Hard at work...

We can only hope that Joshua remains this enthusiastic about yardwork when he's big enough to do it on his own. In the meantime, it's a precious look at a little boy longing to be just like his Daddy. This lawn mowing ritual has become a bit of a spectacle in our neighborhood. Jason said that last evening, before I came outside, our back door neighbor actually went in, got his wife to come and watch the two of them mowing the lawn, and took pictures of them. Many neighbors have stopped to talk to us about how sweet it is that Joshua loves to help. And we all know that Mr. Fernandez and Mr. Spagnoletti LOVE Joshua's assistance when they cut their lawns. If his enthusiasm remains, this could be a lucrative summer employment opportunity for Joshua down the road.

Almost too much to put into one post...

This post is almost too much for one post....which explains the fact that I'm starting this Monday morning in a bit of a fog from a very filled-to-the-brim weekend. So, buckle up.....here's our weekend in review.

Saturday morning was the annual July 4th parade in Lewisburg. This has come to be one of my favorite days of the year in Lewisburg. You see literally everyone in town, the kids have a blast, and they put on one heck of a parade. I went into town around 6 am to put our chairs down for a good seat. Might sound a little extreme, but it's necessary. Most of the curb side spots were already claimed at that hour. See, all those years of camping out for Penn State Homecoming parade seats has been good practice for real life, when it's critically important for your two year old to be able to see the bands and horse poop up close and personal.

We met Darla and Sydney for the parade and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Joshua ate approximately 8 lollipops and was on a serious sugar rush for the rest of the day. After the parade, we decided to treat the kids to McDonalds Happy Meals and a bit of a run on the playground there. It was too advanced for my scaredy cat, but he seemed to enjoy the little bit of climbing that he got to do. We walked in the door to our house around 1:30. Joshua promptly requested his Bear and his milk and went right to sleep. I believe the sugar crash happened right about then. Brilliant timing on my part, wouldn't you say?

I spent the afternoon cleaning the house in a bit of a whirlwind. Bathrooms, garbage, diapers emptied, kitchen, dusting, three loads of laundry.....all done in the hour and a half that he slept.

Which leads us to.....

The great Big Boy Room Switch.

Friday evening, Joshua and Jason worked with real tools to put together some of the new kid looking gadgetry for Joshua's big boy bedroom. We've really been working hard to get him excited about the switch. Well, his work with Daddy's electric screwdriver on Friday night did the trick. What a great Daddy Jason was on Saturday night, when he returned from cooking 450 hamburgers and 150 sausages at the July 4th festival to begin work on Joshua's bed and bedrails. Around 8:30, the bed was ready for sleeping in.

You all know me well enough to know that I cannot leave a project half way done and count on getting a good night's sleep. So I then began the switcheroo of all things Joshua from the nursery to his new room. Clothes went into the closet, dresser drawers were unloaded. Around 9:30 we quit and everything was in it's rightful place in his room. As it turns out, this was brilliant strategy on my part because he was exhausted and very easily fell asleep in his new bed. And thus ends the era of rocking my little boy to sleep. I was sad, but too tired and too sore to dwell on it for long. I seem to forget that I am 25 weeks pregnant and really shouldn't push myself this hard in a 24 hour period. I was sure I was having contractions on Saturday night...and had learned my lesson.

Sunday morning we had to skip church because of the big Richard-Heckman-Bowersox picnic in Lewistown that afternoon. Daddy went to play some golf, so Joshua and I finished some of the work in the bedrooms upstairs. There's still a lot to be done before the nursery can be turned into ladybug paradise, but we're making progress.

We left around 12:30 to head for Lewistown. What a great time we had! I'm pretty sure our parents all saw and celebrated the poetic justice of the picnic. They were spending their time socializing with each other, all the Dad's with a drink of choice in their hands, while all of us kids were chasing, yelling at, or stuffing food in our respective childrens' faces. Sometimes we were even rescuing each others' children. I have a feeling that's how our parents used to feel when we were the ones jumping in mud puddles, eating bugs and doing other things that could get us killed, or at least maimed. Joshua had a blast and kept talking about how much fun he had when we got home. He was relatively well behaved, minus one small incident of him pushing Cooper off of a Power Wheel that he was sure was his and his alone. I was hoping Cooper would give him a shove back and teach him a lesson, but he's too nice of a boy to do that. Tom Heckman treated the kids to many tractor rides. Joshua IS actually in the wagon in that picture above, but he's in the back corner. Hopefully someone else has a better picture of the tractor pileup where Josh is visible. By 6:30 we were on our way back home with one tired little boy in the backseat. He slept for a few minutes and then watched Imagination Movers the rest of the way. This translated into another relatively smooth bedtime transition and a pretty decent night's sleep. He cried for me one time when he got himself turned around backwards--- feet where his head belonged. I guess he's not quite used to so much operating space in his toddler bed! Once I flipped him back around and covered him up, he was good to go until about 7 this morning.

I may have more pictures coming once I get them from someone whose camera was operational during the picnic. Mine was in the diaper bag inside and I was too pooped from Saturday to go chasing it. Call me lazy. I think Libby has some good ones that I'm sure she'll post of the group. What a blessing to have time to spend with our friends---- and we'll look forward to the day when WE are the adults relaxing with drinks in our hands while OUR kids are chasing their children around someone's yard!

What a weekend it was! Lots more excitement coming this week...

Disproportionate

I can't even begin to tell you how long I started at the word "disproportionate" until I was sure it was spelled correctly. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure it is. But I don't have any other suggestions that look better. But I digress.

I need to share that it appears our son is going to be forever difficult to clothe. After three different attempts at shorts that I was sure I had shrunken enough to stay up on his nonexistent hips, I finally found a pair that fit. I am sorry to tell you that they are size 18 months and from the "last summer" drawer. On the top half of him is a new shirt (which you can see above) that I got from the Children's Place $5.99 sale (love that sale for little boys clothes...girls, not so much) in size 3T. Now what in the world is going on here?

I believe Joshua's metabolism is on speed. Or maybe it's just that he never sits still long enough for any caloric intake to turn into anything besides fuel that he burns off. (I'm thinking I should try his "diet plan" although just watching him is enough to play me out.) Whatever it is, I have to say that I'm starting to get concerned and I will bet you dollars to donuts (I just totally used a phrase coined by my mother, for the record) that I get a lecture about his lack of weight gain when we go for his 3 year checkup in October. By our scales, Josh is weighing in at the same 27.5 pounds that he did this PAST October, which was the last time he was to the doctors. I'm sorry to tell you that he was not clothed at that visit, and he has been clothed every time I put him on our scales at home. (And since I'm in confession mode, I usually weigh him when his diaper is wet because I appreciate that extra half pound in our favor.)

What's a mom to do? I honestly have zero experience in putting on weight on purpose, since all of my life since I was......oh.......six years old has been spent working like a maniac to take it OFF. We do lots of high calorie, but still nutritious foods, but without success. I suggest ice cream frequently as a treat, but Joshua prefers fruit and fruit snacks and the occasional cookie (although he'll only eat one or two). Whose child is this?

And so, disproportionate he will be, at least for now. I record this now so that when he's 14, in the throes of adolescence and eating us out of house and home, I'll have this moment to reflect upon in disbelief. At least I hope so.

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In other news, I have evidence that my reconnection with the old Megan was only temporary. Yesterday, the highly anticipated nursery decor for our baby girl arrived. I was thrilled to find out that the adorable ladybug bedding that I fell in love with online was even more precious and perfect in real life. (Sorry Darla.....too cheap to do Pottery Barn......couldn't bring myself to type in the credit card number.) The OLD Megan, pre-Mommy, would have rushed home, wolfed down dinner and began to assemble all of the stuff and get it ready. At the very least, I would have put it in the washer to freshen it up and make it mine for good.

Instead, I showed it to Judy and Jason and then asked Jason to carry it up to the spare bedroom (where all things go that I simply can't figure out when I'm going to handle them) until I can figure out when to get to it.

For now, I guess I'll stare at it through the plastic bag it's in and admire it from afar. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll be ready to make the big switch into the new room for Joshua and then can work on reassembling the crib and get it all set for our little lady to arrive. I find it amazingly hard to believe how quickly this pregnancy is flying by. 25 weeks already. Before long, we'll be getting ready to lay another little baby into that crib and marvel at the miracle of it all. Notice how I skip over the "give birth to the baby" part of it? The, "holy cow that c-section incision smarts when you have to get up from laying in bed"......yikes. Nice, huh?

I'll be sure to share some pictures of what we selected once it's presentable. For now, showing you the big plastic case full of red and white gingham wouldn't have nearly the same effect. But it's really cute....I promise.

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And just because I find this funny, anyone who is wishing to come and visit us after we're home from the hospital should be warned. Just yesterday, I put the first of such visits on the calendar for October 28th. Seriously.

It just so happens that Sue has a class in State College to attend and thought about combining that with a visit to meet the newest Dugan, so we scheduled it. I find it funny because I'm going to be doing a whole lot of nothing.......besides caring for a newborn and helping a 3 year old adjust to becoming a big brother........yet we ironed out the date before anything else came up. I told Sue I thought she had that one just about right. If she's going to make the trek across 80 from Erie, she might as well wait until it's likely that I've had a shower, and there's a good likelihood that I may have makeup on my face. I might even be wearing something besides sweatpants.

I have a feeling our visitation schedule will be far lighter than it was with Joshua and I'm honestly looking forward to that part of it all. There's nothing better than sharing a new baby with people that you love. I just thought it was funny. Maybe you did too.

It was a bit like an out of body experience...

When I described our trip to Nemacolin using that phrase yesterday, I knew it was a blog post title. Does that indicate too much blogging? Although I won't run down the entire three days that we were away in painstaking detail (as I know I have a tendency to do at times....brevity has never been one of my strengths), I thought I'd list some of the things that we did that were more like the "old" Megan (you know, pre-Joshua) than the real-life one. So here goes...

I had an opportunity to actually TALK to my husband in longer than 17 second bursts of time during which Joshua is thinking of the next question to ask us. 3 1/2 hours in the car listening to music and not hearing "But whyyyyyyy?" nearly had my head spinning.

In the span of three days, I read TWO books (and they weren't by Dr. Seuss) from cover to cover. Shocking, I know. I would highly highly recommend "The Middle Place" by Kelly Corrigan, especially if you love your Dad to the ends of the Earth like I do and also have children. It talks about what it's like to be someone's mom, but still have the connection of being someone's daughter at the same time. Loved it. Could not put it down. Might actually start reading it again.

I sat in the sun. For 3 hours. Yes, I do have third degree burns. The whiteness of this skin does not often see sunshine, as it is mostly covered in pants and nylons for the working, sunshiny hours of the summer days. I think it was worth it.....especially if you read the last part about reading TWO WHOLE BOOKS again. My husband sat at the swim up bar at the pool drinking Corona for the better part of 2 hours. My father is so proud of him.

We ate hot dinners--- two nights in a row. And we talked. Seriously, how great does this get?

We had some pretty fantastic massages at the spa. I forgot how much I loved prenatal massage and think I may now treat myself to one a bit more frequently until our little girl comes to meet the world. We all know it's over after that for a while until I get my feet underneath me again.....in 3 years.

We took a road trip detour (thank you very much, Garmin) to see the Flight 93 memorial in Somerset County. Very surreal, but I'm glad we saw it. Now there's something you wouldn't do with a 2 year old.

Despite all of this, the best part of the trip was walking in the door to that smiling little boy, who still had shampoo in his hair from the previous night because he apparently wouldn't let Nana rinse it out. Whatever......he looked perfect to me. And the hug......now THAT was worth going away for. You just don't get the same hugs when you're with them all the time that you do when they're happy to see you return.

I'll work on some pictures of Joshua this morning when he wakes up. He's extra tired today because we had some landscapers here last evening giving us a quote on a project. You can imagine how hard he worked to be a part of that conversation. Add to that that our next door neighbor was mowing his grass and you've got yourself one exhausted little lawn mower/landscaper extraordinaire. Goodness, I love him.

Fun Pictures...

I wish I had more time to write today, but I find myself with a to do list far longer than the remaining hours in this day could possibly allow me to finish, even if I had super human powers. But I wanted to share a few photos since it'll be a couple of days before I'm back to blogging.

Grandma had quite a surprise for Joshua on Monday when she arrived. After spending some time cleaning out Jason's section of the attic, she came bearing Matchbox cars from Daddy's past. Some were even the initial Transformer type that turn into robots. Oh the joy on our son's face when Daddy helped him turn his trucks into robots. He was amazed. (And Jason had a ball reliving his days gone by.) The pictures above show Joshua enjoying his "new" Matchbox cars and driving them all over the couch. I wish you could hear his sound effects that go with them!

The last picture makes me laugh. Somewhere, Joshua picked up a silly saying of "Wrench......SCRREWDRIVER!" in the raspiest, goofy voice. He cracks himself (and us) up every time he does it. I just happened to have the camera to capture his face one time. So silly....and I record it here so that someday, 20 years from now, I can remember how adorable and precious he was at this particular period in time when wrenches and screwdrivers gave us a serious case of the sillies.

Tomorrow morning Jason and I are off for a few quiet, relaxing days together at Nemacolin. I love the idea of going away and spending some quality time with him. I hate the idea of leaving Joshua for a few days, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that and could anticipate my saying so. I know he'll be fine, have a ball with Grandma on Thursday/Thursday night and Nana on Friday/Friday night/Saturday. I also know how much I'll love the hug and kiss I get when we get home on Saturday.

And now, it's back to that pesky list. Things like packing, house cleaning, getting dinner supplies for the grandmas for while we're away, business responsibilities, etc. are really cramping my blogging style. But I guess that's the way it's going to have to be.

I'll return on the weekend--- hopefully still feeling the effects of the amazing prenatal massage (80 minutes worth) that I'll enjoy on Friday afternoon. To lay on my stomach for an hour plus sounds like Heaven on earth to me.

Joshua and Mom Hit the Road (Again)...

The only thing you're missing here is the fact that this interchange between our angelic, adorable children happened AFTER Joshua stole a toy out of Brooke's precious little hands and threw a fit about sharing. Thankfully our "talk" seemed to work, and the two played nicely after that. It won't be long before Brooke slugs Joshua for stealing her toys...and he most certainly would have deserved it on this particular occasion.

Have I mentioned how smitten I am with my niece?



And...what would a trip to Nana and Pap's be without some State Farm, too big for Joshua's head hat pictures on his gator?

Tight spaces! He did hit Aunt Libby's car on more than one pass....but did pretty well considering the fact that he's 2, that gator goes pretty quickly, and the cars were tightly parked. Why he insisted on going between the cars was beyond me, but we thought he was amused by the challenge (and possibly the gasps from us when he rubbed up against Aunt Libby's bumper).

Our summer running has kicked into high gear, but we had a blast hanging out at Nana and Pap's house yesterday. The purpose for our trip was a wedding that the rest of the family was invited to, leaving Brooke with no adult supervision for the afternoon. So.....Aunt Meg, reporting for duty. Joshua was evidently onto my plan of getting ready to go early because he was awake at 5:45. We were out the door by 8:45 and in my parent's driveway shortly after 10. I believe Joshua and Pap were on their first tractor ride of the day by 10:02...give or take a few seconds.

We had a bit of lunch and then Brooke decided to rest up a little bit. It worked out perfectly because she closed her eyes for Libby right as they needed to hit the road to get to the church for the wedding. Then I attempted what I knew was pushing my luck---- getting Joshua to sleep while Brooke was ALSO asleep. No dice. Brooke's first part of her nap was over just as Joshua and I were settling in to read. So, upstairs we went to fetch our favorite princess. Brooke and I rocked and rocked and rocked until she fell back to sleep. Joshua was a real trooper, playing quietly while Brooke tried to go back to sleep. He kept saying to me (in his whisper voice)..."I'll play with this truck. It's a quiet toy. OK?" Once she fell back to sleep and was lying peacefully in the crib upstairs, Joshua and I went back to work on HIS nap. And as we started doing that, in came the gang from the wedding. And so we settled on a napless Joshua.

Libby and Zig decided not to go to the reception, so we had some sister and cousin time instead. No complaints from me on that. We hit the Bon Ton together and officially wiped out just about all things Carters for the new baby in the new line that just came out. Too cute. Joshua didn't come home empty handed, though, as he picked out some new pajamas and summer outfits. We picked up some Gus's pizza on the way back to Mom and Dad's and happily stuffed our tummies with it for supper. We dealt with a few meltdowns on Joshua's part--- remember....up since 5:45 and then no nap....it was bound to happen. But we managed. We spent some time outside digging in Pap's mulch pile and riding gator until Pap and Nana got back from the party. Joshua and Pap rounded out the night with an in-the-dark tractor ride that Joshua really loved.

We came home first thing this morning (again, Joshua woke with the roosters before 6 am) and made it here in time for church at First Baptist. They were doing baptisms this morning and it was my first opportunity to witness that tradition in comparison with my Church of the Brethren roots. It was very similar, which was comforting to me. Joshua was chomping at the bit to get to Kids Church and didn't even say goodbye to me when I took him there this morning. Evidently, we're over the hump on that one. Someone once told me that if I didn't push him from my lap, he would jump on his own. And, although not purposefully, I think that's what's happened with church. Preschool likely will be a far different story, but we'll celebrate our small victories while we can. We are now napping (well, Joshua is) in preparation for the trip to the park in Lewisburg that he has earned for being such a big boy this morning. Round that out with a burger on the grill for supper, and I think we've had ourselves quite a wonderful weekend.

This week starts another whirlwind schedule, but ends with Jason and I heading away for a few days just for ourselves at the end of it. We'll be packing up on Thursday morning to head to Nemacolin until we return home on Saturday. There are massages scheduled, and pool time, and two fancy dinner reservations. We can't wait. And yes, I'm dreading leaving Joshua again, but he's already excited about spending a night with Grandma and one with Nana.

More to come...

Alert the media......I think we have a name!

For our new baby daughter, who I am feeling kick my tummy as I type this....

Joshua got to choose the name, and he very proudly told the world last evening while on a walk with Darla and Sydney. Evidently he doesn't understand that we usually keep things like names a secret in our family. You know, just to drive Aunt Libby ballistic.

But, while swinging on the swing, I asked Joshua what we should name his baby sister. And he said....

"Flower Garden Picker"


Go ahead and let that one sink in for a moment. It's a doozie, I know.

Flower Garden Picker Dugan. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?


So there you have it folks. I believe it's settled.

Except that it's SO not.

Rock On!

I'm just wondering, but have you ever seen a little boy who loved playing the guitar this much?

You know, so much that he'd strip down, put his socks on his hands and play with this much passion?

Neither have I.

And yes, he did really strip all of his clothes off on his own (I was impressed with how far his undressing skills have come in the last couple of months....through my giggles) and go to get his guitar because there was one on TV. We're still not sure why this particular guitar solo required him to be sans clothes, but he assured me later when we talked about it that it was necessary. I didn't argue.

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In other news (and I seriously almost called CNN about this)...Joshua crossed over yesterday morning at church and went to KIDS CHURCH ALL BY HIMSELF. And by all by himself, I mean, I walked him back there, told him I was leaving to go back to big church and that I'd be back for him in a little while. He said, "OK Mommy", went to sit on his carpet square with Miss Sarah and didn't fuss even for an instant. I nearly cried myself being so proud of him.

Church was exceptionally long (and by that I mean he was with the kids from about 10:35 until 12:15 when church finished....there was MUCH special music and communion, as well as all of the other normal things). I thought for sure I'd find him a blubbering mess when it was all over. He was a mess all right, but he was covered in bubble solution from a bubble lesson they had done. I also hear that he painted, but it was too wet to bring home.

Joshua was super excited because Pastor Jamie was back this week from his honeymoon. I wish I could convey to you how beside himself he's been for the past two weeks that Pastor Jamie hasn't been in church. He kept asking where he was and what he was doing, so I explained that he had gotten married and was on a special trip. Well, wouldn't you know, when we were shaking hands to leave church (after I washed the bubbles off of him....nice of me, huh?) he says to the Pastor and his new wife, "So, Pastor Jamie, how was your trip?" I thought the pastor would crack up (his wife did). He explained that they were on a big airplane and a big boat trip to see some fish. Joshua was impressed and asked about 87 more questions before we decided to move on and allow the nice people behind us to actually leave church.

It was a big day all around.

Ultrasound Pictures

Our little girl with her hand under her chin. The ultrasound tech said she was a "poser". I hope that will make for good photography once we meet in person, and not be indicative of a dramatic personality. Those perfectly straight arm bones were a major good sign yesterday! (Add that to the list of things I didn't know I'd be thankful for before going through this Trisomy 18 stuff a couple of times.)

If there was any lingering doubt, there is no longer. Even I know that's a girl!

One very cute (and not at all clubbed) foot! They were hoping to get a good shot of the toes to show that they were all where they were supposed to be. Foot and hand deformities are a big indicator of genetic issues. So this full on shot of a foot was a gift!

And the best one we got---- with the arms finally away from her face.

Yesterday's much anticipated follow-up ultrasound with Geisinger came with a feeling of peace surrounding it. For some reason, as I've prayed about meeting with the specialists again for another look at our baby, I just felt a calmness about what we'd learn. There wasn't the anxiety that surrounded our similar experience with Joshua, or our first visit there 5 weeks ago. It was strangely reassuring to know that it looked as though I was the cause of this little panic....that somehow my body chemistry negatively impacts the blood test that got us there in the first place.

Our appointment was wonderful....truly. I said a prayer on my way to the hospital yesterday morning that God would put us in the hands of someone who was really good at what they did, and that the baby would cooperate for some good pictures. My prayer was answered on both accounts. I don't recall the name of the ultrasound technician who took care of us, but I can tell you that she was a gift. She was kind and talkative and very careful to point out everything she was looking at and looking for. We also had a medical student standing in. I believe he was more interested in learning about ultrasound skills than about our baby in particular, but he was also very nice.

There is no longer any doubt that we'll be bringing home a baby girl to love...she wasn't shy about showing off. We had mentioned that we were interested in knowing, and so our tech went right for it. We told her that we had been given some suspiscions about the gender, but that no one was completely convinced. She very quickly said, "I sure hope they told you that you're having a girl, because you most certainly are." So that sealed the deal. Pink and purple and Barbies and dolls and makeup and drama and prom gowns and weddings it is. Heaven help us.

The gender confirmation was fun, but what we really wanted to hear was Dr. Schucker's opinion after reviewing all of the pictures that our tech had captured. She looked at everything, and then rescanned to get more pictures of the baby's heart, and then told us that she sees nothing to indicate a concern of Trisomy 18. The baby is growing appropriately and dating within 3 days of my October 5th due date. She said that by now, the growth of the baby's arms and legs would most likely be stunted by now. She also expected that heart issues and deformations of the hands and feet would be present. We got beautiful, clear images of all of them yesterday. She told us that there's no reason for us to be seen at Geisinger for any more follow up and that there's no reason that we need to deliver the baby at a specialized hospital like Geisinger. While I'm so very thankful that such a world class hospital is literally right in our backyard, it's not the kind of place that you want to be told you HAVE to deliver your baby at due to fear of complications. So I was grateful for that news.

And so we headed home. Jason was feeling like a proud Daddy and wanted to take the pictures to his office to share with all of the ladies there. I loved seeing him happy and relieved and proud of his baby daughter. Our daughter kicked me all the way back to Lewisburg, as if to say, "See, I told you Mommy. I'm going to be just fine!" We made some phone calls, sent some emails and said a lot of thankful prayers. I don't take lightly the fact that we've somehow survived a brush with disaster twice now, and I also realize and appreciate that life is miraculous and so very fragile all at the same time. It appears as though, by the grace of God, we're going to be welcoming a baby girl into the world in a few months....and then bringing her home to love forever. What an incredible blessing.

So, I feel a shopping trip coming on. Any joiners for the land of pink and purple?

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I can't possibly leave Joshua out of this post. Although he wasn't very interested in the pictures of his baby sister last evening, he was definitely a character. He and Daddy had a very fun evening of cutting the grass, after which we watched in amazement as Jason spent the better part of a half hour chasing a bird out of our garage who was looking as though they wanted to set up shop. After that, Joshua sat down to finish his Rita's from Tuesday night. Jason had his dinner at the same time. All of a sudden, Joshua looked over at Jason and said, "Daddy, we're both having treats together." He held up his Rita's cup and clinked it against Jason's drink and said, "Cheers!" Now where in the world would he have gotten that? Cheers. What the heck. At least we have someone to lead the toast when the baby gets here.

Or perhaps we could rent him out for other formal engagements that need a toast. Weddings? Retirement dinners? Remember folks....we have a wedding to save for now! We're going to have to get creative.

Positive Reinforcement

Have I mentioned before that I have no shame in using bribery as a parenting technique? Oh sure, before I had Joshua I had those idealistic theories about how it was going to go. But let's be honest, how many of those actually hold true when you get into the nitty gritty of toddlerhood? One thing I've learned for sure is that if you catch your kids doing something right, it sure is a lot more fun to reward that than to constantly focus on the negative. Sure, we do plenty of that. Say "steps" in our house and you get nearly immediate compliance from Joshua. He's spent many a minute there being punished for disobedience. But I'm also realizing that the positive reinforcement (some may choose to call it bribery) goes a long way.

So, yesterday was a pretty good day...when you look at it on the whole. There were no full scale temper tantrums. No tears when we left the playground with Brooke. No screaming or kicking when Joshua and Jason came in for supper. There were a few "no" spells, which I don't prefer, but he's 2. "No" is the most common word spoken by 2 year old small people, at least I've heard so from parents of such munchkins. We work on it, but the fact that it didn't lead to all out hysterics or step sitting was a major victory. Joshua played nicely with Brooke. He helped me to pick up his toys. He ate his lunch without a fight, and ate a pretty stinking good dinner with a little help and encouragement from us. In my mind, all of that added up to warranting a treat.

So off to Rita's we went. All the way there we talked about why he had earned a special treat that day. He could repeat back to me that he had been a good boy. He had helped Mommy. He took a good nap. He ate a good lunch. Etc. He got it. Which made the smile on his face as he enjoyed 3/4 of his grape ice from Rita's all the sweeter for me.

It may also have helped that I had a very yummy lemon Misto shake that made me and the baby quite happy. This little munchkin that I carry around with me appreciated my choice of reward too. Glad I could oblige.

So maybe that's why, at 8:15 this morning, Joshua still looked like THIS! He was hoping for another trip to Rita's. And if he wants to sleep that well, I'll gladly take him as often as he likes.

Our Day with Aunt Libby & Brooke

I'm sorry to say it, but this was our best attempt at a picture of our two "angels" together.

I think Libby and I have been looking forward to our day together yesterday for an awfully long time. For all of the time that she's been off enjoying Brooke, we haven't been able to coordinate our calendars until yesterday. So Brooke and Libby made their maiden voyage to our house for a special day together. To say Joshua was excited was quite an understatement.

The kids are so funny together. The best way to describe it is that neither one of them seems overly interested in the other. Joshua is mostly concerned about being with Aunt Libby. Seeing as how she's his favorite person on the planet, that makes sense. I saw one moment of jealousy yesterday when he didn't think it was appropriate for Libby to be spending time with Brooke instead of him. Oh boy, does he have a reality check coming in a few months! Brooke seems very intrigued with Joshua. If you ask my opinion, I think it's because he's loud and he moves very quickly. She just kind of stares at him with her very serious look as if to say, "Seriously boy, what's the matter with you?" The first time those words actually cross her lips, I may die laughing.

We had a fun morning of playing at the house and even got out the remainder of our "little" toys from the basement for Brooke to play with. Mostly she liked Joshua's drum and his garbage truck. We had some lunch together, but mostly fed the kids. Then we decided that a walk was in order, so we loaded up the wagon and off we went around the development. We headed straight for the playground, much to Joshua's delight, and spent some time playing there. Brooke had her very first ride on a swing and oh my goodness was she a happy little girl. She was squealing and laughing like I have never heard before. Rumor has it that after seeing the video her Mommy took of her loving her swing ride, there may be one coming to her own house for constant fun and smiles. It was the best to watch her have fun.

After Aunt Libby and Brooke hit the road for home, Joshua graced me with a nap. Being that it was Tuesday, I had nothing constructive to really work on at the house-- cleaning doesn't start until the END of the week (and who in their right mind would clean ahead?). I did a load or two of laundry, but then actually sat down on the couch, had a snack and enjoyed some daytime TV. I watched Oprah (the whole thing!) and even caught some Baby Stories and Bringing Home Baby on TLC (what is the world coming to?). It was a glorious afternoon.

Hopefully we'll be able to do this again prior to Libby's return back to school. I so enjoyed getting to spend some time with Brooke (and Lib too!). It's times like that that I hate being an hour away from my family---- it takes a lot of planning to get together, but it also makes it special and oh so worth it when we make it all happen.

"Daddy, which one's the thumb?"

I was just talking to my mom yesterday about her needing a new Joshua story...hers have made the rounds of her friends and fellow teachers. And, as usual, Joshua does not disappoint. Here's what we got last night.

We were sitting down to dinner...a gourmet offering of Subway that I slaved over all afternoon. (Give me a break on this one, OK? We had music class until 6 and bellies were rumbling on the way home. No time for real cooking!) Jason and Joshua have taken to playing games a bit while eating. Frankly, it keeps Joshua interested in eating....which is generally the LAST thing he wants to do when we're sitting at the table for a meal. Jason was trying to coax Joshua to eat his hoagie just like Daddy did, so they'd each try to take a bite at the same time.

At one point, Jason gave Joshua the thumbs up sign, and Joshua tried to copy. Except the finger that shot up wasn't his thumb. You guessed it---- the middle one was the one he was flashing to Daddy as the thumbs up. When we started to giggle, Joshua quickly said, "Daddy, whicih one's the thumb?" At which point we lost it.

So there you go Mom. How's that?

A Job Well Done...(if I do say so myself)

If it is our job as parents to bring as many smiles as possible to our kids' faces, then Knoebel's just might be the mecca of spots to take a 2 year old. (I realize the smiling factor is only one small element of our job as parents....but it sure is one of the fun ones, isn't it?) You can see for yourself in the pictures, but I think our choice to head there on Saturday evening was a good one. And, for the record, so did Joshua. He's been asking to go back ever since we got in the car to come home on Saturday night. We sure are blessed to have this place right in our backyard. Within 30 minutes, you're there, parked and riding your first ride. It makes for glorious evenings without having to go through the drama of spending a whole day away from home (and packing food, and supplies, and changing diapers in places other than your own house, etc.). We're famous for eating an early supper (this time, hot dogs on the grill) and jumping in the car to go over until dark or until Joshua seems like he's had enough. The dark qualifier always comes first...amazingly.

Daddy has claimed the spot as Joshua's favorite riding partner. I did manage an appearance on the merry-go-round, but otherwise, Josh wanted to ride with his Daddy. Really, it's fine with me considering the fact that even some of those kiddie rides spin a bit too quickly for me. And let's face it, those rides are meant for small children......not Mommies with OTHER small children in their bellies. I was the keeper of the stroller and the camera while they rode until they couldn't ride anymore.

Bedtime was quite delayed, due to not returning home until after 9:30. This also meant that Joshua slept and slept and slept on Sunday morning before church. I believe it was going on 8:15 until his eyes opened with a little coaxing from me. THAT meant that he decided a nap wasn't a priority after church yesterday afternoon. However, something interesting happened. For the first time in Joshua's life, he said he didn't want to sit on my lap to go to sleep. You might think I was sad, but I wanted to do jumping jacks! "Really? You want to lay down and close your eyes like a big boy? Holy crap!" I enthusiastically let him down from his reading spot on my lap and he crawled into bed. I covered him up, kissed him goodnight and went downstairs. That child lay in his bed for over an hour.......not sleeping. He was wide awake. At times, we could hear him whispering to his animals over the monitor. Sometimes he was getting books and taking them back to bed to read. But he didn't fuss for even one second. So, I guess he had quiet time at least. And honestly, he was fine the rest of the day (minus one small temper tantrum about coming inside....the root of nearly all of our temper tantrums in this house). So we'll see what comes of that.

In unrelated news, today marks the six year anniversary of my becoming a State Farm Agent. That's almost impossible to believe. But, June 1, 2003 was my first day in my office, and there began a wonderful stage of my life. At the time, Jason and I were dating, and we spent our evenings travelling to each other. So I'd work all day, then hop in the car to get to Harrisburg, only to return at about 5:00 am the next morning. Several days each week, he'd also make the trip to see me. It wasn't long until we realized that it was pretty silly to be living this way and the plans were put into motion for him to move to Lewisburg as well. I feel blessed to LOVE my job.....love it. I also feel blessed to have the freedom that I do. And as guilty as I sometimes feel about not being with Joshua all the time, I also know that if I'm feeling that way, I can just pick a day to spend with him. I've been blessed with an amazing opportunity- to do good things for people and be rewarded by a pretty fantastic company. Six years might turn into 45 in a hurry at this pace. But that's fine with me.

Music class is tonight at 5:30 to begin the summer session. I know a little boy who is pretty excited about that. He happens to be snoring at the moment, but I'll place any money on him asking about it first thing when he awakes.....or maybe second, after Knoebel's.