Darr Family Blog

This week flew by before I could even really realize it. It’s probably because not too much out of the ordinary happened…we just plugged along as usual.

Joseph is really good about playing on his own when I need to get stuff done. One afternoon, after getting him up from his nap, I had to run back downstairs really quickly to do something. I came back upstairs and found him in his room, playing with his toys. I love this little man!

Another thing that we like to do to make time pass by quickly (especially if he’s a little cranky, or if it’s right before bed time and we need him to stay up just a LITTLE longer so that he’s not waking us up before 7:00 the next morning, lol) is to put on some music (Pandora has really great kids’ songs) and have a dance party.

Joseph will get all excited and start running around, waving his hands around. Tonight we did something different where we danced with him (as in holding his hands). He really liked doing that, as well.

New Words: Joseph has added quite a few words to his vocabulary this week. He has added: shoes, socks, sandals (can you tell the temperature has been fluctuating a bit?), sit, and Amen (he just did that one today, at church, after everyone else said it…that was one proud momma moment!).

Funny of the Week: Joseph was being a bit cranky, so Paul decided to switch the TV over to Netflix and get one of Joseph’s “shows” (i.e. one of the cartoons that he normally watches on PBS) going. As the Netflix screen appeared, Joseph stopped fussing, got excited, and said (as far as we can tell), “My TV?!” When the screen came on with all the choices of shows (it shows a picture of the show along with the title), he got even more excited (insert “Woah! Wow!”). We found it hilarious that he was THAT excited about watching HIS TV!

Epiphany of the Week: I have found that if I want to put the groceries away in peace, all I have to do is turn on an episode of Blue’s Clues (but be prepared for unexpected results). I got almost all of them put away before Joseph even noticed. He came into the kitchen as I was starting in on the last bag (full of canned stuff). Since it was all unbreakable stuff, I let him help (he likes to hand me cans one at a time as I put them away). When we finished, he looked around expectantly, looking for more stuff to put away. When he realized that all the other bags were empty, he got pretty upset…enough to cry. I had not expected that to happen. I felt pretty bad. I made it up to him by laying down on the ground and starting up a tickle-fest. He switched back to happy pretty quickly.

Yay for Mommy Moment: Today I played a piano solo in church. I was pretty nervous about it, since I haven’t done a solo since…high school, I think. I’ve played for primary and even for a couple of choir things (back in CA), but I don’t get as nervous with those things since the singing pretty much drowns out any mistake that I may make. I decided that I would practice my piece every day, five times a day (Mom would be proud). I had about 2 weeks notice, so that was plenty of time to get in a lot of practice. The result? An almost flawless performance (I only hit one stray note, but since it was a slip of a note that I had just played, it didn’t even sound wrong)! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with a love for music and is giving me a way to share the talent with others. I’m also grateful that my mom was willing to give me lessons (and was careful to let me go at my own pace so that I didn’t become frustrated and want to give up..I think that really made a difference)!

Our week started off with trying a new way to take our walks around the neighborhood. Joseph has a back pack that looks like a puppy (it’s a hand-me-down from Aaron and Tara). It straps on and has a really long tail that acts as a leash. We strapped him into it and decided to see how it went. He loved it! I think he loved the new sense of freedom that it created. 🙂

Here’s our little Superman! He certainly is my superhero…he makes me laugh, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and makes me want to always strive to be a better mom. I love this little man!

I found the hat that Joseph wore last summer and decided that I needed to see if it still fit, or if we needed to buy him another one. Not only did it still fit, but he didn’t want to take it off! 🙂 I love that he always seems to have a smile at the ready. He makes my life so much fun!

The last half of the week, Paul’s evenings (and all of Saturday) were pretty jam-packed. He was able to order the supplies (including a ton of sand…no, really…forty 50-pound bags) and assemble the play area that he’s been planning out. It turned out SO great! Joseph loves playing with the sand toys, but isn’t too keen about the walking on the sand quite yet (or touching it, for that matter…he doesn’t mind scooping it, though). We know that will come in time, though.

Our St. Patrick’s Day was pretty low-key. We got up and pretty much did our normal Sunday stuff. It was pretty fun to go to church and see a lot of green on everybody. We made corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot and had some friends over for dinner. It was so much fun! They have two children: a boy about Joseph’s age and a sweet almost-brand-new baby girl.

The two little boys had so much fun playing with the piano. It’s so awesome having so many great families so close to us. We’ve been able to make friends quickly and are really starting to feel like San Antonio is home. 🙂

Here’s your video for the week. Today was a gorgeous day (we had a huge thunderstorm last night that seemed to clear everything out), so we spent time after church swinging, playing with bubbles, and then walking around the neighborhood.

His new thing to do this week is mimic us when we say, “Achoo!” He finds it hilarious, and so do we! As for the rest of the week, here’s the highlights: I didn’t post about Joseph’s first week in nursery, so I need to do a little bit of catch-up. He had a blast last week! I went in, put him down, and he made a bee-line for the toys…didn’t even look back. When I left, there was another parent in there, watching the kids until the head nursery leader could get some more people to sub (since the regular leaders were sick and hadn’t had a chance to get subs). I asked if she could give the subs Joseph’s particulars (lactose intolerant, first time, I would be in Primary if they needed me, etc.). She remembered to tell them everything except that it was his first time, and I guess he was doing so well, they didn’t realize that it was his first time, until the water cups came out. Apparently, Joseph thought it would be fun to knock them all over…oh dear. When I came to pick him up at the end of church, they told me, “Oh…he did SO well! We didn’t realize it was his first day until he started knocking water cups left and right…then it occurred to us that he might be a rookie.” I was a little embarrassed, but I couldn’t help but laugh about it (especially since everyone else was). After all, it was only water! Here is a picture of him all dressed up and ready for church:

The rest of the week seemed to rush by, and we got to Saturday before I even realized it (oh, Joseph had his 18-month well-baby visit during the week. He’s 28 pounds, 10 ounces, and is 33 inches tall…we joke that it’s a good thing that we moved to Texas, because he seems to be built for football!). About mid-week, we decided that since Sea World is so close to us (about 20 minutes), we’d go on Saturday (after a baptism that I needed to be at to play the piano) and get season passes. Well, Saturday morning dawned cloudy and wet. I think I was the most disappointed. We had pretty much written off going, but as I was driving home from the baptism, the sun broke free of the clouds and it cleared just enough (though it was humid as all get-out) for us to go. Joseph LOVED it! We didn’t see any of the shows, since we got there sort of late in the afternoon and had already made plans with friends for the evening, so we just walked around and saw a few of the exhibits. We stopped off at the penguins first. When Joseph saw them, he said, “Woah!” and his eyes got all big. The same thing went for the puffins…then we got to go see the dolphins. The dolphin area is open so that you can walk right up to the edge of the water and see them. That was when the huge smiles started. Joseph absolutely fell in love with the dolphins. He watched as they jumped out of the water, did tricks, stuck their heads and flippers out of the water, and swam all around. When it was time to move on, Joseph started to cry…he didn’t want to go, lol. Daddy did a good job distracting him and getting him back into the good mood that he’s almost always in. After the dolphins we went and saw the aquarium fish and also the sharks. All-in-all, a great afternoon.

Before I went to the baptism (and before Sea World), we spent the morning running a few errands and then hung out at home. As one of our errands, we were able to get a tube for Joseph to explore in. He has shown interest in them before (at other people’s houses), so we decided to get one for him, since they are pretty cheap. It took him a bit to remember how exactly to use it, but after watching Mommy and Daddy a few times, he remembered.

That’s pretty much our week in review! I’m already looking forward to this next week to see what adventures unfold. 🙂