Welcome to Georgia!

Well...brave souls that we are, we left Little Rock this morning for a drive to Atlanta Georgia. We survived, with very little crying! YEAH! Now, for a week of fun, and a little bit of work for Mom in the big city! Plans are for going to the zoo on Sunday, and the aquarium on Monday. After that, who knows? Until Thursday, when Mom will attend her conference, the basis for the trip. Here are Joseph & Dad at the Georgia Visitors Center, right across the state line, and a perfect place for a little boy to run after a long time in a car seat.

Big News

Ok...first big news is that I am posting twice in 2 days. That's a new record!

Second big news is that Joseph has pee-peed in the potty TWICE now! The first time, he simply wanted to sit on the potty and sat there for about 15 minutes. Well, of course, in that amount of time, he eventually went. Tonight, he was running around naked after his bath and started to pee-pee on the floor of his room (not very nice considering how hard his dad worked putting that floor down) so we grabbed him up and ran for the potty. Of course that scared him, but after he calmed down, he managed to go in the potty! Unfortunately, he was holding a piece of toliet paper in front of himself and peed all over it too!

Now, that might not sound like much, but we sure are proud! We're not pushing the issue but giving lots of praise when he goes! Such a big boy!

Slide, baby, SLIDE!!!

A quick post...I've only got time for a picture tonight, but what a picture! This sums up our weekend pretty well...Joseph having a great time! We went to the playground at Pinnacle Mountain State Park and he loves the tube slide there, as you can obviously tell. He still had plenty of energy, but the rest of us were dead because we climbed to the summit! He got to ride all the way up (with Daddy) and back down (with Papaw Jack).

18 Month Check Up

We had Joseph's 18 month visit with Dr. Freeman today. He's doing great. Here are his stats:

Weight: 32 pounds, 4 ounces
Length: 35 1/2 inches
Head: 20 inches

As usual, all of those are greater than the 97%, which makes him about the height of an average 27 month old.

He should be using about 25 words now, and he's well above that, probably close to, if not over, 100 words. Of course, he didn't say a single one while the doctor was in the room. He is always very still and quiet for the exam.

Overall, he is doing wonderful and this was a no-shot visit, so we all left happy. His tubes are still in good position and doing well. Our last sick visit was January 21st. We aren't scheduled for another check up until 24 months, so hopefully we won't have ANY visits until September.

Pictures

With the big post of 2 weeks ago, I forgot to include any of the pictures of Joseph in the snow, from March 7th, so we'll start with those...

He's going to need some arctic camo to blend in...

Now...on to Easter! Here is Joseph with Great-Grandmaw Johnnie hunting Easter eggs.

The 2nd Easter egg hunt, at the Nichols' place. 1 boy, 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 1 uncle & 27 eggs! And those were REAL eggs! We heard each one crack as he dropped it in the bag! As usual, there was a cool snap Easter Sunday.

Joseph is all boy. As soon as we got out of the car at the great-grandparents, he was headed for the tractor. He enjoyed "driving" and "shifting", and even looked at his dad and said "keys".

Driving the backhoe with Papaw Jack.

Joseph has learned to do yardwork. We got him a little set of lawn tools, and he's started raking. Yesterday, he noticed that Jon and I were wearing gloves, so he took them away from us, and put them on himself. He's going to motivate us to work on our yard!

Not So Tiny Dancer (with apologies to Elton John)

And, just for Uncle Mark, dancing on the bed!

Lots to tell

Wow. We've been busy.

Pretty day at the Little Rock Zoo... Joseph had a blast and is really starting to notice the animals. We had lots of fun listening to him ask for the monkeys and the 'mingos (you know, those big pink birds!). He also liked the giraffes, and told the tiger to "get up" when it laid down and he didn't want it to.

Joseph & Daddy riding the antique fully restored carousel.

Here's Daddy's boy...a little man already

In Greenville, MS, on the M/V Mari Lampton (Papaw's new towboat), the day of launch

Watching the launch from the barge with Mommy


At the company...sitting on the big propellers & driving the forklift.