Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: We didn’t do too much out of the ordinary, just regular weekly stuff. I did, on a whim, take Joseph to the zoo on Friday, but other than that, the week was pretty laid back.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been a pretty even mix of warmer and cooler days, which is typical for the start of fall in San Antonio. I still keep hoping that it will cool down for good before Halloween, but in all likelihood, that won’t happen. :/

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been keeping busy with work and school. He also just got called to be the first counselor in the Sunday School presidency. This will be a better calling for him to hold while working and going to school because it won’t take up any of his time during the week.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been keeping busy with piano (I have a new student starting this week and my first recital is in a couple of weeks), my visiting teaching stuff, and getting geared up for not only getting the ward choir ready for Christmas (as well as everything in-between) but getting myself ready for the Messiah production that will be happening the first part of December.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been experiencing life in many new ways (I took him for a walk around the neighborhood while he rode his bike…every incline was met with huffing and puffing on the way up and with him raising his feet off the ground and saying “Weeeeee!” as he coasted down). He’s also recognized his cuteness…the other day I told him, “Joseph, you are so cute!” He answered with, “I’m so cute!” using the same inflection that I did and everything. Another thing he’s displayed is his ever-growing sense of humor. Yesterday he told me, “Mommy, my tummy says, (insert a different voice) ‘I need more food!'”. He also pretended to burp just so that he could say “Excuuuse ME!” I’m glad that he’s been able to be so happy because physically, he’s been dealing with quite a severe allergy attack which has lasted several days. I have been giving him his allergy medicine, along with Ibuprofen. He had a couple of rough nights with coughing fits (though he slept all the way through the night last night), and has been asking me if I could take him to the doctor so that he can feel better (sorry, kid…not really anything they can do).

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week (mainly the weekend), Joseph got a lot of one-on-one time with me and Paul. During the week it was pretty much the normal stuff, but Friday was a little different. During the day, Joseph and I met up with some friends at the zoo. We spent the entire time in the “Tiny Tot Nature Spot”. It’s an area of the zoo where there are a bunch of different nature-themed things set up. There’s a mock-camping area, a small canoe set up next to a dock (a real one with water and fish), and other things. After we got home, Paul was home from work, but had a camp-out, so I took Joseph (who was pretty sad that he couldn’t go on the camp-out with Daddy) out to eat (Chipotle) and then to the mall, followed by a trip to Target. Then Saturday evening, while I was at the General Women’s Meeting, he and Paul went for a long walk/bike ride around the neighborhood, followed by a trip to Wal-Mart.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been gorgeous this past week! The temperature never went over 90 degrees! We also got a lot of rain this past weekend (good because we needed the rain, but bad because Paul was stuck camping in it).

What Paul’s Been Up To: Working, doing his online courses, and homework. He also had the aforementioned camp-out. He thought there might be rain, so he packed a poncho. While he didn’t stay completely dry (it was kind of hard to do so in pouring rain), he was a lot dryer than most of the other people there.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Visiting teaching stuff, picking out music for the ward choir to sing, and starting to practice music for the Messiah production that will be coming up. I also put up the Halloween decorations. 🙂 One funny thing that happened was that when I started to try to do some cleaning, Joseph grabbed my arm and insisted that I come and watch Mickey Mouse with him. It didn’t take too much convincing. 🙂 I also got to attend the General Women’s Meeting for church. It’s always a great event. My friend picked me up, there was ice cream before the broadcast, and the broadcast itself was incredibly uplifting.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: At the beginning of the week, he had a mysterious fever (no other symptoms) that just went away after a few days. I’m grateful it didn’t turn into an ear infection or strep throat. Other than that, cuteness as usual. When we went in to Paul’s work last week, Paul showed Joseph how to check books out and in. A few days ago, Joseph brought one of his books up to me, flipped it over, and showed me the bar code. He then told me that Daddy could borrow his book, but he had to scan it. Ha! He has also been really getting into the the little exercise routine that they play on occasion on PBS (a little cartoon animal that has them exercise like different people: marching band, surfer, etc.). He also insists that anyone who is in the room with him exercises, too. 🙂 Finally, he’s been working on singing more with me. His favorite songs to sing along to are “This Little Candle Light of Mine”, “A Child’s Prayer”, and “Momma, Buy Me a Rocking Chair”. I was surprised that he knows about 90% of all of those songs.

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty tame. The only really out-of-the-ordinary thing was that Wednesday was Paul’s birthday. In order to try and make it special for him (since he was stuck going to work), I had Joseph make him a card and I picked up a couple of small treats for him. We then headed out to his work to give him the birthday treats. We ended up getting there about lunch time, so we went out to lunch with him, and then went back to his work and had pie with some of his coworkers (they do pie as opposed to cake). After he got home from work, we went out to eat for dinner, so the day ended up quite out of the ordinary.

The Weekly Weather: It was warmer than it was last weekend, but not as warm as it was before that…we’ve been in the low 90s most of the time. I’m hoping that the weather will keep cooling down since we’re supposed to be hitting the official start of fall this week. 😉

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been working hard at work, keeping the house and yard looking good, etc. He spent quite a bit of time yesterday improving and organizing the shelves he has in the garage that hold a lot of his tools and such. He also had his first meeting with his cohort for the Pathways program this past week.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Besides the normal housework/keeping Joseph happy and healthy, I’ve been prepping for my first recital, which will be next month. I’ve also been keeping busy with my visiting teaching coordinating, ward choir directing, and prepping for the Messiah.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Finding joy in the little things (Like when he got excited and told me that he found an “O” in his cereal, which was a bowl of Cheerios, lol), showing how tall he is (I discovered that he can now reach the light switches in most of the rooms and not only turn them on, but turn them off as well), expecting me to do impossible things (today he thought it was too bright, so he asked me to make the sun go away), voicing his opinion about TV shows (he insisted on watching the classic cowboy channel on our Roku box only to tell the cowboys to stop singing; accompanied by putting his hands over his ears), playing with his stuffed animals (direct quote: “What? Yes! I’m Super bear! {starts singing} Super bear, Super bear!”), and displaying the ability that some of his play tools have to actually work in one way or the other (I’m posting pictures of some of that below).

This Week in Pictures:

 

Bonus Video: Sorry about the noise in the background…I had the car running. Next time I’ll know to turn off the car, but here’s a video of Joseph singing along to one of his favorite Primary songs: Army of Helaman: