Kid Quotes

Josh- "I want a drink of water"

Mom- "What's the magic word"

Josh- "Abra Cadabra"

Feb 5 2012

Ready For School

Josh and I are ready for him to go back to school. He is excited to have the same teacher this year, Mrs. Sara. School has really helped him. This summer I have tried to keep him entertained and learning but I'm not very good at it. We have gone swimming, played with James, Jazzercised, read books, & played video games. We even have had preschool once a week with one of Josh's friends. We would rotate each week and teach by topic using the library's 6 by 6 packets. By the end of the summer, we will also finish reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory & to celebrate, we will have a Wonka party and watch the movie that I checked out from my parents. I finally updated our pictures of Josh that his preschool teacher gave us so here are some of the cute ones in celebration of school starting again.

Photo Opp of My Boys!

So Mom was bored & the kids humored me by letting me take photos of course they wouldn't both have smiles on in the same photo...

Happy 4th Birthday Josh

Josh Celebrated his 4th Birthday this year. When asked how old he was, he said 100.

Here he is opening his gifts...he got clothes, a puzzle, bubbles & a soccer ball.

We went to Chuck-e-Cheeses to celebrate & ride the rides.
I talked to Josh about making a turtle cake a month before his birthday and he really wanted it for his birthday. I thought he forgot about it so I got lazy & thought I could just get by with frosting & sprinkles on cupcakes. The first thing he says when he woke up on his Birthday was..."Where's my turtle cake"... So off to the store I went to get green food coloring and I was able to make his turtle cake and bring it into his preschool class during snack time. He really liked it and all the kids thought they were cool.

Potty Training Woes

So I'm still potty training Josh. Bought another box of pull ups :( Don't know what to do with the boy. In public now, he loves to pee. 3 hour church went 4 times. Thought it was a fluke because he had a lot to drink before church. Today got a call from the teacher saying he peed 4 times while at school which is about 3 hours. At Costco, we peed when we got there and half way through he was like "my peepee is coming" really loud. So then I felt like a bad mother saying no you don't need to pee. You need to hold it till we get home. He still wouldn't drop it and was being loud so I lied and said that the toilets were broken and we would have to pee at home. We are now at home. Guess who doesn't NEED to pee. At home he never pees that much. I think he just does it because he is bored or something. At least he doesn't have accidents that way, but I never know when he really needs to go. Poop on the other hand is horrible. He will hold that in and keep getting little poops on his pants until he decides he can't hold it in anymore...usually all of this is done in the underwear...hence why we have pull ups. He doesn't care if it is a pull up or underwear. I do. He also likes to poop outside. Maybe I need to redecorate the bathroom with a tree and some grass. He can tell me where we need to poop but just doesn't DO it where he knows he should...the toilet

More Josh Funnies & James Update

Josh-

• Went to GM & GP Guernsey's house. Everyone else was talking so I was the only one to witness such a manly comment. Josh goes mommy, points to the TV and says "look mommy its smaller". Their TV is a good size. I would classify it as big...it is just not as big a daddy's TV but the furniture set up is the same so it is easy to compare and see that it is smaller. :)
• He is way into video games. It is so much fun to hear him explain what happened in the video game. He gets so excited and uses his arms to tell you what happened. Sometimes it takes me a couple of minutes to realize we are talking about video games and then it makes sense what he is saying.
• We are back to watching Scooby Doo and in doing so I remember how tender Josh's heart is as he starts crying at "intense" parts. Then as we have watched a couple, I have talked to him about why he is crying, it has become quite clear that he is the son of an engineer. He cries not because the characters are in trouble or it's scary...he cries because buildings or bridges are being broken.

James -

• He smiles
• He coos
• He spits up a lot
• Right now he sounds awful-congested & coughing-I wish he could blow his nose-the nose sucker just can't get it all.
• He loves working out aka mom moving his legs & feet

Josh Funnies

• If he sees adults out of context. He gives them weird looks and runs away or total ignores them...Example: my friend from church (who Josh has seen at our house several times) is a substitute teacher and she was his sub for gym. The gym teacher also is the crossing guard at the start of the day. She waves and says good morning he turns and runs the other way and I have to talk him into going into the school building. During gym, he just ignored her. Another example we were at the grocery store. He sees one of the paras from his classroom. Gives her a shy smile and runs down the isle in the opposite direction
• Cooking time in preschool, they brought in an old fashion popcorn cooker. They were trying to get the kids to say what we do 1st, 2nd last. Josh blurts out put it in the microwave. We don't even eat very much microwave popcorn :)

Adjusting to School

Well Josh is liking school. I hear he plays well with the other kids and he is getting adjusted to the school setting and participation more. He looks like such a small guy compared to those in his class. I guess it is because most of them are 4 and Josh isn't even 3 yet. After school he used to bolt for the exits and ask for the park ten times so it was hard to talk to his teacher. I guess his attention span was all used up. Now after school, he wants to go to the music room or the gym. He points to them and says, this way. I told him we couldn't and we needed to go home and he told me no. He gave up and said it was ok to go to the store though so we went to the store instead.

I Wasn't Going To Be That Mom

I was so excited for Josh to start school today. We packed his backpack last night, we got up early this morning, and we were ready to go. You would think it was my first day of school I was so excited. So after we got there, we walked to his new classroom with his teacher and hung up his bag and picked out a toy. I told him goodbye and he said bye bye and was going to leave with me so of course there was that "separation upset." No big deal right...he does it a Jazzercise and church nursery and he is fine in less then 2 minutes, but then it hit me he is going to school and getting so big. Yes I got a little teary eyed. This is the first time I'm leaving him with someone unrelated to him where I won't be in the same building. Big steps for mom. I didn't think I was "that type of mom" that gets all emotional about things like this. Maybe I will blame it on hormones. Anyway I'm fine now. After dropping him off, I went to babysit Jazzercise today and it really felt like I forgot him at home... Although today was definitely the day where, he was better off at school than in that Jazzercise room. There was a newer kid/baby that cried half the time. After Jazzercise babysitting, I came home to a nice message from Josh's teacher, that he was doing great and he was fine a few minutes after I left. Well I better go get something done before it is time to pick him up.

A Jewel of Thought

So I must not have too many Jewels of Thought since I haven't been writing. Life is pretty normal at the moment. As far as my job goes, I'm back on cruise mode of regular payroll stuff. Every now and again I get weird W2 questions or requests to resend it, but those are not hard to deal with and should stop by the 15th. In September I get an increase in work load since a coworker is going to be having a baby. I'm excited that I get to do some of my old jobs like bank reconciliation. Ok so I'm weird, I really enjoy doing that. There is just a joy I get when everything matches up or you solve the problem of why they don't match up. I will probably do some new things too that she will train me before she leaves. I will probably go into the office more just to get things done quicker so I will have to figure out what to do with Josh. Most of the time, I'm sure GM will take him, but depending on how often I need/want to go in I might have someone in either Gardner or Lawrence look after him. My boss said I could do most at home, but then I feel bad for Josh if I'm not giving him time.

In Josh news, he will be graduating infant toddlers when he turns 3. We will miss the weekly visits of Mrs. Nadene. He has made so much progress and I have learned a lot on techniques I can use to help him. He communicates his wants and needs very well now. We are working on expanding his vocab now. His articulation could be better, but that will come as he learns more words and I understand him and that is all the counts at the moment. In May, Josh will be going to Madison elementary 2 times a week to work on his speech and he may qualify later for more of a preschool environment. He is growing up so quickly. I am so proud of him.

In Jen news, I just had a Bday. Celebrated by eating Chipotle and making a cake with Josh. Both were yummy. I got an IPod case and I don't know the name of it, but a media center type hard drive device so that we can digitally put our movies on it and scroll to the one we want to watch. I'm excited. It will be so nice, especially with Josh's shows. They are getting so scratched up that some of them we can't watch any more. I had a nice relaxing Bday. Things I'm looking forward to...fence, vacation in Aug to UT, family reunion at my brother's new house, 4th of July, Josh going to school, Josh's 3rd Bday, 3rd book in Hunger Games Series

Josh Points of interest

• Josh went through mom's diaper bag, had fun with desitine, came upstairs to ask me to open some candy he found in my bag. He got in trouble and I kept asking him do we go through mom's bag? He kept answering yes. I then realized I was asking him the wrong question and he was just telling the truth...yes we went through mom's bag...so I changed my question into 2...Did you go through mom's bag? YES. Are you suppose to go through mom's bag? NO. What a smart kid.
• Loves Elmo now. He is starting to drag the elmo doll around
• Lives off of CoCo Milk, Gogurt, white cheese (string cheese), and bread (he won't eat PB&J, he just wants the bread)
• Helps himself to things in the fridge, but has to open the freezer first in order to open the fridge.
• Everytime he sees the pilsbury dough boy he makes the hehe sound.
• Loves to bake with mom
• Sees a public bathroom and grabs his diaper and says ew, pee popo in toliet. Sometimes he pees but most of the time he just wants to sit on it and flush.
• Prayer time- closes his eyes and says mama where are you?
• Prayer time- Daddy saying prayer, Josh starts playing with daddy's head, I tell Josh to fold his arms, he tells me to close my eyes.
• Plays world of warcraft...asks to play by saying more ooze (one of the things in the game). He has his own character. He is pretty good now at turning his guy around once he runs into a wall.
• Computer Genius: knows when the mouse is turned off & will flip it over & turn it on. Can exit programs by moving the mouse and clicking on the X in the corner
• Loves to take Orange baths
• Still pushes people if they are in his playing space. The other day, he tried pushing a bigger kid...didn't work so much.
• Goes to Jazzercise with mom and has to have his dance time afterwards. I have now trained him to dance one song and then we leave without a tantrum.

Growing Up

My Cutie Pie

Josh's New Room

More new Room!

Well in the past couple of months a lot has happened. In Josh news he is talking a lot more. I probably say that in every post though. He knows his alphabet and his letters pretty well. Sometimes he amazes me and counts all the way to 20. He likes pointing at everyone license plates to tell me the letters and numbers. At Target or Walmart he will count out the numbers of the check outs or when leaving stops on the curb to say the letters printed there such as no parking or fire lane. Even though he is a slow talker the speech therapist said that it is advanced for him to know his letters already so I feel good about that. As far as words go right now my favorites are library and jazzercise. They just sound cute when he says them. The phrase "ride rides" is a bad word in our home. It something Josh does with GM at the mall and he asks for it at least once a day. It just gets annoying because the answer is always no unless GM is coming to take him there. At the end of September I finished painting his new bedroom...I did it all by myself I would like to add... and we got Josh his new toddler bed. The migration was pretty easy. The next day he even put himself down for his own nap. I was amazed. I am still yet amazed that he does not come out of his room until I come and get him or I yell where are you and then he comes out. I have the perfect child. In other family news, Jason is almost done with his thesis...professor says this will be his last semester. It will be nice to say we are finally out of college! and no longer have to pay tuition! As far as my life goes I jazzercise pretty regularly and work is going alright (not stressing about the end of the year yet). I finished my new room for Josh project, but now have to clean up the pile of junk that came from closets that I moved to the unused dining room. I am the queen of clutter and junk. It just seems to appear around me. Lately I have gotten into reading and/or listening to books. Finished Austenland (corny cute & predictable), Hunger Games (loved) , Catching Fire (loved), Twilight series (again-still loved), and 3 books in a series that Suzanne Collins wrote (its more of probably Junior high level book but I like her style of writing). Some of my other hobbies have suffered. I haven't done scrapbooking or cross stitching or played games on the computer (I play WorldOfWarcraft) in awhile.

The Nightly Check

I have started a check list for myself for each day of the week. It lists what room I will focus on cleaning that day and personal goals like going to Jazzercise or reading my scriptures. There is also a check box each day for the nightly check (the downstairs is free of clutter before bed). My goodness. It works. My house has been clean since Saturday. It is such a nice feeling to wake up to a clean house. Josh does try hard to make it dirty for me, but if you stay on top of things its not that hard. Today was the day for the kitchen. It was already pretty clean. I swept and wiped off counters so then I had time to tackle the refrigerator and the left over experiments that were growing in there from dinners past. I gave it a good wipe down and I feel very accomplished for the day. The rest of they day I watched Cars (Josh's new favorite movie), colored, read The Big Hungry Bear several times, bounced a bouncy ball around the house, and during nap time started working (payroll). It was hard to sit down and get to work, but if I want fun money then I guess I must.

Anyway new things in Josh's life: We leave our shoes by the door. He likes to try them on and walk around in them saying shoe. My favorite shoe he tries on are my sandal like high heals. My new favorite word of the day from Josh is cocoa. I started calling chocolate milk...cocoa milk. I thought it would be easier to say (he doesn't try saying chocolate). Well he says cocoa. It just comes out sounding very demonic because he can't quite get the "Co" sound..it gets caught in his throat. So if you want a laugh and he is around make sure you ask him to say cocoa milk.

NO!

So Josh is progressing rather well. He babbles a lot now. He loves counting steps (sometimes he will wait and cry if necessary in order for me to hold his hand & count the stairs with him...two is usually the only one I can make out him saying) and picking out letters(sounds) in the alphabet. He is really good at trying to repeat words you say. My favorite phrases are "Where are you?" & "What's that?" My favorite words are (because he says them so cute) Jesus & Papa. The one word I am beginning to hate is the word No. He has mastered that one this week. It began as a cute game with matching shapes. He would try to match the star with the circle & then would say no because they didn't match. That progressed into telling mom what he won't do. Mama says Yes! The other night I was trying to get him to eat manicotti. He only had to take one bite to try it. I took a bite & said Mmmm Mommy likes manicotti. Dad took a bite and I said Mmmmm daddy likes manicotti. Does Joshua like manicotti...without taking a bite he firmly said No! I then proceeded to shove it down his throat. No just joking. I cracked up laughing and he didn't get a treat after dinner because he didn't eat any manicotti. Another common use of the word no. He will come up to me and say poopoo. I will ask did you poop? He promply says no and walks away. I thought communication was suppose to make things easier. One more cute thing about Josh. We are a family that likes to have some fun traditions just to make life a little more enjoyable. When we used to go to church in Ottawa, we had the tradition of every time we cross this one bike trail we would make the sound thud thud. (my dad did it when he was drawing us the map on how to get to the church). When we changed to the Paola building, we had to come up with a new tradition so we came up with saying weee as we go around the one roundabout on the way to church. Josh has caught on so every time we go in a roundabout (not just on the way to church) he goes weee. It's the little things in life which make you smile that makes all the hard things in life worth it.

Terrible Twoes

So Josh has hit the Terrible 2s now. His head banging has come back when he is mad. It is so agrivating. He has also mastered opening doors & can play with the bolt lock. On the upside he talks a lot more. Still a lot of giberish but they are sounds. He repeated his first prayer (dad says 2nd...he did it without me) and it was so precious. Josh also sat through his 2nd fireworks show for 4th of July. He was a bit cranky but I think he enjoyed it once it started. In house news, I'm all geared up about moving our rooms around. I want to combine my work room with our office room and then I can have fun making Josh a toddler room. I want to paint and have a lot of fun, the only problem is Jason says he doesn't have time to move computers & the desks right now. I guess that is fine as long as he is busy working on his thesis. I instead fill my time with Josh, work, Jazzercise & Harry Potter at the moment (I'm rereading the books). Funny story the other day...I was babysitting at Jazzercise and a 4 year old asked if I had a baby in my tummy. I died laughing on the inside. 1. I'm not pregnant. 2. No one would think I look pregnant. 3. I know his mom is not pregnant so it was just weird that it came up.

Photo Friday - a little early

Josh loves helping with the dishes. It gets kind a wet so that's why he does dishes in just a diaper.

He even helps mop up the extra water he pours on the floor.

Happy Birthday Josh. He wasn't real happy. He did enjoy stabbing his cake with a fork and biting it off. He did better on his real Bday when we were in Salina visiting David. He actually blew out a candle & his cousins helped him with the other.

Josh now eats oreo cookies by opening them up and eating the cream out & leaving the rest of the cookie. Grandma Draper always makes sure he has oreos (one time I had 3 oreo cookie packages in my cupboard...I did not buy any of them)
More Cheese Please...He is so cheesy. He just finished beating up a Royals balloon of a kid in a baseball uniform.

PS as I'm writing this I can here birds below me. We have birds living in every crany of our house. I want to kill birds. I hate them. I need to look into hiring someone to clean out all the nests and put up guards on all of our vents. Again I hate birds.

Spring Break

I guess I'm on spring break too! Even though I have to work tommorrow. Jason is at a convention in TX at the moment and I just don't go to bed when he is not around. I clean and mess around on the computer till midnight. There are no seminary kids to wake me in the morning or should I say wake Josh who wakes me up. I did do a little spring cleaning today and I must say my garage looks fabulous! I keep going out there to look at it because it is so nice and clean. It was difficult to do because of all the dead bugs/spiders, but I got rid of them. Josh enjoyed the day in the garage too. He was covered in dirt when we were done. In other Josh news, he qualifies for Johnson County's Toddler Program for speech since he is not catching on that words are cool. It was funny when they came to evaluate him, he didn't say anything at all. Not even babbling. He did laugh a little and flirt like he always does, but didn't really talk. I was like he does say stuff although the next couple of days I realized how quiet he is in the middle of the day. Mornings & evenings he does make noise I swear. Maybe he knows that we need help learning words so he was extra quiet to make sure we qualified. Anywho, Josh needs to learn to use his words. Daddy, Uh-oh, Again aren't going to cut it any longer...he should have 50 words by now and forming sentences. It will be nice to have someone come to the house and show me how to help encourage him to speak and help us set goals.

Ding Dong the Binki's Gone & TP Go Down the Hole

So last weekend we went to GM & GP Drapers house to get our taxes done. Josh ended up getting cranky and needing a nap. GM got all bent out of shape because he was unhappy at her house. Heaven forbid he is unhappy at GM house. We didn't bring a binki to comfort him and GM wouldn't have that so she went to the store & bought him a gerber nuk...she didn't realize that she bought him the rubber one that was brownish color rather than the silicon? one that is clear so he wouldn't take it. I about died laughing. Anyway after this incident, Jason & I decided that Josh is too old and shouldn't be relying on a binki so they have mysteriously disappeared. Josh every now and then points to the drawer where they used to stay during non-sleep times and we both look at the empty drawer. So sad. He is doing just fine without it.

So on to my next story. Last week Josh had his first toilet experience....this is how it was.

Just about 2 rolls of TP. He found an extra one under the cabinet. You can see it there on the floor.

Yesterday he had another experience which I didn't photograph. I was fuming mad. This time it was in the master bathroom & he flushed...probably several times. There was water all the way to the sinks. Tell me why again do they put carpet in bathrooms. I guess I should learn my lesson of double checking to make sure all bathroom doors are closed. Maybe he is just messing with my head and he can open doors. Just not when I'm around.

Picture Post

So I just downloaded our resent pictures to the computer & I thought I would share...

Mom should not where wool sweaters in the winter. It just does nothing good for the hair.

Here is Josh when he was sick & running a fever. We spent most of the day watching Baby Einstein & eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. He is such a cutie.

I forgot that I took pictures of this. This is the incident of me trying to get him ready for bed & he ran off to daddy & Josh tried taking off his own diaper...see here.

So I was trying to get a picture of me & Josh. Josh wasn't in the picture taking mood.

I thought I would showcase my home at Christmas time.

The Joys of Josh

I thought it would be fun to remember all the cute things Josh has done & is doing....

• He named his stuffed animal dog Aaawww. Every time he saw the dog he would say aaawww and bite (kiss) the dogs nose.
• For the longest time he would just roll everywhere. That can be quite amusing.
• He has extra senses & could instantly zero in on the fact that we didn't have the child proofing on under the TV and he would roll/crawl/run (still hasn't grown out of it) as quickly as possible to open & close the cupboard.
• He used to know when to do his mouth during the song head, shoulders, knees & toes. I'm sad that he doesn't do this anymore.
• While eating he always puts a long piece in his mouth the hard way...vertical.
• If you ask him to wave, he brings his arm up half way & drops it...it's the funniest wave.
• Recent Story: Dad was in the kid bathroom taking care of business & I was trying to get Josh ready for bed. Josh is a daddy's boy when dad comes home. I get Josh undressed to the point where he needs to step out of his pants when he escapes & runs down the hall to the bathroom where dad is. So then Josh bangs on the door with his pants at his ankles & starts pulling off his diaper. I about died laughing. I'm not sure if this is yes I want to be potty trained or I want a bath.
• He loves to be chased around the house or he will chase you
• He likes to bonk heads with people.
• He definitely takes after dad when it comes to the computer...he loves the computer. Oh and the best thing about the Iphone...the bubbles (a game where you touch the screen & bubbles appear & you can pop them). I think it is funny that Josh stops what he is doing when an Iphone commercial comes on & watches it...Jason does the same thing.
• He used to take things out of the trash to tell you what he wanted to eat. Granola bar wrappers or apple chips bag. Now he is just into throwing everything away. I have to go through the trash to make sure we are not throwing away toys.
• He likes to push chairs around the house...GM&GP Guernsey's house is the best. Those chairs have wheels.
• Binki games are always fun. He is such a tease with offering you the binki and then taking it back. Sometimes I put it in my mouth & he takes it away from me. I will "cry" like a baby and then he will stick it back in. Then he laughs and he will take it away again, I cry, & he will give it back until he decides that he is done sharing.
• He plays the I don't want to get out of bed game. He will stand up & want me to pick him up. I will go try and he will sit down & snuggle up to his blankey. I will pretend to walk away and he will stand back up. We do this 4-5 times before he is done playing the game.
• If you tell him to swim in the bath tub, he will lean back and do the back float in the tub. I think he likes it when his ears go under water. I never fill it up very high for that reason & because he is a splasher. (the shower curtain in a splash guard)

Some fun things we are working on is Santa says Ho Ho Ho & Doggie says Ruff Ruff. He usually just repeats the sounds after I do it. He will also sing you the first 6 notes of his bedtime song sometimes if you ask him. He does the wheels on the bus in his own language, but he wipes his eyes for the babys on the buss and makes the shhh sound for the mommys on the bus. I think he is at the verge of exploding with words...maybe I should let him know that would be a great Christmas gift for mommy.