New milestones every day

Well, we are nearly to Joshua's one year birthday, and I cannot believe how time has flown. Every day, there is something new in his little life! As of two days ago, we have officially retired our bottle collection. Perhaps I should say that we gave it a little break until baby sister is ready for that step. This feels like a huge deal to me, and I have to say that I am looking forward to starting the process again before too long. Remind me that I said that when Joshua is walking and I hardly slept the night before because of said sister.:-P Another noteworthy milestone is what I would call our first meaningful communication with Joshua. As he pushes and explores his boundaries as a little individual, we are learning daily. I have gotten so flustered at meal times that I understand the desire to teach babies sign language. I decided we will at least teach Joshua "more" and "all done" to avoid that nagging whine for more and the throwing of food to indicate the end of the meal. I haven't been very consistent with teaching, but yesterday Joshua reached his hand out each time he was ready for more cantaloupe. It isn't the "correct" sign, but it serves our purposes well!

Joshua and the print shop

There is a print shop that David likes to use, and he has recently taken Joshua along for the errand. I went with them today, and Joshua absolutely loved it! All of the employees love him as well, and they took turns passing him around and letting him explore things. He sat on the counter shaking a pen for quite some time before we had to leave. The employee wanted him to keep the pen. I, naturally, knew this was not an appropriate toy for an 11 month-old, so I tried to give it back. Well, Joshua did not like my opinion! He threw a fit, which is horrific in the eyes of the Lebanese people. Anything to stop the crying, in their perspective. I let Joshua carry the pen out to the car, and then he "had it out" when I took it from him there.:-)

Everybody is moving!

As of yesterday, Joshua is officially a forward mover. He has been sliding himself backwards for about a week now, and he has now mastered forward motion. At first, I don't think he realized what this would mean for his life. Yesterday, David had to put something very exciting on the floor in order to entice Joshua to crawl. He still seemed to prefer sitting still. Today, however, he has really embraced his newly found independence. He has approached the refrigerator, the DVD player, and the trashcan... and he has reminded my why my life was so much simpler when he relied on me to move! Sorry I don't have a picture to show, but I am camera-less. In other news, I can feel the little kicks of our baby girl, of course, only at night when I am getting ready to sleep! Sorry I don't have a picture to show, but I am cameraless.

Girl fever?

If there is such a thing, then I have it! A couple of days ago, I started thinking about the winter and about things we might need for our kiddos to be prepared... yes, come winter, we will have more than one star of this blog! It still seems surreal! However, as I looked at those preciously pink BabyGap First Favorites online, I just melted. And now, I am hooked. Maybe other Moms are different in this area, but one reason I am glad to have had a boy first is that I think EVERYTHING would have been pink if we had a girl first. I mean everything. We refrained from getting all things blue with Joshua, so we will be able to continue to use the main "equipment." Baby Girl Balch will, however, be wearing lots of pink and lots of dresses. (This coming from the Mom who rarely wears make-up and would live in running shoes if I could...)

Bonk, pause, and check

These days Joshua loves to put toys in and put toys on... whatever is around. I can put him next to the coffee table with his bucket of plastic shapes, and he will entertain himself for quite awhile by putting the shapes on the table, taking them off, and moving them around. Recently, a new little pattern of his has interfered with these moments of independent playtime. He wiggles himself along the carpet so that he is nearly underneath the coffee table. His head is right beside the table, so he bonks it. Then, Joshua takes a moment to think about what just happened and how he feels about it. After a brief pause, he looks around to see if anyone else witnessed this unfortunate event. Or is it so unfortunate? Apparently not; he proceeds to repeat the bonking!

It's all about perspective

Last week, we were plagued with terrible electricity. I mean terrible. The worst it has been since we moved here by far. For about 6 days, we had 5-7 hours of power in every 24 hour period. That actually sounds like a lot when I phrase it that way, but trust me... it isn't. I may have mentioned our big battery that allows us to use lights. We kind of grew accustomed to saving the battery for the night, and I just accepted the fact that it would take 12 hours to finish a load of laundry. So day to day, it wasn't a huge deal... once we threw out all of our perishable refrigerated items that still seem to have left an aroma. As the weekend rolled around, I did realize that I was extremely mentally and emotionally exhausted. It is interesting how such things can have that kind of effect. And when Saturday came, and we had more than 2 consecutive daytime hours of electricity for the first time all week, I was elated. It was a rough week, but I am so much more thankful for the amount of electricity that we have each day. Sure, it isn't 24 hours, but I will take it joyfully!

If you're happy and you know it...

Joshua figures out new ways to express his intense excitement every day. He has almost clapped many times, and he finally got it by himself yesterday. Joshua was so proud of this accomplishment that it really sent him over the edge with glee. He made the biggest, silliest smile, and he continued to clap his hands faster and harder. Sometimes he missed and hit himself in the face instead, but it didn't bother him in the least!

On you marks, get set... LUNGE!

Joshua isn't actually crawling yet, but that doesn't mean he can't get around! He ooches, scooches, twists, and leans... and now, he lunges. Thankfully, Joshua seems to understand the meanness of the tile floor; they have had several confrontations in the past. So he doesn't lunge unless one of us is sitting with him. As soon as I sit to play with him on the floor, he rocks up onto his knees and thrusts toward me as if he were jumping into my arms in the swimming pool. We think he feels pretty proud that he has figured out a way to reach us by himself. The only problem is, once he is sprawled against me, he is kind of stuck, and he doesn't really know where to go from there!

Our 4th member

We went to the doctor yesterday and found out that Joshua has a little sister! We are so excited! Everything looks great and healthy with our baby girl, and we are thankful. It is a blessing to get an ultrasound every month in this country. We are about 16 weeks into her little life, and we will continued to keep you updated! Thanks for the prayers!