Joe is one!

In the words of Alex, Joe is a big boy now!!  In her eye's now that he is one he is no longer a baby and is no longer afforded the privileges that babies are accustomed to.  Joe is now expected to pick up his own toys, and really this diaper thing??  Can't he use the potty yet??  She is very skeptical when I tell her that he is still to little to do much for himself.  Really??  She has no problem telling him what to do, where to go and the correct way to get there.  So she does this many times a day.  "No Joe don't put that in your mouth!"  "No Joe put that down!"  "No Joe you can't come in here!"  Poor Joe usually gets this blank look on his face, then just does what he was going to do anyways.  this of course results in Alex screaming "JOSEPH NO!!!!"
Even with all the criticism and censure coming from his sister, Joe is growing like a weed!  His 1 year appointment measured him at 22 pounds, 3 ounces and 31 inches tall!  And of course he is perfect!  His walking is now almost running and more and more words are trying to come out of his mouth.  I'm sure they would have a much easier time getting out if it wasn't for that silly soother but it makes him happy and right now Mom is too busy to have him anything but happy!
Our big happy boy is now sleeping through most nights and Mom is more than ecstatic about that!  After almost a full year of waking 1-4 times a night I am so excited to wake in the morning to realize that Joe slept all night long!!  I've even cheered, whooped and did some very neat little dances!  Mama needed a break!  But now he is sleeping and fully weaned so Mama gets way more time to herself. 

We had a very awesome birthday party for Joe at Cabin Fever Fun Center in Sylvan Lake.  It is an indoor playground which provided everything but the cake for the giant celebration!  lots of our friends and family came and enjoyed the sight of Joe shoving a whole piece of chocolate cake in his mouth.  After he was done he amused his guests by laughing hysterically at everyone and clapping his hands, mashing the chocolate even more.  It took Mom and Auntie Des to get him all cleaned up, then he went off in search of adventure.  He found a great slide, that was only fun with Mom, and lots of things to trip on.  After the party he crashed and slept for 2.5 hours!
Alex was just as excited for Joe's party as she is for her own.  I mean really it meant that she got lots of new toys too, because Alex doesn't care what the toy is she will play with it.  Picture a 4 year old waving a rattle around, laughing at the top of her lungs...  Pat and I wonder about her sometimes!  LOL

On a very happy and excited note, Alex got accepted into Gateway Christian School for September!!!!  We are beyond excited and we all can't wait until September LOL.  We are going next Tuesday to finalize the paperwork and pay the tuition, hopefully then we will find out which program she will get into, either the 1/2 days or full days.  I'm really hoping for fulls days because it would make it very difficult for the days that I am at work. 

I had my first day "at" work last week and enjoyed every minute of it!  I wouldn't want to do it more than 1 day a week because the drive would get very old very fast.  But for the one day a week it is a very nice time to relax and just be by myself.  I haven't had a lot of time for that in the past 4 years.  I have lots of pictures to post of the birthday boy and I will get to that some time next week.  Have to get back to work now ;P

Here's hoping the rest of winter goes by very fast and is warmer than normal ;)