The next costume opportunity was with the MOMS Club when we paraded around a nursing home in our neighborhood.  The residents there sure enjoyed watching the little kids walking around all dressed up.  The kids’ favorite parts were looking at the fish tank & the birds in the birdcage.  Joshua got pretty upset at the end when an old lady took off her prosthetic hand to give to Joshua (all she had was just a thumb & half of her palm).  Poor Josh got freaked out watching that & screamed as he ran across the room!  The lady was oblivious to this & kept calling for him to go back to her so someone could take a photo of him holding her hand—needless to say, we didn’t.  As we left, someone gave all the kids Tootsie Roll pops.  Joshua has never had a lollipop before so he didn’t even know what it was—he kept playing with it the entire day, thinking it was a drum or something.  If he’s happy with it as a drum, I’d just as soon he do that rather than learn it’s candy!

On Halloween morning, the same gang went to Maria’s home for a little costume parade around her cul-de-sac.  Joshua was in a weird mood that morning & got a little overwhelmed by the grown-ups in costume.  He’d just gotten settled down after a crying episode when he just happened to look up as my friend Nil had put in her vampire teeth for a photo.  Bad timing because that started another crying episode.  Once he calmed down after that, all was fine with the world & he had a great time.  After playing for awhile, we had the parade & then an art project.  It was so cute to watch them marching along the sidewalk!  Then at night, we went trick-or-treating to 4 houses in our neighborhood before the big kids started coming around.  Somehow, we still ended up with well over a dozen pieces of candy with just those 4 stops—what generous neighbors!

In addition to the Halloween fun, we celebrated the start of fall by visiting a pumpkin patch.  We went on a tractor-pulled hay ride out to the field where Joshua & I searched until we found just the right pumpkin.  Then I somehow managed to carry it, the diaper bag, & a resistant toddler back to the tractor!  Joshua would’ve preferred to play in the pumpkin patch all day but they needed everyone on board to go back to the farm.  Then we wandered around & looked at the farm animals which Joshua really enjoyed.  He moo’d at the cows, baa’d at the sheep, buzzed at the honeybees, clucked at the chickens, & said ‘goat’ to the goats (even though I had goats growing up, I’m not good at making goat sounds but that’s fine with Joshua because he loves to say ‘goat’).  While Joshua napped later that day, I cut holes in the tops of our pumpkins for us to dig the stuff out together when he woke up.  Joshua took one look inside the first pumpkin & wanted nothing to do with that gross stuff, so I was left to do it by myself—so much for a fun project for us to do together.  Then I carved one of the pumpkins that night, only to have it get moldy & collapse 2 days later.  Oh, well.  Maybe next year.

Joshua’s speech therapist came out for his annual evaluation on Monday.  Since she stopped coming when we’d started my program & Josh’s preschool, this was quite a treat for Joshua.  I’d told him that Ms. Ada was going to come over & he got so excited, he kept saying ‘Ada-Ada-Ada’ & ran to the door.  He was not happy when I said that it wasn’t quite time.  He had such a big smile when Ada finally came & he sat right down to get ready to play.  Unfortunately, she had to go through the standardized tests rather than the usual playing that we do, but Joshua still enjoyed her visit.  As before, he did far above average on everything except for expressive communication (although he still made significant gains there as well).  Ada couldn’t even finish testing him he was performing so much higher than he should have & we only had so much time to do everything.  She stopped all the tests at 33-34 months because of time constraints (being that Joshua is only 26 months old, that was plenty high to demonstrate that he’s a genius in our eyes!).  We’re going to continue the programs we’re in until they end in December & then pick up where we left off with Ada coming out once a week—Joshua will love that!  The next day, Joshua even asked me to draw a picture of Ada on his magna doodle (all I could come up with was a generic stick figure of a woman’s face but that seemed good enough for him), then his eyes lit up & he yelled ‘Ada.’  He kissed & hugged the drawing then ran to the door to see if she was coming back.  And ever since, he’s been asking for her almost as often as he asks for my dad (which is over a dozen times a day!).

This morning was the DC Heart Walk.  What bad timing for an early-morning event, right after an evening holiday!  We ended up metroing to the Mall which worked well, although that meant leaving earlier than we would have otherwise.  My friend Kris & her son Alec went with us to represent Joshua’s Heart Walkers (2 others who signed up couldn’t go at the last minute so it was just the 4 of us).  We met up with some of my friends from Mended Little Hearts & all had a great time.  Kris & I got worn out from the walk to & from the metro station (quite a distance from the event), pushing the strollers the whole time in addition to the walk, so we burned off some of the calories from the Halloween candy we stole from our sons last night!  The weather was pretty chilly to start with but it warmed up to the point where we could even take off our coats before the walk started—a huge improvement over the previous 3 years I’ve done this walk.  Thanks to my sponsors, Joshua & I raised $500 for today’s event!

On another note, I just have to cheer for my Trojans—they had a victorious homecoming game today, 56-0 against the Huskies.  Erick actually arrived in Los Angeles while the game was going on so it would’ve been neat if he could have gone but unfortunately he’s sick with a huge cold so wasn’t up to it.  Hopefully he’ll recover in time for his board exam on Monday (the reason for stopping in LA on his way from Honolulu to Pensacola).  Now that it’s November, the holidays will be here before I know it!  Thank goodness for changing the clocks back an hour tonight.  Hopefully Joshua got the memo this year & remembers up sleep in…

Joshua & I have been sick the last couple of days.  We were at several gatherings of little kids last week so it’s not surprising, but I hope we didn’t pass on the germs to others before we got sick.  Josh had a fever yesterday but he responded well to Tylenol & is mostly better today.  I feel worse, but that’s likely in part to my trying to sleep in the nursery for much of last night because Joshua couldn’t sleep (crying seemed to give him a sore throat so I appeased him).  Hopefully we’ll both feel better tomorrow because we’ve got school & would hate to miss it since it’s just once a week.  This is Joshua’s first winter without the synagis shot so we’re likely in for more illnesses than before, but hopefully we can keep them to a minimum.

Other than school, not a whole lot has happened since his birthday so there’s not been all that much to report.  Joshua has gotten 2 new teeth so he’s up to a grand total of 14.  He’s still missing 2 of his lowers & all 4 of his 2-year molars but the others are coming in nicely—finally.  Joshua’s eye injury healed after a few days of looking like he got punched & then at the end of August, one of his toenails mysteriously fell off.  I have no clue what happened but it didn’t bother him in the slightest (he didn’t even seem to notice), & it’s already grown back completely.  Weird.

Joshua is talking a lot more, which I’m excited about.  If he keeps this up, he won’t even be eligible for speech therapy!  He can say his name—although it’s pronounced “dah-dah”—& so many other new words.  The J is a hard one for him but he can recognize & say the other 5 letters in his name.  He always wants to go over the letters in his name that hang over his crib whenever he goes down for a nap or at bedtime, usually with his stuffed monkey pointing them out.  Joshua knows his colors & can say the names of all 8 of his crayons.  He loves pointing out things & saying their color.  His latest favorite to say is a very well-enunciated “brow” (for brown).  Joshua even knows his left & right, something I remember my brother having trouble with in elementary school (sorry, Adam).  He doesn’t always get them correct, but he’s right (or left!) most of the time.

Joshua tries hard to show 2 fingers & loves to tell people that he’s 2 years old or when he sees 2 of something.  He doesn’t quite have the hang of the victory sign yet but he’ll cross his ring & pinky fingers, tuck his thumb in, & hold the index & middle fingers up.  It’s a start.  By the end of USC’s football season, I anticipate that he’ll get it down pat!  Joshua’s fine-motor coordination are getting much better & his artwork is looking more detailed.  Joshua draws circles, lines, & dots all over.  He can draw a pre-face with a circle & dots that he calls eyes—the rest of the facial features aren’t quite there yet, but I’m sure they’ll come along soon.  Josh spends a lot of his quiet alone playtime with his magna doodle, drawing, erasing, & drawing again.  He’s used it so much that I’m afraid it will fall apart from overuse!

We’ve had a few neat excursions in the last couple of months.  We went to the Montgomery County fair with a friend of mine & her 2-year-old son.  The boys enjoyed seeing all the farm animals, climbing on the John Deere tractors, & exploring a school bus.  The parent-tot group in the spouses club had a fun welcome social at a fire station nearby so we got to watch a real-live firefighter get dressed up in his full uniform.  They do that for little kids so they’re not afraid of a scary person wearing all that gear.  Unfortunately, lots of kids are found dead because they hide from the firefighters when they go into a burning house to rescue them because they’re scared.  At this point, Joshua is one of those who find them scary.  It took a lot of coaxing to get him to give the fireman a high 5, but he did eventually after the man took off the oxygen mask—when he was safely in Mommy’s arms.  We got to see an ambulance & Joshua had fun climbing in it, as if it was somewhat familiar from his past…  Erick, Joshua, & I metro’d into DC to see a muppets exhibit at one of the Smithsonian museums.  It was fun to have a little family time for a change, even if it was just for a few hours.  With Erick’s schedule, we’ll take what we can get.

My dad came for a visit which Joshua & I enjoyed.  Dad was here for a few days then went on a cruise, then came back for a week.  Joshua was in heaven with Ga-ga around all the time, & I was happy to be able to run errands sans toddler.  I even went to a fun moms’ night out with some friends!  Dad, Josh, & I went to the national aquarium in DC one day.  It’s nothing like the cool aquarium in Baltimore but Joshua had a great time running around & looking at the fish, frogs, & other marine life.  We also went to the zoo for the CNMC heart institute’s annual fall festival.  It was nice to see our friends but unfortunately it was super muddy from all the rain the couple of days before the event.  Joshua didn’t enjoy the fact that I kept him out of the mud when most of the other kids were running around (& falling) in it, but that’s OK.  He still had fun, & he also enjoyed running around in the small mammal & great ape houses on our way back to the car.  The 3 of us also went to Mount Vernon to see George Washington’s home, which I’d never done before.  Joshua’s favorite thing there was playing with rocks, which he did almost the entire 20 minutes Dad was on the mansion tour!  We had such a good visit that Dad is coming back in November for a couple of weeks—yeah!

Josh had his 4 follow-up appointments from his 2-year doctor visit, & they all went well.  His vision & hearing are great, his adenoids don’t need to be removed at this point, & he’s allowed to have nuts (although med student Erick disagrees).  We’re also in the weaning process, which should put people’s minds at ease since so many seem to have a problem with our extended breastfeeding.  He’s down to once a day & we’ve even gone occasional nights without it.  Joshua doesn’t seem ready to give it up anytime soon & it doesn’t bother me in the slightest, so there’s no need to stop for now.  Even if it’s largely for a comfort rather than nutritional reason at this point, it’s still good for his health so why mess with a good thing?

Erick just left for 8 weeks to do more med school rotations.  He’s in Honolulu right now, then he makes a stop in LA for a few days to take the next part of his boards, & then to Pensacola, Florida for another rotation.  He’s due back the night before Thanksgiving (although I bet he’ll miss his connection & be stuck in Atlanta because he’s got 7 minutes from when his first flight lands & his second one boards, & they’re likely to be on opposite sides of the airport—on the busiest air-travel day of the year, no less).  It’s going to be hard to talk much for the next few weeks because of the 6 hour time difference but we’ll try to fit in some video chats when we can.  I don’t know which of the 3 of us it’s hardest on.  Medical school is certainly not meant for families!  But we’re looking forward to being together again & Erick actually wants the 3 of us going away together during his winter break so that will be nice (yeah!).

Dr. Foxx gave us the referrals to specialists that we needed & gave him a clean bill of health (other than the eye injury!).  We don’t have to go back for an entire year—yeah!  Joshua still has his cardiologist appointment in 6 months & the specialist appointments to take care of, but other than that & barring any accidents or illnesses, we’re free of doctors for a whole year!!!  This winter will be sooo much nicer not having to get the synagis shots every 4 weeks like we have had to do the last 2 years.  Whew.  And Josh only needed one shot today, although that was bad enough for him.  Then we had to wait an hour & a half (yep—that’s the price we pay for free meds!) for Joshua’s eye antibiotics & a refill on his multi-vitamins, so we were at NNMC for about 4 hours.  Long enough that Josh fell asleep on the way home & therefore didn’t nap at all in his crib this afternoon.  Here are Joshua’s official 2 year stats:  height—38″ (in the 100th percentile, of course); weight—29lb 12oz (he’s up to the 75th percentile this time!); head circumference—50th percentile; height-for-weight—10th percentile.  Way to grow, Joshua!

Since most of you know that Joshua is doing great in his speech therapy, I’ll start with his latest sayings.  Joshua’s vocabulary has expanded & he’s talking more often, which is nice.  If we try to get him to say a word he’s not ready to say yet, he’ll say “knee” which is apparently his default word.  Josh still loves making animal sounds, & he’ll ask me to draw pictures of the respective animals with his new magnetic doodle toy.  Sometimes he’ll also ask me to draw certain colors which doesn’t work so well since the toy is just black on white!  He enjoys pointing out different colors he sees, saying “boo,” “pur-pul,” & “lellow” all over the place.  Even though he’s still a little delayed in expressive communication (although not delayed anymore according to one of the speech therapists—yeah!), Joshua is learning to read.  He can identify & say the letters A-E, O, P, T, & Z, & the number 2, & can point to several other letters when we say them.  It’s funny how he will focus on & point out different letters when we’re out, like on an aisle marker at the grocery store or on a building when we’re stopped at a red light.  My favorite frequently-used Josh-isms are “mi-mi” (monkey), “uh-gen” (again), “bye-e” (potty), “goot” (scoot), “ka-kul” (cuddle), “nack” (snack), “weet!” (wait), “wah-wul” (waffle), & “bo-bo” (boo-boo).  This fall, Joshua & I are going to start a weekly language program which is sort of like a pre-preschool through the county.  I’m curious as to how that’s going to go & am optimistic it will be a great experience to prepare him for a traditional school program down the line.

Joshua still hates having his diaper changed more than anything in the world, but we’re in the beginning stages of potty-training so hopefully we won’t have too much longer to deal with that.  Josh will sit on his little potty chair in the living room & on his Elmo potty seat on the toilet.  We’ll sit in the bathroom & read his books over & over again until he goes or gets bored.  Sometimes he’ll actually let me know he has to go but other times his potty successes are just a matter of coincidence that he’s sitting on the pot when he goes.  But being that he just turned 2, we’re still way ahead of the game so I’m not rushing him on this.  Joshua’s favorite motivator for going potty is getting to tear up a square of toilet paper & putting it in the toilet.  He gets one when he first asks after sitting on the toilet but doesn’t get another unless he is productive.  Weird, but that’s what he likes so we’re going with it.  I never wanted to be one of those parents who rewards their kid with candy or other food so if it’s toilet paper he likes, that’s what we’re going to use.  Josh also loves the potty song that I downloaded online—anything with his name in it is appealing.

Another interesting thing about Joshua is his weird relationship with shoes.  Since we don’t wear shoes in our house, we leave them near the front door.  Whenever someone comes over, he’ll grab a pair of my shoes & offer them to whomever is coming in.  We have no clue why he does this but it’s really funny because he does it pretty much every time.  He’s gotten better at not pulling his shoes off in the car so now we’ll put them on when we leave the house rather than when we arrive at our destination (although inevitably, we’ll have to put them back on if we’re running late because that’s when he decides to take them off en route).  Josh has 2 regular pairs of shoes that he wears.  One day he was refusing for me to put his shoes on & kept asking for his stuffed turtle.  I told him that the shoes were his turtle shoes, & he let me put them on.  Now, he calls that pair his turtle shoes.  His other pair are his puppy shoes.  So Joshua gets to choose if he wants to wear his turtle shoes or puppy shoes when we go out.  Whatever works.  Joshua still loves wearing grown-ups’ shoes & will put on Erick’s or my shoes frequently.  At a toddler size 8 1/2 wide, he’ll be fitting into our shoes before too long!

Joshua just loves to play & dance.  If he hears music, his face perks up & he’ll move his arms up & down or spin around in circles.  When we drive Erick’s car, Joshua gets to listen to his toddler music pretty much non-stop (he’s got a built-in iPod set-up which we keep on a shuffle of Joshua’s playing music).  When we were in California, Adam’s girlfriend taught Joshua how to shake his moneymaker.  Now he likes to wiggle & smack his butt to be silly.  Thanks, Adriana.   My silly little boy will also do anything to be tickled.  Sometimes that’s the only thing that helps make diaper changes (somewhat) tolerable.  Once we stop tickling him, he’ll take a deep breath & ask for more.  Now he’ll even tickle his animals or pictures in his books, which gives him the giggles almost as much as when he’s being tickled.

From one emotional extreme to the other, Joshua has the cutest little temper tantrums.  Sometimes these tantrums start at the drop of a hat for often no apparent reason other than the fact that he’s 2 years old.  He’ll get this look of betrayal as if he’s being wronged in a major way, with crocodile-sized tears & a bright red face.  If it’s a big fit, Joshua will bang his head on the floor, a wall, or whatever’s nearby.  And sometimes just as quickly as a tantrum starts, it’s over & all is right with the world again.

Josh is quite the meticulous player at times, almost like a little OCD kid.  When he’s stacking his blocks or legos, he knows exactly which block he wants to put on top of which block.  If it’s not quite right, he’ll take them off & rearrange things until it’s just so.  He gets this cute, concentrated look on his face when he’s in the zone.  It’s almost zen-like he’s so focused.  Other times, he plays very haphazardly & knocking things over so he still likes to have fun.  When he’s not stacking blocks, he’s lining up his books, blocks, stuffed animals, or other toys into straight lines.  Josh loves to read & will spend the toddler equivalent of hours flipping through book after book, pointing to the pictures & commenting on what he sees.  He still likes to read to his stuffed animals and will often sit one next to him with the book on its lap rather than on his own.  He’s getting better at not destroying books, for which I’m very relieved.  He got his first set of non-board books for his birthday & so far they’re all completely intact.  The last few months, when he rips a page from a book, it’s usually because he gets too engrossed into his reading that he goes too fast & turns the page too quickly from the middle rather from than the corner so it’s an accident.  Once a small tear develops, it’s all over–the page is just too tempting to pull.  So we’ll be reading board books for awhile longer.

Two of the best motivators for Joshua to pick up his toys (other than watching his little movies) are coloring and stickers.  He has fun coloring with his crayons & Crayola Color Wonder markers (they’re cool, clear markers that show up as colors on the special paper).  He’ll make a little scribble then go “uuuuuu” as if it’s the neatest thing ever.  I picked up several books of animal stickers from the craft store & they’re a big hit.  He’ll point to or say the name of the animal (or its sound) & I’ll peel back the sticker for him to pick off.  Josh likes to arrange the tigers with the tigers, the cows with the cows, & so forth most of the time.  If the stickers don’t get all the way down on the paper, he’ll go “bat bat” & pat them down with a loud smack.  Fortunately, I’ve managed to avoid having stickers stuck all over the house, but I’m sure that’s going to happen eventually.

Another interesting thing for Joshua is mealtime.  Whenever Joshua washes his hands (no matter when it is), he thinks he’s going to eat since we try to regularly wash his hands before mealtimes.  As soon as I’m drying his hands off, he’ll go “nack, nack” (snack—all meals are snacks to him) & get down from his stepstool as quickly as he can & run to the highchair.  He’s able to climb into the highchair by himself (& sometimes will then stand up & climb over the back of the couch to flop on the cushions, since we keep the highchair in the back of our couch between the dining & living rooms).  If it’s not mealtime & I don’t fasten him in & get food ready for him, he’ll start trying to fasten the straps, as if that’s going to bring him the food he wants.  Joshua’s favorite foods are mainly snacks (albeit relatively healthy snacks).  He can never get enough string cheese, crackers, Puffins, Teddies (an organic teddy bear-shaped Cheerio-like cereal), avocado, yogurt, pasta, peas, applesauce, oatmeal, & cookies.  He’s pretty good at feeding himself with his fork & spoon unless it’s pretty slippery or too liquidy.  Or if he doesn’t like it—then it’s intentionally all over the place.  Joshua used to refuse drinking milk at all from his sippy cup, until we were at my brothers & I decided to see if he’d drink it with a little Ovaltine in a regular cup with a straw.  After a few times, he no longer needed any chocolate but the straw thing stuck & he’s loved milk ever since!  There are a lot of foods that Joshua likes but he’s a toddler so he’s got to decide each time if it’s something he wants to eat at that particular moment—& often, he just doesn’t want to eat it at all.  But there’s always something he likes to eat everyday & he’s growing & taking his multi-vitamins so I’m not concerned.  I just hope this pickiness gets over with soon.

Well, that’s Joshua in a nutshell.  He’s a very special boy, usually very happy & good-natured.  He still loves to flirt & can charm pretty much anyone with his smile & head tilt.  Even though he gets bashful at times, he enjoys being the center of attention (unless it’s at the doctor’s office).  I wouldn’t trade him for anything & can’t believe he’s been in our lives for 2 years already!

After lunch, I explained to Joshua that 2-year-olds take nice, long naps & (so far) it worked.  He napped for 2 1/2 hours, thanks more from all the playing in the morning than from my explanation, but whatever it took, I liked it.  We ended up having birthday cake for a post-nap snack rather than waiting until after dinner like we’d planned.  I’m glad we did it that way, since he actually ate this one (2 slices!) & got to have his sugar rush during the day rather than at night.  My mom’s cousin was going to come over for birthday dinner but she couldn’t make it afterall so it was just the 2 of us all day.  I made “gee-gee” & “bed-bed” (translation:  spaghetti & Italian bread) for dinner since those are Joshua’s favorites.

We made it through the entire day without Joshua having any temper tantrum or crying at all—until the very end.  I had the nerve to ask him to put his blocks away when it was time for bed.  He was meticulously arranging them just so in the block box then dumping it out & starting the process over again.  After the third time of him going through all 50 blocks, it was getting late so I took the box away (mean Mommy!).  But this tantrum was pretty mild & lasted less than 30 seconds so it was nowhere near as bad as usual.  Joshua just wasn’t ready for his birthday to be over, I guess.  Once the block fiasco was over, we did the usual nursing & toothbrushing routine at which point Joshua was fine again.  Erick got to sing “Happy Birthday” to Joshua before bed, which he enjoyed.  What a great end to a great day.  Happy birthday, little man!!!

After we were done with what photos we could get, we went out & the mom of the other kid accused Joshua of biting her daughter.  I’d seen them arguing over the doll & he didn’t even get close enough to her to bite her & I’ve never seen him bite another kid before so I told her I didn’t think he’d bitten her.  She showed me her daughter’s arm (which did in fact look like it had bite marks) & I told her that if it was Joshua who’d bitten her, then I was sorry.  She said “What do you mean “if”?  Don’t you see the teeth marks?  She hasn’t been around any other kids today so it had to be him.”  Meanwhile, the Sears manager was trying to convince her to file an incident report against us.  At that point, Joshua & I ended up leaving the studio & I said we’d go back tomorrow to look at our photos.  There was no way I could sit & look at the photos to decide one which ones to buy when Joshua was so figity & upset from being there for well over an hour (thanks to the Sears “policy”!) & the other mom was accusing Joshua of assault.  Not the most relaxing environment to go over photos.

On the drive home, I realized that Joshua couldn’t have bitten the little girl because he’s still missing 4 of his front teeth & the girl’s arm had a full set of teeth marks!  She probably did it to herself (hopefully not because the mom asked her to do it to make a fuss because she was irritated with us for being upset about them cutting in front of us for getting pictures taken).  I am not looking forward to going back tomorrow to see the photos because the same irritating manager is going to be there, but there’s not much I can do since I want his birthday portraits.  I’m so glad we didn’t go on his actual birthday because I would’ve felt bad with him so upset on his birthday.  After this time, I don’t think we’ll go back there, which sucks since it’s the cheapest place for photos with their military discount & coupons.  OK, J.C., take a deep breath…

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…

Joshua is talking a lot more which is great.  He loves making animal sounds, especially “maw” for the cow (which he yells pretty much every time).  He’s even learning to read, which I think is amazing at his age!  We were at the grocery store the other day & Joshua looked up & started pointing to the “B” in beef on the wall above us (we were in the meat section) & said “B” over & over.  He can pretty consistently say A, B, C, O, & Z when I point to them.  He likes to go over the letters in his name that hang above the crib before bedtime, so it would be great if he keeps this up & learns to spell his name early.  I’m also amazed at how well he can identify animals.  He loves pointing them out in his books & making the animal sounds for many of them (he can even make a better elephant sound than Erick or I!).  And he likes going over colors & will point out pretty much anything that’s yellow (”lellow”) or purple (”puh-pul”).

Our little boy is quite the smart, cunning kid.  He knows how to procrastinate everything, especially going to bed.  He likes to say “cuddle” when he’s done nursing & we go to brush his teeth.  Then we’ll brush teeth & he’ll ask to cuddle again.  He knows that Mommy & Daddy love to cuddle & thinks we’ll fall for this trick.  Sometimes we do, but as soon as we lay down, he’ll get up & start jumping on the bed.  When we get up & start heading for the nursery, he’ll ask to cuddle again.  But we don’t usually fall for it twice in one day (usually).  Joshua has finally learned to clean up his toys—yeah!  He just needs the right motivation.  Stickers & coloring are usually the best motivators.  If I agree to let him watch his Jo Jo movie, he’ll literally clean up all of his toys even if every one of them is out!

Our latest project is potty training, although we’re still in the early stages since he’s so young & not fully ready for it quite yet.  We’ve had a potty seat in the living room for awhile & he’ll sit on it to read his books, usually preferring to keep his pants & diapers on.  It is nice that Joshua will sometimes tell me after he goes & will go sit on his potty after he poops.  On Monday, we even tried having him sit on it bare-bottomed for 45 minutes while I let him watch his Jo Jo movie & read several books to see what would happen.  And less than a minute after I gave up & put the diaper back on, guess what happened?  Yep, he pooped & peed—a lot.  Eventually, we’ll do this more often & see what happens.  I am sooo not looking forward to having to clean out a potty seat (to me, that’s worse than changing a diaper), so it would be nice to progress him to using the regular toilet soon.

We went to a fun run last Saturday to raise money for the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital.  It was quite a long drive there but we had a great time.  Joshua enjoyed his stroll but then ran all over afterward & played on the playground until we dragged him away.  Then Erick left the next morning for “camp.”  He’s playing doctor in the woods with his classmates for a field training exercise—one of the perks/challenges of attending to a military medical school.  He gets back tomorrow, which is his birthday.  The cool thing is that he’s supposed to come back via helicopter (which is especially great because they’re up in Pennsylvania!).  Happy birthday, Erick!