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.
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 :)
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!
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 got a group of friends together to see Itzhak Perlman with the Austin Symphony. Josh and I arrived late so we were not allowed in until the end of the first set. We had the entire balcony to ourselves. The weather was perfect.
It's the 100th Anniversary of the ASO and they served champagne and cake after the show out on the patio. This is part of the light show. Here are Ax, Edna, Jane, Eric, Jill, Josh and myself :)
San Jacinto Night was last weekend and boy am I glad to have it behind me! It was a wonderful party. Not the biggest we’ve had but the first time our fundraiser has actually been profitable. As the event organizer I take a lot of pride in that. Ultimately the goal of the event is just to HAVE an event but the fact that we actually raised $4,500 for the Austin Fire Museum is fantastic. This year was quite a challenge with JP in our lives and Josh in his final weeks of grad school but we pulled it off! So glad it was a great party and SO glad it’s behind us. I raked our front yard in celebration.
But in more important news, JP has not only learned to crawl but he has also sprout 2 teeth! It’s been a big week!! Josh was in NYC this week so Monday morning I dropped JP off at Luisa’s for a 24-hour stay while I was at the station. She called me in the evening to give me a recap of the day and let me talk to JP (I just LOVE hearing him on the phone) and she said, “You didn’t tell me he had a tooth!” to which I replied, “He didn’t this morning!!” So Luisa gets the prize for spotting his first incisor. Josh and I are green with envy. Even worse is when I picked him up on Friday afternoon I noticed the second one poking through and Luisa said she didn’t want to say anything. ☺
JP and I went to Ingram for a quick visit this week. En route we learned that Gramps was being deployed to Mississippi with the Red Cross to help those effected by the recent tornadoes in the area. We were sorry to miss him but proud of his service. Mom was hoping to be deployed, too, but found that she was still on “unavailable” status for some reason. She was able to update her status but was unfortunately not deployed…so we kept her busy instead. It was a great visit. JP never really crawled but did a lot of practicing and pulling up. We paid a visit to Sue and Carl Mertz and the precious little girl they are foster parenting. Alia is only a month or so old than JP and she thought he was hilarious. They played together for a few hours and had a great time.
This morning, while Josh was getting ready for class, JP finally put it all together and crawled about 5 feet. Woohoo!! So during JP’s morning nap I baby-proofed the downstairs. All those sweet Lego’s from Lego Christmas 2010 were relocated to the garage, the outlets we plugged and foam guards were put on the deadly sharp corners of the coffee table. We have yet to figure out a fireplace solution but that’s next on the list.
We have a photo session scheduled this week with Bridgette Bloomquist, the woman who did JP’s pics when he was 8 days old. We should get some really fantastic shots, I’m excited. I’m also looking forward to seeing her neighborhood. That area was hit by a huge wildfire just a week ago and her entire steer was evacuated. Thankfully her house was spared but 20 homes were burned all around her. That fire made national news and worked the Austin Fire Department pretty hard. No one was injured but it was quite a wake up call for our area. We have been very lucky in recent years but the potential for a huge wild fire is always looming. Give me a burning structure any day but you can keep your wildfires. Hard work and unpredictable fire. No thank you.
Okay, JP is on the floor and making a b-line for a pile of stuff. I gotta go parent.
Today I took JP to Zilker Park for the Austin Kite Festival. This was his first time to the park and the weather was simply perfect. It was just us and 10-20,000 of our closest friends. It was also his first time to sit in his Bob stroller without his car seat...like a big boy!! We parked near the Town Lake Animal Shelter and took the bike trail to the park. We found Le and Mary Mae sitting under a shade tree and joined them on their blanket. Mary Mae was sooooo good with JP. She's gentle and loving and simply can't wait until this little boy can run around, play and get into all kinds of trouble with her. It took her a few times to figure out that if she gets her hair within an arm's length of JP, he'll grab hold and pull. And this kid has a grip! Here's a great video of MM singing to JP. :)
We played on the blankets for a little while and then JP and I went and found Kristi, Coitt and Izzy Kessler.
After visiting with them, JP and I headed back to the car and back home.
We then had Grammy, Le, MM, Joanna Lowry over to the house for Pizza and socializing. It was grand ☺
Meanwhile, Josh has been missed at all these activities because he is in Hong Kong with his St. Edwards class. We have had the opportunity to Skype several times and let me just tell you, JP absolutely lights up when his daddy is on the screen. Both times JP has started off a little tired and restless but when Josh’s face shows up on the computer he pauses, sees Josh, recognizes him and then gets this HUGE grin on his face. It’s just magical.
I’ve included the following videos and pictures so Josh can see his little boy ☺ Love you, baby, and boy do we miss you!
Christina Marrs, of the Asylum Street Spankers, has a fantastic little side project on Etsy called Little Sidekick (check out the website here) and she made and sent JP a stuffed brontosaurus that I named Monty. That's Monty the Bronty. This is JP's absolute FAVORITE toy of all time. (Followed very closely by Sophie...the two are shaped just about identically.) He's easy for JP to grab and as JP has started teething, he will suck on Monty's poor drenched head until his whole body is completely saturated.
JP was really going to town on poor Monty a few days ago:
As I mentioned, we think JP is starting to teethe. He not only puts everything in his mouth, now he has really started to CHEW on everything. Hard. This great puppy dog toy that Aunt Ali brought last weekend is no exception. Of course, the dog found some temporary relief when JP noticed the camera was rolling. This kid is a ham. All bets are off when we sees (or hears) the camera.
And finally, we are slowly adding foods to JP's list. So far he eats rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, sweet potato, green beans, peas, avocados, apples, and squash. I'm learning how to make all his food from a great website called WholesomeBabyFood.com . I buy all organic veggies, steam them, then puree them with a handy little wand mixer. I'm even attempting to freeze the extra in ice cube trays so they keep a lot longer. One cube is about an ounce and perfect for a serving size.
Here is Josh feeding JP apples for the first time. Josh is waaaay better at getting more food into JP's mouth than on his face. That's where I excel. It's funny, though, because JP was totally focused on eating until he heard me turn on the camera. Then he wouldn't stop staring at me. I had to hide the camera so he would pay attention to Daddy. He is so funny about it!
And here are some absolutely adorable photos, just for good measure:
We awoke to find an inch of snow on the ground this morning! That may not be a lot for many of you out there, but it's quite an event here. It's made even better by the fact that I am not at work and don't have to deal with stupid people who drive recklessly and hit things. Yeah day off!
Here is DJ enjoying the powder :)
JP was in a fantastic mood this afternoon (probably excited about the snow) and was giving me some great giggles and belly laughs. I just had to get it on film
And finally, since JP is 5.5 months old, everything goes straight into his mouth. This does not exclude stationary objects. Josh captured this cute learning moment as JP explores. :)
JP is getting better and better at eating with a spoon. And better and better at hamming it up for the camera. He is his mother's son, after all...I find it quite entertaining how distracted he gets when the camera comes out!
For Christmas, Grammy gave JP a jumper and I think it may be his favorite thing to do (after naked baby time, of course) We keep the jumper hanging in the doorway of the laundry room. It's the perfect place for it because I can see him from the living room and from the kitchen and JP is quite entertained by our new front loader washer and dryer. He will jump and bounce for about 45 minutes and then will usually pass out. It's so cute to watch him slowly get drowsy. He'll bounce a little bit, close his eyes, his head will droop and and he just hang there in the doorway...Then he'll startle and immediately start jumping again as if he hadn't drifted off. It's ADORABLE!!!
In this first video he's in a fantastic mood. Jumping and smiling. Josh noticed that he likes to jump really high then lift up his feet so he just bounces around for a bit.
This afternoon, our good friends Coitt and Kristi Kessler hosted a party at their house for our pipe band, the Emergency Service Pipes and Drums Association. They started the party off with a friendly game of paintball on their several acres of land just outside of Bastrop. The rest of the guests arrived a few hours later and we had the opportunity to just hang out and not worry about practicing our instruments. It was an opportunity for our family members to gather with us. We spend so much time with each other fine tuning our band that it's important that we give our families a chance to get to know each other and spend some time with us. It was a great party. Josh and I had to leave just as things were getting fun since we wanted to get JP back to the house to put him to bed. It's a 45 minute drive from our house to theirs. Coitt had the brilliant idea for us to bring JP's bouncy swing since their daughter (just 3 weeks younger than JP) has the exact same model. These kids are adorable together. We're convinced they will date each other as they grow up. I'm also pretty sure that Izzy will break JP's heart...and also beat the crap out of him. Coitt will no doubt teach Izzy how to take down and pin an individual with great prowess. At any rate, here are our precious babies bouncing together. This is so damn cute!
Since starting the blog, I'm gaining a newfound respect for all of the blogs that I read every day, and the bloggers that write for them. Posting stuff up here with any regularity is HARD.
But enough whining. We had a fantastic christmas with the family, JP has learned some new tricks, and we're just one big ol' happy family. Enjoy some more videos.
Let's go in rough chronological order. Our first christmas party in Houston this (last) year was at Ruthie and Chris's place, as per tradition. The fourth video down is my favorite from the event, as JC opens his christmas present and makes an awesome discovery.
Later that night (christmas eve), Lyzz, JP and I went over to Ali's new place near Rice Village, to spend christmas eve night and christmas day as one big Donelson family.
And to finish, here are some videos we've taken around the house since then. JP LOVES his jumpy-swing-thing, and is really working hard on reaching for toys, crawling, and discovering his voice.
JP rolls over just about every time we put him down now. It won't be long before we're chasing him all over the place. Last night I put him to bed on one side of his crib and at 3am when he woke for his first meal he had rolled over 3 times and was pressed against the far wall. He did it again at 7. I think this is his way of asking for a King size bed. "I need room to roll, Mom!"
My goodness 4 months has flown by. I cannot believe our little boy is already 4 months old, sleeping in his own room and spending his days away from the house! JP spends his days with Louisa, a wonderful caregiver who also kept an eye on Mary Mae for her first couple of year. She lives just down the street and we really trust her. Every time we drop him off we are reassured by her choices and concerns for our son. What a blessing! Yesterday was my first shift back at station 6 after a full year off. My last shift was January 5th, 2010 and I was then reassigned to AFD's Education Services where I sat at a desk, studied for my promotional exam and entered data for Post Incident Reports. It was a long 8.5 months. As I said, yesterday was my first shift back and our first call of the shift was a working Hi-rise fire. Possibly the most demanding type of fire scene. Think 70 lbs of gear and many flights of stairs and that doesn't include the tools and equipment that is carried up to the necessary floors. Thankfully, we were not one of the first in engines so we were assigned to the Resource Division that stages 2 floors below the fire floor. We didn't end up doing much, but boy is it clear to me how much work I have ahead of me to get back in better shape. All that's well and good, but the most important part is that Josh, JP and I all survived the 24 hours juuuuust fine. The boys had their first (of many) Boy's Night at the house and did wonderfully. JP has a bit of a cold complete with runny nose and the occasional mild fever of 99.5 so he isn't sleeping as well as he is capable but aside from that, the evening was great. I, on the other hand, was up all night making calls on E6. At one point I mentioned to my crew that I get more sleep at home with my 4 month old. Here's hoping for a slightly slower shift on Thursday. :)
After I got off today, I went over to Louisa's to pick up JP. He was in the middle of an epic nap (since he didn't sleep so soundly the night before) so I went home and caught a few Z's myself. At 2 I brought him home, fed him and found him to be in a very good and quite talkative mood.
This was a great afternoon. I look forward to many more like it :)
us (though we're still in a significant drought and they forecast it to last for a long while...) and Halloween is tomorrow. Yay!!
