19 months, a bit late

A week ago Joshua turned 19 months!

Attitude: this last month has been a bit trying.  Joshua has discovered that he has a will and wants to exert it.  I feel like I've been ignoring him cry on a semi-regular basis because we disagree about how things should be handled (see Eating).  He's been a little clingy at drop-offs (daycare/nursery/gym), but quickly recovers.  He seems to be cautious in new situations, sitting in my lap for 15-30 minutes before deciding that it's ok to get out and explore.  He's still a lot of fun to be with, especially since he's started showing us what he wants to do...sometimes his will works for the benefit of all.

Eating: Ug.  I feel like we've lost more foods than gained lately.  He'll still eat the pouches from the store (fruit/veggies) and bread and eggs.  Bananas are iffy.  Apples get chewed but then pushed out of his mouth.  He has been throwing food on the floor and getting in trouble for it.  (Once I put his high chair in time out too because I didn't want to clean him up first.)  When's he's finished eating he wants everything off his tray....I remember Isaac doing that though too.  He's discovered that he can ask to nurse, so there's been a few rough days that we've sat down together a few extra times.

Family: Ben is his favorite.  I'm a good second favorite, especially if Ben isn't around.  He has started to try and hug Isaac a lot, which Isaac doesn't really appreciate.  He really likes Flurry too.

Communicating: Joshua hasn't added a ton of words the last month, although "hi" and "bye-bye" are very clear.  He does seem to understand a lot more though...the other day I started asking him were his mouth, nose, ears, eyes, and tongue were and he could point to all of them (for the first time I've seen).

Activities: he enjoys playing in the basement, reading, running, Ipad, and singing.  He wanted to go for a sled ride on Tuesday, but we weren't dressed for it at the time.  He does not enjoy bath time, and often is in and out within about three minutes.  He does not enjoy sharing and lets everyone know by emitting a high pitched scream.

Sleeping: still about the same; some nights he'll only wake up once, some nights two-three times.  We got a sound machine, but I'm not sure it helps.  He has wanted to sleep with his quilt and so I changed his pjs from fleece to lighter without feet and that may or may not have helped too.

Last note: Joshua was crying when I got the quilt out for pictures (I think I wouldn't give him more snack) but once he saw it on the floor he instantly perked up and laid down (top picture).  He seems to love the flash.

Wednesday: how the day flew by

The day flew by today.  I kind of wish it had been slower as there were several things I wanted to do that I didn't get done.  Oh well.  Some days go like that.

In the morning we went to the pool.  Isaac had a great time.  Joshua took about 20 minutes to warm up to the idea and then I think he had a good time too.

We came home, had lunch, made some -nators (thanks to Phineas and Ferb), and had rest time.  I had been meaning to get work done, but by the time rest time came around I decided it would be a better use of my time to take a nap.  Besides, there was so much that I was supposed to do that it wouldn't all get done whether I took a nap or not.

Everyone slept very well, and so Joshua and I took longer naps than normal.  So long that my dinner plans suddenly didn't work as I didn't have time to prep it before going to the gym.  After thinking about it and realizing I should have also gone to the grocery store, we ended up with pigs in the blanket.

We went to the gym.  I did the spin class.  I liked it more than last time, but still not all that much.  The seats were rather uncomfortable.  I also felt like I worked too hard at the very beginning so by the end I wasn't working as hard as I should have been.

Home - dinner - put the boys to bed - did the work I should have done during nap time - quilted - bed.

Tuesday: snow

We received quite a bit of snow today.  (Luckily, day care didn't close today.)  It seemed as though the plows couldn't keep up at all today...it didn't seem like there was that much snow, but I guess I was mistaken.

I had to brush off the car for the first time this season.  I've been rather lucky so far, but couldn't not do it today.

Monday: made it

Joshua had a rough day today.  I'm not really sure what was going on, but it seemed as though anything that I did was wrong.

However, there was one time where he wouldn't stop giving Isaac hugs and kisses.  Isaac wasn't so excited, especially about the "baby spit", but was a good sport.

They even wrestled a little bit and there was only laughter.

Weekend pictures

Playing with the monitor.

Discovering fun things.

Jumping.  Isaac had a great time at a trampoline place.

More jumping.

Joshua running.  He never seemed to quite trust the trampoline, even after the 30 minutes he spent just watching.  So he walked the blue part and then did a quick circle on the trampoline, only to hurry back to the safety of the blue part.

With Jameson, the real reason we went down for a visit.

Joshua going down a slide at a cafe/play place.

Being an alien.  Joshua really missed Ben while we were gone and wanted to be with him any time he saw Ben.

Thursday: snow day

So...the big storm didn't hit us.  We got maybe for inched if snow.  But I thought I'd double check the school closings this morning, only to find out that daycare was closed.  Really??  I had been planning on getting a lot fine today.  (Turns out that the south side of town got about 10", but I'm still not convinced it should have been closed.)

However, the boys were really good.  I still didn't get as much done as I was hoping, but did make progress.

It helped that Joshua played with the monitor for close to two hours.  Then Isaac played with it for about a half hour.  They both played with sand.

Isaac packed his suitcase because the boys, aunt c, and I were going to see Nathan and family...it had about seven cups (some for Joshua), a game, a hand full of Duplos, My Friend (a toy), and some rings.  (Clothes went in a different suitcase.)

Wednesday: kids

Hmm.  I feel like my blog posts are pretty much all about the kids lately.  To be fair, I am with them a lot.  I'm just going to go with it, I guess.


Joshua ran into a wall corner today.  I was a bit surprised that there was no blood when I picked him up.  I was especially surprised five minutes later when I got a good look at the thing...it looks like it should have bled but must have just missed puncturing the skin.  I do find it rather funny that the bruise is a line.  We know exactly where he hit the wall.

Isaac is getting better in the kitchen.  Yesterday was his first time pouring by himself.  (There wasn't a lot of extra in the bottle so I knew that even if he spilled it wouldn't be a disaster.)  Today he did a pretty good job of scooping some spices from their jars.  For some reason he doesn't completely seem to understand that you need to fill up the spoon with the spice before it's enough, but we're working on it.