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We celebrated Josiah's first birthday last Sunday. We invited lots of Josiah's friends as well as some of Mommy's friends! Grandma Walker got him this cute little crown that says "Birthday Boy" which he only wore for this picture, as he then proceeded to remove it afterward.
Josiah quickly found the big blue ball that was given to him as a gift long before the gifts were opened and played with it. I have taught him how to bounce a ball and so he was practicing that skill.
Daddy got to celebrate with us too, but then had to drive back to Seattle at about 2pm, so as to be there the next morning for work.
We had a nice BBQ with all our friends and got to visit with them a bit as well. We had it in the Clubhouse of our apartment complex so that there would be more room for all the guests. When we brought the cake out, we sang for Josiah and I could tell that he knew he was the center of attention. I let him taste the corner of the cake and at first he just took a tiny bit of frosting to taste. When he realized what it was he started to eat more of it until he looked like the picture below!
Josiah got lots of nice gifts that he has been thoroughly enjoying playing with since the party. Thanks to all for making this a fun event for our little pumpkin! We will miss you all when we move! Please keep in touch!
Today we went to my brother Brent and his bride Katie's wedding. It was held in Prosser, WA at this bed and breakfast location called the 4 Seasons. The ceremony was held under the shade of some trees on the site.
I played my flute accompanied by my Aunt Debby for the prelude music. It was nice to see family and friends that we hadn't seen in a while as well as of course see my brother get married.
The colors were pink and white (pink is Katie's favorite color). We had a catered buffet dinner afterward, which was really good. A friend from Benton City (who used to go to our church there) volunteered to feed Josiah some dinner, which I gladly accepted. She was impressed that he would sit with her for so long away from his Mommy.
Not many people got to witness the cake being cut as the cake was melting in the sun and had to be moved inside the air conditioned house. Brent was the "nice guy" and fed Katie a small little piece that she ate without getting anything on her. Katie then took a nice big piece and got it all over Brent's face. It was pretty funny.
David and I have committed to pray for the new couple, that their marriage will be a good one. We will pray that in all things they might seek the Lord's counsel and that as they grow older that they might also mature in their walk with Him. We also hope that they know that if they need anything that we are here for them. Congratulations Brent and Katie!
Today I hosted the last recital for my piano students before moving to the west side. It was bittersweet to hear them play knowing I would be leaving them behind soon. I have gotten to know them quite well and have enjoyed hearing them progress over the past year and sincerely hope that they will find a new teacher to continue their studies.
All the students played from memory and did a great job! I was proud of them for getting through their pieces without stopping and playing through their mistakes. I have told them that being a good performer is not about playing perfect, but rather learning how to perform as if they "meant to do that!" It is a tough skill, but all good performers seek do it!
And you know I can't resist posting yet ANOTHER picture of Josiah! This is a shot of him playing with the wheelbarrow at my friend Janeen's house while I was at the recital. She was nice enough to feed us both lunch after church and watch him afterward. She has a portable crib that he was able to take a nice nap in for most of the time, but then he got to explore her back yard which was VERY popular! Soon he will have his own backyard to ex
plore. Our new house where we will be living has a large back yard with a few fruit trees and lots of grass to roam around in.
Whenever Josiah wakes up, is getting ready to sleep, or just needs some extra comfort he likes to have his blankies nearby. If he is playing and wants them, he rescues his blankies from the crib (pulling them through the slats) and then proceeds to drag them everywhere he goes. I tell people that now that he can walk, he likes to take a few laps around the house. He has learned to hold the blankets up so he won't trip on the longer one as much, but it still gets wrapped around his feet at times which makes him fall. He refuses to let go of them though and pulls up on on things with them in his hands which makes the act of pulling up quite clumsy and funny to watch.
I mentioned in the previous blog that Josiah does the "Where's _____?" pose and so today I sought to capture the moment on film. He actually wasn't smiling in this pose until he saw the camera start to flash. He has perfect timing in that way. Some people ask me, "Does he just smile all the time or what?" And I can attest, he does not smile ALL the time, but he is a pretty happy baby for the most part. I am told I am lucky he is so good natured and that I won't get another one like him. Only God knows I guess!
Needless to say we are thankful for our happy go-lucky little boy! Another fun thing he did today was he saw Kim and I drinking water (after walking with the boys in the strollers about 3 miles) and decided he too wanted a swig from the glass. I eventually had to give him his own glass to play with because he was having so much fun. The result is the picture below I call "Glass Tasting." He gets a big kick out of trying to use "big people" stuff.
We have discovered that Josiah loves to turn things over to look at the bottoms of his toys, and when finding new toys at friend's houses (such as here at Colton's house), he makes no exception to this rule. Here he has on what we call his "thinking face" with his lips pursed and he is spinning the wheels on this push toy.
For those of you who don't know yet, we are moving to the Seattle area on July 1st. David got a job there and has been working over there since June 12th. This means that a little pumpkin has been missing his Daddy and Mommy has been missing her husband these past few days! I have been informed by the Daddy that I have been neglect in my posts and so I am trying to make up for it today by making 2 new posts for him.
Today when Olivia came over to visit I was trying to show Renie (her mom) how Josiah does the "where?" pose whenever I ask a "where?" question. It is when he puts his hands out to the side (palms up) like I do when I ask something like "Where is Dada?" So I said just that today to see if he would do it, and rather than doing the pose, he immediately started crawling as fast as he could to our bedroom (where David has his computer set up) to find Dada. The door was slightly ajar and so he pushed it open only to find that Dada wasn't there. I immediately felt really bad that I asked that question and got him so excited. It did prove however, that Josiah knows where Dada is and that he indeed misses his Papa!!
Tonight, we went over to Chris and Kim's house for dinner and Josiah and Colton played together as they often do. Josiah was getting pretty sleepy though around 7:30pm, so we left and he fell asleep in the car. I transferred him to his crib when we got home with no trouble, but then later I went in to check on him before I went to bed and found him in the following position. It was too funny! If you look back in the November 2005 archives, there is a shot of him in the same spot only with his head on the opposite side. You can see how much he has grown now that his feet stick out the slats. He is soon to be one on the 27th!
Josiah says, "I love you Dada...can't wait to see you next Tuesday!!!" Mommy seconds that motion, but substitutes David for Dada!!
My friend Renie brought her daughter Olivia over for a little bit today while she went to a job interview, so Josiah got to play with one of his girlfriends today! Olivia is a bit shy, but Josiah isn't and was constantly coming up to touch her and smile at her. Olivia waved him away as if to say, "Ewwww boys!!" It was really funny. It was nice to visit with Renie a little bit too as they live quite a ways away and we don't often get to see each other. There are couple more photos in the snapfish album "Josiah's Friends" for those of you who have access to that one. If you want me to send you an invite to view those, let me know.
Today as I was doing a puzzle (taking a break from packing), Mr. Josiah went exploring . He found the box of packing materials and found a way to open the hutch door even with the box in front. Once the door was opened he attempted to shimmey around the box to the other side but got stuck. So he decided to climb over the box instead, but upon attempting to climb over the box he got stuck in it. This is great boy stuff don't you know! So far, I don't think Josiah suspects anything weird is going on (in regards to the move) because his room is still in tact! Oh and by the way...for those that don't know yet--we are moving back to the west side of Washington on July 1st. We are still working on where we will be, but we are pretty certain at this time and we just have to sign the papers. Once we do that, then I will send out our new address to all of you via email.
Once again I have found a way to make a non-baby post! It is rare, but it does happen on occasion! My friend (Ann) pictured on the left asked me and this other gal (Valerie) to play in a flute trio for the Idaho Music Teacher's Meeting. Every year, they have a combined meeting with the Spokane chapter and ask lots of people to play and then they have a lunch following.
All three of us teach piano and flute in the area and it was fun to talk shop as well as play together! We played "The Song of the Lark" by Tchaikovsky, "Allegro" by Johann Joachim Quantz, and "Scherzetto" by John T. Chrissey. We discovered after some research the The Song of the Lark was originally a piano piece, but it works much better for piccolo and two flutes. Ann so graciously loaned me her piccolo, which plays MUCH nicer than mine! Both Valerie and I researched John T. Crissey, but couldn't find anything due the fact that he was a contemporary composer. I found some guy by that name that wrote a book on dermatology and Valerie found some guy by that name that was born in the 1700's. Before we played it we told the audience to decide if he was the dermatologist or the guy born in the 1700's as a joke. Afterwards, a guy responded, "I think he was the dermatologist." It was pretty funny.
Our little guy is SOOOOO close to walking these days! He can take a few steps here and there but then wobbles back down to the ground. We are encouraging him though by clapping and saying "Good Job" even when he falls down. He is so trained to this now that even if David or I say "Good Job" in just a normal tone of voice, he recognizes the words and starts clapping for himself. It is very cute! We call him the Gorilla Walker because he waves his hands up in the air (as pictured) when he tries to walk.
Josiah periodically likes to help Mommy "prewash" the dishes similar to how Grandma's dog Torry does as well, however Mommy limits the baby to which dishes he gets to prewash making sure they aren't sharp knives and the like. I figured he would be OK with the wooden spoon and it kept him occupied for a bit while I was cleaning the kitchen, so that was good.
Another fun pastime for baby is "helping" Daddy or Mommy brush their teeth. David and I both have Sonicare toothbrushes that vibrate real fast to brush our teeth and Josiah also likes the vibrations as well and attaches himself to the opposite end of the brush to join in on the fun (as pictured below).
Today Liz and I hosted a baby shower for Joyanne's newest son Nathan Robert. He was born on April 27th, 2006 and weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces at birth.
We had a great time at the shower playing a few games and then of course having cake and opening presents for the little one. Joyanne started off with Nathan in her lap, but later it was easier to let another one of the ladies hold him while she opened the presents for him.
One of the games we played was where I gave the participants a box that was wrapped 3 times and asked them to pass it around until the music stopped. When the music stopped the person stuck with the box would open one layer of the wrapping paper. The catch was that the person who got to the last layer would open the box to discover bloomers that they would wear the rest of the time during the shower. So of course, no one wanted the gift and shoved it around the circle as fast as possible. At the end, the lady that got the gift discovered it was a pair of blooming flowers. I got this picture of her though with a look like, "These aren't bloomers?!" which was precious!
The next game was "Check Out" from "The Price Is Right" where all the ladies had the guess the exact price of 7 baby items including diapers, wipes, bibs, teether, links, pacifiers & nail clippers. The person closest to the real price without going over would win a prize. Only one person guessed under, which was Liz (she didn't help me design the game incidentally) and so she won. Most people guessed over not realizing I got the stuff at Walmart which had cheaper prices than normal places.
Then we played "Guess that Baby Food" where the ladies had to look at closed jars of baby food and guess what was in it. The labels were of course removed and they weren't allowed to open them and smell them. And at the end of both of the last two games, Joyanne got to keep all the items for Nathan.
The last game was "Name that Nursery Rhyme" and we had 20 different tunes that I played on the piano for them to guess. Carolyn (the pastor's wife of our church) won the game. Some of the tunes noone had ever heard of...I tried to pick some obscure pieces and succeeded apparently!
Anyway, it was a lot of fun and Joyanne gots lots of "loot" to take home for her newest little addition to their family!
We celebrated Josiah's first birthday last Sunday. We invited lots of Josiah's friends as well as some of Mommy's friends! Grandma Walker got him this cute little crown that says "Birthday Boy" which he only wore for this picture, as he then proceeded to remove it afterward.
