Thanksgiving 2010

We flew down to North Carolina to spend Joshua's first Thanksgiving with my family -- ten months old, and he's already been on four flights!  (Though that's nothing compared to his buddy Luke... What was it, 16 flights in his first year?  Impressive!)

We ended up staying in a hotel while we were down there, in order to better guard Joshua's sleep and naptime routines.  It's actually kind of funny, the lengths we go to in our attempts to make sure J-bear gets all the sleep he needs... He's very much used to his routine, where we'll sing a little lullaby, put him in his crib, give him his ducky, tell him we love him, and then walk out of the room.  In our little hotel room, though, as long as we were within eyesight, he thought it was still playtime... So we ended up hiding in the little (2x5) corridor next to the bathroom and the room door, hunkered down with reading material and waiting until it was clear that he was totally asleep.  Next time, we're totally getting a suite with multiple rooms.  :)

But Joshua seemed to really enjoy the hotel experience!  Complete with his cute little travel highchair, and the ability to wander around, socks in hands, and explore new territory...


PJs, a comfy and cool highchair, and yummy Cheerios -- what more could a boy want? 

Playing with socks, and playing with papa!
And of course, it was wonderful spending time with my family.  They hadn't seen Joshua in person since our last visit, when he was only five months old... He's kind of grown up a little since then.  :)  He did have a little bout of stranger anxiety when we first arrived -- which wasn't exactly helped by my dad greeting him by growling fiercely right in his face.  Poor kid got all startled and then started screaming in fear.  :(  And poor grandpa -- he was just trying to get his grandson to laugh!  It took some soothing to get him to calm back down, and once I had my dad offer Joshua some Cheerios, all was right in his little world, and he warmed right up to his grandparents and uncles.


Still looks just a tiny bit scared here, but really, he did warm up! 

Showing Grandpa how much he loves this little spoon 

Seriously.  He loooved that spoon.  Thanks, Grandma, for letting him play with it! 

Thanksgiving dinner from the vantage point of a wee babe 

And just one more of Joshua and his beloved spoon
All in all, a very lovely first Thanksgiving for our dear little man!  We really do have so much to be thankful for!

First in Flight: Weekend in NC

I'm finally getting around to blogging about this trip... Oh well, at least I'm within a month from the trip itself, right?

A few weeks ago (7/9 to 7/12), we flew down to North Carolina for a whirlwind weekend visit.  It was Joshua's first plane trip, and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about it before we left.  I canvassed my mom friends for tips, read up on babies on airplanes, armed myself with an arsenal of pacifiers and toys... And Joshua was fine on the flight.  :)  He was a little cranky before the plane took off -- we were sitting at the gate, the air was stale and warm, and he didn't want to sit peacefully in my lap.  So we had a hairy first 5 minutes of crying, but as soon as the plane engines kicked on, the white noise soothed him and he conked out for the rest of the flight!


Our cute wee jet-setter (cell phone pic, since it was a little too cramped for David to access our big camera)
It was so good to see family that weekend.  My parents and my youngest brother Eric had already met Joshua back in February, but this was the first time my brother David met his nephew!  Seeing them play together was a little surreal -- my brother is about the farthest from gushy and baby talk-y that you can get, but he was calling J-bear his "little buddy" and stroking his head and holding him so carefully... It was really, really sweet.


Skydiving with Uncle Eric 

Laughing with Grandpa; chilling with Uncle David 

Watching the World Cup with the boys
While we were down in NC, we got the chance to meet up with a number of old friends!  We had lunch Saturday with two of my very oldest friends (from middle school!), Jessie and Sara.  It was so good to see them both, and to introduce Joshua to two of his faithful internet stalkers.  :)


Being held by Sara and Jessie at lunch 

Joshua and the girls!  (And Jessie's cute little baby bump!)

And then on Sunday, we drove out to Durham and met up with John P., who's doing a postdoc at Duke.  The last time we saw him, at David's 30th birthday bash last year, was a few weeks before we discovered we were pregnant... This time around, John got to play with our cute little guy!


We had so much fun spending time with you guys.  And Joshua loved meeting his fans.  :)

A Sea of Carolina Blue

My baby brother graduated from college last weekend!

OK, so he's not much of a "baby" anymore... Doesn't he look so distinguished?

David and I flew down to NC for the weekend to go to the graduation and celebrate with my family. We're so glad we could both be there!


Yeah, we got there pretty early... But that meant we got good seats!


Here come the graduating seniors!


Most of whom were on their cell phones, looking for family...


Hey! I know that guy!


Look, he found us!


Eric's always taking pictures of himself like this. I'm thrilled to have caught him on camera!


Where's Waldo?


There he is! :)


Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the keynote speaker.


Eric standing with the rest of the business school graduates.


Me and David with the proud graduate!


A family photo in front of the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

We're so proud of you, Eric! Many blessings on this next chapter of your life. We love you!

For more pictures of Eric's graduation, check out our Smugmug gallery.