Well, you can probably imagine since neither of us have blogged in a few days that we have had our hands full this week. It is definitely a lot more work have “children” instead of just having a “child”. Kristine has been amazing doing everything from hosting our family guests to keeping the house in order even with our baby boy pretty much attached to her what must seem like 24 hours a day!

We had a small birthday celebration for Analise on Wednesday at Chuck E Cheese’s. It was fun, and we hope to post more pictures from that soon. In the meantime, here is Analise afterwards wearing one of her birthday presents — a bicycle helmet! Woohoo!

I’ll apologize in advance that this blog might not be as interesting as the one I wrote in my head during my shower 2 days ago (yesterday was too busy for a shower!). But every time I get a moment I could blog, I decide maybe I’d be better off snagging 15 minutes of rest on the couch before Josiah decides he’s hungry again. He’s one hungry little boy, eating every 1 1/2 hours or so. But he’s great at night, sleeping 3 1/2-4 1/2 hours, so I can’t complain. Anyway, now that I’m sitting here in front of the computer, I can’t quite remember the interesting blog I had created in my head, but I’ve got a few tidbits to share.

Hide and Seek – sometimes fun, sometimes not

Analise has been enjoying hide and seek lately. Brian’s great about playing with her, and she usually hides in the laundry basket or under a table or blanket when she plays with him. Occassionally, when she plays with Grandma, she’ll hide in the closets. She’s a good hider – very quiet! This morning, though, as I was checking email and my mom was in the kitchen working on breakfast, Analise was playing in the other room. Brian and Josiah were still asleep. It got very quiet, so after a couple minutes, I went to see what she was up to. No Analise. Mom helped me look, and we called all around, not finding her. The doors were all still locked, so I KNEW she couldn’t have gone anywhere, including downstairs. We started checking the closets, but still no Analise. By this time, Brian was slightly panicking with us and searching. Finally, my mom looked underneath the changing table, which has a curtain hanging around it. There she was, thankfully, quietly hiding. *SIGH* Already too much excitement for my morning, and it’s only 9:30am!
Sleep Jealousy Disorder

Ok, I’ll admit it right now. Yes, Brian, I have Sleep Jealousy Disorder, or SJD, as you call it. It’s a painful condition brought on when one spouse is getting more sleep than the other. Key symptoms are extreme fatigue and crabbiness when the spouse is sleeping and the affected person is not. Quite often, the affected person unreasonably would rather the spouse not sleep, just so they can share in the misery. I am the affected person. I think, personally, I’m doing pretty well at managing it and minimizing my crabby moments. And I will admit, Brian rarely shows signs of SJD, even when he’s up at 5am for school and we’re not. He’s a better man than I. Hopefully, our sleep deprivation will be short lived and little Josiah will be a better sleeper in the long-run than his sister. *fingers crossed*

Outings

I’m proud to say we’ve been out and about several times in the 10 days since little J arrived. I’m feeling FAR better than I was at this point after Analise arrived. I’m sure that’s due to the fact that this labor was 4 hours, compared to Analise’s 32 hour marathon. And breastfeeding is 100% easier with Josiah, thankfully. Saturday, we visited the Blue and Black Festival, at a farm south of Birmingham. Fresh blueberries and blackberries, a petting zoo, ponys and homemade desserts made it worth it, in spite of hot weather. Our outings, though, are interesting, in that our mid-size Nissan Altima makes fitting 3 adults and 2 car seats nearly impossible. Brian biked to the farm, and we just barely all squeezed in for the ride home. Sunday, little Josiah experienced his first bike race. We had a great time cheering Brian on. Yesterday, we visited Aldridge Gardens here in Hoover to see the beautiful hydrangeas in bloom and look at the turtles and ducks. (See pictures at the end).

Visits

It’s a busy month for us… my mom is here for another 2 weeks. She was scheduled to arrive on Thursday before Josiah was born on Friday, but her flight was cancelled, and she didn’t get here until 10 minutes after he burst into the world. It’s still wonderful to have her here. My dad is flying in today for 5 days, and we’re excited to show him our home and the beautiful city of Birmingham. There’ll be pictures of our adventures later this week!

A little bite of heaven

We’ve gotten some great baby gifts this month. But I have to note one of the sweetest gifts, literally. My dear sweet friend Dena sent us a chocolate-chocolate-chip cheesecake from Cheesecake Heaven in Green Bay. YUM! Cheesecake Heaven provided the cheesecake for our wedding, and Dena brought them all the way from Green Bay to the wedding. What a sweet treat to be surprised with this week!

Earlier today, I raced in a bike race here in Birmingham. It was HOT, and Josiah slept through the race, but was still worn out after the race. Here’s a picture of him sacked out on our sofa.

Finally, Analise enjoyed our dinner at Backyard Burgers. I snapped a picture of our country girl chewing on a straw, and I thought it turned out pretty well.

Last night, my parents invited Analise and I to go watch our local
Triple-A team play at the Hoover Met. The Birmingham Barons were
doing pretty well, but we were only able to stay four innings because
Analise (and me) were hot and tired. Nonetheless, we had lots of fun
especially because the San Diego chicken was visiting. He also brought
along four little chickens (see bottom right picture). Perhaps the most exciting part, though, was when my dad scrambled to get a foul ball which Analise is proudly
holding in the top left picture.

Today was the annual Homewood Criterium. This was the first bicycle race (not counting the UCD Sprint Triathlon a couple years ago) I have ever been able to bike to and from my house in order to get there! It was an exciting race and I ended up getting 10th by winning the field sprint. My parents, Kristine’s mom, Kristine, Analise, and Josiah were all there. I think Josiah slept through the whole race, but Analise was cheering whenever she wasn’t running around with Bwaka.

Afterwards, my friend Timmy raced and did very well for his first road bike race. Way to go Timmy!

For all of those who have successfully logged in, your reward tonight (or whenever you read this!) is two more pictures of my beautiful children.

I took Analise to her first day of school yesterday. It was her
first time at school, so it was an exciting day for her. We hiked
over through the woods together to Lakeside Baptist Church. When
we made it to her classroom, Analise looked inside, saw all the toys,
and ran over and started playing. I think she did way better about
being left than most of the other kids.

Her first day went really well, and when she got home she was warming
up even more to Josiah. I think this picture shows the ultimate sign
of acceptance: “the Analise rub”. When Analise gets tired, she likes
to rub any patch of available skin she can find. Here she has found
Josiah and is rubbing his hand and arm while sucking her thumb.

And here Analise is sharing all of her stuffed animals with Josiah. I
can’t believe he stayed asleep the whole time she was piling animals
around him!

Finally, I’ve been taking Analise downstairs and playing with her
in my office area. Here Analise has created a “choo-train” and is
riding in it with some of her stuffed animals. Choo-choo!

My brother, Matthew, celebrated his birthday yesterday (June 13)
by coming over to our house for dinner and cake. Yummy! Here he
is holding Josiah, who was born just 4 days ago (June 9). Happy
Birthday, Matthew!

June seems to be the month of choice for significant events
in the Toone family:

• June 8 – My parents’ wedding anniversary
• June 9 – Josiah’s birthday
• June 13 – Matthew’s birthday
• June 28 – Our wedding anniversary
• June 28 – Grandma Locke’s birthday
• June 29 – Analise’s birthday

I snagged this cute picture picture of Josiah with his eyes open this morning. They haven’t been open very much! He’s been a quiet baby, keeping busy eating and sleeping. We’re adjusting pretty well. Returning to the land of interrupted sleep is difficult, but last night we had a couple hours of solid sleep that felt good. Analise is being a great big sister. She wants to keep checking on him when he’s asleep in our room. But she seems ok with “baby ‘siah” being here to stay.

Ok, I’ve got all kinds of thoughts I was going to post, but I’m being pulled away to read with Analise. Later!

We made it home from the hospital today, and I was able to go for a bike ride around town while everyone was napping. It was extremely hot today, so I picked a shady route that wound through Mountain Brook and then on over to Red Mountain and then back up Shades Mountain. I was inspired to take pictures of Brookwood Medical Center, where we had just taken Josiah home from the hospital. Then I realized that I would also be able to take pictures of Montclair Hospital, where I was born almost 30 years ago, Mount Royals Towers, where my grandmother currently lives, and Samford University, where I currently work. It was a wonderful ride even with the heat!

Note the 102 degree temp and 19 mph current speed.	This is the view of Samford from standing in the same spot where I took the picture above of Montclair and Brookwood.
Here is a picture of Mount Royal Towers (foreground), where grandma lives, and Montclair Hospital (background), where I was born.	While still standing in the same spot as the picture to the left, I took this picture of Brookwood and Samford. So from this one spot on Shades Mountain I can see four very signifcant places in my life: 1. where I was born 2. where grandma lives 3. where Josiah was born 4. where I work

Finally, here’s Josiah’s first picture from home. Grandma “Bwaka” sure looks happy to be holding her grandson!