Things were a bit disrupted in Week 115 - we've both had sore throats and think Joseph has probably had a bit of the same thing, so some interrupted sleeps. But last night was fine - once Joseph got over showing off to Craig and Amy who came over for dinner (Mummy had to go upstairs for Take 2 of setting down) he slept through to 6am and then another hour and a half after his morning bottle.

On Friday night we went round to Jo and Phil's for a couple of drinks and takeaways for dinner. Joseph and Lizzie played really well together.

Joseph was very pleased with stealing a truck book off Lizzie on the way out the door (she'd just gone to bed) so that is now the #1 book (last week's Cars & Trucks library book just another book in the stack now). We ask "Whose book is it?" and Joseph says "Lizzie's book". "Are you going to give it back to Lizzie?" "No." Here he is reading it on the bean bag.

Joseph also grabbed one of Lizzie's birthday presents at her birthday party - a helicopter, which she might not have even got to see so looks like there will be an amnesty going on soon.

Yesterday late afternoon we went for a bit of a neighbourhood patrol by tricycle. We went past the dairy on the way home and Joseph steered his vehicle into the shop asking for an ice cream (this habit was formed by Grandma Millie & Grandad BQ - it's dangerous going past there at slow speed now). Anyway I managed to extricate Joseph from the shop but about 30 seconds later Joseph asked in his sweetest voice for a "special treat". Knowing that Aunty Aida has supplied a stash of chocolate fish I said we could have the treat at home. Apparently my technique for allocating the fish is not optimal - this was all that was left after one bite...

Today we went to the zoo and Joseph even wore his gumboots with no fuss on the promise there would be plenty of puddles to splash in.

Trouble is he also likes lying on the ground and putting his face in those same puddles to drink the water. The crowd seemed to find it entertaining. I would have taken a picture but might have got reported to CYFS if I prioritised that over picking Joseph up and admonishing him - so you'll have to settle for this cute shot instead.

Week 114 has flown by and we did make a bigger effort to get some better pictures of Joseph.

There was some quite good sleeping by Joseph during the week (only one "bad" night when I was up to him three times!)...now that it is colder he has taken to sleeping full time in his single bed. Dan puts him to bed every night and says that Joseph likes to "snuggle down" once story time is over.

Here's a pic from dinner during the week - a very nutritious half tin of chocolate creamed rice! It is very difficult for us to get Joseph to eat something hot during the week for dinner so he has a repertoire of substantial snacks that we rotate. He is going really well feeding himself.

One of Joseph's favourite things at the moment is when Dan gives him a horsey ride...in fact he'll use any opportunity to plead for one. We have been working on Joseph's manners lately (pleases and thank yous etc) and on Sunday night he was asking Dan for a horsey ride with a "please Daddy darling" added on the end for extra good measure/tug at the heart strings!

I took Joseph down to Onehunga library on Saturday morning for story time and to get a supply of new books. Joseph didn't want to participate in any of the story time activities/songs but did enjoy choosing some books. Here he is with his favourite/best choice - a book about cars and trucks! It has been his constant companion since Saturday morning. It has been to bed with him, been tucked under his arm whilst we read other books, been read in the car and has been to Bear Park for mat time. He took great delight in telling various teachers and parents at Bear Park how it was "his" book and how he had been to the library to choose it!

He is really into "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" at the moment and coincidentally, yesterday, three books arrived from Godfather Matt for Joseph (very much appreciated!) - one of which was "The Cat in the Hat". So, now we can go back to the beginning and find out why the Cat in the Hat caused so much trouble in the first place!

Finally, here's a shot of Joseph being a tiger.

Week 113 and again we don't have many pictures...the camera battery was flat and Joseph has definitely developed an aversion to having his photo taken plus he prefers to see what you're doing with the camera rather than be the subject of the photo! Here's an example of what I mean - a great picture of Joseph's teeth but not much else!


The mornings and nights are getting colder and here and Dan has taught Joseph to draw on the windows in the condensation. He has just finished drawing some rainbows in this picture.

We went to the obstetrician on Wednesday afternoon – the 31 week check. We met with the third partner at Origins, Paul Robinson. Everything is fine – baby is doing well and putting on weight (whereas my weight has plateaued so I was a bit worried that the baby might not be gaining anything). Baby is now estimated to weigh just over 2kg (about 4lbs) so there is still quite a bit of fat to go on the bones before the arrival!! I already feel huge and am having major clothes crises every morning so God knows how its going to end up!! I was 32 weeks last Friday (16th) so only seven weeks to go!

Joseph is quite into recognising emotions now...he will tell us when he is happy, tired, naughty, cheeky or even grumpy. Here's a picture of Joseph being grumpy on Sunday afternoon. He gets a funny frown on his face.

Week 112 and Sophia is back in a blog seat. You may have noticed we're now blogging on a Monday night (rather than a Sunday). We're having a few problems with the camera and laptop not talking to each other so Dan has been downloading the photos at work.

Anyway, things were pretty much back to normal for us last week - the nappy rash was down to a very raw 50c piece sized bit of bottom - I've checked Joseph's gums and the molars are definitely through! Joseph did some quite good sleeping at the beginning of the week and some more average sleeping at the end of the week.

We have been struggling valiantly to get Joseph to wear socks on these colder mornings - he is still wearing his Crocs and we can't get him to wear his new "Thomas the Tank Engine" gumboots. I guess we'll have to keep persevering!

You may have noticed that Joseph has developed an aversion to looking into the camera at photo time...we tried to make him look at the camera by making funny faces/noises and here's a not so bad result.

I did some baking on Friday and here is Joseph following in his father's footsteps having cake for breakfast on Saturday morning!

Over the weekend, Dan's sister, Margs, and her son, Zac, came to stay (up from Christchurch). Joseph was a little bit quiet around them on the Friday night but gradually warmed up to them! So much so that he insisted on carrying around a can of Coke most of Saturday afternoon - just because Zac had one.

Dan took everyone up to Mt Eden on Saturday morning and Joseph was fascinated by the cow pats and has taken great delight in talking about the cow poos quite often (including this morning at Bear Park!).

Joseph doesn't mind doing a bit of drawing and here he is on Sunday morning getting artistic.

Finally, a picture of Shelley (Dan's cousin) and Joseph. This is Shelley's third appearance on the blog - from when J was a tiny baby to now a big boy!

We don't have many photos available for Week 111 because Joseph was under the weather and the weather wasn't up to much either so not much happened in the way of outdoor activities. Joseph has all his milk teeth through now with the final few molars cutting in the last week but bringing with them an upset digestive system shall we say. So Sophia and I took a couple of half days each on Tuesday and Wednesday while Joseph stayed home. The good news is Joe is all better now and the nappy changing has reduced dramatically in the last day or so!

It was Joshie's (another of the antenatal group of babies) birthday on Saturday at Lollipops. Here's Joseph and William tucking into some party kai.

On Sunday it was a play date with Finn, one of J's best friends from Bear Park. That doesn't stop them from having the odd falling out over toys, but Sophia reports Joseph was a good sharer, especially when Finn got a bit emotional.

On the development front Joseph's sentences are coming along well, and we're having some detailed conversations these days. Also impressive is 3 nights in a row sleeping through till about 6am :)