We have never practiced printing or letters. I have never given Josiah information on any of this that he hasn't requested or observed. It's just the way I feel is best (and what I observed teaching kindergarten). So, I was thrilled to see this...

His first perfectly formed letter, all on his own. I was doing dishes, and heard, "Look, Mommy! I made a 'G'!

The other thing Josiah has been doing lately is playing some educational computer games. When daddy replaced his work laptop, he gave the old one to the boys without Internet.

He can click his way through most of the games, and has even been clicking and dragging with the mouse for about a month now!

And lastly, for fun, we made some new tunnels for our train table. Breton cracker boxes (rectangular ones) are the perfect size. Covered and painted, they have provided hours of fun!

With two kids, I am finding it challenging to spend quality time and do meaningful tasks with each. Some days, I breeze through, and wonder what we actually accomplished. Like today, we just hung out, enjoyed fresh air, watched too much television, and tried to laugh as much as we could!

Guess what my three-year-old is doing?

Swimming! And he is so proud of himself! This picture is of him after we got home from the pool tonight, and he was glowing:

He's been lifting off from the bottom for a couple of weeks now, but tonight actually swam many strides, and with his head underwater over and over again! I think his new goggles have given him more confidence. I love watching Josiah in the pool. He plunges in head first, and even jumps into the deep end. He is so fearless, and wants so badly to do everything that we do. This is actually him in most areas of life. I think it is rewarding because many times his strong-willed and determined temperament are difficult, but when he puts it to good use, he is an unstoppable little guy!


Elwin loves the water too! (And this is clearly not a picture of him swimming... but I love him in this cute little outfit right now, and his toothless grin melts my heart!)

3rd Birthday

Three years ago today, this little guy was born:

Now he is so grown up!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy to my wonderful boy!

For Father's Day, Josiah picked a card out for Chris all by himself with no prompting from me. This is what he chose:

If you are familiar with Chris' family, you'll know that many of them love humourous cards. I guess Josiah has a knack for it already. And the potty humour comes as no surprise either. Nothing makes him laugh louder right now than bathroom words.

On the topic of potty, Josiah has been having an amazing couple of weeks of potty training success. Although he is still a little tentative about using the potty while he is in the care of others, he has had very few accidents with us, and is even finally doing '#2' in the toilet- yay! He's refusing to wear diapers or pull-ups most of the time, even out of the house.

I am very excited about his progress, and am hoping that he doesn't regress for too long after the baby arrives. One thing that I am frustrated with right now is when I think Josiah is using the potty as a stall tactic or for attention because he know's that I won't say no just in case it's for real. Anyone else have a doddler-type personality that tried to take advantage of potty time? If so, I would love to hear about how you handled it! I don't want to discourage him, and I want him to trust that he can go anytime he asks, but it has gotten a little ridiculous at times. Maybe it's something I need to wait out a bit until he is more established, but I'm just not sure.

Anyway, here is to the hope of only having one kid in diapers within the next month!

Bedtime

For some reason, Josiah has not been going to sleep easily lately. It doesn't seem to matter how tired he is or what we have done that day, he just drags out bed time. I think that Chris and I are both starting to go a little crazy. At the end of a long day, it is nice to feel done. But sometimes it takes us an hour or two after the bedtime routine to settle Josiah in. It is hard not to feel cranky after all of this too.

Today for nap time was not exception. We did our usual routine, and Josiah was obviously exhausted, yet resisting sleep (As I was typing this, he peeked his head into my room. It's the first time he has ever gotten out of bed and come out in the middle of a sleep time!). Once, when I went into his room, he said, "It's time to wake up now!" I informed him that it wasn't time to get up since he hadn't slept at all, and he replied, "Oh...thanks for telling me mommy."

It's looking like nap time might be over without sleep today!

Before the haircut...



Josiah was a little uncertain, but he sat so perfectly still!



His new haircut is pretty cute (although I just realized that I did not take a picture after the cut was done!). It reminds me of how old he is getting. He is also potty training right now. Potty training is a full time job for me and him, and I really hope it can happen before I am too pregnant or the baby arrives. I decided to take it very seriously this week after visiting with a friend. Her little guy is two months older than Josiah, and fully trained...even at night! She told me about her strategies, which contradicted a lot of what I've been reading, but made a lot of sense. So I decided it was time to see if Josiah was ready (the last time we tried, he wasn't really ready).

This week, Josiah has been without a diaper for most of the hours we've been at home, except when he is sleeping. He is very proud, and is starting to hate it when I put a diaper on him (like this morning when he went out with Chris to do some errands). I guess that's a good sign! This is so much work, but I know it will be worth it when we are done with diapers for good!

Two

Today, we had Josiah's two-year-old check up. Even though he turned two at the end of September, our doctor was overbooked this fall, so we were late getting in.

Here are some highlights:

- In the examination room, before the doctor came in, Josiah was into everything. I always find this the most stressful time, trying to keep him out of cupboards, etc...

- Josiah took it upon himself to inform the doctor of everything that has been going on with him, including that his ears hurt last week (because he had an ear infection).

- He has a mild heart murmur that does not seem to be of concern, but it was the first time it was detected.

- I mentioned his ongoing difficulties with dairy products, so we are having him tested for food allergies in the new year. It will be great to know for sure whether it is an allergy or maybe just a lactose intolerance.

- The doctor said he was very strong and healthy. He measured at 38.5 inches tall and 40 pounds. This puts him off the charts (he was so far above the 100th percentile that he didn't even register on the graph at all). But he is very proportionate, so there is no concern about his size even though he is more like a three-and-a-half/four year old. The doctor said he may be very athletic based on his size and muscle mass (Daddy will be happy about this!).

- The doctor also commented on his vocabulary and said that he seemed like a very intelligent little guy. This is always nice to hear from someone other than a grandparent (who may or may not be a little biased at times!).

- Since he was two months old, this same doctor warned us that we would have our hands full with Josiah's activeness and strong-willed temperament. He commented again on this today, and talked to me about the phases of this in childhood. He also assured me that it does not mean he will be an unruly teenager, but that it is just a lot of work to parent him right now. (Our doctor had a child with a similar temperament, so I always appreciate his observations and advice in this area.)

- At the end, Josiah cleaned up all the toys, marched out to the waiting room and said good-bye to every person who was waiting. He then proceeded into the secretary's office to say good-bye and Merry Christmas, and she gave him a sticker.

- When we got home, he was telling Daddy about the appointment and he said he was going to fight the doctor (this means wrestle).

- And that's my two-year-old.

This morning, Josiah marched over to the fridge, swung it open (this is a problem), and said, "Uuuummmmm, eggs...and pancakes please." Apparently the short-order chef is on vacation, because he had to settle for cereal, raisins, and an apple!

22 months and counting...

These are some pictures of Josiah on a day we were just hanging out. I was playing around with some of my camera settings, which I just never take enough time to do! (I can't believe my little guy is almost 22 months old already!



I kind of like this one. It reminds me of those orange-y pictures that were taken back in the 70's!







Here is Josiah trying to push his stuffed dog Bo around in the car.



The trouble begins when he tries to sit in the car with Bo, as it is not quite big enough for the two of them!

Poor Guy!

Poor Josiah! He had a rough fall last night that involved doing a complete face-plant into the patio-blocks. His lips and nose were pretty swollen last night, and this morning I noticed cuts and bruising on the inside of his mouth as well.

I love many things about this age, but the clumsiness will not be missed. It is so hard to protect him from himself! Thankfully he has kept all of his teeth so far and not broken anything that we know of (yet).

Lessons in potty training:

1) Find a friend who is big enough that he/she won't fall into the potty. Also must be someone who really has to go:



2) Get some T.P and be prepared for anything:



3) Help out, and congratulate them when they are done:



I am hoping that all of this practice will pay off soon!

Messes

Who knew that someone so tiny could make for so much extra cleaning time!

Here are a few 'messes' created by Josiah lately, in no particular order:

1) Spitting up while on his tummy and smearing it all over the floor with his hands. I think he'll enjoy finger painting.

2) Spitting up in his crib and rolling around in it.

3) The most explosive diaper disaster ever- still too soon to talk about.

4) Involving his hands in the most explosive diaper ever.

5) Spit-up, spit-up, spit-up, now with cereal.

6) Flinging his hands furiously while being fed cereal, sending the spoon and contents flying, multiple times...then grinning.

7) Launching his teething toy into Chris' side dish of gravy at the restaurant.

So, we do a lot of cleaning, and washing, and bathing at our house.

There is almost nothing better than a baby who has just had a bath.

Too bad it doesn't last very long!

More Teeth

Finally, a better view. No more 'gummie' smiles in our house (at least for a few years anyway)!

First Meal

Last Monday, Josiah had his four-month old doctor's appointment, and it went very well. We are thankful that he is very strong and healthy; although, the doctor indicated that his activeness may keep us hopping for quite some time to come!

For a while now, our doctor has been recommending that we start Josiah on rice cereal, due to his size and increasing nutritional needs. We really wanted to wait until the four month mark, so last week, we thought we'd let him give it a try. It was so funny. He laughed his head off, and so did we- we both commented that we had never seen him as happy as in those first few moments when the spoon hit his mouth. Take a look...

Near the end, he actually grabbed the cup out of Chris' hand and started sucking on it furiously. I'm not sure what was bigger, his mess or his smile!