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It's Found!     Wed, 3 Oct 2007 12:01 pm

I've been walking up and down the fence row with a metal detector for the last hour praying to find my ring and realizing the detector was not as sensitive as I was hoping it would be. Turns out prayers work better than metal detectors! The machine never beeped, but there it was laying on the ground. Thank God! ( 3 Comments )

He Doesn't Nap!     Tue, 2 Oct 2007 06:27 pm

The teeth are on the move again and our naps are a little crazy again. One day he makes almost 3 hours and today he made it about 40 minutes. A set of dentures is looking pretty good right now. We got hundreds of day lily bulbs from someone on freecycle.org and I've been using whatever time I get during his naps to plant them around the property. Our first freeze should be coming up any time now so I don't have too long. Unfortunately during a planting session today I managed to plant my wedding ring too...I think. I realized it was missing after I came in and I'm guessing it slipped off. So now I have about 200 holes to look in. I rented a metal detector this afternoon and will try to use it tomorrow if it stops raining. I'm hoping the barbed wire fence by the holes isn't going to make the detector useless. I'm really bummed right now and trying to remember it's just a ring, but I'm not doing very well at that. Other than that, Josiah is continuing to learn new things (how to crawl under things without knocking his head off, how to reach on counter tops, how to push buttons) and is pushing as many limits as he can most afternoons. He's good in the morning, but he gets into everything in the late afternoon. I'm having to spank a lot because he's getting into everything in the kitchen and managed to find the pizza cutter, a knife in the dishwasher, a hot pan on the counter top, and gross stuff in the trashcan. I think we're entering the phase where all I get to say is "NO." ( 2 Comments )

He Naps!     Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:57 am

We've made the transition to 1 nap a day, something I was dreading and have learned to love. Josiah is taking 2-3 hour naps in the middle of the day so I have time to rest and actually get a lot done. Philip keeps commenting on how much more seems to be done at the end of the day than just a few weeks ago. We've also moved his bedtime a little earlier and he's started sleeping in later in the morning. I kept hearing people say that would happen and even though it seems like he'd wake up earlier to compensate it just doesn't work that way. It's been really nice to have a little more time in the morning to get ready for the day before he wakes up. He hasn't eaten any bugs or much dirt since the last post...at least that he's let me know about. He is starting to get the hang of drawing, but only for very short amounts of time. Then he'd rather walk around the house with his crayons, which just isn't going to happen with all my newly painted walls! I do let him hang on to his sidewalk chalk outside, but he hangs on so tight that when he falls (which still happens a lot) he falls flat on his face because he has no free hands to catch himself. He has some pretty skinned up knuckles right now. Guess that's about it for now. He's napping so I'm off to work on a project. ( 1 Comments )

Big Eater     Sat, 15 Sep 2007 07:18 pm

A few weeks ago I remember telling a friend of ours how fun this stage was. Josiah has been sleeping well for a long time, he's healthy, he can move around on his own, he has a sense of humor...and while all of that is still true I've realized we're not in the fun stage anymore. He can still be fun, but somewhere he learned to whine and he's very good at it. Unfortunately whining is my number 1 pet peeve. We pretty much have to stay on the move all the time to avoid the dreaded whine and I'm getting a little nervous about what we're going to do as it gets colder here. We've already had some days too cold to be outside and they were very trying. It's amazing how small our house suddenly feels when you're trapped in it with a fussy 13 month old. All I know to do is take it day at a time and keep reminding myself that he changes every few weeks. Hopefully the next change will be more fun. I've noticed Josiah's appetite slowing down a bit lately, at least some days. He's starting to eat more like the other toddlers we know instead of inhaling everything put in front of him...except when he's outside. He's moved on from dirt to grasshoppers. I thought he had a stick in his mouth this morning until I pulled it out and it had a head on it! That had to be one of the most disgusting things he's ever done...and he actually looked a little disappointed when I took it away from him. He's also learned it's fun to pick the cherry tomatoes that have grown outside the garden fence. Up till now he's just played with them but I turned around tonight and he looked like a chipmunk with them stuffed in his mouth. He doesn't actually seem to like them because they all get spit back out, but he keeps shoving new ones in. As long as he stays away from grasshoppers he can have as many tomatoes as he wants. I think we have our first 'blanky.' A couple weeks ago he started dragging one of his blankets around the house and periodically laying on it and hugging it before he could continue whatever he was doing. He's now demanding it be picked up out of the crib whenever he is. It's cute, but it makes me wonder why he suddenly decided to start doing this. He didn't learn it from anyone else so it must just be natural. It's funny how certain behaviors just seem to click on all of a sudden. Philip and Josiah went shopping this afternoon to give me some time alone and I hear they had a great time. Philip bought an aerator for the lawn and Josiah learned he loved Sears. He must have played with every tool in the store. They came home with smiles and flowers for me...great way to end the day. ( 6 Comments )

We’re So Proud     Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:13 am

Josiah has been staying in the nursery during church and really enjoying it ever since he could walk. I went to pick him up yesterday and the helpers were trying to tell the parents what each of the kids had been doing. They bragged on one who had played so quietly and another who was so smart. When they came to Josiah all they could say was, "Wow, he drools a lot!" That's our boy! ( 5 Comments )

Boy Dates     Tue, 4 Sep 2007 11:03 am

Josiah and I have been having 'boy dates' lately to distract him from those pesky molars that just won't seem to come in. The poor kid keeps gagging himself trying to reach them and Tylenol only does so much. So we've been staying busy. Now that he can walk so well he really enjoys the play area at the mall and just walking around the open spaces there. The fountain area is his favorite. Thankfully, he's not too picky about where we walk though. I've learned furniture stores work great because there's plenty of space and usually a kids area with cool toys. So far the salesmen haven't cared that we're only coming in to play. We went to the Firemen Pancake Breakfast yesterday with some friends and had a good time. Josiah put away 2 of his own and had fun playing with the other kids. He still doesn't really care about the trucks, but next year I'm sure that'll be different. He's getting close to actually saying 'daddy' instead of just 'dada.' It's the first long vowel he's been able to say and he seems very proud of himself when we get all excited. Philip has been working hard out in the woods and has a big area pretty much cleared. He made an enormous bonfire last night with some of what he pulled out and has plans for another one soon. It's going to take a lot of work to get the area ready to seed by this fall, so we'll have to see how far he gets. Unfortunately he has to do most of it alone as Josiah doesn't let me help for long. Speaking of help, I should be finishing a batch of spaghetti sauce while my helper is napping. ( 2 Comments )

Table Manners, Who Needs 'em?     Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:24 pm

In a desperate attempt to get Josiah to eat something other than fruit I gave him a fork and learned he somehow (sort of) knew how to use it. He now has a baby set of silverware and rather proudly eats with it until we get to the 'squish everything' part of each meal. However, this also means that anything resembling table manners is completely lost because the food doesn't always do what he wants it to and he frequently gets so excited that he swings the fork and everything on it goes flying (he seems totally unaware this is happening as he gestures). It's becoming an aerobic sport to eat next to him. He also has his first real pair of big boy shoes (Spiderman sandals that light up). He's worn some hand-me-downs to church a couple times, but these fit him much better and he can walk pretty well in them. His first outing was to the Home Depot and he would take about 10 steps and then stare in amazement at everything around him. It took a long time to get to the paint department, but he was having fun and everyone around us was laughing. One of his recent favorite games was the 'uh oh' duck. In order to occupy him while I cleaned up his nasty diapers we kept a rubber duck on the side of the tub and he'd knock it into the tub and I'd say 'uh oh' and this was so fun that he'd let me work. The new game is to help me unload the dryer, especially if it's his diapers (Josiah is a prolific pooper, so we spend a lot of our day around diapers). It takes a little longer, but it's fun. We turned his car seat around this evening so he's facing the front now. He didn't seem too excited about it, but it was fun for us to watch him bouncing to the music back there. The temper fits have lessened, thankfully. We think part of the problem was his growing appetite. On a suggestion from a friend we tried increasing his snacks during the day and he seems to be doing better. He's still testing all the limits and some nights the spanking spoon gets a real work out because he insists on opening every cabinet in the kitchen. I have faith that I will win this battle...eventually. Philip and I spent the weekend painting and the kitchen and office are done except for a few touch-ups here and there. I need to finish the trim in the bathroom and we're finished. It looks really good and we're really glad to have it over. On a random note, I found unusual animals around the house today. A beaver was roaming around the back yard (going for the compost pile I think) and an albino lizard was in the kitchen tonight. Kind of makes me think of Evan Almighty. If a flamingo shows up in the driveway tomorrow I'm going to be spooked. ( 2 Comments )

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