What a weekend!

You know it's been a good weekend when it takes this many pictures to capture the fun! And what a great one we had.

Friday afternoon I snuck home a little early to spend some time with my favorite little man, and to give Grandma a little break. Naptime was already over (by 3:00- quite unusual), so we had extra time to play. Not so much time to clean or prepare for the weekend, but I suppose it was a blessing. We made a run to my office to finish up a few little odds and ends, then headed home to play outside until Daddy got home from work. Due to the short nap in the afternoon, we didn't figure it was a good idea to attempt the fireworks in Lewisburg Friday night given the number of things going on on Saturday and Sunday. So off to dreamland he went at a reasonable hour.

Saturday morning, Daddy headed off to work with our Kiwanis Club at the festival stand and cooked so many hamburgers and sausage sandwiches that he couldn't see straight by the time he got home. I felt a little guilty because while he was off working, Joshua and I met up with Emily, Earl and their adorable kids, McKenna and Cooper, to enjoy the parade downtown. I continue to marvel at how well attended and greatly appreciated this parade is in Lewisburg. Honestly, everyone I have ever met here was either AT the parade or IN it. Over 200 entries, including large scale drum and bugle corps, horses, more fire trucks than you can shake a stick at, and every high school band within several counties. I'm eternally grateful to Earl for getting us great seats to watch the parade. I believe Emily shared that he had gone downtown around 5:45 Saturday morning to claim our little section of the curb. But honestly, people had their things out there since Friday morning if the truth be told.

Joshua had a blast with the parade. It started, like it does every year, with a very low flying fighter jet that felt like it buzzed the tops of our heads. Joshua's reaction to the VERY loud plane was "Cool dude!" with a big smile on his face. He loved the horses and the bands. He was imitating the drums all weekend by banging on things and telling us how they sounded. The highlight of the parade for Joshua was a rainstorm that popped up on us very suddenly. There were big drops and lots of them. Emily, Earl and I gathered up the kids and everything we could hold in our arms and jumped up under someone's porch. In a few minutes, it was over, leaving mud puddles galore in its wake. Joshua spent the rest of the morning splashing, eating dirt and swishing around in the mud. He was covered head to toe by the time we got home. He also was "sharing" the mud with McKenna, although Emily assures me that he didn't do any major damage to her very cute outfit.

Saturday afternoon after Joshua's nap, we headed to Lewistown to spend some time with Nana, Pap, Aunt Libby and Uncle Zig. We had a nice lasagna supper (Mommy's FAVORITE!) and some good visiting time with them at their house. After supper, Joshua was wide awake and in pretty good spirits, so Daddy, Aunt Libby, Joshua and I headed out to see the fireworks display that Lewistown had. We lucked out and found a spot in prime location. Joshua had never seen fireworks before, so we weren't sure how he'd react. When the booms started, he kept saying "Pretty!" or would repeat us when we said "Wow!" The noise didn't seem to bother him one bit. The picture below is of Joshua (in his mokey pajamas) curled up with Daddy in the back of the Jeep to keep dry. It was sprinkling a little bit through the whole fireworks show, but we had fun.

As if all of this wasn't enough fun, Sunday afternoon we got to go to a picnic with all of the friends that I grew up with in Lewistown. The Heckmans were gracious enough to host the whole clan of us, and it was a great time to do some catching up. These picnics used to be annual events, but with all that's been happening in all of our lives, we haven't made it a priority to get together. So, we got to see Courtney and her daughter Teagan (adorable) and spend some more time with Emily, Earl, McKenna and Cooper. Some of the "adults" (in my mind, the adults are OUR parents) weren't able to be there, but it was still fun to be together with everyone. The kids had a blast playing in Tom and Lisa's yard. It was funny to watch Joshua interact with the other kids. He was very intrigued by all of the toys that they had there and went about his business exploring everything around him. He was fascinated by a table filled with bubble supplies and spent a lot of time there. He'd stop every now and again to check out what the girls were doing, but he didn't get too involved with them. The pictures below crack me up. The first is of Joshua with the bubbles. The next two are of Teagan and McKenna having a little concert for us- they were both singing some very silly songs. While they were singing, the last picture was taken. Joshua was digging in some sand at the bottom of the slide and looked up at the girls. I swear, he was trying to say "What are you crazy girls doing?"

It was a fantastic weekend! I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

"Monday"...

I have a silly picture this morning to go with a silly little update. Really, there's nothing earth shattering to report. We had a nice evening last night. Joshua got to help Daddy cut the grass, one of Joshua's most favorite activities. Then we had a very gourmet dinner of pizza, followed by more playing, and then we tried to start settling down for bed time. The routine worked the same as it always does, but Joshua wasn't asleep until 10:45 last night. I'm not a subscriber to the theory that kids need to be in bed at 7:00, but this was a little ridiculous.

The funny thing is that Joshua is starting to learn his days of the week. He knows that the garbage man "come house" on Fridays. He'll repeat the others if you prompt him. But his favorite is definitely Monday. Everything I asked him this morning was answered with "Monday"...as in, "Not right now Mommy, I'll do it on Monday." He wanted breakfast on Monday. Then a bologna sandwich for lunch on Monday. Then to brush his teeth on Monday. I told him I'd see him after work before I left and he said "Monday". He'll get it..........eventually.

And finally, on the level of grand observations, it was quite humorous to watch a new show that was on tv last night called "The Baby Borrowers". Anyone with kids or with an appreciation children would get a kick out of this. Evidently, teenagers who had a deluded interest in having a child of their own are saddled with the responsibility of someone else's small child and forced to manage the work load associated with having a baby in the house. I was mortified as I watched parents handing over their young babies (6 months - 1 year) to these teenagers who obviously had ZERO clue. Jason even looked at me and said, "You'd never EVER do that would you?" To which I replied, "Uh, NO!" As it turned out, the parents of the children were watching everything that was going on from a house across the street and could step in any time they wanted to. Many did...because the kids were really screwing things up (ie. suggesting that if the baby didn't want to eat, they should just let them starve, or not changing a baby's clothes or diaper at all before trying to lay them down for the night). So, if you're looking for a good chuckle, check it out. I guess they're going to move on to the toddlers soon----- now THAT ought to make for some good comedy.

Happy Monday......I mean, Thursday.

It's been a while...

It's been a fun few days for Joshua. And hopefully with the wealth of photos I've just posted, you'll forgive the length of time since my last post. I do have a few tidbits that you may find interesting, or at least worth your check in on our little state-of-the-union blog site.

First, I think it's now safe to completely declare victory in Battle Bink. We're coming up on almost one week and there have been no relapses that I'm aware of. After some struggles this weekend, we are completely pacifier free and very proud of our big boy. Honestly, as with all other transitions, this wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. That means I either have a very adaptable child (not likely) or I have a very overactive imagination that makes me worried unnecessarily about how hard things are going to be. (Don't even start with me...isn't admiting it enough for you people?) In place of his bink, Joshua got to bring home a toy Goofy from the beloved Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

We had a bit of a scare with a suspected shingles outbreak that poor Grandma thought she was getting. Page back up to see about me and being neurotic, but I'm pretty sure you understand how this went. We were all under the impression that shingles was not contagious, but I made a call to the doctors office just to be sure. As it turns out, they're DEFINITELY contagious to little people. So, until Grandma got to go to the doctor, I stayed with Josh. By Monday, it had been determined NOT to be shingles, and we were back on track.

The pictures I've posted are from our friend Cooper's first birthday FIRETRUCK party. Joshua got to check out a real fire truck for the first time and he loved it. Pap and Nana were there too, so they got to spend some time with him as well and he seemed to enjoy that. The hat he's wearing in the pictures is my dad's--- no interest in wearing his own. Just "Pap's hat". They spent some time playing in the stones, which was a big hit with Joshua. Needless to say, when I brought him home from the party, I pulled about 3 handfuls of stones out of his onesie. Gotta love boys. I'm particularly fond of the picture of Joshua with his balloon. After a balloon rescue from Joshua letting go of it, and taking it off of his wrist, we decided that it might be best to tie it on to his beltloop.

In terms of new things he's learned, Joshua can now officially count to 8 on his own, but he goes all the way to 10 if you prompt him a little bit. He's learning more letters and trying to write them on his little magna doodle thingie. He's able to put about 4 words together in a little broken sentence these days, and is coming up with new words right and left. His newest one is helicopter (he says COP-ter) and then tells you that it's in the sky. He's managed to learn how to go up and down the ledge of our patio with no assistance. It's not always graceful, and he's taken quite a few spills, but he's getting pretty good at going up and down and will do it ad nauseum.

I'll be back in touch more frequently over the next few days with more pictures, I hope. Now that things are settling down a little bit, I should be more reliable with my Joshua alerts and photo updates.

See you all soon!

Fun with Sydney!

I thought you might enjoy a sneak peek at Joshua and Sydney's play time last evening. Our plan began with the idea of a nice wagon ride for the kids...which didn't last long. The picture you see of Joshua and Syd in the wagon was really the last time that Sydney was pleased with the idea. She preferred to walk beside the wagon while we went around the development (on the short loop). So, we thought it might be best to let them run and play in the front yard instead of continuing our trek. I guess the mommies didn't need the exercise as much as we thought we did. The best giggle of the evening came when Sydney got to ride on Joshua's tractor. She didn't quite get the idea of pushing the button in and holding it there to make the tractor go, so she jerked and lerched quite a bit. Hopefully there's no baby whiplash being suffered today after the wild ride. The older they get, the more fun it is to see them playing together.

I also am pleased to report that we're pacifier free at our house. I hope it's not too soon to declare victory on that, but we've managed a bed time and now a nap time without the bink...and I'm so proud of my little buddy for being so cooperative. I had thought that it was soon time to take it away, and had a goal of his 2nd birthday to get rid of it. Last night after his tub and books, I thought I'd give it a try with putting him to sleep minus his pacifier. It wasn't easy, but it worked. And he slept through the night without too much trouble. He did fuss for a minute around 4:30 this morning, but put himself back to sleep on his own without searching for the bink in his crib. Naptime today was similar, but he's still dreaming away. So...yay for the big boy! When he asked for his bink last night and this afternoon I told him, "You don't need that yucky bink." And then he said "ucky bink" like "Yeah, Mom! You got it!" Here's to hoping the streak continues.

Happy Weekend!

Backwards Banana

I have to start by saying that I only looked away for a split second. But that's all it took for Joshua to take a whopping bite out of the back end of his banana with breakfast this morning. Skin, banana stump and all...he was chomping away on it with a very peculiar look on his face when I returned from dumping his leftover breakfast this morning. Luckily I got it out of his mouth before he choked. I tried to explain that we only eat the banana from the top end, without the peel, but I'm not sure it sunk in.

What a kid!

Breakfast was comical this morning all around. Before the banana incident, Joshua's opinions and preferences came to the forefront. First, when I went to get his breakfast started (like I always do at pretty much the exact same time every single morning), he grabbed my hand and led me to the couch.

"Sit Mommy."

So I sat.

"Read it. Peeeeeeeease."

So I read him the book he had brought over for me. We read that book 3 times right in a row.
Then I asked him, "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Beans." (With a grin on his face.)

"No honey, we don't eat beans for breakfast. What would you like to eat? How about some eggs?"

"No. Maffle." (That's Joshua for "waffle".) So that's what I made him. And he ate it like a champ, though evidently saving room for some banana peel for roughage.

Since when does a toddler get to have such strong opinions. I have no earthly clue where he would get a quality like that...

I don't have much to post today, but I thought I'd at least put up a few pictures of the little guy from our playtime pre-work this morning. First of all, I thought all of my fellow PSU fans would appreciate his navy and white this morning. Looking very festive, huh?

It was a quiet evening last night- supper, play time, lots of books, tub time and an earlier bed time. I think he was in dreamland around 9, which is quite an improvement over the times that we've been experiencing lately. We're still having a little trouble with Joshua not wanting to eat supper. It ended up with him in tears last night and us having to distract him with something fun to get him to eat anything for dinner. So, we're experimenting with no afternoon snack today to see if that increases his interest in supper.

I also should tell you that we've learned how to say "no" at our house...much to Mommy and Daddy's dismay. It's helpful in a way, because at least he can give us a real answer about what he wants to do. But I have to learn not to ask him a question that he's going to give me a "no" answer to if "no" isn't really an option. Like, "Do you want to go brush your teeth?" "No..." But it doesn't work that way. "Do you want to go inside?" "No..." "Too bad." So, I'll have to learn how to rephrase my conversations with him now that he has an answer that's not going to work out. So much of parenting bears a striking resemblance to manipulation, doesn't it?

And, the icing on the cake....here are a few pictures of Joshua "dancing" this morning to Sesame Street (Cookie Monster in particular). I'm not sure why he has to stick out his rump in order to dance, but that's what he does. It's adorable. Jason reminded me last evening that Joshua isn't a circus animal, and we shouldn't ask him to perform on command. But it's hard not to---- just to watch him. It's much better in person, so hopefully you'll get to see it with your own eyes soon.

I hope you're all enjoying this September-in-June kind of day. It's about 70 degrees here. Perfect Megan weather. Too bad the sky is black--- otherwise I could feel a nice long wagon ride coming on for Josh tonight. We'll see...

Precious...

It's been a fun few days around our house. With the heat wave (which, in my opinion, can be the LAST one of those we experience this summer) lifting, we've been able to get back outside and play without running the risk of overheating. Last night, Joshua had great fun with his "mowder" while Daddy used the big mower to cut the grass. I thought the pictures were precious, particularly the one with Daddy in the background and Joshua in the foreground, both pushing their mowers in unison. The last picture shows Joshua's red cheeks. That seems to be the first sign of him overexerting himself. I think he drank 2 sippy cups of water after coming in from all of the running up and down the driveway that he had been doing.

The shot below is one for your enjoyment just in case you hadn't gotten your fill of Joshua personality for the week. I was trying to take his picture and he kept squirming away and making funny faces at me. Then he'd jump down off the couch to "see it" in the camera. It's like he knows that the sillier he is in the picture, the funnier it will look when he gets to see it.

I also read something this afternoon that I thought was worth posting. This was posted on my BabyCenter Birth Club board this afternoon. I don't know where it came from, but it is poignant. Coming from a mom who is blessed with a career that I love and a very full, rich life, I can tell you that if someone asked me what the most important thing in my life is, it is this precious little boy who has been entrusted to us by God, hands down. Forget anything else. Forget the race for fortune and fame. Forget the worldly things that we so irresponsibly place so much value on. It's this little person, who I love to the depths of my soul, that really matters. And it's the family that we provide for him as his parents that counts. So, enjoy this. I wish I could take credit for having written it.

The Girl That I Used to Be…

She came tonight as I sat alone,The girl I used to be...

And she gazed at me with her earnest eyes and questioned reproachfully:

Have you forgotten the many plans and hopes that I had for you?

The great career, the splendid fame,all the wonderful things to do?.

Where is the mansion of stately height with all of its gardens rare?

The silken robes that I dreamed for you and the jewels in your hair?

And as she spoke, I was very sad for I wanted her pleased with me...

This slender girl from the shadowy past, the girl that I used to be.

So gently rising, I took her hand and guided her up the stair,

where peacefully sleeping, my babies lay, innocent, sweet, and fair.

And I told her that these are my only gems, and precious they are to me;

That silken robe is my motherhood, of costly simplicity.

And my mansion of stately height is love,

And the only career I know is serving each day in these sheltered walls for the dear ones who come and go.

And as I spoke to my shadowy guest, she smiled through her tears at me.

And I saw the woman that I am now pleased the girl that I used to be.

A few quick shots...

Right about now, I'm wishing like heck that it was October. The heat has hit central PA like a ton of bricks. It's too hot to play outside, or even think about it. It's too hot to really do too much of anything. So we spent the weekend mostly inside for fear of a heat stroke for the little guy.

The pictures above are from Friday morning with Joshua's very snazzy Penn State outfit. It makes me anxious for football season to see him suited up like that! When we'd ask him what was on his shirt he'd smile and say "Penn...Tate". Very cute. I can't wait to stock up his PSU wardrobe on our next trip to Happy Valley.

Saturday my parents came for a quick visit and a quick hot dog on the grill for lunch. Joshua got to show Nana and Pap his tractor, but I quickly rushed him back inside before we had a sunburn to deal with. While Joshua napped in the afternoon, I finally tackled the flower planting on our patio, our front porch and at the office. Better late than never I suppose.

Sunday morning Joshua and I went to church. We made it half way through church before Joshua felt the need to announce to everyone that he had pooped. After three or four repeats of it, I decided I better take him into the nursery to take care of business. And he played there nicely with another little girl. He wouldn't let me leave, but at least we got a little socialization and half of a church service under our belts. The pictures below are of Joshua all dressed up for church. What a preppy little man he was!

Let's hope for a cool streak soon...and God bless my pregnant sister and friends who are dealing with this.

Tuesday at home...

Today is one of those great mornings where I woke up knowing that I get to spend at least the morning with my favorite little buddy. We've been doing little things around the house- lots of books read, one episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse already under our belt, and a load of laundry soon to be tackled. I snapped these few pictures this morning after Joshua devoured his oatmeal and half of my slice of toast. He keeps pointing out his green shirt today- "Geen Mommy!" is what he says every time he realizes that his shirt is still, in fact, green.

I love these days! Hope yours is great too.

Zonked...

I just had to share these few pictures. "Zonked" seems to correctly capture it in both of the ones above. We had a busy, though relatively unexciting weekend. There was enough going on to disrupt Joshua's schedule, but he's getting more adaptable in his old age. Check out the hat turned to the side in the first one. And yes, that is our child FACING FORWARD in his car seat. Gasp! He reached the height limit for rear facing and needed to turn. He loves it. I always joke that now he can see where he's going instead of where he's been.

Friday night was a home night. We attempted chores, but didn't get too far.

Saturday we ended up going to the grocery store where we ran into Karen. Joshua called him Kar-nen. Very cute. All plans got messed up when my grocery organizing left a bit to be desired. I wound up with an extra trip to the store on Saturday afternoon when I was supposed to be cooking ahead for the week and getting cleaning done.

Sunday morning we were church skippers (had to clean the bathrooms sometime!) and then worked on a Kiwanis project walking the streets of downtown Lewisburg yesterday afternoon. Joshua seemed to enjoy the outdoors time. I figured he'd sleep in the stroller while we walked, but evidently there was too much to look at for him to do that. Within 2 minutes of pulling out of the parking lot, the first picture was taken. Which presented a problem--- how would we get him out of the carseat and into bed STILL ASLEEP once we got home in a few minutes? The answer...we wouldn't. He woke up and didn't fall back asleep until after 4:00, not for lack of trying on my part. So, he was still sleeping when I woke him up at 5:00 for fear of him not going to bed that night.

So, this morning, he was still asleep at 8:15. Unbelievable, I know. But he had some catching up to do. Once he woke up, I took the following few pictures. He's so happy in the mornings...I love it. Gotta love those monster PJ's too, huh? They say "What are you looking at?" on the front. Cracks me up everytime he wears them.

Enjoy the pics. More soon!