A Bunch of Updates

Ok, ok, ok Auntie Jodi & honorary Auntie Diana...keep your pants on. Here's some pictures and an update.

First, a few non-Joshua things to update you on. We're still waiting for our mortgage committment letter from the lender. Once we get the letter, we'll be able to set our closing date. Once we have that date, I'll let you know. I was going to wait until we closed to post a picture of the house, but I just can't stand not showing it off! It's small and sweet and will be a wonderful place to raise our little bug.

The only picture I have of the inside is one of the kitchen. Aside from the bathroom, it's the only other room that isn't four blank walls and a floor. And the bathroom...well, that will be a whole post in and of itself. I'll simply tell you that there is tile. Lots of black & yellow tile. The floor kind of makes you a little dizzy. :) So here's my TINY kitchen. To the right of the stove is the dining area & to the left is the garage. One of the first things we'll be doing is painting the cabinets!

Next order of business...Ben's third trip to Casa Vin'Arte to see his baby. This visit took all of 10 minutes and consisted of transferring the wine from one big glass carboy to another. Next visit is filtering, and then we get to bottle it and bring it home!
Ok, that's all the non-Joshua updates. Here's what you really visit this site for. :) My youngest sister, Gina, surprised mom by coming for a visit. :) I deserve a gold medal (or at least a few cookies!) for keeping that secret for so long! It was her first chance to meet Joshua (she's pregnant and didnt' want to risk coming sooner in case she caught CMV from Joshua) and they both seemed pretty taken with one another. I'm so glad you came, G! Joshua misses you. :)

Joshua & Auntie Gina from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

While Gina was here, we had a baby shower for her and Jodi came up to spend some time as well. Gina got lots of wonderful things for her baby, including this wonderful hand knit hat from her friend, KT. I asked KT to make one for Joshua, so hopefully I'll get that soon and put up pictures. It was such a beautiful weekend here, we decided to go apple picking and enjoy being outside. Joshua, as usual, loved it.

Josh's therapy continues to go well, he is getting stronger and more able to do things each week. He is reaching for things and trying to touch everything! YAY! He's gotten really good with his left hand. He's obesessed with putting it in mouths. :) If you have a mouth, he has a hand to go in it. Jumping is still his favorite activity, followed closely by standing and taking steps (while completely supported of course!).The other thing he's obsessed with is lights. Light fixtures, light bulbs, anything that shines. Sometimes he'll stop mid jump to look at the light fixture in the dining room! Ben thinks he's going to be an electrician. Aunt Jodi says he may be the next Louis Comfort Tiffany! Whatever he will be, I love watching him develop into it. :)

When Cousins Attack!

This series of photos makes me laugh every time I see them. Notice how innocent Timothy looks. But we all know that looks can be deceiving. Here they are posing for a picture with grandpa - Sitting there all nice and then BAM! Just look at how my nephew attacks my son! :) Poor Joshua is defenseless (and apparently surprised) by Timothy's attempt to remove his shirt!HAHAHAHA! Ok, so maybe I rearranged the photos a little to frame poor Timmy. In reality, Timothy is so , so gentle with Josh. Every time they get together, Timothy strokes Josh's arm or his face. He's such a sweet little boy. Sorry I framed you, Timmy! Auntie Jamie loves you. :)

After grandpa was done with the boys, Josh got in some snuggle time with his great-grandpa while Timothy cruised around the house. That little boy can really move!

Joshua's therapy continues to go well. I am so impressed with how fast he's learning and changing. He's recently started reaching with both hands and putting things in his mouth. He tries really hard to get the pacifier in his mouth and I have no doubt that in a few weeks he'll have it down. He still loves to stand & jump and will even take a few steps if you lead him!

A typical therapy session with Joshua's OT, Rochelle, usually starts off with some stretching and moves into play. We work on sitting and his core strength, work on reaching and grasping, work on laying on his tummy and even crawling! Last week, Joshua "crawled" across the living room. It wasn't a true crawl, but he was doing reciprocating leg movements which was awesome! He sort of pushed himself across the carpet with his legs, but his arms were still down & his cheek was on the carpet. :) Funny image, huh?

The introduction of food continues to go well with one little hitch. In the past week, Joshua has only had two dirty diapers (and they've both made me gag/nearly throw up!). I'm calling this little hitch Poopwatch '08. :) I've tried giving him straight apples, straight pears, pear juice, apple juice...all the things that are supposed to make babies go. So we decided to try sitting in a warm bath. While it didn't make Joshua poop, he did enjoy the experience.

Rebecca, I know how you love the rolls, so this picture is just for you:

Even with the lack of poop in his life, Joshua continues to be a very happy boy. He loves being outside in this crisp fall weather and continues to be the light of our lives. :)

Does anyone else think that my son resembles Mater, from "Cars"? It's the first thing I thought when I took this picture! Even if he does look like a rusty old tow truck from time to time, he's still my little stud muffin and the cutest baby on the planet!!

Never Say Never!

God has a funny sense of humor. He always gives us what we need. And what He gives us is always, always, always better than what we could have imagined. Let me give you a few examples...

When I was 16, I wanted a car. But I had requirements for my car. It couldn't be white, couldn't be a 2-door, couldn't be standard. I would never drive a standard white 2-door! I mean, there are so many cars for sale out there, I was sure I could find something to meet my needs...as long as it wasn't white, wasn't a 2-door, wasn't standard. Fast forward a few months and what was I driving down the road in? A 1988 Nissan Sentra. To be more specific, it was a standard, white, 2-door Nissan Sentra. And I loved it.

When I thought about the children that I would have someday, I pictured them with dark hair, big eyes & bright smiles. But I also had requirements for my children. I didn't want a child who was either mentally or physically disabled. I mean, I just couldn't handle that! I worked in a special ed. classroom right out of college and that was so very frustrating for me. And I was afraid that I would pity my child if they were somehow handicapped. So I'd just take a healthy, perfectly normal child, thank you very much. Fast forward a few years and who is the light of my life? A little boy with dark hair, big eyes & a smile that is brighter than the sun. To be more specific, he is a little boy with dark hair, big eyes, a smile brighter than the sun with a great possibility of a permanent physical or mental disability. And I wouldn't change a thing about him.

When Ben and I discussed the type of home we wanted to buy someday, we pictured homes that we could raise a family in. But we had requirements for our home. Sometimes some requirements conflicted with other requirements! Ben didn't want to be in the center of town, but I didn't want to be too far away from things. Ben wanted a large plot of land but neither of us wanted to do lots of yard work. We wanted an older home with character that we could fix up and make ours, but we didn't want to have to fix it up before we moved in and then spend all our time & money fixing things. I couldn't even consider a house without a dishwasher, garbage disposal and lots of counter space. We didn't want a little tiny house. We both said we never wanted a ranch style home. We wanted a two car (or more!) garage. We didn't want less than three bedrooms. We were starting to think we'd never own a home (but if you take a quick look at the title of this post, you'll see that we're learning never to say never!!). Fast forward to Saturday, October 4, and what did we do? We put an offer in on a 1,025 square foot, two bedroom, one bath ranch with a 1 car garage and an outdated kitchen with no dishwasher, no garbage disposal and very little counter space. Two hours after putting the offer in, it was accepted!! And we're thrilled. I'll give you more details when we get further into the closing process and have more to tell. :)

The Other "Baby"

Ben went back to Casa Vin'Arte on Friday for his second session to tend his 'baby'. This was the session that he had to de-gas, or burp, the baby. (Are you sick of the second baby reference yet?) So we went back and Ben went to work.

First he siphoned the wine out of the plastic bucket (I'm sure there's a technical name for it) and into the big glass thingie (again...the technical name escapes me) where it will stay until it's time to bottle it.

The sediment (oak chips, clay, other grape leftovers...) left in the bottom of the bucket was interesting...

Second, we tasted it! While it wasn't anywhere close to being completed, both Ben & mom agreed that it's not bad! I thought it tasted like wine and was disappointed. :)

Then, Ben got to combine two of his favorite things: power tools & wine. Ben had to get all the carbon dioxide bubbles out of the wine so they gave him a power drill with a special attachment on it and he spun and he spun and he spun for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, Joshua watched happily for a few minutes and then decided it was time to entertain everyone in the building with his range of facial expressions and his contagious laughter.

Josh at Casa Vin'Arte from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

After Ben was done spinning, he added the rinsed off oak chips back in (to simulate aging in oak barrels) and put his baby to bed to rest for another three weeks until it's time for the next step.
Night night, little one. Daddy loves you. :)

Six Months Old...Part II

I'm sure you are getting sick of my ramblings, so I asked Ben to take this one. :)

Wow! Six months and how our lives have changed... Gone are the leisurely mornings spent drinking coffee and lazing around the house. Gone are the impromptu weekend trips to wherever we got the urge to go. And yet life has never been sweeter! This is by far the best experience of my life! I'm so happy to be a parent. I'm excited everyday to be Josh's Daddy. I know it's only been six months, but I look back from where we started and I'm amazed at how much has changed. I don't want to take any day for granted. I don't want to look back and realize too late that I missed my boy's life. We have been blessed! Need I say anything else?

Six Months Old!

Joshua is six months old today! I'll do a more in depth post later, but I just wanted to show you how Joshua started his half birthday:

His first meal of bananas! :)

Mark Spitz, Michael Phelps, Joshua Nodine

My baby will be old enough to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics. Hey, maybe he will bring home a gold medal in swimming! He's already started working on his front crawl. See?

Joshua "swimming" from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

While Joshua does enjoy "swimming" in the living room, there are lots of other things he loves as well. When he's not practicing swimming, young Mr. Nodine enjoys getting zerberts from daddy

Daddy & Joshua from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

and playing in the grass.

We bought a hand held massager because Joshua's therapist suggested it. He seems to have a little bit of an aversion to things going in his mouth & she thought we needed to remedy this before we started to give him food. So we got the massager and began giving it to Josh to hold (it stops his hands from clenching all the time) and put in his mouth if he wants. He loves it! Notice how open BOTH his hands are! He loves to hold it (sometimes he even holds it on his own) and suck on it.

Mmmm...gum massage! from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

So we decided that since the massager went in the mouth, we should try food. Nana bought Josh some special spoons that are soft & flexible so they won't freak Joshua out, we made some rice cereal flavored milk, & daddy got to feed him for the first time. Turns out it was a first for both! Joshua's first "solid" food & Ben's first time feeding a baby. They both did exceptionally well. :)

Joshua's first food from Jamie Nodine on Vimeo.

5 1/2 Month Old Stats...

Joshua had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to get his 4 month check up and immunizations. Yes, I know that we are a month and a half late. :) He took the shots like a champ and didn't seem to have any after effects from them. He weighs 15 lbs, 9 oz (much lighter than I thought he was going to be!) and is 25 1/2 inches long. Those measurements put him in the 25th percentile for both height & weight! His head is still measuring small (below 5th percentile), but it's growing consistently.

That's all to report for now. :)

A New Baby!

As we speak, we have a new baby in process and Ben couldn't be more excited. In six months, Ben will be the proud papa of his very own wine! Oh, you thought I meant Joshua was going to be a big brother?! HAHAHA...sorry, no. I can barely handle all the curveballs Josh is throwing us. There's no way we're ready for another one yet. Ok, so back to our new "baby". :) For Ben's birthday, Joshua and nana and I got together and pooled our resources (Joshua paid for most of it) and bought Ben an experience. A make your own wine experience. He started out by measuring & heating the water, soaking some clay & stuff into the water and putting it all in a bucket: Then he added the grape juice. He chose to make an Australian Shiraz. The juice was super concentrated and very sweet, but still yummy. Joshua watched the whole process from his car seat and seemed to approve! The next step for Ben was to measure the specific gravity and then add some oak chips to simulate aging in an oak barrel. Finally, he added the magic ingredient to bring the wine to life - yeast. As soon as he sprinkled it on, the wine started to bubble & you could see it react. It was really neat! Finally, Ben put the lid on the bucket, labeled it and trusted it to the care of Casa Vin'Arte. We go back in a few weeks to do the next step. All in all, Ben will go back four times to complete all the steps necessary and then he'll bottle it. He'll end up with between 24-27 bottles of wine and it will age in the bottle for between 6 -24 months. It's really exciting to watch the whole process and be able to taste the wine as it ages. How fun! :)

Joshua is still trying to adjust his sleeping schedule, which is miserable for everyone. Today, his schedule looked like this:

8pm last night: fall asleep

12:30am: eat, play, cry, fall asleep

4am: wake up, fuss, cry, eat, laugh, try to play, refuse to burp

5am: fuss, cry, refuse to sleep

5am - 6:30am: cry. cry a little more. fake mom & dad out by falling asleep but waking up as soon as laid down. mom & dad finally give up and just get up.

7am: fuss, cry, fall asleep while eating

7:30am-10:30am: sleep.

10:30am-6pm: eat, play, cry, fuss, refuse to sleep, repeat

6pm-6:45pm: cat nap on daddy

I don't have a whole lot of hope that tonight will be much better, but a girl can dream, can't she? I'm not sure if not sleeping is due to starting to teethe, or if it's because he's trying to cut out a nap, or if he just wants to mess with us, but if anyone has any advice on what to do to help my son figure out his sleeping schedule, we're open to ideas! Even without sleeping that much though, he's a happy boy. All this not sleeping is leading to an abundance of cuddles, which makes mommy, daddy & nana very happy. We're so blessed to have such an easy going little one. And when we're at the end of our rope and can't take one more minute of crying, he smiles or giggles or gives kisses or brings his little hand up to stroke my cheek and it's all better. Amazing how something so little can hold so much sway over your heart, huh? :)