Manda's thoughts

Anticipation!

2011-06-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

I know that I said I'm not going to focus so much on the future that I forget to appreciate the here and now BUT there are some things in the near future that I'm very excited about!

Friday, June 10th - Nathan finishes his last final of his first year and summer begins!
Saturday, June 11th - Going to see Cirque Du Soleil in Eugene with my sweetie!
Tuesday, June 14th - Going up to Seattle to see Geoff and his girlfriend and my grandma
Wednesday, June 15th - A quick visit to Tall Timber Ranch and Leavenworth, then making the drive to Moscow, Idaho to see Mom and Dad until the 20th!!

Other things this summer I'm very excited about: Seeing Tawnia, Mindy, and Aaron when they come to visit us in Oregon, going on hikes, the 4th of July, going backpacking, and getting Joshy ready and excited for pre-school! Yay!

So much to look forward to. Somewhere in there, I should also finish the playhouse - gotta get it done before the boys are in middle school!!

Well tonight Nathan won't be home until late - he is proctoring for a final exam that doesn't start until 8pm, so he'll be home sometime around 10:30. While I do miss him, and bedtime routines are a bit more hectic, I tend to be much more productive after dinner when he's not there. I think that's partly because I can't hang out with him, but since he is usually studying much of the evening anyway, a big part of it is that I don't have the feeling of accomplishment knowing he's coming home to a nice clean home, so I'm not quite as motivated.

A "Can-Do" List

2011-06-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

I've always been a big fan of To-Do lists - I LOVE checking things off, though when the list seems neverending or some things stay on it for weeks and weeks...I don't love it as much. Part of my advice to myself (see my last post) was to think of all the things I can do in a regular day that make me happy, so I listed a bunch of them. Then I made a check-off list. I'm not going to do this forever, but for awhile at least, I'm going to keep track of how many of the things on my "Happy List" or "Can-do List" that I do each day. The things on it are not always things I enjoy doing, like taking out the garbage or scrubbing the toilet, but they are things that I feel happier when I have finished them. When I look at my list at the end of the day, and see that I have played pretend, read stories, exercised, cleaned up my home, read my scriptures, said my prayers, cooked a good meal, called a good friend, gone to the park, etc. that is when I feel contented. When I haven't checked many of those things off my list, that's when I feel grumpy or low or negative. So the point of this list is to visually give me ideas of what will leave me feeling happy at the end of the day, and what will make me happy throughout the day. My assumption is that I won't NEED the visual reminder for long, but it is very helpful for now.

This way, I don't think to myself, "Well, I'll be happy when Nathan graduates and we move out," but instead I think, "Well, I'll be happy when I've exercised and had fun with my boys and got my home in order and went on a date with my sweetie, or went on a hike, or wrote in my journal, or posted on my blog, or worked on the playhouse..." If I focus on a year from now, I'll miss THIS year. If I focus on all that is good and wonderful and new and fleeting about THIS year, I'll be happy.

At church a couple weeks ago, at a women's conference, I went to a class about finding Joy within. The wonderful teacher described that to be joyful is a choice...things might make you happy, but you must choose joy. She said that some of her most profound joy was found in some of the most difficult times in her life, and it is all about making those choices within yourself, not being a passive recipient of the good or bad or boring or monotonous or fun or easy things that life throws at you, but truly seeking out and finding joy however you can.

C.S. Lewis also wrote a book called Surprised by Joy. I studied it in college, and I own it...I think it would be a great time for me to read it again. Right now I'm finishing up the Chronicles of Narnia...I think I'm on book 5 of 6 now. Sounds like Joshy is fighting bed time, so I should go attend to that now.

Good advice

2011-06-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ever since having Joshua, which threw us for a loop in terms of schedule of big life events (meaning that we'd planned for Nathan to finish school and me to work for another year or two before we started having children), I've had a lot of clarifying moments... Times like when I realized that life would never be the same, would never go back to "normal," that this was normal now, or when I've had to change my attitude to be more grateful or just times when someone puts things in perspective for me. Those kind of times. I've been doing ok at sorting out my thoughts in my journal sometimes, which does help, but not enough.

Sooo, I came up with an idea that seems to have been incredibly helpful to me. Instead of musing about what's going on...or summarizing or describing, or whatever, I tried something else. I gave myself advice, like as though I was someone else. Maybe it seems silly, but I was literally like, "Ok, Amanda - here's what you need to do," and then lectured myself in writing. It was great! All I had to do was think of it in terms of what I would say if someone else had just been telling me about where they're at. I love giving advice...well most of the time...and it is a lot easier to give advice about other people's lives than actually to get your own stuff together, you know? So I gave myself some good concrete advice and I've followed through with it.

Very psychological, I guess...cuz really I do know that it's just me telling me stuff, but it made a big difference and I highly recommend it.

Oh blog...

2011-04-29T14:59:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile. I love it when the sun is shining.

Playhouse progress

2011-01-09T18:29:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the pictures of my recent playhouse creations, though there are a TON of things I've made that I haven't photographed them yet. I'll try to get them up here this week.

This is the apple/orange/pear tree. I have a million leaves for it, but I haven't quite decided if I'm going to sew them on before or after it is already sewn to the playhouse. I'm thinking before, cuz i need to put on velcro patches.

A volcano to go with the dinosaurs!

This little piggy got in a fight, but when I offered to change how the eyes look, Joshy freaked out and wanted it to stay the same...so stay the same it will.

Baaa!

A basket made in the same style as the corn - it will be sewed on. Behind it there will be a hole so that the fruits or vegetables can go into the playhouse. It is kinda fun now to carry stuff in it already!

See?

A mail bag - Mr. Delivery Man sure loves it!

A package to deliver - we have decided it is a box of chocolates, which is always well received.

For a very long time, there have been three letters - one for Joshua, Henry, and Dada. Mr. Delivery Man was thrilled when there became four letters, so that now Mama wouldn't have to be disappointed anymore.

A nice set of four - all with our favorite color of stamps, though the lighting isn't very good so you can't tell very well.

The mail bag nice and full!

A fence for one of the sides. When I started measuring out where things would go, I actually had to cut off a section of the fence to be able to fit it where I wanted it.

I've been realizing some things with the playhouse now, like that I can't have a window next to the front door like I thought I could, so I'm having to figure out a new place for the window with window box, and I'm actually really filling up all the sides now - it's exciting!

I think I'll be going up to Nathan's parents' to get some help with the sewing machine part of it in a few weeks, and I definitely am still planning on having it completely done by their birthdays. The crazy part about getting the outside to almost be done is that Joshy has all sorts of ideas for the inside - a fridge with food, an oven, a bed, a vanity mirror, a fireplace, etc etc etc. Off I go!

the playhouse is in progress once again!

2011-01-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

Well now we're living in Albany! Didn't end up moving to Corvallis, though we lost our $400 deposit...that sucks. We're managing again - a much smaller, less stressful complex, so that's good.

I'll post more about the boys soon, but I wanted to post that I'm working on the playhouse again and I'm really excited about that! Since the last set of pictures, I completed a woven basket, a mailbag, a package - I don't think I posted pictures of that one, a volcano, a fence, a large tree, a million leaves, and today I finished a letter for Mama (there was already one for Joshua, Henry, and Dada), and "Mr. Delivery Man" kept getting disappointed that he could never deliver a letter to Mama. I think that's all I've worked on lately, but I'll get some pictures posted in the next couple days.

Testing...testing...

2010-10-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

Is this thing on?

Yikes - it's been a long time. So what has happened since April? Well, about a billion things!!

Here's a summary: end of May - moved to Amber Park Apartments; mid-June - Nathan graduated from Western Oregon; some time during the summer - went backpacking twice with the Langfords, which was mostly awesome; beginning of August - bought a van; mid-September - drove to Idaho to see Mom and Dad's new house; end of September - Nathan started school at Oregon State to get his M.S. in Statistics; beginning of October - planned to move to Corvallis; end of October - reserved an apartment in Corvallis and will move there the beginning of December.

Well, that's all you needed to know, right? What's that you ask - the boys?? You want to know about THEM? Hmm...I suppose that makes sense!

Well, Henry has been taking his sweet little time every step of the way, and stubbornly waited until he was 18 months old to start walking, but he is loving it now - still hesitant and not walking very far - but he'll get there. He's also talking up a storm, which is so fun! Obviously there is more to update about...but that's a little teeny bit.

Joshua is busy being Joshua...he spends his days pretending - going through all his different personas - lately the most common are Mr. Chief, Mr. Fireman, The Cookie Man, Norman the Cowboy, and The Guy with the Screwdriver. He cracks me up. He's a very good sport with all the busy-ness since Nathan went back to school, though I know it's hard on him. He's not so sure about moving, but I think he'll like being in our new home where Mama won't have to WORK anymore...we are all excited about that. He's still stubbornly avoiding new foods, and starting to reject a lot of the usual foods he'd eat every day. And potty training is a battle...which is so frustrating. Once we move and I have more uninterrupted time during the day, it's going to be more drastic measure time. Just taking away the diapers except for nap time and bed time, and sitting on the toilet every half hour or so...and seeing what happens. I'm tired of changing his diapers, but he's perfectly happy with it. *sigh*

The playhouse has been put on hold since we moved here in May...so sad!! All I've done since we moved is cut out the patterns for some pears. That's IT!! My new goal is to have the playhouse completely done by their birthdays (March 30th/April 3rd). I think they will love it, and hopefully by then Henry won't want to rip the googly eyes off the little animals. But if he does, maybe I'll just change them to felt eyes.

One question for everyone - those name letters that I made...do you think anyone would be willing to pay for me to make them? Not necessarily you...but anyone? They really turned out great, and they were my first try. They're hand stitched - I still don't know how to use a sewing machine. They're about the size of the 9x12 sheets of felt that you can buy in a bunch of different colors, then stuffed, and with decorative ribbon loops for hanging. Joshy's are rainbow colors, while Henry's are light blue, purple, dark green, gray, and I think...a teal-ish color. The boys are sleeping and there's no way I'll go in their room to check on that!

Annnyway - life is busy and super stressful. When I'm "just" a stay-at-home mom (which I'm super excited about!!), I hope to post more pictures on facebook and my blog, to finish my playhouse, finish some scrapbooks (all I have right now is Joshua's first year), clean the apartment more than once every...hmm...maybe I shouldn't say, and learn to cook more creative things. Also, take the boys OUT places more - there are a ton of parks in Corvallis, and I'm sure there are other cool things to do, too!

Ok I really should go. The mess in our bedroom right now is quite terrible. I was trying to work on sorting out things to be packed/stored/tossed etc., so the boys were playing with whatever they could find, and Penelope's (for those of you who know Penelope, you'll understand why this is a big, though I promise not gruesome mess) tummy came apart completely...and everything inside came out. Wow, that sounds super gross. I promise it isn't.

I'm starving. Sorry no pictures or videos. Patience and they will come! Have a wonderful day and thanks for sticking with my blog even after all this time :c)

Mail bag

2010-04-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

Oh, and I'm almost finished with my first playhouse project post-birthdays: A messenger mail bag. I'm excited!

Name letters

2010-04-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

The name letters for Joshua and Henry turned out really well! I don't have a picture of Henry's letters on this computer yet, but here is Joshy with his letters on his 3rd birthday.

baskets and birthdays

2010-03-14T22:57:00.001-07:00

Well, last night, I made a basket that will be sewed on to the playhouse. The boys will be able to put things in it, and there will be a secret slit in the back so that when they put fruits/vegetables/rodents into it, they will then magically be inside the playhouse. I used the same weaving idea from the corn on jill's playhouse, but this was my original idea.

Also, I went and bought the fabric to make the whole slipcover for the table. I decided not to do felt - it is a thinner, more breathable fabric, because I want to do some stuff on the inside, so I'll need to make it two layers of fabric, and two layers of felt would get too hot and stuffy. It is a light blue - I'm going to have a LOT of scraps left over from it. I had a 50% off one item, so I got 11 yards or so of this fabric, and I think it cost me like $60. It seems to be really good quality fabric - I hope it was a good choice. It'll be awhile before I get around to actually sewing stuff on there with the machine.

I also got some transparent thread because I decided that would work best for sewing all those many many things that already have stitches on them.

For the boys' birthdays, I'm going to make stuffed felt letters spelling their names to hang on their walls. I finished an O today. I wish it looked more perfect, but I think in combination with the other letters, it will look a lot better. Right now, one lonely O isn't looking like the greatest birthday present!

almost done!

2010-03-10T13:42:00.001-08:00

As of about 12:30, I had finished fixing three oranges and two apples! Just one more apple to fix and I can get back to creating NEW things again!

Oh, and Joshua had a TON of fun pulling out almost all of the fluffy filler stuff from the pillow sized bag of it, and covering our dining room floor with it, sliding in it, throwing snowballs with it, rolling in it...it was so funny. And made a huge mess that was amazingly easy to clean up! Good times :c)

And I just heard from my mom that my grandma Norma fell and broke her hip. She could use any and all prayers.

::::
4:35 - finished the last apple!!!

finished fixing...

2010-03-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

...the squirrel, as of 9:45pm. Took the velcro off the bird and the 6 fruits. I figured the squirrel would be hardest, so I did it first. I actually was able to stuff it a lot better than I stuffed it the first time. So that's a good thing. Onward I go.

::::
10:17 finished the bird.

::::
10:55 finished one lettuce leaf.

::::
11:10 finished second lettuce leaf.

Time to watch Lost.

::::
Stinking Lost. We're going to go crazy watching the final season - having to wait a week or more between episodes. Oh well. At least we'll get to watch the first several all at once...I'm not sure how many episodes are in the 6th season. Maybe we'll start watching near the end. We're still near the beginning of the 5th season. Nathan was pushing for us watching an episode starting at midnight, and then he fell asleep after like 15 minutes. I had to keep watching it...and now it's almost 1am. *sigh*

backtracking

2010-03-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

So I realized after doing three apples, three oranges, two lettuce leaves, a frog, a squirrel, and a bird...that I should have used the other velcro side...the soft part, not the part that grabs on to everything. I guess at first I was thinking that if I used the catching part that i wouldn't have to put matching velcro on the playhouse. But it catches on everything...all the time. I've just been putting a square of felt over the velcro, but I realized that I should have just done it the other way. So after a lot of grumbling, I started the process.

Today, I clipped the stitches of the velcro on the frog, completely unstitched the frog, sewed on the softer velcro (which was amazingly easy, thank GOODNESS...the other velcro was absolutely awful), resewed it all, and restuffed it. It didn't take too long, but it would be nice if it wasn't necessary. Oh well.

One frog down, at least 8 more things to go...I may not mess with the lettuce leaves...or I might. I guess I might as well, while I'm fixing everything else. This was a pretty significant learn the hard way kind of thing - but I think I'm going to be a lot happier when I change them all, even though it's a ton more work.

something for the grass

2010-03-08T22:40:00.000-08:00

I made this quite awhile ago, but I guess I never posted the picture!

it's always greener...

2010-03-02T14:36:00.001-08:00

Made some grass today...didn't take very long. I cut out one side and then used the between parts for another line of grass. Two for one! Though I'm not sure which side is actually greener.

I'm trying to figure out what I can do with the small amount of felt I have left...and very excited for whatever felt from Deb is coming tomorrow morning with Nathan's mom! I've been feeling like I want to use up everything I have before buying more...cuz I need a ton more, but we'll see!

Oh, and here is a cute Henry.

If you're ever thinking...

2010-03-02T00:59:00.000-08:00

...that making a soccer ball out of felt would be a fun thing to do...think of something else to do instead. It looks really good, but it took several hours. The soccer ball is going to sit by the front door of the playhouse, I think...or maybe go on the side with the river. I'm thinking now I might make a picnic table with some sort of something that I can make food (hot dogs or hamburgers or something) be removable...at Joshy's request. I shouldn't look at the other examples of playhouses online while he's looking! I do veto some of them, though...we can't ALSO fit a library and a princess castle and a train station on to this playhouse. But we could probably fit a picnic table and some hot dogs or something.

And I'm done with the day numbers now, and done with changing the times that I post...so if I'm posting for the first time at 1:00am, as I am right now (yikes!), it'll say that, instead of always saying 11:00pm even if it was posted later. Anyway...probably it wasn't necessary for me to clear all of that up. :c)

Day 28

2010-02-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

The last day of the month! To accomplish all of my monthly goals, I need to write in Joshua's journal and Henry's journal today...sad that I haven't written in them all month! Once that is finished, I'll have completed everything for February - I got everything completed in January also. I'm proud of myself! This year is starting out well in terms of accomplishing goals - usually I'm already failing somewhat by this point :c)

I hope to work on more crafty stuff later today!

:::
Got those journals written in...I'd hoped to work on some craft stuff, but it's too late and I need to finally go to bed at a decent time for once. I hope to be asleep by 11:30 tonight.

Day 27

2010-02-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

This was a very busy and fun day! No crafting, but I did go through and do a much needed organizing job of my little craft bin - getting rid of all the short extra pieces of thread and tiny felt scraps...gathering up all the loose needles and pins hiding in the bottom, putting the extra paper templates in the little bag with the rest of them, winding up all the long threads tangled up in my bag of spools of thread...fun stuff.

Oh, I also measured out the dimensions of the table and made scale drawings of them on graph paper so I can map out what stuff I already have, and know how big to make the other stuff! Almost forgot that I did that.

Day 26

2010-02-26T13:11:00.000-08:00

I made 4 flat strawberries today, because I liked the little seeds on the third one that I stuffed so much and wanted to do more like it, but I will put them on the playhouse, not detachable.
I will have to take a break from the playhouse at some point before the boys' birthdays to make them the gift that I'm hoping will turn out really cool - I'll post pictures after I give it to them, so after April 3rd (Henry's b-day, and Joshy's is March 30th).

We are going to a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" activity for church tonight - that will be fun! Hopefully the boys will do well with getting taken care of at the church.

Oh and now Joshua is requesting that there be a kiwi vine in the garden, with kiwis on it!

:::
I finished a cloud...instead of doing the dishes. It's almost midnight...I think I'm going to do the dishes.
:::
I didn't do dishes...I looked up articles and checklists online about possible things we might find out after Henry's evaluations in the next couple of weeks...and continued to be worried about the possibilities I've been worried about. I want to be wrong, but my gut tells me I'm not. This is a much heavier topic than the fluffy little stuffed cloud sitting on the desk waiting to be photographed and added to the box of playhouse treasures...but it's a real thing in our lives. He has an appointment Wednesday (the 3rd) and then one the following Thursday (the 11th). I feel like I'm prepared to hear that something serious is going on...but I guess I won't know if I was truly prepared until the time comes. Hopefully he'll just jump back on track on his own, or we'll be able to help him get there without there being some underlying lifelong issue. But if there is, I know we have friends and family all around us who will be supportive and wonderful. He's such a happy guy, with a sense of humor - very social and interactive - good at figuring things out and playing, but he's got a ways to go to be where it seems like he should be verbally, for sure, and motor-wise as well. Maybe we won't get any definite answers in the next two weeks...but maybe we will.

I should have gone to bed long ago...there is too much information on the internet - so helpful and educational, but such an overload. And then when my mind is cluttered with stressful things, I go and read each blog that has been updated so that I can de-stress...and then it is 1am. Nathan will be getting up for basketball early tomorrow morning, and so will I...not for basketball. I hope it isn't a rough night otherwise.

Day 25

2010-02-25T19:26:00.001-08:00

Soon I'm gonna have to decide which table this playhouse is going to go on. I had been thinking it would be the card table...but then I'm feeling like the card table is SOOO small...but the kitchen table would make for a very big playhouse. A lot of felt. But felt isn't that expensive...

Well I don't think we're going to buy another table any time soon, and unless someone jumps in and says they have a table we can have, I think I'll make it the dimensions of our kitchen table. What I want to start doing is measuring the size of things...because there are a lot of things that will be flat on the playhouse - not detachable, as many of the things I've made are (except for Buddy, the owl, and the mailbox).

Nathan's cousin Deb said that she has a bunch of felt I can use, and I'm really excited about that! No matter what color it is, I will definitely be able to use it!

Not sure if I'll get anything finished tonight...I'm not sure what is next on the agenda. We'll see. I just added a bunch of pictures and changed some from the first couple of days so they are more uniform (on the table). I like it that the table I've taken all the pictures on is the one that will be the playhouse (i think!).

::::
Ok, I just spent like half an hour looking for a template or drawing for a brontosaurus that I'd like to use for the playhouse...but I couldn't find one I was happy with. So I drew my own...I mean, I would have had to anyway, to be able to print it out the right size (bigger than a standard piece of printer paper), but mine is kind of a compilation of several. Hopefully I will have the right amount of felt!! Off I go to cutting, tracing, and more cutting!

::::
12:48am - finished my brontosaurus.

Day 24

2010-02-24T23:55:00.000-08:00

I made three strawberries today! They're awesome. The third one (in the middle) especially.

The 4th season of Lost is starting out crrrrrazy!

Day 23

2010-02-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

I finished the other two oranges today and made a "Dada" letter for the mailbox. Now there is one for Dada, one for Joshua, and one for Henry. I'll make one for me at some point, but one piece of felt made three letters. I have to figure out how I want to attach strawberries to the playhouse - then I might finish those up.
This is Joshua and Henry's first night sharing a room. They went to sleep very easily (Henry cried for 10 minutes or so and that was it), and are still sleeping (and it's really 12:20am...but I always make it say 11:00pm when I post after midnight).

We'll see how the rest of the night goes.

Day 22

2010-02-22T23:27:00.001-08:00

Sewed velcro onto 3 oranges - finished one orange!

Day 21

2010-02-21T23:16:00.000-08:00

Ok it is 11:15 Sunday night. I took an hour-ish nap today, and I want to see if I can finish something for the playhouse tonight. Starting at 11:15pm on anything isn't usually the best plan, but I'll give myself until midnight, 12:15 at the latest, and see if I can finish something. Or just work on something, cuz I miss it!

It is 12:23 - I finished the flowers I've been working on. I'm actually not really happy with how they turned out...I was trying to do something really creative and it didn't quite work how I pictured. Oh well. Goodnight.

Day 20

2010-02-20T23:00:00.000-08:00

No crafting again. :c( I haven't lost interest in it...things just keep getting busy. I'll have some more time this week - I'm excited to finish up those flowers, and I have felt cut out for more letters, some oranges, and some strawberries...I just haven't made them cuz I haven't made decisions about velcro.

I haven't talked a lot about Henry - I have all sorts of fun Joshua stories that I tell on the blog, but this little Henry of ours is quite a little character, and deserves stories of his own!
He has got the greatest smile. His little top canine teeth came in before the middle ones, so his smile has a kind of baby vampire quality to it, so when he is laughing a lot, or when he flashes his new "cheese" face (for the camera), you can see his adorable little chompers.

He has definite favorites in what he likes to play with. His favorite things is the xylophone/piano that we have. He loves things that spin, like the spinny thing on the walker/car, or the beads on the twisty wire things. He loves to hold and munch on books and bang everything possible on the ground or the high chair tray.

He's becoming a little more ambitious, not being afraid to dive onto his tummy to get things, and rolling and pivoting places. We're going to talk with someone soon about helping him increase his mobility, but he is slowly increasing the movements he is comfortable with, which is good to see.

Henry is so adorable - his little hair sticks straight up in back, even being like two or more inches long...it's still sticking straight up most days. I call him tweety bird, and I'm sad on the days when it flattens down, cuz I think he probably won't ALWAYS have hair sticking up, and I'll miss it. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he has an incredibly stubborn cowlick as he grows up. His hair is really curly in the back when it is wet, and a little curly when it's dry...so it's getting to the point where I kind of want to cut it, and yet I really don't.

He is great at roaring and purring and growling and spitting at us, and he's learning some sign language. He can sign "milk" and "more" really well, sometimes it seems like he does "eat" and if you ask him to clap (and he's in the right mood, of course) or wave, he will. He LOVES music, and he's enjoyed getting to come to nursery and watch all the toddlers and be there for music time. Now that Nathan isn't in nursery anymore, he'll get to enjoy hanging out in Sunday school and with the guys. I sing to him all the time. One of his very favorite songs is, "I found a million dollar baby...in the five and ten cent store." Grandma Rozen sang that song to him a LONG time ago...and I didn't know it, but had to learn it quick, cuz at times, it was the only thing that would calm him down.

He is finally sleeping every night, though he still wakes up more often than we'd prefer, and it isn't very consistent when he wakes up, but he sleeps. And he takes naps. Nearly every day, he takes two naps. Usually the opposite of Joshua's - at least in the morning. He'll go down for a nap sometime in the morning for an hour or so, then wake up about 45 minutes before Joshua goes down for his nap. He'll go down for another nap while Joshua is still sleeping, and generally wake up again before Joshua gets up. So I sometimes get a little break in there. His sleeping patterns have controlled our lives (it sometimes seems), for months and months and months...but now, other than the fact that he is in our bedroom (which I really wish wasn't the case), things aren't nearly so difficult at night or during the day in terms of his sleeping. He still cries before nearly every nap and nearly every night when he's put down, but it's more of a ritual or routine than him really being upset. Usually I have to go in once or twice to get him to stay down for his morning nap, but other than that, things go fairly smoothly.

He's very cuddly and his cheeks are nearly impossible not to kiss. Really. If you've ever held him, you know I speak truth.

We hope to get some answers about his development and what we can do to help him as he grows from being a cuddly happy baby to a cuddly happy toddler (or a stubborn wild toddler, perhaps!), and we'll give updates when we do get those answers.

Also, these boys do love each other...their relationship is still a little inconsistent, but Joshua sometimes expresses his feelings for his baby brother by bringing him toys or sharing with Henry when he really doesn't want to share. Tonight Joshua sat down on the floor with me and Henry, and Joshy was holding his "personal penguin." Henry grabbed for it and Joshua yanked it out of Henry's grasp. I told Henry that there are some things that Joshua doesn't need to share unless he wants to share them. Henry wasn't a big fan of that reasoning, but Joshua thought about it for awhile, and then held out his little penguin to Henry, who was distracted and missed his opportunity...but it was a sweet moment. Also, yesterday, Henry was in the crib in the bedroom trying to go down for his nap, and Joshua was sitting on the floor in the kitchen, playing with the magnets on the fridge. He looked up at me and said, "Mama, why is my baby crying?" It was again, such a sweet moment.

And finally - here are a few pictures of this dynamic duo!

This is the happy "cheese" face!

A little conspiring going on, it appears.

There's that vampire baby!

And my two cute little sweetie-pies.

I love them so much.

Day 19

2010-02-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at the A.C. Gilbert House today. It is 7:11 - I am feeding Henry to put him to bed, then i need to do a mountain of dishes and then go grocery shopping. I got very little sleep last night, so i doubt i'll get much crafting done tonight. I'll post pictures if I do.

Day 18

2010-02-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

Today I did a lot of work on another pair of flowers that I am choosing the most complicated way possible to make...hopefully they will look good when I'm done! Sorry no pictures yet.

Day 17

2010-02-17T13:44:00.001-08:00

Ok, I resewed the patch on Nathan's scout uniform, so he can wear it to scouts tonight looking snazzy. I just didn't have the energy to fix it last night, but I'm glad it is centered now.

So far today, I have crossed off 7 things on my to-do lists, and I'm in process with several more. Also been working on laundry, organizing and cleaning up the living room, and a bunch of other work stuff that isn't on "the list" but needs to get done anyway. Joshua, Henry and I have all had lunch. Joshua is sleeping and Henry is just about ready to get down and hopefully go down for a nap.

So that's the update!

I need to post some pictures on facebook of these cute little boys of mine.

Hopefully I'll have some crafty things to post later!

Day 16

2010-02-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

No crafting today, but I did spend several hours sewing the patches on to Nathan's new scouting shirt - he's the 11 yr-old scout leader now. I hated nearly every moment of that sewing experience. I broke a needle...but it didn't seem like it bent...but that my fingers snapped it in half. I used the half a needle to finish sewing the patch on...but it didn't have the sharp tip, so that was pretty challenging. I sure love felt.

I have a LOT of things on my to-do list for home/family/church stuff, so I asked Nathan to come up with a number of things from my list that I should challenge myself to do before we could watch Lost tonight. At first he said 10...but then I went back and looked at it again and saw that I could only logistically do 12 of them, so he brought the number down to 6. I did 1. Sewing on the patches took me at least 2 hours. I was so frustrated and exhausted by the end, that we agreed it was ok to watch it anyway.

Unfortunately, the most important patch that I sewed on there is not centered...it's kind of crooked, so at some point soon, I need to take the stitches out and re-sew it. It won't be nearly as difficult as doing all of them, though.

Nathan just went into the bedroom and Henry had a dirty diaper, so we changed him and he slept through it...he cried really hard when I laid him back in his crib, though. But I think he's done now. Nathan is on the couch...I'm not sure which of us will be the one to try to sneak in there first.

I love my boys. All three of them!

Day 15

2010-02-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

Ok I'm getting a little tired of the day numbers at the top...but I think I'll stick with them anyway. I finished the owl - he looks GREAT. My kitchen table is so covered that I can't find room to take a picture of him, but I'll do it tomorrow and post the picture for all the world to see! Buddy was more work, but I think I'm most proud of this owl...even more than the corn...though the corn was also more work.

Day 14

2010-02-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

Today was a very nice day - Valentine's day...and a good day at church, though I missed my sweetie. He and Henry stayed home cuz Nathan couldn't do much walking (neither could Henry, so they kept each other company). Then family came over and we had dinner and watched more Olympics.

Today I started working on the owl. I didn't like any of the owls on the other playhouses, so I found a different owl, and I'm going to use it.

Day 13

2010-02-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

We'll see what I get done today. My poor hubby hurt his knee really bad at basketball this morning, so I'm going to take care of him. Joshy woke up before 5am this morning...so hopefully he won't have too rough of a day, too. Henry's fighting taking a nap - crying in his crib...but nothing's new there. *sigh*

Nope - no work on the playhouse done today.

Day twelve

2010-02-12T19:42:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the fabric store and bought turquoise felt and white felt adhesive letters. I was then able to finish the mailbox that will be sewn on to the playhouse. The green part opens and I'll cut a hole in the playhouse, next to the front door, so they can open the door of the mailbox and put letters in! I think this was Jill's original idea from the playhouse I referenced in my first post about this project. http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html
We'll see if I get Buddy finished tonight. Off to put Henry to bed, play a game with Nathan, Tawnia, and Emily, and then watch the Olympics.

Well, Henry went to sleep, I lost miserably at Qwelf, and while we watched the Opening Ceremonies, I worked on Buddy. I was debating about whether or not I'd stuff him at all, or have him be detachable from the playhouse. I've decided he'll be sewed on and stay that way. I sewed a back on him, to hold all the small pieces together even better, but he's just got too tiny of a neck to be played with much at all. I hope Joshua likes him!

You can scroll down to compare the picture with the image I posted before. I don't want to re-post it next to it, cuz then the imperfections would be clearer. A LOT of work, but I'm happy with him, imperfections and all!

Day eleven

2010-02-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

I worked on organizing all the scraps and pieces of felt today, but wasn't able to create anything. Hopefully tomorrow!

Day ten

2010-02-10T20:15:00.000-08:00

Today I made some red flowers to match the yellowish flowers I made before. They're pretty cute. I also made the mailbox, except for the lettering on it. Buddy the dinosaur just sits there waiting and waiting for his turquoise detailing...

It was hard not working on it yesterday, especially since I wasn't feeling very well. I'm feeling somewhat better today, though, and having Tawnia come over was super helpful. Gotta love my sis.

We got some great news on the grad school front! Nathan got accepted to Portland State - we haven't gotten the letter yet - he called to see if all his application stuff was completed, and they told him he was accepted! I'm very excited that he's accepted, and nervous to figure out the financial part. I'm hoping he'll be able to choose between two (or all three!) of the schools, and that at one of them will work out money-wise. We should hear back from Oregon State and University of Washington by the end of the month, I expect. Once we make that decision, it will be nice to have some certainty for the coming year.

Well, it's 8:20...Henry is asleep, or at least quiet...and Joshua is talking and singing with his animals in bed, so there is still plenty of time for crafting. I'll update this and post pictures either later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on what else I get done tonight.

Day nine

2010-02-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

I am banned from working on the playhouse today - as a self-imposed punishment for staying up way too late last night. I've been avoiding that for the most part since I started this project, but last night I was working on it until after 1am. Not cool. So I'll work on it again tomorrow.

Well, at least I am getting a lot done today. I keep looking at all my craft stuff in the haphazard bags and boxes covering our kitchen table, and I want to work on it, but instead I'm doing laundry, making a bunch of calls, filing paperwork, sending emails, organizing our tax documents for the past 6 years...all sorts of productive boring stuff. Also, looking at craigslist apartment listing in the possible cities we might be moving to depending on where Nathan gets accepted to grad school. Let's just say, I hope we get some good grants and loans.

Day eight

2010-02-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

While trying to go to sleep last night (and feeling awful...thank goodness it mostly went away by morning!), I was thinking about different ways to attach things to the playhouse without using velcro...I'm going to try experiment today with what I came up with. Joshua wants oranges and pears on the tree with the apples, and I'll make those velcro since the apples are, but I'm thinking of using a different method for some of the other things. I'm not sure quite how difficult it would be to redo the squirrel, frog, and bird...I'm not excited about trying...so maybe I can make something else with my new idea and then deal with changing those later. We'll see.

Well, I got the 4 Monday reports completed this morning, and a bit of other stuff, got Joshy his lunch and down for a nap, and now I'm hanging out with Henry (who of course just woke up from his nap). I'm working on doing "Buddy" (I posted a picture of him a few posts ago). I decided to just make him the size of a regular sheet of paper, since he is a little T-Rex anyway...but I'm having some major challenges making him. I've got the eyes and mouth figured out...and they look decent...but the claws are going to be a lot of work. Making teeny tiny pieces of stuff with felt is difficult because it all starts to rip apart. Hence, the teeth don't look quite the same. I think it was ambitious to expect them to, though.

I don't like posting partially finished things, but since I don't have any turquoise or light blue to make his diamonds and triangles, I might post him partially finished tonight. We'll see.

Nope - I got Buddy all the way done except for the turquoise shapes, but I don't want to post a picture until he's done. Didn't accomplish any other stuff...but while Buddy looks a bit different from the picture, I'm still proud of how it's going.

My Dad has a job interview on Wednesday and I really really hope he gets it. My mom's knee is hurt bad and I really really hope it is able to be treated and heal. My brother is going to Europe and I really really hope he has a great time there.

Ok, I thought I was done at 11:30 or whenever I posted that, but then I decided to go and do something else. Here are my first flowers. I wasn't happy with any of the flowers I saw with the other playhouses, but I really liked the idea of having them come out of the window box pockets (like on Jill's house). I used pipe cleaners inside the felt stems and thought they would be more sturdy if I bent the long pipe cleaner like this and put a flower on each end. They should fit more snugly in the window box pockets this way. I like how they turned out!

Day seven

2010-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

Today has been a busy, good day. Enjoyed church, had a good dinner here with friends, watched a few minutes of the Super Bowl here and there, and now the boys are going to bed, and I can work on my two hobbies as of late - crafting this playhouse and watching Lost.

Tonight I finished making two letters for the mailbox (I can't make the mailbox yet because Joshua wants it to be made of dark blue felt and I don't have any yet - also I want to get some felt letters to spell MAIL on it). But anyway, here they are:

Also, I broke my last needle threader. Argggg.

Day six

2010-02-06T10:50:00.001-08:00

Ok so Henry is down for a nap...though he isn't actually asleep, so I may need to go in there and check on him...and Nathan and Joshua are at the library. I ate breakfast and put a load of laundry in, so now I really really want to get some more stuff done for the playhouse. We'll be gone much of the day, and the boys' naps are always flip-flopped lately - rarely overlapping much at all. So this may be my best little chunk of time.

Two more apples today, and my apples are complete!

And yes, the bottom one has a little green and yellow worm coming out of it!

Day five

2010-02-05T23:00:00.000-08:00

Another day with very little time for crafting, so my only accomplishment for the playhouse was to fix the apple stem from my first apple so that it looks less like a pumpkin stem, and will match the other apple stems I made, though they haven't been put into apples yet.

Joshua also decided that on the side of the playhouse with dinosaurs, he wants there to be Buddy from Dinosaur Train, so this is what I'll need to make:

Day four

2010-02-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

A very busy day...so just one carrot completed! That completes my carrot trio.

Day three

2010-02-03T13:25:00.000-08:00

Today I have been doing a lot of tracing and cutting, but no sewing yet.

Both the boys are down for their naps, so it's a good time to do some work on this, but I had to make myself get a bunch of the apartment work done first: make 6 phone calls, sort out our online accounting challenge, schedule a plumber to replace a garbage disposal, schedule the turnover vendors for an apartment coming available, make new flyers and brochures and put them outside, respond to and file various emails, and get a mailing for a resident ready to go. There is more that could be done, but nothing else that MUST be done for work today, so now I feel free to do some crafting.

Off I go...

:::BIG time lapse:::

As of 11:35pm, I had completed 3 lettuce leaves and a green frog. One of the lettuce leaves will be sewn to the playhouse, and the other two will velcro on, so Joshy and Henry can pick the lettuce. They are bright green on one side and dark green on the other, with some wax paper in between to make them a bit crackly. I'm sure it's been done before, but I was proud to think of it ("it" meaning the wax paper...not the lettuce - that was from Jill's playhouse) on my own tonight. The frog will also velcro to the playhouse. I like him a lot. When I did a Google image search for green frog, Joshua really wanted to use this frog umbrella picture, rather than what I chose for the frog template.
Sometimes I overrule his ideas. It's for the greater good - I hope he'll appreciate it later.

I have a bunch of stuff (two apples with stems and one carrot with greens) cut out and ready to be sewn together...I just despise sewing the velcro rectangles on things...I need a better thimble and to make sure I use a strong needle. I bent one yesterday. It took me until velcro piece number 5 to think to pin the velcro on before starting to sew. *sigh* These are the kinds of things I would think of...if I already knew anything about sewing. Oh well. So I didn't pin 4 of them...there are a LOT more to go.

Day two

2010-02-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

Today I finished two more items...a second corn cob and a yellow bird to perch on the "My Garden" sign that Joshua requested for one side of the playhouse.

Oh...did I mention I don't have a sewing machine? I'm fairly certain that TWO corn cobs is plenty for this garden I'm creating.

Day one

2010-02-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

Today I went and bought a bunch of 9x12" pieces of felt in various colors, polyester fiberfill, some green pipe cleaners, big and small "good" scissors, some velcro, and a good supply of googly eyes. I came home and proceeded to get to work. Here is a picture of my first creation - a carrot.

By the end of the night, I'd made much more than a carrot! Here are all of my creations.
The corn took about an hour...my favorite was the squirrel!

My new adventure

2010-01-31T19:43:00.000-08:00

I saw these felt playhouses online...it's basically a slipcover made of felt that you put over a card table, and it becomes a playhouse. I am going to make one, and it is going to be amazing. I'm going to track my progress on here as I accomplish things! Of course there will be pictures.

The first place I saw this type of playhouse was here: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html

Though Jill posted links to all sorts of other playhouses, none were as creative as hers. I'm using some of her templates and then venturing off on my own! Joshua has been very opinionated as we've looked at all the ones on Etsy.com and he has chosen what things he's interested in. It will be a lot of fun. And hours and hours of work.

2010 goals

2010-01-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

This year, I set a LOT of goals, but they are all do-able. I set a bunch of monthly goals (10 things I'd like to do each month!), and then 11 one-time things. Then I also made three goals that I want to accomplish multiple times. All of which have boxes by them, so I can have the extreme satisfactoin of checking them off! I have crossed off 7 things already!

Some of my goals are more personal than others, but I'll share some of them. Some of the things I want to do each month are write in each of the boys journals, and write in my own journal. I want to go on a date at least once a month, do my magnetic meal calendar I made (and try to actually go by it!), and stay on track with the scripture reading I'm doing online. I have it set up to complete my goal in a year (which ends in like September or something), so I'm going to make sure that I stay on track with that, and record my percentage at the end of each month. I'm not good at reading every day, but I've decided that's ok. As long as I finish in a year, and am caught up by the end of the month, it's ok if I read 5 days worth at once (each day is 18 verses), or whatever. This is on readthescriptures.com and it works for me. Thanks Jen, for that great resource!!

Anyway, other goals include Henry's first year scrapbook and Joshua's second year scrapbook (I'd love to get his 3rd year one done also...but I'm trying to be realistic). I also want to try to go on 4 hikes, get Joshua potty-trained, create a Sunday activity bag for Joshua (with his name on it and "only Sunday" books, coloring stuff, a stuffed animal maybe, snacks, etc.), move away from these apartments, leave stuff in good shape for the next managers, and my first goal that I'm working away at...

I have a weekly to-do list that I have split up with work on one side and home/family/church (personal stuff) on the other. I write a new one each week, but include everything that I didn't do from the previous week with a line under it, and so on. The stuff on the work side always gets done - either that week, or within a couple weeks. The stuff on the other side sits and sits and sits and sits...and I want to change that. I have stuff on there from months ago, and it's not difficult stuff, I just haven't put it as a priority. So my general goal is to put it as a higher priority, but my specific short-term goal is to get everything done that was on my list at the end of 2009, by the end of January. That was 10 things. They'd been on there for months. Last week, I accomplished 6 of them. I have already accomplished one this week, so that's only 3 more (and one is to post on this blog!). And seriously, the other two aren't really very difficult, and will get done by the end of the week. So yeah - I'm excited about that. Maybe some week I'll be at the glorious place of having done everything from that week AND all the other weeks. Amazing!

It's possible, though last week I added, "put up pictures," which is a HUGE task. We want to go through all the frames on the walls and put updated pictures in them (we have barely any pictures of Henry up (2, to be specific), other than on a big collage poster I made in November). I'm also doing a new little organization system for some of the small toys we have - I'm coloring big colorful labels on clean ice cream buckets (we have about a billion of them), for baby toys, play food, etc. I need to do one for bath toys, and maybe another baby toys one, and then I can cross that off. It is possible that won't get done this week. And THEN I'll be adding some of the goals from my year to-do list on there...but I'll try to wait until it is realistic that I'll be doing them soon...rather than letting them sit there for months.

Anyway, I know people would rather see pictures than read journal-type posts, but I started this blog to be a journal, and it helps me write it.

I do, however, have a goal (though it isn't written down anywhere, so I don't have to feel guilty for not doing it) of posting a 2009 monthly thing...of some of the major things that happened each month. I've seen that on three friends' blogs now, and I like it! On this computer, I only have pictures from April-October, but Henry will be moving into Joshua's room soon, so we'll have access to the computer WITH the pictures on it at the only times that I have long stretches to do things like a blog post with pictures (at night when the boys are sleeping).

I've had a cold since before Christmas - Nathan gave me his, then he got over it briefly, then he got a different cold, which I didn't exactly get...cuz he had a bad cough that I never got, but this cold just keeps hanging on.

I made a sweet fort today, while Joshua was sleeping, and we're in the middle of playing in it, so I'm going to post this and get back to the fun!

thinking...

2009-09-22T02:28:00.000-07:00

I was in the car today, thinking about life being busy and stressful...about getting Henry to sleep (or NOT getting him to sleep, but trying to), about my desire for more freedom these days, how tiring this apartment management job is, etc....and all of a sudden I thought to myself that I am truly happy.

For the few in this world who haven't seen it...

2009-05-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

There are still a couple of you who read this that aren't on Facebook, so enjoy this wonderful video of our dear little Joshy. I've never seen anything on Facebook get so many comments!! More are always appreciated :c)

Joshua!

2009-04-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Here's what happens...

2009-03-01T17:55:00.001-08:00

...when we're all sick. My dear husband showed me this picture that he took this morning, planning to post it for all the world to see the way our home gets when we are sick and don't clean up Joshy's area for a few days. I decided that while he was in the shower, I'd get an "after" shot ready. We're still sick, though - but getting better I think. Here's the honest truth...

It really only took about 15 minutes tops to clean it all up.

You've gotta love the Joshy shot - he's sitting in his bucket of blocks, "goin potty."

February

2009-02-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

This video got posted on Facebook, but I know there are a few of you reading this who aren't on Facebook...and Tawnia said she was having trouble getting it to work, so here you go - enjoy!

More like a medicine ball, but whatever

2009-02-15T19:10:00.001-08:00

Ok, so it seems like about 700 times a day I hear people say, "oh it looks like you just have this cute BASKETBALL under your shirt," and so I wanted to take a couple pictures and see if what they are saying has any reality, or if it is a myth we can bust. Looks like this one is plausible.

I do want to point out, though, that if it is a basketball, it's a TWENTY-FIVE POUND basketball, so not as easy as that sounds.

Ok that is all with the unflattering pictures...hope you enjoy seeing my gigantic belly and "stretchy pants" :c)

Joshua's morning activities today

2009-02-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

If this doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what will!

Let's see what else...

2009-02-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

Other than partying, we've been busy doing other things, too.

Ashley came to visit us soon after we got back from Washington. Joshy still had his splint on then. Joshy loves his aunt Ashley and it was a fun visit - she even helped us put together all those blocks! Showing off some of his new Christmas pjs, and brushing his teeth with Dada.

Working hard at trying to pick out a name for his baby brother - Mama and Dada still aren't quite sure.

I think he was kind of sick this day, or just really sleepy waking up from his nap. Here's a fairly good tummy picture of me, too...but I really should post a side-shot, just to prove how gigantic I am now. That was several weeks, ago too.

I can't believe how long his hair was! I get so sad when I cut his hair short, but we really had let it get REALLY long, huh? Here, he is singing songs and playing with his Legos - two of his favorite pasttimes.

I just really like this close-up...and the studly trucker jacket.

Joshua is really getting good at Calculus.

And then I cut his hair. Someday (maybe) I'll cut it even in the front, but I suppose if the point of a haircut is to make it shorter, I accomplished that goal. Actually in this picture it does look even...that's the thing about cutting wet hair - it looks good wet, but then when it dries, it goes all over the place. Especially extra super curly hair.

For Nathan's birthday this year, we went on our first overnight away from Joshua (long overdue...he didn't really miss us). He stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Palmer, while we had dinner at Olive Garden, caught a Comedy Sportz show, spent the night in a hotel (and had some Konditerei cake I sneakily brought with us), and then went to the temple the next day before heading home. I think Nathan enjoyed it - I know I did! Here's Nathan blowing out the candle in his gelato at Olive Garden.

Joshy modeling some watches that one of our residents gave him when he broke his arm. Kinda funny, but Joshy loves them!

He was working on his chameleon skills here.

We picked up some of the 3-D glasses at Fred Meyer to watch Chuck on Monday night...we weren't very impressed with the effect, but the glasses were pretty stinking cool.

Joshua is a big fan of boxes...I'm not sure if he was looking for any leftover Cheerios, or what, but he was having a good time.

I love this picture. Nathan's best friend Jeremy got Joshua this "NPR baby" outfit back when he worked at NPR, and it almost fits. It's pretty adorable. Joshua was reading a Grandma Loves Me book with Elmo and his pelican, and modeling Dada's hat. Yikes, I just noticed my tummy is in this picture...but it's kind of hard to tell how big it is proportionally.

This was today - Joshua loves to wear these sunglasses now. One of his very first tantrums (very very long ago) was on a really bright sunny day, I tried to get him to wear these for the first time. We were out in the parking lot and he was in his stroller, and he truly screamed bloody murder until I gave up. He was terrified of them. Clearly he didn't see their fashionable nature, but now he likes to wear them around the house.

Now that pretty close to none of my maternity pants fit anymore, I'm starting to feel very envious of Joshy's incredibly comfy pj sets that he has. Maybe I could find some in my size.

On another note, after finishing this blog post, I'll have completed 28 things on my to-do list for this week. There are still 23 other things, but most of those have been on there a long time. I'm getting a bit caught up though, so that's good. I'm not sure what I'd do without to-do lists. Oh man, I REALLY need to eat now. I'll write again someday.

Party month!

2009-02-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the parties that were filling Joshua's social calendar in January.

Singing Happy Birthday to his Dada, getting ready to help blow out ALL those candles.
So proud of Dada for blowing them all out, and wanting to sing again.

Stuffing his chubby little cheeks with carrot cake.

Attempting to wipe off his own face...

And here are some pictures from the Elders Quorum Presidency get-together, where Joshua enjoyed playing with his friends, falling down the stairs, and eating a LOT of fruit salad.

Rowan was at the height of fashion with her evening-wear tutu.

Hina (actually I'm not sure if I'm spelling that correctly!) missed much of the festivities, taking a late nap, but we just had to show a picture of her in that bib. She's pretty close to the LEAST wild toddler I've ever met - and so adorable!

I'm impressed that Nathan got such a good group photo!

The Takara kids - they were so great with hanging out with all the little ones so we could enjoy our sushi and chicken - deeeelicious dinner and a good time had by all.

And on to Rowan's second birthday party. I missed a lot of it cuz I got really sick in the middle and had to go home, but they brought home a blue cupcake for me.

Here's Joshy just arriving at the party, ready to dump a high chair tray of food all over the floor, climb up and down the stairs, and enjoy some games and cupcakes!

I love Hugh's face in this picture - I think he was enjoying himself, but it sure is funny.

I'm pretty sure Leia was pretty happy with things as well! I think Rowan had a happy birthday. Joshy drew her a picture and we laminated it so she can keep it forever and ever. I wonder how many of these little guys will stay around here long enough to grow up together? Not sure how long we'll be here, and Leia will probably be heading off to other adventures in the next year or so, but we'll see about everyone else!

Christmas A La Washington

2009-01-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

The snow did eventually melt enough for us to get ourselves up to Washington, and we were very excited to get there. We spent some time at Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mark's, seeing them and Krissy, Brett, and Chloe who were up visiting from California. Chloe is getting so big and it was fun seeing Joshua and Chloe interacting a LOT more than last time they were together. It was a ton of fun. Here, Chloe is holding her Magic Tree, and Joshua is checking out Chloe's new books!
Chloe appreciated Joshua's thorough inspection of her Christmas books, but then was rather interested in having them back.

Too bad Joshy kept making funny faces in these pictures, but he did his main duty and hid my huge belly! I think Chloe looks absolutely adorable in this picture.

While we were there, Joshua needed to cover his splint with a plastic baggie while eating, and when he was through with it, Chloe wanted to give it a try! Kris said on her blog that she has continued to enjoy bag-wearing...what a trend-setter Joshua is. He prefers eating without the bag these days, though.

Joshua spent a lot more time with the dogs and cats this trip than he has in the past, which went just fine, but he bonded most of all with "Benjamin Kitty" (formerly Phantom, formerly Benjamin Bandit the Fierce, Bobcat, and most currently and commonly known as Benjamin Bad-Kitten). Ben was incredibly tolerant of Joshua...that cat seems to have learned a good deal of patience from dealing with his best friend, who happens to be a big clumsy sheep-dog! Joshua was good with him - for the most part not pulling his tail or fur or anything...it was fun to see them together.

The highlight of ever trip to Washington is Joshy getting to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa, and I think they crammed in a LOT of fun memories. Grandma rocked Joshy to sleep at night and they made up all sorts of songs and rhymes that they'll get to share again next time we see them. In this picture, Joshy brought Grandma a "pea-ball" in a pan that he has been cooking with in his play kitchen. Mom & Dad got to keep the old kitchen set from the nursery at the church, and they got him all set up with some play food and pots and pans and he had a great time with it! Brought back a lot of happy memories for me, too!

Dorothy, Pat, Kya, and Alia (I can't remember how her name is spelled - Mom you can correct me and I'll edit it in the post) came to visit us and it was so fun seeing how much they've grown up! They are adorable and hilarious girls, and they were very kind to Joshua. He was really shy (as he often gets around beautiful girls), so he didn't show off a whole lot of his new language skills, but he had a lot of fun being with them. We took a series of pictures, and while Kya is absolutely a professional at posing for pictures, Alia made the photographer's job a bit challenging - I think I like this one the best!

Nathan is so wonderful about always taking all the pictures when we go on trips, and I often forget to include him in them! I tried to get a couple this time around...but I need to try harder. Joshua wasn't super interested in sitting still for this one. I love my boys.

You can see this little kitty in several of the other pictures, but Joshua "borrowed" him from his cousin Chloe while we were over there. They were so kind to let him come back with us temporarily. Joshy just loved this little kitty - the whole time he had a splint on, he usually wanted to be carrying around an animal with his broken arm...definitely a comfort thing. It was very sweet. Apparently, the kitty hadn't been well-fed, so Joshua took care of him. We didn't realize until right before we left (and it is just as well) that the kitty makes very loud meowing noises when you squeeze his tummy! So the white kitty stayed at Grandma's, to return to Chloe. Don't worry - Joshy hasn't mentioned anything about him, so it's all ok.

Posing in his Christmas outfit - what a stud, right?

Before we had dinner and opened Christmas presents, Grandpa got to open birthday presents! Joshua was VERY helpful, as he often is.

For those of you who read Tracy's blog, you may have read my mom's comment about Geoff's Thanksgiving meltdown regarding a subpar Stupid Jello Salad, so Mom outdid herself this time, and Geoff was chosen as the official unmolder. He left it in the hot water for quite some time, so it was a bit more ah...puddly than I remember it, but it still tasted delicious as always! Geoff had Joshy help so that he could share in the blame...er...credit!

This year's four layer Stupid Jello Salad (this is the official submission picture, Tracy). It didn't have any snow like yours...well there was perhaps some melted snow pooled around it and in the middle...but we won't give Geoff TOO hard of a time! I'm not even sure if he reads this blog - maybe we SHOULD give him a hard time.

Me, Joshy, and the white kitty, getting started on Christmas presents!

Joshy got some adorable elephants, books, clothes, and a lot of wonderful toys - here he is reading, "But not the Hippopotamus."

He got a set of those bricks that take about a million years for parents to put together, but we had a lot of fun putting them together, and Joshua likes to knock down the walls we build (and he occasionally has been building as well!) with them. This was the only gift that I especially requested, and I was pretty excited about it.

Joshy showed off his singing talents once again, singing Happy Birthday to Grandpa. I was so glad that Dad had all day off on New Years, so he got to spend a lot of time with Joshy! We had birthday apple pie...yummmmm.

Joshy enjoyed seeing his Uncle Geoffy, and will be grateful once it's a little warmer out when we can set up the awesome outdoor playhouse that Uncle Geoffy got him. I LOVE that when Joshua says, "Uncle Geoffy," it sounds nearly identical to how he says "Uncle Diapey" (as in diapers...if you weren't catching on to what as funny).

We went to visit Joshy's Nonna (my grandma) right before we headed home, and though he was pretty sleepy, he had a very good time with his new blue piggy bank, bulldozer, and getting to show off for all the nice people she wanted to introduce him to. All that being cute exhausted the poor guy, but he did great, and I'm glad we got to see her!

When we got back to Oregon, we opened a mysterious gift from Nonna, which ended up being this great gigantic fold-out fort type thing that looks like a school bus or a fire truck, depending on how you fold the flaps. Joshua loved it - that is a happy face in the picture! It takes up our whole living room, so it'll be even more fun to play with when we have more space some day, but it was pretty cool!

We had such a wonderful time up at Grandma and Grandpa's, and Joshy loves looking at the pictures from our visit over and over - he often says, "see Ramma Rampat gain?" which means Grandma and Grandpa's (when he adds an s to words, it often sounds like a t lately). I'm not sure when we'll go up there again, but we are so grateful that we had such a wonderful visit! And I'm also grateful that I got all these photos posted!

200 days!

2009-01-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

Holy cow - I just looked at the little "baby ticker" on the side there, and saw I've been pregnant with this little critter for 200 days! Doesn't that seem like a long time? Still got a ways to go, but I'm proud of me and this quickly growing bowling ball in my tummy that is my next baby boy.

Also, thank you Tracy and Krissy for your comments on the blog (Krissy's were on Facebook) - I feel motivated to post again the rest of the pictures that are waiting. I was feeling sad to have posted about a billion times and have no comments, so thank you!!

A little bit between Christmases

2009-01-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

Before we headed up to Washington, we stopped by to see Uncle Jeremy and his family - Joshy especially enjoyed going up and down the stairs at their house. We went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday and had a good time. That's probably a pretty good picture to show off my big tummy, huh?
We celebrated Emily's birthday a little early and Joshy loved singing happy birthday!

When we got home, Joshua got to open up another Christmas present - a potty. He'd been wanting one since we watched "Elmo's Potty" on YouTube. Eric and Laurel got him a stuffed baby Cookie Monster for Christmas, so Joshy had some help trying out the potty. Joshua has yet to attempt it...we'll see when he gets interested again.

This was after church, in his little Christmas outfit...I just love this picture. Joshy so rarely falls asleep with us anymore, and I really think that when he is sleeping, he looks just like he did in those very early weeks (just a lot more hair now). Having a warm baby sleeping on you is a wonderful feeling, and it is rare with Joshy these days. I love this kid.

Christmas # 1: Oregon style

2009-01-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

We weren't able to go up to Washington to visit my family at the time we planned, and we ended up making it to Lafayette to see Nathan's parents' a bit earlier than we'd expected. Eric, Laurel, Stevie, and Allie came up to visit again, as well as Tawnia, and Clarissa came home, so it was a VERY full house - lots of fun and noise and holiday excitement (and occasionally a bit of drama).

Joshy really does enjoy that piano - I wish we had one...someday! He can tell you what a lot of songs are now just by hearing the music, and he's quite good at singing Jingle Bells and Silent Night, as well as a bunch of non-Christmas songs. I have no doubt he'll continue to be very musical.

(Almost) everyone waiting to go out and get started on the stockings.

Joshy opening one of his stocking stuffers - number magnets to join his letter magnets on the fridge.

Joshy playing with his new blocks from Aunt Tawnia, under Allie's careful observation.

One of his newest skills - giving the "evil eye" - was perfected over Christmas dinner. Gotta love the reindeer bib.

Stevie loves Joshy, and Joshy loves Stevie, and Joshy loves that gigantic bunny from Aunt Kissa-Wa too. But he loves Stevie more.

Joshy and Allie playing with Allie's coolest Christmas present - her little doll that pees and poos in a toilet that flushes...seriously this is a hilarious toy. One night when Stevie was in the middle of getting dressed, he sat down totally naked on the little potty - that cracked me up. Joshua tried it too at some point, but he had his clothes on, and couldn't quite keep his balance. Allie's hairstyle was inspired by her little peeing and pooing doll as well. What a nice addition to their family. And Allie is wearing Joshua's shirt in this picture.

Pretty much every picture with these two in it is priceless, but I especially love this one. I hope they stay good friends as they grow up!

Sharing some goldfish.

We had a very nice Christmas - it was my very first Christmas (in 25 years!!!) not being with my family on Christmas day, so that was hard...especially not knowing quite when we'd be able to get our little car through the snow to get up to Washington, but we did have a very good time. Having all these little kids around makes Christmas special in a different way, ya know? Being the youngest generation in my extended family gave Christmases a different feeling for those several years before this next generation came along. I really love seeing Joshua enjoying the holidays.

Mid-December

2009-01-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

Apparently there is a limit to the number of pictures you can put into one post...

Here is Joshua modeling the hat Nathan made me - I am pretty impressed with the snowflake pattern - this was his very first try!

Right when the crazy snow started, we were having new floors put in - our wimpy little car left us pretty stranded, so we were very grateful that we could go hang out with the Bays for much of the day while they were working on our apartment. Joshua had a blast playing in the big box full of packing peanuts with Rowan, though admittedly neither of them felt it was quite a two-person box.

I have to say that this is my all-time favorite picture of Rowan ever, and there are a lot of good ones out there! Now, I'm not quite sure if she really liked my Christmas cookies very much, but the homemade green frosting was a BIG hit.

It was so funny what a trek it was just to the next street up! What a crazy week it turned out to be...

We were putting our "office/dining room" back together, enjoying the new vinyl to replace the ratty old carpet. We really like it. More to sweep and mop, but also more to spill stuff on without worry, which REALLY outweighs the other.

Well, little did we know that the next day we'd be going to the doctor to find out that Joshua broke his little arm!!! He'd fallen off the little bench in our hallway on Monday, and it obviously hurt him a lot, so we'd called the doctor right away. They asked us a lot of questions and had us test his range of motion and grasping, etc., and they didn't think it was broken...but told us to watch and see if he was using it. Well on Tuesday it started to swell and bruise near his left wrist, so Wednesday our friend Allie was wonderful enough to take time off work and drive us all to the doctor in her 4 wheel drive vehicle. The doctor didn't think it was broken when he examined him in the office, but the x-ray proved everyone wrong. Our little guy managed to break his left radius. So they put him in a hard splint (like a partial cast wrapped with ace bandages) and sent us home. This sling was only worn for about 3 minutes total...it's not very practical to expect a toddler to wear a sling, and it wasn't necessary either.

Since Joshua wasn't allowed to get his splint wet, and we didn't have any other coat for him, he got to go outside in one of his dada's coats - I think the pictures are pretty freaking adorable. He really enjoyed looking at the snow, though it'll be more fun next time it snows when he can actually be in it a bit more.
I was laying on the floor and Joshy brought me a bunch of pillows, which I appreciated, and then he came and laid down with me...I love my little guy.

Enjoying the snow some more...

The freezing rain did some beautiful things to the trees and bushes, though some of that beauty caused a lot of power outages - ours was off four times on one of the days, but we were fortunate - many people lost power for much longer.

Joshy really enjoyed the "icicles" on the bushes.

And all this before Christmas!

The beginning of December

2009-01-07T12:21:00.001-08:00

The first two weeks of December were not extremely eventful, but Joshy did get to help celebrate Grandpa Palmer's birthday and go to a ward Christmas party.

Here is Joshua reading Reader's Digest with Grandpa.
And Joshua is ALWAYS eager for an opportunity to show off his skill at singing "Happy Birthday!"

He found a love of Legos, though we watch him carefully because he likes those little ones.

I like the perspective on this picture - kind of reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes. The story that goes along with it cracks me up...whenever Joshua takes off one of the little hats that the Lego men are wearing, he always says, "Lego man naked!" Any bare skin means naked to Joshua, so when his tummy is showing, he says he is naked. He went crazy pointing at one of the tabloid magazines at the grocery store the other day which was showing different movie stars in bathing suits who had gained weight..."Lady naked lady naked!!!"

I had just been fluffing Joshua's hair out in the mirror to the point where he kind of looked like Wolverine from the X-Men, so I had to try to quickly smooth it out for dada's surprise tooth brushing photo shoot.

It is embarassing how long this kid went without having shoes other than his little camo crocs...those have been great, but they have holes in them, so walking in bark dust or dirt turns his socks brown. Anyway, he likes his new velcro shoes because he can still take them off by himself! In this picture, he is contemplating the price tag...

Opening the first Christmas gift of the season - from Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mark - all sorts of fun paper products - thank you so much - I don't know if I thanked you for that in person at Christmas time!!! We are using it all up and greatly appreciate it. Joshua loved taking it all out of the box and putting it back in, over and over. He was especially fascinated with the Kleenex that has lotion in it...

All ready to go to the ward Christmas party - good thing he got new shoes, of course!

At the Christmas party with dada.

Keeping Santa's chair warm for him...what a cutie.

I love this picture - but how could you not?

Though he doesn't look very excited about it in the picture, Joshua did enjoy his first time sitting with Santa. We had this picture as our desktop background for awhile and Joshy got very excited about seeing Santa there. And he only cried a little!

Late November

2009-01-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

Since the last time I posted was before Thanksgiving, I've got a lot of catching up to do! I'll just stick with lots of photos and descriptions.

Joshy getting ready to go outside - I love his raincoat.

Working on building a sweet fort with his dada.

Trying on dada's sandals.

For Family Home Evening before Thanksgiving, we made a turkey with feathers saying things we're thankful for. Joshua came up with some of them, as you can possibly tell. It was fun.

Joshua working on studying Calculus 2 so he could take dada's finals for him.

Nathan was very quick with the camera to get this one - Joshua doesn't often like bows on his head.

Joshy's friend Leia came over one night and they had a good time playing. I've got some videos to post from their adventures together!

Eric, Laurel, Stevie, and Allie came to visit Thanksgiving week, so we spent a lot of time with them. Joshy liked wearing Allie's pink hat.

All the cousins squirming on Grandma's lap!

We went up to Washington for a short Thanksgiving visit. Joshy had fun playing with his great grandma - with his school bus and new piggy bank.

Joshy enjoying his Thanksgiving feast - I think last year's Thanksgiving bib is a bit small now, but oh well.Trying on a sheep costume for the Christmas pageant that he didn't end up getting to be in because it was postponed for weather and we weren't up there the right weekend.

Also trying on the angel wings...

Some have complained that they haven't seen any pictures of me all fat and pregnant...here's one before I got as gigantic as I am now, but I'll see if I have any decent ones from more recently. We are enjoying a delicious chocolate chip cookie in this one.

Mama and Joshy playing the piano - he's actually quite good, and he will sit there with me and play for a LONG time!

Joshy and Allie make a great team - and he especially likes that touch lamp.

Right after Thanksgiving, the Christmas decor came out of the big blue bin, and we got to work on decorating - Joshua was a big help.

Introducing baby #2

2009-01-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

We've been calling him #2 or baby Henry for quite some time now, but I'm fairly certain Henry won't be his name...we just like to call him that. I scanned several ultrasound pictures long ago, and it's been on my list for a long time to post them, so I'll put them up here and then get some Joshy pictures up as well!

This was on August 15th...can't exactly see how cute he is. He's the white blur in the dark blur in the middle on the bottom.

This was August 27th, when they were trying to get a more exact date - I was frustrated because my calculations said he was due about a week earlier than their calculations. At this point, I'm not minding so much having one extra week to prepare!

Then the much-anticipated ultrasound to determine the sex. This was November 25th - here's his cute little foot. We were actually pretty shocked that the baby is a boy. We'd been hoping for a boy, but were pretty convinced it was a girl!

With Joshy, they did the cool 3-D pictures, one of which looked a lot like him...but the ultrasound tech lady was in a hurry (our appointment was about an hour late...so they were rushed to catch up), so we just got the regular kind of pictures. I do like this picture a lot, though, because he is smiling!

Well, that's all for now - I'll post another if we have another ultrasound, but we probably won't, so you can look forward to pictures in April if he's on time!

A meat treat and dancing with the...?

2008-11-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a big milestone for Joshua - he was having a rather adventurous day in terms of trying new foods (he hasn't had one of those in a loooooong time), and finally ate meat that wasn't the gross Gerber baby food meat sticks. That is all he's ever been willing to eat that is meat. Anyway, he had a chicken nugget and really liked it. Not the healthiest of meats, but it's a start! He also tried a bite of my little mini cheese wheel (those little red ones covered in wax) and didn't like it, a bit of mashed potatoes (not a big fan of those either), and a bite of my Twinkie (loved it!).

And then today, he was dancing around in circles on his blue play mat holding Pooh in his arms...it was adorable - he had a huge grin on his face and I so wanted to catch the moment on film, but it just didn't quite happen - sorry. I guess you could call that a toddler version of dancing with the stars, right?

I love this baby. I'm trying out making meatloaf for the first time tonight. I decided it is high time to expand the number of things I can cook...starting with meats. Oh man I haven't posted pictures in awhile - gotta do that, huh? Oh and I updated a few of the items below to add a few more I hadn't given myself before. I think I've done 50 of the 99 things, but I didn't recount after I added some and I don't really want to...so it might not be 50.

What have I done?

2008-11-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

Again, I don't usually do these kind of things, but again, I saw that Trina had posted it on the sisters blog, and again, I liked it! I learned a lot about Trina - maybe you'll learn a lot about me!

Of these 99 things, the ones in bold are ones I've done:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band *Nope...
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity *I think you'd have to define that...by my standards, no I haven't given more than I could afford
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis *Don't want to!
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped *NEVER want to!
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea *I love watching lightning storms, but I definitely don't want to at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch *Probably I have...I'm not thinking of anything specific, though...does learning how to write bubble letters count?
15. Adopted a child *Maybe someday...
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables *I've never had my own garden, but I want to grow veggies someday!
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked *Yikes - don't plan on it!
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb *I don't think I have...I've held goats...
26. Gone skinny dipping *After I was married, though...
27. Run a Marathon *I'm not a big fan of running...
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice *Maybe someday
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person *I'd like to!
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community *I definitely want to!
36. Taught yourself a new language *I learned some French, but certainly didn't teach myself
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt *Want to!
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant *Hmmm...
44. Visited Africa *I'd love to someday
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance *I've ridden in the front seat while Nathan was transported
47. Had your portrait painted *That'd be cool
48. Gone deep sea fishing *NO THANK YOU!
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China *That'd be awesome
57. Started a business *Probably won't do that
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen *I think I sang Christmas carols at a soup kitchen once when I was 15 or so, but didn't serve
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies *I never made it past Brownies, and I don't think they sold cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma *Never have been able to cuz as soon as I weighed enough, I was on medication that means I can't
65. Gone sky diving *I think I want to...
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp *I want to go to the Holocaust museum in DC, but probably not visit an actual concentration camp
67. Bounced a check *I've been overdrawn on my debit card, but not bounced an actual check
68. Flown in a helicopter *No desire to do this...I've seen too many helicopters blow up in the movies
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar *Yuck.
72. Pieced a quilt *I've helped tie quilts and have contributed a piece to a quilt, but never actually done the work of piecing it together
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades *Maybe someday
75. Been fired from a job *hopefully never!
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London *We saw the changing of the guards at the Tower of London, rather than at Buckingham Palace...and another changing of the guards in Rome, which was cool.
77. Broken a bone *Well I think I've broken my pinkie toe a time or two
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle *No desire at all
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person *Definitely want to!
80. Published a book *Probably never will
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car *Someday...
83. Walked in Jerusalem *That would be amazing
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating *Haven't done this...maybe I will someday
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life *At least I don't think so...
90. Sat on a jury *I'm sure I will sometime soon
91. Met someone famous *I can't think of anyone
92. Joined a book club *Hopefully this year I will!
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person *I'd like to!
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake *Have NO desire to do that
97. Been involved in a law suit *No desire there either
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Well this is definitely helpful for helping me work on my list of things I'd like to do before I die!

Halfway there!

2008-11-13T09:42:00.001-08:00

Well today I'm halfway through my pregnancy - 20 weeks! Only 20 more weeks to go! Including me, there are 6 women in my ward at church who are pregnant within a month of me (craziness!!!) and they ALL know what they're having except ME. We still have to wait til the 25th. So the current stats are that there are 3 boys and 2 girls (also one boy coming in January, but Jess wasn't part of our pregancy pact...just kidding! To clear up rumors, there wasn't actually a pregnancy pact), so if we're having a girl, we'll even it out with 3 and 3. We'll be very happy with a girl, but it would be easier to have another boy since we have tons of boy stuff already...either way, we'll definitely be happy to have a healthy baby!

What have I read?

2008-11-10T11:42:00.000-08:00

I don't often do things like this, but I really liked this one - Trina posted it on the "sisters" blog (that I enjoy reading!) and I thought I'd try it.

A couple thoughts for my faithful readers - Mom, these might be some good Christmas ideas :c) and book club ladies, this might be helpful in choosing books for next year!

I'm not sure how well my memory will serve, so I'll do my best.

Here is a link to more info about where this came from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

Basically, this is a list of the top 100 books (as determined by the BBC), and apparently (though I couldn't find this statistic on the site) they estimate that the average adult has only read 6 of these books.

Here is what you do:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love. (Or asterisk, since there is no underline option on Blogger.)
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

THE LIST
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien*
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell*
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis*
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien*
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert***
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens*
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett*
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck*
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley*
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

I've seen the movie for some of these books...and I have no recollection of some that I'm certain I read, but there definitely are some favorites on there. Anyway, that was interesting!

The last few months...

2008-11-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year - we didn't carve our pumpkins til the night before, and they were LITTLE pumpkins...but that was ok. I'm excited to get big pumpkins someday, like when we were growing up, but that'll come. Joshy had two littler pumpkins that were too small to carve and he loved carrying them around. He called our two pumpkins the "hewy punkas" (heavy pumpkins) and was ok with not being allowed to carry them around. He understands the concept of heavy, which is good.

We were a cute little pirate family at the ward "Trunk or Treat" where people gave out candy from their cars in the parking lot. Joshy didn't like saying Trick or Treat, but he did say "Happy Ween!" to a few people. He was kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing, and he doesn't really eat candy, so we didn't make the whole loop of the parking lot. Notice the cool parrot on Nathan's shoulder...and Nathan's awesome eyepatch. Who knew that his broken sunglasses would one day come in so handy?

I don't think we really ever got him to keep his eye patch on over his eye for more than a couple seconds, but thank you for making it Aunt Laurel! It definitely added to the costume, even though it was on his bandana.

Joshy didn't hear that he was supposed to be making a tough pirate face in this picture...and I'm sad that it's blurry - my two pirate guys are looking particularly handsome, I think.

Before Halloween, Eric and Laurel and Stevie and Allie came up to visit, so I definitely should put up some pictures of them! We attempted to get pictures of them all three together in their Halloween costumes but that never quite happened. Here are some of the cutest pictures...

Joshy and Stevie had fun playing outside in the leaves.

The three of them got along pretty well - it was so fun to meet Allie and to see how much Stevie has grown and changed since the last time we saw him (over two years ago!!)
When we came over on Saturday afternoon, Allie was asleep in the family room in her adorable pink tutu surrounded by toys. It was so stinking cute.

SOOO cute! Laurel did a great job on Allie's costume.

She did a great job on Stevie's Dash costume also! He wasn't a huge fan of wearing his mask, but it all looked great.

We're excited to see them again at Thanksgiving and Christmas! And I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa Palmer are too!!

And before the California Palmers came to visit, my parents came to see us, and that was a really fun visit too!! I love it when they come down and so does Joshy. He can say Grandma Rozen and Grandpa Rozen now, but I learned the other day that it is indeed the same word as raisin to him when he started asking for raisins after I was telling him I was calling Grandma Rozen. Here are some pictures from their visit...

Joshy and Grandpa had a lot of fun playing and laughing together.

And certainly one of Grandma and Grandpa's favorite parts of any Joshy visit is getting to read books with him - he calls this new book his "Meow Meow" book because of all the kitties.
I was able to keep my mouth shut for the week before they came (amazingly!), so Grandma didn't know that Joshy had learned to say Grandma again (he used to be able to say it and then just stopped for months!), so when she went in to get him from his nap soon after they arrived, he said "Grandma!" and melted her heart of course. Joshy also loves giving hugs now - which makes our days much brighter. What a cutie.

We are excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Rozen again at Thanksgiving and Christmas too! So there are some updates - sorry it has been so long. And we'll work on more videos...

ANOTHER video? Yay!

2008-09-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday mornings are video making mornings for Nathan, and here's a very good one - we hope you love it. Turn your sound up!

We did get our camera back, so we won't be only taking videos, but we have a lot of footage, so you can expect at least an exercise video in the near future.

Tell us when you watch the video! I loooove the comments.

He's learning...

2008-09-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

Nathan put together another video for your watching enjoyment. I think probably some of you are not minding that our regular camera is broken cuz now you get so many videos!

Happy Sunday!

If you didn't see it yet...

2008-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

You should look at the post on Joshy's blog about his surgery. http://boypalmer.blogspot.com/

Joshy is ok!

2008-09-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

The surgery went well and Joshy is home and sleeping. Thank you for all of the prayers - the surgeon said that it went beautifully and the anesthesiologist said there were no problems at all. Hopefully the recovery process will be quick and he'll be back to his happy self very soon.

Prayers for Joshy

2008-09-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to ask for prayers for Joshua tomorrow morning when he goes in for his surgery. He's got a cold and is kind of congested, so they may reschedule if the anesthesiologist is concerned about that, but otherwise it is a go. We have to be there at 7:30, the surgery is scheduled for 8:30, and it will go probably about 2 hours. It sounds like recovery will be pretty easy unless something unexpected happens, but you never know exactly how a little critter will respond to surgery and everything, so all prayers are appreciated.

Thank you so much!

Mostly for Grandma :c)

2008-09-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

We got Joshy a couple new things and set them up last night after he went to bed. This is a video of him this morning coming out from his bedroom to see his surprise. I think the initial reaction is priceless. Sorry about the bad lighting - and turn your sound up! It's long...but the beginning is the best part!

Some of Joshy's words...

2008-09-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

Most of this was filmed at the beginning of July...so those of you who have heard a lot of Joshua's words lately may not be particularly impressed...we'll try to get more of them on film for another one - and all his new animal noises. My favorite new sound is what a rooster says. Alas, those are not on here, but Joshy will share those with you soon. Thank you my faithful blog readers and watchers - tell me what you think!

Our camera died...

2008-09-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

...it died quite recently, so I better get some of the photos up that I have! Joshua (with his dada's help) put up a wonderful post about our little campout, which was a lot of fun. Here are some other recent pictures! I think I'll post some and then go try to finish a video I've been working on...and maybe get it posted before Nathan comes back from cleaning the apartment he's working on. Ready set go!

Joshua learning to write his name...

Helping put away the groceries...

Making faces with Bapa Rozen at breakfast up in Brier...

Being safely shielded from the zoo of animals...

Seeing cousin Chloe again...trying out her pink phone and admiring one of her purses...

Working hard on that one wonderful stair...

Taking his first shared bath...this didn't actually go over too well - apparently Joshua likes to have baths to himself, we learned. He hid his frustration pretty well for a few minutes...

We miss you Chloe!

Let's see if I can get a video done...it's almost 25 minutes later now that I've finally gotten those pictures on here, so we'll see.

Joshua's first road trip!

2008-07-30T11:23:00.001-07:00

Check out Joshua's blog for a good summary of our recent road trip, but you can also look at the album I just put up on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029112&id=27502550&l=e0315&ref=share

First haircut

2008-07-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

I have been telling people it was traumatic, and they assume I mean for Joshua...but I just mean for me. Seeing all those curls going in the garbage can was very sad, but we left curls in the back. We waited until Grandma and Grandpa Rozen were here so that they could see both his crazy crazy curls and be there for an important event - that very first haircut! I did it myself while he was sitting in the bathtub, so some hair got in the tub and went down the drain, but I don't think it really clogged it up, so that's good. So I want to post some before, during, and after pictures. As his hair gets longer, we'll have to decide if we're keeping the mullet that will form...probably not, but it looks so stinking cute now. I miss his curls, but it is much easier to take care of. I wasn't super interested in buying baby gel or something like that and he'd wake up each morning and after each nap with his hair sticking straight out or straight up on one side or the other. It was endearing for awhile, but we decided it was time to get it a bit shorter. Ok here are the pictures!

A mystery...

2008-06-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

So how old is Joshua now? Just about 15 months, right? So I’ve been “postpartum” for 15 months. I’d say that since about September, life got uncrazy enough to make me feel like I’d have time and energy to do some exercising and get my body back to where I’d like it to be. So I started out doing some crunches to tighten up that loose tummy skin, but that was entirely unsuccessful – just seemed to make it worse. Those of you who saw me pregnant probably remember that my tummy went straight out about 10 feet (well maybe not quite that far, but it felt like it when I was trying to wash my hands and couldn’t reach the faucet). Anyway, I’m back at my pre-pregnancy weight and don’t have much to complain about, I’m not saying that, but my tummy still looks funny – loose and very stretch-marky.

So now I am motivated to do something about it again (yes, yes, about 8 months after I gave up the crunches, but better late than never), and I started looking online for advice on what to do. At first I just came across all sorts of articles about how that loose skin will never go away and you just have to wait until you are done having babies and then have surgery. That was very discouraging…but then I finally found some information about what happens to your abdominal muscles when that baby is in there, and which muscles will help (or harm) the process of getting rid of that extra stuff. So basically what you need to focus on is your Transverse Abdominus, and not with the typical crunches or other ab exercises that you regularly hear about, which only exercise the surface muscles and so push your tummy out even further.

Nope, to strengthen these muscles, the main exercise that I found is called the “vacuum” (or a variation is called the “cross”, which is just the vacuum with your arms extended straight out). All there is to it is that you stand straight with good posture and your spine straight and suck in your stomach like you’re pulling your belly button towards your spine. With a lot of repetition, this will help pull the muscles on the sides of your waist inward. This is also a really good exercise just to get your waist a bit skinnier – not only to get rid of post-pregnancy looseness. Here are a couple of links if you’re interested:

http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article49654.html

http://www.straighttothebar.com/2007/11/specific_training_for_the_tran.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_exercise

So today (6/23) I’m starting, and I hope to see some results. If I can feel comfortable in a bathing suit, I’ll be happy! If it doesn’t do much, that’s fine, too – I’ll know that I tried, and I’ll be ok with my “mommy tummy.” Any other suggestions from moms who’ve been successful would be appreciated, too!

Joshua's words

2008-06-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

I was in the doctor's office the other day, and waiting FOREVER for the doctor to actually come in, so I probably read every word of every poster on the wall. One of the posters was about child development, and it said that normal development for an 18-month old child is that they can say 8-10 recognizable words. This made me realize that Joshua's language development is really pretty remarkable. So I tried making a list of the words he says (most of them he says often and consistently, though some of them he's only said a few times, but I of course count them anyway!).

So here is the list of words he knows, and he picks up new ones each day (really!)

Jesus
Car
Mama
Dada
Papa
Mamma
Banana
Mindy
Ball
Baby
Bird
No
Bath
Book
Milk
Brush
Meat
Pillow
Help
Door
Yikes
Uh Oh
Whoa
Wow
Eww
Mmmm
Amen
Loofah
Man
Water
What's that?
Bottle
Cracker
Cookie
Feather
Bye-Bye

***Later addition of some words that I forgot, and new ones he has learned***

Rowan
Bumbo
Apple

And then his signs:

Yes
Milk
Eat
More
Please
Thank you

And animal noises that he can make quite consistently:

Cow
Sheep
Duck
Elephant
Walrus
Baby
Snake
Horse
Lion
Dinosaur
Monkey
Fish

That was all - just wanted to brag about my genius baby. He amazes me.

I couldn't wait...

2008-06-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

I wanted to wait awhile before posting another video...and I wanted to maybe have Nathan give this one some titles and music and credits...but if you know me much, you know I'm not very patient...so enjoy!

My little wanderer

2008-06-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

A few disclaimers...

1. This video is perhaps a bit boring for some of you who see Joshy often, or maybe who have little ones of your own...but it is mostly for those of you who haven't seen Joshy walking around yet. This is a pretty typical few minutes in the life of our little explorer. Although, he amazingly doesn't get in as much trouble as he sometimes does.
2. I apologize (as should Joshua, really) for the gross-looking carpet - it's getting cleaned really soon. We very much underestimated the amount of damage having Joshy's high chair on the carpet would do. Yikes!
3. Our apartment is a disaster in this video...most of the chaos is put away at night and our home returns to some sort of order.
4. Check out our new vinyl flooring in our kitchen! I love it!
5. For Aunty Mindy - yes he is saying your name over and over through his second lap through the kitchen.

Enjoy!

Priorities!

2008-05-19T10:06:00.001-07:00

I decided that rather than start in on my huge list of things to do, I'd post on my blog first. However, I do want to take a trip back in time and write out my to-do lists for the week like I used to do! Then I'll get on to the good stuff, I promise.

For Home/Family/Church:
do budgets
develop photos
post on blog
write birthday cards
plan trip dates
get photos from my baptism (to put on personal history)
scan more pictures for facebook
update my Personal Progress
finalize next week's service project
call about the presidency meeting on Sunday
have presidency meeting
plan lesson
teach lesson
go to doctor appointment
have FHE
exchange lids for bins at Target
put away the bins of Joshua's clothes
go to Mutual
many loads of laundry (it's been WAY too hot to do laundry...but I figure 79 is the coolest it's been in awhile, so I'll do it today)

Ok now for my to-do list for Work:
file things
get last rent payment
exchange ink
pick up forms
prep move-in papers for Saturday
mail move-out paperwork
figure out repairing cat pee damage :c(
get my new Asset Manager's cell number
traffic report
vacancy report
monthly report
update directory on cabinet door
meet with new Asset Manager
mail P.O.s

I've really found it helpful to make a big weekly to-do list, and add stuff to it as the week goes on. It has been a good thing for me, and I've been doing it for three weeks.

Things are going amazingly well at the apartments, soooo much better than last year at this time. Certainly having a toddler rather than a newborn is a lot easier in many ways, but most of it is just knowing the ropes more. Last year, we were just starting out, with no idea what we were doing (both in being parents and being apartment managers), and we had 5 apartments to fill. I shudder just thinking about it. Now for the last MONTH we've been at 100% occupancy, which doesn't mean that we've had no apartments empty, it just means that all the vacant ones or ones on notice have had people commited to them. So that's been amazing. Before this month started, we never went more than one day (15 hours to be exact) at 100% occupancy. Seriously. No good. But I'm really enjoying this. We even have a waiting list, though I don't know how long they'll be willing to wait, so by the time we get a notice, we may have no more waiting list. Either way, that's fine. We've had some stressful stuff come up with a couple apartments, but it's getting resolved, and will be ok. Yikes, I need to stop talking about this stuff, as I had to make a VERY conscious decision to post on here before doing work for the day. Joshy's nap times are my work times, and he's been asleep for almost an hour, so we'll see how much gets done today!

So that's the work situation - what about the adorable baby situation, you ask?

Well, our little critter is changing and growing so much - I love it! Pretty much from the moment he wakes up til the time he goes to sleep (and once or twice I've heard him say it in his sleep), he is asking, "wut dah?" about EVERYTHING. That's his form of "what's that?" So we are answering that question much of the day. He's still not super interested in walking on his own, but he's doing it more little by little. He is definitely into everything, though, and interested in climbing on anything, though we don't have a lot of climb-on-able stuff at his height yet. He'll figure out the couch and chairs soon enough, though. He loves climbing stairs, but we don't have any of those, so he doesn't get a lot of practice.

His language development is definitely going quickly - yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa Palmer's house, he wanted to know what some feathers were on a dream-catcher they have on the wall, and we asked him to say feather, and he said "fev-ver" very well. We were all impressed. He loves to say "Pa Pa" for Grandpa, and points out his "Pa Pa" in pictures for BOTH Grandpas, which makes me happy, since he doesn't see Grandpa Rozen as often. He loves his Aunty Mindy, and is very good at saying "Min-inn" when he sees her picture or sees her. Don't worry Aunty Emily, we'll keep working on Aunty Emmy - I'm sure he'll get it soon.

So, his repertoire of words currently includes (and I'll probably forget some) :
Wut-da? (what's that?)
Mama
Dada
Papa
Mam-ma (though he's been shy about saying it lately)
Min-inn (Mindy)
Buh bye (he LOVES to say buh bye for goodbye and goodnight)
Zee-Zuh ("Jesus," which he says with amazing accuracy when he sees different pictures of Jesus...or sometimes when he sees his Uncle Geoffy - ha!)
Cruh-cuh (cracker)
Buh (bird)
Meh! (Amen)
Buuuuuuh (Brrrr!)
Baw (or something like that...for ball)
MANY different animal sounds (elephant, snake, cow, horse, ducky, sheep) - we're currently working on what a walrus says, but mostly he just cracks up at that one
Yah-ya-yo (e-i-e-i-o, which I think was one of his first words because we sang Old McJoshy so often...but now he says it when we ask him what a farmer says)
Nana (Banana, and many other things in his world, often things that are yellow)
Do! (Door, which he is often very enthusiastic about)
Nn-yo (Unfortunately he is a big fan of saying no now, generally right before he does something that he knows I'll say no to, such as pulling the mouse off the desk or pulling over the garbage can that has recycling in it.

Ok I can't think of others...but I know there are more.

He is very musical, and we got him a little xylophone/piano, which he has been having fun with. He likes to play it with his feet, as well as Grandma Palmer's piano. I was sitting on the bench with him on my lap yesterday, and he started pushing with his feet against the piano, and I was too close, so he almost pushed us both over. That was scary!

He likes to play outside, though we sadly don't have many places for him to play, and I don't have a car to take him to the park, but we're trying to make more time for that.

He's great at throwing a ball - he loves to do that - especially when we are trying very hard to catch it, which is often hard. He doesn't know how to catch, yet (what a baby...).

Much of his time the last couple of weeks has been spent opening and closing the cabinets on our entertainment center and his bedroom door. He loves doors and the loud noises that the little springy doorstoppers make. It cracks me up. I can be doing other stuff while he's playing with his bedroom door, until he shuts it and then laughs a lot when I come knock on the door and ask if I can come in. He's so funny.

I finally took the doors off the bathtub, so he's been taking baths in the big bath now. I got him some floating letters that stick to the tub, and he loves those, and a rainbow loofah, which tickles too much when we try to wash him with it, but it is pretty entertaining :c)

I'm sure there are lots of other new things he's doing, but those are a lot of them, and I'll try to keep the updates coming. He's a great baby - gets into a lot of trouble, but that's ok. He's also very cuddly, which I love.

Here we go with some pictures!

His new xylophone Looking at a daisy with his Aunt Mindy
Playing bocce ball...
He was trying out his swim diapers in this picture, to see if they fit...at bath time he is generally naked :c)

His pinecone that he brought home from church
Look how much hair he has!
He's so cute in shorts
Quite the attack on his dada - he tends to pounce on us if we are laying down

He loves to climb on this basket

Well have a great day! Hope you enjoy the pictures and updates.

Look who's walkin!!!

2008-05-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

So Joshua took his first steps on May 1st, but hasn't been interested in doing it again...until today! Enjoy :c) And go check out Joshy's blog for even more entertainment!

yikes!

2008-04-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, believe it or not, I have been blogging...just unfortunately not on any blogs that anyone reads. I created a blog (but it doesn't really look like a blog - just an advertising website) for our apartments, and then my boss has been paying me to make more for other apartments - which is sweet! So I keep working on those when I should be blogging on here or the Palmer family blog. So I apologize. And now that the Joshua's First Year calendar is finished, you must all be wishing and hoping for more pictures of Joshua! I need to do updates on what he's doing and what I'm doing, but for now, I'll just post some pictures!

Look at how incredibly curly his hair is getting!!

This is a shirt he got for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa - it says, "I still live with my parents." Ha!
Showin off some of his cute dino pjs!
If you read Nathan's blog, then you've already seen this picture, but this is a snowman that Nathan built - it is a snow daddy holding a snow baby sitting on a bench. Very adorable if you ask me.
I love my cuddly baby!

That's all for now - I'll write more someday - hopefully soon, but I don't want to make promises!

And for Ashley again...

2008-04-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ash, I hope this gives you good luck for your test tomorrow!

For Ashley

2008-04-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

A little bit of Joshua walking with his new car and showin off a little of that tummy...though at his latest doctor appointment we found that he is actually now closer to the 70th percentile for weight, rather than at the 99th...so maybe this explains why he's able to lift himself off the ground now!

Some recent photos!

2008-04-06T21:01:00.001-07:00

Here is Joshy modeling the adorable caterpillar outfit his great Aunt and great Uncle got for him - and with his fun car/walker that his friend Rowan got for him. He LOVES walking with it, and was a big fan of pulling at the little cateripillar feet. Thank you Aunt Lynn and Uncle Mark and Rowan for such nice birthday gifts!

Dada took Joshy to Minto Brown Island Park - it's not exactly a playground made for a 1 year old, but Joshua liked the slide and all the birds. Probably his dad was more interested in the birds than he was, though.

We're working on teaching Joshua how to be an expert back scratcher...we'll see how that goes. At least he didn't try to eat it!

My baby is a year old...

2008-04-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

It truly is amazing that Joshua is a year old. He is becoming such a fun and hilarious little person. He is starting to get the biggest kick out of trying to repeat stuff. He is good at saying mama, dada, baby, maybe, and nonononononono. I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting. Lately he's been starting to say things consistently, though we can't quite figure out what he's saying. He says bird, ball, blankie (I think), and book making a very similar "bye" sound. He's great at making a noise like an elephant, a lion, a snake (he's a REALLY scary snake), and lately he's been doing well and saying quack...though he will only say it very quietly. I think that is because when I give him his ducky in his crib at night, ducky tickles his nose and whispers quack quack quack, so I think Joshua thinks duckies make quiet noises.

Joshua also LOVES watching movies of himself. When he's eating in his high chair, he'll point to the computer and clap (meaning more) and shake his left hand in the air (meaning yes) as he points at the computer screen, to tell us that he wants to watch his movies. He especially loves the music his dada wrote. He likes the ones without music, too, but he waves his arm to lead the music in the ones that have his signature song.

I think Joshua will be very musical. I'm fairly sure he's left handed, and he just adores music. Whenever he hears it, whether it is on the cd player, the radio, the tv, one of his musical toys, a movie on the computer, or occasionally a cell phone, he starts moving his hand leading the music. And when the tempo is faster, he moves his hand faster...it's pretty impressive, I think! Not that I'm biased.

He does well with his signs - he's good at yes (waving his hand up and down), more (clapping), milk (making a grasping motion with his hand like he's milking a cow...he actually does that one correctly!), and sometimes he'll try to sign berries, banana, finished, and other signs I'm probably forgetting. He understands so much - it amazes me.

His dada started a new tradition of Joshua crawling from his room to the bath tub (quite naked, I might add) after he gets changed, and though he often gets sidetracked on the way there (the floor is an exciting place, after all), he is very good at eventually getting his cute little bottom parked right next to the bathtub for dada or mama to put him in!

He is so close to walking! When we hold his arms and have him walk, he doesn't need us to carry any of his weight, just for a bit of balance, and even then, I think he could take a few steps on his own and do just fine...but I know there is going to be a lot of falling flat on his face in the next few weeks! I think he'll walk soon, though. Now that we've gotten sort of adjusted to him pulling up on everything everywhere, I feel much more ready for him to be walking. We still haven't baby-proofed all the cabinets, though. We're still following him around most of the time that he is wandering, so if we want to do that forever, there's no need to baby-proof the cabinet doors, but I'm thinking maybe I don't want to do that forever.

For Joshua's perspective on his birthday, make sure to check out his blog. He's quite the technological baby - it amazes me sometimes. His dada helps him write emails, post pictures and videos, and even post on his blog. He has his own email address, blog site, youtube channel, and who knows what else he hasn't told me!! I find it very impressive. Sometimes he writes me emails. I don't think he writes his dada emails, but maybe he does.

Anyway, he's a wonderful one-year-old. He was disappointed to not go up to Washington for his birthday, but is rather happy that he gets THREE birthday parties now (two down, one to go!). We're going up the third week of April and he'll be splitting the birthday glory and festivities with his mama. I'm turning 25! But that's another post...

This has been quite a year - I'm so glad we have so many pictures and videos to remember it, as well as all the memories that are quite unforgettable! I love my baby boy Joshua.

A first birthday party...

2008-03-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

...comes only twice a year (for Joshua that is). Joshy got to have his Palmer family birthday celebration this past Saturday. We also were celebrating Easter, so I made a bunny cake. This was inspired by at least one (there were probably more) bunny cake my mom made years ago. Here is the wonderful process I went through. At the end you will see my fat baby thoroughly enjoying his cake!

He enjoyed blowing out the candle, and then we gave him one of the ears! At first he was hesistant and just played with the frosting, but as you can see, he REALLY liked it once he tried it! He probably would have eaten the whole ear, so we had to take it away. Then he REALLY needed a bath. What a cute baby!

Rats!

2008-03-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was at Home Depot, picking up some bug killer, in the same aisle as a lot of other pest control items, and then about 6 feet from me, this HUGE RAT goes skittering across the aisle. It was dark gray and the body was probably about 8-10 inches long – a BIG rat, I’d say. I don’t know how long the tail was. It was the middle of the day, and in general it just really creeped me out. I told a guy working there and he was like, “oh that’s nothing…we have some rats that are about the size of a cat.” Riiight. Gotta love that response. I suppose it is pretty normal for there to be rodents getting into a building supply store like that, and he told me that it was probably out during the day because it had eaten some of the rat poison that they’ve set out and it was dehydrated. So I guess I feel mildly bad for the rat, but I’d prefer that it didn’t surprise me ever again. Probably it won’t surprise anyone ever again, huh? I don’t want to buy bug killer anymore.

A couple of minutes...

2008-03-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

My good friend Brittany’s adorable son Parker is in a contest on a local radio station in Utah. He is singing karaoke, and she would really appreciate it if you would go on there and vote for him! All you need to do is click on this link and vote for #45 in the 2-4 age category. Then you will get an email sent to you and you’ll need to click on the link in the email to validate your vote. You can watch Parker’s video (and the other kids, though they’re not as good!) online. They’d really appreciate your vote – thanks!

Here is the link: http://www.971zht.com/pages/kiddieokee/

This baby can EAT!

2008-03-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I can’t believe how much Joshua eats. So far for lunch he has had green beans, carrots, diced apples, peas, two turkey sticks (baby food turkey), and an apple wheel. Oh and some of my pink lemonade (he is a BIG fan…I haven’t given it to him before, though). He’s a good little eater – his favorite food these days is frozen blueberries, which I think he would like right now. I get a big kick out of his purple face and hands after he’s done with his blueberries. He does always tell us when he’s finished (that is one of the signs he is learning), but lately, I’ve been deciding for him, when he’s eaten just about as big a meal as I could eat! No wonder he poops like 4 times a day!

Now that I figured out what the email address is to post on my blog, I think I’ll do it more often! I have two drafts from awhile ago that I never finished, so I should work on those also. I’ll have to actually get on there to post pictures, though.

Joshua has a blog now, too, if you didn’t know that yet. You can click on the “boypalmer” link on my page.

I heard...

2008-03-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

...that you haven't lived unless you have heard Joshua's laugh. Really...I heard this at cooking class on Tuesday :c)

I want you all to live life to its fullest, so do enjoy. And Ash - I hope you feel better! This is Joshua laughing at his dada back in mid-December.

More pulling up

2008-03-06T13:19:00.001-08:00

Now Nathan will be putting together much better movies, but here are a few more clips of Joshy's new talents of pulling up. These are still a bit outdated, though - he's really close to moving around without having to hold on to furniture. Listen close - it sounds like he says, "k dada" in one of the clips. And you also get to see him fall down, which he does A LOT...

Long-awaited videos

2008-03-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

Thanks Ash, for encouraging me to post new videos! This was from February 18th - Joshua's first standing in his crib experience!

Stake temple night

2008-02-23T15:40:00.001-08:00

I don't often post about church stuff on here, but I just had a really good feeling being at stake temple night Thursday night. Nathan went to the temple on Tuesday night because he was up in Lake Oswego for a financial thing, so he stayed home with Joshy while I went. And it wasn't JUST the Burgerville burgers and shakes that our stake president treated our van-load to afterward...I just really enjoyed being there and seeing so many other people gathered together in a very sacred place. I always enjoy going to the temple - it is such a break from the busy-ness and noise of the world - but usually we'll only see one or two people we know, rather than a whole room full of people we have at least seen before. The temple president and his wife spoke at the chapel session while we were there and they are really cool people. I ended up talking with the temple president afterwards also (which was really nice of him because it was already after 9!) because I had a bunch of random temple-related questions, and he was so helpful and kind and funny. Anyway, I guess it's hard to describe how I felt...but I just really enjoyed it and hope we'll make sure to go more often. So tonight there is an adult session of stake conference at the church at 7pm that I'm going to go to and then the general meeting of stake conference is tomorrow morning from 10-12. What a nice break from 12:30 church...it is just a really hard time to have church when you've got a baby. I have heard a lot of general agreement about that from all our friends who have babies.

Well I had planned to write more, but speaking of babies...mine just woke up from his nap and I'm quite certain he is now standing up in his crib pulling on the bars expressing his irritation that I have not yet come and gotten him (I mean it's been like TEN seconds - what a bad mom). So I'll write more later - sorry no pictures this time.

Another good thing

2008-02-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

Another accomplishment for our home - last night I went to Target to spend some gift cards that we got for Christmas (thank you!!!), and one of the things that I got was some wonderful wall decor for Joshua's room. Seriously, every time I've gone in his room, I've been all sad about how bare his walls are...we had a couple of nice things on his wall, and then for Christmas he got three really cool animals that I put up right above his crib and he has been talking to them all the time ever since, BUT the rest of his walls were still pretty colorless. SO I got these cool adhesive jungle animals and put them up all over. They're incredibly easy to put up and to move around. I don't know how long they'll last, but they look wonderful right now. Joshy is hanging onto his gate thing right now, rather unhappy, so I'll post these pictures and then write more later.

Pretty cool looking, huh?Just thought a couple of Joshua might make a few of you happy. The calendar is updated, too!!

And Tracy, I know I need to post these things (and I got curtains for two rooms also!) on the Reclaiming Home blog...I'm just a terrible person. Thanks for reading!

Manda's thoughts

2008-02-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

Uh oh...see this is what happened with me and my diaries when I was younger. Unless I was in the midst of a seemingly neverending drama about some boy (which apparently was fairly often), I had a hard time writing in my diary because I always felt like there was too much to catch up on. But I don't have to catch up on everything...this is just my thoughts, not necessarily my life story.

Anyway - things are going well! This weekend my parents came down and got to spend some time with us. It was a lot of fun - I'm so glad they were able to come, even though it was for a very short time. I'm so glad that Joshua so far hasn't shown any signs of the "stranger anxiety" that i've heard is inevitable. So we'll see. He's a good baby. We think he's getting some more teeth. He's SO proud of himself for the new skills he's learning with pulling himself up on his knees really easily, and sometimes pulling up to standing. And when we put him up standing next to the couch or one of the dining room chairs, he can sidestep or hold on with just one hand...it's so adorable to see him standing on his pudgy legs. It'll be so crazy when he's walking! He's crawling a lot more on his hands and knees now, rather than his tummy, though he can go FAST on his tummy. We have a long hallway and he loves to race down it shrieking and laughing that he is escaping so sneakily. He loves crawling into the bathroom also - the cold linoleum is fascinating to him. He pulled himself up on the bathtub and then had one of his few tantrums when he knocked the baby shampoo bottle into the tub and couldn't reach it. He was furious that mama wouldn't get it for him, so that was the end of climbing on the bathtub for awhile. His only major tantrums have occured related to his nail clippers. He never used to be particularly interested in them. He wanted to grab them, sure, but never with the incredible desperation that he does now. The hard part with that is that they're sharp, so I won't let him hold them for long now, but I can't just put them away and distract him with something else because I have to clip his nails, ya know? So I'm clipping the nails of a nearly hysterical squirming swatting little guy. It has become a double-teaming event, so that when both mama and dada are there, he's able to be much calmer about the whole experience. i'm grateful that at this point, his tantrums are pretty limited. His personality is really emerging, which is so wonderful, and I'm getting to know a very stubborn little Joshua! My pediatrician warned us that with his red hair, we were in for an adventure. Maybe there is truth in that after all.

So one of the most adorable things to report on this little guy is that other than mama and dada, the only really recognizable word he is consistently saying is "amen." It's mostly the "men" part, but we noticed it 5 days ago or so, and we were like...did he really just say amen? Nooo...well maybe. So now whenever we say prayers, we pay attention, and he nearly always says it! It's so cute. Often he says it a bit early, just to make sure he gets it in there, and then when we say it and look up at him, he has this huge grin on his face, so proud of himself and the praise we give him for this darling new accomplishment. We'll see if he does it at church today - we have only noticed him do it at home.

Things are going ok with the apartments - it's pretty slow right now, which is fine. We were worried that we were going to be evicting someone (this was the reference to cat poop in an earlier post), but the person is actually moving out anyway, so it's much less complicated.

Well my dear baby is waking up, so we'll get him some lunch and then get him ready for church!

I'll try to post more often, and I'll get some pictures up soon.

P.S. Read my husband's newest post - it cracks me up!