Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! It is hard to believe that October is over. Joseph learned the meaning of trick or treating. I tried to get him to try on his costume last night, but he cried. I was afraid that he wouldn't wear it today. When he woke up this morning, he wanted to come to work with me. I told him to wait till grandma dropped him off at about 3 p.m. He got to my office and was very excited. All day, he had been telling everyone that he was going to be a shark and go trick or treating. I tried to put on his costume, but he started crying again. It took me half and hour to convince him to wear just the head portion of the costume.Joe's work was having a trick or treating day for all the families. I explained to Joseph that we were going to Joe's work but that he wouldn't be able to get any candies unless he was in his costume. We talked on our car ride. I asked if he was going to wear his shark costume. He said "yes." I asked if he was going to cry and he said, "no." We had little pep talks the entire time (10 minutes). When we got to Joe's work, he was excited to put on his costume. We got a bag for candy and he was ready to go around the office. We went to the bathroom and he didn't cry at all. As we went around, he kept saying that he liked his costume.

They had little games and haunted houses. Joseph made it part way through the first haunted hall. He said, "let's get out of here." He didn't even attempt to go in the second one. I don't think I would have liked the second one either. They did have some carnival games. Joseph golfed and did a bean bag toss to knock over skulls. He did well. He got the first 2 on the first 2 shots and had to take a couple of shots on the last one.

When we went trick or treating tonight, we went to a house that was playing spooky music. I think that they had someone there to scare people in a costume. Luckily they didn't do it with Joseph. He kept saying that he didn't like the house with scary music. I don't blame him. He liked the other homes we visited, till we got to a house that had a very tall man dressed as Frankenstein. It scared him. They had a mini graveyard set up in their yard. We walked a couple of blocks and Joseph wanted to come home. He liked all the candy he was given. As I put him to bed, he apologized for not wearing the costume at my workplace. He is so cute.

Cat naps

Joseph fell asleep last night before dinner at about 7 p.m. I was afraid that he would wake up and think it was time to play. He did wake up last night at 2 a.m. He wanted his toy trucks that he received for his birthday. I put them on the bed with him. I was trying to help him fall back asleep, but his little tummy was hungry and he was thirsty. I took him downstairs and he ate a little bit and drank some apple juice. We went back upstairs. He was asleep again by 2:30 a.m.

I am just grateful he fell asleep again. After I got out of the shower this morning, I started to sneeze lots. I hear a little voice yelling, "Bless you mommy!" Like I said, I sneezed a lot and he kept saying it. It was so sweet. He was in a great mood. I think the almost 12 hours of sleep helped him. When I exited the bathroom to our bedroom, Joseph was next to his daddy. I gave him a hug and kiss. He then said, "It's cold. I lay down next to daddy. Daddy's warm." He cuddled up next to Joe. I wish I had had my camera. I love the men (both big and small) that are in my life!

Freecycling is awesome!

Can I tell you how much I love Freecycle! It is a free group that you can join. People list things that they have to offer and give it for free to other people. I have some things I plan on listing in the next little while, I just want to list as much as possible all at once. Some of the things that I have gotten are:

A baby travel swing (it looks so nice)
A baby playmat (it is cute)
A baby bouncer chair
Some boy's clothes and shoes

It is fun to see what people are giving away. I have a whole list of things to offer: speaker stands, picture albums, clothes (mine and Joe's), and so forth. I already freecycled some clothes that I decided I didn't want for Joseph. The woman who gave me the swing and playmat also gave me some sleeper blankets, some new pacifiers (still in the packages), a couple of books on breastfeeding and eating well in pregnancy, and some breastfeeding material (new in package). It makes me happy to get free stuff!!

"I'm not 2 anymore. I'm free. Yay!"

Happy birthday last night at 11:33 p.m.!! Our little guy was so happy with all the extra attention he got for his birthday this weekend. All weekend long he kept singing happy birthday to you. We had to explain to Joseph that his birthday meant that he was no longer 2 years old. The quote in our title was his reaction upon the final realization that he is "growing up," like he likes to remind us.Joseph was excited to see his cousin MacKenzie at his birthday party. He insisted that he needed to wear his dinosaur t-shirt because he thought we were going to the dinosaur Bean Museum (the Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi). He wasn't disappointed at the Bean. He loves to run around and look at all the animals. He does want to go to the Earth Science Museum near the stadium.

Saturday was Joseph's birthday party. It turned out better than I anticipated. There was plenty of parking at the museum, the day was sunny and relatively warm for our outside adventure at the park. Lots of people came. It was fun to see Joseph interact with people he has met and is acquainted with through my work, as well as family and other friends. We had a reptile show at the Bean Museum. They brought out a live tortoise for the kids to touch, a live gecko named Brewskie, and a little corn snake. Joseph was happy to see the animals. I had a hard time keeping him still because he wanted to run off and play with his friend Bryan.

Joseph and Bryan examining the wildlife up close. They wanted to play with it, but I could tell the worker was nervous about having them so close.

After the show we went to a park. I couldn't have asked for a sunnier, nice autumn day! Joseph, Bryan, and Ammon (my friend Emily's nephew) tromped and stomped through the leaves and threw them at each other. Bryan ran to hug Joseph, but Newton's laws were not proven wrong on this occasion. Law 1: An object in motion continues in motion till acted upon by an outside force, and an object at rest stays at rest until acted upon by an outside force. Moving object: Bryan, object at rest: Joseph. Law 2: force is equal to mass times acceleration . Force: Bryan running towards Joseph with all his weight. Law 3: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Stationary Joseph hit by the full force of moving Bryan, causing Joseph to fall backwards, with Bryan on top. Joseph smacked his head hard enough that we could all hear it. Reaction, Joseph starts to cry. That ended the nice romp in the leaves. We finally calmed Joseph down by saying we were going to sing happy birthday and have cake and ice cream.

The cake and ice cream portion was fun. Afterwards, Joseph opened his presents. He loved all the toys and books that he received. Joseph and I will be busy with thank you cards in the next couple of weeks. On Sunday, they made a big deal about Joseph's birthday in nursery. He didn't want me to leave him. In fact, this whole weekend he has been saying "I love you mommy" lots. He is so sweet. I wonder if this is Heavenly Father's way of trying to appease my guilty conscience for having to work full time and leave him with grandma.

Our little guy dressed up to go to nursery on Sunday. I thought he looked so cute. He is getting so big. I can't believe it. Too bad his shirt doesn't ever want to stay tucked in.

Call of the wild

We are still working on getting Joseph potty trained. He just says, "no thanks." Well, he is also a very modest kid. He doesn't like to walk around in the buff. Sunday we were going to go for a walk and he was wearing underwear. I discussed that if he needed to go to the bathroom, we might have to stop and he would need to go behind a bush or something like that.

I was surprised at how excited he got. We were ready to leave and I decided that we would go outside and pick some of the apples off of our tree in our backyard. We hadn't tried them and I was curious to see if they were good (they are really good and we picked 4 grocery bags full). Joseph refused to go to the toilet in the house because he wanted to go outside. I took off his pants and underwear and I placed him on the sidewalk. I was amazed at how excited he was to go to the bathroom outside. While I picked some of the apples, he started to yell excited, "I peeing outside!" My liitle modest boy was standing free and easy on the sidewalk in our backyard going to the bathroom. Must be a boy thing.

He did well the rest of the walk. He did want to go poops outside, but I had to draw the line somewhere. He wore underwear for 7 hours without incident. Too bad he has to go to grandma's where he feels that he doesn't need to go to the toilet or even try underwear. He says that he doesn't have to at grandma's. It may be a little longer before he decides on his own that he is completely ready.

Joseph gets a haircut

Well, it was high time to cut Joseph's long hair. He had lots of little curls, but they needed to go. Here is the before picture. You can't see the curls in the back, but they are posted on an earlier blog. Here are a couple of after pictures. Joseph has socks on his hands like Huggly. He likes it when we call him "a goofy monster" just like Sleepyhead's mom calls Huggly in the story.

Joseph is concentrating hard on his maze. This is right after his haircut.

I came to the realization that his birthday party is the same day and almost the same time as the BYU game. That means lots of traffic going to the Bean Museum, we won't be able to go home for cake and ice cream because we won't have a place to park or places for anyone else to park. We are going to the park instead after the reptile show. I will probably have to drive Joe home because he wants to work on the house and drop him off and return hours later, when game traffic has cleared. I am irked at myself for not thinking of the BYU game before I planned the party. At least he will have fun no matter what!

Etc., etc., etc...

Tuesday I had my blood glucose levels tested. They had me drink the glucose. It was orange flavored, carbonated, and nasty. The expected level is supposed to be under 130 mg or less, and if it isn't, then you have to do a 3 hour glucose. My levels were at 137. So, like with Joseph, I had to do the 3 hour glucose test. I decided to do it on Saturday. Today I went in at 9 in the morning and had my finger pricked. I had to be fasting. My levels were okay. Each hour for 3 hours I had to be at the doctor's to have my finger pricked. One of my fingers bruised. In total, I was pricked 5 times (they gave me a flu shot). Luckily, my levels were okay. I don't have gestational diabetes! Woo hoo! I was worried, because with my luck, I would have had it and had to have been on a special diet the rest of my pregnancy. I am grateful that is not the case.

I was given a flu shot to help the baby, but the doctor told me that everyone that plans on being near the baby for an extended period will need a flu shot as well. They didn't tell me this with Joseph. So now Joe and Joseph for sure have to get one. Joe is not pleased about this. Joseph started whining about the shot. He told me that he doesn't like shots. Who can blame him.

I was starving after the fast and nearly passed out, but I bought some food and sat down with Joseph. We ate and then came home. I was exhausted when we got home and decided to lay in bed. I thought I could get away with just napping for 10 minutes, but that turned into an hour. It was nice to rest, but I didn't get everything that I wanted to done. I did get Joseph's room organized again. I am trying to get the big room done.
Joseph likes to smile like this for camera shots. It is his new thing of late. My little boy is getting so big. It makes me happy and sad...

Here are some pictures from our fall break yesterday. Joseph enjoyed playing in the leaves for a bit. He made "snow angels" in the leaves and crunched them. He was really good throughout the day. Today he was in an exceptionally good mood. He must have benefited greatly from the almost 12 hours of sleep that he got.

On Monday, Joseph and I visited Meredith and MacKenzie. He was excited to see little MacKenzie. He was happy to see the little baby. He kept exclaiming how little the baby was. He is excited to have a baby brother. He is still calling MacKenzie a him instead of her. Now all he talks about is wanting things for little MacKenzie. If it were up to him, we would play with her everyday.

Fall break

Today I brought Joseph with me to work. He was so excited. As I was dressing him up, he exclaimed, "I get to stay wif you!" We were running a little late, but we got here. He was excited to step on all the leaves that have been falling from the tree. Walking through the hall to my office, he said, "mommy, I love you." He then grabbed my leg to hug it and kissed my hand. It was so cute! The sun was coming through the hall of flags and it created what he calls puzzle pieces on the floor. Because no one is really here, he could run down the hall by himself. He was winded so he told me that he needed to walk. He has been really good today. A couple of random times today, he has said that he loves me.

Our weekend

This weekend has been really busy. I have started to go through boxes (after almost a year of living here) and am unpacking. I decided that my books can stay packed because I don't know how soon we will put the house on the market. All the book boxes, Joe had to move. Actually, I had him move a lot of the boxes. I could hardly lift anything. Needless to say, by last night, I was sore and tired. I made a lot of progress, but it doesn't look that way right now. It might get worse before it gets better.

I also packed away Joseph's 2T clothes. Most of them are getting short, even though 3T are still a little too long. I have also began collecting clothes for the next couple of years. I have a 4T box of clothes and a 5T box of clothes. I am mostly lacking in shorts in the 4T category. In 5T, I could use a few more pants. After packing the 2T, I realized Joseph has 1 pair of jeans that are 3T. He has a ton of khakis in that age, not jeans. I left out some of his 2T long sleeved shirts, though the arms are getting a bit short. I also finally got him socks that fit his feet. I realized a couple of weeks ago that I was putting socks on him that were for 18-24 month. Yeah, they were a little tight. I bought him a lot more fun pairs. Some have pirate ships, others gorillas, others have rhinos or other random animals. He also got some sensible socks in colors like green, blue, red and orange. I don't think that he has any white socks. Oh well.

This is Joseph before our walk. I had taken other pictures of him and by this point, he said, "mommy, that's enough." Joseph was wearing his BYU sweats with his BYU socks. Of course, BYU didn't move up in the rankings as much as Texas did. I bet Jeff is very excited.

Yesterday after breakfast, I was working on cleaning something or other. Joseph decided he wanted to go play outside. Of course, Joseph doesn't always ask nicely, and we have a large house, so he was yelling that he wanted to go and play. Well, I was ambitious and decided that we could go for a walk. It was really cold outside, and Joe had told us that it had snowed on him on his way back from class. We walked in a large circle and took a break halfway at D.I. Good ol' DI. I take Joseph there to look at toys and books. That is what we look at. Joseph found himself a powerwheel tractor and he wanted me to get it. Fortunately, I explained that we walked and it was way too big to carry home. He said okay and I then put it back. We didn't find any books, but I was exhausted, so I didn't look too hard. After our walk, we came home. We ate some lunch. I asked if he wanted to watch cartoons, He said yes, so I put some on. Within minutes, he was out cold and slept for over 3 hours. It was my way of tricking him into getting a nap. Meanwhile, I worked on laundry, unpacking boxes, and whatever else. I may have sounded busy, but it took me forever to do even the simplest of tasks.

This is Joseph after our walk. While he was napping, his hair curled up lots. The picture doesn't do justice to how nice and poofy his curls were.

As for potty training, it is still a work in progress. I was finally able to get him to go poops in the toilet after a long hiatus. He is using the toilet more readily, he is just not quite ready for underwear. He wore some glow in the dark ghost underwear for about 5 minutes on Friday. Today he wore a pair of Elmo underwear for 30 minutes. It is a good thing we were having a snack in the kitchen because we were snacking when he commented, "I am peeing in my diaper." Unfortunately, he had no diaper on, only underwear. I still rewarded him for at least trying to wear underwear (he got 3 gummy sharks).

The baby is moving lots more each day. If I watch my belly, I can see him kicking. A friend of mine had twins a few days ago, but she and her family were surprised because she was only expecting one baby. The ultrasound didn't see the second baby. Yikes! I hope that doesn't happen to us. As it is, I will have another ultrasound to check the baby's renal dilation at about 28 weeks. Tuesday is my next appointment. I have my glucose test. I hope it isn't high this time like it was with Joseph. The baby is also sitting lower this pregnancy, so he literally pushes on a nerve that causes pain to shoot up and down my right side. I can't move for a few minutes after he does it. I spent 2 weeks solid in pain, waddling and limping. It has eased up, though I still struggle to pick up my right leg. I shouldn't complain. I don't think anything is as bad as what my sister-in-law, Michelle, went through. Kudos to her for having such a positive attitude about everything.

Joe has been working on the house. He has been busy trying to get our bathroom done. Joseph told him that he needed to clean up the mess so that he could take off his shoes and walk in the bathroom to take a bath. He has almost been with his company for a year. His year mark is November 5th.

I work with some of the nicest people in the world. They are great! I just love that I have been blessed to meet them. A couple of my coworkers love Joseph. They think of him all the time, which reminds me that Joseph and I need to make them thank you cards. They have given him books (which he loves) and toys (which he loves as well). This week, Jim, my supervisor gave him a box full of packing peanuts. They are made of starch, so if you get them wet, they stick together. Joseph was so excited. Instead of calling them peanuts, Joe kept calling them nuts. Well, my son is 2 (almost 3) and was very excited to share the news with his uncle Ziggy. Imagine Joseph in little blue footed pajamas, clean from a bath, his really long curly hair on his head. Now picture a large box of green packing peanuts. Joseph has been sticking his toys in the box the past couple of days. Joe, Ziggy, and I were at the kitchen table. Joseph ran to the hall where his box of peanuts are and yells to Ziggy, "Come look at my nuts!!" Now picture Joe and Ziggy choking on their food, laughing and turning red in the face, especially because Joseph keeps yelling it over and over again. In walks Esteban. Joseph is telling him about his packing peanuts and then says, "Come play with my nuts." More choking, sputtering, laughing and red faces from the 3 "men" in the kitchen. Poor Joseph doesn't know why they are laughing at him. He just wants someone to play with him. I laughed because they were cracking up. I would have grabbed the camera, but I didn't want poor Joseph to be blackmailed the rest of his life. Of course, writing it down will have the same consequence, but a much lesser one...hopefully.

Joseph typically puts socks on his hands and says that he is Huggly. Two nights ago, he took one sock and put it on one hand. I asked if he was being Huggly again and he said, "No. Like sleepyhead." Tonight Joseph helped me prepare instant mashed potatoes. Can I tell you that I have no energy after work whatsoever? Cooking is so hard to do. Joseph sat at the table and ate a lot of mashed potatoes from the bowl while I was preparing the gravy. He also ate a lot of roast beef, cold, from the night before.

Tonight we went to buy crickets for his toad. I made up a little song that had a chorus of "I have a handsome, cute, cute, cute, cute, cute, cute, cute, cute little boy!" I said why we love our handsome cute little boy. I sung lots of reasons. The smile on Joseph's face was so wide. After I stopped singing, he asked me to sing it again and again. Each time I sung it, I changed the words and added more things. He kept wanting to hear the Joseph song. Boy do I love that kid!!

It seems like Joe has formulated a plan. If we can sell the house in the next few months, we will move to an apartment, possibly in Pennsylvania. That means that we will drive cross country, visit our family in Texas for a week, drive to Jersey and spend a few weeks there, and then head to our new place. Joe will then go to graduate school while I take care of the little ones. The plan is based on lots of factors that are out of our control. I just hope and pray that Heavenly Father will bless us to know the path that is right for our growing little family.

Wedding dress shopping

Yesterday morning we went wedding dress shopping with Alison. She found her dress. After trying on many, many dresses, she found one that fit her well and looked beautiful on her. Of course, she looked good in lots of dresses, but the one she ended up purchasing is perfect for her. I won't post pictures so as not to ruin the surprise. This is Alison in one of the dresses she didn't get. She looked so beautiful in so many of the styles. It is hard to believe that Alison is getting married. She was a miamaid when Joe and I got married. She used to hang out a lot with us her freshman year, now here she is a junior and engaged and on top of that, soon to be married.
Joseph handled everything fairly well. I had a mini pack of nerds and told him to eat them one by one. That kept him occupied for quite a bit of time. Towards the end, he found the dresses to be a nice buffer for running and then throwing himself against them. He liked that they were like big pillows and cushioned him. He even took to hiding under some of the dresses. Luckily the lady was very patient and said it was no problem.

We stopped at D.I. and I found Joseph a bounce and spin zebra. We got home and cleaned it. He is very entertained by it. Joe asked me to run and get my camera, so we missed some really great footage. This morning we could hear him riding his zebra again. I need to start planning his 3rd birthday party. It will probably be at the Bean Museum again. He enjoys it there and a big bonus is that it is free. I thought about changing venues to the Museum of Ancient Life, but it cost a whole lot more.

Joseph meets his cousin

Wednesday night we went to visit MacKenzie, Joseph's only cousin that is close. We talked to him about how he needed to be careful with the baby. When we got to the room, Joseph was so excited. He was nice and clean after his bath and he was happy to be out. He was in a great mood.

We got into the room and Joseph had brought a rattle for his little cousin. Meredith's mom was carrying the baby, so we started to chat. Meredith looked like she was doing well, tired, but well. The happy father also looked tired. Meredith asked if I wanted to carry the baby and I said sure. I forget how tiny and helpless babies really are right after they are born. I still look at Joseph as being so little, but looking at a newborn, I realize just how tiny he started out life. MacKenzie weighed less and was 2 inches longer than Joseph. One big difference (other than I had a boy and Meredith had a girl) is that MacKenzie's head looked so tiny. Joseph's head was in the 75th percentile at birth and has been in the 95th to 100th percentile since his first week of life outside of the womb. Little MacKenzie looks just like her mommy. I didn't get to see her with her eyes open, but she could be Meredith's twin that was born over 20 years later.

Joseph was fascinated with Mackenzie. He kept looking at her and saying, "Baby so little!" in his high pitched little voice. We tried to record it, but there was an error in our video taking. Joseph loved to touch her little face and little feet. There were a couple of times that he made everyone jump because he rushed towards the baby and seemed to be heading for her with force. He was always really gentle with her. He also said, "This is my baby brother." We explained it was his cousin MacKenzie and that she was a girl. He still persisted on saying, "Him so little." I guess we will work on pronouns later. Joseph loved the baby, especially her little feet. He would cup his little hands around her feet and just repeat over and over again that they were so small. Meredith's mom, Joy, asked him if he had little feet. He stated frankly, "My feet are bigger." Meredith asked if they were smelly feet, and he said, "They are smelly feet. He need a bath." All in all, I think Joseph will be a great big brother. He really seems fascinated and really seems to love babies.

I told you about Ruby in June. Joseph was exclaiming earlier in the week that he missed Ruby. Last night, after having met his cousin, he said, "We forgot see Mackenzie!" This was as we were getting ready for bed, as he was brushing his teeth.

I will have to get a picture with him and his little cousin. He asked if he could carry her, but we said that she was too little right now and that when she got bigger, he could hold her.