Joshua: 33 months

Joshua is now 33 months.

Pictures: He does not like having his monthly pictures taken, as evidenced by the crazy cute frowny face above.  I maintain that it can take only 30 seconds if he cooperates with me, but since he doesn't it takes longer.  That being said, he is often asking to take pictures of us in matching clothing.

Growth: He can suddenly turn the light switches on and off, so he must have grown several inches in the last month.  Based on the last time we checked the light switches and how far away he still was, I expected it to be several more months.

Bear: while EE is shown in the pictures, Bear is still his number one companion.  Bear goes most places with us now, mainly because Joshua is so good at keeping track of him.  Bear does a few assorted things, including turning off the light in Joshua's room, clapping, eating, and on one notable occasion Bear picked Bear's nose and gave me the booger.

Learning: Books have suddenly become a hit with Joshua.  He liked to read before, but now he's asking for it more often.  He can sing about half the alphabet, can count through about 13, and is starting to actually count things.  He doesn't always get the right number, but he gives it a good try.

Eating: He eats well at breakfast and usually at lunch.  Whenever I tell him what dinner is going to be, his immediate response is "I don't like that."  I usually say, "too bad."  The foods that he eats hasn't really changed in the last several months.

Sleeping: sleeping is better, but it is still common for me to get up once to either put the covers back on or tell him he can go to the bathroom without me there.  If it is windy or thunderstormy he will often wake up frightened.  He still takes an afternoon nap; usually about 1.5 hours but sometimes more.

Playing: Joshua is good at playing.  He can put Legos together (above is his rocket ship).  He still does Duplos often too.  Yeah, we've done a lot of Legos lately.  Oh, and he likes Mario Kart because he gets to race.

Friday: last night

Last night Joshua was fussing, so I went over to check him out.  The problem?  He wanted to sleep in the guest room bed.

I told him to go back to sleep where he was.

Thursday: power outage

There I was, going along, teaching a lab around 8:45am.  "Teaching."  This lab was going rather well, so I was actually doing some grading.

The power went off.  There was a piece of equipment connected to the building pressurized air, so it was suddenly dark with a very loud, "ca-chunk".  In a basement room, with no lights and no monitors it gets really dark.  There was enough time to think, "hmm, the power just went out." and "it's really dark in here" when the power came back on.

The computers were all booting up again when the lab director came down.  He came to help people recover their data, which is good because I had no idea how to do such a thing.  However, the power outage must have been campus wide because the server was down.

The server took just long enough to come back up that we had the students skip to the last part of the lab.  We also canceled the lab report.  This was especially awesome for me since I was going to have to grade this lab report instead of my grader.

Wednesday: horse and matching

I thought you might enjoy the picture of the horse ride.  Bear got a ride too.

We've also been doing a lot of clothes matching lately.  Today was blue pants, blue shirts.

Monday was striped pants.

Monday: bike ride and quotes

We went for a bike ride today.  I told Isaac we could go to a nearby playground if he rode his bike.  Last time we did this, he got about a quarter of the way and gave up.  This time he did it quite well!  He does seem to go much faster on bike paths/sidewalks than on the streets.  He also started to enjoy hills after I encouraged him through the first one.  The total ride was 2.6miles.  I set his training wheels so that he wobbled a bit more...they're not at their maximum wobbliness yet, but I wanted him to get used to the back and forth of them first.

Isaac found this pretty picture while at the playground.

And our quotes for the day...
Ben: where are you going to drive?
Joshua: to my office.
Ben: What are you going to do at your office?
Joshua: make circuits and build a house

Isaac is doing a sloth hang from a bar for the first time at gymnastics.  He's the first one to do it, so everyone is watching.
Teacher: ok Isaac, you can get down.
Teacher: Isaac, you can get down.
Isaac: I don't know how to get down.

Saturday: I just want Dad

It was a common thing to hear yesterday and today, although there were several, "I just want Mom"s too.

Friday: book drop 2

There were 92 books.
(There is a very short info speech from Isaac at the end.)

They all got put back today, since we were attempting to clean up the house a bit.  I did take the occasion to get rid of a few that I really don't like.  I hid them in the basement...Isaac does really like some of them, so I'll give it a little bit and see if he remembers them.  My guess is he won't, but sometimes he pulls up tiny things from a long time ago.

Tuesday: information overload

Isaac, Joshua, and I are driving home.  With about five minutes to go, we see the windmill at Dutch Village.

Isaac: how do windmills work?
Amanda: the wind turns the blades and that turns things to make power.  Like in Sharp Cutter*, but with wind instead of water.
Isaac: ooh.  Water wheels make power.
Joshua: I don't want to go on a water wheel.  It's scary.
Isaac: so water, and sun, and wind and there was one more.
Joshua: I don't want to go on a water wheel.  It's scary.
Isaac: water, sun, wind and what was the other one?
Joshua: I don't want to go on a water wheel.  It's scary.
Amanda: ok Joshua, you don't have to go on a water wheel.
Isaac: what is another kind of power?
Joshua: I don't want to go on a water turner.
Amanda: well, there's coal and nuclear and biomass and...
Joshua: I don't want to go on a water turner.  It's scary.
Amanda: ok, you don't have to go on a water turner.
Joshua: and not Isaac.
Amanda: no, Isaac either.
Joshua: and not Dad
Amanda: no, not Dad either
Isaac: hmm.  wind, sun, water and one more
Joshua: and not mom
Amanda: no, not Mom either
Joshua: and not Bear.
Isaac: oh, I know!
Joshua: and not Bear.
Isaac: pumping power!
Joshua: and not Bear.
Amanda: and not Bear.
Amanda: what's pumping power?
Isaac: it's with your legs.  Like running.
Amanda: hmm.  Well, if you ride a bike you only get about enough power for a light bulb.  So it's not the best way to get energy.
Joshua: I don't want to go on a water wheel.  It's scary.
Isaac: but you could run.
Amanda: sure, you could run.
Amanda: Joshua, you don't have to go on a water wheel.

...and on and on and on...


*Richard Scarry's "What do People do all day", How is paper made?

Wednesday: book drop

At the end of story time, just as we were about to go, someone wondered how long you could make a track with the blocks they had.  This made Isaac wonder, and wish that we had the blocks at home.  So instead of using blocks, he started using books. 

It is going to be a water drop shape, so he's calling it a water drop and I'm calling it a book drop.  After putting about ten books down he guessed it would take 21 and I guessed 120.  He's about half way done; he kept getting distracted.

Tuesday: a pet peeve

In WoW, there is a trinket that let's one person swap appearances with another person.  There are also several items that just let you change someone else's appearance.

These things annoy me to no end.

I usually don't realize that I'm not me until I'm supposed to be healing.  At that point I spend 'valuable' time figuring out where my character is and how to get the appearance change off her.  I get swapped a lot because people seem to like the assorted druid forms that I have, especially the tree.  The frequency has gone down considerably since one person isn't raiding right now, but it still seems to happen once or twice every 2.5 hour raid.

ARGGHHH.

/endrant

Monday: stay home

Today was a stay home day for us.  Joshua still had a fever.  (I think it broke again, but I've been wrong before.)  Isaac's nose was all stuffed up so between that and the low grade fever yesterday we decided not to go to gymnastics.  At this point I feel like the fevers might be completely unrelated.  Sure, they both had fevers, but all the other symptoms were different.

We made a fresh batch of curry, the boys had some extra screen time, and we made it through the day.  For the most part everyone was pretty happy.  Or at least normal happy; Joshua was very annoyed when a toy didn't make a sound when he did a certain action.

Sunday: He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!

Unfortunately, we didn't get a nice family photo.  Joshua never changed out of his pajamas.  Ben and Joshua didn't see anyone else all day.  We do have this monster though...

Joshua continued to have a high fever throughout the day.  We even put him on ibuprofen and Tylenol at one point.  However, at bed time he had no fever and the medicines were at the end of their dosage (i.e., four hours for the Tylenol and eight for the ibuprofen).  He hadn't gotten that far previously, so I'm optimistic.

Isaac had a low fever that showed up in the afternoon.  He was still acting quite normal, but we kept him home from Easter dinner in case it followed Joshua's pattern.  It actually went down by itself, although he asked for some medicine when it was a little bit down.

Saturday: egg activities and a fever

This morning Joshua wanted to do a lot of cuddling.  This is a little unlike him.  He also felt quite warm.  But in between the cuddling he was acting quite normal.  So I decided that we could wait to take his temperature; I find I often take a child's temperature just to have it be normal.  Well, we took a little run (Joshua was in the stroller) and when we got home Ben was up and about so the boys immediately said, "Digger!" and the day continued.

We followed digger time by two egg hunts.  Isaac was much better at it than Joshua, so for the second one we split up the locations.

(The egg is in the sub above him.)

(In this one, the egg can be seen in the sails of the boat.)

After that excitement we dyed the eggs.  I don't have a final picture, but I thought they came out pretty well.

Near the end Joshua got bored and went to Ben on the couch.  I then remembered that I thought he was hot and asked Ben what he thought.  Still hot.  So I got the thermometer and the poor boy was at 102.8deg.  If I had that temp I would not be running around and playing!  Anyway, we got some meds in him and he ended up eating his lunch.  The fever returned after the medicine wore off.  I had been optimistic because he woke up from his nap drenched in sweat, but I guess it didn't actually break.  He was still mostly his normal self though, with several extra cuddles thrown in.

Friday: random things

Joshua has wanted to match clothes for a few days.  I remembered after I was dressed...this was as close as we could get.  Blue pants with red striped tops

Isaac is still trying to teach Alexa what sound a zebra makes.  She's being rather stubborn.  I find she is often rather difficult and have decided it's part of her personality.  Also, I really like the look on Isaac's face when he realizes that once again Alexa has not learned the sound.



A few days after watching PAW Patrol Isaac started asking for belly scratches.  I think this is the funniest thing ever.  (Joshua has just started asking too, but isn't as funny.)


In other dog related news, I was up with Joshua twice last night.  (Short, but still up.)  As I was leaving both times he said, "'Night.  Woof."

Wednesday: well child

Yesterday Isaac had his well child checkup.  Yes, I forgot it around his birthday and when I called to set up a vision screen they reminded me that he needed this check up too.

He is 43.75", the 53%.
He weighs 40.5 lbs, the 39%
He could do all the skills that the doctor asked him to do.

I was reading the "All about your child at 5 years" when we got home, and noticed that it said they can speak with sentences of six to eight words.  I laughed as Isaac can go longer than that...much longer...and mentioned it to Isaac.  (I did try to count on the way home this evening and lost count in trying to pay attention and count the number of words.)  Isaac mentioned twice that we should make sure to tell the person that his sentences are longer than that.

Tuesday: access and pancakes

Amanda, teaching: blah, blah, blah.  If you put Harrison Ford on one line and Carrie Fisher on another and are looking for the Star Wars movies, you will not find the movies you are looking for.  blah blah blah

And then a student smiled and I realized what I had done.

-------------
On the way to school today Joshua hoped he would get pancakes today.  On the way home from school he informed me that he didn't get pancakes.  When Ben asked him about his day he said he didn't get pancakes.  At night time when I asked him what his favorite thing was, he said there were no pancakes today.

Monday: change

Today we went from this...

to this...

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but didn't want to do it when it was cold as I wasn't sure how much hair I'd be removing.  Since it was a beautiful day today we were also able to do it outside and cut down on the mess.  And it was a mess!  I took a ton of hair off, but it was fun.  (I used the longest size in my kit, #8.  So it could go down more, but I think the length right now is actually pretty good.)

Sunday: 15 years

It's been 15 years since Mom died.  As is often the case lately, I don't have anything all that special to say.  It was a rather busy day, which was a bit annoying because I just felt disconnected more than normal.  Not sad with specific memories, just a general sad feeling.

Anyway, I found some pictures of her when she had a five year old and a 2 1/2 year old.  Because why not.

Saturday: running

The Tulip Race is coming up.  Isaac wants to win...but I told him that there would be big kids there too and we probably wouldn't win.  But we would do our best (and perhaps time ourselves).  He runs with such small steps.  I'm trying to get him to stretch his legs out a bit, but it didn't seem to go over very well.  He did it once and suddenly went fast, but I'm not sure he realized how much faster it was.

Run #1 was this morning with Joshua.  Isaac is so much faster than Joshua.  He took a few breaks to recharge his zooming legs, but ran most of the way to and from close beach (a total of .3miles).

Run #2 was supposed to be around the lake (about a mile).  I wasn't sure how far we'd get, but based on run #1 I thought we had a good chance of getting about half way.  However, three driveways down he tripped and did a face plant.  We walked most of the way home when he turned and ran back to close beach and then back home.  It's probably good...if we had gone around the whole lake I'm not sure who would have tired out first.

Friday: another first

Apparently I sang in my sleep last night.  Ben woke up to it and noted that I was singing, but not what song I was singing.  I wish I knew.

Wednesday: friends

Amanda: Joshua, do you have a best friend?
Joshua: no, just a brother.

Isaac: 63 months

Isaac turned 63 months a week ago.

Language: Isaac loves rhyming.  The beginning of last month he just figured out how it works too...he went from asking, "Does clothes and clothes line rhyme?" to "bear care sare zare!  A rhyme!"  He doesn't always rhyme real words, but he has the concept down.  He's also noticed that many songs have rhymes in them and is very intrigued by that.

Legos: Isaac is loving Lego sets right now.  Finding time for the digger is one of his priorities first things in the day.  He currently has three other ones going because they always look shiny.  He does a really good job putting them together.

Jesus: His faith is growing, and it's interesting to see what he picks up on.  He tells me that he loves me infinities of infinities of infinities much, and Jesus an infinity more.  One afternoon at Legoland I told him to think about sleeping for his nap, and he told me he was thinking about Jesus.

surprises: Isaac loves surprises.  I've been trying to not tell him the more fun things that we are going to do that day.

imagination: Isaac does not lack for imagination.  The other day at school I needed to wait about five minutes while he finished a project.  It was a potion, for Giraffe, that needed to be cooked so that Giraffe could gain a power.  (There was a specific power, but I don't remember what it was.)  He made a hanger (with a 3M hook) and made the fire.

School: speaking of school, Isaac is still enjoying school.  I'm not sure there is much academic advancement going on, but I'm sure he's solidifying concepts and learning other things.  I have noticed that he is suddenly coloring in the lines much better and seems to care about what color things are.

Monday: I'm grumpy! Leave your bib on!

Oh Joshua.  He's congested and there's just not much I can do for him.  We slept in the guest bed last night because it just wasn't working for him last night.

I heard a lot of "I'm grumpy!" today, meaning he needed a nose wipe.  For some reason he seems to have lost the ability to do it by himself.  And since he's congested my wipe wasn't always able to help.

This evening Ben and Isaac were putting together the next step of the digger and all I heard was "Leave your bib on!!" over and over again.  Apparently Ben was supposed to wear a pillow as a bib...a hard task for sure while you're putting together Legos.  Eventually he was declared clean and didn't have to wear it though.  We do not lack for imagination in this house.

Sunday: digger 2

Finding time to work on the digger was Isaac's #1 priority today.

Joshua: 31/32 months

I didn't take pictures at 31 months.  It's the first month I missed.  I was a bit annoyed at myself, but decided to carry on.

mood: Joshua was not in the mood to take pictures.  However, I don't ask it of him very often so I just snapped some so life could go on.  Joshua tends to be pretty happy, but gets scared easily.  He is also often in the mood to cuddle.  His moods swing back and forth rather quickly.  He is working on not throwing a fit the first time he asks for something; I'm working on listening to him better and responding promptly.

activities: Joshua still likes music a lot.  He choose a Barbie CD from the library and wanted to listen to it a lot.  (It was just pop songs; the only Barbie thing was the cover.)  Duplos and Legos are still chosen on a regular basis.  He loves birthdays and keeps telling people he's three.  He likes to run, especially with Isaac.

eating: eating is still rather hard  He does a good job at breakfast with yogurt and a granola bar.  Lunch is usually pretty good because I let him choose his main item (often a bagel) with fruit and crunchy beans.  I've learned that he prefers his banana in the peel.  He rarely eats much for dinner.  Sometimes a bit, but often it is just the fruit.

lovies: Joshua loves Bear, who is a pretty constant companion.  Not all the time, but often.  Ben and I asked if he could wait two minutes to get Bear today and the look he gave us was incredulity.  He also has elephant, teddy bear, little bear, blue bear, EE, and dragon.  They all sleep with him; there's barely room for him.

Motor skills: fine motor skills are obviously progressing since he can so some Legos.  He's also working on putting his own clothes on.  This does tend to be a bit of a struggle though.  So we've implemented "pajamas are a privilege" and until he gets dressed without a tantrum we will be getting dressed right away in the morning.  At night he's tired and flopping all over the place, so that's hard too.  However, one morning in Florida Isaac helped him and he got all but one sleeve by himself...so it's working.

expressions: Joshua has the best expressions.  Usually they show up when we did something that he sees as foolish, such as turning over the cup that had EEs pretend ice cream in it.

school: Joshua still likes school.  He went to the 3yr old room on Thursday and apparently did great!  But then when he heard my voice lost it and cuddled for the next several minutes while Isaac finished a project.  Yesterday, Saturday, his favorite thing that he did was ride the bus to school.  He's been doing a great job counting and can get up to 13 pretty easily.

bathroom: He's still potty trained; no relapses.  He had a few accidents over break, but we managed and it was understandable as Grandpa's house is just so exciting.  I'm trying to get him off having an M&M every time he goes on the toilet.  I give them if he asks, but don't just give them any more.  He's been pretty good at getting his pants up, so if I'm not around he doesn't seem to think about it either.

sunglasses: all winter he wouldn't go outside without his sunglasses.  Now that the sun is coming out he's willing to go without them and in fact refuses them sometimes.  Life is an adventure. :)

Saturday: Legos

The boys wanted to play Legos pretty much all day.  Isaac woke up and went downstairs to look at the set again; Joshua joined him.

We dragged them away to have a treat with Dad and Pat and then to see the forensics team at the library.  And for dinner.

Really, it was a win-win for everyone.  Ben had a good time with the boys.  Isaac had a good time with Ben and did a lot of the putting together.  Joshua helped a bit, but kept himself entertained.  I had a quieter day and that was lovely too.

Legoland, day 2

Thursday

At the restuarant.  It was a buffet style, so there were plenty of choices.  The first day Ben put two tater tots on his plate and Joshua was adamant that he didn't want them again.

We saw a pirate in the lobby.

The dragon at the entrance.

We had our picture taken last time by this octopus too, but both boys were in strollers sleeping.  Joshua did fall asleep in the stroller for about 45 minutes near the end.  It was almost a problem because Isaac started saying his feet hurt.  (They had to share the stroller.)

This lady was by Cypress Gardens; Legoland took them over but left some of the greenery.

Isaac really wanted a picture next to this one.

There was a gigantic banyon tree in the middle of the garden.  They grow roots down from the branches, which then turn into trunks.

After the gardens we started walking back, doing some of the things that the boys wanted to do.  (We did it that way the first day too, because the things they wanted to do had short or no lines.)  Isaac wanted to do a button push game.  They weren't there too long, and then he was bouldering.  He did it twice.

Isaac went on the joust and Joshua and I headed to the carousel for different horses.  He got distracted by the train.

Here's his special bear.

And waving to the kitty cat.

The train distracted him next, so we went on that twice, once with Isaac and Cheryl, before having a treat of apple straws and ice cream, riding the caurosel, and picking out some Legos to bring home.

At the front of the hotel, right before packing up the car.

The trip was a hit.  (Today Joshua wanted to go back to Legoland and we almost had some tears when that wasn't where we were going.)