New Sandbox

Grandparents Walker decided that they wanted to get Josiah an early (and I mean early) birthday present and so they got him a sandbox to enjoy in the back yard now that the sun is out a bit more.

At first, he didn't want to have anything to do with getting IN the sandbox, but preferred to enjoy it at a distance, sitting outside! Perhaps he doesn't like the feeling of sand down the diaper?

A couple other times Grandpa came over though, he put him in the sandbox, but he remained a statue in a sqauting position, so as to not get any sand down the diaper I assume.

Helping the Parents

David and I decided to tackle some of the weed-infested places in out back yard today and Josiah was quick to jump in and help us. He likes to carry around all his little play tools wherever he goes and he will do simple tasks for us. His "big jobs" were to hammer the rocks, move the rocks over by the tree, and to rake the sticks and brush. He was having a great time and was telling us lots of things during the process. Unfortunately, we don't have a Josiah translator, so the gist we got was "uh buh juh buh eee beee leee bah" or something like that anyway.

Earlier in the day, Mommy went to a Mother's Day breakfast with some friend's from church and so he had some quality Daddy time. David left the living room for a little bit (where Josiah was watching TV) and came back in and found Josiah in the following state (see picture). Apparently, he did a little too much hammering and was pooped out from all the Daddy play! Daddy attempted to transfer the Pumkinhead to his bed, but discovered in the process that he had left Daddy a gigantic, stinky present in his diaper. David said he actually got most of the diaper changed with him still asleep, but then as he was putting him down I knocked on the door (didn't have my keys with me) and he apparently heard it and started wailing for Momma. I jumped right back into Mommy-hood after getting all teary-eyed at the event where they spoke of the joys of motherhood.

He is a very sweet little boy and I am very thankful that God has allowed us to experience all the wonderful things he has to offer. My greatest prayer for him is that he would be a living testimony to Jesus' great love for all of us and that he would help bring many to know the Lord.

Early 2nd Birthday Card

So for those of you who watch the TV channel called "Sprout" you will know why I made a card like this. However, most of you probably have no clue, so I will fill you in.

On the Sprout station (TV channel for toddlers) they have various little kids shows that run 24 hours for those of us who need a babysitter in a pinch to do household chores or whatnot. They have a show on it called "The Birthday Show" where this guy named Kevin reads cards that Mommy's and Daddy's send in for their little Pumpkinheads.

I had this vision for a card for Josiah a while back and when I discovered that the deadline for June birthdays was April 30th I whipped out a card the day before to send in time. They may or may not pick his card, but I think they should because it is awfully cute!

Josiah really used to love the Teletubbies, but only for the little baby that was in the sunshine, hence the front cover. He now absolutely LOVES Thomas the Train and every time even when they introduce Thomas is next on the show he breathes in and gets a big smile on his face in anticipation.

The picture of him on the front of the card is when he got spaghetti sauce all over his face (I thought an appropriate color for a "son"shine) and the picture inside the card is a very recent shot of him (just last Friday) at Billy McKale's restaurant in the little riding train toy they have there.

Josiah Bed #2

Josiah and Mommy have a new ritual where before he takes his nap or goes down for the evening, we sit in the rocking chair together for a bit. For nap time this means, I usually rock back and forth and read him a story until he drifts off. At night, we sit in the dark and I rock him and sing two songs: "Baby Mine" (from the movie Dumbo) and "Stay Awake" (from the movie Mary Poppins). Then after the songs I say, "Let's pray" and Josiah folds his hands with me while we pray for him and our family together. It is a very sweet time! Sometimes when he wakes up prematurely from his nap or at nighttime, he makes his way back over to the rocking chair and sleeps there. I think he feels safer there or something since it is where he and Mommy sit together.

He has been saying some new words lately, but we find that he really doesn't like to be coaxed to say things. His usual communication is a varying supply of "What's THAT?" in all sorts of volumes, tones of voice, and intensities. Ever so often I can say, "What's that?" back to him and he will tell me what it is. This only seems to work when the object being discussed is a car however. Many times he just starts saying a certain word seemingly out of the blue and most often he pronounces the word very precisely when he does say it. Some of the new additions are: book (with a very pronounced "K"), kite, dog, uh-oh, and juice (on occasion with this one). He likes to pronounce most all his letters as well and the latest he broke out with the other night in the bathtub was the letter "X" of all things. He also says a mighty fine "Q" and "S" of late as well.

Family Dinner

Josiah has recently taken to wanting to eat dinner with the big people rather than sit in his highchair. This has been fun because he models us as we eat and even when we pray beforehand. Just last night, we were reading a book that had little goodnight prayers in it and without seeing a picture or being prompted, he folded his hands and closed his eyes. It was so cute! Today, when I said a quick prayer before our spaghetti dinner, Josiah again had his hands folded. What a sweet little boy!

We have had quite a bout with sickness (as my previous post indicates), but I think we have finally turned the corner!
Now that both Josiah and I are on antibiotics, there has been a noted difference. It turns out that I took Josiah BACK to the doctor last Saturday and he had developed an ear infection. We are thankful that the doctor caught this and we could get him on some medicine. Of course, he HATES the medicine we give and so I hide it in his yogurt in the mornings and pudding in the evenings. This works great because he loves to eat both and always eats the entire container!

Today, I even got back into the gym! It has been a LONG time since I had been there. The good news is that from all this sickness I lost some weight. Through the sinus stuff for a while there I lost most of my sense of smell. It is funny how not smelling the food makes it so you aren't as interested anymore. I can smell now, but I think my stomach has shrunk, as I tried to eat the same sized portion as I used to tonight and felt ultra full! My brother-in-law Jon came with me to the gym today and helped me start a new routine (he is a certified fitness trainer) and so now I am excited to turn a new page on both my health and my overall fitness. I have really worked to make our meals and foods here at the house better. We have gotten rid of most all the high sugar items and replaced them with better alternatives and it has been going great. Please pray that it will continue to go well as it has been a long term goal of mine to get us eating better and for me to lose the weight I gained during pregnancy.

Sick, Sick and More Sick

Hello All! Sorry for being delinquent at my post as blogger of the family! It has been a very trying few weeks since my sinus surgery on the 13th of March. The surgery went well (to all who hadn't heard). They corrected my deviated septum (crooked nose passageway) and essentially cleared out all the gunk. Apparently, I had a chronic sinus infection that wouldn't go away. The surgery helped to get rid of the residing gunk as well as make the passages more able to receive blood flow, which will in turn (hopefully) make it so that it will be possible to get over sinus infections in the future by more manageable means (taking antibiotics, etc.). We will see if that holds true though because currently I have yet another sinus infection! The doctor told me not to be discouraged though, that this does happen and (see above) I should have a different result now that I have improved piping.

Incidentally, this picture of Josiah represents how he and I both feel around here...wishing we lived in a bubble away from all the germs! Josiah has had it pretty bad too, this is hands down the worst illness he has had thus far. He got a fever almost every night and sometimes during the day and was coughing a lot, and got this thing where his eyes produce mucus that made his lashes stick together (espcially in the morning) to the point where he couldn't open his eyes. He has an eye drop for that though now, which he really hates. And as a side note, he passed that lovely one on to me too, oh yeah!

This picture below is of Josiah with what I call his "three precious possessions" for that moment. His drink, an empty Diet Pepsi can (with the flippy lid removed for you concerned Moms out there) and his half eaten apple. I put these up after we had pizza at the big table together and he was very disconcerted and cried until he got all three things back. Hence, the tears in his eyes in the picture. You can probably see too that his nose is pretty raw from all the drippy nose stuffage. Oh and by the way, we DID take him to the doctor last Sunday. Guess what they said? I got the 98% of colds are viruses speech. Have you heard that one before? Well, then at my doctor I was given the antibiotics because of my previous condition and because of the surgery. I said, "Wouldn't it make sense that my son ALSO has a bacterial infection if indeed I do?" He said that only if he gets a high fever again should I worry. We will see how he does in the next few days though if I need to trek him back in to the doctor. I just don't understand how they can magically tell you if you have bacterial or viral when they all seem examine you in the same way? Have any of you figured this one out? Maybe I should go to medical school myself! In my retirement years perhaps....ha ha ha!

And for those who were wondering, David did get sick initially, but got over it a little quicker than Josiah and I. I am thankful for that as he really is needed at work. Please pray though that the month of April will bode health for our family. Thanks in advance for your prayers!

Digger on our Doorstep

It has been a while since I have posted because poor little Josiah has been sick. It has been a very long week for me tooas I have been caring for him, but thankfully now he is back to his usual self! On this day, the city workers were out fixing a water line that is in the middle of our house and the neighbors house. Because of this, we had a nice clear view of a digger doing some work to get to the water lines. Josiah was just thrilled and even though he still wasn't fully well today, I thought I would bring him outside for a bit to examine the truck (with the worker's permission of course). He couldn't get enough of looking at the wheels and the various parts of the truck. He wanted to get up in the cab, but I thought it best not to let him do that since they were working and I didn't want him to press something wrong by accident. This was definitely the highlight for the week for little Pumpkinhead as he had been couped up for the past week!

Josiah is trying to count now! Today the letter of the day on Sesame Street was "P" and the number was "2" and everytime the "2" came up he would say, "Two" before the people did on the TV. He also recognized the "P" as well. He is getting quite good with repeating letters now and even says, "Q" which I find kind of odd! He doesn't get the letters in the middle of the alphabet all that well yet (perhaps because the alphabet song mushes them all together) but he does try to say "L" on occasion and tries to do it with his tongue out of his mouth. It is pretty cute! He is a very smart little boy and understands a great deal now. I asked him to take two cars with us to the grocery store and he went and picked out two of his cars.

He is certainly growing up fast and I am cherishing these precious moments when little Josiah loves his Mommy so much and can't be without me. I know someday he will want to cut the apron strings, but for now he is a Momma's boy!

Playground & Party Fun

Today, we all went as a family to a birthday party for Tyler, the son of David's friend Kim from work. He turned one today and before the party we played on the playground (since we got there a little early). The party was at a community center that was next to an elementary school, so it was convenient for us to let him play there beforehand. Josiah wasted no time in climbing, sliding, and playing with the steering wheels on the big toy. He discovered it was fun to hold onto the bar and then drop onto the slide. I call this his "hang time" moment!

He really enjoyed exploring this playground and of course did not fail to pick up all the balls that people left around and attempted to throw them, while Mommy went around getting the balls and putting them back where they belonged.

We even got him to go down the big boy twisty slide a few times. He climbed up all by himself (though I was close by in case of an accident) and he went down all by himself as well. He has been very hesitant to go down the bigger slides I have found. I call him my careful boy because it takes him a while to warm up to things. This is of course good though because in a new environment he doesn't take a lot of risks and, therefore, rarely gets hurt (minus a few little bruises or bonks here and there).

We finally went to the party and Josiah was fit to be tied to stay in the room now that he knew that there was prime climbing and sliding equipment nearby. We enticed him briefly with some things from the grab bag he got, some markers to color the table with, and of course some cake, but most of the party Mommy spent with him outside on the playground! David stayed inside and mingled with many of his co-workers. As you can see, we tried to put a party hat on Josiah, but he was none to happy about it! Once we took the hat off he was fine though. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a picture of Tyler (the b-day boy) and Josiah together, but I gave Kim our number so that we could plan a play date for the two of them sometime.

Captain Organization

One of the fun things I have noticed about Josiah is that he likes to have things organized in his own way. His latest example of this is that he likes to line his trucks and cars up on the window sill. I find that if he wants my attention, he will start throwing things all over the room, so I will be tempted to come and pick them up and then in turn play with him! Then he sometimes helps me put them back where they belong. He is also a good helper when it comes to putting the wet clothes in the dryer! In the bath tub, he helps me put his bath toys away also.

And as a side note, some of the fun things he does lately is as follows. Whenever we rock in the rocking chair, he says "wracko, wracko, wracko" and moves forward and backward. He is of course trying to say "rocking" as I usually say, "rocking chair, rocking chair" as we move back and forth. He is also recognizing letters much more readily. We were watching Sesame Street today and they were going over all the letters one by one slowly. He tried to pronounce most all of them after the person on TV said them! Some of them he got just right! And he seems to recognize A, B, C, D, E, I, O, P, R, & Y when we see them in books. We have a very smart pumpkin head!

Dump Truck Seat

For Valentine's Day, my Mom and Dad wanted to get him a gift and so Mom and I treked over to the Toys-R-Us to pick out a toy for Josiah. Of course, he could have easily been happy with most anything with wheels in the store, but I thought this heavy, duty dump truck would last the longest and give the most enjoyment to little pumpkinhead! As you can see, it has promptly been turned into a chair for watching Elmo in the morning! The dump truck also came with a hard hat and sand play tools, which will come into more use in the summer time. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the V-day toy!

Future Construction Worker

After getting Josiah dressed this morning, we got to playing with some of his play tools and I thought it would be fun to deck him out in all the construction gear that we got from our friends at church. This shot with the hat didn't last long as soon after this photo he pulled it off and wouldn't keep it on again, so I am glad I got this one good picture of him.

New Toys from Grandparents Carpenter

Josiah just received a big box of toys and things from Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter. It was very popular for him to come home and find all these neat toys to play with. I was picking David up at the train station this day and the traffic was HORRIBLE and and I didn't remember to bring Josiah a snack and so he was very grumpy on the way home. While I fixed him something to eat, he played with his new toys. This was a very nice distraction.

This picture is of Josiah saying, "OW" and hitting his hand with the hammer. That's what hammers say around here anyway because when Josiah whacks me hard with a hammer I say, "OW," and who wouldn't...it hurts! Anyway, it is pretty funny now because it is almost like he thinks that is what it is called or what it says (like how animals say things).

They got him this toy where you take these little cars and they go down the ramp. He experimented with putting some of the bigger cars onto the track, but discovered it just wasn't the same thing.

They also sent the toy that he had so much fun with when he came to visit them in South Carolina (as Anna Grace has outgrown it). It didn't have the same effect in that he didn't dance back and forth to the tune it played, but he still enjoyed it as well, using the hammer to hit the little shapes and such. Thank you Grandparents Carpenter for all the nice toys! They were and still are very popular!

Indoor Sliding Fun

We got a slide for the outdoors that I ended up bringing inside for the time being, so Josiah can play on it even if it is raining. Momma is not much of a outdoors woman, so if I can avoid being out there I usually do! Good old western Washington rain keeps me inside most of the time. For the longest time, he didn't really want to slide or if he did, he would go down backwards (like he does going down the stairs).



Now that the slide has been inside for a bit, he has really learned how to go down it properly, but I would still classify him as a cautious slider. I have one picture below of his "cautious slider" face and another cute one of him showing how he puts his feet first down the slide now.

Big Boy Bed

Last weekend I just decided to convert Josiah's crib into a toddler bed. It says on the manual that you can do it as early as 18 months and since he is 19 months now I decided that now is a good of a time as any. Also, it is safer this way ultimately because if he tried to climb out of his crib he could really hurt himself because it would be a longer fall.

The second day we had this set up when he took a nap he accidentally rolled out of the bed onto the floor which woke him up with a start. He wasn't too pleased about that, but since then we have had no incidents. At night, we say, "Josiah, climb into your big boy bed," and he happily climbs up and grabs his blankie and blankie bear and goes to sleep. Sometimes when he is not ready for a nap time he will play in his room for a bit (he can't open doorknobs yet) but then soon after I put him in there it is silent, so I know he sleeps.

Woodpecker Madness

Kitty corner to our house we have this lovely telephone/power pole that some woodpeckers decided to make their holy ground shall we say. In fact, they worked so hard (two of them) at making so many holes in the pole that the local power people are getting ready to replace the pole. I talked to them the other day and they said they have never seen one get this bad. We will be without power for a few hours in the morning sometime when they do it, but they will let me know when it will be. It was kind of fun to see these woodpeckers at work albeit work that could endanger our house. Anyway, glad they will be putting up a new pole.

Baby Update

For all you fans of the blog, I am sorry I have been so lax, but I will try to keep it updated again weekly as I did before. I guess it is good to know people enjoy it, since they bug me when there is nothing new. Heh heh!

So Josiah has been growing in leaps and bounds these days. He has lots of new words that he uses regularly such as: car, uh-oh, pretty, hi, what’s that?, and signs the words milk and more. He does more things of course, but I can never remember them all. I just recently started putting bubbles into bath time, which he thoroughly enjoys. This picture was one of the first days I put the bubbles in and he was having a blast. I was giving him bubble beards and he was trying to eat them too and then spitting out the bubbles afterward. He does this funny thing now where I will say, “Josiah, show me how you swim,” and he lays on his belly propping his head up in the bath and kicks his feet. And he also likes to take the captain (the little people dude from his boat) and hide him in the top of the boat and I say, "Where is the Captain?" and he opens the hatch and he floats out. Sometimes he escapes before Josiah is ready and Josiah lets out a frustrated "AHHH" for that.

We have had quite a bout of weather here recently, and so Josiah and I have been bundling up every time we leave the house. We had quite a few inches of snow and then it stayed cold and kept freezing every night and so we had lots of ice as well. The schools were closed quite often and it appears many of them will be going on well into July if this keeps up! Unfortunately, I didn’t get Josiah out for snow pictures because he was sick all through that time and so was I and thought it best not to get him out in the cold just to get some cute pictures.

Last Sunday, I made a big batch of black bean soup and so was in the kitchen chopping, chopping, and chopping vegetables. Josiah wanted to get in on the fun and kept trying to get me to pick him up and let him stir the soup or look at what I was doing. So finally I set up a mini-kitchen area in the living room by the TV and gave him two bowls with a spatula and some cheerios in the bowls to move back and forth and stir. I of course had to come a pick up the cheerios off the floor no less than 4 times, but he was having fun and it occupied him for a time.

Tribute to a Friend

During my piano and flute lessons, I have a babysitter come and watch Josiah (so as to minimize distractions and keep him occupied). We were referred to Elizabeth who has been Josiah’s sitter for quite a few months now. She told us in November though that she and her family were moving to be closer to her Dad. He had a job on the east coast for a while and was seeing if he liked it before moving the whole family out. They were sad to move since they have a lot of family in this area, but it will be nice for them to be reunited with their Dad. Before they left, Josiah and I went over to her house to get a picture of them together and to chat a bit as well. I met her Mom and got to know her a bit also. Elizabeth comes from a family of 9 kids (she is the 6th) and she is quite a neat young lady. Josiah and I were sad to see Elizabeth go as she has been a great sitter for Josiah and a friend to me. Goodbye Elizabeth! We will miss you!

Christmastime!

Christmas this year was a little more interesting to Josiah, but he still doesn't quite get the whole unwrapping presents deal. I unwrapped most of his presents and it was his job to attempt to play with all the toys at once!

I had found this little Fischer Price train set at a garage sale (which until now thought was Thomas the train, but wasn't) back when I was pregnant and decided we would give it to him this year. It is a little bit above his level as he would have preferred to push the train along himself then to see it chug, chug along by itself. Still though, he enjoyed it I think and will appreciate it more in the future as well I am sure. We also got him these little playground-type balls (that are his size) and when he saw them he had to say, "Ball" and throw every single one (he got 4). We also got him some new bath toys as well since he was getting tired of his bath letters and Sesame Street characters. He now has a boat with fish and a fishing pole to play with.

On the eve of Christmas Eve, we spent the day with my parents and my brother and his wife. We all exchanged gifts at that time too, which was fun. Katie & Brent got Josiah some musical instruments (a drum & maracas) and a Thomas the train engine that makes sounds when you scoot it on the ground. This toy won the award for the most played with that day followed closely by the sorting book that my parent's gave him. Grandma and Grandpa got Josiah the neat school bus toy as his main gift (see previous post).

Most of all though, it was a joy to be together with family to celebrate the birth of Christ. Though it is pretty clear Jesus wasn't really born December 25th, we are glad there is a designated time to remember the most wonderful gift to us ALL in that tiny babe in the manger.

First Hair Cut

Today, we took Josiah to get his first hair cut. We had waited a while because we so loved his cute little curly locks in back, but since he has been mistaken for a girl twice now in the last week (though he was wearing boy clothes) we decided it was time!

We took him to this neat hair cutting place for kids where they can ride in these little cars and airplanes while they get their hair cut. Josiah of course loved playing with the steering wheels and so that was very distracting for him at first. He was very interested in the machines she was using to cut his hair and kept trying to turn around to look at them.

This picture was taken as he was getting his hair wetted down so she could cut the top easier. He flinched as she was spraying the water and I got the shot! At one point, he tried to brush her hands away with his arm and so we had to hold his arms down so she could finish the edging.

The finished product had him looking like a miniature little David; just as handsome as his Papa! We took him to the play area in the mall again and he enjoyed running around with all the other little kids. He was most definitely the cutest little boy there though of course!

Grandma and Grandpa came with us and had a fun time seeing this milestone event for Josiah.

Conked out Baby

So today or shall I say early, early this morning (around 3:40am), Josiah woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. Sometimes I sleep through his wakings at night, but this time he seemed genuinely irritated at something, so I went in to comfort him. At first, he sat with me in the chair very still and it seemed he would go back to sleep. However, soon he started talking and that was the indication that he was too awake to sleep. So I tried putting him back in the crib (like 4am now) and that wasn't popular at all. So then I brought him in with me to the guest room to sleep, which equates to him swimming around on the bed, and landing on my head from time to time as he flails around. Not exactly conducive to me falling to sleep again. So, I resigned to let him play while I laid down on the couch in the living room. This didn't last however, because he was hungry. So I gave him some grapes and some yogurt to eat. He is really getting masterful at this spoon thing, but he cheats at the end by grabbing the yogurt left in the bowl with his hand. He is learning though and getting better each time we try it. After he ate, then he played while I took a cat nap. Around 9am or so he seemed hungry again and rightfully so since he ate at 5am, and so I gave him some toast and half a banana. I went back to the couch to work on some things for my group lesson I am giving on Saturday and I noticed it was awfully quiet over there, so I went back and found that he had finished his toast, but had fallen asleep in the high chair. Too funny! Even after I took the picture, and cleaned him up he still didn't wake until I removed the tray. Then he wanted a swig of his milk and afterward I brought him to his crib to which he gladly welcomed this time.