Story time

We are having a good time out here visiting with Aunt Trina and baby Kirra. Uncle Josh is away for the next day but he'll be back tomorrow. Aunt Wayneen and Uncle Bud are coming for a visit tomorrow, too.

Today, we went to story time and had a blast. There were tons of kids and this library does a great job. Next, we stopped by an awesome park nearby (the same one that Jason, big Josh and little J went to on Friday) and Joshua played in the water sprinklers. He also saw ducks and turtles. Kirra enjoyed the adventures out, too. She was very good in the car and slept for most of the outings.

Now, everyone is resting and the mommies should be, too!

Visiting Baby Kirra

We've been out visiting Uncle Joshua, Aunt Trina and Baby Kirra. It has been fun to see little Joshua's reaction to and interaction with Kirra. He wasn't very interested at first and even came up to me when I was holding her and said, 'Mommy all done the baby.' But now he will bring her toys and blankets. We have to be careful though because he isn't very gentle and kind of 'chucks' them at her. He is not allowed to touch her. We did set that rule. He has been pointing out her features though, hands, feet, hair and today in the car we were working on opposites. I would ask him, 'Is baby Kirra awake or asleep?', "Are her eyes open or closed?" and he would answer.

He and Daddy and Uncle Joshua went to a fantastic park on Friday. They had a lot of fun. As soon as I can get the photos off of my camera I will upload a few. Joshua needs lots of time to let out energy and that has been a little challenge. We have been going for walks, going to the parks, running around in the backyard and playing with Gigi the dog.

Today, we went with Kirra and Aunt Trina to the library to pick up a few books. There are lots of storytimes so we will try and do one of those while we are here. We'll also probably try and go to the park we when to at Christmas when the ducks attacked us.

At the end of the week we are heading out to Grandma and Papa's house. Grandma is planning a birthday party for Joshua which I am sure he is going to love. He loves birthdays, the cake, the presents and especially the birthday song. I think that was one of the first songs he sang!

Everyone is napping but I need to get some work done so I will go for now. I'll keep you posted with pictures and stories as I can.

Visiting Baby Kirra

We've been out visiting Uncle Joshua, Aunt Trina and Baby Kirra. It has been fun to see little Joshua's reaction to and interaction with Kirra. He wasn't very interested at first and even came up to me when I was holding her and said, 'Mommy all done the baby.' But now he will bring her toys and blankets. We have to be careful though because he isn't very gentle and kind of 'chucks' them at her. He is not allowed to touch her. We did set that rule. He has been pointing out her features though, hands, feet, hair and today in the car we were working on opposites. I would ask him, 'Is baby Kirra awake or asleep?', "Are her eyes open or closed?" and he would answer.

He and Daddy and Uncle Joshua went to a fantastic park on Friday. They had a lot of fun. As soon as I can get the photos off of my camera I will upload a few. Joshua needs lots of time to let out energy and that has been a little challenge. We have been going for walks, going to the parks, running around in the backyard and playing with Gigi the dog.

Today, we went with Kirra and Aunt Trina to the library to pick up a few books. There are lots of storytimes so we will try and do one of those while we are here. We'll also probably try and go to the park we when to at Christmas when the ducks attacked us.

At the end of the week we are heading out to Grandma and Papa's house. Grandma is planning a birthday party for Joshua which I am sure he is going to love. He loves birthdays, the cake, the presents and especially the birthday song. I think that was one of the first songs he sang!

Everyone is napping but I need to get some work done so I will go for now. I'll keep you posted with pictures and stories as I can.

Tackle Daddy!

After finishing dinner, Joshua wanted to play with the Daddy... little did I know what I was getting into! We began by rolling a roll of duct tape, then throwing a ball around. Daddy ended up in his usual spot: sitting on the floor of the family room. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Josh comes barreling towards me with no intention of slowing down... and we collide in a bundle of giggles while rolling on the floor. This turned out to be the highlight - so repeat 25 times: Josh runs back to the kitchen, turns around, yells "GO!" and runs to tackle Dad.

The one time I didn't fall over, Josh made a confused noise and said, "fall over, daddy". It was all planned out...

Always something new!

Joshua continually surprises and amazes us. He learned how to paint on Tuesday and loved it. When daddy came home he showed off his picture and was so proud. He layed it nicely on the table and waited for Jason to look at it.

He has leared to count to 15, I think thanks to Sesame Street! That was out of the blue and fun. He can also sing his ABC's now. Don't ask him to though because he will say, NoOooooo. That is his answer for everything these days. We have both been enjoying the cool nights and mild days of fall with walks, trips to the park, riding the tricycle and just playing outside.

On Wednesday we went to the park and when Jason got home that evening he asked Joshua what he did today. Joshua answered, 'Go to the park.' So Jason asked him if it was fun and Joshua said, 'Had fun riding the slides.' That was a surprise! He has also be trying more foods lately and eating a bit more. He is now 36.5" tall but I wonder if a growth spurt is on the horizon.

Soccer out in the 'burg

Joshua and I enjoyed watching Dylan play a fantastic game of soccer on Saturday. He and his team were great, the really kept the ball in the other team's part of the field and it worked! They won! Go Dylan.

I uploaded a few photos from the game and from the little cousins playing on the sidelines.

The Beach

We just couldn't help ourselves! We took one more little escape to the beach with our friends Ron, Christine, Yanna and Val. It was a whirlwind last minute ie planned Wed left Thursday trip but it was great. Each trip we take Joshua loves the water and beach more and more. By the last day he was saying, 'Go to the Woecean, YEAH!' everytime he saw the water. And he would say, 'Ready... GO!' and run into the surf. Next time we will have a life jacket for him since he no longer has water aversion. He loves the sand, too and spent a lot of time digging in it and bringing buckets of water back and forth.

We told Joshua last week that mommy's belly has a baby inside. He talks about it, 'Be careful of the baby belly' and will come up and point to my belly if you ask him where the baby is. Unfortunately, in true kid form, he tried to generalize this information. And he was pointing to other pudgy bellies and saying, 'Baby Belly.' But alas, all those folks were just a little chunky and not really pregnant. So we then explained that mommy is the only person that has a baby belly. That seems to have solved it for now.

Other cute things, Joshua calls music, 'sugick'. In spite of the mispronounciation, he loves to sing along and dance at every chance he gets. He knows "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Happy Birthday" and "Ring Around the Rosy" to name a few. He even sings to the old 'Pac Man' record that Uncle Josh put on a cd for him. Uncle Josh, you will understand this... he says, 'I am shadow' at the right spot.

It is late and I better close. I try and add more soon!

More visits and plans

Last weekend, brought the arrival of my cousin, Bill. He was out visiting on a business trip and came to our home for the night. You can see the photos of the BBQ that we had on Sunday. It was a fun visit. This week there was not so much new with Joshua. Just mostly our regular schedule. Memaw came to visit and help with projects on Thursday. Godfather Chris came for the evening on Thursday to watch Joshua while we enjoy a small cruise for our anniversary. Jason is home for a long weekend and we are celebrating our anniversary, my birthday and painting the deck, which is in much need of repair.

Visitor

We had a wonderful visit from Auntie Heej yesterday (my close friend from college). She won over Joshua's heart early on by brining him a Thomas Train Track set. After that, he thought she was the best! So, we had lunch out, went to the park and then came home to relax. She played songs for Joshua on the piano and he played along, too. It was wonderful to see him connect so quickly with someone new. Today was rather cool and I brought out Joshua's long pants only none of them fit! I am sure I have size 24 mos/2T somewhere and I am going to need to dig them out for cool days like today. After finding one pair that fit we headed off to the barber for a hair cut. It is adorable. See below...



After the hair cut it was story time and then home for a nap. Speaking of which, it is mine turn to sleep, too!

Gone Tubin'

This Friday was Aunt Carie's 30th birthday. Geez, everyone is turning 30 this year!! Her housemate and close friend arranged a day of surprises which we were happy to partake in. The first event was a tubing trip at a local state park. Jason, Aunt Carie and Janet did the tubing while Joshie and I splashed around in the creek. We had fun exploring the water, listening to the birds and sitting on rocks. The water came up to Joshua's waist and he fell down twice, which he did like. But we saw fish, a humming bird, a crane, butterflies and lots of water bugs. He liked climbing on the rocks and stomping up a stream that flowed into the creek. Afterwards we all got ice cream at Rita's. It was a great afternoon/evening!

The night before we attended a baseball game with friends Ron, Christine, Yanna and Val. Josh loves the cheering, music and watching the ball. He is a good baseball fan and claps along with everyone else. The highlight of the game was him wearing his ice cream as a white sticky beard :-)

Antics

Joshua is a riot and really starting to understand the English language. Tonight, he was running around with the squirt bottle and telling us about all the things he was NOT allowed to squirt. "No squirt 'cycle", "No squirt Mommy"... "Squirt Daddy" to which we replied "No squirt Daddy" and he responded, "Squirt Daddy's Shirt" and proceeded to follow through. We were all cracking up.

I am busy uploading photos all the way back to the beginning of June. There are a lot that I missed previously so I will try and get them up as I can. We have been busy the past couple of weeks. The weekend before last we went out to visit Uncle Josh and Aunt Trina and go to a baby shower for them at Grandma and Papa's house. Joshua is a fantastic traveler and did great in the car and on the airplane in spite of the red eye flights. No sicknesses or emergency room visits this time either which was a relief and we got to swim every day! Joshua loved that!

This past weekend we had visits from Aunt Jill, Aunt Tara, Aunt Jo, Memaw and Grandad and we also saw Dylan. We'll have to make an effort to see the Izaguirre Crew since it has been a while since we made our way out to see them! Noella is starting to walk and I hear giving everyone lots of smiles in the mean time!

The Zoo

On Tuesday, Mom and I took Dylan, Stephanie & Joshua to the zoo. I am not sure if the kids had more fun looking at the animals or riding next to each other in the stroller kicking their legs and laughing. They did great and loved the exhibits they could ride, crawl on, slide down or hide under. Joshua loved the farm animals best and even got to hear a rooster crow. He also liked the penguins, they were very playful and were splashing around on their bellies and backs. He left with a stuffed elephant from Memaw to remember the day.

Seasame Street

Joshua has discovered Seseame Street and Elmo and loves it. So every day we watch one that I have taped. He has fun dancing to the music and waiting for Elmo and Mr. Noodle to come on.

He has stayed dry now every day through naptime even for the past three days. He can take himself to the potty which I think he likes a lot. He pushes me away if I try and help him on and for the most part he just runs in and takes care of things himself. It is hilarious. So the only step now is that he learn to go standing up and then that he stay dry at night but I don't think we are very far off since naptime is improving.

I am posting a few pictures of our playground fun with Yanna, Val and Mr. Ron from the other day. He is such a monkey on the playground!

A Monumental Occasion

and I forgot to put it in the blog! On Sunday, Joshua made a leap forward in his potty training. He started pulling his own pants off, getting to the toilet, climbing on and off and flushing all by himself! If the pants are too tight the whole plan is foiled but he is doing a really good job when he can get them off. It is great! Next we need to work on him standing to go but inspite of our recent efforts he has shown no interest in that.

Take me out to the ballgame!

On Friday, we took Joshua to his very first baseball game. The first of many I hope! He loved it! He loved the mascot, the clapping, the music and cheers. He even watched some of the game from our shoulders. He clapped and cheered on cue with the rest of the fans. Because it was an evening game we left at the 5th inning but we all had a lot of fun. I think it was just the right amount of time for him, too.

Saturday, we went to Memaw and Grandad's house (mommy and daddy then went to see harry potter) and Joshua had lots of fun playing with Stephanie, Noella and Dylan. Memaw even took him to see a train!

Today, we mostly just rested but we did go to Miss Christine and Mr. Ron's house for dinner. Joshua did great playing with Yanna and Val and he ate a fantastic dinner. He had THREE drumsticks, some corn on the cob, a piece of water melon and ice cream. I was shocked.

Opinion

Joshua loves noodles ('Noo-noos") but doesn't like ANYTHING on them. They must be unadulterated. So, after finished off what I put on his plate, I gave him one of mine. It had alfredo sauce on it. "I don't like it," says Joshua. Mind you, he hadn't even tasted it but he took his plate and set it on the table (instead of his tray). The little stinker.

He is doing great in his big boy bed and has actually been sleeping until closer to 7 most mornings. Yeah!

At the beach

On a whim we packed up and headed to the beach yesterday. We stayed overnight and came home today. It was a fantastic trip! Joshua loved the sand this time (last year he wouldn't touch it) and we even got him to go in the water. We had a lot of fun playing with him: building sand castles, digging holes, scouring for rocks & sea shells. We are looking forward to our next trip!

Happy 4th of July!

We took Joshua to see the fireworks tonight downtown over the water. It was a late night as the show didn't start until 9:30pm but Joshua loved it! We thought since he liked the fireworks at Godfather's birthday party (small ground ones) that he may enjoy the big ones but the size and noise are so much bigger we just weren't sure. He did great and spent the entire walk back to the car saying, 'Watch the fireworks'. We hope that he will sleep in a little bit to make up for the three hours late bedtime.

Big Steps!

Joshua's social calendar has been busy these past couple of weeks so he hasn't been available to update his blog. However, he did make a huge next step and moved into a twin sized bed on Friday. The transition was actually pretty smooth. We had been letting him play in his new room for a couple of weeks. He now goes right to that room instead of his old one to get dressed and go to bed. Guess he doesn't miss the nursery! He has done all his sleeping and naps in that room since Friday and it is going well.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

The weather has turned hot and humid. It is going to be a long summer. We are getting out now in the morning before 10am for our walks and after 6pm in the evening. Last night, when Jason came home we ate dinner and then headed to the outdoor pool at the gym. We spent over an hour swimming with Joshua. This trip I remembered to grab a few toys and the duck ended up being a good choice. He really kicked hard to get to the duck. He went under several times, jumped in from the side and swam between us. It was a great evening.

Jason has been playing games with Joshua to learn numbers and we have been working on colors, too. If you ask him what color something is he will by default say 'blue'. But if you ask him to get the green ball ( when there are multiple colors) he will pick the correct one. So it is clicking.