Darr Family Blog

I find it interesting that we’ve only had a few weeks of “real” winter weather. Most of the time it has been really mild weather, but today was ridiculous. It was 80 degrees. In January. It makes me shudder to think what summer will be like…but anyways…with the weather the way that it’s been, Joseph hasn’t really had a chance to wear the cute winter stuff that we got him. Thank goodness for dress-up days!

 

In other news, I have realized that one of the funnest things about the age that Joseph is at is the fact that I can dress him up in cute outfits (he has Star Wars shirts, Transformers, The Beatles, Angry Birds, Captain America…pretty much anything that Paul and I like, lol). We discovered a while ago that we could get him onesies that look like Star Trek uniforms. These have been a favorite of ours for a while. My only minor complaint is that the neck-holes are a little on the small side (either that, or our kid has a larger than normal head, which could totally be the case, lol).Doesn’t he look thrilled? lol He’s probably tired of me taking pictures. I could seriously do it all day. 🙂

It’s hard to believe that our little man will be 18 months old in just over a month. We are all looking forward to nursery. Joseph knows that there are toys and other kids in nursery, so (we think) he’ll be pretty excited to get to go. He LOVES playing with other kids. Paul will be excited to finally get to stop walking the halls during the second and third hours of church (since I’m serving as the Primary pianist). I’m excited because…well, because I have a feeling that he’s really going to love nursery, and anything that makes him happy, makes me happy.

Here’s a little bit of what we’ve been up to: work for Paul is going really great. He loves his job, and really likes getting to interact with people from all over the world. I love being able to stay home with Joseph. Every day is an adventure. Like bath time. Joseph LOVES bath time. There was a short period of time that he was scared of bath time (even though he never had a problem before). We now think (after reading about it on the Internet) that he became scared of being sucked down the drain with the water. So after a couple weeks of no baths (though we attempted to give him one several times), and a few rocky starts (crying when he first went in, but fine after a few minutes), we got him back into the tub. He has a few new toys and we no longer drain the tub while he’s in it (oops, rookie mistake, I guess…I had no idea he could develop such an irrational fear). He’s back to loving it now, which I am grateful for, but now it’s hard keeping the WATER in the tub. He’s quite a vigorous splasher, lol. He’s also getting more and more responsive every day. He uses lots of hand gestures to get his point across. When he doesn’t want to do something, or doesn’t want something, he won’t just say “no”. He says, “No, no, no, no” and either waves his arms at us or shakes his finger. When everybody raises their hands to sustain someone at church, he has to raise his hand, too (though not always at the correct time, lol), When he wants us to pick him up, he’ll reach his arms WAY up and open and close his hands in a grasping motion (what parent can ignore that?!). His vocabulary consists of: no, uppp, tek-oooh (thank you), baby, dad, daddeeee, mommm (emphasis on the last “m”), mommy (only in dire straits), woof-woof (in reference to any dog), yessss, and beebee (different than baby…he pats his stomach when he says it, so I think he’s trying to say “belly”). He loves watching Dinosaur Train, Super Why, and Thomas the Tank Engine, he loves playing with anything with wheels, he likes going out, even if it’s only for a walk to get the mail (instead of each house having their own mailbox, we have a whole set of mailboxes all in one area. It’s just down the street, so it’s an easy walk), and he loves swinging in the swing that Paul attached to our back patio. He is such an easy-going, mild tempered, sweet little spirit. We are SO blessed to have him in our lives!

 

I guess the holidays really caught up to me. I haven’t posted since right after Thanksgiving. I suppose a little catch-up is required. December sped by as we enjoyed ward Christmas parties, a visit to Bass Pros Shop to see the decorations, a drive out to see a neighborhood that went all out with Christmas lights/decorations, and just day-to-day life with our little family. Christmas was pretty fun this year, since Paul was home for it (yay!) and Joseph was actually big enough to care about it (last year he was just a snuggly almost four-month-old who cared more about sleeping and making sure he got fed on time). We did a “want, need, wear, read” Christmas. That meant that each family member got one thing they wanted, one thing they needed, one thing to wear, and one thing to read. It really simplified things and kept (mainly me) in check with buying stuff for Joseph, lol. Paul got tools, an electric razor, wireless headphones, and the first book in the Wheel of Time series. I got a new laptop, a handheld vacuum that I can use for our stairs (yay!), a new Nightmare Before Christmas watch, and a new cookbook. Joseph got a Fisher-Price Little People pirate ship, new pants, a couple of books, and a small Percy (from Thomas the Tank-Engine) in his stocking. He loves playing with his pirate ship! He likes taking the pirates out and putting them back in, sticking the parrot on its perch, and trying to launch the cannon. He also likes taking the crow’s nest and flag off and hiding them in places for me to search for later. Other things that he’s been up to: getting better at walking, working on running, starting to eat more table food (in very, very small pieces), cutting his molars, seeing what mischief he can get into when left unattended for even a short amount of time (this morning I came out of our bedroom after having gotten ready for church and found the printer paper scattered ALL around the loft), and becoming an all-around copy-cat-cutie (he’s starting to repeat short words after he hears them and basic actions…just yesterday, I was helping him walk down the stairs, so I decided to count the stairs. I said “one” and he chimed in with, “two!”, which he repeated after each number that I said, even if it was not “one”). One thing that I’m doing this year is keeping a jar set aside so that we can write down funny or good things that happen all throughout 2013, put them in the jar, and next New Year’s Eve we get to open the jar and re-read them all. That one definitely needs to go in the jar. One fun thing that happened that I haven’t blogged about yet is the fact that we got to do several web-cam/Skype conversations with family. We got to talk with Mom and Dad and Aaron Hall’s family during Thanksgiving, with Paul’s brother Jason and his fiance Lisa on Christmas Day, and with Mom and Dad and several of the siblings just after Christmas. Another fun thing that happened in December was that we got to go to Houston to visit Kelli (Perkins) and her family. Uncle Andy and Aunt Diane were there, along with Ally, her husband, and their son. We went the Friday after Christmas (Kelli’s daughter, Sara got baptized the Saturday after Christmas. She asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost since she thought it was cool that we had the same name (I love eight-year-olds!). We stayed until New Year’s Eve and then drove home. We relaxed for a few hours and then the craziness began. Growing up in Southern California, the only fireworks that the general public was ALLOWED to get were really more like firecrackers. Here in Texas, there is so much more that’s legal. The neighborhood next to us is up a little higher, so looking out our bedroom window was like getting to see 3-4 professional shows. I knew aerials were legal, but I had no idea that mortar fireworks were legal. There was the occasional burst earlier in the evening, but midnight was crazy. It went on for about an hour. Joseph thankfully slept through all of it, or else we would have had one cranky little man in the morning. It will be interesting to see what Fourth of July will be like. I have a feeling that we’ll just be able to put some lawn chairs in the front yard and enjoy free (to us) shows. New Year’s Day we took down all the Christmas stuff and life is returning to normal.

Yesterday, Joseph and I went to a nearby park. He isn’t quite big enough to play on a lot of the equipment, but he loves going on the swings. After swinging for a while, I got out the bubbles and let him chase some of those around. On our way back to the car, I noticed this spring toy that had a substantial back and sides to it (unlike most, which seem to be more of a straddle-type, which is great for older kids, but not for Joseph, quite yet). I decided to see what he would do if I put him in it…and he LOVED it! He seemed to know right away that he was supposed to grab the handles and even tried to rock it back and forth. I was able to capture a quick picture before we headed home. 🙂