We celebrated Joshua’s 2nd birthday yesterday with a fun little party.  He turns 2 on the 7th but Erick had to leave town so we had his party early.  Erick & I chose a train theme for the festivities because Joshua has developed a love of trains recently.  He’ll pretend to pull the whistle & go “toot toot” all the time, which is really cute.  Six friends of mine came with five litle kids & two dads.  Joshua did a little better at sharing his toys (a little—we’re still working on it).  We had pizza & cake, which we enjoyed but Joshua refused to eat any of the cake.  Josh was so excited to see the cake when I brought it out, but it was only because he wanted the Thomas the Train toy on top.  But at least the rest of us enjoyed the cake.  Joshua got lots of neat presents that he’s having a blast playing with over & over.  He got some “big kid” Disney books (ie- non-board books) that he kept reading after the party—Erick & I were even able to clean everything up in the time Josh spent reading!  And now we have a new punishment for when Joshua misbehaves—take away his doodle toy.  He’s been taking it with him everywhere in the house & even insisted on taking it when we went out this afternoon so he could play with it in the car.  It’s the drawing toy where you use a magnet pen to “write” as well as having some cute animal stamps.  Josh will draw or stamp & then go “ewww” or say the animal name or sounds.  I remember drawing with these toys when I was young so it’s neat to see Joshua enjoying the same thing.  He’s going to have a lot of fun with his other new drawing toys–markers & bath crayons—when I am ready to clean up more messes (thankfully, Crayola is supposed to be very washable!).

For a health update, Joshua had his 6 month cardiologist visit.  If you recall his initial cardiologist was retiring & we switched to another doctor so Joshua would have a consistent cardiologist.  Well, his new one is also retiring so now we’re on cardiologist #3.  Dr. Schmorhun is so nice & we’re happy that he’ll be working with us for the remainder of our time in DC (he’s promised he has no plans to retire any time soon).  Erick went with us to the appointment which helped a lot to calm Joshua down so he could be evaluated.  Josh was good for the EKG after we kept talking about all the “stickers” (the 13 EKG leads).  Josh switched between Erick’s lap & mine during the echo, & he was pretty still because he liked watching the “movie” (his heart on the monitor).  Whenever Dr. Schmorhun turned up the volumn to listen to the heartbeat, Joshua would go “beep beep.”  Joshua finally hit the 30lb mark, which explains why my arms get so tired when I pick him up!

Joshua finished his FunFit class this week.  It’s been a good class & I’m glad we signed up for it.  Joshua’s favorite part of the class has been the “wall run” when we would run back & forth from one wall to the other & tapping on the wall.  He also enjoyed playing with the parachute & making the little balls bounce around like popcorn when we’d shake it up & down.  This class gives me a workout, especially when I’ve had to run after Joshua to keep him from pressing the buttons on the CD player.  I can’t imagine how hard it has to be for the instructor, keeping her cool & trying to lead a room full of 1- & 2-year-olds!

Erick left for Kansas City this morning for a board prep program.  Between shuttle break-downs & flight delays, Joshua & I ended up driving him to the airport, so it’s been an early morning for all of us.  I’m hoping that Josh will take 2 naps today to make up for it.  It’s never an easy transition when Erick leaves but hopefully things will go more smoothly this time…