Darr Family Blog

True summer has hit San Antonio. Temperatures have reached the upper 90s, humidity hovers around 40%-60% (though occasionally it reaches into the 80% range…we try not to go out on those days, lol), and the thunderstorms have been rolling in like crazy. I do like to watch them. They fascinate me (from a distance, of course). I love hearing the rain hitting the roof and the thunder rumbling, knowing that I’m safe and snug in my bed and that my plants are getting free water. 🙂 One thing I have to get used to is the fact that rain does not equal cold down here (at least not in the summer months). We’re probably going to be living in shorts until October, lol. One of my favorite things about the thunderstorms is the beautiful clouds that we get before and after. Here’s just one example:

Our week as a whole was pretty great. Joseph accomplished three big things this week:

1) He is using only sippy cups now…no more bottles! He’s been drinking out of cups for meals, but has wanted bottles for before nap and bed. Now, he just gets cups for everything. It really makes bedtime easier because he drinks his milk before coming upstairs to get his teeth brushed (something else that he’s doing a lot better at, too. He actually is letting me get at his front top teeth now. He isn’t super happy about it, but he is willing).

2) He didn’t have to leave the chapel during Sacrament meeting at all today (well, except to get his diaper changed before going to nursery, but that’s a definite need). He happily played with toys, ate snacks, and sat on our laps (it helps a little when we’re able to get into a pew as opposed to the metal chairs in the back since he’s kind of corralled in) the entire time. I feel like I was able to get so much more out of the talks and such. It was a great feeling that made the rest of the day great as well.

3) He got his summer haircut! It was getting kind of long, and he would get pretty hot at times, so we decided for a buzz cut. He didn’t like the process at all (he’s really not into things that buzz and vibrate), but I think he’s much happier now that he doesn’t get as hot. Here’s a before and after shot (sorry that the after one is so blurry…he was trying to get my phone…that blur is his little hand trying to grab at it):

The first time we took him to the park after getting his haircut, he handled it much better. He didn’t get super sweaty and I think he had a better time in general because of that. He loves going to the park. There are almost always other kids there (which he loves) and he loves to meet new people and play. Here are some shots that Paul got from our last trip. Joseph doing what he loves a whole lot: swings!

One thing that has developed this week was that Joseph has shown an even stronger attachment to what I call his lovey. It’s kind of a cross between a stuffed animal and a blanket. It has a stuffed animal monkey head and then soft fabric instead of a body. There have been a few days this week that Monkey has had to accompany him almost everywhere:

Moments of Awesome this week:

We were able to get our washer fixed! It apparently needed a new lid switch and a new motor. Luckily, it’s under warranty still, so GE sent out a repairman to fix it at no cost. *whew*

Joseph has added a few new words/phrases: “Oh Toodles” (from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse , “truck”, “dinosaur” (quite garbled, but we could figure it out since he was holding his toy dinosaur at the time), “Ah-ha!”, “toast” (his current FAVORITE food), and “book”.

I finally got brave enough to pull out the user manual for my sewing machine. Thanks to a lot of pictures and some help from Paul, I was able to get it all set up and the needle threaded. I’m excited to start learning how to do a few things (first on my list is a small bag that can go into the diaper bag which can hold some small toys for Joseph to play with at church).

We had a fun event yesterday. It was called Granny’s Attic. Basically, everyone (in our Relief Society) brought stuff to the church that they no longer needed and were able to browse through stuff and take stuff home. Kind of like a rummage sale without the sale part. Everything that was left over at the end was picked up by a truck and taken to a donation center. I was able to find some cute things to decorate my kitchen, a really good cook book, and some books, stuffed animals, and toy trucks for Joseph. It was really fun!

I’m finally feeling like I’m getting settled here. I’m making a lot of new friends, our ward has been really great, and I’m finally starting to get brave enough to go places without plugging the address into the GPS on my phone first. It’s the little things, I suppose!

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to believe that June is already here. The year is almost half over and we are swiftly approaching our one-year mark of moving to San Antonio. It’s crazy to think about. It’s also crazy to think that Joseph will be 2 soon…where does the time go?!

This week was a great one. On Monday, we celebrated Memorial Day a few different ways. We relaxed for most of the morning and afternoon. It was really nice that Paul had the day off. Joseph loves having Paul home.

Then we had some friends over for a BBQ. I love the fact that we have been able to make some new friends out here. The kids played in the back yard and in the sandbox ( a HUGE hit…) and we just had a generally good time.

Tuesday brought an exciting day…we got our new storm door! Now I don’t have to worry about rain getting into our house when it storms really bad. It also lets in a LOT of extra light, which is nice. It even has a deadbolt, so we can consider it an extra security feature, which is always nice.

We had a few morning rainstorms this week. Joseph likes to sit on the bench by the window and watch the rain. I wonder if he’s going to be like I was when I was little. I’d watch raindrops sliding down the window, pick two that we close to each other, and see which one beat the other one in a race down the window.

 

The rest of the week kind of just flew by. Our washer stopped working (it’s not spinning, so the clothes come out sopping wet), but it is luckily still under warranty, so it shouldn’t (in theory) cost us anything to fix it. They are supposed to come tomorrow, which will be great! Also, my awesome visiting teaching companion let me come over to her house (she lives in our development, which is handy) and use her washer so that I didn’t have to wring out clothes by hand. What a blessing!

On Saturday morning we headed out to Old Town Helotes for the monthly farmer’s market. In one of the antique stores, we found a bench for Joseph to use in the bathroom so that he can reach the sink to wash his hands. He liked it so much that he pitched a mini fit when we left it in the bathroom, lol. Saturday afternoon we decided to take a short trip to Sea World to see the dolphins and sharks/aquariums. We didn’t stay too long because is was WAY too hot. I’m going to have to get used to the fact that 89 degrees in Texas is WAY different than 89 degrees in Southern California. The humidity was almost 60% yesterday. Yucky…

After our rather warm afternoon, we went out for our date night dinner to IHOP. Joseph is getting better at eating table food, so it’s a lot easier to eat on the go. While waiting for food, we found many ways to entertain ourselves.

After dinner we went home and gave Joseph a bath. He seemed to feel a lot better after that. He went to bed early last night and slept past 7 this morning, so I think he was worn out! Today was a really great day at church. Joseph is slowly getting better at sitting during Sacrament meeting. We only had to take him out twice today so that he could get his wiggles out. 🙂

New Words/Phrases/Funnies:

Mouse (in reference to Mickey Mouse…which he is suddenly IN LOVE with. He discovered Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel, and now that’s what he wants to watch all the time…he’ll look at me and say, “Mouse?”)

Cookie (in reference to wanting to read his current favorite book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)

Snow (must’ve gotten that one from the TV because we sure don’t have any snow here!)

Sorry, sorry, sorry! (whenever I accidentally bump him, or if I do something on accident…on occasion he’ll use it if he does something.)

If I try to give him a peanut butter sandwich, he doesn’t want it…but if I give him two slices of toast with peanut butter, he’ll gobble it up.

 

 

Most of this week was pretty rainy. I guess the almanac was right in saying that May is one of the rainiest months in San Antonio. The main road out of our neighborhood has been washed out twice this week (and is currently still closed). Luckily, there is more than one way to get out of the neighborhood, so we haven’t been stranded at all. You know that there’s been a lot of rain when even the ducks look for higher ground! 😉

We took advantage of the breaks in the rain to get Joseph out of the house (avoiding getting cabin fever). We took walks and enjoyed beautiful scenery and sunsets:

We also made sure to frequent the park. It’s really nice having a park in our development. Joseph loves looking at rocks and sticks. He likes to hit the sticks against the different playground equipment to hear the different sounds (I think he does this more than actually playing on the equipment, lol). One of his new words this week was “park” (said in a questioning tone as we drove by one day…almost as if he were asking if we were going to stop and play).

The major thing that happened this week was that we decided to completely stop using baby food with Joseph. He’s been doing really well with snacks, so we decided to see what happened if we started feeding him table food all the time. It’s gone remarkably well! He doesn’t want to eat as much in one sitting as he did with the baby food, so I just offer him more snacks throughout the day. He still has a bit of a hard time chewing certain meats, so I try to give him other high protein things (like peanut butter or scrambled eggs) to make up for that. His occupational therapist was really impressed and thinks that we’ll be able to stop having therapy visits soon (she wants to continue for a bit longer to make sure that he doesn’t regress). It’s nice to not have to buy any more baby food, and meal time is a lot easier. It makes going out to eat a bit easier as well.

New words/phrases for this week: park (as mentioned before), happy, dance, pretty song (he said that today after we finished singing the Sacrament hymn at church)…and so much more, I’m sure. I can’t seem to keep up with it anymore!