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...