Joseph is begining to hate "tummy time" less and less everyday. Now he is able to roll back and forth, so he has some options in life which is nice for all of us. He is also wanting to crawl very much and is able to move a very small amount, infact Bryan calls him the snail since we never see him move but we find him in different places if we leave him long enough!
"Well hello ladies, care to join me for a soak in my hot tub?" Doesn't it look like that is what he is thinking! This guy loves his bath now that he is sitting up!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA! We went into Madison on Sunday to spend the day with Nana in honor of her 59th birthday! We also were able to see my Uncle Bob, Aunt Paula and my cousin Jeff who were all in for a wedding for the friend of Jeff, this was the frist time Paula and Jeff met Joseph. It was a very nice visit (though short) that ended with chocolate chocolate cupcakes that we brought in for dessert.

Joseph has his first solids!
Poor Joseph had been begging for food for a few weeks and had become more aggressive in his requests for food, grabbing and diving for anything we were eating, so we decided to try some. This is a shot of him before we fed him, so excited to finally be getting some food! He really enjoyed eating but the spoon was not efficient enough for him so he tried to ues the bowl as a feed bag and put his face in the dish rather that waiting for me! Once I thickened it up a bit with more cereal and he was able to get more at one time he did very well. I forgot how messy the first feedings are as he was trying to figure out just how to move his toung to keep the food in rather than push it out!

Joseph has his frist tooth!
On Tuesday when we were all outside playing Joseph was sucking/chewing on my hand and suddenly I felt something sharp. When I checked I could feel and see that he has a tooth coming up. I can not believe how fast it is all going, he is five months old and now has his first tooth.

Eileen Goes Back to School Shopping!

On Tuesday Eileen went shopping with Auntie Krista (her Godmother), her cousins Brenden and Nathan, and Grandma. Eileen took her purse with her that I had filled with snacks and her cup (just like mom's coffee cup) full of refreshing ice water and ofcourse she had a bit of money with her as well. Eileen has very generous women in her family, she came home from her shopping trip with two new outfits (including tights, hair holders, and shoes!) as well as some new Cinderella toys from the Disney store (mom doesn't take the kids in there, so thank goodness someone will fulfill her inner princess). Eileen was also sent home with a new outfit and a set of Nemo toys for Olivia. I will post pictures of the girls in their new outfits in the fall, right now we are saving them for the cooler weather and I know if I let them put them on now they will think they are fair game everyday. When Auntie Krista brought Eileen home she also brought ice cream for everyone! She thinks of everything! The boys came with her and it was nice for Olivia to be able to play with all of the kids for a while before bed time.All of the kids had a great time playing with all of the balls in our back yard.

Mommy's Little Thumb Sucker
No matter what I do to try to get that thumb out of his mouth it goes right back in! When I go to wake him up in the morning (because he sleeps so late, he is still not up and it is 9:30!) he is on his stomach (I don't put him in this position he rolls over as soon as he is put down) with his thumb in his mouth! It is pretty cute.

Just sitting around!

Just the other day I realized that we had not been giving Joseph a chance to practice sitting, so I put him down and he sat! I guess he was ready, with all that we had been doing these past weeks I guess we just forgot to put him in this position (I had been working so hard on "tummy time"). Both girls love it when Joesph has his tummy time but Eileen is really very good at playing with him rather than just smothering him with hugs, kisses and way too close of face time (I am refering to Olivia here).

Hartman Creek, 2006
We had our first family camping trip since the new generation has come along and returned to the site of our first family camping trip over 20 years ago. We only stayed for two nights and all now wish we had signed up for at least one more night. The first day was set up and was somewhat rushed since we arrived late due to Joseph's doctor appointment and the MN crew (Mike, Jen, Gwendolyn, Benjamin and Rachel) arrived later than planed due to traffic. Thankfully the Madison crew (Mom, Dad, Brian, Kelly and Cherub) made it there early and were able to set up all of their stuff and then were available to help out the rest of us when we did make it in. Mike and Jen made some great tacos with lots of fresh tomatoes from their garden and we had smores for treat (that was a huge hit with the kids, although I think they had more fun making them than eating them).
Smores by the camp fire
The second day we had a wonderful pancake breakfast made by Nana and Papa. Then all of the kids, aunts and uncles went swimming at the beach and then came back to camp for "Chicago Dogs" made by Benjamin and Rachel. After lunch and "naps" (I use that term loosely) a crew went to play baseball, while Mom, Dad and I got Cincinnati Chili ready for dinner.

The reason for the gathering this year was in honor of Dad/Papa's 60th birthday. On the second night we had a small celebration recognizing that with a few gifts and a cake I made at home and brought in. Gwendolyn's birthday is also coming up so we brought in her gift as well so we could see her open it.
The last day is always a hard one there is a lot of work to be done and all we wanted to do was stay one more day! We had eggs and bacon, again made by Nana and Papa. Then spent the morning breaking camp. It was nice to have so many adults around to help watch the kids so we could get things put away in an organized fashion so the car was not too much of a mess!
Now that we are home the kids are tired and we are potty training again since while we were there Olivia had no time to go potty unless she could hang out in the bathroom for a good long while and I had "no time" for that. Last night I was exhausted so the good thing about the kids being so tired is even after sleeping the whole way home they still went to bed early (we were all in bed by 8:00, including me!). We are still a bit tired today so I think it will be an early nap day and a stay at home day. All in all we all had a great time and hope to do this again.

Quick Update on Joseph
On Thursday Joseph had an upper GI done. He had to drink barium and the doctor took x-rays to make sure that anatomically everything is fine, and it was but he could see that he is refluxing a lot. My mom was kind enough to come in that morning to watch the girls so I didn't have to bring them with me to the appointment. On Friday afternoon we saw the GI specialist, we had a 2:30 appointment and the doctor didn't make it in to see us until after 4:00! I was less than impressed with this doctor since she had no new information for us and simply gave us a new script and told us to come back in a month. The good news in all of this is we do not have to have a scope done and we are going to pray that the problem resolved on its own, it has been one week since he last spit up blood, so keep your fingers crossed!

Too cute to not post!
In the Meantime...
While the girls were sick with their stomach bugs and now with back and forth to the doctor for Joseph's reflux we have managed to have some fun around here.
Joseph showing an interest in food


Erin turns 30
Also despite my best efforts Olivia has decided it is time to potty train. I kept trying to put it off until fall when we are inside more, but she was not having it. She would take her diaper off and go on the potty and then just run around bare butt the rest of the day going on the potty as needed. Thus, she wins. We are going to go ahead and reinforce this and so yesterday we had our "Potty Day" we made brownies, drank chocolate milk, we even had to run to the doctor for Joseph to have some additional lab work done and she used the bathroom there so she didn't have an accident all day. Now we just have to wait and see these next few days to see if it really took.
Olivia going "bare butt"
Big Girl undies!

Joseph is Doing Well
Yesterday we went back to Joseph's doctor for an exam, and he looks good (still gaining weight, 15lbs. 10oz. now). She took a stool sample and did a test for microscopic blood and that came back negative, which is good since it means that there is not that much internal bleeding. Our doc. then called the GI specialist to see if we needed a scope done. Thankfully the specialist didn't think he needed one at this time. We need to keep a close eye on him, if it happens again it is back to the doc, if there is any blood in his stool then we have to call our doc. and she is going to call the GI doc and have a scope done. So, at this point it is a waiting game, and all we can do is pray that it doesn't happen again.