Early Summer?

Melanie was given a huge bag of clothes from her friend Gracie this week.  Look what her favorite find was!  No, it wasn't really warm enough to be running around outside in just a bathing suit, but apparently we were taking advantage of the 15 minutes all week that it wasn't raining! 

A little randomness

Poor Birthday Boy

"Poor Birthday Boy..." He not only had very few pictures recorded from his birthday weekend, he also ended up with a black eye on his birthday.  He had a good day in general - Mommy & he stayed home from daycare for a day of R&R.  He had a bit of a bruise from an undisclosed fall on Sunday. Then, on Monday, after said day of R&R, he got a little wound up from the extra Daddy/Melanie attention....and one of the results was a fall on his birthday wagon.  That, it should be noted, was after the fall off of standing on one of the play table stools - yes, he's ALLLL boy.

Happy First Birthday, Joseph Pierce!

 Joey is ONE!!  He is still in contention for World's Happiest Baby, as long as his ears aren't bothering him.  He is a champion sleeper; 12 hours at night, and, if he's not at school, he can put away a couple of multiple-hour naps.  He's in 12 month clothes, size three diapers (which are getting a little small), has now transitioned from formula to whole milk, and we're working on eliminating the bottle.  He loves bananas, mandarin oranges, cheesy puffs, and most "snacky" foods - we're working on the substance! He sucks his left thumb and has to have his blankie with him at all times.  No substitutions, just the one in the picture.  He babbles a lot, but doesn't have words outside Mama and Dada.  He likes to clap, is learning to wave, and his new trick is the fishy-face.   He loves to climb - out of the tub, into his new firetruck, onto his sister's bed.  He has four teeth (two up, two down).

We are blessed with Joey's smile, laid-back nature, and snuggles.

Happy Easter!

Melanie, Charlie, and Sammie got to hunt for Easter Eggs in the Westons' neighborhood egg hunt on Saturday morning.  Then, on Sunday, Melanie went to Sunday School and then the four of us headed to my parents' house to celebrate with them, Julie/Matt/Molly, Tom & Paula Elam, and two other Frankfort families with young sons (one who is two days younger than Joey!)  Melanie enjoyed Easter baskets from both sets of Grandparents, and now her pastime is putting odd objects (popcorn, toys, etc) into the plastic Easter eggs and presenting them to us.  She was NOT a fan of the bunny character at the egg hunt - but enjoyed seeing the gray Easter bunny hop across our yard Sunday morning.

Fun with Cousins

Playing ring-around-the-rosy with her cousins, or just hanging out, Melanie has a great time having cousins so close in age.  We are thrilled that Charlie & Sammie will soon live as close as Molly does, and the kids will be able to spend more time together!

Birthday Party!

We celebrated Joey's birthday on Saturday, April 23 with all four grandparents, Randy, Cory, all three cousins, and Tom & Paula Elam.  He had a good time at his baseball-themed party; although he apparently wasn't a fan of the cake, which ended up on the floor!

One of Joey's (and everyone else's) favorite gifts was a firetruck from G & G Worzala.  He also got a lot of other great toys, many of which the four older kids would argue over until mean Aunt Angie would take them away.

Joey was sent home from daycare the day before his party with a fever.  He remained pretty warm all weekend, until we finally took him to urgent care on Sunday evening with a suspected ear infection.  It wasn't an infection, but the doctor drained quite a bit of fluid from his ear, and he stayed home from daycare on his birthday, to hopefully recover from all of the gunk he's been fighting.