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!

SC HOG Rally weekend

Me and Earl had a lot of fun at the SC HOG rally this past weekend. My dad and Wanda went with us and they had a blast too. Here is me trying to get me and Earl in one photo while we were stopped at a red light. I didn't do too good:

Me and Earl played some bike games. I didn't do so good, but here is me trying to joust. I only got one plate out of six:

Dad and Wanda driving on the way to SC^

Joey and his uncle Ray^

On the day we left Asheville. Hanging out at my dad's.
Paige's pose ^

Sandrina's hair cut. ^

Me and my boys at the rest area on the way back to Jacksonville^

Joey throwing the ball to his pawpaw^

Playing at home on his four wheeler^

Joey and Kiwi^

Another rest area shot. He sat in the water puddle and got drenched!
At the rally, me, Daddy, Wanda and Earl got 3rd place out of 5 teams on the photo scavenger hunt, AND we had an hour late start. AND some of our photos didn't turn out because we must not have wound the camera before having strangers take our pictures. So we might have actually been 1st place...who knows.

Joey's Harley

Earl couldn't resist. Me and Angie came in one day (before she left for Iraq) and Earl had bought Joey a Harley of his own. He was so excited when he got home with it that he forgot to take his keys out of the front door. I came home and saw his keys there, and the door half open/half shut, and there he and Joey were--on the living room floor playing with the new toy. Earl said Joey picked this one out. There was another Harley toy that Earl prefered that looked metal/chrome, but Joey liked this one better, so Earl, being the good dad that he is, sacrificed his own wants for his boy's. :-) he he

These pictures were taken later, when Joey was enjoying it. It's too big for him really, it is like a tricycle, with pedals he can't reach. But he loves the turn signals ("You are turning Left") and the music and the start up noise. He climbs all over it, watches TV while sitting on it, and plays with it.

And here are some other random photos of the cutie pie who is probably teething, but no teeth have poked through yet...
He likes to put this bucket on his head.

Angie's cat climbed in the box I was trying to mail her.

Joey likes playing with phones of course. He actually puts it on his shoulder and walks around saying "da da" like he is talking to his daddy. so cute!

This weekend is the HOG rally in Greenville SC, we won't get time to visit much in Asheville, but hopefully I'll be back with Joey in a month or two, when Earl leaves for CA for a month of training.

My LASIK eye surgery is October 10th in Raleigh, so long as Earl can get off work to go with me, to watch Joey and drive. I have to stay overnight there because I have to go in the next morning for my follow up appointment. I'm very excited! Can't wait to know what it is like waking up being able to see the clock, and not having to put on glasses or contacts to go get Joey out of his crib, and taking a shower and being able to see when I shave my legs (okay, that's probably more information than you wanted to know).