Sister's Room and Becoming a Big Brother

Our second baby is going to be a girl, and in just a few short days, Joshua is going to be a big brother. His world is going to turn upside down, and Joshua doesn't really know what he is in for at this time. He is 2 and knows about babies, but he doesn't understand about the baby in Mommy's belly. He also knows that the room next to his room is his sister's room. Every night when he comes upstairs to get ready for bed, he says "sister's room, sister's room" opens the door and walks in. He loves being in his sister's room, but he doesn't know what that means. Soon, he will really find out. We wanted to prepare him as much as we could, but since he is so young, he really doesn't understand. Once we come home with the baby, we will make a big deal out of Joshua becoming a big brother and how exciting it will be for him. We know that there are some struggles ahead but anything we can do to help him with the transition, we will do.

Two Year Pictures

Joshua had his 2 year formal pictures taken. His first official pictures sporting the new haircut. So cute! Look at my baby all grown up.

First Haircut

Joshua finally had his first haircut yesterday. A lot of kids get their first haircut around their first birthday, but for Joshua, it wasn't until after his second. He didn't have a whole lot of hair when he turned one, so we didn't really find it necessary. Then, the curls came in. They were very cute curls, but at some point, some of them became unruly. Joshua had a mix of cute little boy curls and a bird's nest.

We took Joshua to Cartoon Cuts for his first haircut experience. The woman set him up on the bench and went to strap him down, and that is when Joshua freaked out. Scissors were no where in sight. Therefore, Joshua sat on Keith's lap the whole time for the haircut. He squirmed a bit and didn't really like it. Hopefully, he will settle down as he gets more used to haircuts.

The end result of Joshua's haircut - a baby who magically turned into a little boy. It is amazing how one little haircut made Joshua transform into a little boy. He is no longer a baby. :(

2nd Birthday Party

We had Joshua's 2nd birthday party on Sunday September 13th. It was located at MyGym in Potomac, MD. It took us awhile to figure out where we were going to have the big event. In the end, we decided that we wanted to do something fun for the little ones and something that was going to be no work for me. As Joshua turns 2, I am at 34 weeks pregnant. The last thing I want to do is run around preparing for a party, setting it up, hosting it, and cleaning up. At MyGym, they do everything from start to finish. It was perfect. Joshua had a blast and everyone else seemed to have a good time as well.

2nd Birthday_September 11, 2009

I can't believe my baby is 2. It is unbelievable to think how fast time has flown by. Joshua has grown so much in 2 years. He is now walking and running and his vocabulary has grown as well. Every day I am amazed at the new words he can say. He is also forming short sentences and can repeat most anything. That means, it is really time to watch what you say in front of him. Remember "Meet the Fockers?" The little nephew's first word was "Asshole". We'll try to stay away from that if we can.

On his birthday, I took him to McDonalds for his first Happy Meal. (I think it was probably an excuse for me to eat at Mickey Ds). Of course, he loved the french fries. Grandmom and Grandpop Uhr arrived that night, and we had cupcakes to celebrate Josh's birthday. He was really excited to blow out the candles, and he knows on your birthday you eat cake and blow out the candles. He also knows that he is turning 2.

We've Got a Runner

Yes, I am one of those Moms. The one who is always chasing after their child. It is so annoying. Add to the fact that I am 8 mmonths pregnant and it makes it that much worse. I can't take Joshua out of the stroller or walk with him and say, "stand here". He won't just stand next to me. He will run away and then it is always me chasing after him. I am wondering how long this phas will last.

I Want My Privacy

Ever since Joshua was a newborn, we have had a monitor on him to watch/listen to him as he naps and sleeps. What parent doesn't? As he got a little older, we realized that we didn't need it turned on all night long, so we turned it off while we slept. (Besides, when it was on all night, sometimes a little static would come through. So that affected our sleep). However, we kept his door and our door open, so if he started crying or woke up, we would hear him anyway.

As Joshua got older, he got smarter and started to understand a lot more of what is going on around him. This includes a camera shining on his crib for "big brother" to watch him. The camera is on his bureau next to his bed. Unfortunately, the camera isn't able to capture the whole crib. There is about 1/4 of the crib that we can not see in the monitor. I think Joshua knows this. Every night when he goes to sleep, he sleeps in that little area of the crib where we can't see him. How does he know? I guess he just wants some privacy too. Soon, Joshua wanting his privacy will be a common occurance.

Pizza, Cookie

Joshua understands what we are saying when we talk to him. I ask him to go get something or put on/take off his shoes, etc... and he does it. (Well, most of the time. Yet, when he doesn't do it, it is because he is being stubborn and not because he doesn't understand). Often times, I ask Joshua what he wants for breakfast or dinner. His answer "pizza. cookie". I know his language is a bit limited on the menu choices, but anytime I ask what he wants, his answer is always "pizza. cookie". I guess he takes after daddy.

23 Months

One month to go and then we will no longer keep track of Joshua's age in months. Bittersweet. On the one hand, it is nice to not have to try to keep track of how many months he is at that point. On the other hand, it is sad that my baby is growing up.

Up until this point, we have not gotten Joshua's haircut. For the longest time, he hardly had any hair. Then, all of a sudden, it grew so fast. He now has tons and tons of curls. Some days the hair has beautiful curls. Other days, it looks like a bird nest. We are trying to wait until he is 2 years old before a haircut. I am not sure why. We are almost there.

The Watermelon Shake

Explosion

Not Joshua's diaper this time. I am talking about his vocabulary. It seems in just the past few weeks, his language skills have grown exponentially. It is not just adding words to his vocabulary, but it is actually formulating thoughts and short sentences. We have always been impressed with how many words he knew at 18 months, but now it is more than just pointing to different objects and hearing Joshua name the object in his oh-so cute way. There are verbs and progressive verbs, adjectives too. The new progressive verb "pooping". Yes, Joshua likes to tell us when he is pooping. Great for potty training. If only it was always true. He will say "pooping" and we will run him to the potty and absolutely nothing happens. Then other times he will say "pooping all done". Darn, we missed it. He picked up an object today and said "heavy". Then, later in the day, he wripped some toilet paper and said "broke it". He is also picking up on music. He sings "E I E I O" with "Old McDonald". When he hears, "If you're happy and you know it..." he follows along with the instructions. I guess now we really need to watch what we say in front of him, because he is definitely able to pick up new words and concepts quickly.

22 Months

I can't believe Joshua is almost 2. We just booked his 2 year birthday party. We are going to have it at My Gym. They do everything and all I have to do is really show up. That is exactly what I was looking for this year as I am going to be 34 weeks pregnant and who wants to be hosting a party with all the preparation and clean up, etc.. when you are over 8 months pregnant?

Joshua is getting big. If I wasn't pregnant, he would still be light enough to carry often, but being 25 weeks pregnant at this point, he is getting heavy. I am so glad that he can walk up and down the stairs. He doesn't always like walking up the stairs. Joshua likes to walk up a couple stairs, stop, and then lay down on the stairs. With this practice, it could take 20 minutes to just go up 1 flight of stairs. So, we have a new games. He likes to chase things up the stairs. I will throw his stuffed dow up a few stairs and he will chase after it. When he gets close, I pick up the dog and throw it a few more steps up. Joshua thinks this is funny and likes to go up the stairs after the dog. Whatever works, right?

Joshua's language is exploding. He is definitely well over 100 words and is forming 2 word sentences. We are still working on "please" and "thank you". He will say them, but only after I tell him too. He still answers every question pretty much with the word, "no". If he doesn't want to do something, and wants to have a tantrum, he will very angrily say "nite nite. Bye bye". It is pretty funny.

Joshua also graduated from the Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers program. That was pretty exciting. In January, Joshua entered the program, because he was not walking at 16 months. Of course, the day that the therapist came was when he took his first steps, go figure. (Not that not walking at 16 months is a big deal as they don't get concerned until 18 months. However, the program is there and available and our pediatrician recommended us to do it). Joshua is walking very well now and hit all his milestones for this age, so the therapist graduated him from the program.

July 4th

I don't remember what we did on July 4th last year at night, but I know it didn't involve watching fireworks. I am pretty sure we put Joshua to bed around 7:30pm and Keith and I went to bed like lame asses by 9:00pm. (I guess when you have a child under 1, you can't expect much more).

Now, fast forward 1 year. Joshua is almost 2. He is still a baby, in my mind. He still has a 7:30ish bedtime and still is on a very predictable routine. I am 24 weeks pregnant. So between Josh's early bedtime and me being pregnant, we weren't exactly going out drinking all night long. My friend had a barbeque and after, we were going to walk to the fireworks. Of course, the fireworks don't start until after it gets dark, so they weren't going to start until 9 or 9:30pm. We weren't exactly sure if we could keep Joshua up for them, and we also weren't sure how he was going to react to the loud noises. So, we decided to play it by ear. Staying up past his bedtime. Check! Not freaking out at the fireworks. Check! Check! Joshua loved the fireworks. He kept smiling and reaching up to the sky and saying "boom boom". It was really cute. We really lucked out. (The only issue was that Joshua didn't really want to sit still on the blanket. He wanted to walk around.) Joshua stayed up until about 10:30pm without a fuss. He loved the fireworks, and it was a good night all around.

First Bath in the Big Tub

Can you believe it has taken over 20 months to put Joshua in the big tub? For the longest time, we have had Joshua in the infant tub. It said that it goes to 24 months, so why not? It was a great way to confine Joshua and he didn't seem to mind either. Last week, we took away the infant tub and starting giving Joshua baths in the big tub. He loves it now. Each night, he runs into the bathroom and up to the tub, tries to put one leg in and says, "in, in, in". It is nice to see Joshua get excited about baths. He didn't used to always be that way.

Temper Tantrum

Terrible twos here we come!!!!

I have seen little bits and pieces of the terrible twos temper tantrums over the past couple of months. However, I had seen nothing like I had seen the other night. I think each time you experience it, you learn better and better how to handle it. The first true temper tantrum Joshua had that I can recall was about 6 weeks ago in Target. (We do think it was attributed to the fact that he was tired and hungry, but a temper tantrum is a temper tantrum, right? How did Keith and I react to said temper tantrum in Target? We looked at Josh and laughed. Yes, you read correctly, we laughed.) Anyway, back to the other night's winner.

Joshua was playing with our grill brush. (The grill brush is the long brush that you keep by the grill to brush on barbeque sauce.) I am not sure why Joshua was playing with it in his high chair, but he had liked playing with it before and Keith and Grandpop had given it to him. I took it away so that we could eat dinner knowing that he would eventually forget about it, and we could continue with our night. Wrong.

As we were finishing dinner, Grandpop gave Joshua back the brush. "Noooo" I thought. I tried to take the brush away as we were cleaning up after dinner, but Joshua wouldn't let go of the brush. I tried to pry it out of his hands, but he wouldn't let it go without a big fight. So, I brought the brush up with us to the bathroom. He held onto it as he went on the potty, and he held onto it as I took off his clothes and prepared the bath. Each time I tried to take it away, he put up a fight. Joshua, then used the hook on the brush and put the brush on the door handle. I thought we would be ok then. I put Joshua in the bath, and all of a sudden, he got hysterical for the brush. We are talking bright red face and tons of tears. It made it virtually impossible to give him a bath. So, I pulled him out of the bath, grabbed the brush, and put him back in the bath with the brush. (I was starting to get a little afraid that he was going to sleep with this brush. I also had another thought come across me that I was "giving in". Now, if I start to give in, Joshua will think that all he has to do to get his way is have a temper tantrum. Fun fun fun. There was no winning with this one.)

Joshua had fun getting dressed with the brush, and he had fun reading a bedtime story with the brush. Finally, I pryed the brush out of Josh's hand, told him that the brush was going "night night" outside his room. Joshua put up a small fight, but it worked and he didn't sleep with the brush.

I know this was the first of many "real" temper tantrums. I know I am not supposed to give in to the tantrums. I don't plan on really giving in to the tantrums in the future. Please just let this one slide, OK? I have my reasons, and I am still new at this toddler thing.

Where's Joshua?

21 Months

Looking at pictures of Joshua now, maybe it is time for his first haircut. Keith and I are trying to hold out for as long as possible. Probably until Josh's second birthday. However, I am not sure we will be able to last that long. Joshua's curls are really starting to come in.

Joshua's vocabulary is great. He says over 100 words and is starting to put a few 2 word sentences together. He is also starting to learn verbs and will look at me and say, "bite" when he wants a bite of something. He also comes in our room each morning, grabs the remote and says "TV". (It actually sounds like "tb". How friggin' cute). He then says "Blues Clues" which sounds more like "Bu Ku". I am so thankful for Blue's Clues, because it lets me get ready for work in the morning.

First Scraped Knee

How Joshua went almost 21 months without a scraped knee is amazing. I am sure you are thinking that is impossible and we must keep him in a bubble, but he just hasn't had a scraped knee before. It might have to do with his walking. Joshua was a late walker. He didn't walk until he was almost 17 months old. So, when he did start walking, he was a little more careful than others. You hear about babies that start walking at 9 months. They are the reckless ones that, like Nike says "just do it". These babies do anyhting, they fall, run away, etc... Joshua is more mechanical in his thought. He always wants to know how things work. So, maybe that has to do with him being a better walker now. Joshua didn't seem to fuss too much when got got hurt. He likes to point at his knee and show me his "boo boo".

Silly Face

I have no idea how this started, but Joshua now makes a "silly face". Any time that we say, "Joshua, show us your silly face, " he makes the face. It is pretty funny. I tried to get it on camera, but I wasn't as successful as I would have liked.

Joshua With A Green Thumb

This weekend, we finally decided to do something about our front yard. It was in need of a good spruce up. I am not sure who the landscape architects were who designed the front yard when the townhouse was built in 2004, but they obviously got their degree from a Cracker Jack box. It was so green and boring and just plain blah. So, yesterday, Keith and his dad, with a little help frim Joshua, got to work on making our yard look great. Due to their wonderful efforts, we now have the best front yard on the block.

Grandmom & Grandpop Visit From Florida

Joshua had so much fun when his grandparents from Florida came to visit. He can't exactly say Grandmom yet, but he called my father, Pop Pop. He enjoyed their visit so much that after they left, Joshua walked into the spare bedroom and said "Pop Pop". It was really cute. Grandmom also taught Josh to get in touch with his inner dance moves as he danced and clapped with Grandmom to Abba, especially "Mama Mia".

20 Months

20 Months - May 2009. I was just looking at pictures from last year and can't believe how much Joshua has changed in the past year. He is getting so big. His hair is finally starting to grow in. It seems like just over night he went from almost no hair to tons of curls. It is almost getting to be time for the first haircut. We are trying to hold out as long as possible.

Joshua is doing really well now with walking. He is no longer the wobbling toddler. Gym class has been very good for him. He is climbing on everything. He is starting to run, and it is just a matter of time where he gets to the point that it is going to be really tiring to run after him.

Joshua has really good verbal skills for a 20 month old toddler. Of course, his favorite word is "NO". He probably has over a 100 word vocabulary. He runs around the house labeling everything. It is really cute. What is not so cute are the mini temper tantrums that are starting. They only last about 10 seconds, but he is giving me a taste of the terrible twos. Joshua is really smart. He seems to understand everything. When we tell him something, he knows exactly what we are saying. When we ask him to do something, whether he does it or not, that is a totally different situation.

Sister or Brother

Joshua is really too young right now to understand the concept of Mommy having a baby in her belly and a baby being added to the family. He is also too young to understand the concept of being a big brother. However, we do make mention of it and as my belly starts to really get bigger, we will start with the "new baby" thing or whatever you are supposed to do to ease the 2 year old into the transition of the addition to the family.



Just for the fun of it, I asked Joshua "Are you going to have a sister?" Joshua replied "No" and shook his head. Then, I asked him "Are you going to have a brother?" Joshua looked at me and replied "brother". Hmm. Interesting. Of course, I was hoping for a different answer, so I repeated the same question again a little later and got the same answer. Ugh. I figured I would try one more time. "Joshua, are you going to have a sister?" He shook his head and answered "No". "Joshua, are you going to have a brother?" He shook his head and answered "No". Joshua, are you going to have an alien?" He shook his head and answered "No". So, who knows. The sex of the new baby is still up in the air for now. We will see if Joshua is right at the end of the month. I can't wait!

I love You

Joshua is in the language phase where he is picking up words and small phrases very quickly, and he can also repeat things you say if you ask him to say it. (Within reason. Everyone has their stubborn streak where you don't want to do something). Every night before bed, we sing Joshua the nite nite song and then give him kisses. He now knows after we give him kisses that he gives us kisses back. It is so so cute. In addition, we say "I Love You". Joshua is learning to say "I love you" also. Right now it sounds like "I woo". It is so so cute!

Toilet Training Day ?

I lost count. I think it has been a little over a week. Every night before bath, we would sit Josh on the potty and encourage him to go. The first 4 nights, Josh peed and pooped in the potty. No fuss, no questions asked. He just sat down and did his business. I was delighted as I thought this was the next phase of my happy, easy, mellow baby doing something new. Wrong! After 4 nights in a row of success, we haven't seen another successful night. Many of the nights it is Joshua sitting there reading his Elmo Potty book and then getting up saying "all done" without doing anything. Other nights, it is Joshua saying he is all done and then peeing on the bathroom floor after getting up or even peeing in his diaper as I am taking it off to put him on the potty. Oh well. For now, we are going to continue the potty at bath time and as he does start to get the hang of it, we will add additional times during the day. We are in no hurry to toilet train Joshua and didn't expect to start him this early, but if this is what he wants to do, then we are more than happy to teach him.

The Obsession - Clocks

Every day Joshua's vocabulary is growing. He will learn a new word, see that object and then find that object in a variety of different places and say the name. Over the past month, Joshua has learned the new word, "clock". Joshua has actually become obsessed with clocks. My inlaws have a grandmother clock and whenever Joshua goes over there, he looks forward to hearing it chime. His grandmom and grandpop often change the time just so Joshua can hear it chime. Joshua now points to any clock that he sees and says "clock". Thank goodness over the past 2 weeks, it now really sounds like "clock" and not what it originally sounded like "cock". He will point to clocks around his grandparents house, at gym class (he actually likes walking over to and pointing to the clock and saying the word more so than some of the gym equipment), at stores, and in books. Joshua knows clocks when he sees the roundness of an object with the hour hand and second hand. (He doesn't know a digital clock is the same thing yet). However, there are other things out there that look similar to clocks that Joshua thinks are clocks. One thing he calls clocks are watches. OK, not very far off. However, it was pretty funny when we went to Whole Foods yesterday. Joshua pointed to the vegetable and fruit scale and called it a clock. He also pointed to the vegetable thermometer hanging above the vegetables and called it a clock too. Close enough. It is pretty smart that he can recognize things like that!

Tiolet Training Day 3

I didn't mean for it to turn into official potty training. I am still in denial that we are actually potty training our son at 19 months. (Joshua is growing up so fast). However, Joshua seemed to take an interest in it, so we have introduced the potty to him as something new. For the past 3 nights, we have put Joshua on the potty right before his bath. This is the only time we have put him on the potty so far. All 3 nights, Joshua actually went poo in his potty. It is absolutely amazing. I never knew I would get so excited about poo. Strange thought. We will see how the next few days go. If all goes well, we will add an additional time for Joshua to sit on the potty.

Toilet Training

Not on purpose. I feel he is still a little young, but they say you can start around 18 months. Tonight as I was undressing Joshua in the bathroom for his bath, Joshua opened the cabinet door under the sink and started to pull out his potty. I hadn't really introduced it to him. I pulled out the potty fully and said " Joshua, do you want to go pee pee on the potty?" I sat him down and lo and behold, he peed on the potty and poo too. I was in utter shock. I didn't expect anything to happen. I am sure when I try again tomorrow and over the next few days, nothing will happen. For tonight, however, I will celebrate with Joshua.

19 Months

19 Months. The time goes by so quickly. Every day Joshua's vocabualry is growing. He is at 80+ words now, which is great for a 19 month old toddler. His walking and squatting is getting really strong and he is doing really well with that. Joshua is such a pleasure. The weather is getting nicer, and Joshua likes to go to the park and climb on the equipment and go down the slide. He likes to build with his blocks and loves to color with a pen or crayons. We tried to give him the special "toddler" crayons, but he wanted the real thing.


Loves pizza. The box is as big as him.

Doing what he does best...running away