Growing families

I have a new nephew and he is adorable! I also have a niece that was born in March. I have another niece on the way in September. It is so much fun to have so many babies in the family. It is exciting for Joseph too. He will love having so many boy and girl cousins.

Joseph is excited for his baby brother or sister. The other day my brother asked him if he had a baby in his belly. He said, "No. I a boy. Only girls have babies." We had to have that discussion many times before it sunk in. It seems that he finally understood.

Tonight we went on a little walk to throw rocks in the river. Joseph enjoyed that. He was so excited to get out and walk. It has been a long while since we went for a walk to the Provo River.

Joseph has also gone to the bathroom 4 times in the past weekend. He now has 4 dinosaurs. He has T-rex, velociraptor, apatosaurus, and triceratops. He calls them all by name. Of course, he does call brachiosaurus "long neck." Still no poops, but hopefully soon.

Advice

I just read an article on unwanted advice. In it, a woman had her 14 month old son at the store. He was cranky, so to placate him, she gave him a cookie. I guess some old woman saw her do that and told her she needed to take the little boy outside and give him a spanking. The old woman then took the cookie away from the boy. I can't believe someone would actually do that. It reminded me of some good experiences that I have had with Joseph.

At the airport. on the way to San Diego, I decided to change Joseph's diaper before we boarded. I had a lot of stuff and I needed to wash my hands. I told Joseph to wait by our stuff while I washed my hands. I can't remember everything else I explained to him, but an older woman looked at me and Joseph. She said, "You are doing a good job raising him." I can't remember what my actions really were or what I said, but it made me feel good.

Last week at the grocery store, Joseph was in his car shopping cart. He didn't want to drive anymore, so I put him in the cart. We were talking to each other as I waited to get chicken. I gave him a big hug and kiss, and he grabbed my head and wouldn't let go. He was giving me a "big hug." An old woman walking buy stopped and said hi to us. She then said she was so grateful to have seen us because it was a special moment. She thanked us for letting her witness it. It was strange but nice.

Speaking of driving, Joseph likes to "drive" cars. The other day, he pretended to have a steering wheel. I told him I was driving straight, so he held his wheel and pretended to move it only very little. When I said we were taking a right, he turned his steering wheel in the right direction. When I said we were turning left, he turned his wheel the correct direction. He yells at us when he sees a red light. "Red light mean stop!" When he sees it turn green, he cheers and says, "we can go!" He seems to be getting right and left. He does think the yellow light is orange. When he sees us stopped at a green light, waiting for oncoming traffic so that we can turn, he gets a little flustered. We have to explain that cars are coming and we have to wait for them to go.

Yes...Joseph is going to be a big brother

For those who didn't see our last post, we are pregnant. I am 13 weeks along. With Joseph, I was hardly sick, but with our new little one, every afternoon and evening I feel super nauseated. I keep hoping that the nausea will end, but it is a good reminder to me that I am pregnant. Maybe it will end at the beginning of the second trimester (officially week 14).

Joseph is excited and likes to "feel" the baby. He thinks that he can feel the baby moving. He also thinks he has a baby in his belly. When we ask him what kind of baby we are having, he says it is a girl baby. When we say a girl baby is a sister, he says that he wants a brother. I think he will be happy with whatever we have (at least that is the hope).

Yesterday we were able to get Joseph to go potty in the toilet. It has been over a month since he has been willing to sit on his little toilet. I think it helps that we bought some dinosaurs that he can get if he uses the bathroom. After his successful go yesterday, he chose t-rex. He explains the rules of what he can get when he goes: potty (1 dinosaur), poops (2 dinosaurs). When we got home from church and after we ate some lunch, he said that he wanted to go poops so he could get 2 dinosaurs. I gave him apple juice to encourage his little body to use the bathroom. He sat there on the toilet for 45 minutes. When we asked if he was ready, he would say, "No. Not ready. I almost done." He would also sip on his apple juice and say, "This help me." When he actually started to go to the bathroom he said, "I going!" It was really cute. He is carrying that dinosaur everywhere. He asks us to look at his other dinosaurs quite often. I hope they continue to be a motivation (or bribe).

Family Art Project

We decided to do a little art project the other night. I found an old onesie of Joseph's, but I didn't have fabric paint. I had bought him some squeezable paints so that he could explore his inner artist a while back, so we grabbed those to use. Joseph was so excited to be able to paint on something other than paper. I painted a star and he said starfish. So the theme arose from there. Joe came in and helped later. All the coral and kelp, as well as the shark, fish and sea turtle, are Joe's handy work. I drew the octopus that looks funny. The random markings are Joseph's contribution. Here is the finished product.

Joe's portion looks better than my portion. Joseph was so excited to wear this, he couldn't wait for it to dry. We did let it dry, but here is a picture of him wearing it. Last night he didn't want to take it off, so he slept in it as well. It isn't the prettiest onesie, but Joseph loves it because he helped make it. I think it helps that mommy and daddy helped him paint as well. All in all, it was a fun family activity.

Wednesday night blues

Tonight I scheduled Joe and my temple recommend interviews. The stake presidency only does interviews for 1 hour a week on Wednesdays on a first come first serve basis by phone. They accept calls at 6:30 pm. I called then and scheduled an interview for me and Joe. The original time the stake clerk told me was 7 pm, but I said we needed it later. He gave us options of 7:20 pm and 7:40 pm. I chose 7:40 pm and made sure that he knew it was for me and my husband. Well, we get there at 7:40 and they are running late. Apparently the stake clerk forgot to change my time from 7 to 7:40. I went in for my interview after 8 pm. When I came out, I was expecting Joe to go, but instead a different brother that had been waiting went in. Joe grabbed my purse and Joseph's stuff and said, "let's go." I was taken aback. What had happened? The stake clerk didn't write Joe down for an interview, just like he didn't change the time of my interview. Joe is not happy. Now I have to see if I can set up another time for Joe to have his interview. It was difficult enought getting there tonight, now to plan for a different Wednesday night. I feel badly because Joe was all dressed up, the stake clerk saw us enter together and we both checked in. He told us there were 3 people in front of us.

Lazy Sunday

I am sitting here after a longer than expected nap waiting for the chocolate chunk brownies to cook. I notice that I tend to write mostly about Joseph. Guess that my life is not that interesting at the moment. Joe has been working on the house. Yesterday he and my dad took 2 large dumpster loads of trash from the remodel to the dump in Springville. We still have at least 1 more, but it was getting late. It took me awhile to clean our kitchen. Now I need to get motivated to fold our clean laundry on the floor in our room. Maybe not just yet...

Joseph is learning to pick up his toys after he is done playing with them. He won't do it on his own, but he loves to have the company when he needs to clean. Once someone is in there with him, he manages just fine. He still refuses to potty train. I am going to start trying again with full intent next weekend. I keep hoping that he will just ask to go. He tells us when he needs to go to the bathroom, but runs from us if we try to take him to his toilet. The other day we were going to the store and he said he wanted to look at toys. He continued with that thought by saying, "Can't buy toys because need go bathroom in toilet first." He doesn't whine or complain about not getting a toy because he knows he hasn't fulfilled his end of the bargain.

He is really learning his letters now. He reads his Alphabet of Ocean Animals book. He recognizes B, C, D, E, F, G, I, O, Q, R, S, and occasionally Y. He does read the animals that go with each letter once you help him with the ones he doesn't remember on his own. He still struggles with X is for Xiphius Gladius (a swordfish). Joseph says, "X for gladus, gladus." When we aren't reading his book, when he sees letters, he identifies some of them on his own or asks me to help him with it. He gets really excited.

Joe and Joseph

I found this picture attached to an old email. One minute your little one is small like Joseph in this picture and the next they are running around, talking, etc. My little boy is so special. I love and adore him. I also look forward to meeting his cousins. Look at how cute he is!!! :) When I get home today I need to give him lots of hugs and kisses.

Joe also adores and loves his little boy. He loves it when Joseph gives him "big hug" and kisses on his nose. Joe likes to chase Joseph around and Joseph loves it too. Joseph loves to point out that "daddy tall and mommy small." I already mentioned that he says that he is getting big like daddy. Joe is a great father.

Not much to say

I haven't posted in over a week because I really don't have much to say. Joseph is still cute as ever. Joe is as busy as ever. I am looking forward to another weekend. We did find out our swamp cooler works. When it first starts up, it smells like wet dog and we need to replace the filters so it won't smell so horrible. It is nice to be cold instead of hot at night. We are trying to decide how long we will stay in our current home. I hope to sell it after 1 year. We would have to pay long term capital gains tax, but then we would have a little more financial freedom to move elsewhere.

I did find that Joseph tore a 3-d pop-up book of Peter and the Wolf that Grandma Rankin had given him. I had put it out of his reach, but my brother knows he enjoys books, so when he asked for it, he had no idea that Joseph would tear it to shreds. He had left Joseph in his room for just a few minutes alone. Last night Joseph was in trouble for tearing his book. He told his dad he was in trouble. He had to go to bed without reading any books. Joseph has also figured out how to remove the plug covers in the rooms. I just need to be sure to find new ones.

A couple of nights ago, Joseph did read Click, Clack, Moo...Cows That Type to me and his dad. He did a fairly good job. Joe and I enjoyed hearing him read parts of the story. He enjoyed all the attention for reading it. He likes to have Daddy and Mommy in the room with him when he is going to bed.

My mini Jeff Corwin

Can you name this animal? As I have stated before, Joseph loves animals. He can tell you the name of this and many other animals. Yesterday, when I got home, he was watching a show on Animal Planet. It had crocodiles and camels and other animals from the Saharan desert. The host had caught a baby crocodile and it started to make noises. Joseph saw the crocodile and said, "I want to hold it." I explained that it was on t.v. He said that he "wanted to go in there (into the t.v.)" I smiled. This morning, he "caught a frog" in our bedroom. He came and showed it to me. He then put it back so it could eat nuts. When I told him that frogs like to eat bugs, he said,"No. Frogs eat nuts." He then went to catch the frog. It was funny to watch him dive onto the floor, clasping his little hands, and yelling, "got it!" He then showed us the frog again and put it back where he found it. His imagination is developing everyday.