Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Wednesday: Joshua communicating

Joshua communicates best on the changing table.  Maybe because there are no other distractions?




He can sometimes do button, but it more frequently has only one syllable instead of two, and so I didn't get a good one today.

I have also gotten several "please" motions yesterday and today (after prompting) but he seems to finally be understanding it!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016



Today I also met a friend at Rivertown and the boys played in the play area.  They had amazing stamina!  They kept playing and playing for about an hour, at which point we refueled with some cookies and then Isaac wanted to go back for a bit longer.

Joshua almost stayed awake the whole way home, but fell asleep with about ten minutes left.  It messed up the whole afternoon.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Monday: Isaac

"The spinning Bible turns you into soup!"

"My songs are at [Disney] World.  They're invisible.  I have 69 songs now that I'm four.  When I'm five I'll have 100!"

"My song is really loud and it is 13 years long."

"I drew a picture of a person yelling 'NO!!!!' "  (I still don't understand if that's what he actually did.  It was a bit confusing.)

We also tried out his bike in the garage.  He is still having a hard time getting the pedals around when they're vertical.  He had one good round though.


In Joshua news, he said "please" for the first time.  It was a pretty pathetic please, but I'll take it.  I'm hoping it wasn't a fluke.

Sunday: confession

I wish work started this coming week.  I'm ready to be back to our slightly busy schedule.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Saturday: lost and found

We been losing a lot of things lately.  We've found some...

1. The $10 and grey card for the play cash register.  (Found about two weeks later in an unused bathroom drawer.)

2. Three library books.  (Still MIA and accruing late fees)

3. One plastic frog that makes noise when air goes through it.  (Found about two hours after we realized it was missing because I saw Joshua dumping other things into the hole between our mattress and bed frame).

4. Our Thomas the Train DVD.  (Still MIA.  Ironically, we had been missing the case.  Once we found the case we haven't been able to find the DVD.)

5. A flash drive.  (Found about 10 hours later in a golf caddy.  Joshua had last been seen playing with it.)

6. The DeYoung picture of the cousins.  (Found about three days after it was missing.  It was in plain sight on the fridge.)

7. Our racquetballs.  (Found about ten minutes later.  They were in a bag pocket was not thoroughly searched.)

8. A cow from a nativity.  (Still not found, but I haven't looked for it either.)


Sigh.  It's kind of annoying.  But it seems as though these things just grow Joshua's legs and walk away.

Jan 1: sledding

This afternoon, after naps, we realized that we needed a plan.  So we decided to go work on the driveway.  You see, on Monday there was a snow storm.  (It was an odd storm as the temperature was about 32 deg, making it almost more sleety.  It hurt to go outside.)  The forecast said that it was supposed to warm up, so Ben and I ignored the driveway, laughing at the people that shoveled while secretly wondering if we should have shoveled too.

We should have.

I still have hopes of the driveway melting in the coming week, but based on this past week it might not happen.  So we at least shoveled the snow off of it.

Joshua wasn't having a great time, so Ben gave him a shovel ride.  That's rather hard, so then he got a sled ride.  Then Isaac wanted a sled ride.  It turned out that it was the perfect conditions for sled rides.  There wasn't too much snow and it was rather icy and slick, so pulling the sleds was a breeze.  Isaac went down our hills several times, a few times alone and a few times with us.  During most of this time Joshua was stoic.  We finally got a few smiles at the very end, but had to work pretty hard for them.  He wasn't crying or trying to get out of the sled, so I'm assuming he had a good time.  Isaac had lots of laughs, and I know he had a good time.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Thursday: New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve!

Today the boys and I went to a Happy Noon Year party, hosted by the library.

We put stickers on some hats,

Wrote our wishes for next year (I think the bell was upside down when he wrote his name).

 Went through the photo booth,

danced (Joshua actually had a pretty fun time dancing, even if you can't really tell in the picture),

 watched balloons drop at noon, and

popped bubble wrap.

My review overall - not great, not too bad.  They did an excellent job with so many kids.  However, the audio system wasn't great and it was kind of hard to hear.  I could definitely see going next year, but we might aim to show up a bit later.

At home I finished my kitty steps.  As our kitty is aging I am becoming afraid that the jump up to her food could be too much.  However, she did not seem interested at all in using the steps.  They are very solid.


Lastly, we used one of the Netflix countdowns to ring in the New Year before the boys went to bed.



Both boys enjoyed the sparkling grape juice, which wasn't very sparkling.  I have a great photo of Joshua drinking the juice from my wine glass and me looking slightly worried.  However, I decided not to post it...it seemed too much like I was letting my underage son have wine and not proactively stopping it.