Update

We haven't been up to much on this end. Since Earl's been gone, we just spend all day playing and annoying the dogs, playing in the yard, watching TV, and letting my eyes heal. My eyesight is much better than before, but is still healing a little, so things are still a little blurry far off. But I don't have any more pain or anything, so I feel great.
We haven't heard from Earl but once, and his cell phone cut us off, so we only got to speak maybe 30 seconds. But he is doing good and staying extremely busy in CA.

These were my eyepatches after surgery, to keep me from rubbing my eyes or touching them. They were taped on my face. Very attractive.

Me and Joey with our 'shades' on

He loves wearing Earl's glasses.

On my treadmill.

We hope to go to Asheville sometime next week, and have a couple weeks there to visit with everyone without being rushed. Earl will be home around Nov. 18th. We would love to stay that whole time, but I have to leave the cats here with no one to take care of them, so I can't leave them for too long or they'll think I've abandoned them. :-)

Joey is doing great. Has some new words like "bubble" and "bird" and "baby" (he loves "b" words I guess) and "cheese." When he gets mad at the dogs for fighting each other, or if they take one of his toys, he points his finger at them and screams "baaa baaa." He does the same thing when he gets hurt...points to whatever he bumped his head on and cries "baaa baaa baaa" over and over. I'm not sure if he is saying 'bad' or what? No clue.

He is very attached to his pacifier right now, probably missing Earl, or teething, or both. He's very cranky, doesn't eat much, and is very clingy lately, so I'm really really hoping some more teeth cut soon. He still only has 2.

The other day our doorbell rang and he jumped up into my arms laughing saying "da da!" I dont know why he would think Earl would be ringing the bell, but it broke my heart. This is the first time Earl has been gone that Joey seems to notice...and miss him a lot! He looks at Earl's picture by my bed and smiles and points.

We can't wait till Earl gets home. We'll only have a couple more months with him before he leaves again for Iraq, so we are hoping we can squeeze in some quality family time over the holidays. We will probably stay here for Thanksgiving, and spend it together, just the 3 of us (or 7 if you count the pets...). Maybe Christmastime we can make it in to Asheville again, we'll just wait and see what Earl's schedule is like and what we feel like doing.

Can't wait to see everyone!

First Haircut for Josiah

Joey got his first haircut today. We went to Geoffrey's toy store where they do kids haircuts. It was great. For the babies, the chairs are actually little cars, facing TVs to keep their attention. And since it was Joey's first, they kept locks of his hair and put it in a special card with the date and a place for a picture.
Here are some before and after pictures.
This is the other night, Joey was feeding his daddy celery.

This is tonight, eating salsa and chips with his daddy. Poor kid, got his mama's big forehead.


I think I have the cutest baby boy in the world! He knows where his nose is, and can "blow" it himself. I'll give him the tissue. Sometimes he'll make me hold the tissue while he pushes his nose into it. A few times we can ask 'where is mommy's nose?' or 'where is daddy's nose?' and he'll point to ours. He likes to dance now too! Finally! When he hears music, he bounces up and down with his knees and makes a cute 'ah ah' sound.

And so it begins...

The other day while I was feeding Joey supper, the doorbell rang. Earl went to answer it. There were 3 little girls from our street smiling when he opened the door.

"Is Joey allowed to come out and play?" they asked.

They are 7, 10, and the older one is probably around 11 yrs old.

So, after he ate, Earl took him outside, where he ran away from his dad, to sit in a circle with the girls. He's a ham. When they had to go inside, he tried running after them.

Joey also now says "cheese" (as in the food, not the picture taking motto). He says "teesss" and rolls his 's' at the end, the same way that he says Kitty (just a rolling of 'Ks').

He is now 30 inches tall and 14 months old! Yikes. Time flies. He still doesn't weight quite 19 lbs, and doesn't have an appetite lately, probably because he's teething (please let him be teething...how else to explain the whining and crabbiness?)

He loves playing in the pots and pans and cabinets.

Also, he's still climbing...and climbing...

And he still loves playing in boxes and with his doggies.

I am still planning on getting my LASIK surgery on Oct 10th. And Earl leaves for California around the 15th, for a month.
That's all that is new for us!