Family Portrait

Hop Hop, March March

Another busy weekend for Joshua! We drove first to my parents house to attend the baby shower of a close friend and then Saturday we headed out to Ohio for the graveside service of my Grandfather who passed away in November. The service was Sunday and then we headed home. It was great to see lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. We came home last night so we could have one day of rest. It was a long drive but worth it since Jason is not feeling well and really could use a day-off!

Joshua has been 'marching' around the living room recently and this morning he started trying to 'hop'. He wasn't getting both feet off the ground a the same time but he is trying. It is fun to watch!

Time for oatmeal breakfast!

Big Boy!!

Our little baby is so not a baby anymore! Just the other day he stood at the sink and washed his hands. He is almost potty trained except for naps and night time and he is growing like a weed! He is now 34 inches tall, he was 32 at his last checkup in April? Maybe they didn't measure right then. I can tell he has grown a lot though because his pants are too short and they fall off at the waist. He needs a little belt.

This weekend we had the honor of celebrating Aunt Tara's graduation receiving her masters degree. It was wonderful to be with her on such a special day! We are so proud!! There are, of course, photos which I will post sometime.

Time to go and relax... Joshie is so busy, he wears me out!

Mr. Explorer

Well, Joshua has joined the ranks of the many children before him who locked their mothers in the basement. Luckily, I had a screwdriver small enough to pick the lock and I was out before he knew what he had done.

This morning, if Jason had not been there to witness it you probably wouldn't believe what Josh said. He pointed to a magnet on the refrigerator and said, 'Magnet'. I said, 'Yes, Joshua, Magnet" and he replies, "I just said that". Jason and I were in disbelief! He certainly keeps us on our toes with his antics!

Yesterday was storytime at the library, always a highlight of the week and in the evening Jason took his rc mini out and drove it around for Josh before bedtime. Both the boys had a lot of fun with that.

Happy Mother's Day!

It was Mother's Day weekend at our house :-) On Friday, since Jason had a day off we celebrated by having time together on our bike ride. Yesterday, I hosted a tea in the garden at our house. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day to boot! I'll make you drool by telling you what we served :-)
Tea - a variety
Fruit Tray
Sandwiches - chicken salad, egg salad, cucumber mint
Yellow Squash & Basil Soup
Trifle, Lemon Squares, Orange Poppy Seed Bread, Cupcakes
Apricot Sage Scones with Devonshire Cream & Lemon Curd



I posted a number of photos from yesterday. It was nice to since the kids playing nicely together (for the most part) and it was so enjoyable to relax outside.

We love daddy being home!

Jason has been finished with class over a week now and it's been great! He got an A again :-), which is fantastic and now he is having fun hanging out with us. On Tuesday, Aunt Janet & Uncle Bob came and visited. I posted a few pics from that. Joshua is enjoying saying 'Uncle Bob' now. He liked that Aunt Janet got down on the floor to play with him.

On Friday, Jason, Joshua and I got the bikes out and went on a trail ride at a local state park. We stopped at the dam and had a little snack we had packed with us. While enjoying the beautiful view we saw Orioles, Herons, Geese and a bald eagle. It was fantastic. We road back and drove to a dairy for dinner. They had sandwiches and salads and soups. Afterwards we got yummy homemade ice creams. We sat outside so we could watch the tractor plowing the fields and Joshua could run around.

Right now, Jason and Joshua are out at a hobby store together and I am taking care of things around the house. :-)

March of Dimes

Joshua and I did the March of Dimes yesterday morning. It was a glorious day for it and we had a lot of fun. The walk was 6.2 miles and took about 2 hours. We found another mom and baby to pair up with and had a wonderful time conversing. I think we will need to make it an annual family tradition. Through the generous support of family and friends we were able to raise $210, which I thought was fantastic!

After the walk, Joshua tuckered out in the car ride home and slept another 2 hours at home! We all laid down at the same time and had a family nap. Then afterwards, Jason, Joshua and I headed over to the pool for some swimming time. Joshua showed off his swimming skills to daddy, who hadn't seen him swim in months, and everyone had a great time.

It was a memorable day.

Today, we drove out to see Dylan in the musical at church. He had a solo and did a great job! He has a lovely singing voice, was clear and loud enough to hear. After the play we went to lunch at Me-Maw and Grandad's and now we are home. Joshua played with Stephanie and Noella in the nursery at church during the performance. It seems they are getting along pretty well these days.

A step in the right direction

Yesterday, aside from his nap, Joshua stayed dry all day! He is finally telling me that he needs to go potty before he goes. We had a little bit of a setback with him being sick but it looks like he is back on the right track. Last evening, I put him in underwear with no rubber pants and he stayed dry from 4-7 including a trip to the pet store and grocery store!

We also went to the gardens yesterday to walk around. They are about an 45 min from our house. Joshua just ran from fountain to foutain, 'Water!' 'Water' he would say as he made his way to each one. We also saw flowers, a frog and lots of ba-ba-bees (bumble bees)

Glorious Spring Days

Today, was spectacular. We played in the yard, went for a hike and then Me-maw, Grandad and Nanny came over to go out for Me-maw's birthday. We missed going to her birthday party because Josh was recovering from being sick tha weekend. Tonight though, he did great at dinner and then we went for ICE CREAM which he loves. We've been out for ice cream three times this week.

Yesterday, Joshua was so dirty when he came in from playing out in the yard that he had to have a bath before his 11 am naptime. He loves being outside. In the late afternoon, I took him for a walk down by the water and into town with Kim, Ryan and Ellie. We picked up pizza on the way home.

Friday, I made muffins for us and Joshua absolutely love them. He had four the day I made them. I guess I'll have to make more!

There are more photos from early in the week but I'll have to go back and post them later.

That's all for now!

Thursday

Yesterday was a wonderful day! Memaw came over to visit with us and brought more Easter goodies and a motorcycle for Joshua. They played outside with the motorcycle in the backyard. After his nap, we all went to the gym to swim. That was a lot of fun. Josh was a bit hesitant having not swam for a couple of weeks but he was getting into it by the time we left. He even swam between us a little bit. Memaw left from the gym, we ran errands and headed home. Daddy was home when we got home and played outside with Joshua again. After dinner we all went for a walk. We ran into Ellie and Kim on the walk and did a little jaunt with them.

Joshua has learned to give Eskimo Kisses, we call them Noses. Here is a photo to make your heart melt:

Budding Artist

Joshua has graduated from scribbling lines to scribbling in circles now and pointilism. He is currently sitting next to me and dismantling the crayons. He is a lot like his uncle in that he likes to see how things work and put stuff together. It has been cold and windy but today it will be 50 so we are hoping to get out for a walk. Maybe we will go to the local gardens. Joshua is pretty much recovered from his last illness so I am taking him out again and working on sterilizing the house for any little playmates he might have here.

18 mos Well Baby Checkup!

Joshua weighed in at 25 lbs (50th percentile) and 33 inches (75th percentile). He impressed his dr. yet again with all his words and skills. He did very well with the shots today and didn't scream the entire visit. :-) He did color a picture of circles for the doctor.

18 Month Birthday!

In all the hoopla with Joshua being sick, I forget to mention his 18 month birthday was on Monday. Today, Friday, he is starting to feel better. He has kept things down for nearly 24 hours now. I don't expect that we have seen the last of the diarrhea but I am hoping the vomitting is over. He has been thirsty and eating this morning which is great. Jason, unfortunately, came home yesterday from work feeling flu-ish. He has pretty much been sleeping since 6pm yesterday so I hope that he can recover quickly.

Ups and Downs of Easter

Well, we left to visit Aunt Jill & Aunt Tara on Friday morning (April 6). Joshua did well on the drive and we made pretty good time. Aunt Tara was still in the hospital from her surgery on Wednesday and I was able to get over to visit Friday night.



Saturday, we all went to the hospital to visit and while we were there she received her discharge orders. So we went home to wait. Aunt Jo and Uncle Phil came over for dinner, Tara was home by late afternoon, and we had a nice family dinner. After which we let Joshua dye eggs. Everyone left the room for that but he did a great job and didn't throw the eggs or drop them in the dye. His hands were pretty colors afterwards :-)



That night, at 10pm, Joshua awoke vomitting. He did it 3 more times before morning so we scrapped our Easter plans to head home. If we needed to see a dr we wanted to do it on our turf. He had diarrhea before we left and throw up in the car as we were driving out of town. Thankfully traffic was still light and we got home around dinnertime. We had been encouraging Joshua to take sips all the way home. He was showing signs of dehydration and we didn't want to end up in the hospital again, like Christmas. So when we arrived, Jason and Josh sat at the table and Jason provided him with a sip of whatever drink he wanted, rotating the choices and feeding fish crackers in between. He had some diarrhea before bedtime but no vomitting. We continued to wake him up every 30 min then hour through the night until 3 am when he seemed to be acting more like himself. He slept until 6:30 am and when he woke up he was in bad shape. He was asking for a drink but he was not himself. I fed him soymilk and we rested. Jason came down and we were discussing calling the dr when Josh threw everything he had just drank back up. We we got in the car to go to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with dehydration and seriously low blood sugar. It was a long morning, trying to push fluids through IV and sugar orally. They admitted us and we stayed in until Tuesday evening. He had more diarrhea and vomitting in the time but was acting more like himself.

He ate some crackers and drank orange juice last night for dinner and slept well until 4:30. I gave him soymilk then. In the morning he ate a good breakfast then had a really awfully diarrhea. We saw the dr at 10:15 and she said he was no longer dehydrated and to keep up with what we were doing inclucing introducing high calorie foods. He ate some lunch, took a good nap, drank some milk and then threw up everything from the day. After talking to the dr, again, she said it would be 2 steps forward, 1 step back and that this would last a while. I have just been trying to keep fluids in him. He had rice, crackers and a pancake for dinner and is now asleep. I will be waking him to feed fluids in the night.

It is so hard knowing that this situation can go from bad to worse in an instant inspite of our best efforts. The official name for what he has is 'rotavirus' and most if not all children get it at some point. It is highly contagious and not easily killed and lasts for a long time on inert surfaces. And, having had the virus you can still contract a different strain sometime later.

So, keep Joshua in your prayers that he will keep his food down and not return to the hospital.

I wish we could have an Easter 'do-over.'

Joshua's Newest Cousin

These tickers are so much fun. Here is one to track Joshua's newest cousin. To be born sometime around 9/15/07



Today it looks like Aunt Trina is 16 wks 3 days along!

Roar!

We were reading a picture book with jungle animals to Joshua. We would turn each page and ask him to name the animal and the sound it makes. So we got to the last page, a tiger, and asked Joshua, "what is this?". He says, 'ROAAR!'. We said, "No, Joshua what IS it?'. He said, 'It's a ROAR!'

Sunny Spring Day

Today was lots of fun! We did a little bit of gardening in the morning and Joshua explored the worms that were crawling in my garden. I tried to show him how they squish and stretch to move along the ground but when I said 'squish' he thought he should squish them so we moved on to just digging in the dirt. Then we went for a walk along the water to look at the ducks before story time. After the library it was lunch and naptime. Next we went to the gym but I forgot our gym bag so we didn't get to swim. We had Ellie and Kim over for dinner and the kids had fun on the slide after dinner. I had picked up a few of those rectangular ice-cream sandwiches, it was just that kind of day, and the kids loved them. Kim pulled the kids around in a wagon and then it was time to go our separate ways.

Rainy Days are Fun, too!

Joshua and I have been exploring the great outdoors the past couple of days. Yesterday we went for a walk, splashed in mud puddles, felt the rain fall on our heads and watched an earthworm creep in the crack of the sidewalk. Joshua loves getting wet so I don't think he realized he was getting dirty, too!

Today, we went to an equistrian center that also had hiking trails. Since it was rainy, I knew that the park would be quiet and it was. We walked through an old covered bridge, watched the water in a stream, saw horses, geese, a turkey vulture and hawk. We saw flowers, too and picked up a nice smooth rock. He walked out a ways on the trail and then I piggy backed him back to the car. He fell asleep on the ride home but then woke up and had a drink of milk before going down for his nap at home.

Josh has been doing great with potty training. He is now using the little blue potty we have for him and as long as he doens't have pants on to fuss with he can get himself to the potty. Then when he is done, he picks up the potty, takes it to the toilet and dumps it in. That part is a bit unnerving for Jason and I to watch! But he is doing great!

Springtime Fun!

Joshua and I have been having so much fun outside! It was a beautiful day yesterday so we went a got a few flowers. Joshua played in the front yard while I dug in the dirt. He periodically came back to water the flowers or dig around a little himself. We ate dinner outside and in the evening we got a new slide for Joshua. It was time for bed but we let him play instead, in his socks!! They were filthy but we all had so much fun!

Tuesay, Ellie & Kim joined us at the pool. The kids same for an hour! Joshua now jumps off the side and kicks like a frog to the side. He goes under the water, runs along the shallow end of the pool and blows bubbles. He is a fish!

Wednesday, Memaw came over for a visit and Joshua showed off his eating skills. We played outside with bubbles, which he loves, even though it was not very warm at all! In the evening, we went to Kim, Ellie & Ryan's for dinner. Afterwards, Ryan and I took the kids to get a free Italian Ice at Rita's. It was freezing but we sat out on the picnic table and ate the ice cream. The kids didn't mind it was just Ryan and I that were remarking what we'd do for free food :-)

Hollow Leg

We have found that Joshua has grown an extra hollow leg since the beginning of last week, which also was the major start of the terrible 'two's. In the past several days Joshua has given us a run for our money when it comes to eating AND he has added vegetables back in to his diet. This, to me, is an absolute miracle. I just hope it continues. He was a good eater before his first birthday and then he became VERY picky. So this is a welcome change.

The temper tantrums have given us a number of humorous moments. Including, finding Joshua HANGING off the outside of his crib (by his hands, like a rock climber), listening to him EMPHATICALLY say 'no' to every request, even to things it obviously wants, teaching him to say, 'YESH', well that is how 'yes' comes out. We have to laugh, we'd go insane otherwise :-)

Joshua has also shown a strong interest for being outside. We bought a little jungle gym from our neighbors (ome of the toddler ones) and we have been spending a lot of time outside. We go to the park, go for walks, garden, blow bubbles. He is just happier outside.

Lastly, he is becoming so familiar with a handful of books, that he can 'read' them. He will say the correct words on the correct pages and know what is coming next. He can also identify pages out of order. It is a lot of fun. He also knows which books he would like to read and will look for a specific title.

We can't wait for the warm weather at the end of the week and the melting of the latest snow. We are ready for full blown SPRING!