Our little kitty?

As many people can relate, it's pretty difficult to keep a baby's fingernails trimmed. Joshua doesn't seem to like it much, so we try to do it when he's sleeping--but those nails grow so fast, it's hard to keep up! Plus, even when we do trim them, they still seem pretty sharp. In fact, last night he scratched me on my neck while I was rocking him before putting him to bed, and it hurt so badly I could barely finish singing his bedtime song! The past couple of days, Joshua has taken to scratching our couches, just like a cat. He seems intrigued by the plaid design, and I guess he can't help but reach out and try to grab something. I wonder if it almost seems 3D to him or something? Anyway, since they're pretty old couches, we haven't tried to stop him and instead took some pretty cute pictures of him going at it: I think you can see the scratch marks best, accompanied by the ever-present spots of drool, in the last picture. Silly kid. We really need to be better about trimming those nails...

Joshua loves his mommy!

So, Joshua has learned a new trick. Now that he has great control of his head and neck, he likes to turn and look up at me in the passenger seat during car rides! Sometimes he just stares and stares. It makes me so happy, especially when Cody comes to pick me up from work--almost like he has missed me so much during the day, he has to keep watching me to make sure I don't leave again. This is a picture I took with my cell phone the other day. I guess he thinks I'm a lot more interesting than the toys we hang from the carseat handle or the scenery out the rear window!

Our Little Science Experiment

So, I got a call at work earlier this week from someone at the BYU Infant Development Lab. Apparently, they're doing a study on 5-month old babies, and asked if we would allow Joshua to participate, since he'll be 5 months old on Sunday (!!!). We scheduled a time of 9:15am on Friday, May 16th, and agreed to meet them over by the Joseph F. Smith Building.

Once we got there, we were led into a room and the two students there began to explain what they were doing. They wanted to test how infants process faces and voices. This involves putting a mesh beanie-type cap on the baby's head. The cap has little sensors all over it that test the thought processes and brain activity going on in the baby's brain. After putting the cap on the baby, the parent holds the baby in his/her lap while the baby watches a short, 2 1/2-minute film sequence. The film shows flashes of faces and says "Hi" simultaneously for awhile, then flashes the face and a delayed "Hi," and then a "Hi" and a delayed face flash. I hope that made sense. The point of this is to see if babies have the same reaction as adults when the face and the voice don't line up (like when the sound gets out of sync with the TV, and the mouths move differently from the voices you hear--that drives me nuts sometimes). Then they leave the cap on the baby's head for 5 minutes after the film ends, to have something to compare to. It all sounded rather interesting, so we agreed to let Joshua participate and signed the necessary forms.

Okay, I want to make sure you all understand: this test was completely harmless. Joshua was sitting on my lap the whole time, and the little sensors are merely little plastic pads. He wasn't in any kind of pain. In fact, he seemed fine with the whole thing, ableit a little confused at times. He did quite well, though he didn't seem to pay much attention to the film while it was going (they turned out the lights, but he kept looking around at everything but the TV...). The entire process only took about 15 minutes.

They even gave us a picture of our little guy as a keepsake. I have a feeling we can use it as blackmail once he gets older...Isn't that a cute picture? They also provided him with a certificate, thanking him for his service:
It was definitely an interesting experience. Hopefully they draw some good conclusions about how babies process faces and voices. And Joshua got to be a part of that! =)

Happy Mother's Day!

It's my first Mother's Day today! And what a great day it has been. For starters, Joshua let me sleep in...he didn't wake up until around 8:45, which is great considering he usually gets up before 8. Then, Cody and Joshua gave me presents before church. Cody gave me a beautiful snowglobe with an angel inside holding a banner that says "Mother," and the inscription along the bottom says "Of all the things both great and small, a Mother's love is best of all." Cute, huh? Oh, and it plays "Blue Danube." I collect snowglobes, for those who don't know, so this was a perfect gift. I'll show you a picture of it so you can see how pretty it is: Isn't my husband the greatest? Joshua gave me the CUTEST card ever...of course, his daddy helped him make it, and it turned out great. It was huge, mind you...

In case you can't read it, the front says "To My Wonderful Mommy", and has a picture of Joshua on it (obviously). The inside has his handprints and his footprints in blue paint, with the stats from his last time at the doctor , which was about 3 weeks ago. The bottom says "Here is a little something to remember what I was like on your first mother's day as a full mommy! I can't fully express it yet, but I love my mom and appreciate all she does for me! You are great! I LOVE YOU!! Joshua." Melted my heart!
Church was wonderful. The choir sang with the Primary children "I Often Go Walking," which reminded me of the time I sang that song in church when I was a little child. Kirsti and Brianne came over and made dinner (Cody was going to, but Kirsti and Brianne offered to bring their food, so we took them up on it =P), and then Cody, Joshua, and I spent some family time together. We got Joshua to laugh a lot, which was fun for all involved...we'll have to get some good video of him laughing sometime so you all can see. Here's a picture of our family that we took this afternoon:Joshua looks a little bored in that picture, though, so here's a better one of him:
It was a wonderful Mother's Day! I hope they get better and better. Being a mother has changed me...I never realized how much I could love someone so unconditionally, so fully, and with so much fierceness. I can just stare at him for hours on end, smiling at him, laughing with him, and seeing him look at me with complete adoration. I probably look at him the same way he looks at me. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be a mother, and I hope all the mothers out there know how much this world appreciates them! I love you all! Oh, and I have to post something special for my mom...somehow, we have tulips in our front yard. We haven't even started watering the yard since the snow melted, but they're growing. They're beautiful, and since I know how much you love tulips, here's a picture just for you:
Love you, Mom! Thanks for being the greatest example of a mother I could have, and I hope to follow in your footsteps with Joshua and the rest of his siblings!

Pictures!

Hello everyone! I know I said I would post pictures last weekend, but...well, things got away from us. Life is going great for our little trio! Cody actually has a job interview on Monday morning, so please keep him in your prayers. He has a couple of other leads, too. I'm still working the same job, and Joshua is even more adorable than ever. As proof, here are some pictures from the last week or two:
See? We have such a photogenic family. Can you believe Joshua is almost 5 months old? I'm getting ready to celebrate my first Mother's Day. It's strange, thinking that I'm actually a mother this time around. And this is a very special weekend, too...it was one year ago this weekend that Cody and I learned that we would have a little child come into our family. What a wonderful year it has been since then! We are so very blessed. =)

Joshua's moving out...

Moving out of our bedroom, that is! Joshua slept in his crib for the first time last night (he's been in a bassinet by our bed since birth). I kept telling myself that I would wait to move him until he was sleeping through the night so I didn't have to get out of bed so much to go feed him, but for some reason last night I decided to go for it. And he only woke up once! It took awhile for him to fall asleep originally, but I left the mobile on and had a fan going for white noise, and he finally fell asleep on his own. It was so weird to not have to talk really quietly as Cody and I prayed together and read our scriptures. I plan to keep putting him in his crib from now on, so we'll see how this weekend goes. I really think he was getting too big for the bassinet, plus he's trying to learn how to roll over and there isn't any room in the bassinet for that. The crib has much more space. =) Anyway, just thought I'd share. He's growing up so fast, it's almost hard to believe. Before we know it, he'll be moving around on his own...am I ready for that? We need to childproof our house! His smile gets more and more infectious every day, and we even got him to laugh again last night. I'll try to take some pictures of him this weekend and post them.

It's starting to get rough these days, since I no longer bring Joshua to work with me. Now, he stays home with his daddy all day, and then I watch Joshua when I get home while Cody gets some sleep before working the night shift. We don't get much family time anymore, sad to say. We're hoping Cody can find a day job soon so that I can stay home with Joshua, and then we can have more time together. It's hard for me because I only get to see Joshua for a few hours every day (I get home at 5 and he's usually in bed by 8:30 or 9), and he's usually really cranky during those hours because he doesn't seem to like to nap anymore. And poor Cody only gets three hours of sleep before watching him all day, then another 3 or 4 at night before heading back to work again. If only Joshua would nap more during the day so his daddy could get some more sleep! Won't someone be kind and hire Cody for $20 an hour so he can work normal hours and I can stay home? Anyway, I really don't mean to complain. I just needed to get everything off my chest. Life really is good, and we have a sweet little baby boy that we love very much. That makes everything else worth it. =)