorgeous and a little chilly so Josh and I took JP out back to play in the yard. This is some cute video of what JP does best.

JP's 1st Birthday!

Just one year ago today we brought our newborn baby boy home from the hospital. He was 6 lbs 1 oz and was nursing every 2 hours.

Today we celebrated JP's first birthday with friends and family and I baked a special cake just for him to dive into. It was a wonderful day. Aunt Ruthie arrived early to help me set up (thank you, Ruthie!) and our guests started arriving at 11am. We had Nana, Poppy, First-Cousin-Once-Removed Jake Donelson, Aunt Ali, Aunt Le, Cousin Mary Mae, First-Cousin-Once-Removed Mary Camp and Thomas Chilton, Coitt, Kristi and Izzy Kessler, Denise and Lucas Geleitsmann, Jeannie, Jon and Lainey Griego, Stacey, Dan and Madelyn Kingslien, Jane, Walt and Whitley Adair, and JP's baby sitter, Kate Bell. The kiddos played and the adults visited. After burgers and hotdogs we brought out JP's smash cake and let him have a little fun. The little guy was exhausted from all the activities but I think he enjoyed his first chocolate experience. He is a Forsyth, afterall...



It goes without saying that he raked in an amazing amount of loot...especially since I requested no gifts. (yeah right, that's a completely unrealistic expectation with this family)



We were able to keep track of who gave what with the exception of a really neat pair of galoshes made to look like firefighter boots. They were in a bag with no tag so we don't know who to thank. They are REALLY cool boots so if you know who gave them to us, please let me know :)

Here are some pics from the party.





The man in the skirt is Coitt with his wife Kristi and JP's girlfriend Izzy. Isabelle is 3 weeks younger than JP.


This is Cake Smash prep


And the results!


The cake knife was a gift from Rebecca Powers for when JP was born. It's to use for his birthday cakes every year and finally to cut his wedding cake. What a neat tradition. Rebecca and JP share the same birthday, August 25th. She's a pretty exceptional woman so here's hoping her birthday has something to do with it :)




JP took this one of himself. I thought it was cute so I included it :)

This little boy is walking more than he is crawling, now.

Here's JP's daily routine right now:
He wakes anywhere from 6 to 7am, I nurse him first thing, then he plays for a while. He gets a breakfast (oatmeal, fruit and/or an egg) at 8:30 and goes down for his morning nap at about 9:30. This one usually lasts for at least an hour and sometimes 1.5 hours. He has lunch at 12:30 (fruits, veggies, oatmeal) and then he nurses or gets a bottle at about 2:30 just before his afternoon nap at 3. He wakes just before 5 and we play until dinner time at 6:30 (Veggies, chicken, fruit, etc.). Then naked baby time, tooth brushing, bath, JP's PJs, nurse and bed at 8.

It's been an amazing year. I heard someone say the days are long but the years are short. I am really beginning to understand that now. Josh and I are having such a great time with this little boy. He's so happy and, though we have very limited experience, he seems to be very easy. We're already talking about baby #2 and imagine that will happen sometime next year. She'll probably be a little hellion. That's okay, she'll have an awesome older brother to help keep her in line :)

He's walking!!

Here's proof!!

Okay, it's been 3 months and change since we've posted anything. JP's first birthday is just days away and he has grown so much in the past few months. This little video shows off his new chompers of which he has 5 and almost 6. Crazy!

He is also able to walk now, though he chooses the the more efficient mode of crawling. His first word is "ball" (every round piece of produce at the grocery store is a ball...lemons, apples, oranges, mangos, you name it. It's a "ball" and JP wants to play with it) and we're pretty sure he's got "dog" as well.

He eats everything in sight and his new favorite is steamed broccoli. We're having a great time with this kiddo and can't wait to see what he has in store for us next!

The Stairs

When Josh and I went house hunting after we were married, we were pretty set on the idea of a single story home. It's easier to heat/cool and we knew we wanted to have kids and stairs can be a bit of a hassle, if not dangerous. We figured, however, that if we found a 2 story house that we loved, we'd definitely want the master bedroom upstairs with the rest of the room since we knew we'd be going back and forth to the baby's room a lot. So what did we do? We bought a 2 story home with the master down stairs. What can we say. We fell in love with the house.
Well, we have so far survived the constant trips up and down the stairs with JP in arm to change his diaper or retrieve a toy or whatnot. In fact I'm sure it's made us both stronger physically and cardiovascularly. We were also reassured by the fact that the way this house is set up the stairs have a switch back so should one of us or, God forbid, one of our progeny, go tumbling down, we would at least only have to worry about half of the total potential distance to the ground floor.

This morning, I have been letting JP explore the downstairs on his own. He's been doing this for a little over a week now. (This picture is during NBT last week) He usually hangs out at the little spot at the base of the stairs. I set up some toys in the area and he practices making cute little baby messes. It's great. In fact, he can and has busied himself for 2 whole hours while I have putzed around in the kitchen making baby food and dinner. This kid is amazing. I just love that he is already pretty independent. I put him in his usual spot with a few toys, went to use the restroom and returned to find him on the 3rd step!!!!! In about 30 seconds this kid figured out the stairs and climbed right on up. I'm pretty sure this is the very first time he has ever even BEEN on the stairs, let alone tried to climb them. So, like any good mom, I immediately placed him on the ground, grabbed my camera and recorded his second attempt.

This little brat climbed, completely unassisted, from the ground to the landing in roughly 60 seconds.

We should have bought a single story house.