Darr Family Blog

We’ve pretty much been home bodies this week. There are a lot of people on vacation (or they have family in town), so there haven’t been any play-dates. Joseph came along with me when I did my visiting teaching (which is nice, since my companion has a son his age, and the person we visited has one close to his age), so I guess we could count that as a play-date. 🙂

Something that was fun for me was that I got to go to a Relief Society activity where it was basically a get-to-know-you type thing. We have a lot of military as well as medical students in our ward, so it seems like people move in and out a lot. I got to see the new faces that I don’t get to see because I’m in Primary, and I also got to know the sisters that I already knew just a bit better. I love being in an organization where there is such a strong bond.

During the weekend, we did a bit more, since Paul was home. We went out to eat at one of our favorite places (Jim’s) and we also set up the kiddie pool in the backyard for Joseph to play in. He LOVED it! Paul set it up on the patio, which is covered, so it was nice and shady. Joseph probably sat in there, splashing and playing with toys, for over 30 minutes. When it was time to get out, he pitched quite the fit. We ended up taking him on a car ride to get him to settle down.

This week’s cute moment: As of late, Joseph has been playing more than sleeping during nap-time. I’ve started to tell him as I put him in the crib, “Okay…it’s time to sleep, so no giggling or jumping. You need to lay here and rest.”Well, yesterday, he looked at me very seriously and then started to fake snore. I had to leave the room because I wanted to laugh so hard!

What we’re looking forward to: Paul’s got some training to attend next week in California, and he worked it out so that Joseph and I could drive out with him. At the end of the week we’ll head out and then have fun visiting with family and friends. I’m super excited!

This week in pictures (and a bonus video!):

 

And here’s a video of Joseph in his pool:

I have been asking myself all week if it’s winter yet. We have had another week of above 100 degree temps. It doesn’t feel as humid as it’s been, but it’s still more humid than what I’ve been used to. I’m really looking forward to cooler weather. For one thing, we’ll get a lot fewer bugs and other creepy crawlies.

Creepy crawly adventures: 1) we had a snake get into the garage. Paul caught a glimpse of just the tail-end, so he had me and Joseph go back into the house (we were getting ready to go somewhere) so that he could catch and…dispose of it. He found out that it was not a venomous one, but any snake in the garage is a dead one…sorry snakes! 2) we had a scorpion in the house (really a rare occurrence). I was getting ready to run a quick errand, so I was going to leave the boys at home. I was just backing out of the garage when I saw Paul standing at the entrance into the house, trying to get my attention, while holding Joseph. I got out and he told me to hold Joseph because there was a scorpion in the dining room. Apparently Joseph found it first (he was crouched down, looking at it…thankfully he didn’t try to touch it, and it wasn’t very aggressive) but Paul was able to get him out of harms way. I took Joseph on my errand with me and left Paul to get rid of the scorpion. We think it came in because Paul had spent the morning poisoning the outside perimeter of the house and it was probably trying to get away. We’d both been in and out of the house several times, so it could have made a break for an open door at any time. I’m kind of over summer, lol. 3) some good creepy crawlies: Paul discovered that we have a couple of toads living in our front yard and a couple living in our back yard. We’re encouraging them to stay, since they probably eat some of the less desirable bugs. 🙂

This week’s funnies/cuties: 1) I’ve sung, “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” to Joseph since he was very little, but lately he’s been wanting me to sing it more. The other day, we were all in the car and from the back seat we heard his little voice singing, “one, two, buck my soo…thee, fo, sut da doh…”. He loves music…loves being sung to, loves singing along to stuff…it’s great! 2) Joseph has started to make himself laugh to see if we’ll laugh with him. We’ll usually end up laughing, because his laugh is sort of infectious…which makes him laugh…yeah. Pretty entertaining. 🙂 and 3) Joseph has decided that nap time and bedtime are not all they’re cracked up to be. He used to always want to jump down after me reading him a story and then go find Paul (if he was home) to give him a hug before nap or bed (and to also help turn out lights…he loves that). Now, I tell him to go find Daddy and he runs the other way. Tonight, he even decided to hide behind his crib. Once caught, he doesn’t give too much of a fight, though. In fact, when either Paul or I lay him in his crib, he just lays on his back, with both hands up over his head (like he’s surrendering), looking at us sort of forlornly. It’s pretty cute…especially since he doesn’t get upset. He just sort of resigns to the fact that it’s time to sleep (sometimes he doesn’t…occasionally I’ll hear him, via the monitor, talking to his stuffed animals, or jumping in his crib…but it almost always grows quiet after a while and I know he’s fallen asleep).

This week in pictures:

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: