Interpretations...

I've so enjoyed spending the last few days with Joshua. And I've observed a few noteworthy things (at least to me, a self-described overenthusiastic first timer at this parenting thing).

First, I'll share a few new words that Joshua has picked up. This took some real investigative work to do the translation on these. He would repeatedly make the sound and then it was my job to figure out what he was motioning toward (that was when he was giving me "easy" ones) or what he was trying to get me to understand with no clues. Finally, I feel secure in my translations enough to share:

"mmm......p" = "sweeper"

The best I can figure, he's trying to say sweep when he says this. How do I know this, you ask? Well, Joshua now stands at the door to our garage (home of the sweeper, swiffer and sweep & vac) and over and over and over again says "mmm....p" (the dots are because it takes a long time to get the "p" out) until you get him something to sweep with. He's quickly losing interest in his small swiffer and has obviously graduated to wanting to run the one with the vaccuum on it or the really big sweeper.

"oof" = "leaf"

Joshua's obsession with leaves has really intensified. It all started a few weeks ago when there was a leaf on our front porch. Judy said that he stared at it and had her look at it for the better part of an afternoon. He got very upset when the leaf blew off the porch, so much so that she went into the yard to get it and return it to where he could study it. Now, anytime he sees a window, he has to look for "oofs" and he'll say it over and over again once he sees one.

"ees" = "cheese"

I'm going out on a limb with this one, but I just put this together today at lunchtime. I was cutting Joshua some cubes of cheese and he kept smiling and saying "ees". I wish this meant "please", but I'm pretty sure it just means "Bring it on Mom! I LOVE cheese!" This might explain the undeniable need that I had while pregnant with Joshua to eat cheese all the time. Seriously- 60 pounds gained with this child, only 7 of which were him. The rest....EES!

Here are a couple more interesting tidbits that I've noticed this weekend...

We're getting into the acrobatics phase of toddlerhood it seems. Last evening, Jason, Joshua and I were playing in the office. Jason and I got talking while Joshua was playing at his table and chairs. The next time I looked, he was STANDING on his chair. Standing! Lovely. This fit well with my dream that I had on Friday night about Joshua managing to monkey out of his crib and falling down the stairs to the living room. Our second gate now patiently waits at the top of the steps for when my paranoia kicks into full swing. He's not showing any signs of actually being able to get out of the crib, but he's so stinking quick at picking up new things that it makes me nervous.

Then, this morning before church, I was finishing up cleaning up from breakfast and noticed Joshua had opened the drawer to our stove. There's nothing in it, so I didn't immediately yell, but when I turned back around, I noticed that he had one leg in the drawer and was seeming quite determined to get into it completely. Not good.

This is really a hodge-podge of stuff, but I'll keep going because the last story is quite cute. Joshua is also now obsessed with oranges. Any kind suits him just fine, but especially mandarin and regular navel oranges. This morning before church I cut him up a half of an orange and we sat at the kitchen table looking for "oofs" outside while he ate it. Judy had mentioned to me that he likes to drink the juice from the orange, and she wasn't kidding. This kid could not get the oranges in his mouth fast enough to clean the bowl and then be able to drink the juice at the bottom. He was literally licking the bowl clean. Jason said, "Maybe you should get him some orange juice."

Here's a picture of Joshua all dressed up for his trip to the grocery store yesterday. Notice the sneakers---- too cute. The monkey is along because that's the animal he picked to take along with us. I've learned to leave the beloved Bear at home to save another mall incident.

Talk to you all soon!