Our Little Corner of the World: Fall Fun!

"The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, but children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep." -Ruth Hamilton

I've been delinquent on blogging for a couple of weeks, so I'm just going to update it all at once. :-) There will also be a post coming soon explaining the loss of our last 4 babies. I know a lot of you are wondering how it's even possible that I could have gotten pregnant frequently enough to lose 4 babies since early May, and we actually do have a pretty unique story to tell. Explanation coming soon, but, in the meantime, let me update you on some of the happier happenings here recently.

I'll start out (on a still less-than-happy note) but saying that a few weeks ago Joseph got his first ever black eye. :-( It was awful! He was going up our front brick steps in the rain and slipped. The area right around the corner of his eye met the edge of the brick step and, well, the rest is history. Poor guy! It has taken FOREVER to fully go away, so please pardon the slight black eye in these photos!

One big event that has happened recently is that Joseph had his first ever dental appointment! We saw Dr. Rebecca Andrews from Lake Jeanette Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Andrews lives in my parent's neighborhood and she is so, so nice, and the practice was absolutely amazing. David went along with us, and I think he and I were both a little nervous about how it would go. Joseph let them floss his teeth and polish them! I couldn't believe it! He was also supposed to get a fluoride varnish, but we refused because we haven't loved a lot of things we've learned about fluoride when researching it. But they were fine with that and they whole experience was great! I was so proud of him!

When we first arrived, Joseph instantly had a great time with the train table in the lobby!

Next up, he got his picture taken with a balloon by Miss Naomi, his hygienist. :-)

And was given a sticker

Then it was off to the clinical room, where he helped Miss Naomi clean Thomas' teeth.

And then he got his own teeth cleaned! Amazing!

For whatever reason, my photos of him with Dr. Andrews herself keep failing to upload here. But at least you get to see most of his experience. :-)

A few days later, we went to one of our favorite events, the Temple Emmanuel Jewish Festival! We got an assortment of food for us all to share - an onion and potato knish, a kosher hot dog, falafel, matzo ball soup, and an egg cream. So yummy!

This past weekend, Mimi and Poppy came in from the mountains to help celebrate Joseph's birthday. Thursday afternoon we spent some outdoor time in our backyard...it was a beautiful fall day! On Friday, David took off work and we all went over to Winston-Salem to Old Salem. Had a great time walking around and eating lunch at Salem Tavern!

This past Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Joseph's 3rd birthday party! His actual birthday party was yesterday, October 20th, but we celebrated over the weekend. We had an amazing time and are so thankful for this little boy's life! I'll share a little more about his actual birthday in next week's blog. :-) Thanks so our family and friends that helped us celebrate!

After the party was over, we headed to J. Razz and Tazz Farm in Gibsonville to pick out our pumpkin, as we do every October. :-)

And, last but not least, I'll share some random photos taken throughout October so far...

Daddy and Jojo working a puzzle

Joseph sleeping in our room on a cot. Joseph is still a pretty frequent night-waker, but it really doesn't bother us much as this point. We've have a number of arrangements that work for us to all get a good night's sleep - Joseph in his room, Joseph in our bed between us, Joseph in our bed between on the other side of me (between me and a rail we put up), Joseph on a cot in our room, or Joseph in bed with me in a separate bedroom. When he does wake up, we just pretty much use whatever arrangement works that night. Sometimes we go through multiple arrangements in a night. On this particular night, the cot was it. :-)