My little faker

So of late, Joseph has decided that the way to get out of things is to say that he is too sick. For example, we will ask him to fold his arms for prayer when we are going to bless the meals, and he will say, "I too sick." Too sick to fold his arms for prayer, but he watches to see if our eyes our closed and starts to eat dinner before we are done. He will sometimes continue on and say that he has a fever and needs to go to the doctor. When I call him on his bluff, he says, "I okay...no go to doctor." He uses this excuse when he doesn't want to pick up a mess he has made and when he wants attention. It doesn't help that he was sick for so long in April. Because of his allergies, he does think that he is ill. We are giving him allergy medication and the coughing has almost stopped. I will need to purchase his medication at Costco because at Target it costs $10 for 5 pills. They work for 24 hours, but still, with allergy season here for a long while still, we will have spent a ton of money come winter...

I am so grateful to have my little boy. On Saturday I explained to him that mommy was excited that she got to be with Joseph all day. He said, "I happy too." Then he clapped his little hands and said, "Daddy stay home with me too!" He then said, "mommy, don't go back to work." One day I will be able to stay with my cute little boy whose first words, that he yells at the top of his lungs every morning, are, "Mommy, Mommy!!" Last night he came into our room at 1:30 in the morning. I carried him back to bed and lay with him till he fell asleep again. I think it was too hot. None of us slept well last night. We have to get our swamp cooler fixed.

Visiting teaching with toddlers

Joseph was quite persistent today during sacrament that he wanted to go to nursery. After sacrament, we were walking the opposite direction of nursery. When I walked him back, he said, "silly mommy, nursery over here." He walked right in like a big boy and went straight for "his" red car. When I went to get him, he had a copy of "Click, clack, moo, cows that type" in his hands. He approached different leaders to read it to him, but they were not ready for reading. After church, we got back home and only had a little time before I had to visit teach.

As I got ready to leave, Joseph wanted to come. I asked him to stay with daddy. He started to cry because he didn't want to stay. I changed his diaper and got him ready to go. Joseph did tell me when he started to go poop, but refused to go to the bathroom in the toilet. Back to visiting teaching. My companion usually brings her soon to be 4 year old daughter and I have brought Joseph to only one other visit. Well, he came and stuck by my side for a little while. The little girl had some magnetic dolls that you could put clothes and shoes on. Well, during the visit, she and Joseph started to giggle loudly. They were putting random articles on the faces of their dolls and each time they changed it, they would start to laugh and laugh. It was really cute, only I felt bad for our sister. She is a teacher and is very patient. After the visit, Joseph wanted to take the little girl home with us.

Yesterday, Joseph wanted me to help him clean his messy room. I talked to him about putting toys away after he was done playing. He looked at me and this morning, I found that he had pulled out 2 containers of toys and left them all over the place again. He wanted me to help him clean his messy room. We are going to have to talk again. Joseph did take a nice bath with his whale, sea turtle, and sting ray. He kept saying, "this is my favorite sting ray," or "this is my favorite turtle." and so forth. It was funny because he took his washcloth by one corner and pulled it along the water. He said, "this is alligator." At the end of his bath, he was swimming. He splashed water everywhere by kicking his feet. He even placed his face in the water. He loves water.

Doctor day

Today I took Joseph to the doctor to consult him on whether or not Joseph has allergies. He has yet another runny nose, is sneezing, and is coughing lots. The doctor did a quick check and said it was probably allergies and to try allergy medicine for 5 days to see if it helps. If that medicine doesn't work, round 2 begins with another 5 day cycle with a different allergy medicine.

I just don't want a repeat of April. For those who don't know, he had strep, one ear infection, then 2 ear infections and then his little episode that had us in the hospital with him...and it all began because in March his allergies started and wouldn't go away. Of course, the doctor found some fluid in his ears, but they aren't infected, so no antibiotics. The allergies had gotten better in June, but then right before we went to San Diego, it started again. As a treat for being so good at the doctor's and not crying, we went to Dairy Queen and bought a popsicle for him and a dipped cone for me.

As he ate his red, white, and blue star-shaped popsicle, he exclaimed, "I happy!" this said as red and blue sticky goo slowly moved down his face. Joseph is quite the expressive little boy. He lets his feelings be known. I also let him eat some of my ice cream. I'm just not a big fan of "nice cream" as Joseph calls it. I would have recorded longer, but I ran out of memory on my camera. Darn.

First day back

It is nice to be back home. Not that we didn't enjoy our time in San Diego, but it is nice to be in our home with my husband who stayed up way too late and didn't rest like he should have while his toddler boy was gone. I went back to work today. After trying to play catch up on my job as well as the 2 advisors who are gone (one on maternity leave and another had his last day on Friday), I realized I should have taken a day to rest and recover from my travels.

Joseph did well on the plane. He made friends everywhere he went. He is an adorable little boy. On the way to San Diego, he got to fly in the pilot's seat. He even posed for this picture. Right now he told me, "I am going to fall chick-a-bow," as he pretends to roll off the couch. Random side note as I post. He was well behaved at the airport and on the plane. Saturday he got to visit the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. We drove by the San Diego temple and I pointed it out to him. He liked it and said it looked nice. I explained a little of what happens there. He liked the aquarium. His favorite activities involve anything that requires him to be playing in water...other than the ocean, which he reminds me, that is too cold. Of course, he didn't want to leave playing with the water. His souvenir was a toy whale and little wooden boat. We also went to La Jolla Cove and walked looking through the tide pools. We got to see lots of little crabs and mussels. Joseph did almost slip in some algae that was on some rocks.

Last but not least, this is Joseph with Ruby. He claimed her as his baby. He kept saying, "Ruby my baby." I had to let him know that Ruby was Jeneanne and Uriel's baby. He sure has his dad's impish grin. He wanted to bring her home with us, but we'll just have to have a brother for him someday soon. If you ask him if he wants a brother or sister, he answers "brother, he can play cars with me." He then gets this big smile on his face. Who can resist such an adorable little man who tonight said, "uh-oh, I getting tall like dad." He mentioned this after we told his dad that he was growing out of his sandals.

In sunny San Diego

The Biotechnology conference I attended this week is finally over. I can't believe how big the exhibit hall was. I don't remember how many thousands of people were there, but today I got to bring Joseph with me. We have been staying over with my friend from college, Jeneanne Lock, now Aguirre. Jeneanne's husband, Uriel, was nice enough to bring Joseph to the San Diego Convention Center after he had already dropped me off in the morning.

Joseph had to get credentials to be in the exhibit hall. They had run out of little wrist bands, so the international convention center coordinator printed him a badge. The badge said, "Very Special Bio Guest," and showed that he was approved to be there. Joseph got lots of oohs and aahs when people saw him walking in with his badge. I wish that I had had a camera there with me. He got lots of candy as we walked around the different booths. People gave him things left and right. Over the past few days of the conference, we have lots of toys and other loot.

Yesterday we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was over a hundred degrees and Joseph fell as he was walking down a hill. He scraped both of his knees. It took me a while to calm him down. We did go on a short tram ride, but Joseph could hardly see the animals. All he was interested in was getting to the gift shop to buy a toy (a plastic turtle). Overall, I think the zoo is the better bet. We could have paid lots more money to go on the bigger safari tour with elephants and lions, but we had two kids with us who were hot and miserable, as were the rest of us. It was good to see one time, but I don't know if I would go again.

On Monday of this week, we took Joseph to the beach. He didn't want to walk on the sand. I had to carry him. He may be small, but he is not light. Joseph had on his swim trunks and was telling me that he was going to go surfing, but that he needed a little board. We reached the water's edge. He hesitated when he saw the waves, but he didn't scream like last year on the Jersey shore. He stood there while the water washed over his feet and then he demanded to be taken away from there because the water was too cold. Instead he spent a good deal of time playing in the sand far away from the cold water and used my sandals as "boats" that went along the sand.

Joseph and I have also been to the zoo and Sea World. He really loved the shark display. He enjoyed Shamu, but we had flown in and it was almost 10 p.m. here. We didn't get to Jeneanne's place until almost 10:30 and then we hadn't eaten dinner, so we stayed up to eat. Joseph's sleep schedule is all out of whack. On Saturday, we went to the zoo. Joseph walked the entire 4 hours that we were there. He told me that he liked the animals at the zoo. Tomorrow (our second Saturday here) we are going to the aquarium and possibly to tide pools. It should be fun before we head back to Utah on Sunday.

Weekend gone

It is amazing just how fast weekends fly by. It was only yesterday that I tried to sleep in, but with an almost 3 year old that is impossible. He is of the philosophy that it is not dark outside so everyone needs to wake up. When it gets dark out, everyone needs to go to bed. As we were coming back from church today, he said that he wanted to put on his pajamas, read lots of books, and go to bed. I mentioned that I wanted to make blueberry muffins, and he said, "I want to make blueberry nuffins." After his "nuffin" he took a 2 hour nap.

Today Joe made shish-kabobs on a bbq pit. We had chicken wrapped in bacon and steak pieces, as well as mushrooms and asparagus. The broccoli didn't work out so well, but the meat and mushrooms turned out really good. Joe worked all day Saturday trying to expose the roots of some trees in our yard. It was no big surprise to us when we saw that all of the trees are a family and connected by a very deep root system. We need to get a chainsaw to cut them down.

For mother's day, Joe bought me Wii fit. It is a lot of fun. Of course, I am overweight, but no shock to me there. It is very difficult to do yoga with Joseph head butting your leg, causing you to lose balance. Joseph likes to "exercise" too. He steps on the top of one of his storage units and trys to imitate the fitness trainer. Sometimes he does well, but most of the time, he likes to come to where I am exercising and push on me, crawl between my legs, etc.

This week I am leading a field trip, have a meeting in Heber, and am flying to San Diego for a conference with Joseph. I will be in Califonia for a little over a week. Joseph is excited because at some point we are going to the zoo and Seaworld. That means we have to endure a week of him whining because he doesn't understand that we can't go now. Already he is talking about the lions, fish, sharks, whales, birds, and all the other animals that he will see.

Succumbing to blog demands

I have finally decided to set up a blog for friends and family. People ask if we have one, and we haven't done this, so here I go. As you know, we have our cute little Joseph. He will be 3 in October. This is him sitting next to his Easter basket in our room. He was very excited with everything he received. Joseph loves the movie Cars and hence the toys and underwear (yes...the Easter bunny gave Joseph underwear).

Joseph is his own person and has own opinions on how his life should be. He doesn't like to be tickled (don't blame him there). Our little boy is a fruitaholic. Give him berries, apples, bananas, watermelon, and so forth and so on and he shoves it into his mouth as fast as can be. Lately he has discovered the tastiness of not-so-good-for-you treats like ice cream and sugars (sour patch kids). Chocolate (ta milk as he puts it) is still something that he still doesn't like. "Don't like ta milk," is a very common phrase. This relates to chocolate chip cookies or candy.

Joseph is also a fan of animal sounds. When he doesn't know the sound an animal makes, he says, "walk, walk," and then moves his hands as if the animal is moving on. He is good at quail, cow, horse, crab (clack, clack), kitty, dog, dinosaur (big and little), tiger, rooster, snake, frog, and I can't remember more off the top of my head.