Imitation

I walked in to the office/toy room and found Joshua in my chair. He was taking it so seriously that we had to take a quick picture. I'm not sure if he was reading his book or looking at the blog. Maybe multitasking?

A proud moment

We were at the store the other day, and Joshua stopped and got all excited at the Lego aisle. He pointed to the Star Wars ones, saying "airplane," and then moved on to the Lego city sets ("bus", "tractor" and his version of helicopter). I couldn't have been more proud.

Despite his obvious enthusiasm, Kathryn still wouldn't let us get him any. Too young or something... :(

Caleb's Birthday

On the 18th was Caleb's Birthday. I made him a special breakfast and dinner and his two favorite desserts, fruit pizza and banana cream pie. Joshua was way more excited about the candles and singing happy birthday than anyone else. Caleb got fun BBQ tools, and has been grilling a lot lately. He loves to grill.

Tractors?

While Kathryn was taking her turn at a stake conference session, Joshua and I decided to take some guy time and run (literally...with the jogger...in the rain) to the hardware store. Of course he saw the rows of ride-on mowers and got really excited. He ran over to one, climbed up and said "mine tractor." He then pointed at the next one over and said "da da tractor" and motioned for me to sit down. For the next fifteen minutes, everyone walking by was laughing at seeing him there so thrilled to be sitting on a tractor inside of Lowe's.

Burlington Kids Day

Back in May they had the Burlington Kid's Day. They had a parade with a marching band, fire truck and ambulance which Joshua was very excited about.

The highlight of the day was the choo-choo train ride. He was so excited about getting on the big train and now we can't go downtown without him asking to go on the choo-choo train.

Hershey Trip

The first weekend in May Caleb had to present a poster at a conference in Hershey Pennsylvania. We decided to make a little family trip of it.

It was a fun trip. Hershey is a cute town and everything is related to Hershey's Chocolate. The street lamps are kisses, and all the street names are chocolate names. The main attraction is Hershey park, which is a huge amusement park. We did not go because Joshua and I both couldn't go on any of the rides. Instead we took the chocolate factory tour, and went to the zoo, botanical gardens, and museum.

The factory tour is a free ride, with singing cows and lots of chocolate. Joshua liked it so much that we went on it twice.

The Botanical gardens were really pretty. Joshua loved the children's garden. There was all sorts of fun activities for him to do.

Joshua and I went to the zoo by ourselves while Caleb was at his conference. It was a little zoo. Joshua liked pushing his stroller all by himself.

On our way out of town we went to Gettysburg. They have an amazing new museum and visitors center. It was pouring rain but was really great to see. On the way home we stayed at one of my mission companions houses. It was great to see her and her family, and get a needed break from the long drive. We also stocked up at Trader Joe's, my favorite grocery store. Overall it was a great little trip.

Do You Like My Hat?

Saturday I was in the hospital on call all day long (absolutely fantastic weather, I was told), so of course when I finished Sunday morning the weather was gray and rainy. All the same we decided to go for a quick walk to get some fresh air. Joshua has been taking a bit more active role in deciding what he will wear lately, so today he decided that he didn't want to give up his shorts in favor of long pants for the cooler weather outside. To make a long story short, somehow he ended up with the shorts on his head and decided that they made a fine hat. He made it about 45 minutes walking around in front of our house like that, all the while emphatically answering "Noooo!" every time we asked if we could take his "hat" off of him.

All Grown Up

When we went to Walmart a few weeks ago to get that fabric for the new shower curtain (see below...) Caleb and Joshua got bored and were wandering through the fabric section. Caleb came back with these two fabrics, and had Joshua totally excited about them. I tried to switch them out but Joshua would have none of it. I personally do not usually like themed character bedrooms, bedspreads or even clothes, but I gave in and decided to make them into blankets for Joshua's toddler bed. I actually just finished weaning him last week, so I thought it would be kind of a good prize or incentive for him. He loves them, and I think they did help a little with the weaning.

I have been slowly been weaning him for about three months now. I tried to just let him set the pace, never offering it to him and also not refusing (of course I would try to distract as much as possible). It worked great with honestly no trauma, for either of us. I really love nursing; it is one of my favorite parts of mothering. It is just such a wonderful snuggle time, especially after he turned one and was on the move all the time. I was actually sad last week when I realized it was done. He will never be my little little baby again.

I had always planned on nursing for at least 18 months. I am a health nut, and honestly when you study it out there is no better nutrition for your rapidly developing baby and toddler than what Heavenly Father provided. It is really amazing. It is perfectly balanced nutrition that actually changes with the needs of your baby, it is perfect. Here is a link with some amazing facts http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T020100.asp. Anyway am glad I was able to provide that for Joshua as long as I did, and plan on doing the same for the next baby.

I took these pictures of him the other day. He is 22 months old now. He is really good at sitting there and posing for the camera but won't smile! I tried everything, but he just sits there with a very serious expression. I put the few glimpses of a smile up here. He really is getting to be such a fun little boy. He is talking, or rather trying to talk a ton. He mimics everything we say, and understands everything. It is so much fun to actually be able to communicate with him. He loves singing songs, and will do all the motions and try to sing along. It is really funny.





Besides that we have been enjoying some amazing weather. Caleb has been really busy and will be until the fall, but then will have a pretty relaxed schedule. We are managing well in the meantime, but definitely looking forward to that.

Sheep Shearing Day

Yesterday was sheep shearing day at Shelburne farms. Caleb was on call so Joshua and I went on our own. Joshua loved everything except the lecture on the history of wool, which I thought was really interesting. When they finally brought the sheep to be sheared after the lecture, Joshua kept saying "mama sheep baa" the whole time.

After the demonstration we got to walk around the farm and see all the other sheep. Joshua loved all the baby lambs getting "num nums".



They had a pen of the bottle-fed lambs that the kids could walk in and pet. I thought he might be a little scared, but he walked right in. He even thought it was funny when the lambs nibbled at his coat.



Here Joshua is saying to the little girl on the other side of the fence "no mine, mine lamb". Mine is his new favorite phrase. :(



We also saw all the other farm animals, and spent lots of time with the chickens of course.

Easter and Spring

We had a great Easter last week. Last year we started the tradition of reading the scriptures every night of Jesus' last week, and having a passover dinner on Thursday and talking about the last supper. It has been such a great experience and has really helped us stay focused on the Savior for the Easter week. We also did all the other Easter stuff. Joshua and I made sugar cookie eggs and decorated them. He loves helping me cook and was so excited. He did a good job decorating them too. They were all kind of tie died eggs.

We also died Easter eggs. Joshua loved it and cracked 80% of the eggs as he colored them. It was pretty fun, and well worth the mess and eggs. By the end his fingers were all multi-colored, but I really believe in letting kids fully experience things. Messes can always be cleaned, but the experience of doing something on their own is so fun for him and makes him feel confident.

The med school put on a great family Easter egg hut and activities. Joshua caught on to the Easter egg hunt pretty fast, but wanted to open every egg right after he found it.

On Sunday we had Easter baskets. Joshua was very into the trail of jelly beans.

It Snowed a little on Easter, but since then we have had some really nice Spring weather and have been playing outside everyday.



With spring I decided that I was really bored of my mellow pastel colored bathroom. So I went to Walmart to get a new shower curtain or something to change it. Caleb found this brightly colored striped fabric that normally would not be my taste at all. My whole house is pastels and kind of a shabby chic look, but I am liking brighter colors now, maybe it is the Winter. Anyway I re-did my whole bathroom for twenty bucks and I love it. I sewed a new shower curtain and basket liners and got new towels. I am considering going brighter in other areas of my house now.



It is a little bolder and brighter in person.



Joshua was helping me sew and measure out my basket liners. He played in there all morning.

Vermin

In November I found mouse poop in my closet. I freaked out, took all the clothes and washed them and vacuumed everything. I put a bunch of sticky traps in the closet and locked my cat in our bedroom. I know you are wondering why we even have a mouse problem when we have a cat, that is exactly what I have been wondering. She is so fat that her stomach almost drags on the ground, so that might be the problem. Anyway I never caught a mouse and figured it moved on. I left the traps and would check them periodically. Then after about a month I pulled one of my sweaters off the top self and got showered with poop!! So I deep cleaned the closet again got more traps and thought surely I will catch it. The whole thing has repeated it self every month. Besides getting worn out clothes from over washing I was starting to get really paranoid. So I called mantainance. They said they couldn't control pests but will fill any holes around our heaters and stuff where they could be getting in. This was about a month ago. Last week I was doing my spring cleaning and was vacuuming out my closet and under the bed. Again I found more poop, this time under I bed!! So I called my dad, who is pretty good at catching pests and get some advice. He says sticky traps are no good you need snap traps with peanut butter, and poison in the attic. So I went out and got all my supplies and then some set the traps and felt confident that I would catch my fuzzy friends. I have been vigelently checking my traps all week. Then last night Joshua was up all night sick with a fever, so I was sitting in my rocker trying to soothe him back to sleep. At 5 am I heard a nibbling sound on the basket right next to me. Joshua was finally almost asleep so I sat and listened for about ten minutes until I could lay him down. The noise kept moving around the room. I got my flash light and tried to find it and it would move to somewhere else. I tried to wake Caleb up, to no avail. So I went down and got my cat, thinking for sure I would wake up in the morning with a dead mouse in a trap or by my cat. In the morning my cat was down stairs sound asleep, and all the peanut butter was licked off all six of my traps, and none of them had sprung!! So now I am really upset, and have doubled my traps. I am getting really close to moving out of our bedroom until the mouse is gone.

Easter Egg Hunt

Here are the pictures from one of the Easter Egg Hunts we did with Joshua this year. It was cold and rainy, and he didn't totally get how it worked, but he was excited.