What's in a Name?

According to the Social Security Administration's website the name Josephine is ranked 186 of all babies born in 2010. The last time Josephine was ranked this high was back in 1954. The name Josephine reached its all time peak of popularity for two years in a row back in 1916-1917, by ranking 21. They only have data back to 1880, so that's 131 years and in that time Josphine's popularity rank averages out at 182. Josephine may be an up and coming name but if history repeats itself it probably won't make it to the top 100 and if it does it won't be anytime soon.


The name Josie was ranked 260 in 2010 and has never been nearly as popular as Josephine. In fact the highest Josie has ever ranked was 116 for 1880-1881. The lowest it's been ranked is 861 in 1967 and its average ranking is 412.


The name Peter is ranked 192 for babies born in 2010. In 2008, the year my Peter was born, the name was ranked 181. Peter has always been a common name but has been losing popularity in the last 20 or so years. 1986 was the last year that Peter was in the top 60 and the rank has continued to drop since then. The highest ranking Peter got was 31 and that was in 1880. The average rank for Peter is 61. The name Peter is definitely an outgoing name in popularity.


The name Andrew in the history of the SSA has never been out of the top 100. In fact the lowest it's ever dropped was 86 in 1945. Its 2010 ranking is 14 and in 1982 when Andrew was born it was ranked 17. It has never been the #1 name but it has gotten up to 5 many times. The last time Andrew made 5 was back in 2003. The average rank for Andrew is 39.


The name Morgan has a mixed past because originally it was a man's name and it wasn't until 1976 that it was popular enough (top 1000) to make it into the ranking. It came in just under the radar at 916. So the name Morgan as a girls name has only been a competitor for 35 years with an average ranking of 138. The highest ranking it has gotten is 22 in 1997 and in 1984 when I was born it was 132. The 2010 ranking of Morgan is 63.


Morgan as a boys name has never been super popular. The highest Morgan has been ranked is 236 in 1995 and the lowest it ranked was 636 in 1950. The 2010 ranking of Morgan is 518 and it 1984 it was 291. The average ranking is 449.

Josie's 6 Month Stats

So I took Josie to the doctor today for her 6 month check-up and she didn't grow all that much in the past two months. I should have asked the doctor about it but since we had been waiting in the room for so long Peter was done and was throwing a major fit and I was done too. Anyway here are her stats:


Height: 25 3/4" - 50%
Weight: 14 lbs 8.5 oz - 25%
Head: 16 1/4" - 25%


So a funny story from her appointment: Josie had to have an oral vaccine and she didn't want to swallow it. The nurse would put some in her mouth and Josie would smile and it would ooze right out of her mouth. We eventually got her to drink enough of it but it was funny watching her assert her opinion.


Josie is really starting to become mobile. She rolls from back to front and  from front to back, although sometimes she gets tired on her tummy and forgets that she can roll over and yells for help. She will rotate while on her tummy, she'll see something interesting and turn to play with it then do it again and wouldn't you know it she's turned herself in a complete circle. She still does her abs of steel workout, that's when she lifts her head and her legs straight into the air and just holds it there and then does it again. I should count to see how many reps she's doing at a time. Although lately she has been distracted by her feet, so sometimes her workout is cut short by trying to eat her feet. She is an excellent sitter. She can't sit herself up but when I sit her up she stays that way for quite some time and then when she's done sitting she will just fold herself over and kick her legs out from under her and then she's on her tummy.


We recently started giving her rice cereal and the first time we did she did the same thing that she did at the doctor's office with the oral vaccine, she smiled at us and just let it all run down her chin. I did figure out that if I leave the spoon in her mouth for a few seconds she will suck on it and the cereal in the process and end up eating her cereal. I hope that helps her to sleep longer at night. She used to be an excellent sleeper but lately she's been waking 1-2 times a night on her belly.


Josie loves to watch everything that goes on around her especially if there are kids around. She will stare intently at Peter, who is totally oblivious, and just watch him and smile. She is such a happy baby. She smiles all the time at anyone and everyone. Pretty much the only times she cries is when she's hungry, tired and sometimes when she's bored. She really has the cutest smile and I love that she doesn't have any teeth yet.


What's a blog post about a growing baby without the cute pictures to go along with it?

First bites of cereal running down her face

 Showing off her mad sitting skills

Hanging out with her Easter giraffe with pooh on her bum

Sunbathing as a strawberry

Looking cute at the zoo

Had enough fun

Fingers are yummy

Chillin' in a bucket

Loving the swing in our yard

She found her doll

Having fun with Peter's water bottle

 

My Painted Office/Craft Room

We finally got around to painting our office. We didn't do it originally because we didn't want to have to move all the books out. The creation of new bookcases made the decision to paint easier. :) We decided that the new bookcases are going to go into our bedroom so that left a bunch of room open for furniture rearrangement. I decided to use the same color in the office that we did in the living room for a cohesive look. I put the idea out there for painting the ceiling in the office too, and I was shot down. I think it looks nice and now there are only 3 rooms left to be painted in our house: the laundry room, the master bedroom and master bathroom. Our house was in disarray for a few days while we painted but thankfully the office only required two coats of paint. Not all of the furniture made it back into the office: the large bookcase, the colorful drawer cart, and the dark wood desk all found new homes. The dark desk now lives in our bedroom and the other two storage items don't get to come back into my house. :) The only thing that has made it back onto the wall is my white shelf, everything else I haven't decided where/how I want it to go and to look. I'm going to have Andrew make a new frame for my white board since it's very broken and then I'm going to take of the flowers and I think paint the frames brown for the cork board and white board. I think on the wall that you can see from the living room I will do a picture collage with family pictures and such. We'll see. Here are more pictures than you ever thought you wanted of my new office: 

The closest thing I have to a before picture

*Update*

I found this in the Photo Booth pictures on the Mac. Not sure why but it's inverted. It's another almost before picture. :)

It was like the office threw up furniture in our living room

At least we could still see the TV

All the books and other stuff took up residence in my bedroom

Craft/office supplies taking up space in my room

Putting things back together

The new location for two of the desks

Final furniture placement 

The work area

The wall with stuff on it

Inside looking out

Our Busy Life

You wouldn't know it from *all* the blogging I've been doing lately but we've had a fairly busy 1st quarter of 2011. January started out uneventful and ended with a trip for Josie and me to Washington for my Grandma Lercher's funeral. It truly was a celebration of her life, we all told stories on her and laughed and cried and sang, "The Old Gray Mare". I completely forgot to take pictures the whole time I was there but I had fun catching up with all the family that came. There were a lot of cousins that it had been many many years since I had seen them. I stayed at Andrew's parent's house because I was pretty sure that all of the housing options on my side of the family would be filled, I was right. Also I really enjoy hanging out with Andrew's parents.

Can you believe that this is only a fraction of Grandma's posterity?

We wore purple as a tribute to her

Andrew's sister Stephanie turned 40 while I was there and her husband, Sean, threw her a surprise birthday party at an Irish Pub. Josie and I went and had some yummy food and totally surprised Stephanie. They had a live bag piper playing and Josie fell asleep to his playing. The bag piper was playing when Stephanie walked in and she turned to her friend and said, "Hey these are the guys that played our [annual St. Patrick's Day] party." Her friend turned and looked at her and said, "I know." Then she looked around and realized that she knew everyone in the room and that her parents were even there. :)

We got notification that Andrew's Grandma Gardner passed away while I was on the airplane flying home. So I literally got home and unpacked just to repack to drive to Wyoming for her funeral. Andrew's grandma was a Marine so her funeral wasn't as lively as my grandma's but it was still a beautiful service. They did the traditional military funeral gun salute and firing at the graveside service, it really made an impression on me. Peter loved the snow, there was about 2 feet or more on the ground, but he wouldn't leave his gloves on so his hands got cold but he got upset when he had to come in and warm them up.

Grandma & Grandpa Gardner's wedding picture (they were both Marines)

I had a minor meltdown when my diaper bag went missing. Both Andrew and I searched the church high and low for it but couldn't find it. We were prepared to give it up as lost and just leave without it when we ran into Andrew's Aunt Ann and family at the restaurant in Afton. Originally we were going to eat at Rulon's Burgers (he won the Olympic medal for wrestling a few years back, he's Andrew's dad's cousin or 2nd cousin or something like that) but Andrew's brother's decided that they didn't want a burger from the same place you pump gas. I had noticed the restaurant on our trip through Afton and suggested it as our alternative eating place. Everyone agreed and when we walked in who was sitting there waiting for their food but Andrew's Aunt Ann and family. I mentioned to her that I had lost my diaper bag and she said that the bishop had found it and asked her if she knew whose it was and she said no so he had locked it in his office for safe keeping. She happened to have his number so I called him up and he brought it to the restaurant where we were. I was SO relieved, my camera among other important necessities were in there. No pictures for this event either. :(

When we got back we were informed that it was a good time for us to be away because there had been a major nasty sickness that went around while we were gone. It took until the end of the month but we did get it. Poor Peter was SO sick I felt so bad for him, he got so upset when he threw up, he would try and run away from it, and then just when we thought he was feeling better, just in time for Josie's blessing (I'll do a separate post for that), he had a relapse and was worse. I'm grateful it was just a really nasty flu instead of RSV, croup or pneumonia all of which we knew several kids in our area that had all of those. Josie was lucky that she only had a bit of congestion for a while. Sometime in the mix of all of this my brother Reed announced that he and his girlfriend Audrey were engaged and going to be married in March in Las Vegas. We were SO excited to hear this for two reasons: #1 we LOVE Audrey and #2 Vegas is only an 8 hour drive from us so it would be easy for us to go to the wedding (also going to get its own post).

My poor sick Peter

Josie and Peter "playing" together

My cloth diaper babies

My cute Josie sporting her new winter gear

Monkeying Around

The other day (about a month ago) I was doing laundry and Peter came into the laundry room and saw his monkey costume from Halloween hanging up and he got really excited and started saying "gunkey, gunkey!!" It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about, but I finally did and I asked him if he wanted to wear his monkey costume and he emphatically said, "Yeah!" So I got the costume down and took it into the living room and got him all dressed up in it. He was SO stinking excited and super CUTE. It was really funny to watch. I got a few pictures and a couple videos (please ignore the mess we were still recovering from our road trip to Wyoming).