Flower Child

How sweet is this baby? As our boy's little personality is coming out more and more, one of the things that sticks out most is his peaceful little way. Maybe its because he is my child, but something about him just sort of brings about peaceful feeling when he's around. Take last night for example. He woke up at 4:00 am (very rare). I was laying there listening to quiet little sounds and thinking it was going to be a matter of just a couple of minutes before I would have to leave my warm bed and get him. Time kept passing and the quiet little sounds kept on. I got up and looked in on the precious child playing with his feet. I eventually drifted off to sleep and there's no telling how long the little fella layed there and played before drifting back off to sleep. His playing sounds are generally loud...AYOOOO! AYAAAA! What was so precious was that it was like he was trying to play quietly. This week he's been on a new (self proclaimed) schedule where he eats dinner at 6:00 and then goes to sleep for the rest of the evening. It sucks becuase we get to hang out with him for an hour at most before he's out. I'm hoping this is just a stage and he'll start staying up longer. I miss my little Rainbow Moonflower. He needs some tiny little Birkenstocks.

Oatmeal and carrots get me going in the morning.

As you know from previous posts, we have been experimenting with solid food. It cannot be easier (thus far). Joseph just goes along with anything. His daycare reports say that he eats all of the food he's given and he gobbles it up for us in the evenings. So far we've done rice, oatmeal, and carrots. His Grandma Emily fed him his first carrots and I'm told that he dove right in with his adventurous little spirit. I am interested to see which foods he loves and which he doesn't care for.

This is what you've been waiting for,

Today I have come to terms with how heinously awful these are and I vow to never wear them again. At least in a professional setting. Super hero cape and strait jacket sold separately.

I do what I said I would never do

Admittedly, before Joseph was born I had this deranged idea that once I had the baby I would just maintain my same self completely and be the same ol' me, just with a baby. WRONG. I also had certain things that I would "never do" as a parent. I've done most of them. Here's a list of things that stick out in my head this morning as I think back to those naive times...

1. I said I would never let the baby sleep in the bed. Okay, we've done pretty good with this one. Luckily we have a little fella that falls asleep hard and fast and doesn't wake up until morning. However, some of those mornings he's up with the chickens. Now, I'm laying in bed listening to his grunts thinking that I've got 12 cases in court, a DWI trial and an appellate brief to write . . . if it can get me an extra hour of sleep, he's in the bed. Sue me.

2. I look at sexy and/or unpractical shoes with disgust. This might be a hold over from pregnancy that I will grow out of. Before there was Joseph there was cute shoes - heels pretty much every day. Certainly every day in court. Those who see me on a regular basis during the day may be familiar with my "mental home slippers." They are these ugly black house shoes that I got at Belk's that look like standard issue at Dorothea Dix. I got them to wear to drop Joseph off at daycare so as not to fall on my rear in the parking lot while trying to carry him and all of his acoutrements. They were supposed to stay in the car and only come out for said purpose. They have never lived in the car. They live on my feet. I wear them to daycare, and then to my office, and then to the courthouse where I change into my heels in the elevator before I see anyone (just like Superman). They hang out in my briefcase during court and are back on my feet upon departure. I generally change back into my heels prior to any client meetings, unless said client(s) are too drunk/stoned to notice/care. I tried to upload pics of my Dix kicks, but apparently that function of blogger is broken today. You'll have to wait.

3. Messes really bother me. This has got to be a phenomenon of nature. I've always been kind of neat. Now my skin burns at the very sight of something dirty in my house. I wish I could chill out about this because I really don't have time to deal with it. I don't mind other peoples' messes. I am envious of those who don't mind their messes. I had to hire someone to come clean the house because the messes and lack of time to clean were stressing me out. I am going to let it get atrocious between the days the lady comes and practice being less concerned. (Drew is now breathing a sigh of relief). Oh, I am stressed just thinking about it.

4. I do not like shopping for myself. This really isn't a huge change from before, just more pronounced. I haven't really enjoyed shopping for clothes for several years and I can tell you why. First of all, I'm cheap. Second, I never have any time. You're wondering how these are related. If you want to find a bargain, you have to hunt for it. I walk into a store and like the clothes displayed. However, I refuse to pay the full price for the nice things on the front racks. I don't have time to go pick through the clearance stuff in the back. See the dilema?

5. Romance. For Valentine's Day I got 2 travel coffee mugs, one of which is proudly displayed alongside my Dorthea Dix shoes in a picture I can't get to upload. It was per specific request and all I could have wanted. Drew got a book about zombies. I feel no need to elaborate.

5. Finally, I am going to be "that" mom. Folks, I'm slowly turning into that organic-lunch-packing, mini-van driving, obsessed with child's cleanliness and general appearance, volunteer in the classroom, holiday sweater sporting, Costco shopping, teach two-year old Spanish, visor-wearing, ban sugar cereal soccer mom that I said I would never be. I really don't know what else to say about this. This all hit me a few weeks ago when I found myself taking flowers to Joseph's daycare teacher for her birthday and then spending an inordinate amount of time describing to her Joseph's nuclear clock-like eating schedule. (Which I am also practicing being less concerned with). I also get embarrassed if he runs out of diapers or clean bibs at daycare and they have to write it on his sheet.

I love you Grandaddy. I think you are so funny.

The Food Experiment

Folks, we have a Lucas boy on our hands. Yep. We're gonna have to take out a second mortgage on the house to feed the boy in a few years. He's come genetically complete with a hollow leg just like those Lucas men before him. This weekend marked the beginning of our transition to solid food. This was met with a little sadness on my part because he's growing up too fast. Some mornings I look down in his crib and think, "Who are you? You looked totally different when I put you down last night." We gave him his first taste of rice cereal Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday he didn't take well to it. It was a totally pointless endeavor. I know now that I got the cereal too liquidy (it's what the book said!) and it was just a waste of time trying to get it down his gullet. Friday night was a different story. Enter hollow leg. I got the cereal thicker like normal baby food and he went to town on it. I couldn't believe how expertly he gobbled up that cereal like he'd been eating it his whole life. He wouldn't even swallow the bite before he was squealing like a pig for the next bite. I, having no idea the appropriate amount to feed him, kept acquiescing to his squeals and shoveled it in until Grandmama observed the amount that had been globbed in and opined that it was probably time to stop. The video is of Saturday morning's rice cereal adventure. He continued to cry for more when I pulled the spoon out. Next week is oatmeal. And then fun stuff like squash.

4 Month Stats

We took Little Man to the doctor this morning for his four month old check up. Everything checked out great. The doctor recommended we start solid food. I was kind of hoping we could delay this. Joseph takes foooreeeever to drink his milk. He'll stop halfway through, play with his hands awhile, and then decide to finish sometime later on. Adding solid food means we'll be feeding him for hours! I was hoping we could delay the solid food until he holds his bottles himself. So this weekend it's rice cereal. He weighed 15 pounds 7 ounces and was 25 inches long. That's 50th percentile in length and 75th in weight. Maybe we should skip the rice cereal and start with the rib-eye. I am reminded of something disturbing I witnessed at daycare. One of the kids in his class is a little over a year old. Every morning when I drop Joseph off she's hoggin down on some Captain Crunch her mom packs for her. What in the world? I was in college before I was allowed to have Captain Crunch! I'm going to be "that" no sugar mom. I'll tell you why. I was tubby in the fifth grade. If I were a boy I would have worn husky jeans. I don't know, perhaps I wore a girl version of husky jeans. The slightly fat era was short lived and I became skinny as a rail in middle school, but I remember the slightly fat days and I remember knowing I was slightly fat and feeling bad about it. Don't get me wrong, I was fed super healthy and exercised plenty and the year of the slight fatness was purely genetic, I'm sure, but I still felt sorta bad because of my pleasant plumpness. I can only imagine how it must feel for kids who really are overweight. (I likely was not technically "overweight"). I want to do what I can to minimize the risk of Joseph struggling with his weight as a child. I hope that he takes an interest in sports and running early on and he'll continue to be my little running buddy (he already goes with me in his jog stroller). Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be that mom who tells the teacher Joseph can't have a cupcake on someone's birthday, but I will be that mom who preaches the evils of soda(I promise I'll quit drinking Coke by the time he gets old enough to want it) and you won't find me bringing Captain Crunch to school. Now that I'm on the topic, as of last weekend I've lost all of the pregnancy weight. Don't get me wrong - this is NOT to say that things look the same. They don't. They look very different. A small deflated tire still resides on my lower midsection, but I bought the Bender Ball. (That wasn't a joke). Pictures to come (of Joseph, not the deflated tire).

Amy and Andy's New Video Camera

Your Daily Joseph

I've found that I become very unpopular when there is a shortage of Cubby pictures. Hold yourselves under control! Here's one in his one and only Sunday School outfit. He's really quite angry in this picture. Drew would assume it has something to do with the sweater vest.

Addendum to Previous Post

Erin! Look at that picture...they're holding hands! We'll pull this one out in later years :)

Joseph and the Ladies

Sorry it's been over a week since our last post. Last week at work was really not cool. This week is shaping up to be the same way. Hang with us. It's really been a gross sort of couple of weeks. Nothing really bad, per se, but just blah. The weather is cold and bleak. I am dying to get outside and play, but it's all dark and cold by the time we get home. We're both working our rears off and having to be constantly on clients' backs to pay. I could go on, but suffice it to say that we're really looking forward to spring. That being said, this weekend was great. It was my goal to leave the house as little as possible if at all. Joseph and alternated playing and sleeping all day Saturday. Sunday the Jennings and the Mahlums came for brunch. Joseph got to hang out with Macie and Riley. They are so freaking cute together! We can't make any jokes about Macie eating Joseph (she used to be about twice his size), but he appears to almost completely caught up. He's turning out to be sort of large, but not roly poly. He's very heavy and solid and has a good sized dome (reference Santa picture), but fat rolls aren't spilling over his diaper. He's now grown out of lots of his 6 month clothes as far as length of the legs and will often be seen around town in capris until I can get him some new pants (which will inevitably be too big in the waist). We go for his 4 month check up next week.