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.

Reception center hunting and dinosaur hunting

It has been a busy weekend. I have had very little time to take a break. Yesterday, Joseph and I took Alison and Ryan reception center shopping. We looked at 3. I think Alison liked the last one best, but we will see what she ends up choosing.

Because Joseph has had very little play time the past couple of weekends, I asked Alison if it would be all right to take him to The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. One of the reception areas was at Thanksgiving Point, so I figured we could spend a couple of hours at the museum between reception center appointments. Joseph was so excited on Friday when I told him, that first thing on Saturday he woke me up saying that he wanted to go to the "dinosaur skeleton bean museum." He wanted to wear one of his dinosaur t-shirts for the occasion.

Here is Joseph riding on the back of one of the dinosaurs. His current favorite dinosaur is the pteranodon (formerly called a pterodactyl). He looks at his Schleich models of dinosaurs and points out that we still need it. Maybe I can find a Schleich pteranodon model for his birthday. Joseph made sure that when I took a picture of the T-rex, that I took a picture from the mouth side.

We had a hard time getting him away from the sand and water play area. He wanted to play there and probably would have lasted there for over 30 minutes. He didn't want to leave. I finally convinced him that we would go and dig for dinosaurs, but that we had to leave. After a lot of coaxing and arguing (Joseph kept saying, "just one more minute."), we got him to leave.

Of course, he didn't really want to leave the excavation area. Getting him to walk in the sand was a challenge. He didn't like the way it felt, so I had to go in with him. He was still very reluctant and cautious as he stepped into different sand areas. I was sad that I didn't think to record it.

Once we did leave, here are the boys in the car. All tuckered out after playing for so long at the museum. They slept until we got back to Provo. Alison was being nice and trying to get Joseph out of the car for me, but she ended up bumping his head on the ceiling of the car. He cried and didn't nap again after that.

Joe was nice enough to set up the baby crib. It didn't have instructions, so Joe pieced it together. It looks pretty nice overall. When I get crib bedding, I will take pictures and post them. The crib is currently in Joseph's room. I also came to the realization that Joseph has way too many toys. I need to decide which ones to get rid of, but it is hard because he seems so attached to all of them. I will focus on big items first. I managed to get rid of some at the stake give and take, but 1 bag of toys does very little to counteract the toys that, I swear, must be breeding in his toy cupboard. Either that or mommy and grandma have a hard time saying no to the cute little face that you see all over this blog. :)

Another Friday

Well, we have a new water heater so all is well. It feels so nice to have hot showers again. Joe is really wanting to take a long hot bath, so I need to clean the tub for him.

Tomorrow I am going to take Alison and Ryan to look at reception centers. Most are booked for the the 30th of December. Alison told me they were thinking of having the reception on the 2nd of January. So far every place has that date available. I called a ton today and yesterday to set up times to view. I spoke to Sundance as well. They usually have a $9000 dollar minimum for their space, but are willing to let Alison, if she wants it, have it for $3500 plus $100 for labor and clean up. Considering there is another place that offers you everything but the dress for less, this may not be the way to go. We will see what they want.

Joseph gets to go along with us. He likes to talk and talk. When people ask him how old he is he says, "two" and holds up his 2 pointer fingers. He then tells them his birthday is in October and that when he turns 3 he will take "snimming" classes with mommy. He will also say that when he turns 4 he is going to go to soccer practice and that mommy and daddy are going to watch him play. He likes to wear his cleats that are size 11 (he is barely in a 6.5). He then says that when he is 5 he will go to school.
Right now he takes different books and says that he needs to do his homework, since that is what he sees the kids doing when they get back from school. Tonight we ran into one of Joe's coworkers whose baby is 12 days old. Joseph got so excited to see him and I told him that his baby brother would bet that little. They asked Joseph if he was going to give his little brother a big kiss and he said yes. Then he told them that the baby had to wait till January.

I am doing better in my pregnancy. The nausea is pretty much gone, but with that gone, my appetite has come back in full force. I am always hungry and feel like eating a ton. I like to say that I have gained 30 pounds so far, but that is because I was already 25 pounds overweight for my height. I went to the doctor this week. In 3 weeks I go back for my glucose test. I just hope my levels aren't high, considering that chocolate is high on my cravings list.

What to do?

So our water heater hasn't been functioning well...again. On Tuesday, the water heater repair guy came and said that it worked just fine. He left; it went out again. I called on Wednesday. They couldn't get anyone to see us until Friday, meanwhile, no hot water for baths, showers, etc. Friday came and I was planning on missing half a day, as I did on Tuesday. I had to wait from 9 to 1. I waited and after 1 p.m., no one had come or called. I called the contractors and the home warranty company had decided to get another company for a second opinion. I called the home warranty company and they said they would have someone for me to contact later that day. Well, I waited and called several times, each time being told that they were working on it. 7 p.m. came and went and we were told to wait till Saturday for a call. Did a call come? Of course not. So I am sitting at home tonight, irritated that we don't have hot water, that Joe or I will need to miss work again, and that we still have no hot water. I had better get a call from them by 9 a.m., or they will have a big piece of my mind. Why did the home warranty company wait until Friday to decide they needed a second opinion? Could they have not done it on Wednesday or Thursday?

At least on the days I have waited, I have had Joseph with me. He is cute and has enjoyed the time. We played, cleaned his room (again and again), read books (he loves Huggly books), went to the doctor (he has a virus), ate, cooked (jell-o, eggs, and so forth). He has been using the toilet more often, but still no underwear. Now he uses the excuse, "I need to go to the bathroom, let's hurry!" to get out of taking a nap or going to bed. Smart kid. He knows that we want him to use the toilet. That is also the only time that he says that he wants to use underwear (he knows I won't let him till he is more trained).

Yesterday at church, Joseph was singing to the hymns. It was more muttering/humming, but he was trying. It is cute to watch him anytime a prayer is said. He starts to say the prayer as well, but his are shorter, so he always ends with "amen" before the person does. He really enjoys nursery, but because he was sick yesterday he couldn't go. After we left church, he pretended that there were little crocodiles all around us. We talked to them and even rolled down our window so one could come home with us.

Saturday was our stake give and take. I went on Friday to drop off some stuff, including some of Joseph's toys. He cried and cried, until he found a replacement. I found a few baby boy things, but the predominant clothing type was little girls. I did buy some baby clothes off of someone on Craigslist and I think that I am set for the first 6 months. Now I need to find the rest of my baby clothes. Joseph likes to get the liitle beanies and say, "I wore this when I was borned."

Yesterday, Joseph had daddy's hat and put it on backwards. He said, "this is like Huggly." He said this as he sat on his toilet. He likes his daddy's hat.

I can feel the baby move a lot more. His kicks are more visible from the outside now. Still no name, but maybe one day we will get around to thinking of one.

Joseph and his comfort zone

Joseph has decided that he really doesn't like underwear. I had him wear some for the first time on Tuesday while we waited for the water heater repairman to come. Well, he had two accidents. He does well in a diaper and tells us in time, with the underwear, not so much...hmmm. My mom said that I traumatized him by making him wear underwear. He seems to want to make me happy, so he went along with the underwear.



At the thought of pushing him a little to hard, I talked to him and said that he could tell me when he wanted to wear underwear. In the past few weeks he has gotten better at using the toilet at home. I don't think he goes often at grandma's. I told him this last night as he was going to bed. He said that he wanted to wear underwear then. I explained it would be better to wait till the morning.



Last night he woke up and was up for a little over an hour. I am tired. Fortunately for me, I have to wait for the repairman...again. They didn't fix the problem. Joe has had many late night meetings and he is stressed because our water heater is acting up again, or rather, shutting off again.