Fun Times

(Joel with his friend Alyssa)

So this week has been filled with firsts for Joel. It helps that he is staying conscious more- aka he doesn't sleep ALL the time.
On Thursday I took Joel swimming for the first time. The pool wasn't cold but the water wasn't heated either. With our experiences with cold baths I was very worried that he would scream and cry and hate the pool. However, he surprised me and was pretty ambivalent to it. As long as I held him close he was okay with the water. Towards the end he started splashing a little bit but for the most part wasn't really excited about it but didn't hate it either. Hopefully we'll try it again this week.
Then yesterday Joel had his first road trip. He and I went down to Melbourne to visit Davina, Aaron, Alyssa and Rebecca. I was a little nervous because Tj couldn't make the trip so if Joel got cranky on the trip it would be a bit difficult. Of course Joel was a great travel buddy. He slept most of the time but he still is okay being in his carrier as long as he gets a break from it and gets to play too! I was relieved that he was such a good traveler.
This week will be pretty busy. We'll be getting ready to meet the rest of the Lines Clan in San Diego. We're pretty excited and since Joel has proven to be a pretty good traveler it should be a lot of fun. We're excited to see everyone and I'm pretty sure they're excited to meet him.
Anyhow, Joel has decided he's bored playing by himself so I've got to get.

Quick Joel Fix

For all of you needing your Joel fix here it is. He is getting so big he's a blast to be around. His little personality is coming out. He's really laid back until he is hungry, tired or gassy. Then he needs to have what he needs NOW! But he's just so stinking cute that you forget about all that when he smiles at you. So here's Joel!

Joel doing his tummy time. He loves this little cow that Grandma Mony and Auntie Ra Ra and Auntie Jay Jay got for him.

He's now done with tummy time. He really hasn't gotten to the point where he appreciates tummy time so he spends most of it pretty upset. But he does like spending time on his back looking around and kicking- but not so much with the tummy time.

Here's the start of one of Joel's smiles. They're so quick it's hard to capture one. It's usually when he's talking or playing that he'll give you one and so I usually don't have the camera handy. But you get the idea.

Here's Joel right before our morning walk. He was not all that impressed that he had to be out in the sun. But he's usually pretty good once we get going. And he likes his little hat.

And here's Joel sleeping. He always looks so peaceful when he sleeps. He loves his blanket from Auntie Dana. It's so soft but even with this blanket he refuses to keep his arms wrapped up.

Okay Joel has woken up and has decided he's starving to death so I've got to go. Hope you enjoy this pictures. More to come soon!

Joel and Friends

So I don't know if there was something in the water but here is Joel with just a few of his friends. At one point there were nine of us at church that were all pregnant at the same time. Only two were girls- the one on the far right is one of the two. The other seven are all boys! It's been pretty fun though.

Us moms are now working on putting a mother's group together. Since there are quite a few of us that are home all day (at least for the time being) we figured it would be nice to get together during the week. As much as you love your baby you can only carry a conversation with him for so long. And hopefully as the boys (and girl) get older they'll all be good friends.

Calling out to my peeps!

(I thought this picture was pretty cute of Joel. He's got a little smile and it looks like he's waving- hence the title. I know I'm kind of lame.)

So it's been a little while since I updated this blog. I'm slacking I know! Joel is growing so quickly though. Even if I updated this everyday I don't think I could keep up with him!

So my biggest news with Joel is that he is now smiling. Like real smiles for people. His first smile for me came on Tuesday. It was so cute. I went to get him in the morning from his crib and he was just hanging out. When I called out to him he looked up at me and gave me the cutest smile! It was one of those moments that are just between me and Joel. The funny thing is that he will be real smiley and I'll call Tj in to see and by the time Tj finishes what he's doing and gets to where we're at Joel's done smiling. I'm not sure that Tj believes me when I tell him that Joel is smiling because he hasn't seen it yet. Hopefully soon!

Joel has also discovered his spit. So now not only do I get to contend with his spit-up but now he likes to blow spit bubbles too. Lovely! Actually right now it's still cute but I'm pretty sure it will get old soon. Silly boy!

We also got Joel a new "toy". Actually it's just a baby carrier. I got it so that I can take him walking. (I've got to do some serious exercising if I'm going to get into a bathing suit at family vacation in a couple of weeks!) Joel seems to like it fine. Usually within minutes he's sleeping- shocker right?! But it's pretty nice. I'm not sure if I can ever talk Tj into wearing it. When I got it I believe his comment was- "Are you going to be one of those moms?!" But it is pretty handy plus it keeps me from having to haul the carrier EVERYWHERE. Yeah, that carrier gets pretty heavy and it's not making me buff!

Okay, so Joel has been pretty patient with me while I wrote this so I guess I should wrap it up and go feed him. Here's one last picture. This was taken on the Fourth of July. We took Joel on his first boat ride. We met up with a bunch of people Tj works with and one of them had a boat. So we all went and watched several of the firework displays on the Halifax river in the boat. I know this will come as a surprise but Joel spent most of the ride sleeping. But it was a fun ride.

(I know that the stupid time stamp is covering half of Joel's face. I've asked Tj to photoshop it out. As soon as he does that I'll replace this picture with the better one.)