Carpenter Family Photo

Believe it or not folks, but this is the only entire family shot we have had since we left the hospital with the twins! We have had numerous shots with me and the boys and shots with David holding one or the other of them, but none all together. My handsome hubby is camera shy, though I can't see why!! I am the one that looks horrible in this shot, but I will sacrifice my vanity for "the team" this time. Ha ha ha! We went out to dinner the other day with my parents and some family friends from way back, Jeannie & Alan Lish. Our families used to go camping together a lot in the summer times and we all met originally at one of my Dad's churches when he served in Arlington. Anyway, it was nice to visit with them again and Jeannie had her camera and snapped this shot before Josiah decided to do his own thing again!

Troubles in 3-year-old Land...

Well all, it has been a rough couple of weeks and I'm sorry I haven't posted (for those that actually check this often that is). :) Without going into too much detail, we have had some difficulties with Josiah of late with his behavior. We have been given MUCH advice and we have tried MANY approaches to correcting his latest antics, but it has been hit or miss in most cases. I think I have nailed down at least WHY he has been acting up and so hopefully from there we can address the problem appropriately. Lots of prayer can be thrown our way though as it has been a stressful time trying to solve this problem. I told a lady at the church the other day that Josiah was such an easy baby that perhaps now I am getting my share of troubles. I remember when other mother's used to complain about their baby crying all night, colicky, or what have you or even crying forever when left with babysitters and nursery workers and I never had those problems. Now we have a different set of problems, but probabaly just as much headache as the typical baby woes. Needless to say we are learning a lot and hopefully it will help with the 3 year olds up who are up and coming!

One quick funny quote from Josiah. He was in a kissing mood the other day and was kissing his brothers and me "mmmm----AH" (that kind). At one point, he kissed his hand and then said, "I kissed my hand...that's called loving!" He is our sweet little boy, however wayward he is at the moment!

More Fair Fun!

We went as a family this year to the fair for a quick trip. Round trip including getting ready to go, getting there and getting home again took us roughly 3 hours, which isn't bad considering it was a fair run! This time we didn't hit the rides for Josiah as it was raining and very wet. We met Grandma and Grandpa there though and had some fair food dinner and scones for dessert. Grandma had been waiting in line for scones for a total of 40 minutes for them and we reaped the benefit of her waiting! Yikes! Most everyone was crammed in the restaurant building to escape the rain, so I suppose other scone stands out in the rain weren't getting as much business, but this one probably raked in all the dough tonight! We asked Josiah what his favorite part of the fair was when we got home and he said, "The ferris wheel," which incidentally we didn't see nor of course ever ride on. Silly Josiah!

Here is Josiah checking out all the Lego displays in the Hobby Hall. We told him later when we were at home that maybe he could build something to put on display and he said, "I would make 14 rocket ships that go fast, fast!" David said, "Would they be faster than you?" And he said, "No they would go fast like this down hallway!" And off he went flying his 14 rocket ships down the hallway.

Here is Grandpa on his scooter that he rented (he needs to stay off his foot for health reasons I won't go into right now). He got a fair poncho to keep the rain off and earlier when it was time to burp Caleb we joked that he had just the right outfit on in case of a spitup accident!

David got Caleb boy to give a sly little smile in this shot. I call this picture "Our Prize Winning Pumpkinheads." We got lots of "You have your hands full" comments (my "favorite" by the way...not) from various passerbys and we also saw a few people we knew as well! David saw a friend he knew from a previous job, my parents saw some people from their church, and we saw some people from our church as well! In fact, we were standing next to the "Extreme Scream" ride (waiting to catch a quick glimpse of my brother Brent and his wife Katie) and when our friend Mark came by he pointed to the babies and said, "I don't think these guys are tall enough for this ride yet!" Soon afterward, there was a loud whissshing sound from the ride and Caleb gave a sample of his own "extreme scream" for those in close proximity to the stroller! That was a "no likey" moment for Mr. Caleb boy! Daniel slept through the whole incident.

Fair Pictures

This was the first time Josiah has ever been on fair rides and he was loving it! We first went down the big, big slide together, but of course as I was riding with him, we didn't get a picture of that one!

And as per tradition, we had to get a picture of our Pumpkinhead near a pumpkin at the fair! We didn't go last year though because I was pregnant with the twins and walking around and being on my feet were two things I couldn't do very well then.

This was the first ride after the slide that he rode on. He was very adamant that he ride in the yellow dump truck! His expressions coming round and round were just precious! Too bad the REAL camera wasn't working (batteries were dead....again) or I might have gotten a few more shots of this ride.

Here he is on the fire truck ride. He made friends with a kid and his Dad and rode on 3 different rides with them. It was pretty cute!

Here we are at the beginning of our fair excursion. We met a bunch of Josiah's preschool classmates and walked around with them for the first little bit seeing all the animals and such. After that we ventured off for a few rides and then had the oh so good, but outrageously expensive food, and then came back home. It was a face paced excursion with lots crammed in, but something to remember for sure. I am glad that he was well today and had energy to burn!

Update!

Thanks for all the prayers! Josiah is MUCH better today! No fever and he is back to his normal active self. I moved his mattress into my room last night so I could monitor him and he only woke up one time around 1am when I was emptying the air conditioner dealy (it accumulates water and stops when it is full and wakes me up). When I was taking it to the bathroom to empty it, Josiah said, "What's that?" and I told him and then he said, "You need to go to sleep Mama!" I didn't argue! Then I woke a little before the babies awoke and snuck out to feed them. He woke up an hour later and came out of the room and then pronounced again, "You need to sleep Mama!" and since the babies were put down again, I once again did not argue. However, this time his version of sleep was to talk my ear off (a good sign he is well) and said things like "I love you Mama, you're my best friend. I give you a hug and kiss now." And then he proceeded to romp all over the bed and eventually fell off the bed and bonked his head on the floor. After that we got up and started our official day together!

Poor Little Josiah Boy

As mentioned in other posts, we have all had a cold here recently (again)! Josiah seemed to be fine at first, only a runny nose and no other real symptoms. Then last night before bed he said, "Momma I have a fever." Sometimes he just says that even when he isn't sick, so I went to check and sure enough he was warm. I checked his temperature and it was 100.3 last night, so I gave him some Tylenol and some medicine for his runny nose and sent him to bed. Sometime around 4am he came into my room and woke me up. He had apparently gone out to the couch for a bit to lay down and then on his chair (the one pictured here) as when he came into my room he told me that his tummy hurt and that he had thrown up on the chair. This little piece of news got me up really quick of course and thankfully it was an easy clean up and he didn't ruin the chair. The other little fun piece was the the dog got out of my room when he opened the door and she took it upon herself to go poop on the carpet, which WASN'T as easy of a clean up. UGH!! Needless to say, she was exited out into the back yard right quick for a good long time just in case she had some more little "presents" to deposit!

When I took Josiah's temperature again after the lovely clean up time, it was 100.9, so I went to fetch some Tylenol again. Before I left the room, I noticed he looked like he would throw up again so I whisked him off to the bathroom (thankfully in time!) After that last round, he seemed to be feeling much better and so I changed his clothes, gave him the Tylenol, and tucked him back into his bed.

This morning he woke up crying wanting his Daddy (David is in Arizona until Friday). He had a fever again, but this time he wouldn't let me take it insisting that I was going to "poke" him with it? So silly! I have been taking it under his armpit, no big deal, but he was in no mood for thermometers apparently. He has been very lethargic and sleepy and hasn't left his chair here except once to go potty and that is it. Thankfully, no more throwing up, but then again he hasn't had anything to eat either.

Please pray that this new symptom of throwing up won't pass to all of us. Without David here, I really don't think I could function if I got that! Thanks in advance for your prayers. I have really been feeling encouraged this week and know it is because of people praying.

NOTE: I just took his temperature again....102. I am calling the phone nurse now to see what they suggest.

Fun New Pictures

Our little ones are doing better at sitting up now, though I put the pillow behind them in case there is a sudden movement that sends them backwards. Caleb is typical of moving really quickly and falling over from a sitting position. I am convinced also that his bottom teeth are ready to come in too as he just can't seem to get enough toys to chew on. One day, he emptied out the bin you see pictured here and "tasted" every toy and discarded it to the side. He had no less than 15 toys he had tasted just sitting around him in a big pile.

We went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa last night before attending a service for our church at the new site that they are planting. We unfortunately arrived late to the service due to the fact that I got stuck in fair traffic on 512...ugh. Oh well, it was fun to go out and the grandparents had a great time visiting with all their grandkiddos.

Here is Grandpa feeding Caleb his food. Both boys are taking their solid food portions more readily now and I am making more of a habit of being sure to feed them solid food. It is so hard to get in the habit of that I have found. Perhaps that is because I have two of them to feed? Not sure, but now that they seem to like it more, it is easier to do!

Here is a nice shot of Caleb boy sitting up outside. He loves to be outside exploring the grass and such! I think Daddy will finally have a good hiking partner in this one! Josiah would be a good hiker too I think, but certainly Caleb has shown his love for the outdoors even this early in life!

Here is Daniel boy sitting up. I have found that he sits up for longer than Caleb without falling, and I think it is due to the fact that he is a little stockier and also that he doesn't flail about as much as Caleb does. I saw many times today when he would correct himself as he was going too far in a certain direction and would continue to sit up. I am excited that they both are doing this now! As a side note, we are all getting better from our colds, but we passed it on to David who is suffering down in Arizona at this conference he is going to for work. He reported to me though that he feels better he thinks because of the dry climate down there. I told him that this could be true as I do much better health-wise when we have lived in Eastern Washington.

Twin Play Time

We have been putting the boys on the ground more here recently to get them to work on their rolling/crawling skills and as previously mentioned in the last post, Caleb is the stronger crawler of the two thus far. Daniel wants to crawl I think, but just doesn't have the skill for it yet. He has been sedate for a little too long and just has to develop his muscles a bit. We are motivating him though by putting toys on the floor that he wants and he desparately tries to get them doing his "swim" move that I previously described.

We have also found that they notice each other a lot more than they ever have as they play on the floor together and they grab at each other's faces and feet and whatever else is in grabbing proximity.

This is a funny face that I saw Caleb make the other day. He kept doing it too, so I got a good picture of him with his upper lip covering his lower lip.

Milestone...

Well it is official that we have an army crawlin' Caleb on our hands. David and I knew that it wouldn't be long until our "I'm Definitely Up to Something" (see shirt above) kid figured out how to motate around! He has managed to get up on his knees occasionally too, but then flops back into the army crawl pose for moving. He is able to scout out wherever he wants to go and does a combination of pivots, rolls and army crawls to get there. Three times today we moved him away from my computer chair wheel and three times he made his way back as apparently the wheel looked tasty! Daniel does roll a lot more often now, but usually he rolls to his stomach and does this pilates swimming move where all his limbs are flailing and his neck is raised up. It is funny! Sometimes he manages to roll back to his back when he gets mad enough and figures he should move his arm out of the way, but mostly he just gets stuck and hollers for Momma.

As a side note, Daniel seems to have another cold now again and I have a little scratchy throat at the moment and did have a sinus headache earlier today. It appears that our good luck and health has run out for the time being and we are back to the sick mode again. Please pray that it is a short run and that I don't get full blown sick myself as it just makes things miserable for everyone around here when I am down. When Momma aint happy...nobodies happy! I am sure David can shout an "Amen!" to that one. Ha ha ha! Anyway, thanks for your prayers...people always ask me, "How do you do it all?" And the answer when I am sick is, "I don't do much of anything well..." I am sure we can all relate.

Josiah's First Baseball Game

This is all of us in our seats. We were positioned on right field and for me it was seemingly really hard to hear all the announcements and music, since we were under the cover this time. It was near impossible to intice Josiah to stay seated, until I bought him some dippin' dots. That gave me a few moments of respite to watch the game. I was the designated Josiah entertainer as David is the bigger baseball fan of the two of us, and I wanted him to be able to catch all of the game. Before the game, we went to the kid's playground (some pictures of that on facebook) and he ran around burning off some of his energy. We returned to the play area a little later too and Josiah had another round of running, climbing, and sliding before I had to drag him away to do something else. Thankfully, it was so loud in the ballpark that his normal chorus of "I don't wanna go" was drowned out by all the noise. He sort of gave up his usual whining due to the fact that I couldn't really hear him and nor could he probably hear himself very well.

This is David and I in front of the kid's play area. There behind my head is the ever-so-photogenic baseball guy fountain.

Josiah had fun trying on Mommy and Daddy's hats and trying various ballpark fare, such as cotton candy, garlic fries (he had a few of David's), and a bite or two of Mommy's Shiskaberry (strawberries on a stick dipped in chocolate...yum!) Someone gave us a bag of peanuts, but he wasn't intersted in eating them...rather he did like crushing the shells though!

I am pretty sure that Josiah was oblivious to the actual game goings-on, but he perked up for all the food and the playground of course and when asked what his favorite part about the game was he said, "The playground!" He didn't fall asleep on the way home, though perhaps we shouldn't be that surprised, since he was so pumped full of sugar and caffeine! However, when he got home, David was able to get him right to sleep while I took Sharel (our babysitter for the twins) home.

Couple More Josiah-isms

These were just too cute not to document, so here goes:

Before Josiah's nap today, he requested I sing "The Crayon Song," and since I am wholly unfamiliar with the tune and words to this number, I asked him to do the honors. His first rendition was as follows: “I like crayons, I draw a picture, give it to Daddy." (A note here that David has made a habit of posting Josiah's creations above his desk at home.) Another version of this song surfaced before going to bed tonight and it went like this, "I like crayons, draw on paper...not on table." You'll never guess who drilled that last little tidbit into his 3-year-old head.

We also read a kid's version of The Prayer of Jabez tonight and at the end, it has four questions for the kiddos to answer. I wasn't expecting him to answer really, but was reading them to see what I might get from him. Here was this little interview:

Mommy: What is the biggest blessing God has given you?

Josiah: My big yellow ball. (Tonight he and Daddy were playing catch and they threw it back and forth and he exclaimed in delight, "It's working!")

Mommy: How can you help someone and make God smile?

Josiah: I make you smile, I say I love you. (Ahhhh, that was sweet! I also suggested that perhaps him helping me clean up that night was helpful and made God smile too.)

Mommy: How does God help you not to be afraid?

Josiah: He sends a 'pecial angel. (This one Daddy gets the credit for as he has told him this many a night when he put him down that a special angel guards over him at night so he doesn't have to be afraid.)

Mommy: What could you do today to obey God?

Josiah: Obey teacher. (Good answer, good answer...also a mantra drilled into his little brain by Momma.)

More Josiah-ism's

Yesterday at the gym, I put the boys in the child care room and was leaving and this was the conversation:

Josiah: Bye Mommy, I love you Mommy, (then something unintelligible)

Mommy: What sweetheart?

Josiah: Be a nice Mommy, Mommy!

Mommy: OK, I will! (smiling as I leave and chuckling to myself)

And this morning, Josiah was eating his cereal. First he didn't want cereal as he was grumpy from just waking up. As I was pouring my cereal, I said one last time, "Do you want any Cheerios?" and he defiantly said, "NO!" So I proceeded to bring the Cheerios back to the pantry. When I was making my way back, he says, "I want Cheerios." UGH...back to the pantry. He usually then likes to pick out his spoon and so I said, "Do you want to get the spoon?" (which he calls a "poon" still incidentally) and he said, "I want my Nemo poon." I told him that was dirty and he needed to pick another one. He went for the bigger serving spoons and I said he needed to pick a smaller one. He wouldn't right away, so I grabbed one and headed with the bowls to the table. He followed me and when he got there he swiped the bowl and ran back in the kitchen saying something unintelligible. I quickly joined him in the kitchen so as to hopefully catch the bowl from getting spilled onto the floor. I then said, "What is the problem?" and he replied, "I wanted to bring the poon!" and he pulled the spoon out of the bowl prepared to bring it back to the table. UGH...so I again brought the bowl back to the table. He sat down and finally ate his Cheerios. Then at the end he proceeded to instruct me on how to drink the milk from the bowl. He said, "See Mommy you go like this (gulp, gulp, gulp) and there's no mess, seee? That's how you do it properly! Now YOU do it Momma!" I had to laugh at the "that's how you do it properly" bit as that was a first for him saying that! I informed him that I wasn't interested in drinking the milk from my bowl at that point and he moved on to something else. This goes to show though how regimented he is about things, he loves routines and doing things a certain way or he gets rather frustrated. This is a good thing at times, but it can also be a really annoying thing also!

First Day of Preschool

Here is a very non-plussed little Josiah as we were leaving for his first day of preschool today. We had been hyping him up for the whole preschool thing and this morning he kept asking, "Is it time to go yet?" and most of the time I responding with, "Nope, we are still getting ready...not time yet!" So he got pretty frustrated in the morning and started pouting and was still in that mood when I took this photo. My silly camera wasn't working, so once again I had to use the camera phone, though I did get a new camera, so these pictures turned out better than the previous camera phone pictures.
I snuck in at the end of the class time today to get a picture of Josiah playing with the floam. For those of you unfamiliar with this product it is this moldable stuff that doesn't leave a mess. It is sort of like playdough in how you use it, but it has an odd consistency and doesn't leave playdough clumps all over the table and floor when you are finished with it.

As for how he did today, the good news is...I wasn't called, which means he probably did pretty well! I asked him what he did and he told me that he played, did a craft, and listened to a story. I am not sure what the story was about exactly, but I did get from him that it might have been about a "new guy." This sounds probable, so I will go with it. Also, when he first got to the room, they had name tags and asked him to find his name and he actually found it without my prompting him to see the "J" and such. That was cool! Overall, I could tell he loved it and he actually came with me without a big fuss afterwards too, which was great! Hopefully, we are passed him chanting the "I don't wanna go," mantra for a while.