Angie and Joey

I thought of a couple more Joey stories to pass on that I forgot last update. Joey likes to get into the dog food and grab a handful (or two) of it and feed it to the dogs, one piece at a time. He will make them follow him around the house sniffing his hands. He giggles and walks, and looks back to make sure they are following him. It's very cute. The other day he was doing that right before we left to go to the post office to mail Angie a package. I didn't notice until we were waiting in line that he had his 2 handfuls of dogfood still, clutched tightly in each fist. He was so tired when we left the house, he totally forgot he had them. He never opened his hand once to look at them or anything. Eventually, I got him to empty one hand for me, but he didn't really want to, and seemed surprised to find them still in his hand.
Also the other day, when we were at Jennifer's house, playing with Deja and Kiara, Joey walked across the room to me, popping his lips the entire way, until he got to me and leaned up for a kiss. He's never done that before!!! He's given me those cute baby open-mouthed kisses, but not popped his lips trying to pucker. It was so precious! Then he smiled at me and went back to playing, and a few minutes later, he did it again! I was so happy! He did that about 4 times. He hadn't done it since, until tonight, he did it once again. He seems so proud of himself and happy when he gets me to kiss him. But he won't do it if I ask him to.

We woke up today a little more sick than we had been. I thought we were getting better, but now we're coughing even more. Above is a picture of Joey mid-cough. I didn't intend to catch him that way, but I did.

Angie emailed me the next two pictures from Iraq. She got to leave her base briefly for the first time a few days ago. The base she went to was named Camp Koch! (my maiden name, her last name). Very cool!

Our Busy Visit to Asheville

The past 2 weeks we spent in Asheville, visiting family and friends, and boy, were we busy. We enjoyed every minute of it! We really wish Earl could have been with us, but we still had fun. I have so many pictures!!!


Josiah cut 4 new teeth this past week. He now has 6! Yay! We are very excited about these teeth, they've been a long time coming!

We got to visit my family in Greenville, SC while we were there too:

Joey and his Great Granny Norris.^


Joey and his 2nd cousin, Jennifer in SC.

Joey and his 2nd cousin Allen. Joey and his great-grandfather, PawPaw Bill in Greenville, SC.

Playing in the leaves at my dad's house.

My dad and Joey watching home videos in SC.

Allen and Joey.

Grandpa Roberts and Joey. Joey kept taking everything out of the baskets next to Grandpa's chair, and handing them to Grandpa to hold, until Grandpa was loaded down and couldn't hold anymore. At one point, when Grandpa told Joey no, when Joey offered him a toy, Joey took his hand and opened it and put the toy in it, then walked away! Then he went through my purse, found my wallet, and took it to Grandpa. Grandpa gave it back to me, and when Joey came back looking for it, he was upset that Grandpa didn't have it anymore, so he came and got it out of my purse again and took it back to him.

Aunt Sandrina and Joey.
Joey and his cousins, Paige and Macy.

One of Joey's favorite things to do: go up and down the stairs at Pawpaw's house.

As long as he was outside, he was happy. That's probably why we're so sick now! haha

The view from my dad's yard. I miss those Asheville colors in the fall. You won't find that here on the coast! You might have to click on this picture to see the big version, in order to really see the beautiful colors. But the pics just doesn't do it justice.

Joey and Mamaw Roberts: He's scoping out her trinket collection. He learned to say 'pig,' 'cow,' and 'rabbit' from those ceramics.

Grandpa Roberts and his grandboys: Lars, Joey, and Thor.

Joey loved playing on PawPaw's tractor. He learned to say PawPaw while we were there too!

We had a mini 10 yr. high school reunion. Just went to the high school football game and to a mexican restaurant afterwards. Although these pictures are of Jenny^ and Amanda & Seth (below), who we are still close with, so it wasn't really a reunion for us, just another chance to get together while I was in town.

Me and Joey ^
Joey and Kiara playing in her princess castle.

Pawpaw Ingle with a pacifier in his mouth. Ain't he so cute? It's really something when your grandfather can still get down on the floor and play with his great-grandchildren!

Today he played in and out of the cats' carrier.

In fact, he is in there again right now, as I am typing this.

Joey's favorite spot at Mamaw and Grandpa Roberts': in front of the church that lights up. He would put his eye all the way to the door and windows trying to see inside. He squeezed himself in between the couch arm and the end table and made his own seat on the step stool. (you can see his Daddy's picture in the background. He sometimes held it and smiled at it and pointed to it saying 'da da')

Joey loved spending time with his Grandma Teri (he can't say Grandma, he says "Bo Bo" right now). He discovered her Pepsi and learned where his belly button is. The new haircut looks great, Mom!

Joey played peek-a-boo at the Roberts' with their chair covers.


He also sprayed himself in the eyes with Mamaw Roberts' perfume. The same day he fell down and busted his chin, and his new teeth cut his mouth over at Grandma Teri's house.

We both got really sick the last couple days we were there. Joey still has a pretty bad cough and runny nose, and I think my problem is a sinus infection. They recalled all the cold medicines for babies under 2, so its just Tylenol for him, poor fellow.

Earl got to call finally last night and hear about Joey's new teeth and words. He's a proud papa and can't wait to be back home with his son. He's doing well. Is doing a 10 day field exercise and then will get to come home! Probably around the 17th or 18th. His company has a website you can check out for updates and such, now and even during the Iraq deployment next year. http://www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/public/iimefpublic.nsf//sites/1stBat_9thMar_Aco

This page is his company, Alpha Company. The links on the side will take you to the 1/9 homepage if you want to see the entire unit website.

Okay, thanks for looking! Now I've got to get caught up on some work before the results of Dancing With The Stars comes on!

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.