With mobility comes lots of fun . . .
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
I'm in Love with This Little Boy
Today's blog post is a bit of a catch-all update on Josiah along with a couple cute pictures. So what do I love so much about our little guy? Well, aside from the thousands of things I could think of every day, here are a few recent ones . . .
1. The last couple mornings Josiah has been so sweet upon awaking, giving kisses when asked (open-mouthed, with a little "aw" sound and a cuddle) to both Daddy and Mama.
2. Josiah loves to be part of what we're doing. Recently I've allowed him to stand on a chair and play in a bowl of water in the sink while I wash dishes. He clangs a spoon against the bowl, splashes, grabs at dirty dishes on my side of the sink, and attempts to pull clean ones out of the drainer. :) He also helps me with laundry by pulling the wet clothes out of the washer one by one and handing them to me. His favorite "job" is yard work--which for him means an opportunity to dig in dirt (and eat the occasional handful), play with rocks (and suck on a few), smell flowers, pull up garden markers, ride his bike up and over the little bridge, pick up leaves to show us, watch birds, bark at the dogs in the neighbor's window, taste a mouthful of hose water (if possible)--what fun!
3. Last night Josiah discovered that he blow bubbles in his bathwater. He spent quite a while gingerly lowering his mouth into the water and blowing. He also liked to poke the bubbles he made. Blowing in general is a new pastime of his. We read I Am a Bunny (with beautiful illustrations by Richard Scarry) almost daily, and he sticks out his lower lip and blows when we get to the page in which the bunny "blows the dandelion seeds into the air."
4. Little Buddy loves books! I'm thrilled with his growing interest in reading stories. When I say, "Let's read a book!" he picks up on the excitement, usually babbling and clapping his hands enthusiastically. He sits beside me on the couch and turns the pages on cue. Nowadays he shows an obvious preference for I Am a Bunny, though he still loves Baby Animals and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? as well. Sometimes he picks The Foot Book or Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? (The Mr. Brown book has a picture of a clock, which is the high point of the story for Josiah.)
5. Speaking of clocks, "Clock" is one of the few words Josiah says consistently--and persistently. He loves all clocks (and things that resemble clocks, like scales in the produce section at the store). Whenever he sees a clock or clock-like object, he yells urgently, "Ock! Ock! Ock! Ock! Ock! Ock!" (Yes, apparently the significance of the event requires multiple repetitions of the word.) Josiah has an eagle eye for any clock--he notices it and tells an entire store about it from the vantage point of his seat in the cart before I've even located it on the wall. We shop for produce at a store called Sprouts, which has big scales conveniently placed on each aisle in the produce section and the bulk bin section. This means Josiah has opportunity to call out "Ock" through the entire shopping trip.
6. In the last couple weeks Josiah added to his linguistic repertoire with "this" and "What is this?" The question is usually run together into "Wassisss?" but recently he's demarcating the words more clearly. He's insatiably curious: he points and asks this question almost incessantly when he's awake. Sometimes it also means "I want that!"--usually aimed at something interesting and out of his reach (phone, keys, calculator, camera, rolling pin, pens, Mama's earrings, anything in the refrigerator or freezer. . .). Josiah also consistently uses some sign language. His signs for "more" and "please" are sometimes rolled into one sign involving his hands twisting together up near his chin. It looks sort of like the "hi sign" from Little Rascals ("Give me the hi sign!"). He'll initiate "please" when he wants something, often without prompting from us. He also signs "all done." He waves "hi" and "bye," and he blows kisses when he wants to. Yesterday I think he tried to say "hi" when on the phone with Uncle Daniel, too--it sounded like "aaahh," but he repeated it appropriately several times when Jeremy asked him to say "hi."
7. Josiah's love for animals continues. The other night at our small group, our leaders allowed their dog into the house for a visit. Josiah couldn't contain his excitement--he screeched and babbled and laughed and yelled, chasing the dog around, grabbing its fur, stepping on its tail, and climbing back and forth over its belly when it lay down. Poor Ranger put up with a lot. At home, we regularly discuss dogs (Josiah usually hears some bark several times a day) and bark together. Recently he learned to hiss like a snake. His "ssss" (hissed with a smile) is so sweet. He likes to do it on the changing table. Besides his growls and roars for bears and lions, he also answers "What does the cow say? "("mmmMMMM!"--with his face stretched out funny), "What does the monkey say?" ("Hoo hoo hah hah"--or at least an attempt at that), and "What does the bunny say?" (He wrinkles up his nose and sniffs--sometimes snorts).
8. In terms of nutrition, Josiah is quite partial to nursing. He knows how to tell me when he wants to nurse--signing "more/please" and plucking at my shirt. He also usually adds in an, "MMMM!" coupled with a stretched, desperate face to augment his communication of his wishes. Besides nursing, Josiah eats plenty of solid food, too. He likes feeding himself when possible (finger foods), but he does a good job keeping his hands down when we spoon-feed him. (He's partial to our silverware--he's more likely to take bites from a "big spoon" than his baby plastic one, so we've pretty much switched to normal utensils for him.) While Josiah almost never refuses bread, he seems to go through phases with other foods. For a while he'd gobble down black beans whenever we offered them, but the other day he spit them out in disgust. He'll tolerate avocado on his bread, but he prefers it in guacamole form (with spices!). Apparently Josiah inherited more of the Neuman taste for spice than the Cousino blandness. He enjoys curry and most Mexican food I've fixed, and he tends to prefer his veggies, rice, quinoa, etc. flavored with spices rather than plain.
9. Josiah has been walking for some time now, and he keeps getting faster and steadier. Usually he likes to be near me throughout the day--so when I'm cooking, for instance, he typically likes to be in the kitchen, playing with measuring cups and spoons or opening and closing the dishwasher door (or, of course, getting into off-limits cupboards and drawers--he likes to pull out and throw my teabags and grab at bottles on the bottom shelf of the fridge, if he gets the chance). But more often nowadays he'll venture forth himself. Maybe he knows he has a better chance of pulling off a successful unrolling of the toilet paper or heist of the shoe bag if Mama has her hands in the bread dough. The other day he walked off down the hall, and I followed shortly when we was quiet for a spell. I found him all the way around our bed getting at my earrings on my bedside table--I could just see his curly top over the sheets, and when I called him, he came back around quickly (guiltily?), asking "Whassis?" and holding up an earring.
10. What a little flirt Josiah is sometimes! At the store he leans out of the cart and turns on his cheesy smile to attract all the strangers' attention. He loves to take off toddling in the church foyer after the service, weaving between people's legs and chasing the kids. He's intensely interested in babies and children, but he'll curry favor with most adults when given the chance (even if he's just been cranky for Mama or Daddy). At almost a year, he doesn't seem to have inherited much of his parents' introversion.
11. Such a boy he is, too. How does that awful rhyme go? Dirt and snails and puppy dog tails? It's amazing how dirty Little Buddy gets in the course of a day. Thankfully he likes baths! He's recently discovered his ability to climb, and coupled with his daredevil tendencies, I think we're in for some future disasters. Thankfully he's tough! (The stool he's sitting on in the picture below is one of the newest climbing triumphs--and near-disasters, since shortly after we took the picture, he climbed up and fell off backwards.)
And the splinters! No one told me little boys got so many splinters--hands, feet, legs, arms, . . . foreheads?!
This is his cheesy smile.
1. The last couple mornings Josiah has been so sweet upon awaking, giving kisses when asked (open-mouthed, with a little "aw" sound and a cuddle) to both Daddy and Mama.
2. Josiah loves to be part of what we're doing. Recently I've allowed him to stand on a chair and play in a bowl of water in the sink while I wash dishes. He clangs a spoon against the bowl, splashes, grabs at dirty dishes on my side of the sink, and attempts to pull clean ones out of the drainer. :) He also helps me with laundry by pulling the wet clothes out of the washer one by one and handing them to me. His favorite "job" is yard work--which for him means an opportunity to dig in dirt (and eat the occasional handful), play with rocks (and suck on a few), smell flowers, pull up garden markers, ride his bike up and over the little bridge, pick up leaves to show us, watch birds, bark at the dogs in the neighbor's window, taste a mouthful of hose water (if possible)--what fun!
3. Last night Josiah discovered that he blow bubbles in his bathwater. He spent quite a while gingerly lowering his mouth into the water and blowing. He also liked to poke the bubbles he made. Blowing in general is a new pastime of his. We read I Am a Bunny (with beautiful illustrations by Richard Scarry) almost daily, and he sticks out his lower lip and blows when we get to the page in which the bunny "blows the dandelion seeds into the air."
4. Little Buddy loves books! I'm thrilled with his growing interest in reading stories. When I say, "Let's read a book!" he picks up on the excitement, usually babbling and clapping his hands enthusiastically. He sits beside me on the couch and turns the pages on cue. Nowadays he shows an obvious preference for I Am a Bunny, though he still loves Baby Animals and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? as well. Sometimes he picks The Foot Book or Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? (The Mr. Brown book has a picture of a clock, which is the high point of the story for Josiah.)
5. Speaking of clocks, "Clock" is one of the few words Josiah says consistently--and persistently. He loves all clocks (and things that resemble clocks, like scales in the produce section at the store). Whenever he sees a clock or clock-like object, he yells urgently, "Ock! Ock! Ock! Ock! Ock! Ock!" (Yes, apparently the significance of the event requires multiple repetitions of the word.) Josiah has an eagle eye for any clock--he notices it and tells an entire store about it from the vantage point of his seat in the cart before I've even located it on the wall. We shop for produce at a store called Sprouts, which has big scales conveniently placed on each aisle in the produce section and the bulk bin section. This means Josiah has opportunity to call out "Ock" through the entire shopping trip.
6. In the last couple weeks Josiah added to his linguistic repertoire with "this" and "What is this?" The question is usually run together into "Wassisss?" but recently he's demarcating the words more clearly. He's insatiably curious: he points and asks this question almost incessantly when he's awake. Sometimes it also means "I want that!"--usually aimed at something interesting and out of his reach (phone, keys, calculator, camera, rolling pin, pens, Mama's earrings, anything in the refrigerator or freezer. . .). Josiah also consistently uses some sign language. His signs for "more" and "please" are sometimes rolled into one sign involving his hands twisting together up near his chin. It looks sort of like the "hi sign" from Little Rascals ("Give me the hi sign!"). He'll initiate "please" when he wants something, often without prompting from us. He also signs "all done." He waves "hi" and "bye," and he blows kisses when he wants to. Yesterday I think he tried to say "hi" when on the phone with Uncle Daniel, too--it sounded like "aaahh," but he repeated it appropriately several times when Jeremy asked him to say "hi."
7. Josiah's love for animals continues. The other night at our small group, our leaders allowed their dog into the house for a visit. Josiah couldn't contain his excitement--he screeched and babbled and laughed and yelled, chasing the dog around, grabbing its fur, stepping on its tail, and climbing back and forth over its belly when it lay down. Poor Ranger put up with a lot. At home, we regularly discuss dogs (Josiah usually hears some bark several times a day) and bark together. Recently he learned to hiss like a snake. His "ssss" (hissed with a smile) is so sweet. He likes to do it on the changing table. Besides his growls and roars for bears and lions, he also answers "What does the cow say? "("mmmMMMM!"--with his face stretched out funny), "What does the monkey say?" ("Hoo hoo hah hah"--or at least an attempt at that), and "What does the bunny say?" (He wrinkles up his nose and sniffs--sometimes snorts).
8. In terms of nutrition, Josiah is quite partial to nursing. He knows how to tell me when he wants to nurse--signing "more/please" and plucking at my shirt. He also usually adds in an, "MMMM!" coupled with a stretched, desperate face to augment his communication of his wishes. Besides nursing, Josiah eats plenty of solid food, too. He likes feeding himself when possible (finger foods), but he does a good job keeping his hands down when we spoon-feed him. (He's partial to our silverware--he's more likely to take bites from a "big spoon" than his baby plastic one, so we've pretty much switched to normal utensils for him.) While Josiah almost never refuses bread, he seems to go through phases with other foods. For a while he'd gobble down black beans whenever we offered them, but the other day he spit them out in disgust. He'll tolerate avocado on his bread, but he prefers it in guacamole form (with spices!). Apparently Josiah inherited more of the Neuman taste for spice than the Cousino blandness. He enjoys curry and most Mexican food I've fixed, and he tends to prefer his veggies, rice, quinoa, etc. flavored with spices rather than plain.
9. Josiah has been walking for some time now, and he keeps getting faster and steadier. Usually he likes to be near me throughout the day--so when I'm cooking, for instance, he typically likes to be in the kitchen, playing with measuring cups and spoons or opening and closing the dishwasher door (or, of course, getting into off-limits cupboards and drawers--he likes to pull out and throw my teabags and grab at bottles on the bottom shelf of the fridge, if he gets the chance). But more often nowadays he'll venture forth himself. Maybe he knows he has a better chance of pulling off a successful unrolling of the toilet paper or heist of the shoe bag if Mama has her hands in the bread dough. The other day he walked off down the hall, and I followed shortly when we was quiet for a spell. I found him all the way around our bed getting at my earrings on my bedside table--I could just see his curly top over the sheets, and when I called him, he came back around quickly (guiltily?), asking "Whassis?" and holding up an earring.
10. What a little flirt Josiah is sometimes! At the store he leans out of the cart and turns on his cheesy smile to attract all the strangers' attention. He loves to take off toddling in the church foyer after the service, weaving between people's legs and chasing the kids. He's intensely interested in babies and children, but he'll curry favor with most adults when given the chance (even if he's just been cranky for Mama or Daddy). At almost a year, he doesn't seem to have inherited much of his parents' introversion.
11. Such a boy he is, too. How does that awful rhyme go? Dirt and snails and puppy dog tails? It's amazing how dirty Little Buddy gets in the course of a day. Thankfully he likes baths! He's recently discovered his ability to climb, and coupled with his daredevil tendencies, I think we're in for some future disasters. Thankfully he's tough! (The stool he's sitting on in the picture below is one of the newest climbing triumphs--and near-disasters, since shortly after we took the picture, he climbed up and fell off backwards.)
And the splinters! No one told me little boys got so many splinters--hands, feet, legs, arms, . . . foreheads?!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Irrigation 101
This morning while I taught class, Jeremy introduced Josiah to his first irrigation experience. I finished teaching just as the water reached our yard, so I snapped some shots of Josiah enjoying the fun. (For those of you who don't know, we have water rights with our property, which means we can flood-irrigate twice a month in the summer and once a month in the winter using water from the Salt River canals. This is wonderful for the health of our plants, and it saves us considerably with water bills!)
When we bought our house almost two years ago, we thought our future children would be thrilled with irrigation. (Jeremy exclaimed several times how much he would have loved this as a boy--and actually, I think he loves it almost as much now!) Well, it's certainly true of Josiah. He splashed and sloshed and plopped in the water, starting near the edge (as you can see from the pictures) but soon venturing out into the full stream!
He got a little scared a couple times when he slipped and sat down hard, splashing himself in the face. But he quickly recovered and squirmed and yelled when I tried to move him away. We gave little muddy buddy a bath when we came in, and he took a long nap today after all the fun!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
What a Ham
Look at those curls! I love Josiah's hair. Jeremy thinks it's turning into a mullet in the back and says we should cut it, but I'm holding out. I want to keep those sweet baby curls as long as possible.
I know I've said this many a time before, but Josiah is such a joy. His enthusiasm for the wonders of life--from birds to clocks to dried breadcrumbs on the floor--is fun to see. Nowadays he's feeding himself most finger foods. If he could choose, I think he'd eat bread and beans for every meal. But generally if we're eating something, he wants it, too. He's started to differentiate between food on his tray and food on our plates, and he protests and begs if we have something that looks better.
Grandma and Grandpa Visiting
Josiah's grandma and grandpa have been coming down to Phoenix fairly often these days. I love seeing Josiah interact with them--he especially loves giving cuddles to Grandma! As you can see from the pictures below, he also likes her nose. (He's more interested in body parts these days--especially ears and eyes, which he pokes incessantly.)
