Joshua's Future

On Friday Tina had another visit to the midwife to check out J2. We are pleased to confirm all is healthy and Tina also got to listen to the little heart beat (just to clarify to everyone that there was only 1 heart beat heard - not twins or triplets!!!!). Joshua was not too interested in his little brother/sister and slept through the visit.

OK so its way too early to plan Joshua's career - but looking at his early behavioural habits here are a few potential pathways for the little man.

1. With his fascination with washing machines - will he be a white goods repair man.
2. He seems very handy at sticking his fingers down your throat - maybe a dentist.
3. His favourite toy seems to be s drum stick - could he be the next Rick Allen.
4. For his love of swimming - maybe a future Phelps with 9 gold medals.

Anyway for today's picture update :- this is for those who doubted he could climb a stair case.

"Now you see me"
"Now you don't"
"Woops busted, Dad caught me playing on the stairs!"

"Damn, theres no going back - I haven't learnt how to descend yet, guess I better carry on up and face the music!".
"Oh no, stuck behind bars for bad behaviour - this is like the Big Brother prison!"

Spot The Josh

As I mentioned in the last blog update, Joshua has been ill again and therefore we kept him out of nursery on Tuesday. At the weekend he picked up yet another cold and then started to run up a fever with temperatures hitting the 100 degrees! A quick trip to see the quack on Tuesday and after a full M.O.T he was diagnosed with a chest infection and a throat infection (which explains why he has hardly ate or drank anything in the last 2 days). Anyway he is now on his first ever course of antibiotics and is on the quick mend. His temperature is back to normal, he has just started eating in small quantities and also went back to nursery today.

Other news updates are that Joshua has learnt to crawl upstairs already - we managed to record it on video tonight. 1 min 15 seconds from top to bottom, all 13 steps! He is completely mythed about how to descend though and waits for Dad or Mum to carry him down. So child gates now in use 100% of the time at the top and bottom of the stairs!

Jenga

As you can see from the pictures below, Joshua enjoyed his first game of giant jenga at the weekend.


And once that tower is built, what better way to knock it down than to ram it with your baby walker!

Unfortunately Joshua's bank holiday weekend was not all smiles as the little guy has picked up yet another fever/cold and has been very poorly for the last day and a half. Fingers crossed he will pick up tomorrow.

Hello Nan

Last weekend we took Joshua to visit his great Nan again. Joshua was very well behaved despite being a little shy at first. He soon opened up and was full of cuddles and kisses and then off exploring Nan's house and grabbing everything within his reach! As you can see from these pictures he was very happy sitting with Nan.



Other updates: We took Joshua for his first ever Indian at Moza's tonight. So if we have any volunteers to help with the nappy changes tomorrow then it would be greatly appreciated! I feel sorry for the staff there as the mess under his high chair was pretty substantial!!!!!

Olympic Sprints

Yesterday I had to work from home again since Joshua was sent home from nursery due to some loose nappies the previous day. The little boy was fine and I took him to the doctors just to be sure, but I think it was a case of the nursery still learning about him and being a bit over cautious.


Anyway move over Usian Bolt - theres a new sprinter in town. It would appear Joshua has been watching plenty of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has decided to get in training for London 2012. Whilst I was sitting there quietly doing my e-mails the little man managed to pull himself up on his walker for the first time and was off darting from one side of the living room to the other completely unassisted - and much quicker than "Lightning Bolt's" 9.69 secs! Fortunately I managed to capture the moment on video so that Tina could see it. Having said that Joshua was happy to provide a repeat performance in the conservatory once Tina got in from work.




Also Joshua now has his first German book! I have got into the bad habit of buying Joshua something every time I travel (something I may regret in years to come when his demands become more expensive or the family expands!). Anyway since I was in Kerpen last week I picked him up a little German car book with a wooden car. "Mein Name ist Joshua und ist hier mein neues Auto und Buch".

10 Months Old

Yesterday Joshua turned 10 months old - can you believe it! Only 2 more months until the all important 1st Birthday. If anyone has any good ideas for the boys first birthday then please drop me a line.

How about this nifty picture taken in our conservatory. Its time for little finger prints, dribble and lip marks all over the glass in the french doors!

The Zoo

Today we took Joshua to the zoo for the second time. This visit was much better than last time Tina took him as he was more alert and attentive. As you can see from these pictures he was genuinely interested in some of the animals as opposed to last time when he just slept in his pram most of the day. The first animal we saw was the parrot (which looked remarkably like the one on the back of Daddies t-shirt!).


Some of the animals were sleeping, so we decided to ring the bell and wake them all up. Joshua is very good at waking people/animals up!


It was then into the underwater enclosure with the seals.


We found the farm animal petting area. Joshua decided to get some "hands on" with this big old piggie!

As you can see from below - Joshua was all smiles as usual.

No Joshua you cannot give the goat a kiss.


"Spit at me and I'll spit back matey!"


We was very surprised to see Auntie Nicky there (looks like she has gained a few pounds though!).


A quick elephant ride around the African enclosure.

And then time to practice some Steve Irwin crocodile hunter skills.

Whilst in the African enclosure, Joshua got to feed a giraffe. Check out the size of that tongue.

At the end of a hard day its time to sit back and chill with an ice-cream.

Little Monkey or Monkey Puzzle

Well the current poll is looking very interesting - so far it appears that 100% of the readers/voters think that Joshua will be having a sister (if it is a girl,I hope she looks good in second hand combats!).

The latest project for me to make the house/garden "baby safe" was to build a little fence and gate around my monkey puzzle tree to prevent the little man from falling off of the decking and hurting himself. Here is a picture of the cute little chap sitting in front of the puzzle tree and fence.

The fence may have stopped Joshua from getting to the puzzle tree. But one thing that you might of noticed about Joshua is that he is now highly mobile. He will crawl very quickly to wherever he wants to go (with his funny crab crawl!) and will climb up anything within reaching distance. So this new fence was an easy target and just the right height to shimmy along.


Joshua has also now learnt how to wave and seems to spend a lot of time waving to just about everything in site at the moment. He has also learnt to give out kisses (if you don't mind a bit of baby slobber).

Leyla & Joshua Finally Meet

It is with deep regret that my cousin Michael died tragically last week in a motorcycle accident. Yesterday was one of the most wonderful funerals I have attended in that it completely celebrated Michael's life rather than focusing on his death. It was touching to see the hearse led by his Dad on a Harley followed by some 50+ motorcyclists all following in unison, revving their engines in respect for a much loved fellow biker.

Although Joshua did not know what was going on, we decided to take the little man as this was an opportunity for him to meet some relatives who are yet to see him. The day started with a stop off at Auntie Jo and Tony's. The picture below is Joshua with a cheeky smile whilst sitting with Auntie Jo.

The big moment for Joshua was when he finally got to meet Leyla Grace (my cousins baby girl who was born the day after Joshua). As you can see from below, Leyla was not a shy baby and soon got to grips with Joshua.

After getting the pleasantries out of the way it was time to get straight into the snogging (the two of them didn't care who was looking on!).

I Believe I Can Fly.........

Now the Joshua is crawling a a great speed of knots, the World really is his oyster for exploring. Even more so now since the little guy has his own passport now and the aeroplane that Dad bought him from the Czech Republic. So where should we fly too first...........

Joshua now also has his own little garden table and chairs. I use plural for chair since there are two matching chairs so that he has a seat for J2 later next year. As you can see from the pictures on today's blog, Joshua really isn't a happy baby these days (NOT!).

Partyman

Well it was good to see that lots of people tuned in to Joshua's blog on Aug 1st for the big announcement. We had the biggest hit count of 15 people in one day!

Today Joshua was invited to his first ever birthday party thanks to Millie who is 4 this week. She invited the little dude to her party at Partyman and as you can see from these pictures he had a great time.
The little guy was fascinated by his reflection in this mirror. I think he was confused as to who the stretch head character is???


Here is Joshua having some sweet talk with the birthday girl herself.


That's my boy, only 9.5 months old and already looking up girls dresses!!!


Playtime on the big volcano............


Now Joshua knows what it is like to be a goldfish...............


After all that activity it was time for some grub. Who could that little man be sitting at the head of the table????

Its Joshie with a tray full of party food! Anybody would think we never feed him the way he was eating.

At the end of the party its time for some serious lads talk, from left to right, Me, Joshua, Nik and Joaben.