11 and a half months and so much fun!

Our big boy actually turned 11 months while we were on our cruise. He turns one in less than two wks...I can't believe it! I've got his party pretty much planned and can't wait to see him covered in cake!

He is just so much fun now...every new stage just keeps getting better and better! He started really walking just before our cruise at about 10 1/2 months...and now he is running! He is like the tazmanian devil whirling through the house now. I can't believe how the area of mess I have to pick up has exploded now that can walk and carry items all over the house. I find stuff in every room and corner he can squeeze into!

He has learned to clap and stomp to "If you're happy and you know it" and if you ad lib high fives he will do those too! Blowing kisses and waving bye bye is definitely in his repertoire of skills now but he will only do those when he feels like it. He is a little boy with a mind of his own! He has 7 teeth and is working on 8 and 9 I think. He plays the drop it and watch you pick it up game with anyone who he can pull it off on and says "uh-oh" when he drops something!

He is still busy busy! One day I was in the kitchen and I turned around and found this...I have no idea how he got up there and he has since done it a few times but I have yet to see him do it! He also has this weird fascination with NASA, seriously anytime Jay has the NASA channel on...Josiah is glued to it...future astronaut?!

He is an all or nothing kind of guy...he doesn't just play with his toys he has to be IN his toys!

We tried the snack trap for about a week. But as you can see in picture below instead of reaching in and pulling one cheerio out at a time he would stick his whole hand in there and walk around for hours if we'd allow it with his snack trap on one hand and his lovey(blanky) on the other. Cheerios would fall out everywhere and a meltdown would ensue when we tried to take it off his hand...bye bye snack trap!

Josiah loves the park! I've taken him to one by our house a few times but it's hard to get pics when I'm by myself and chasing him around. YaYa and I took him to the park across the street from her house the other night, it had rained earlier that day so it was kind of wet and muddy...but he had a blast and we got some cute pics!
Peek-a-boo!

Hilarious expression on his face!

Loves the slide!

Inside a little tunnel...it was full of wet bark and mud...that was the dirtiest he'd ever gotten and he was a little unsure of it for a minute but he then decided it was great fun!

Well, I tried to upload a cute video of him but it has been "uploading" for over 30 min. So I am thinking it's not gonna work!

Cruisin'...Josiah's 1st vacation!

Last week we went on a cruise to New England and Canada that flew out of NY. We went with a group of 22 friends and family of the Blackburns. Jay's parents generously treated us to this wonderful family vacation! Jay's mom organized the whole trip and did a fabulous job. Thanks to Jack and Debbie for taking us and to Debbie for all the months of hard work planning the trip! We left our house at 3:30am Saturday morning to make our flight to NY...Josiah flew so well on all our flights, sleeping most of time on 3 of the 4 flights there and back.

When he was awake he was happy reading or watching his dvd player...we were so thankful!
By the time we boarded the ship around 4pm he was pooped out!

But when he woke up he had a blast exploring our cabin, he especially loved the balcony.

This was on a Duck Tour in Boston. I didn't do a good job of taking pics in Boston, I think I was still recovering from our day of travel.

Josiah ate lots of table food this week and especially loved the rolls. The first night the waitor came by with the bread basket he grabbed the basket and pulled it down to his eye level and picked one right off the top...this became a nightly tradition.

Riding Uncle B's shoulders in Portland ME. He is wearing a t-shirt Jack and Debbie got him from Kennebunkport, the location of George and Barbara Bush's summer home. Very quaint little town outside of Portland.

Eating lunch with the fam at a little cafe in Portland.

More Portland.

The Portland Lighthouse. BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is in St.Martins, New Brunswick CANADA...a little fishing village outside of St. John

Jay and Josiah are actually walking on the ocean floor of the Bay of Fundy at low tide, earlier that day during hight tide that sea cave would have been almost completely under water!

Handsome boy!

He was so happy to get down for a minute...out of a bus, stroller, high chair, or someone's arms!

Park in St. John, the flowers were breathtaking here!

Public Gardens in Halifax

That was a little gardener girl tending to the flowers, whose blooms I might add were so big they were like the size of my face!

still in Public Gardens

The Public Gardens was by far my favorite part of Halifax...although we did some other really neat things that day. We visited the Citadel which was an old fort that overlooked and gaurded the harbour at one point. We also went to the Maritime Museum and saw lots of artifacts from the Titanic which was really neat! We also visited a beautiful Basillica.

One of the days at sea my sister in law, Brittnie, and I got fake tattoos...chinese symbols, mine meant love and hers compassion...we are dorks. The funny part is mine washed off real quick and Britt's is still hanging on...we are wondering if they accidently gave her permanent ink?! We then spent the afternoon in the hot tub, the only warm place to be outside that day, and had great girl time!

We found out that Josiah was an awesome traveler! He was famous on the ship...crew members we never met before would come up and say "oh you must be the baby we've been hearing about!" As always...he was quiet the charmer!

These are just a few of the 695 pics we took and only a few details of the action packed adventure we had...but as you can tell it was a wonderful trip!

Thanks again Jack and Debbie!

Trip to the ER and Curious Jo

Saturday night Josiah had his first Emergency Room visit. After crying for over 3 hrs (from about 12am to 3:30am)and being completely inconsolable we called our pediatrician and the on-call doctor recommended the ER. So we loaded up and drove to the hospital, on the way he fell asleep and once we got there he of course started acting like he was feeling a lot better (according to the ER nurses/dr. this is a normal phenomenon with kids). Nonetheless, just as we suspected, he had his first ear infection. They gave him some numbing ear drops, antibiotics, and motrin and we were discharged and home by a mere 7am!

Of course...we had to document his trip to the Er...

Digging through the diaper bag kept him briefly entertained...

or maybe he was just trying to get at that formula?!

This was after the numbing drops...but still...a charmer even at the ER! By the time we left all the nurses were making sure to get their goodbyes in.
Yesterday was rough but he slept like a champ last night...about 13.5 hrs and mommy and daddy were so grateful!

I've mentioned before how busy are boy is...did I mention curious too?! He is into everything these days and he is quick...I am talking it takes him .2 seconds to open the dishwasher (if it's unlatched) and crawl in! We have to watch him like a hawk and safety proof like maniacs...cause he finds anything we miss.

Can't leave the fridge open for a split second either...

This is in our bathroom, he has my necklace in his hand that he grabbed out of my jewelry drawer...he likes to drop my necklaces down into the tub.

I was trying to get a pic of him in his new convertible car seat but getting a pic of him when he is in arm's reach of the camera is almost impossible! So is trying to video him at all...he will stop what he is doing and attack the camera so that all that I end up getting on video is his mouth and grabbing hands!

At bathtime he is so ready to get in that he starts climbing up the step stool and side of tub...he'd dive in head first if we didn't stop him!

This is the bottom part of our ottoman...aka...Josiah's new hideout!

He keeps us on our toes! We love his zeal for life!

I almost forgot....he is pretty much walking now! He takes up to 8 steps at a time on his own without coaxing just playing by himself. It's going to be any day now that he is walking all over the place!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Last night we took Josiah to his first Astros game! Jay's brother Brandon got tickets from work and so he took the whole Blackburn clan...thanks Brandon! Josiah had a blast taking it all in. Here are just a "few" pics of our fun night out!
Oops...he blinked! Would have been such a precious pic.

I think we watched Josiah more than we watched the game!

Grandpa Jack

Taking it all in!

with his Uncle B and Aunt Britt

He learned to clap this week and had a blast showing off his new skill all throughout the game!

Lovin' on Grandma Freckles

Such fun!

Trying his first pickle and loving it!

Thanks Uncle B for the tickets!

Healing Rain

I named this post "Healing Rain" because ever since I woke up this morning that song has been playing in my head, I don't remember the last time I actually heard it so I feel like it is kind of one of those cool Spirit things.

Jay and I are still grieving a lot, we have good and bad days, and moments that are easier and those that are still very tough. We've been fairly busy since we lost the baby which makes for a helpful distraction, the only downside is that when things slow down a little it can hit like a ton of bricks. I guess I shouldn't say that it is a downside to slow down though; that time is hard but it is what draws us to our knees in the presence of the Lord and those tender moments with Him are so incredibly healing for us.

I mentioned before how I felt the Lord embracing me during prayer time before our appt the morning we learned that we lost the baby. After the initial shock of everything had calmed down I remembered that the Sunday before that appt I received a letter from my secret sister at church. It was the first time she had written to me and she noted in the letter that she had spent a lot of time in prayer over how to write to me and what I needed to hear from her. Here are some of her words,

"...you need to know that more people than you may realize are praying for you, hoping the best for you, knowing God has a plan for you, for your husband, and for your children...I think you may need to be reminded that God will never place a burden on you greater than you can handle, he knows your limits, and may test you, but he will never break you if you just trust in him. He also reminds us many times, no, he commands us repeatedly not to worry, do not be concerned, do not fear. God has a plan, and he is in control, and though you do need to act and not sit idly by watching life pass, God is in control and will guide you, sometimes even carry you the way you should go. And then when life seems darkest, when the situation seems hopless, that is when God is able to work his greatest miracles. Because without hardship, we would not recognize the blessings we have, so very abundantly."

This letter was just another way that God proved His faithfulness to us in this trial. I got this before we knew anything and remember thinking..."what hardship I am about to face?" It is funny how before our loss I read this with a little trepidation and afterwards I am able to read it and take comfort knowing that God knew what was happening and cared enough about us to speak through another believer to give us encouragement before we even knew about our loss.

Thank you so much to everyone who has posted comments, sent cards, emails, and called us. It really helps when people acknowledge our pain...we need to talk about it...it's part of our healing process. So many people have shared their stories of losing a baby with us and talking with people who have gone through this really helps because they understand the gravity of the loss and can really validate what we are going through. We have a few friends who have been so faithful to continue following up with us and let us know that they haven't forgotten...that means the world to us. So thank you.

Last but certainly not least....Josiah has been a huge help in our healing...he keeps us busy and laughing constantly. He is such a source of joy to us...he is getting more and more fun with each new stage! He turned 10 months on Sunday and is busier than ever! He literally NEVER stops moving unless he is asleep...other moms watch him in amazement at how busy he is...he is definitely going to keep us on our toes! We love it though, he has so much personality, everyone who sees him or knows him comments on how happy and personable he is all the time. And it's true...he is such a happy baby and LOVES people! He also loves to laugh, if someone will laugh with him he will carry it on for five minutes at a time...just cackling as hard as he can. He has started taking 2 or 3 steps at a time on his own but so far doesn't seem interested in doing much more than that. He plays catch with us now and still is an outdoor maniac. One way to elicit a meltdown from this happy boy is to walk up to a door and then walk away without taking him outside. He pays no mind to the outrageous Houston summer heat!

Here are a few recent pics of the handsome boy! All out of order b/c Blogger won't cooperate!

Pulling his Grandpa Jack's hair and thinking it's so funny! (a couple wks ago)This morning in his big boy PJ's...he loves to pose for pictures! Check out all his teeth! Playing in YaYa and Papa's flower beds...so much to explore! (couple wks ago)
Papa put him in the tree and now he wants to climb trees all the time!
(couple wks ago) One of the youth kids put him in this box at church last week...he got the biggest kick out of playing peek-a-boo in it.

After writing this post, I think the title "Healing Rain" is even more fitting...God is truly pouring out His healing blessings on us through intimate moments with Him, conversations with those who have been through this, love and support shown to us from other people, and our sweet Josiah. Glory to His Name!