Leave it to this guy ...

So a couple Saturdays ago (right before Josie's recent bout of sickness) we headed down to VA for another day trip. Jen had a birthday thing to attend so Josie and I were going to have to fend for ourselves for a few hours. She dropped us off at Dan's, dished out some hugs and kisses, and off she went. Josie had slept almost the whole way down so she was well rested and ready to tear into everything.

We started the morning hanging around the house playing and goofing around. Josie got into to the usual selection of electronic devices which were strewn about the living room. Things got interesting as she made her way over to the stereo system and found the plethora of buttons and knobs right at her tiny little finger tips. She LOVES buttons and the only thing better than buttons is buttons that makes stuff light up. That thing had more buttons and lights than she knew what to do with. She had so much fun with it that she began pulling off some of the controls off the front fascia. For some reason though she quickly lost interest shortly after. Perhaps she thought that she broke it and decided to bail so that she wouldn't get in trouble. I mean ... that's what I would have done.

Overall, I just sat back and left Dan in charge. Aside from changing a few diapers, he ran the whole show. I was more than impressed with how he handled everything. He was attentive to Josie (and me) and was able to keep her entertained and on her regular schedule. He stayed on top of her faucet of a nose, and kept everything in check. Prior to lunch we had a quick snack and headed over to the park to play for a little. We didn't get to stay long due to the rain so we ended up having an early lunch.

While Dan was cooking up his famous cheesy pasta for lunch, Josie decided to rock out with Stef (Dan's brother) on Guitar Hero. It was freaking adorable, and Stef thought so too ... until she beat him. Once lunch was ready, we all sat around and stuffed our faces. We had to leave shortly afterwards to go see my family. I'm so happy that Josie and her Uncle Dan got to spend some quality time together. He seems to be a natural with this kid thing and it's great to see that they already have such a strong bond between them.

Yup ... this guy was in charge ... the guy taking a picture with the lens cap on.

Guess what ...

Josie's sick again. It seems like that's all I get to tell people these days when they ask me how she's doing or what's new with her. If it's not her, it's us that's sick. More often than not, we're all sick. But that's just the way it works. The majority of the kids in her daycare class have been sick the past few weeks as well. It was inevitable that Josie would catch something sooner or later. There's only so much her tiny immune system can handle when she spends 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week in that cesspool of germ laden bacteria filled borough also known as daycare.

So what does she have exactly? Well according to the doctor the other day, she's got an ear infection, again, and some sort of virus that's causing her cough and runny nose. She also had a fever, which the other night, got up to 104.8. That was not a fun night for anyone. But that seems to have worked its way out of her system now that she's been on medicine for two days. She still has a runny nose and cough, and she's been very fussy at night.

So we've been doing a lot of this ...


Check out that crazy hair! Still puts on a smile even when she's not feeling the greatest.

Birthday Party recap

Here they are, finally! These definitely took longer than I had anticipated to put up but you know how it is. We’ve been so busy lately that we (mostly mommie) just finished going through all her presents the other day. Jen can’t clear out her old stuff fast enough to make room for the new stuff! I think it's amazing how such a little person can have so much already. But it just goes to show that a lot of people love and care about her and for that we're very thankful.

I hope that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves. There was a lot going on that day and I wasn't feeling the greatest so I may have missed some of you who came and went before I had a chance to catch up. But I do want to take a minute to thank everyone for being a part of such a special event. It meant a lot to us. Josie may not realize it now, but one day she'll look back and appreciate the strong network of friends and family that has surrounded her right from the very beginning.

I also want to thank my lovely wife, and her sister and parents for everything that they did to make this party possible. A lot of time was put into the preparation and no detail was left out in order to make sure that it all went as smoothly as it did. While Jen spent countless hours making the cake, putting together gift bags for all the little ones, shopping for decorations and setting them up, arranged to have a real live pony there, etc, I had a set of challenging and demanding tasks of my own. I was responsible for entertaining Josie during the morning of and making sure that she napped before her party. She gets pretty crabby when she’s tired, and well, let’s just say I’m a pretty good napper taker. That’s right, not only did I have to watch her all by myself, but I had to get her to take a nap, feed her lunch, play with her, and get her dressed!!! Clearly I had the tougher task.

And after all that, Josie had a great day. She held up all afternoon without getting fussy or melting down. She didn't dig into the cake as much as we had hoped, but with a little bit of help, she managed to make quite a mess. Little Macaroni was awesome, but Josie didn't quite know what to think of him. Perhaps next year,when she's a little older she'll find him more appealing. Same with the opening of the presents. She was more interested in the stuff that she already had. I didn't get quite as many shots as I had hoped because I was struggling with my sickness. So if you took any that you'd like to share, shoot me an email or leave me comment and I'll post them up.