A new cousin!

Monica Josephine was born on August 23 at 12:33 pm. She weighed 4 lbs, 9 oz and is 17.5 inches long. A tiny little sweetheart but she is healthy. Stephen can't wait to meet his new cousin! I'm sure they will have lots of fun together as they grow up. Congratulations and we love you!

A few things about Stephen

• Usually when Stephen is sucking his thumb, he is also playing with his hair. 
• He LOVES pulling my hair. He also enjoys biting my shoulder. Should I be concerned that my son has fun hurting me?? ;)
• Stephen has been experimenting with the volume of his voice. This is really fun. Of course, his favorite place to do this is at Mass.
• Sometimes he will stop playing, crawl over to me, climb into my lap, give me some loving, and then continue on his merry way. So cute!
• He put food (Gerber puffs) into his mouth for the first time this morning!
• Stephen loves playing with the remote, phones, shoes, his car seat, and anything that isn't one of his toys.
• Playing peek-a-boo is one of his favorite games. He will usually end up giggling while playing.
• When he is done eating, he will shake his head "no" when I try to give him a bite. He will also take off his bib.

Baby's first ice cream

Did you know that if you put frozen bananas into a blender, they end up with a texture like soft serve ice cream? Well, they do. Stephen loved it! I added milk, chocolate syrup, and peanut butter to mine. YUM! A nice healthy snack perfect for a hot day!

A house built on rock...

Yesterday we made our annual trek to visit "our rock." We weren't sure if we would be able to find it since there has been a lot of snow melt this year. We were afraid it may be covered or been washed away. Amazingly enough, we did find our rock! Because the water was flowing pretty quickly, we didn't want to attempt jumping out to it with a baby in tow, so we settled for a picture on the rock next to our rock. Of course, we picked up another rock to add to our collection. Then we hiked up a bit farther and had a picnic lunch. This was Stephen's first trip to the mountains and his first time in the hiking backpack. He loved it! He was talking and bouncing up and down almost the entire time. This is definitely a tradition I hope we keep up as the years go on.

Getting ready for the hike

Near our rock

Our rock

Peek-a-boo

Picnic on a rock

Daddy and Stephen at the end of the hike

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Saturday was Steve's birthday. We had a day jam-packed with fun! It started with Stephen helping Daddy unwrap his presents. Stephen's favorite part was the wrapping paper. In fact, the paper is still being played with.

As I've mentioned before, our city is much like a small town. Every August, they have a 10-day festival which includes all kinds of activities. It culminates on the last Saturday with a parade down Main Street. It happened to be this past Saturday, so we walked to one of our favorite restaurants along the street and got a seat on their rooftop patio. This was a perfect spot to watch Stephen's first parade. He enjoyed watching all the people along the street and bouncing along to the music played by the marching bands.

Stephen got a short nap as we walked around after the parade and as we walked back home. We ate a quick lunch. Then we headed to the Colorado Rockies baseball game with Aunt Kathy. The game started at 2:00 and ended after 7:00 after going 13 innings! Luckily, the Rockies came away with a win over the Dodgers, 7-6. Stephen was awake for the entire game! As soon as I would think he was falling asleep, he would pop up and move around some more. He was a very good boy and once again enjoyed watching all the people.

My cute little thumb-sucker

Todd Helton was celebrating his birthday also!

 We ended the day with a nice dinner at a downtown restaurant. Stephen finally fell asleep in the car on the way home after being awake for 8 hours. It was a wonderful day to celebrate our favorite Daddy!

9 months old

Stephen is 9 months old today! It's so fun watching him grow and develop into a little boy. My favorites right now are hearing him laugh and having him reach for me. I love his hugs and kisses. Sometimes if I say "Give Mama a kiss," he will. He's still very much into putting everything in his mouth.
Stephen has always chewed on his fingers and thumb but was never really a thumb sucker...that changed a couple weeks ago. Now he is frequently seen with his thumb in his mouth. It does help him go to sleep at naptime. Instead of crying if he doesn't want to sleep, he just lays there sucking on his thumb until he goes to sleep.
He enjoys standing in front of the window and looking outside. Stephen loves sitting in the shopping cart; however, he has discovered that he can turn around and stand up (while buckled in!). This definitely makes our shopping experience a little more exciting. He can be a little chatterbox at times, but he isn't saying "mama" or "dada" yet. His favorite sound is "oh." When I weighed him yesterday, he was 18 lbs. 9 oz. I'm looking forward to watching my little monkey as he continues to grow and discover the world around him.

Stephen Joseph - 9 months old

What Stephen's been up to...

Stephen is constantly on the move. He discovers a new part of the house to explore everyday which keeps me very busy. It's amazing how fast he can crawl when he knows you're coming after him. :) I've also realized that Stephen is going to be a little monkey. He is always trying to climb on EVERYTHING...toys, his box, the couch, Mommy, Daddy...Last night he was at Grandma Rose's house and went up the three steps between her living room and kitchen! This was his first experience with stairs, and he looked like a pro. Stephen is also getting pretty good at walking with his little walker. Tonight he was using it to push his box. I think he'll be running soon!