Hanukkah 2008

Last year during Hanukkah Joshua was 3 months old. Therefore, he was a little young to really enjoy the holiday. At 15 months, Joshua is still pretty young, but he is able to interact a little more. On the first night of Hanukkah, Joshua got a picture board book on Hanukkah. Each page discussed a different night. So, we read 1 page each night that corresponded with the night of Hanukkah. After lighting the candles each night, we gave Joshua a gift. The gifts ranged from books to stuffed animals to toys. One night, we even gave him a dreidel, and Keith and I ate the candy inside. Joshua really enjoyed opening the gifts. Yet, we think he enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper more than the gifts. Next year, it will probably be different and he will wrip the paper off real quick to get to the gift.

If I can't see you...

... it is not happening.
What kid likes getting his face wiped clean? Certainly not Joshua. After he finishes with a meal, we always wipe his mouth and hands with wet wipes. Of course, he hates when we wipe his mouth. Lately, every time that Joshua sees that we are going to wipe his face, he covers his eyes. If he covers his eyes and can't see us, then we really aren't there wiping his face.

Florida Trip

15 months and Keith and I haven't had a night without Joshua. No sleepover at the grandparents, no nights alone yet. As I had been nursing Joshua for all this time, it made it difficult to be away from Joshua. (Together, Joshua and I decided that it was time to stop nursing, and the timing was great). So, Keith and I thought about putting together our first "alone" trip. We wanted to get away but knew that a week away without Joshua would just be too long, so we compromised. We visited the Uhr grandparents in Florida and then went on a 4 night Bahamas cruise without Joshua and left Joshua in Orlando with Keith's parents. That worked really well. The overall trip was fun, and the cruise was great. (Although, Keith was a little sick for part of it). We missed Joshua when we said goodbye and were very excited to see Josh when we got back, but we did really well without him. Joshua behaved well for his grandparents over the 4 days as well. Unfortunately, he got in a molar and a tooth on the bottom, so he was a little fussy during the night, but Joshua did well.

15 Months

15 months and Joshua is still an absolute pleasure. Joshua knows the difference between a hairbrush and a toothbrush and uses both properly for his hair (he is getting more and more) and teeth (he is getting more and more). It kind of amazes me that when I say "brush your hair", he knows and when I say "brush your teeth", he knows that as well. In addition, he knows that all the 12 different hairbrush styles that I use are hairbrushes for the head. (That doesn't mean that he doesn't try to chew on them every once in awhile. Joshua is still a teething toddler after all). Joshua is walking with the assistance of our hands and a walker but not quite ready to take his first unassisted steps. He is still a happy easy baby. Joshua is saying more words all of the time. He is getting a bit pickier with food and we are able to give him more of a variety of foods. (He tried brownies the other day). He uses the "more" sign when he wants more and also says "done" when he is finished eating. Although, it sounds more like "duh".

Blah Blah Blah

Joshua loves talking on the phone. He grabs our cell phones and the house cordless, puts it to his ear and says, "HI". Of course, it sounds more like "I". It doesn't even have to be a phone. The other day, he used a suntan lotion bottle, and quite often, you will find Joshua just putting his hand to his ear and saying "Hi". Yesterday, keith and I watched Joshua have a whole conversation with himself on the phone. We tried to record it, but of course, he wouldn't perform for us.

Down the Stairs

Over the past 2 weeks, Joshua has learned how to go down the stairs. (He mastered up the stairs several weeks ago). He knows that if he wants to go down the stairs, he needs to turn around so that he slides down feet first. He has also learned that this is the same way to get off the bed, off the sofa and off of chairs. (So, now I have a little less nervousness about him falling off the bed). When my brother-in-law and his family were in town, we had formal family pictures taken at Brookside Gardens. (-t is an indoor gardeb and they have an outdoor arboretum as well). The photographer was taking pictures of Joshua climbing across a small bridge. On the bridge, there was an incline. When Joshua felt that he was starting to go "down hill", he turned himself around and started to slide down feet first. How smart!

I Want What You Are Having - Part 2

It has occurred to me that the food situation has turned into a bit of a frustration. Probably not for Joshua, more for me. I know if he was truly hungry, he would eat. Often, I will try to give Joshua food and he will turn his head and then talk gibberish and begin pointing. If I take the food, put it on my plate, and then feed it to him, he may eat it. If I give him a spoon and let him put the spoon in the bowl while I put a spoonful of food in his mouth, he may eat it. If I pretend the spoon is an airplane, he might eat it. You have to just keep trying things, and what worked one day might not work the next. I try hard to give him a variety of food to get his daily vitamins each day, but it is hard to get him to eat different things. So, I am happy enough if he eats.

"What do you want?" He smiles real big and points over to the area where we keep the cheerios.

Got it.

14 Months

14 Months. Joshua is as cute as ever. Each month we say, "this is our favorite age". Joshua is walking with the assistance of a walker or our hands. I like to call him Frankenstein sometimes as he walks with straight legs. However, crawling is still his best mode of getting around. Joshua is waving "hi" and "bye". He knows up and down. He knows that a cow says "Moo". Joshua is learning every day and understanding things more and following directions - within reason. He loves to put things in buckets and still loves to read and loves music. Joshua is getting curls on the back of his head.

I Want What You Are Having

Joshua enjoying his first piece of pizza.

A very tricky thing with a growing baby is the whole food situation. After you get the pureed thing down, it gets a little easier. There are a ton of choices for babies first food, and all you have to do is pick one and give that food to the baby for 3-5 days in a row and then switch to something else. In the beginning it is pretty easy, and it is only a tablespoon or two. As Joshua grew, 1 meal a day turned into 2 and then into 3. 2 tablespoons turned into half a jar and then into a full jar. (For the most part, I was pretty good at buying fresh organic vegetables and pureeing them and freezing them). Joshua was a pretty easy baby with food and would eat just about anything.

Now, let's fast forward to 14 months. Joshua has 4 teeth with 2 more teeth up top that have broken through. He can now eat a variety of more finger food. Unfortunately, now he has decided to turn food away that he used to eat no problem. He also seems to only want to eat vegetables that are pureed as opposed to finger food. Plus, we typically offer Joshua one type of food while we eat something else that he can't really eat. Probably not a good thing. Joshua is now turning away what we want to give him and point at our plates as if to say "I want what you are having". So, it has turned into a little trick. It seems sometimes that if I put his food on my plate, he will then take a bite. With kids, it is all about the trickery.

Halloween 2008

Cute Spider torturing his first prey - Elmo!

Halloween 2008 is actually Joshua's 2nd Halloween. Last year, Joshua was 6 weeks old at Halloween. His Halloween consisted of putting on his halloween costume for 5 minutes of pictures, and the the rest of the day was spent eating, sleeping, and pooping. (The typical day of a newborn). This year, Halloween was a lot more eventful. In the morning, Joshua had a halloween party at his music class. After class, a lot of the people in the class went to lunch together with our kids in costume. Then, it was back to the house for a nap to gear up for the evening festivities. Around 5pm, our new friend in the neighborhood came over. She has a daughter a few months younger than Joshua. What was really funny was that she had the same exact costume as Joshua, and we didn't even know it when we picked them out. Around 5:30pm, we walked around the neighborhood and did a little trick-or-treating. However, we really had to wait until it got dark before people would really open their doors. It seemed like some people weren't even answering their doors until 7pm. When I was a kid, we started trick-or-treating right after we got home from school. I guess times have changed. At 7:30pm, we went to a "chili" halloween party at our neighbor's house and Joshua partied until about 10pm! He was a real trooper.

Twin Spiders

All Done

One of the many worries in raising a baby is the whole feeding issue. One always wonders whether the baby is eating enough and how much to feed him or her. When Joshua was exclusively nursing, there was the worry of whether he was getting enough and how much to give him. Over time, I realized that 10 minutes on each side was the key. He started out at 15 minutes, and then gradually moved into the ideal amount of time. Part of it was trial and error too. If he got 12 minutes, he would spit up. 10 minutes was the perfect amount.

Moving on to solids, the "how much" came up all over again. I always wondered how much he was supposed to get and whether he was full and getting enough. He can't exactly say, "Mommy, I am full and don't want to eat anymore". All he could do was turn his head to the side and say "don't put that spoon anywhere near my face, I won't take it". So, I started giving him more and more food until he turned his head, and took that as the cue that he was all done. As he started getting older, I decided to try some basic baby signs for feeding. Each time, he was going to get milk, I asked him "do you want some milk" as I squeezed my hands into fists. For months, nothing happened. Then, one day as I was buying sneakers in Sports Authority, Joshua looked at me and squeezed his fists. I knew exactly what he wanted and gave him some milk when we left the store. He was a happy camper. I have been trying the signs for eat, more, and all done, but milk seems to be the sign of choice right now. For the "all done" sign, I took my hands and pushed them out as if to make the "safe" sign in baseball. Every night as dinner was ending, I would say, "Joshua, are you all done?" and make the "safe" sign. Joshua decided that he was not going to use that sign but was going to create a sign of his own. When Joshua is all done eating, he takes his bib off, pushes his hands against the tray on the highchair as if to move it away, and sometimes even throws some of the pieces of food on the floor instead of putting them in his mouth. That is his sign for "All Done". So, I think I will go with that. It works for me. They say that kids eat when they are hungry, and if they don't eat, it is really ok. So, I feel ok now with Joshua's eating habits and now know exactly when he is "all done".

At the Pumpkin Patch

Today, we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends to pick some pumpkins for Halloween. We went to Homestead Farms in Poolesville, MD. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. It was a fun, bumpy ride. Joshua really enjoyed it. In the pumpkim patch, there were pumpkins all over the place attached to the vine, and you could pick any of them off od the vine. We picked 2 nice large, round ones to take back to the house. After the hayride, we went apple picking and picked some pink ladies. It was a great time and definitely something that we will want to do again next year.

Shoe Shopping

Joshua is not walking yet, so I didn't exactly think I would be blogging yet about shoes, but today we did go shoe shopping for the very first time, and this is a blogging moment.

My Nanny has been bugging me for about 2 weeks to buy Joshua a pair of real shoes. He has Robeez (the soft soled slipper type shoes also known as "crib shoes"), however, he doesn't own a pair of real sneakers. Well, I can't say he doesn't "own" any, because he has about 10 pairs of shoes in his closet that are hand-me-downs from his cousin Max and cousin Jonathan. (I still am unsure about whether Joshua will ever wear these hand-me-downs. Clothes are one thing, but shoes are not something you are supposed to really share - kind of like underwear. I guess with baby shoes, the school of thought is that their feet grow so fast, these shoes are hardly worn. Good point, but the shoe still got molded to the child's feet even if they only wore them a dozen times).

The shoe store that I took Joshua to is one of those Mom & Pop shoe stores that specialize in children's shoes. It is called Shoe Train and located in Potomac, MD. Ed, the owner, has been in business for over 40 years. It kind of reminded me of the shoe stores I used to go to as a kid called DiGulios or Zellniks. The shoes at the store were so cute and so little. Ed was worried at first that Joshua's feet may be too little for shoes. However, he did find a pair of cute sneakers that fit Joshua well, and they came in a cute, little shoe box.. He even got to wear them out of the store. (Remember the excitement when you were a kid and got to wear your new shoes out of the store?)

Unfortunately, Joshua didn't have the best shoe shopping experience. When Joshua was sitting on my lap getting fitted for shoes, he was upset and crying. He didn't like this strange, old man touching his feet and putting these "things" on his feet. Poor little Joshy! Once the shoes were on and tied, he was fine. The sneakers look so cute on him.

13 Months

13 Months. Joshua is still our bundle of Joy. He is such a good, easy baby, and we are very very lucky. He eats well, takes naps well, sleeps through the night well, hardly ever cries or puts up a fuss. (I am sure if we have #2, we will not be as lucky). He is a happy baby, and we are so happy to have him in our lives. Joshua loves to go to the park and crawl around the jungle gym and go on the swings and down the slide. At 13 months, he is continuing to be exposed to new foods with different tastes and textures. He is starting to have preferences and spit out those foods that we give him which he doesn't like. He is starting to pick up a vocabulary and distinguish things as opposed to everything being called "dis". There is "Dada", "Mama", "down", "dog", and "phone". Joshua has 4 teeth now, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom and continues to teeth and want to put everything in his mouth.

Cruising

2 Months later, and Joshua has the cruising part down now too. He is not just pulling himself up to a stand, but he is now holding onto things and moving around the room. He is almost 13 months at this point. He definitely doesn't seem to be ready to walk yet. I know it will be soon enough. I love when he pulls himself up on my leg. It is so cute to look down at him smiling at me. This time next year, I probably won't feel the same. He will be pulling at my leg and this time whining, "Mommy, Mommy". It won't be so cute then.

Letting My Guard Down

Changing a baby's diaper can be a tricky endeavor. Changing a little baby boy's diaper, even trickier. (See Keith's addendum to my post about diaper changes from this time last year). However, I think over the past year, Keith and I have gotten the process down real well - almost to an exact science. In addition, Joshua has gone from peeing and pooping all over us and his clothes to keeping bodily fluids nicely in his diaper. (I can't even remember the last time he had a blow out... Yeah, probably just jinxed myself). Anyway, with the semi-neatness that has developed over the past several months with diaper changes, (I said neat not nonsmelly. With solid foods entering Joshua's world, diaper changes become a whole new ball game). I have probably gotten a little more lax in covering him up when changing him. Lo and behold, Joshua peed on me today. I guess you can never let your guard down.

Daddy's Glasses

Joshua loves to pull Daddy's glasses off of his face. This has been going on for awhile now. If Keith has his glasses on, Joshua reaches for the glasses. Thank goodness the glasses are pretty flexible, because Joshua likes to pull at them and play with them. Yesterday and today, though, we noticed something new. Joshua took Keith's glasses off of Keith's face and put them up to his own face as if he was wearing glasses. So cute!

Peek-A-Boo

It is interesting how the littlest things amaze young children. You don't even need an expensive toy or gadget. With Joshua, all you need is a simple cloth, your hands, or a door.

Joshua's favorite game is Peek-A-Boo. He loves to play, and he has several different versions of the game. I bet you didn't know there were several versions of Peek-A-Boo. We throw a cloth of some sort on his head and say "where is Joshua"? He pulls the cloth off his head and we say "peek-a-boo. There he is" and Joshua smiles real big. Then, Joshua takes the cloth and puts it back over his head, and that is our cue to say "where is Joshua"? He then pulls the cloth off his head again waiting for us to say "peek-a-boo. There he is". This goes on and on. If we didn't stop, Joshua would probably be pulling the cloth up and down over his face all day. He never seems to get bored with it. This game can also be played when Joshua hides behind doors and then pops back in the door "peek-a-boo". The third game is with your hands. We will cover our eyes with our hands and play peek-a-boo. Joshua will then cover his own eyes with his hands and want to play. A lot of times, he will cover his face so that his eye is still peeking through so that he can really see. Joshua is quite the character.

"Dis"

Joshua is so curious. He wants to know what everything in the world is right now. He goes around the house pointing at everything saying, "Dis, dis, dis". "Joshua, this is a fan. Joshua this is a light. Joshua, this is PJ the kitty."
"This is the drink that Mommy desperately needs after a long day of work and even longer night at home".

Soon, he will be able to fully repeat the words we are saying to him. Right now, it is a lot of babble. Joshua is so happy and very talkative. He just babbles to himself all day long. It is so cute. I am going to miss it once he starts speaking in real words as he will prbably stop randomly talking to himself. When he is babbling to himself, I wonder what he is trying to say?