Joshua!

Sorry no pictures because they are all on the back computer...but there are some good ones we've taken recently - I'll try to get some of them posted soon!

Joshua is seriously amazing...and a stinking genius. I hope that Henry doesn't feel like we're constantly comparing him to Joshua, like if Henry has perfectly normal language development, I don't want him to feel like we are disappointed in him because he isn't as extraordinary in his verbal-ness (yeah, I don't know where Joshy gets it...) as Joshua was. Anyway, I have awhile before he'll start resenting me, so I'll put that worry on the back burner for now.

So Joshua...he LOVES to sing, and he's a great singer. He can sing full songs, pretty much on key, and often with nearly all the words. He knows the whole ABC song perfectly, knows the first and second verse and chorus of "I am a Child of God," and can sing (I'm going to avoid putting more quotes cuz that's annoying) The Itsy Bitsy Spider, You are my Sunshine, The Lion Sleeps Tonight (actually I'm not sure what the actual title of that song is), Here we are Together, Albuquerque Turkey, Happy Birthday, Row Row Your Boat, Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink (you know what I mean), Rock-a-bye Baby, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some of Silent Night...man tons more - I'm probably forgetting some key ones, but I'm running on 4 hours of sleep, so be forgiving. One of the funniest parts of his singing talents is that he loves to change the words to the songs, and he knows he is hilarious, so he laughs at himself so much. He'll change it to, the itsy bitsy MAMA or ABCDEF DADA, or I am a child of EMMA-WEE...funny things like that.

There's no way I could even come close to listing all of his words at this point, but for some time now, he has been speaking in long full sentences, and he's really doing great with all his pronouns, tenses, etc. He'll be like, "Pees mama can you get me some mo cereal bar?" or "I don't want to push the boo button." He's also looking out for our hydration levels, often saying, "Mama, can you drink your water?" or our hunger, "Dada, eat your pizza!"

Today, I was on the phone with my supervisor, and he was climbing on his table, and I heard him say, "There is a lot going on!" I don't think I had said that yet today, but maybe. That cracked me up, though.

Several weeks ago, maybe a couple months...time is all hazy to me these days, he picked up the office phone, pushed the button that switches the ring tone, so it sounded like the phone was ringing, and said, "Minto Pawk Apawtments, this is Amanda." I laughed SO hard, and he kept it up, changing the last part each time, this is..."Joshy-wa" or "Baby Henry's Winnie Pooh" or "window" or "computoh." HILARIOUS! And he is perfectly aware that he's hilarious.

Months ago, at dinner, for some reason I said to Nathan, "whatever, chicken," about something, and Joshua was sitting there in his high chair next to us. He got a big smile on his face and said, "whatevoh chickadee!" We laughed SO much, and he said it several more times. After he'd said it several times, we were still smiling but had stopped laughing, and he said, "can we wapp again?" It was so sweet.

Also long ago, he was sitting on the floor with Grandma Palmer while she was building some towers with his blocks, and he looked at it and said, "Stonehenge!" because he remembered that the picture on the wall is of Stonehenge.

He's adjusting pretty well to having this new baby in our home, and has said some pretty hilarious things. The other day, he said, "Can Mama's tummy get big again?" I asked him if he knew why it wasn't so big anymore. He said, "Cuz Baby Henry came out." I asked if he wanted another baby - he said, "Yeah." I asked if he wanted Baby Henry AND another baby. He said, "Can Mama have ee-weven babies?" Eleven is the number he uses most often to mean a lot of something. If I ask him how many fruit snacks he wants, he either says 2 or 11. Sometimes when he counts, he counts one two fee eight nine ten ee-weven eight nine ten. Other times he gets the other numbers in there.

He can recognize and say all the letters and numbers 1-11, he knows his colors and a lot of shapes. He likes to bite a fig newton or a chip or a chicken nugget and then tell us what it now "is" such as a fig newton being a cow. I gave him a good little joke, telling him that a fig newton cow says, "moo-tun" and he thought that was pretty funny. I asked him what a crouton cow said, and he said (all on his own) "moo-tawn!" He bit a chicken nugget into a cow shape (in his mind at least) once, and said it was a "hot cow."

Oh man - ALSO, he'll be eating something...a piece of canteloupe or a little dill pickle, and he'll bite off a piece of it that looks like a door to him, and he'll tell us what is inside. Lately, Cookie Monster is inside, and he wants to eat him. So he takes Cookie Monster out, and I'll say, "run, Cookie Monster!" Joshy says, "Can I give him a hug?" all innocent. Then he gives him a hug and tells me that he just ATE HIS EYEBALLS!!! Crazy kid.

He LOVES to pretend. He talks on blocks as phones (usually to rubber ducky, talking for a bit and then telling him that he has to go to the store), brings us drinks in all sorts of things that look like cups to him, puts measuring cups and spoons in between the drawers and plays them like a piano, drives his dinner bowl as a steering wheel - it's so funny.

The other day, we were driving to Lafayette to go to Nathan's parents' house, and we drove by the library. I didn't mention it, but he pointed at said, "There is the library!" We've only gone there probably less than a dozen times, and I had no idea he paid so much attention that he'd recognize it as we went by. I don't think I paid much attention until about the time I got my driver's license!! Ok, a bit of an exaggeration...but c'mon - he's barely 2!

Another adjustment note - I asked him the other day, "Joshy, baby Henry cries a lot, huh?" and he said, "Yeah. Babies cry." Like...get used to it Mom!

I love Joshua - he is a great companion during the day...even though he does get into a lot of stuff. He's been acting out a bit more cuz he's feeling the change in my attention levels, but he is still a sweetheart and all his sweet little hugs and thank yous and hilarious things...and yes, his mischief too, get me through the day.

This blog

Back when I started this blog, my reasons were to vent and use it kind of as a journal, as well as post pictures about my little baby Joshua. He was around 8 weeks or something, I think (I don't want to go back and check right now), and I was just starting out as an apartment manager, and trying to figure out how to be a mom...all sorts of stressful and wonderful stuff. Then it became all about Joshua, and then when nearly all my blog readers were on Facebook, I pretty much stopped posting, except in big bursts of update posts. such is the way of many blogs - i admire anyone who continues to post consistently as time goes on.

Well here I am now, typing one handed while I hold baby Henry, who has taken a (probably short) break from screaming when he isn't sucking on my finger, feeling exhausted and frustrated. This little guy screams a lot - especially all night long - I think his little digestive system is giving him a lot of tummy pain - poor baby...hopefully this will pass soon as his little muscles strengthen and his system gets used to all the stuff it has to do.

I'm glad I had 6 weeks with Joshy before we were apartment managers - I probably would not have survived. Anyway...this is kind of my first week really being back, since mom was here the first week, I was "closed" and didn't do much work the second week, and emily was here last week. So I'm easing back into it - my current plan for the week is to have the closed sign up except when Nathan is home...which isn't much, but we don't have any apartments we can show right now, so being open isn't that helpful to people anyway.

My list of stuff to do is VERY short compared to what it was before emily came, when it had been building and building for weeks. There are only 14 things on the list so far this week, and i have done 6 of them already...before lunch on Monday - that's pretty good!

While having a toddler and a newborn is definitely hard in itself, i think i really could handle it ok without this job. The person putting the pressure on me, though, is me. both the owner and my supervisor have been very understanding - the owner said that the place probably wouldn't burn down if I went away for a week or two - I appreciated his support...it would be nice to go away for a week...sort of. Or maybe just take our home away for a week. That might be difficult, though.

But I can't really get away from the job, and taking a break still means dealing with all the stuff going on...like the big leak under the east building that is flooding one of the residents' apartments as we "speak". Hopefully the contractor will get here soon to tear apart her walls and floor *sigh*. These things happen. I'm just glad we've got a couple weeks before the move-outs start happening like crazy. We've got one on the 5th, I think, then the 10th, then the 21st, then two on the 31st...yikes. All those notices came during the week I was on "maternity leave".

And our home has way too many ants, even though they keep spraying.

I'll admit that when I see a blog post that is all text and no pictures, sometimes I don't read it...so if you read all of this, I'm impressed. I think I'll publish this one and then start a happy one about my amazing Joshua.