This summer Joey and I have been hanging out with our new friends Tami and Mollie. I met Tami at a MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) meeting. Her daughter, Mollie, is exactly three weeks older than Joey, and she is absolutely adorable.

It's been fun watching Mollie and Joey together. When we first started having play dates, it was really for us moms because the two of them were quite oblivious of each other. Now they are becoming more aware of each other mostly to realize that the other one has a toy he or she wants.

As you can see in the picture, Joey is being a little forward. We will have to work on him behaving like a gentleman.

Won't this picture be cute to share at their wedding. The boy is not even a year old yet and I'm already marrying him off!

Our neighbor, who is also a stay at home mom, invited Joey and me to go to a nearby park that has fountains where kids can play. There was one small fountain that was just the right size for Joey. He was a little hesitant at first but was soon squealing in delight as he played in the water.

I am one of those people that LOVE fall. I love when the weather cools down and I get to wear my cozy socks and drink hot tea in the morning. I've been looking forward to breaking into this ginormous canister of Chai tea, and this morning I finally got to!


I'm just glad I checked the inside of my coffee mug. I don't even want to think about how this guy got in there. Maybe he was just looking forward to the Chai tea too. Mmmm...tasty!

After a slightly rough start with solids, the boy is a really good eater now. He eats all kinds of fruit and vegetables. There is one secret we learned that makes Joey gobble up every food we give him...oatmeal.

Since I've always made Joey's food, sometimes I've needed to add some baby oatmeal flakes to thicken the consistency. That's when I found out that Joey LOVES oatmeal. He loves it with peas, green beans, you name it. Recently I tried feeding him plain pureed carrots. He immediately spit them out. Then I added some oatmeal and he lapped up the whole bowl of it.

The bug just got his first ear infection. The doctor prescribed the usual round of antibiotics. Joey refused to take the medicine from the dropper so we put it in a bowl, mixed it with some oatmeal, and he ate it like a champ!

Fortunately oatmeal is very good for him, so I have no qualms about adding it whenever I need to. Unfortunately, the oatmeal seems to "clog his pipes" so to speak. To remedy this problem, I've had to add prune juice every time I give him fruit. The lovely combination that you see all over his face is cherries/prune juice.

Clearly when I say that Joey is a "good eater" this doesn't at all imply that he is a "neat eater."

Yes, don't worry. He even got it up his nose.

It was time for another haircut for Joey as I saw the mullet was trying to make a comeback. I was smart this time and instead of cutting it on a whim, I planned it for a time when Andy would be there to help.

Let me just say right now that Joey should really be thankful that Daddy was there, because Andy refused to let me just trim around the edges. If it was up to me, the kid would have a bowl cut until he left for college. However, since Andy insisted, I gave him a real haircut as quickly as I could. It looks surprisingly good for how fast I was going and how wiggly Joey was, but it always makes me a little sad at how grown up it makes Joey look.

Oh, and if you look really carefully, you can see his lone tooth on the bottom.

This is the new wallpaper on my computer desktop. Those eyes just mesmerize me.

For Labor Day weekend (alright, alright, I know I'm a week behind on my posts), Andy's parents came out to visit us from Phoenix. We had a lovely, albeit witheringly HOT time with them. It was our hottest weekend of the year, and with no air conditioning...let's just say they were quite the troopers. Good thing their grandson is cute, or they might have high-tailed it back to their air-conditioned oasis in Phoenix.

This is called, "Daddy's coming home soon, I'm trying to make dinner, Joey's being fussy so here's some Tupperware...have at it!"

When I was pregnant and I told people I was going to quit teaching to be a stay at home mom,
many people expressed concern. They said I would get bored staying home all day, that I would miss adult conversation.

Well I haven't worked in over a year, and I have to be honest. I'm loving it! Most days Joey and I just hang around the house. Here are some of his favorite activities...

He loves to read the book Pat the Bunny. It's a touch and feel book. He loves feeling the fuzzy bunny, playing peek-a-book with Paul, and putting his finger through "Mommy's ring."

We have to keep this chair disassembled because we use the cushions to blockade him from all the fun things he wants to play with on our shelves like DVDs, remote controls, video game controllers, etc. He is getting to be quite the climber, so this is one of his new hobbies.

This is one of my favorite faces that he makes. It means he is just tickled to death about something. It's also one of the only times I get a good view of his lone bottom tooth.

So, as much as I loved teaching, I'm thoroughly content to stick with my one pupil.