Josiah and Layla

We are trying to prepare Josiah for Layla's arrival in September. How one prepares a 16 month old for something like that is... interesting. Chris and I will ask Josiah "where's Layla?" and Josiah will point to my belly. Chris will also talk to my belly very loudly with Josiah standing next to me and Josiah will just laugh. We try and emphasize that Layla is his sister, just like Scott, Mindy, Matthew, Naomi, Carter and Elyse are ours. I'm going to assume he has no idea what we're talking about, but that's okay. Yesterday J and I were hanging out on the couch and I asked him "where's Layla?". He pointed to my belly, like he usually does, but this time said "Yaya". It melted my heart! Of couse I immediately applaused him, sang his praises and kissed him over and over again. With that kind of reaction I expect him to say her name all the time now :) He LOVES being praised (who doesn't, really?). Just thought I'd share that cute story. My son's a GENIUS!

4th of July weekend

I love holiday weekends. I love that Chris gets an extra day with us. And I believe Josiah loves that even more than I do. Like I've said many times before, Josiah is a daddy's boy. Friday after work we went and grabbed dinner at Captain D's (the company that I work for... I'm in the HR department). Josiah had the mac and cheese. Chris took some awesome photos of him eating it, so I'll have to post those later.
Saturday morning Josiah slept in until 915am!! That hasn't happened but 2 or 3 times in the past 10 months. It was awesome sleeping in! We spent the rest of the afternoon at my bosses house swimming and eating hamburgers. Josiah loved every minute of it, and so did we. Now I finally have some color and people might actually believe I'm Cuban.
Sunday we met an old high school friend, Lindsay Roberts, for brunch. It was great catching up with her! I love seeing old friends here in Nashville. It makes me feel like I'm not so disconnected with my Dallas life. Sunday night we went to Logan's Roadhouse. We had 2 filet mignons, an appetizer, and beer for $25! I sure do love coupons and BOGOs. Josiah loved the restaurant! He made several friends with other kids his age. He's quite popular with the ladies :)
Yesterday we just hung out at the house, did some yard work and enjoyed each others company. It doesn't get dark here until around 845pm, so we knew that the fireworks would keep Josiah up, so we tried to put him down at 7. However, we misjudged our redneck neighbors. They started shooting off fireworks at 5pm. Needless to say, Josiah didn't fall asleep until after 1030pm. We went outside to look at them, but they started to scare Josiah, so that was that.
It was a great holiday weekend, but we really missed our friends and family in Dallas. We are ready to come home!! I've come to realize that good friends are hard to find, and nothing beats family. We love and miss you all dearly.

:::A few of Josiah's favorite things:::

 My turtle

 Playing music

 Dancing with my monkey

 Starbucks

 Kisses

 Hugs (specifically with Papu)

 Vacuuming

Shoulder rides

Bath time at the Munselle house

Another Lesson

Although Josiah has done great at non-kid friendly restaurants, he does MUCH better at kid friendly ones. The atmosphere is loud and there are plenty of things to keep him stimulated and entertained. This makes for a happier child and mommy. "Fancy" restaurants are now reserved for date night with the hubs. Those type of places tend to care if your child has explosive diarrhea.

Dear Humans,

Please don't tell me I look tired. I know I do. I don't sleep very well anymore due to the large bulge in my stomach waking me up needing to either go to the restroom or kicking me. If you don't have anything nice to say to a pregnant woman, don't say anything at all!

Sincerely,
Kristine (and the rest of us out there)

Another awesome Josiah story

Yesterday we were running errands at an "outside mall". The door to New York and Co was open and was playing loud music. Naturally Josiah walked in the middle of the store and started dancing. I let him do it for a couple of minutes (just so everyone could see how adorable he is!) then we headed down the walkway some more. The next store we went into there were TONS of full length mirrors and loud music. Josiah stood 3 feet in away from one, turned his back to the mirror, then turned his head around and started watching himself dance from behind. This went on for a very long time! It was like no one else was in the store and he was seeing himself for the first time. I am not doing ANY justice to how awesome this was to watch, but let me tell you... I'm going to make it a habit of going into stores with music and full length mirrors in hopes he does this again! Maybe I'll have my camera on me and can capture it.