Great morning!

I'm so thankful for a great start to the day, and today is shaping up to be a great one. Here's why...

1. Joshua slept all night last night! I've come to take these nights at face value and not think that we're going to get so lucky as to establish a brand new pattern of all night rest. I'm just very thankful for the complete night of sleep. It's funny- in recent months these nights have been so few and far between that I woke up wondering what was wrong when I felt rested. Then I had to race over to his room, tiptoe by the crib and verify that he was, in fact, breathing. What a beautiful thing!

2. I think he's feeling much better after the cold. We have managed to share it with both Jason and Grandma, so that's not so good. But at least the little guy is on the road to recovery. We're still pretty snotty, but he's managing pretty well.

3. Breakfast was not the battle that it normally is. Joshua sat happily in his high chair, ate a little cereal (I think our days of baby cereal are numbered), a whole mini pancake, about a quarter of a banana and then drank his bottle like a champ. Then he got some "o's" while I cleaned up. No fighting and crying makes for a great morning.

4. I'm still using the Ocean drops for his nose (and honestly, I think these are MAGICAL for colds!). Ordinarily this isn't the favorite part of the day for Joshua. And certainly I can understand how he feels. I wouldn't be big on someone shooting drops into my yucky nose either, but I'm convinced that this is what has kept all of the congestion from lingering in his ears and chest like it did the first time he was sick. So, I got creative this morning. One of his favorite things to do when he's playing with daddy is to hang upside down. I have no idea what the thrill is, but he loves it. So in order to keep the drops IN his nose, I turned him upside down. He giggled and smiled and they didn't go running down his face. Awesome! One point for mommy.

5. We had a great giggle fest this morning too (with all of this, you probably think I've been up since 3 am, huh?). Nope! Joshua's new trick is taking off his socks on his own. Sometimes he smacks himself in the face from pulling at his socks so hard, but he generally thinks that's pretty funny. When he pulls off his socks, I usually bite his toes (which he also thinks is funny) while trying to put the socks back on for him. Well this morning he really cracked up in that deep little boy giggle that is just magic to me. So between that and his thrill at watching Elmo and Cookie Monster on Sesame Street for a few minutes before I left for the office, he was a happy guy. There's nothing better.

As I promised, here is the Harvest Fest parade picture and a few others that I thought you all might enjoy.

There must have been something fun (like a firetruck) coming down the street...

Check out my teeth! #5 is just about through on the top too!

Playing with Daddy! (Don't you love my Levis?)