The adventures in Starkville continue

Joshua was so very glad the rain finally stopped. Even better-the sun came out and brought a smile to his face. A smile which now contains 2 teeth!

We have had to start barricading Joshua in the room with us. He has discovered that we have more than one room in our house and now wants to explore the other ones. The exersaucer, also called "Checkpoint Charlie" by Dave, fits perfectly in the doorframe. However, Joshua has figured out how to sneak past by squeezing around the side or crawling through the bottom.

Joshua is quite pleased with himself when he makes it to the other side.

Our friends the Liens taught us about pillow pits. While Joshua is not yet launching himself off furniture into the pillow pit like the Lien kids, he does love to be tossed into the pit.

This is Freddie Milons-former Alabama star receiver and Starkville, Mississippi native. He often appears on the local news station discussing upcoming SEC football games and works at the local Wal-Greens. As you know from last week's post, Joshua is now signaling touchdown frequently. Today as Joshua and I were shopping in Wal-Greens he started signaling touchdown. I responded by calling out "Touchdown Alabama!" Freddie Milons was working on the aisle next to us and came over to see what all the Alabama talk was about. I had seen him there before and knew who he was when he came on the aisle. He said, "I used to play football at Alabama and had to come see who was saying 'touchdown Alabama' over here." I replied, "I know who you are." I introduced him to Joshua and told Joshua, "This is Mr. Freddie. He used to score lots of touchdowns for Alabama." Freddie smiled and said, "Oh, I don't know about that." I got Joshua to signal touchdown for him, which doesn't usually happen on command. So we had to make sure to post about this historic meeting of a past Alabama football great with a future Alabama football great.

The Kitchen Chair

We have entered a new phase at the Nolen house.

Joshua now has a tooth!

After much pain and many tears his bottom right-center tooth has successfully arrived.

Dave and I would like to express our appreciation to the makers of Night Time Orajel and Children's Motrin for their help in keeping us sane.

This is the last picture of a toothless smile.

We tried to snap a photo of the new tooth without success. Neither of us have been allowed to examine Joshua's bottom gums since Tuesday. For all we know, he could have several teeth down there. But I think it would take some heavy duty machinery to pry Joshua's mouth open for us to get a good look.

Joshua is a quick study. He signaled touchdown several times during lunch today.

(I guess this is the result of us watching nearly 12 hours of football 2 Saturdays in a row.)
Joshua makes this "Popeye" face all the time. We crack up every time he does it. What is funnier is when we mimic the face back to him, Joshua laughs at us.

I know what you are thinking...

"Wow, Amelia sure takes a lot of pictures of Joshua in the kitchen chair."

To which I would reply, "You're right. It is the only place we can restrain him enough to get a decent picture of him these days."

We have had so much rain over the last 40 days and 40 nights we are considering planting rice or growing crawfish in our backyard as a creative way to start raising money for Joshua's college fund.

8-months old

This week Joshua turned 8-months old. A good picture in the rocking chair, complete with sign and dog is proving impossible.

This is the best we could do this month as far as birthday pictures go.

Monday night while Joshua was eating dinner I said, "Joshua guess what, you are 8-months old today!" In response he started clapping. It was very cute. (How I wish I was excited enough to clap each time I was told I am getting older!)

A picture of the Bama baseball cap it a must!

Joshua and Dave both decided to wear their Mississippi State shirts last Saturday since of all the teams we follow, MSU probably needed our t-shirt support more than the others. We made it up until about 30 minutes before kickoff before Joshua spit up all over himself and Dave leading to a wardrobe change. Naturally they picked matching Bama shirts.

Joshua has stared making a really funny face that resembles Popeye. We are trying to get a picture of it as it makes us laugh every time he does it. We have a quick video to post but blogger isn't cooperating right now-stay tuned for that.


Our friends the Edwards are picking up their adopted daughter this week in South Korea. Jason is there right now and gets to meet Jayne Riley tonight. If you like, follow his trip and meet their new baby girl on their blog: http://www.edwardsfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/

Kickoff Club!

Joshua and Abigail experienced their first kickoff to college football. They had matching Mississippi State T-shirts that were worn during the MSU game

(Go Dawgs!).

Then after the MSU game there was a wardrobe change in to matching Alabama

t-shirts

(Roll Tide!).

Enjoy some photos from the "Kickoff Club" meeting in Coach's End Zone room.

The President and Vice President of the Kickoff Club

Future SEC Commissioner

What is a Hokie anyway?

The best shot of the MSU t-shirt I could get as Joshua climbed up to grab my camera.

Joshua, what does the elephant say?

"Roll Tide!"

Labor Day Weekend in Jackson

Photo Highlights from Labor Day Weekend

Good morning Abigail!

Scrub-a-dub-dub in Nana's big laundry room tub

"Sharing" and wearing matching MSU t-shirts

Two of Joshua's favorite people-GG and Hardy the Dog

After a long morning walk with Coach

Up to No Good...

Joshua is always into something. And it seems that whatever he gets into usually ends up in his mouth. He seems to have no fear. At any given moment, if he isn't putting an inedible object in his mouth, he is probably trying to climb onto or fall off something taller than he is.

We are grateful to our friends the Edwards who let us come "shopping" at their house for clothes the boys have outgrown. Joshua also inherited a box of trucks and books. At this point, Dave is more interested in the trucks than Joshua.

We are looking forward to football season starting this weekend. We now officially own baby clothes pledging allegiance to 3 SEC schools. We pledge varying levels of allegiance to these 3 schools as will be evident by the number of Alabama related clothes we now have. I'm sure many pictures will be taken of said outfits this weekend as Joshua and Abigail are scheduled to celebrate the kickoff to Football '09 together at Coach and Nana's house.

Joshua seems to prefer crawling off the changing table to having his diaper changed or putting on his pajamas.

What could be more fun than 2 large picture frames to play with?

I guess an empty milk carton from the trash can could be more fun than picture frames.

This is Hardy the Dog. Hardy was given to Joshua by our good friend Emily who lives in Tuscaloosa. Joshua likes to wrestle Hardy while Hardy sings songs to him. Hardy sings The Itsy Bitsy Spider if you touch his ear and I am almost positive Joshua did a few of the motions to the song the other day. I know that the chances of that are slim but I'm not totally convinced it was just coincidence.

One of Dave and Joshua's favorite things to do together is make faces in a mirror.

Public Service Announcement:
Everyone likes something free, right? Well, Dolly Parton is giving away children's books to kids under 5 years old through her Imagination Library. The child gets a free book every month until they turn 5. The program is not available in Starkville so Joshua gets his free book sent to Aunt Beth's house in Birmingham. So if you have a child, grandchild, niece, nephew, etc check out Dolly's website to register them. (Thanks Alex H. for telling Joshua about the books you get at your Gran and Rev's house. You're a great friend!)