Birthday Party, Daddy's Shoes & A Doctor Visit

On Saturday, Josiah's little friend Hannah (his babysitter's sister) came over to celebrate her birthday. Orginally, it was scheduled to be at the park near their home, but it was a rainy day, so a few from their family came over here for a bit instead so the little ones could play.

Hannah is 2 months younger than Josiah and whenever Sharel (in the picture on the right) comes over to babysit without Hannah, Josiah looks out the window and mournfully chants, "Hannah? Hannah?" It is really cute. And when she does come with Sharel from time to time he immediately tries to hold her hand as she comes in the door and he walks a little ways with her into the house. When she left our house after the party, Josiah hugged her and then Hannah said, "I love you," to Josiah. Can we all say it? Ahhhhhhhh!

Josiah has been loving having his Daddy home for the past 2 weeks during the I-5 construction (David worked from home) and Monday of this week was the first day that he was back to work. Josiah found Daddy's work shoes and clomped around the house in them for a bit as you see pictured here. From time to time during the day now, he will say "Daddy," or "Papa" and will come barreling into our room to find him. I say, "Daddy is gone at work, we will miss him." Josiah then says, "Daddy gone...misses."

Mommy misses having Daddy around too as it has been nice to have a second set of hands with a squirmy, sometimes unwilling Pumpkinhead to deal with! It has been great for their relationship though since he was able to spend so much time at home. Now instead of always calling out "Momma, Momma" whenever he wants something, he calls out "Papa, Papa" and goes and knocks on our bedroom door where Papa works to get his attention.

We went to the doctor today for little Josiah because he came down with a fever on Tuesday evening. It turns out he has strep throat, so he is on antibiotics now. They seem to have done the trick thus far because his fever is gone, he is eating more again, has more energy and is less clingy to Mommy. I got lots of cuddle time yesterday (a rare occurrence) and a couple night time wakings to boot! We got a male doctor at the walk in clinic today and he was so good with Josiah. He listened to his heart and Josiah immediately calls out, "What's that?" and the doctor labeled the stethescope for him. Then the doctor looked at his ears and after each ear Josiah said, "Thank you," to the doctor. Then when the doctor left to go check the strep culture, Josiah sadly said, "Doctor? Doctor? Doctor?" as he wanted him to come back! The doctor asked Josiah about the cars he was carrying and Mr. J looked very proud when the doctor seemed interested in them. He promptly plopped them all on the examining table for him to see. Lastly, when it was time to go, I went to reach for his hand to take him out and he reached out for the doctor's hand and the doctor walked him down the hallway and gave him a sucker. It was so cute! I am sure it made the doctor's day that a little 2-year old actually wanted to see him!

Annual Milton Parade

If you look back in the archives of this lovely blog, you will find that we also attended the Milton parade and picnic last August as well. This year was Milton's 100th birthday, so there were lots of things going on at the park to enjoy. Josiah of course loves the parade the most because of all the trucks, cars, and bands that come by.

This year though in order to minimize the walking (for the poor, sore pregnant lady) we drove down to the park and walked only a little ways uphill to find our parade spot. Even that short of a walk was a little tiring for me, but I managed.

We had to wait a bit for the parade as we were near the end of the parade route and Josiah kept saying, "parade, parade?" and looked impatiently down the road. David sought to distract him by taking him over to the park and also got him a snowcone, which as you can see was very popular! He kept calling it "ice cream" and slurped it down until I said, "Look Josiah the parade is coming," to which he promptly handed the snowcone to Daddy and looked up the road.

As the big LOUD trucks with their horns came by, Josiah was doing the international "honking horn" sign with his arm and ever so often would shout out "BIG truck" and point at the trucks. There was a little girl next to us (3 1/2 years old) that would cover her ears when the loud horns were blowing, but Josiah couldn't get enough of the loudness!

4th Anniversary Festivities

David and I recently celebrated our 4th anniversary on Aug. 9th. We actually went out on the Saturday following the date as that was more convenient for our schedules as well as getting my Mom and Dad to come and watch the Pumpkinhead.

David surprised me the day before our anniversary with the lovely roses that you see pictured here. They were delivered to our door by a florist.

To celebrate together, we went to see a movie (complete with popcorn for me, candy for David, and pop for us both) and then went out to a nice place for dinner. We saw the movie Ratatouille, which was all about a rat that cooks gourmet food and then had some delicious gourmet Italian food at this place near Sumner called "Mama Stortini's," which we now highly recommend if you live in the area. I was rejoicing that I could actually eat my dinner in peace without confining Josiah to his seat and praying that the "french fries" would come quickly so he would settle down! It was nice to leisurely enjoy dinner and reminisce with my sweet husband about old times and also to talk about some things together that had been on our minds of late.

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband who incidentally has been a great support to me recently through some of the difficulties of this pregnancy. He is quick to jump in and help me when I need it and looks out for me so that I don't do too much. I am very appreciative that he cares so much and shows it in such a practical and loving manner. I love you honey!!

BIG, BIG NEWS!!!!

I finally went to my first pregnancy appointment this past Tuesday and found out the exciting news that we are having TWINS!!! I originally was not scheduled to get an ultrasound, but managed to convince my doctor that perhaps it was wise since I wasn't entirely sure how far along I was. So to firm up the dates, she said I should get one that day and the ultrasound technician was free to do it. The first image I saw on the screen I saw the two sacs and said, "Am I having twins?" to which she replied, "You certainly are...look at that!" In the picture on the left you can see a bit of the other baby too (no there aren't 3--I promise!). Baby "A" as marked looks like an alien since he/she is facing us, so for now that is "Alien Baby" and the one on the right is laying on his/her back and looks more like a lima bean, so he/she for now is "Lima Bean."

Incidentally, twins do run in our family. David's Dad is an identical twin and my Grandpa on my Dad's side is a fraternal twin. The ultrasound technician said that she can't tell right away if they are fraternal or identical, but that will be more apparent at the next ultrasound, which will be on September 18th. And by the way, my understanding is that identical twins can be in two separate sacs, so the fact that they aren't in one isn't a give away. It is of course more rare to have identical twins, so we will see.

We are elated at this news! So very exciting! Please pray for me though as I found out that I need to be eating/drinking a LOT more than I am now and it seems ridiculous the amount, (about 4,000 cals a day, 150g of protein, and 16 8-oz glasses of water) but I am going to try. I have been rather fatigued and have had some syatic nerve problems on my right side that have been debilitating at times, so I hope to get over that soon as well. Love to you all! Pray that I can carry them at least 36 weeks as well so they won't be preemies! My official due date is Feb. 4th, but 36 weeks is around January 8th (a couple days after David's birthday....what a nice b-day gift for Daddy!)

Summer Time Fun

Today, I broke out the swimming pool for Josiah since it has been so hot. I got this cute little swim set for him at Walmart for half off, so that was a plus too! His first exposure to the water was when he went down the slide into the water. He was rather shocked and very quickly got out of the pool! I then brought a couple buckets of hot water to balance out the cold for him, which helped a bit. The cold water didn't stop him though as he had a blast going down the slide and playing the the water for some time afterward. In fact, I brought him inside thinking he was done for the day and got him dressed in dry clothes (including his sandals) and he proceeded to head back into the pool and got all soaked again. Oh well...such is life with a two year old right? He was having a great time, so I just went with it!

As you can see, his shirt says "Whale of a good time" which is certainly what he had today! He was definitely much more interested in the pool this year than last year and it was nice to sit out there in the sun and watch him play.

Fun Visit From a Friend

My friend Mara came over this last Thursday and Friday and brought a birthday gift for Josiah. I didn't think he would play with the sunglasses, but he loved them! In fact, the first day he had them he managed to break them by pulling them apart. She also got him some Nemo stuff as pictured here. He has a Nemo plate, spoon, and fork as well.

Mara and I went to JoAnn's Fabric Store and picked up some material to cover our french doors and window in the kitchen/dining room area. It has been super hot lately and our house becomes like a sun room (almost 10 degrees hotter than outside it seems). The home decor fabric was on sale and we found some black out remnant fabric that we could use to make the windows really dark. As it turned out, my Mom offered to make them as she has lots of free time now that school is out. That worked out well because it is super hard to sew and work on projects with Josiah up and about! She got them done in one day and she will bring them over tomorrow to finish the final hem and such. I am excited! I will take a picture when they are all done and in their places.

Mara is a sucker for little boy in overalls and so she also bought him this cute little outfit as well. They are a little long, but nothing some rolling up of the pants won't fix. Thanks for the gifts Mara! It was great to have you over for a visit!

Mowing with Daddy

For one of Josiah's birthday gifts, he got this little bubble mower. The bubble part has turned out to be more of a mess than a fun thing, so we took the bubble juice out and just have it as a mower now. Daddy thought this would be a great gift since Josiah has been so fascinated with the "real" mower whenever he used it. And sure enough, Josiah was very excited to have his own mower to "help" mow the lawn. He was out there for a good long time following Daddy around with his little mower. It was too cute! He is such a sweet little boy!

Birthday Fun

Today, we celebrated Josiah's birthday! His actual birthday is on June 27th, but we had it on this Saturday since it was more convenient for our guests!

Of course as you can see, Grandpa Walker and Grandma were in attendance as well as Uncle Brent, Aunt Katie and Josiah's babysitter Sharel and her sisters Linda and Laura.

For most of the party (while we were all eating) Josiah was outside playing. He loves the outdoors and has a special place behind the shed where he and Echo dig little holes for his "construction" work. For the party food though, we enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, potato salad, salsa (homemade), pie and cake.

Josiah received many nice gifts, so many in fact that he had a little trouble decided which one to play with for a bit. I think he was a little overwhelmed, but he was definitely excited for sure.

He was enjoying this little pinwheel and throughout the night brought it over to most everyone and put it in their face to blow it. It was pretty obvious at first that he knew the party was for him when we sang "Happy Birthday" as he pretended to get a little shy and grinned really big. He was more active in trying to tear the wrapping off the packages this year as well. He didn't eat much, except a nice big piece of cake. I am sure this was likely the cause of why he was so down and out the next day, but oh well birthdays only come once a year!

He is much more adept at using a fork now and it is clear that he will likely be a right handed guy as he tends to always use his right hand to eat and seems to do better when he does use it.

Overall it was a really fun time and it was nice to visit with family and friends. Thanks one and all for the nice gifts and memories!

Happy 2nd Birthday Josiah!!!

Father's Day Fun

For Father's Day this year, I decided we would get David a decent grill for cooking outdoors. We took advantage of the after Father's Day sales and got a nice deal on one. David is putting it together here and Josiah has his tools as well and is "helping" Daddy screw in the screws.

I must say, that David receives special kudos this year for how he spent his Father's Day. I was essentially sick with the flu (not morning sickness this time) from Friday through Sunday and he came home from work and took over all the housework and watched Josiah without complaining a bit! He is a very loving and wonderful husband and I am very thankful to have him!

And for those of you who haven't heard yet, I am pregnant and am due in February. We will keep you informed as to when we find out if it is a boy or a girl and all that. So far, I am doing well, just a little morning sickness here and there.

Trip to Spokane

David had some business to attend to in Spokane this weekend, so we were able to make an unexpected trip to our old stomping grounds for a short visit. We arrived VERY late on a Thursday night (we left after my last student of the day). Josiah fell asleep in the car, but then woke up when we stopped at the hotel to check in. It was hard to get him to go back to sleep in a strange place, so I ended up sleeping with him out on the pull out sofa bed that night to help him sleep better.

On Friday morning, David went to work and I went to visit my friend Janeen and her family for a bit. Josiah played in their back yard with her son Neriah and they explored all the nooks and crannies and rolled around all the construction trucks that they had there. We had a nice lunch and visit with them and then Janeen took us back to the hotel where Josiah and I promptly crashed for a couple of hours. Following a nice, much needed nap, Josiah and I headed over to Cheney to visit my grandparents and Aunt Genny (David had to stay at the hotel and work). Grandpa Hal took Grandma Betty from the nursing home over to their house and we were able to visit there, which was nice. They both enjoyed seeing Josiah again as well. For dinner, we went to Red Robin with our friends Kim and Chris and their son Colton. Josiah decided he would throw a big fit in the restaurant because he wanted to go sit at the race car video game intead of eat with us. We think he was really just awfully tired still and so cut our dinner a little short to get him home ASAP!

Saturday morning, I headed out to go to the Liberty Lake garage sale with Kim. This is an annual event in the town where lots and lots and lots of people host garage sales all at once and you can just go up and down the roads to peruse all the various items being sold. I picked up some maternity shirts, some floor ABC block tiles for Josiah's room, and a Pooh & Tigger crib set for our new baby (due in February). The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing, as this was supposed to be a vacation too.

Sunday morning we woke up intending to go to our old church, but I felt very sick. I had a bad case of morning sickness and Josiah was exceptionally grumpy and fell asleep again after being up at 8:00am and he slept until almost 10am. We ended up going to church, but not until it was almost over (when I was feeling much better) and saw most all of our friends, which I was glad of! Following church, we headed home with a stop in Ritzville for some Zips food, and a stop in Ellensburg for a Mommy time out (Josiah had been fussing for some time), and a stop in Moses Lake for a baby time out (we stopped at a park and let him play for a while).

Quilted Baby Blanket Finished!

I finally finished my latest quilting project! Just in time to bring it to Spokane with us when we go for a visit next week! My friend Kim is having a little girl in July and so I set out many months ago to make her a little baby blanket. It was neat because I bought all the material in a pack around Christmastime and all I really had to do was put it together and then quilt it.

You might notice that the squares around the outside are quilted with the letters A, B, or C. For those of you with an astute eye you will notice the errors in my work, but we will just pretend those aren't there.

The picture below shows how I quilted each individual animal and block on the middle section as well.

This project was SO much fun and is even more rewarding that I can give it away to a good friend and her new baby!

Wearing the Parent's Shoes

Periodically, Josiah loves to walk in Daddy's or Mommy's shoes when he gets the inkling. Of course, he doesn't REALLY know what it is like to walk in our shoes, but he will learn someday right? He really does try to walk once he gets them on too, which is really funny.


Today, I caught him trying on my shoes and so thought I would show the two pictures together as a pair.


ENJOY!



His look in this photo is just too funny! He proceeded to take some big steps in my shoes after this shot and actually made it pretty far!

Trip to the Zoo

Today, we finally made it to the Pt. Defiance Zoo. Grandparents Walker have been saying they had wanted to take Josiah for some time and so it seemed fitting to head over to it on Memorial Day when Grandma Walker had a day off from school. It was really neat too because my friend Melissa and her family went also and since they have a Zoo Pass, we all got in free. It worked out really nicely that way. We didn't tour with them this time though because they had to go through quickly as they had someplace they had to go afterward.

Josiah really enjoyed looking at the elephants and the polar bear the most I think. The polar best came from his place on the rocks and swam all the way up to the glass where Josiah was standing. It was really cool! They are neat looking animals up close I think. The elephant was fun too, she picked up a stick in her trunk and was scratching herself with it. For the first time, Josiah made the elephant sound when we saw it. Usually, for elephant, he just raises his arm up like a trunk, but he made a very distinct elephant sound this time.

One of Josiah's favorite things at the zoo was to chase the crows away from the picnic tables. I told him to "go get the birds" and he had fun running around trying to get them. He never succeeded in getting the birds, but was laughing hysterically, running around trying to. He took a little fall on the grating (didn't hurt himself though) and so that was the end of the bird chasing for that day.

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!