First Haircut

Yesterday we took Josiah for his first haircut. His hair was getting a little bit long and from the back it looked like he had a mullet. So, we took him to the Clemmons Barber Shop. We were met there by my parents and my brother Sam. Larry, who has been my dad and brother's barber for over 20 years did the deed. He put a booster up in his chair and we set Josiah on it. We decided this would be a good time to give him his first sucker. It worked. Of course, by the end of the haircut his sucker was covered with hair and we had to trade it out for another one. He looks really cute with his new do. Here are some pictures of the big event...

It's a girl!!!: Part Two

Just in case anyone thought by my lack of comments in the last post that I was not excited about having a girl, I thought I would recount the events of my day. It started off with the doctors appointment this morning. The ultrasound showed that everything is fine with the baby and that she is a girl. We were very excited to hear that. We were hoping that this baby would be a girl. Her name will be Zoe Elizabeth. We like the name Zoe because it means "life" in Greek. My parents were able to go with us to the ultrasound which was kind of special for them. They had never seen one before. Since all three of us kids were adopted, all of this pregnancy and birth stuff is new to them and I like to have them share as many experiences as they can to see what it would have been like.
After I got home from the doctor, I had to get busy making four green bean casseroles. Yes, I said four. We had all the teachers from Salem Baptist over tonight for their Christmas dinner. I was responsible for making the main course which consisted of beef stroganoff, glazed carrots and green bean casserole. Other people brought the desserts, rolls, jello salad and drinks. It was quite fun. They played the "naughty santa" game and then a game that included charades, pictionary and Don't forget the lyrics with Christmas carols. I successfully drew "Silent Night" and my team guessed it in just a couple of seconds. Our team won, and I am now a proud owner of a three meal ticket for the cafeteria. Guess I won't have to pay for lunch the next three times I sub! :)
It was an exciting day, but very tiring, so I am off to bed. More later....

It's a girl!!

Self-feeding boy

Our boy is now self-feeding, at least when it comes to certain foods. He has already been doing "finger foods" for a long time, but Thursday he progressed on to foods that he can eat with a spoon. So far he has been successful with oatmeal, yogurt, and applesauce. I am very excited about this although it means I will be doing much more laundry in the days to come! I have posted some pictures of his new feat for you to check out. Kudos to Steve (in the last picture) who has also been working on his self-feeding skills as well. Notice there is hardly any applesauce on his bib! :o)

In other news, Josiah's vocabulary is increasing at an exponential rate. He is now saying things like "You're welcome", "Please", "Love you", and "umbrella". He can also count "Two" and "Three". He always manages to leave out the number one! :o) I cannot believe how quickly he is growing up. At the same time I am so excited about all the new things he is learning!

It's been four years...

Yes, it has been four years since what I consider to be one of the greatest days of my life. The day went something like this.

Saturday, October 18, 2003

Steve and I had been dating all of five weeks at this time. Last night I met his mom and stepdad for the first time. They are down visiting for the weekend. Steve and I are getting together with his parents and my parents for dinner tonight so that everyone can get acquainted. It is early afternoon and Steve calls me to ask me if he can pick me up early so I can go run errands with him before dinner. I told him I could as long as we could stop by the grocery store and get the things that I needed in order to do my part in contributing to Sunday lunch the next day. He said that would be okay. Around 4:00 he comes to my apartment and picks me up. We drive around for a little while, and I was totally clueless of where we were or where we were going. Suddenly, I realize that we are just off University Parkway by the Coliseum. The next thing I know, Steve is turning by the Coliseum and headed towards Groves Stadium. My heart stopped. This is where he took me for our first date. And then, he turns in there. There is no football game on that day and the stadium is eerily quiet. Steve said he needed to get something from there and that he was told one of the gates would be left open. And surely enough, it was. So we get out of the car and walk into the stadium. I see no one or hear anything. He then takes me up to the place where we sat on our first date. "This is the place, isn't it?", he says. I agree, shaking my head wondering exactly what was coming next. I soon found out. He said that he wanted to ask me three questions. I agreed to listen. He proceeded.
1. Will you make me the happiest man in the world?
2. Will you do me the profound honor of being my wife?
3. (He gets down on one knee) Will you marry me?
And he holds out a box with a ring in it. A ring, that the single Christian school teacher that I was never imagined would ever be put on my finger. It was so amazingly beautiful that I was in utter shock. So it took me a second to answer because of that shock, and Steve thinking I wasn't too sure about it all said, "Please !?!?"
Of course I said "Yes!" and when we embraced he secretly gave a thumbs up sign to his friend Jeffrey Griffin from WSJS who was up in the sound booth (and who also had conveniently left the gate open for us). Jeffrey then began to play "Spoken For" by Mercy Me over the loudspeakers of the football stadium. Both of us when hearing that song at separate times in the earlier weeks thought immediately of the other one and our relationship.
After the song finished, Steve said, "There is more". He took me down to the front of the field where on a music stand he had a Bible waiting for me. It says in the front cover "Presented to The Love of my Life. By your adoring man. On this, the day of our engagement, October 18, 2003". He told me that he always wanted Christ to be the center of our marriage.
After this final presentation, Jeffrey emerged from the sound booth for hugs of congratulations and picture taking time.
We met our parents later at Longhorn. I kept the ring hidden in my pocket until we were seated at the table at which time I began to flash it around pointing at things on my mom's menu. It took her a little bit, but finally she grabbed my hand and said, "I didn't get a good enough glimpse of that flash." At this point in time everyone started crying tears of joy and the waitress was caught in the midst of an emotional time.
That was four years ago today, and I still look at that ring on my finger and my heart stops. Not so much because of the beauty of the ring, but because of the love that is behind it and the wonderful man that I can now call my husband!

cute pictures

To appease my blog checking friends who complain that I don't update frequently enough, here are a few cute pictures I have taken of Josiah recently. To fill you in on the recent news. He went to the doctor today and is 34.25 inches long (97+%) and 26.2 lbs (75%). He is saying a bunch of new words like "off" and "Eeyore". The word of the day is "yes" which he said at least a billion times. He is such a joy and we are so thankful to God for such a wonderful gift!!

Daddy's little helper

Steve was in our bathroom tonight folding the basket of laundry that he did the other day. Josiah decided that he wanted to help daddy with the laundry. His idea of "helping" was taking all the underwear out of the basket and throwing it in a pile on the floor. Every now and then he would lay down on it and laugh. I caught a few pictures.

I don't even know what to title this....

What a day! I am glad it is almost over and that I can go to bed soon! The day didn't start off too bad. The boy, being overtired from a lack of naps and being out late yesterday, slept until 12:20. He might have stayed asleep longer, except I had to get him up for a doctor's appointment. I went upstairs, and when I opened the door, there to my surprise is my son standing in his crib with his pacifier in his mouth and just his shirt on. (Last night we were at a friend's house until late, so when we got home we just put him in bed with his shirt on.) As I neared the crib I noticed that off in the corner was a diaper. I also noticed that the smell of the room got remarkably worse as I neared the crib. Apparently, Josiah at some time had figured out how to take off his diaper. He also managed to wet and poop in his crib, all over his blankets and toys that were in there. He also got poop all over his hands and wiped it up the sides and top of the crib when he stood up. And, to finish it off, he stepped in the poop....with his socks that were left on from last night! I managed to very carefully pick him up and take him downstairs for an immediate bath. A couple of small pieces of poop fell off of him and onto the carpet along the way. I laid him down on the changing pad while I filled the tub, which then had poop smeared all over it. I somehow managed to get his soaked shirt and disgustingly filthy socks off of him and into the washer. I then put him in the bath and scrubbed him down using an unusually large amount of bath gel. The diaper changing pad was then thrown in the washer before the boy was taken out of the bath. I managed to get him clothed and then fed. I gave him some grapes to eat to occupy him while I ran upstairs to take care of the bedding. Upon further inspection of the bed, I realized he also got poop on the bumper. So I removed the sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, bumper and anything else that was in there and ran downstairs to the washer. I decided this was a good time to try out the sanitary cycle on our washer! Three hours of cleaning and super hot water!
Steve spent some time this evening scrubbing the mattress pad and crib to try to remove the poop scent that had been ingrained from the earlier episode. When he dressed the boy for bed tonight, he made sure he put on tight PJ pants!
I just don't understand how these things managed to happen to me and only when Steve isn't home to help!!

Astronauts

Steve in his other life would be an astronaut (or a professional poker player) if he could. He is kind of hoping that Josiah will become interested in space and fulfill his lifelong dream. Steve was very excited yesterday to hear two astronauts on WSJS, Charlie Duke and Scott Carpenter. He was so excited that he stopped by the station to meet them on the way to his own live broadcast at Big Shotz. The astronauts were meeting people yesterday afternoon at Windsor Jewelers on Stratford Road, so we packed up little man and took him there to meet them. We waited in line for about an hour and finally were able to get Josiah's picture with them. Here is it! Maybe one day he will be a famous astronaut too!

Not a lot...

Not a lot happening around here at the moment. At least not anything too exciting, so in an effort to keep my blog reading friends happy, I have posted a couple of pictures of Josiah in his outdoor walking adventure from the other day. He had so much fun just walking up and down the sidewalk. I was finally able to get him to stop long enough to pose for a picture with daddy and the dog! Anyway...that is all for now. More news when something exciting happens! :)

It's on!

After walking a bit last Thursday night, Josiah, being his usual "I am going to do it how and when I want to do it" self, decided that he wasn't going to walk again anymore. Finally, on Monday night he gave in and walked back and forth from the couch to the television a couple of times. Then yesterday, he took off. You would have thought he had been walking for weeks. He walked from the bedroom down the hall to the kitchen, from the living room to the front door, and everywhere else in between. He was so proud of himself, even clapping for himself by the time evening rolled around. The cutest thing was him chasing his soccer ball around the living room and kicking it while saying "dit, dit", which when interpreted means "kick, kick". I can't wait for him to wake up and get started again today. We must give a special thanks to Sarah and Isaac for the grippy socks they bought us at Old Navy. Josiah wouldn't have been able to walk on the wood floors in socks without them! :)

Big day all around!

First of all, today is the four year anniversary of my first date with Steve. For those of you who don't know, we were set up by his 13 year old nephew that was in the youth group that I was working with at church. His nephew Ben along with a couple of his friends who also knew Steve kept telling me that I needed to meet "Uncle Steve" and go out with him. I asked them to tell me about him. They would say that he was about 40 and I would tell them to stop right there. I wasn't about to go out with a guy that was 40!! After all, I was only 29. When I hit 30, my feelings changed. I finally agreed that they could give him my phone number and a few days later he called me. That was September 6th. We talked on the phone for over an hour and by the time the conversation ended, he had scheduled a date for the following Saturday. I was pretty impressed. I had been talking to another guy on the phone for a month who had yet to ask me to meet him! The next Saturday came, and Steve picked me up around noon. We went to the Wake Forest/Purdue football game. I spent a lot of the time talking to Steve rather than watching the game. When the game was over, he took me back to my apartment and continued talking to me outside the door. It was really hot in the stairway, so I invited him in to visit with me and my roommate some more. He talked with my roommate Nicole and I for another hour and a half or so. Then he asked if we were hungry. When we said a little, he proceeded to convince us to let him take both of us out to eat. We agreed. (Free food!) He took us to Cities for dinner and then to his house to play with his game tables. I beat him soundly at foosball. He says that I sandbagged him. That is another story for another time. After beating his head against the wall because of his loss, he took us home. That is how it all started. It is hard to believe that we are where we are today! Absolutely amazing!!

To continue on about this great day......Josiah is walking!! Finally! He officially took his first steps on his own on August 30th. He has taken a couple steps here and there since then. But tonight, for the first time, he has officially branched out on his own. He walked from the refrigerator to the pantry and back three times. He also took several steps on his own while we were at dinner at a friend's house. It won't be long. I can hardly wait! I know everyone says that I will regret it when he is walking, but I think it will make my life easier. For one thing, he doesn't like to wander off on his own. He likes to stay where you are, so I don't think I will be chasing him everywhere. Also, he is getting so very heavy, and I am having a harder and harder time carrying him. It will be nice for him to be walking since I have an ever increasing belly size in front of me over the next few months. Now if we could only get the potty training done..... :)

Grilled Panini

I have been watching an awful lot of television lately because there isn't too much else to do while I am sitting/lying in bed. I know, I could read, but that takes work. I keep seeing this commercial for the grilled stuffed panini from Lean Cuisine so it kind of starts sticking in my mind, and before you know it, my pregnant self thinks that it sounds like a really good idea. So last night I am at the store and decide to get a couple to try. Today for lunch, I took one out of the freezer, followed the directions on the package to get it all set up and then cooked it in the microwave. I was a bit disappointed because my panini did not come out with the cool grill marks that are on the front of the box. I ate the sandwich and it tasted pretty good. When I was finished eating, I decided to check the back of the box to see if maybe I did something wrong. That was when I discovered in bold print, albeit it wasn't that big, that for better browning you should take the panini out of the freezer five minutes before cooking. So, now I know. I thought I would share this bit of knowlege with you in case you decided one day to try one of these paninis. I will probably eat the other one tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes...

It's Triplets!!

Just kidding. I am only having one baby. For those of you who actually read my blog and notice that there has been an absence of posts lately, it is due to the fact that I have been battling a pretty bad case of morning sickness. Only, in my case, you can call it morning, noon, and night sickness! I have found that drinking lemonade and eating sausage dip (thanks, Heather!) makes me feel better. So after chugging a huge glass of lemonade, I am able to sit here an update my blog.
Steve and I went to the doctor today for our first visit. They did an ultrasound and the hearbeat looked good! What a relief! They said I am 8 weeks and 3 days along. That makes my due date April 18th. According to my friend Becky who put my information in on the chinese calendar, I am having a girl! I will let you know at the next ultrasound in 12 weeks whether or not she is correct.
Now for a funny story. When I was pregnant with Josiah, we went for our first visit at the doctor's office. When they were weighing me in, Steve being the silly man that he is sometimes, decided to make a joke and say that if I got past a certain weight it was all over with and he was going to leave me. I knew he was kidding but the nurse didn't seem too amused! When she was in the room giving us all the pregnancy information and finding out our medical background, Steve kept up his silly joking. Finally, when she hadn't responded to his humor, he leaned over to me and said out loud, "I don't think she likes me very much!" To which the nurse replied that when he was joking about leaving me over the weight, she didn't find it very funny. That was exactly what had happened to her. When she got pregnant and had her baby, she was unable to lose the pregnancy weight and her husband left her. Guess who felt like a shmuck! We were getting ready to leave the doctor's office today when this same nurse walked into the room with the prescription from the PN. She said that she had recognized my name on the prescription! I am sure that she wouldn't have remembered me if it hadn't been for Steve!! Don't worry, he didn't make any weight jokes this time!
Well, that is all for now. I think I am going to go lay back down on the bed and watch more tv.

Cute Picture

We were at Tanglewood today with the family for a picnic. I took some pics of the boy and this one is my favorite!

Alaska Trip Overview

Alaska was incredible! Don't think we will be able to top that trip for a while. Here is a brief overview of the things that we did.

Day 1 (Sat.) - We flew to Anchorage. On the way to our ship in Whittier, we took a quick tour of the Alaska Wildlife Center. We boarded the ship and got settled in. After dinner, we went to bed early. (Party poopers, I know!!)

Day 2 (Sun) - I got up around 6 am to see the glaciers as we travelled through College Fjiord. It was absolutely amazing. We filled the day with activities on the ship - ping pong, a show, ice carving demonstrations, fruit carving demonstrations, and of course, lots of food. It was the first formal night.

Day 3 (Mon) - We were still at sea. The ship stopped to view a glacier for an hour or so. We saw it cavving. Pretty cool! Today was Grammy Sue's 70th birthday. We all celebrated her birthday together at dinner. The chefs made her a chocolate cake and it was fantastic!!

Day 4 (Tues) - We arrived in Skagway. Steve, Josiah, and I walked around in the morning and did a little bit of shopping. After lunch on the boat, we and everyone else (all 38 of us) took a train ride on the White Pass and Yukon railway. We went all the way to Canada and back. The whole trip took about 3 hours. Steve and I and two of our friends, Scott and Deb, ate at Sabatinis which was a specialty Italian restaurant on the ship. It was phenomenal!! They brought us tons of food and kept bringing it. I topped off the dinner with an expresso creme brulee which was probably my favorite dessert of the whole trip.

Day 5 (Wed) - We arrived in Juneau. It was a bit misty this morning, but it cleared up before noon. That was the only bad weather we had on the trip. We stayed on the boat in the morning to make sure Mister had a good nap. After lunch, we were picked up in a van and taken to Era Helicopters. My friend Kristy arranged for us to be flown up to the Norris Glacier where she works on the deadhead flight. If you don't know what a deadhead is, it is an empty flight going up or back that is for the purpose of picking up or dropping off a group. But it only has a load one way. So we flew up on the deadhead helicopter and met Kristy on the glacier. She then took us on a three mile mushing ride. Then we spent some time visiting with Kristy and the dogs before our return trip back to the boat. We had our second formal night. Josiah wore a tie for the very first time! He looked so cute!

Day 6 (Thurs) - We arrived in Ketchikan. We went to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack show. It was pretty cool. They threw axes and climbed up poles. Overall it was very entertaining. I spent the afternoon shopping with our friends Scott and Deb, while Steve stayed on the ship with a sleeping Josiah. That evening, we went up on deck and watched the sun set. It was beautiful. Then we hung out in the lounge on the 18th floor of the ship. There were windows all around. It was pretty amazing up there!

Day 7 (Fri) - We were at sea once again. I went to a cooking demonstration with Deb in the morning. After lunch, we packed a bit, then spent the rest of the afternoon up on the front deck of the ship. It was a gorgeous day and the view was once again amazing! We had dinner with everyone. After dinner, Steve's sister took care of Josiah for a while and we had a little "date night". We finished packing, and then went to bed early.

Day 8 (Sat) - After an early rising and a very quick breakfast, we disembarked at 7:45 and took a bus ride to the airport. There we gathered our luggage, checked in, went through customs and found our gate. We flew from Vancouver to Chicago and then caught our second plane to Charlotte. We arrived home in Mocksville at approximately 10:30 pm. It is great to be home!! :)

If you want to see the pictures from our trip, you can check them out here.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030033&l=cd0b0&id=141302360

http://cedarville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030038&l=fa430&id=141302360

(I had so many pictures I had to put them in two albums!!)

Time to Leave!!

It is 3:57 a.m. and I am just waiting for the alarm to go off so Steve will wake up and I can take a shower. I am so excited that I woke up over a half an hour ago and couldn't get back to sleep. We have to be out of here by 5:00 so we can get to the airport at 6:15. Our flight for Chicago leaves at 7:40. We will fly to Anchorage from Chicago and get there around 1:15 p.m. their time. This is exciting!! Somehow we managed to fit all of our stuff for a week into 3 suitcases and 3 carryons, one carryon which will be eliminated once our human garbage disposal disposes of the food we are taking for him! Pray that we will have a safe trip. I will try to keep you updated!!

So long for now!!

Alaska...here we come!

Tomorrow morning bright and early we are leaving for Alaska. Steve's stepmom is turning 70 next week and for her birthday they are taking everyone one a cruise! How silly is that?? I thought we were the ones that were supposed to buy the present!! I am not complaining though and I am very grateful for the opportunity.
After much time spent shopping for the right formal dress, backpack, pants, etc. I think I am finally ready to start putting it all into a suitcase. So far, my piles of clothes aren't that extremely massive. My goal is to take just one big suitcase, even if it has to be the biggest one!
As for the boy, well, I spent the morning pulling out his winter clothes for next year and trying them on him to see which ones may fit for the trip. Some of them are a little big, but they will have to do since all of his other pants are a wee bit small! I am definitely not investing in pants that he will wear for a week and then outgrow! He is eating almost all table foods now.(He had pizza last night and loved it!!), so that is a good thing. I don't know how we would carry enough food for him to eat for a week. We do have to take food for the trips up there and back, and that is enough!!
Well, it is back to laundry and packing....there are computers on the cruise ship so I will try to update every now and then!! (Just for you Sarah and Kim!! Kim, that means you need to leave me a comment!! haha)
Ciao!!

Strawsipper

After an incredibly busy week that started off with two doctors appointments on Monday, with a little bit of time at Steve's office answering the phones squeezed in between, buying a new washer and dryer (and this is just Monday), followed by more work at the office, an eye doctor's appointment, a playdate with an old friend and her four kids, dinner with the pastor and his wife, dinner with a friend, shopping for formal clothes for the cruise, and getting ready for my parents retirement party and actually having the retirement party....
... I was able to sit down with the boy tonight and feed him some steamed broccoli and carrots. It was rather enjoyable. I could relax and sing him silly songs and make faces at him without having to worry about what was the next thing on my list. After a while, he got tired of the broccoli, so I decided to make his meal a bit more interesting by giving him water from a straw. We learned a while back that he loves it when you stick a straw in water, put your finger on top of the straw to hold it there, and then let it go into his mouth. I did this a few times, and then I decided not to take my finger off the straw and see if he could figure out how to get the water out by sucking on it. He did! So, the next step was to put the straw in the cup and see if he could drink from it. Sure enough, after a few seconds of just chewing on the straw, I felt the coolness of the water go up the straw. Josiah had so much fun and you could tell he was so proud of himself! By the time he was finished he had consumed a whole glass of water!!
Of course, afterwards we had to put him on the potty to see if he would go. Let me just say, he got a treat tonight!! :)

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

Josiah turned one today. We had such fun. Steve's parents have been here since Saturday so they could be here for the special event. We decided to have a small party today to celebrate his birthday with just us and the grandparents. He is having his big party on Saturday. He was being quite the ham today. I almost think he understood that today was a special day.

We started off with a his cake that I made for him. It was a almond cornbread pound cake with a mascarpone cream filling and strawberries on top. (No, Sarah, it was not from the Food Network. It was MarthaStewart.com!! haha) Basically, it was just a fancy strawberry shortcake. And it was very tasty!! We did manage to get a quick picture of Josiah with it before he decided to dig in. It is the only picture I managed to take of it whole and it is a little blurry

His favorite part was the strawberries on top. There were five whole medium-sized strawberries. He picked them off, one by one, and ate them whole. Here is a funny picture of one stuffed in his mouth. (Once again, it is blurry.)

He did eat a bite or two of the cake, but he wasn't too interested in eating it.

It was more fun to take the cake, mush it up, and smear it around on the high chair tray. He was pretty hard to get cleaned up after this. I think he is still a little greasy feeling!

After a quick cleanup, it was on to the present. My parents already had give us his present - a toybox. We had it set up in the living room. He loves to open and shut the lid. It is amazing how the littlest things can entertain them for the longest time.

Here is a picture of Josiah with Nana and Papaw and the toy box.

Grandma and Grandpa Brown (Steve's mom and stepdad) gave Josiah a book and some big legos. They were a hit too!

Here is a picture of Josiah with Grandma and Grandpa and the amazing lego tower he built.

Oh wait, were the legos really for Josiah, or were they more for Steve?? :)

Steve and I gave him a little grand piano. He loved it!! I am so excited and hope he will be interested in music someday.

My little Schroeder!

And, yes, I did take all the pictures and that is why I am not in any. But I am on the video that Steve took! :)

Success (times two)

After the peeing incident, I went out and bought Josiah a potty. It is really cute. It is called the Royal Throne. When you pee in it, it rewards you with music. At first he realy didn't like to sit on it, but now he really seems to enjoy sitting there. He sings songs to himself and makes the "sssss" sound. (We are actually making that sound to try to get him to pee, but he just repeats it back to us. What a copycat!)

Monday night, we put him on the potty. I told Steve he should turn the water on. That is what they always do in the doctors office when they want you to pee in a cup. So Steve turned the water on, and ta da....there came the music. I was so excited. I am sure Josiah had no idea what was going on.

We tried it again yesterday, without the water. Success once more. This time he heard the music playing. I think after a few times he might get the idea of what he is supposed to do. I am sure he will not be potty trained in the next couple of months, but maybe this will help heighten his awareness of it.

Well, I am off to work on birthday dinner....the mister is one today! Unbelievable. More on that later....

Overambitious. Maybe just a little.

So you know those mother's that try to get their kids to learn everything and do everything early. Well, typically, I am not one of those. I do try to teach Josiah things and help his development along, but I am not obsessive about it. Usually. After talking with a friend the other day who had two little boys, I decided to try to start making Josiah aware that he is going to have to use a potty. She said that if you start using the language with him and then show him how to sit on the potty, it makes it a lot easier. So, that is what I started doing about once a day. Yesterday, I was feeding Josiah breakfast when I realized that he was using the bathroom in his diaper. I quickly grabbed him out of his high chair, ran to the bathroom, whipped the diaper off and sat him on the toilet. I was concientious enough to make sure that Mr. Winky was pointed down.

Josiah used the bathroom in the potty.
It successfully went between the seat and the toilet and all over me.

We bought a potty chair yesterday with a guard.
That is what I get for being overambitious.

"Tish!! Tish!!"

The monster has come and gone and my sweet son has finally returned. For those of you who know Josiah, you might be thinking that he is always a sweet child. Well, I wish I could say that was true, but for a couple of very LONG days I wasn't sure I would ever see that sweet child again. You see, I made a BIG mistake. I have been trying to convert him over to eating table food. We are going on an Alaskan cruise at the end of the month and didn't really feel like lugging eight days worth of baby food in my luggage so that he would have something to eat. (Just so you know, on a typical day, Josiah can eat 8 containers of baby food, not including snacks.) I figure, if I could get him eating table food, there would be plenty of options on the cruise to pick from. So, I did what every normal mother does, give their child different foods to try. He has had tomatoes, mushrooms, peas, green beans, and all kinds of fruit. He absolutely loves spaghetti! Then I gave him goldfish. You know, those little cheese crackers that are shaped like fish. All kids eat them, and they are fine. There must be something in them that affected my son temporarily. They turned him into a fish eating monster. He refused to eat his meals. "Tish!", he would say and fuss until I gave him some. "Tish!", he said when I went to get him up from his nap. There were wails and tears when he ran out of them at the swimming pool. In between his anger and frustration, you could clearly hear him calling, "Tish!!" Enough is enough. We could not take it anymore. Steve banned me from giving him anymore "Tish" until he got over his addiction. After a couple of days in rehab, I am happy to say that our son is no longer a "Tish" addict. He now eats his meals and when he is finished he gets some "Tish" as a reward if he eats all of his food. He doesn't scream when they are gone, but just makes the all done sign and smiles. Look at this smiling face. Who would have known those little crackers could make someone so happy(or turn them into such a terrible monster!).

Enough is enough!

Okay, it has officially been over two weeks since I last posted something. I know I have driven Sarah nuts as she checks often for an update and there is....nothing! So here goes. Quick update and quick look ahead. The last couple of weeks has been a blur. Lesson plans. Cleaning house. Trip to the mountains. Swimming. Steve's birthday. With that all in the past I now have to look forward to the following over the next couple of weeks: Cleaning house. Mother-in-law and Stepfather-in-law visit. Sister-in-law and brother-in-law and nephew visit (x2). Josiah's birthday. Josiah's birthday party. My parents retirement party. Getting out invitations for the aforementioned parties. Poker party. ("I'm all in!!") Cleaning out the pantry. Trying to catch up on Josiah's scrapbook. It is just crazy.

Hopefully in the midst of all this craziness I will find time to post some new material, much more funny and interesting than today's. But for now, I am off to try to knock some tasks off my list. Time is short. I have to make the most of it!

Beach Pics!

Here are some pictures from the beach. We had such a great time. Our boy is going to grow up to be a beach bum just like his mommy!! The last picture is the one I had printed out and put in a picture frame for Steve for his first Father's Day. It just seemed appropriate to me! Hope you enjoy them! :)

Beach...here I come!

We are leaving today after church to go to the beach. I can't wait. I will post pictures when I return. That's all for now.

Josiah and Isaac Pictures

Isaac came over today to play with Josiah. It has been a whirlwind of fun including Baby Einstein, playing with toys on the blanket, eating and napping. Here are a few pictures of all of their fun!