Sunday, November 15, 2009

For the Love of Balloons

What do you get when you have a child that absolutely, without a doubt loves balloons, a helium tank leftover from last year's party and a bag of balloons: HOURS OF ENTERTAINMENT!!!

Joshua loves balloons, in fact we can not go into HEB without the child spotting a balloon and saying over and over ba-oon, ba-oon, plea, plea!! (balloon, please!). Thankfully, they give the kids free balloons there. He loves these colorful, helium filled, string tied to the end, floating objects. He can entertain himself for hours with one. So, when I found a bag of leftover balloons when I was cleaning out the hall closet, Dan and I thought it would be a good idea to blow some up. Dan went and found that we still had the helium tank from Joshua's birthday party last year and that it still had a little helium left in it (enough to blow up 4 balloons). So Dan got busy filling the balloons up with helium and I tied the string on the end of them and Joshua well he screeched with glee! He was so excited! Who says you have to go out and spend money to entertain your child, in our case we just put our heads together and the outcome is below:

Joshua helping Daddy blow up the ba-oon



Time to tie a knot, don't want the helium to escape




Here is Joshua hitting the balloons over and over, he loved this!




Uh, oh one got away...."elp, up"(help,up)!




Look through the balloons and you will see a happy boy!!


He has had so much fun with these 4 balloons today! He pushes them around and hits them and screams with excitement. Seriously, did you know balloons could be this much fun?!



























































































































Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Nothing Much

There hasn't been a whole lot going on in the Feldman household, so I have been on a little blogging hiatus( I apologize). Dan's mom and step-dad came into town this past weekend for the ground breaking of the house of the fraternity that Dan, his dad, and step-dad are members of. We hung out and watched the UT game at the house while Joshua took his nap and then we went to the ground breaking for the new house that is going to be up and running in 2010. Dan was so glad that he was able to attend the ceremony (even if we couldn't find a parking spot and we were a little late). It was still fun too see Dan reunite with some of the people he knew when he was in college. He was so proud to show off Joshua. Joshua had a really great time running around and "calling" the birds that he saw in the trees. I am glad that Dan was able to be apart of that special event. This week there hasn't been alot going on, except that Dan left this morning to go to Dallas until Friday. I am not really as nervous as I was the last time he was gone for a week back in July. This is how I look at it, what's 3 days; when I went a WHOLE week last time. I am not trying to whine, I just miss him when he is gone. Everything seems out of sorts when he is not here and I think everyone feels it. Poor Milo has been moping around all evening going to the garage door and whining...poor little puppy. Joshua and I are doing good though, can't complain. Well, that is about all I have for now. My Dad is coming up to visit on Saturday, so I am really excited about that. It will be good to see him. I hope everyone is having a great week!!

One quick, cute, Joshua moment from tonight: I was bringing the pan to the sink this evening after I had finished cooking and the skillet was still a little hot and as I put water in it to cool it off it began to make steam/smoke and Joshua pointed up to the rising steam/smoke and said "ooooo, wow! Bubbles? wow Bubbles!" and then wanted to be picked up to pop the "bubbles". Pretty funny, huh?

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Joshua's New Tricks

So, Joshua is turning into such a big boy. It is hard to believe that he will be 2 in a month and a half. REALLY hard to BELIEVE!!! I just thought I would blog about some of the things Joshua has been doing lately and post of few pictures of the little man. Joshua is starting to catch the ball when you throw it to him and when he catches it he pulls his arm towards him and says "yea!!" He also counts to 3 with a big exaggeration on the 1, and knows the color red. You can ask him to point to the color red and he will and he also will find "red" itself and point to it and say red. He also loves his shape sorter. He can find almost every shape and match it to the shape on the sorter, this is one of his favorite toys right now, when he is done he signs "more" so he can do it again...practice makes perfect! He is chatting all the time now! He loves to talk on the phone. It is funny to listen to him chattering away. He is starting to pretend play a little bit as well. He can find his family in a picture when asked (where's grandpa, uncle Chad, aunt Lisa, etc.) He can say most of his grandparents "names" and recognizes them as well. We have found him standing in the fridge a couple of times when we have left the door open to turn around and get something. He points up to the top shelf and says "that" because he knows that is where the milk is at. We are still working on labeling items, but he has gotten much better at it. We have been slowly introducing him to the potty for the past couple of months, not pushing the issue, just taking him and letting him sit on the potty here and there. We bought him some "big boy" training pants to where around the house, which he totally loves. This weekend we were not really doing a whole lot, except for trick or treating and so we decided that we would keep him in big boy pants the entire weekend and take him every 15 mins or so and if he got too fussy we would just back off. We got a couple of books for him to "read"(distract him) while he is using the potty. Well, we have had a lot of accidents in the big boy pants, which is to be expected. As soon as he would get off the potty(and not go) he would go in the other room and then potty in his pants. This potty training is very time consuming and tedious, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, right? Well, this afternoon he had tee tee in his pants and I was cleaning them and Dan had put him on the potty to show him that we tee tee in the potty. Joshua sat there a minute and then began to smile, then he got up and sure enough there was tee tee in the potty....so of course, we started clapping and cheering and giving him high fives. He looked at us funny at first, but then he started clapping and saying "yay!" It was great! So we decided to take this potty training thing head on, full force. And last but not least, the day has come, I have posted it several times in my blog and have been waiting for this to happen and it did, at nap time. Joshua was taking his nap and we usually hear him talk and stir in the monitor when he is waking up, but today we heard "bam bam, out!!". We both got up to check on him and sure enough, Joshua had gotten out of the bed and was knocking on his door to come out. It was really funny and of course he looked at us like we were crazy for both of us standing there looking at him. When Dan opened the door, Joshua just walked out like no big deal. So, I guess we will be hearing more of a "knocking" than talking when he is ready to get up. Well, that is all I have for now...sorry it is so long, just a lot to talk about. Hope everyone has a great week!

A boy and his phone












SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT ALL OF OUR FALL HAPPENINGS THIS WEEKEND!


Fall Happenings

Our little family has been so busy this past week that Joshua should have been a "busy bee" for Halloween. We started off last Thursday with a costume parade and a class party at Joshua's school. I was able to take a little time off from work and help with his class and experience the fun! Theses little kids were so cute with all their little costumes. On Friday, Joshua's school had a Fall Festival which included cotton candy, popcorn, jump houses, a train and many booths. His class did a bowling booth and Dan and I signed up for a time slot which was really fun! Joshua wasn't into the carnival as much , so after our shift was up we left. Then came Halloween on Saturday. Joshua did really well. He was so excited! We brought his stroller thinking that he might want to ride in it after awhile, but we were wrong; he walked the whole time and loved every bit of it. I have posted some pictures below of all the events that we did. Since I did a flashback pumpkin carving, I had to throw in a Halloween flashback as well.

Joshua's class trick or treating









My Friend's House Fall Festival


Joshua Bowling



The bowling booth



Handy Manny Himself


Trick or Treating with Daddy


We try to go every year with my family









Flashback: Family Pic on Halloween Last Yr.


Family Pic on Halloween this yr.













Sunday, October 25, 2009

Pumpkin Carving Then and Now

My parents came in this weekend to hang out and participate in our traditional pumpkin carving. Every year, we try to get together with my brothers and sister n law and the kiddos to carve pumpkins the week before Halloween and then we all go trick or treating together on Halloween. I love hanging out with my family and we always have such a great time. So, on Saturday we went to the little pumpkin patch that is located at a church down the street from our house to pick out our pumpkins to carve and then we came back to the house and began the process. This is Joshua's 2nd time to help carve pumpkins, so I thought it would be neat to go back in time and compare last year and now. There is a great difference in the pics...it is amazing how much one changes in a year, especially kiddos! Enjoy the flashback!


Joshua 10mos. old
Joshua 22 months old



At the pumpkin patch last year


Now this year(alot more mobile now...ha!)




Helping Mommy last year...


...and this year he was all about it!

Family Pic with the pumkins then...



Family Pic now!










Thursday, October 22, 2009

Aubrey Day!

This precious baby gets her very own blog entry!! Joshua and I took a little road trip to Dallas at the beginning of the week to hang and help out with big sister Maddie and wait for the arrival of Ms. Aubrey Jean Madl. She finally arrived on Wed., afternoon weighing in at 7lbs. 1 oz. and was 19 1/4in long. She is so sweet and precious. Brittney and the baby are both doing marvelous. Maddie is one happy BIG SISTER!!! She kept saying "Aubrey is out, Aubrey is out, can't go back in the tummy!" She did such a great job waiting all morning into the afternoon for Aubrey. Joshua decided that it would be best if he went and hung out with his Mimi for the day and he had such blast getting to see his cousin Kaden, Mimi, Papa, Uncle Nic, and Aunt Lisa. Maddie was excited about seeing and hanging out with Joshua. She is going to be a great big sister, because she was so good with Joshua. I am so happy for the Madl Family!! They have 2 beautiful daughters and are a HAPPY family of FOUR!! I have posted some pics below to oooo and awwww over! Isn't she so sweet????










Daddy and his new baby daughter, hours old...



Maddie and Joshua hanging out in the hallway


Precious Big Sister Moment!



Daddy and his girls!!!













Sunday, October 18, 2009

Our Weekend in a Nutshell...

My very good friend, Kristy and her boys came to visit us this weekend. We had such a great time just hanging out and watching the Texas/OU game and doing some fun things around Austin. Friday night, we went and ate mexican food at Trudy's and it was really good. Kristy and I both love mexican food, so when we get together that is usually a must have. Saturday, we hung out and watched Texas beat OU. Now that was a very nerve racking, ugly game, but Texas beat OU 16 to 13...it was close. After the game, we went to Zilker Park to let the boys ride the train and play on the play scape. It was such an awesome weekend to be outside, so we made the best of it. The boys had a great time riding the train and playing at the park. Our weekend was so much fun that I had to put it in TWO separate post...so scroll down to see how the rest of our weekend went...


Uncle Chad and Joshua showing some luv for UT!!
This is how intense this game was...I don't know if he is yelling or crying at the TV


Oh No, I can't watch....this game is too much.


This is Joshua on the train, saying" Oh, Oh, Oh!!"




The whistle blew...waiting for the train to start moving...






Barton Springs Pool


Trying to entertain Joshua and Jordan, while waiting for our turn on the train


Connor in the ball pit...this was his favorite toy while he was here!!