Rock Climbing

Well, we are hoping that spring has sprung here in Austin. The weather has been beautiful the past few days. Sunday we went out to the Greenbelt for a little rock climbing with the crew from International Student Connections-the group we hang out with on Friday nights. Joshua seemed to have a good time and our friend Haiyan took some beautiful pictures. Joshua loved rock climbing as you can see from the photo above. However, he started howling when mommy was near the top. I guess it was his way of cheering for me to hurry up and make it back down!





I had too main trouble spots. When I got to the second spot, I wanted to quit so bad! I felt so weak. Thankfully, Sean came along side me and gave me great encouragement.


















Kurt is looking pretty stud-ly in this shot, if I do say so myself.


We had several people from Impact, the singles group at our church, come out and give instuctions. I've only climbed on an indoor wall. Kurt had to dust off his gear because he hasn't been climbing since before we started dating (what does that say?)


All in all it was a very fun afternoon. Kurt says he's not really sore but I can't even pump the soap dispenser with one hand!

ewww

This morning I heard on the news (if you count The View as news) that a 62 year old woman just had a baby. Can you imagine?

Happy Valentine's

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Here's a couple of pics of Joshua celebrating.

A Travelin' Boy

Well, It's been a while since we've written. (Sorry that my formatting is all messed up on this entry. I could keep spending time fixing it or just move on...I'm moving on) Joshua had his first trip back east. We flew to Virginia at the end of January. He did awesome on the plane. Coming back he was a little fussy, but still pretty good considering. I found that when you are near your gate and your child is screaming bloody murder it is slightly embarrassing. Everyone is waiting to get on the plane and have nothing else to do but stare at the drama...Otherwise, people were very helpful. An older gentlemen managed to get him to stop fussing by waving his fingers in Joshua's face.

We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends.
Joshua got to meet his cousins, Issac and Adam. It was pretty funny to hear them oooh and aahh over "how cute" he was.









Mimi got to hold him lots and lots. On the trip home he kept looking at me as if saying, "Where's all the entertainment?" Fortunately he transitioned pretty quickly back into having to fall asleep without being held! He still misses his Mimi though.

As usual, Papa fell asleep at random times. I think this is the first time I've seen him do it at the computer. He's a lot like Joshua, one minute he's engaged in once going on around him and then before you know it he's nodded off.

Uncle Jeffrey was able to come into town. He learned the art of diaper changes.

One of the many highlights was a day trip up to West Virginia. I really wanted Joshua to meet my grandmother. We went to her assisted living home to visit and my aunt and uncle, and cousin, with her family, all got together for a lunch. It was so great to see everyone!

This is my cousin. She had a baby boy 6 days after Joshua was born! She has a four year old, 18 month old and now the newborn. She's superwoman!!!

Joshua also got to meet lots of friends. I was able to break away for a day and go to a friend's wedding in North Carolina. Mimi, Papa, and Uncle Jeffrey babysat for the day.

The big weigh-in

Joshua had his two month appointment today. He is doing great and weighs 12 lbs 11 oz now (75 percentile) and 22 1/2 inches (50th percentile). Our doctor confirmed that the "babies poop doesn't stink at this stage" is just an old wives tale. Shooo-wee, I thought we had a special little stinker on our hands. He got three shots and seemed to take them pretty well. He hasn't been any fussier than normal, so we are thankful of that. After getting up for his first feeding this morning I fell back asleep and didn't wake up until an hour before we had to leave. Poor Joshua, I didn't have anything clean to put him in and he hasn't gotten a bath in several days (it was a busy weekend). I managed to sponge him down and put him in an outfit that is too big, but at least clean. Once we got home he spent the rest of the day in a Christmas outfit. I'm not afraid to tell it like it is...

Other exciting news on the block. Josh's friend across the street was born Thursday-a whopping 10 lbs 6 oz! We went to visit him Saturday, but of course Josh slept the whole time. He's a pudgy little cutie. We were out an about a lot this weekend and Joshua was very cooperative. He also had some one on one time with Daddy while I went to a card making party. We are blessed with a good baby. He is sleeping from 10:30 PM till about 6 AM these days. I just hope any future kids are just as good!

Hiking at Walnut Creek

The weather here has been beautiful, although we would love to have some serious rain. Last Saturday we went hiking at Walnut Creek. The "creek" is more of a stream now and we spent some of our hike walking though the riverbed because it has dried up so much. Joshua enjoyed being close to his dad and snoozed away. I am continually reminded how out of shape I am, but with good reason. I'm going to start my running program tomorrow (I say that everyday). Actually, going back to the weather, it has been very windy the past few days with gusts up to 30 miles per hour. Joshua and I were walking yesterday and the wind was blowing against us so hard I had to push the stroller as hard as I could to keep it moving. Guess I can say I have at least started my resistance training.

















Today Joshua had a "playdate" with friends Anabelle and Isabelle across the street. They are three year old twins. Their mom was gracious enough to watch our little guy so I could run to the dentist. (I am happy to report no cavities despite having not been to the dentist in three years!) He was happy when I left him and happy when I returned. Apparently a little fussy in between, but it went well.

He is still doing great. He hasn't been rolling over lately-maybe because his tummy has gotten too big? He is now in Size 2 diapers. We are betting how much he will weigh at the big weigh in next Monday.

What's in a name

Well, some may be asking how we chose Joshua Leighton. His middle name came from Susan's maternal grandfather, Leighton Dransfield, known as good ol' Pa Pa in the family. Susan says Pa Pa was a man of God and also very funny. His first name, however, took some time to decide on. I was hesitant at first since it is the same name as my best man in our wedding, Josh Moody. We knew that Joshua was a great biblical hero, but once we discovered that Joshua stands for "The Lord is salvation" in Hebrew, we were sold. Thus he became JLZ. So, he's not named after Josh Moody, but we certainly wouldn't complain if our Joshua takes after the elder one.

At home Joshua goes by several different names ... lil JZ, our super duper pooper, and daddy's lil WIZard (pun intended). ~Kurt

Life So Far-a note from Joshua

Mom is finally letting me do my own blog entry. Just wanted to say hi to you all and tell you about life so far. I'm seven weeks old now. Being born was quite a shock to the system, but it was nice to finally meet the voices that have been talking to me for so long.


Mimi and Papa made it into town about 30 minutes after I was born. Papa says Mimi was driving like a maniac to get to the hospital when she found out I had already been born. They stayed in Austin almost two weeks to take care of mommy and daddy so they could take care of me.




A week and a half after that Uncle Jeffrey came to visit. He liked holding me and talking about how cute I was. He also thought it was really funny that I had so much gas. Speaking of which, it took my tummy a while to adjust, so I was fussing a lot for awhile. It's doing much better now and only bothers me once in a while. Mom and Dad were thinking they should have bought stock in Mylicon!

I had my first outing with Mom at a Christmas Card making party. I like hanging out with the girls and it's nice to have new people to play with. Mom didn't get any cards made but she had fun anyway.



Mommy and Daddy had their small group over for a Christmas Party. I fussed almost the whole time, but everyone else seemed to have fun. Their friend Mike took some good pictures of me-I was glad that someone could finally get some nice pictures since Dad and Mom are still learning how to use their camera. Everyone made Gingerbread houses. It was fun to see how they came out. I am looking forward to eating the candy off the future gingerbread houses.

We had a good Christmas then Mom Mom Zeb came to visit. Mom already wrote about that so see below for details. I love Mom Mom Zeb!

Last week we watched some college football. Mom says I should be a Hokie fan and I have to go to Virginia Tech. Dad says I can go to whatever school I want to. Mom tried to put her silly Hokie hat on me but I thought it was a little over the top and let her know I didn't like it. We also watched the Penn State game but we were all too tired to stay up for the end. Then came the big game where we watched the Longhorns win the national title. We were all very excited for Texas. My neighbor says I have to be a longhorn fan since I'm a native Texan.

Now that the holidays are over, it's back to the day to day at home. I am staying busy sleeping, eating, and playing. I am starting to sleep a little less during the day. I only get up once at night to eat, which Mommy is thankful for. She snapped this shot of me fussing. She thinks I'm so cute, even when I'm crying.

Mommy and I are heading to Abingdon the last weekend in January. Hopefully I will get to meet some of you! Thanks for reading my blog entry. Hopefully Mom will let me write again soon!

Smiles

So experts say that babies don't have "real" smiles until 3 months. I saw a magazine article yesterday that said over 50% of mom's say their babies started smiling at 4-6 weeks. Glad to know I'm not the only one. Joshua started smiling in response to things around him right around Christmas. It is so fun to be able to get him to smile. He loves to sit in his swing and smile at the bear mobile above. You would think the bears were a stand up act the way he gets a kick out of them. I mentioned to Kurt that I wished I was so easily amused; he can watch them for more than half and hour smiling. Then it dawned on me that we watch him for more than a half and hour and are amused the whole time...

A visit from Mom Mom Zeb

Joshua is having a blast playing with Mom Mom Zeb. She is full of fun noises and great faces to keep him entertained. She arrived on Monday and will be here until Sunday. I am enjoying hunting down post Christmas bargains with her. It's nice to have company while Kurt is at work.

Joshua has been doing great. Mom Mom thinks we were lying about him being fussy since he has hardly cried while she has been here. (Maybe because she's always rocking him???) We did both notice though that he will cry everytime she picks up her camera. Literally-when she sets it back down he stops. Maybe he's heard about her tendency to cut off peoples heads in photos... He's going to go into shock when Mom Mom leaves and he doesn't get so much attention. That's what grandmas are for though.

Merry Christmas!!

Here are the promised Christmas pictures . I need a little practice with the digital camera, but Joshua is willing to help me out with lots of photo opps. Santa's little helper delivering Christmas Cookies to the neighbors.

Joshua's first Christmas and he has slept through most of it. He was awake for unwrapping one of his presents and then fell asleep. He woke up again long enough for us to show him all his gifts, and then he was out again.

We are having a lazy day. We will head over to our neighbor's this evening for Christmas dinner. The day before yesterday Joshua handed out cookies to all the neighbors. (We have some cute pictures but can't post them yet. Santa bought us a new computer so we can get photos uploaded at home. Hopefully we will have it up and running in a few days.) We went to Christmas Eve service yesterday-Joshua's first Church service. He was very good and quite despite being awake for part of it.

Photos

I have always wondered why people send out photos from the hosptial when they look terrible. Now I understand it's too exciting not to share. (However you can note that this is after some recovery, I'm not brave enough to display the first photos...)

Getting ready to head home. I wouldn't believe Kurt as to how warm it was. We had him all bundled up and got outside and started peeling the layers off.

This is actually Kurt. He was a little heavier at birth, otherwise Joshua looks a lot like him!

Tummy Time is a favorite in the Zebley household!

Home at last!