Happy birthday, Mom!  Joshua sends his love to Grandma in the form of a big smile which we keep (unsuccessfully) trying to capture with the camera.

Joshua had his first play date yesterday.  We got together & went for a walk with my friend Cristina & her 2 month old son Charlie.  The guys looked so cute together.  A couple of times they seemed to stare at each other & hold hands, but mostly they just looked around the room or at us.  When one would cry, the other often started crying, as if in sympathy for his buddy.  Tomorrow, we have another play date with my friend Liane & her almost 3 month old son Maximilian.  With all of the babies recently born to friends from my work & the spouses club at school, Joshua will have lots of good friends!  Just as important (if not more at this age), I have a great support system.

The first couple of days being home alone have been very rewarding, but challenging.  Joshua definitely does not like when he is not being held all the time, & my arms are sore as a result (but getting stronger!).  Hopefully we will develop a good system in the near future.  I’m obviously not getting much done at home, but that’s OK & was naturally expected.  There are several projects the grandmothers left for me to finish but they will be done in time.  I am becoming faster at doing things (especially typing!) one-handed, so that’s good.  I hope to post several new photos as soon as I am able to spend more time at the computer, & plan to link this site to Flickr so that you can see lots of Joshua photos at once.  I’ll try to do this when Joshua can have more father-son time, so it may depend on Erick’s school schedule.

Joshua & I enjoy playing games with each other & he’s smiling more often, even cooing at times.  He will even sit quietly while I read him nursery rhymes, but he usually only lasts for a couple before he wants more direct attention.  Speaking of direct attention, he’s asking for some now, so I had better go…