Water Baby

Josiah has been getting rather splashy in his baby tub lately, so his Daddy thought it was high time for a real water experience.  

But it's January.  

And while there certainly are some warm days in January in Houston, there are no bodies of water that I would put my splash-happy 4 1/2 month old in at this time of year.

Fortunately for our little swimmer, our bathtub is about the size of a kiddie pool, and heated.

Big fun was had by all!

CAUTION:  The following photos contain nudity.  But only Josiah's.  Daddy is wearing swim trunks; but, alas, Josiah doesn't have any.  So he'll have to swim in the buff for the time being.

Try not to be shocked.

Feet are fun!

Hey, where's the inflatable mattress?

Adventures in Photography

So while all the Burchfields (and their subsidiaries) were stateside (i.e., in TEXAS!), we had the crazy notion that perhaps it would be amusing to bestow a small amount of creative chaos on some tragically unsuspecting photographer; that is, we had professional portraits taken of the entire family.  It was quite an experience, and I learned a few things that morning:

1.  Eat a good breakfast the morning of such activities.  Low blood sugar does not combine well with even controlled chaos.

2.  Babies and children will, by unspoken universal law, be extremely cute/happy/smiling until the precise time you are ready to take pictures; they then become intensely tired/hungry/cranky/wet.

3.  Even if the appointment is only supposed to take 1 hour, plan to spend the vast majority of the day at the studio.

4.  Dress for the arctic.  They keep those studios somewhere around the freezing point.

5.  Try to get online and examine the portrait packages beforehand.  Read all the fine print.  However, even if this is accomplished, pack an extra measure or two of patience and flexibility to be used when trying to understand the intricacies of ordering pictures.

All in all, it was a worthwhile endeavor, and I daily enjoy the results of the experience in the form of artistically framed portraits of my whole family, smiling cheerfully from my living room wall each morning. 

Christmas with the Lewtons

We had several celebrations of Christmas this year.  Well, most years, actually.  The more family you acquire, the more celebration you have.  You could probably find some deeper spiritual meaning in that.

AJ's leave fell a couple of weeks before Christmas this year, so we found an afternoon we could all get together (no small feat!) at Mom & Dad's (although I think they prefer to go by "Grandmom & Granddad" these days!) for dinner & unwrapping.

Awwwwww.....

Josiah & Granddad.

Can't really tell who's happier...

The great Christmas sing-along

We celebrated AJ's & my birthdays, too.

(Wow, that was an awkward sentence, grammatically speaking)

Josh, being cute (something he excels at!)

The many faces of Josiah

Anger, but temporarily under control

Extreme Anger

Patiently contemplating Daddy's last corny joke (he learned this face from Mommy)

Thoughtful

Surprise

Anger

Concerned, but ponderous

Stoic

Actually, I think this might be sneezles...

Disgusted

Meditation

Perplexed

Telling a good joke

Happy

"Huh?"

A roaring lion.  Or a sleepy lion.  But definitely a tough lion impression.

Let sleeping babies lie...

Josiah is a cute sleeper. And he's a good sleeper when he wants to be. Loud noises or being jostled around don't wake him up at all if he's good and asleep.

Silence and Mommy sleeping at 3 a.m. -- well, that would wake anyone up, right?

But he's just so stinking cute when he sleeps. He's awake so much more now, but we have a bunch of great sleepy-Josiah pictures. It never fails to amaze me some of the positions he can sleep in and seem to be perfectly comfortable, waking without even a crick in his neck. Babies really ARE made of rubber, it seems...

Sometimes Daddy gets in on the sleeping action, too

This is one of my favorite pictures. Now that is comfortable!