Darr Family Blog

Ugh…it has been so hot this week…and no rain in sight. We’re already in Stage 2 water restrictions (meaning we can only water once a week, during very specific times). I hope we get some rain soon, because I don’t want to go into Stage 3 (I’m not sure what the watering restrictions are for Stage 3, but I would hate for it to happen because Paul has worked very hard to keep our yards looking nice, it would be terrible to have them just end up dying on us…). Because of the heat, for the most part, we just hung around the house unless we needed to go out and run an errand or two. This past Thursday, Joseph and I did go on a mini-adventure. We drove up to Austin (about an hour and a half) to meet up with a childhood friend of mine, Kari (Cole) Starzyk. She lives in New Jersey, but her family decided to take a cross-country trip, and since they were staying with family that lives a little north of Austin, we decided to meet up for lunch and hang out for a bit. We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then went to a mall to walk around. It was so nice to see her, since the last time I’d seen her in person (we’re not counting Facebook) was over 10 years ago. Joseph did really well, considering we were hanging out right during the time he usually naps. He was awake and happy the whole time until the drive home. He was still happy at that point, but was so tired that he slept the entire way home and then was happy to go to bed early. The next day, I think his schedule was off a bit because he didn’t take a nap at all during his normal nap time, so I got him up after a couple of hours of listening to him play in his crib. He was happy for most of the day, but got a little cranky after dinner, so we decided to go to Bass Pro Shops (he likes to look at all the taxidermy animals as well as the big fish tank). About 3/4 of the way there, I looked back just in time to see him fall asleep. We pulled into the parking lot and then decided to just turn around and go home. He woke up as we pulled into the garage, so we took him in, gave him his oatmeal and milk, and then put him to bed. He seemed relieved to be in his bed.

This week’s funnies: Joseph has started to notice numbers on things (clocks, in books, etc.) and he does a pretty good job counting to ten if we prompt him. He seems to have a favorite number though: nine. I only say this because when he points out numbers, he always says, “nine, nine, nine”, even when the numbers aren’t nine. I don’t know what his thought process was one morning, but all I know is that I was jerked out of sleep by a little voice (via the baby monitor) saying (quite loudly): “Nine, nine, NIIIIIIIINNNNNE!!!” Another thing that I’ve woken up to is him singing to himself, “Apple, apple, /a/, /a/, /a/!” (part of a song that I sing to him that says the different alphabet sounds)…it can be pretty entertaining. The other noteworthy funny thing he’s started to do, with both me and Paul, is he’ll climb up on the couch next to us and say, “Tickle, tickle, tickle!” That’s our cue to tickle him…smart boy!

Now for the pictures:

And here’s a couple of videos that Paul got of me and Joseph having quality piano time:

Thankfully we’ve had no (major) adventures in parenting this week. There have been no stitches or cut tongues, and no new illnesses that needed antibiotics. The only minor (funny) thing was that this morning I was changing his diaper and didn’t cover him up (I haven’t had to for almost a year now) and we had a little fountain action occur. I had to comfort him because he seemed a little upset/possibly embarrassed about the whole thing. Potty training might not be as far off as I was originally thinking. 🙂

A couple quick funnies before we get to the pictures. This week, Joseph has shown an increased interest in superheroes. He has a Batman shirt, a Superman shirt, and an Avengers shirt. In order of preference, it’s Avengers, Superman, and then Batman. One day, both the Avengers shirt and the Superman shirt were dirty, so we were left with Batman. At first, he wasn’t too happy about it. Then I started singing the Batman theme song (“na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Batman!”). He thought that was pretty entertaining (enough to get the shirt on him) and the rest of the day he kept pointing to his shirt and saying, “na-na-na, Batman!”. He also points to his Superman shirt and says, “Superman!” in a sing-songy little voice.

Another thing he’s started saying is “Yee-haw!” The other day, I was sitting on the couch and had my legs crossed. He straddled my foot and then stated bouncing up and down and saying, “Yee-haw!” He also said it today (in the middle of Sacrament meeting, of course), while he was making his little knight action figure (his reward from the doctor who stitched up his face) ride his toy Velociraptor (a gem from the dollar bins at Target). I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised…we DO live in Texas.

One day, Joseph was a little cranky (it was right before nap time), so I started singing “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. Surprisingly, he started singing along with me…all 4 verses. His favorite, by far, is “shout hurray” 🙂

Finally, a few nights ago, I was trying to get him calmed down before bedtime (and failing, miserably…he was hyper!). We were sitting in the rocker in his room. I was holding him in a way that if he leaned back, he could see me. He pushed my glasses up on top of my head and looked at me, opening his eyes really wide and raising his eyebrows. I copied him, which he thought was hilarious. He started laughing really hard, which made me laugh (which made him laugh…vicious cycle). Pretty soon we both had tears in our eyes. Well, this freaked him out (seeing tears in my eyes and also feeling tears in his) and he started crying. I had to tell him that it was okay and that I was happy. Poor little guy didn’t know what to do with what seemed like a conflict of emotions!

Now for this week’s pictures:

And just in case we haven’t reached the ultimate level of cuteness in this post, here’s a short video of Joseph laughing. We were watching an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos and there was a video of twin baby boys. One baby was hiccuping and the other one was laughing at him. Joseph found this hilarious, as you can hopefully tell from the video:

Get ready for picture overload! I was too tired last Sunday to do a post, and it just didn’t happen during the week. Paul actually took more pictures than I did, which was good. 🙂 The high note two weeks ago was that we were able to finish Joseph’s occupational therapy. He’s met all the goals that we set for him (and has even excelled in some areas). He no longer pockets food in his mouth, he doesn’t gag on solid food, and he’s been eating table food for over two months now. I’m so proud of our little man! The low note for two weeks ago was that Joseph fell off the piano bench and bit his tongue quite severely. We didn’t realize how bad it was since he wouldn’t let us look at it. It bled quite a bit, but then Paul was able to get it to stop. Early this past week, we took him into the doctor because he had a fever that just wouldn’t quit. We found out that he had a double ear infection and strep throat (poor baby!), so he is still on antibiotics for that. The doctor looked at his tongue at the appointment and that was when we realized how deep of a cut it was. It was really deep! She said to keep an eye on it and to come in if it looked infected (though she said that the antibiotic would probably help keep it from getting infected). We got home that evening and Paul and I were so worried that we decided that it would be best for Paul to give Joseph a blessing. He gave it to him right before he went to sleep. That was the first night in over a week that Joseph slept all the way through the night without coughing, and his tongue looks like it is healing up nicely. I try to always remember to never underestimate the power of the Priesthood as well as the power of faith. Joseph’s appetite is returning, and he’s pretty much back to being the crazy, sweet, happy, loving boy that we’re used to. I’m going to have the doctor look at his tongue when he goes in for his 2-year visit (in a month and a half…wow, where did the time go?!) to make sure that it healed properly and that he doesn’t need to have corrective surgery (in case there’s too much of a bump). Other than those crazy things happening, our two weeks have been pretty much the norm. Joseph surprises us every day with new phrases and actions and we naturally think that he’s the smartest, funniest, and cutest thing in the world. 🙂 Okay! Here’s the picture overload:

We spent some evenings at the park:

We spent a lot of time just relaxing at home:

One sign I knew he was feeling better was when his appetite returned with a vengeance. This is after he had downed a bowl full of rotini noodles with spaghetti sauce:

Sometimes he doesn’t want his picture taken…either that, or he’s trying to get a hold of Paul’s phone, lol:

Yesterday was the day that we were assigned to help clean the church. Joseph loved it when I let him use this duster. He even tried to help by “dusting” things. 🙂

Joseph loves when we go to the car wash (when we bought the van, we were able to arrange for a year’s worth of free car washes from a car wash place) because he gets to see a lot of cars. This time there was a bonus, because I forgot that I’d left his goldfish crackers in my purse, along with one of his toy cars. Mommy was a super hero that afternoon!

Paul was able to get some shots of Joseph at church today. I love how handsome he is in his shirt and tie!

Finally, a video that Paul was able to get two weeks ago. Joseph was hitting single notes on the piano and singing along to the notes. We tried to get him to do it again while we were recording and this was the result, lol: