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.