New Year

I always seem to be depressed at the beginning of the new year... It's depressing coming back home after a vacation and coming home to an empty-feeling house since we'd been at a house full of family for a few weeks. Then there's getting back into a routine and dealing with real life. The new year brings the pressure to make new year's resolutions and this time of year is the colder winter weather and the short days. It's been especially rough adjusting with a baby. Josh was really clingy and sad the first week home. He wasn't sleeping through the night very well for the first few days but then luckily was fine.

Then on top of the clingy and sad, the past few days Josh has also been fighting his naps. He screams and cries for so long and half the time I give up because once I let him down he's fine and plays. I pay for it later when he's grouchy from being tired but I hate making him cry. The other half of the time I spend so much time getting him so sleep that I'm exhausted and need a nap myself so I don't get to utilize his nap times to get anything done.

Josh has also been getting into a lot of trouble and he knows it. Since he's more mobile and smarter he explores more, gets into things more, and when I say "no" he throws huge tantrums. Hopefully things will get better soon because I've felt kind of irritable lately.

Josh is 10 months old! He's growing and learning so much. He learned how to tip his sippy cup back all by himself so the water would come out! He can pick up foods and eat them by himself. He likes to put things inside other things. He still loves chewing on everything. He manages to find small pieces of paper to eat. Paper seems to be his favorite thing to chew on and no matter how hard I try to keep it out of his reach, he finds it. He stands on his own a lot and is experimenting taking steps but hasn't walked yet. I think he will soon. He can turn the pages in books. He "sings" when he hears singing and when he's happy. He's been saying a lot of jibberish lately, it sounds like he's speaking his own language. He does this funny thing lately where he deliberately blinks his eyes and we do it back and forth to each other for awhile. He's almost learned to crawl down the stairs but still hasn't quite figured it out. He likes to get down low on the floor to look under things. He loves opening and closing doors, drawers, cupboards, anything. He's a handful but also cuter and more fun.

Brandon's parents got us a barbecue for Christmas and we love it so much. We cook on it all the time. It provides so many more ways to cook and makes things so delicious. Our first meal on it was chicken, pepper, onion kabobs and grilled pineapple.


-Amy