words

In no particular order, a list of the words fifteen month old Joshua has said:

ball (ba)
Mama
Dada
dog (he said this once but mostly he just says woof)
bye (and bye bye)
Nanna
WaWa (aunt Whit)
outside
inside
dinosaur
down
no
Mamaw
gone (and all gone)
mine
baby (he says it like beebee)
Pap (he says it like Bop)
Seth (he says it like Seh)

we interrupt this program to bring you this message

We were riding in the car the other day and Julianna said, "Mama? Oh nevermind." I said, "What Jules?" and she replied, "Well, I just need to tell that to Daddy." 

-----quiet-----

After a few minutes she said, "Mama, do you want to know what it was I was going to say to tell Daddy?"  She said, "I was going to ask him 'Do you get tired of leaning over to clean your bathtub? You need Kaboom! You spray it on and wait a minute and it wipes right off and your bathtub is clean."

Almost five must be the age of believing everything you hear.

eating green

Should I be worried that my child will not eat?  He basically only eats fruit now.  He would survive on milk alone if we let him, but we try really hard to give him food before we offer him milk.  It is hard though, when he's furiously signing milk and please and it's always a constant battle to get anything in his mouth. Or if you get it in his mouth it comes right back out. 

I know that he'll eat when he's hungry, but seriously? Can he just subsist on fruit and milk?  He used to eat yogurt and a few veggies willingly. He would always eat a chicken nugget.  Sometimes he'll eat a grilled cheese, but for the most part he rejects all food now unless it's fruit.  Tell me how I can not worry.

In Target the other day Josh was begging for something to eat and of course I had nothing in the diaper bag. I did have a bag of Goldfish in the cart that I was planning on buying and I never do this, but for some reason I opened it and handed him a few right there. Well, these were those colored Goldfish and he ate all of the ones I gave him and handed back the greens ones. Yes, apparently he can't even taste green Goldfish! Goldfish for Pete's sake!

now and then

early January 2010

late December 2010

Happy New Year!

Boredom Busters

Written for Triad Mom's on Main

I don't know about you, but my kids get antsy when they are stuck inside and can't get all their extra energy out. With the snowy weather we've had lately, I've been thinking a lot about this and so I compiled a list of some rainy day ideas that we use to beat boredom at our house.

X Marks the Spot

My daughter has a game she likes to play. She'll get my husband to draw a "map" of our house on a dry erase board and then he hides an object somewhere in the house. He marks an X on the location of the object on the map and we see how fast she can find it. This requires her to demonstrate map-reading skills, including following directions, judging distances, and reading a legend (if he includes one). We actually haven't played this one in a while, but I saw something recently that reminded me of it so we might hit up the Target dollar bin for some prizes and break out the dry erase board again soon.

Memory Tray

I place 10 to 20 various objects that can be found around the house on a tray and I give my daughter one minute to look at the tray. Then I cover it up and see how many of the objects she can list back to me. Next we switch. She takes a turn finding the objects around the house and puts them on the tray for me to look at while she times me. I list back to her as many as I can remember. This tests our memory and my daughter gets to practice her time-keeping skills. Not surprisingly, she often remembers more of the objects than I do!


Cleaner Than Play Dough

This one really works best for preschoolers, but I will often give my four year old a quirt or two of shaving cream and let her play with it on our island bar. It's very easy to clean up with only a wet rag and as an added bonus, she smells lovely afterward.

Thumbprint Art

Grab an ink pad and make thumbprint art. Kids of any age can do this if they have a little imagination. Ed Emberley has some wonderful examples on his site and there are a nice variety of his books at our local library. Plus, thumbprint art makes a great gift in cards, bookmarks, and on gift wrap!




Kids in the Kitchen

Rainy days are some of the best days to whip up a kid-friendly recipe. We've made trail mix, whale sandwiches, chocolate dipped Oreo's made to look like pumpkins or Easter Eggs, Tic-Tac-Toe pizzas, etc, etc. There are lots of ideas all around the internet but most of our successes have been making things that we would already typically be making and just adding a kid-friendly aspect to it, like cutting the cheese into shapes for a pizza.

pummelvision

My Pummelvision from c525600 on Vimeo.


I saw this on Zoot's blog and I thought it was really pretty cool.  I don't use flickr or tumblr so I had to put  Facebook as my option for where it should pull pictures from and I wish there had bee a way to only do this year like Miss Zoot did.  Anyway, it's still pretty cool.

fourteen months

Dear Joshua,

Happy fourteen month birthday to you today!  Little Stinker.

Ho, ho, ho comes to see you in just a couple of days.  I don't think you'll know what to do with yourself anymore when people stop asking you "What does Santa Claus say, Joshua?" because you've walked around this whole month forming your tiny little mouth into a perfectly round circle and sucking in enough air to say Ho! Ho! Ho!  Jonathan and I have decided that we're going to take the picture of you sitting on Santa's lap at the mall with us everywhere this Christmas just to let everyone see you walk around with it and point to Santa saying, "Ho ho ho!"

One night earlier this week we were checking out in Harris Teeter and you saw a Santa helium balloon for sale at the register.  You got very excited and eagerly pointed, asked me please could you have it/touch it/hold it/whatever said, "Ho ho ho!" over and over again.  The cashier got your a Harris Teeter balloon and you were pacified, but oh how you wanted that Santa balloon for a brief time.

When we visited Santa at the mall I truly thought you were going to grant us one of those priceless family mementos in the form of a picture with the toddler screaming his heart out positioned carefully on Santa's lap.  I even warned the photographer as we approached that you were not going to like me walking away from you there.  Once again you surprised me.  You sat hesitantly, but you sat there listening to your sister talk to Santa and looking curiously at the photographer as he waved silly toys at you.

Praise God we had no ear infections this month and not really any sickness after you got over that forever long cold just after Thanksgiving.  You've been a mostly happy little boy.

You are so empathetic and whenever sister starts crying you look at her inquisitively.  You show great concern always about Julianna's feelings.  But you can scream with the best of them when she takes one of your toys out of your hands.

Even though you still won't eat squat, you use a spoon so well when you do eat that I marvel at your skills.  I don't know when you're going to start teaching sister how to eat with a fork or spoon, but I hope you get on that soon, Buddy!

You're not scared of the vacuum cleaner like your sister was at this age and you really surprised me one day when I grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe up a cup of water that Jules spilled and you went over right behind me to grab the other towel and help Mommy wipe up the mess.  Nevermind that you walked all through the water.  I'll take your help any day, baby.

You flirt with women we see out at restaurants and whenever we're around family members you always prefer to go to the older men.  It's really funny that you have distinct preferences, but I guess that's what makes individual you.

The only words that you will say continue to be Dada, Mama, ball, bye, and occasionally NahNah which we think means Julianna.  You have however, added the word "No" to your vocabulary recently.  You shake your head to go along with that one and if it weren't for the enthusiasm with which you do it, it would certainly drive me crazy.

I know I sound like a broken record, Joshua, but you are ALL BOY.  I've lifted you off of the coffee table a hundred thousand times the past few weeks and once you figured out how to push a small chair over to the couch to get up on the couch and grab pens and pencils off of the end tables I knew I could forget sitting down for one minute.  Climbing is the name of the game for a fourteen month old boy apparently and you've spent the better part of the month with bruises on each cheek and now a slight black eye from falls you've taken. 

And speaking of pens and pencils, being in preschool has really helped you learn a lot about coloring and holding a crayon, pencil, or paintbrush. If you see your sister holding any sort of writing utensil you furiously sign please over and over again until we let you have one too and then to my surprise, you use it properly 99% of the time.

I really appreciate the early mornings with you because they contain the few precious minutes when you want to be held and cuddled.  You love to sit in my lap when you wake up in the mornings and drink your milk while holding your blanket.  If I'm rushing around getting ready you follow me everywhere and the first chance you get whenever you see me squatting down you come over and back up as if to sit on my lap, even if I'm just doing something like putting on my shoes only to get right up again.

There is no doubt that you have a sweet, sweet spirit.  You are loving and show your love for us daily.  You eagerly reach out to hug on sister when she gets down on your level, you pile on daddy when he's laying in the floor, and you reach your arms out to go to me no matter who is holding you at the moment.  Don't ever stop loving, Joshua.  We'll certainly never stop loving you.  Even when you destroy my kitchen in a heart beat.

Love,
Mama