Gluten Free with Julie B

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Sea World and 18 months!

We've been crazy busy here lately! It's a great kind of busy though and I love having full days. Recently, I accepted a job teaching music on Fridays at a local private Christian school (which is so much fun it doesn't even seem like work!) so I now have 4 part-time jobs (crazy!) It sounds like a lot (and sometimes it feels that way too) but God is providing in wonderful and unexpected ways and I'm really blessed to be working out of my home for 2/4 of those jobs so I can still spend time with my Wubba man! Our days are very scheduled (otherwise I would lose my mind!) but we try to take the weekends to relax and be intentional with our family time.

One of the activities we decided to do as a family this year was Sea World passes. Jon and I had them during our engagement season and it was so much fun and way cheaper than Disney and they had an amazing BOGO deal on passes this year, so we took advantage of it (and Josh is still free until age 3). We've only been once so far this year but plan on going again this weekend. I know we will make lots of fun memories there. Josh's favorites were the fish and sharks! Here's some pictures of our trip!

Our sweet little man is now 18 (almost 19) months old! I can't believe he's halfway to 2 years old! Lately he has turned into quite the little parrot and is saying new words everyday and has started saying two or more words together like "please mama" and "night night mama." I can hardly keep up with his new skills but it's been so fun to watch! He's doing so well and I am so grateful to be his mama.

Age: 18 months
Weight & height: 24 lbs (he won't lay still long enough for me to measure him)
Favorites / loves: Playing outside, Elmo, playing basketball with Daddy, climbing, building block towers and knocking them down, cars/trucks, stuffed animals, reading (especially "Red Truck" and "Little Blue Truck"), dancing/music (favorite songs are "If you're happy and you know it" and "head, shoulders, knees and toes")
Favorite shows: Curious George and Elmo
New Words: Too many to list! My favorites are "eewal" (cereal), "Elmo", "dirt", "wawa" (water) and his shape names (he knows about 10!)
Working on: Counting, colors and not biting (he chases us around to bite our toes...and thinks it's hilarious!)

Friday, January 9, 2015

17 months!

I thought I would do a bit of an update on Josh, simply because I'm so proud of him lately and I really think he has grown so much in the past month in every area!

Measurements: He's 23 pounds and I'm not sure how many inches (but he's TALL!) He's got a skinny little waist, buddah belly and short, wide feet :) For the most part he's in 12-18m clothes although he needs bigger pj's for the length and in shorts he's in 9-12 month size.

New Skills: Running, climbing stairs without help, climbing EVERYTHING, using a fork and spoon, brushing his own teeth and tons of new words this month! He can also point to his belly, head, nose, mouth and ears...for some reason he doesn't realize he has eyes yet haha!

Working On: Colors (he thinks everything is blue), using words instead of pointing&whining (oh the whining!!!), and not hitting & biting. His dad was a biter too, and he grew out of it so I'm not too worried.

Favorite Foods: He's starting to be a little pickier these days although he's still a pretty good eater. He loves fruit and has really loved oranges this month. He also likes bagels with cream cheese, hot dogs, mac & cheese (daddy's boy!), and spaghetti and meatballs. For vegetables he likes peas, avocado, and broccoli the most. I've been trying to implement the "you eat what we're eating" rule so I don't make him something different but that doesn't always happen. Sometimes he gets PB&J...not gonna lie.

Favorite Activities: He's an outdoor boy and begs (points to the door and whines) to go outside. He's having fun with all his new Christmas toys and especially loves his car ramp and basketball hoop. He loves swinging at the park and climbing everything. He also loves watching the squirrels in our backyard (he calls them "girls") and wrestling with daddy. He likes to watch Curious George and his Baby Einstein videos while mom cooks dinner. He also likes going to "Mi's" (mimi's) house! We are getting Sea World passes next week for the year so I'm sure that will quickly become a favorite activity as well!

Words: I've always felt Josh was more of an observer than a talker/babbler and I guess he still is sometimes, but his language has really grown this month as far as saying understandable words. His receptive language has always been really great and he follows 2 step commands really well already. He now has over 20 words in his vocabulary and is starting to be a parrot with repeating things! His newest words are "baby", "orange", "oh no", "Elmo", "noodles", "star", "heart" and "hot". He's fantastic at naming shapes (he knows 8 so far!) and his animal noises (the fish is my personal fave). I'm so proud of him! He also babbles a lot with lots of expressive inflections but I have no idea what he's saying :) It's the cutest.

Milestones: This month he had his first haircut! I love his hair but it was super long and starting to curl into his ears (LOL!) so I took him to Rose, who has been cutting my hair since I was Josh's age. He did great! No fussing and only slightly annoyed at all the touching on his head. He looks so much older now! My baby is growing up so fast!

His first artwork from Sunday School!

"helping" mama!

Getting ready for the haircut!

I love this pic!

He did so good!

Wubba and Ms. Rose! She's the greatest <3

My silly boy!

He loves his couch...notice he's in the Baby Einstein "zone"

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas season! I am always sad when the holidays are over and we pack up all our decorations, but I am grateful for the memories we made!

We celebrated Christmas a few days early with my family before we left for Charlotte. We had everyone over for pizza and presents and had a blast. My family is loud, crazy and just the absolute best! I sadly didn't take many pictures because I was just enjoying our time (and playing hostess) but here's a few!

Our living room was full!

Da boys

I loved having everyone in our home!

Sweet little cousins

The next day we traveled up to Charlotte, NC to spend Christmas with Jon's family. It was such a fun time! We got to stay for a week which was the perfect amount of time (although Gigi wouldn't have minded us staying longer I'm sure!) and I'm so glad Josh was able to spend time up there again! I tried to remember to take pictures so here's a look into our week!