Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

It is the year of the Ox. We celebrated by making dragons, reading books about Chinese New Years and we'll have a Chinese dinner one night this week.

Unfortunately, Josh has not been himself the last couple of days. He has been overly tired, running a low grad temp off and on, and isn't eating well. We think that it is his 2 year molars bothering him.

Matt starts is Hazardous Materials class tonight, I think. The weather is bad and I'm not sure if C-9 will cancel classes or not. On Sunday we had a fish fry with Matt's parents and bunch of friends. That was a lot of fun to sit and talk with everyone.

We are gearing up for next week. On Thursday February 6th, Matt, Mom, Dad and I are watching Alex and Marianna for five days. It should be a fun experience to go from having one kid to three just like that. I'll let you know if I survive on Thursday because I'll have all three kids by myself. If no one hears from me in 24 hours please, please come looking for me. We do have some fun things planned like taking the kids to the Children's Museum.

Josh is riding his giant fire truck he received for Christmas. Sometimes his animals ride the fire truck with him.

Here we are making our dragons for Chinese New Year.

Josh was making lots of growling noises. It's a dragon of course.

Josh is picking out which one he wants to make for grandma and grandpa.

The only other thing going on is trying to get a head count of how many rooms we need for our reunion in July. We can't wait to see all our friends and Josh's girlfriends.

Oh, a couple of other things about Josh I forgot. First, Josh is giving his favorite stuffed animals, lambie and puppy, food and toys to play with. Also, Josh said "I Love You" for the first time this week. I was changing him in the morning and he gave me a big hug and said "I love you mommy." That just melted my heart.

M, J, and J

Conversation begins

I'm not even sure where to begin with all the growth Josh has done in the last several weeks. I think I will start a list to make it easy:

• He consistently says "Bless you or God Bless you" when you sneeze and waits to hear you say "Thank you." Plus, he is beginning to say "excuse me" more and more too.


• Josh is speaking in four and five word sentences more and more.


• He can carry on short conversations with you.


• He will talk on the phone and not just listen, although he still does that sometimes.


• Yesterday, when my allergies were a mess and I needed a shower to get dog hair off, I asked him to play with his train table in his room while I took a shower. He said "OK", and did. I was very thankful for that.


• He is able to sit at the table without a high chair or booster seat and eat his dinner. He doesn't monkey around in his seat as much either.


• When we went birdwatching on Sunday, Josh was more interested than ever in the birds, water and other animals we saw. He even walked a good three-quarters of a mile on the trail.


• Josh is doing better at dressing himself. He was able to pull his shirt over his head all by himself the other day.


• We're still at a stand still on potty training. He knows to pee in the potty, but anything else is a no go. We keep at it, though. It will come.


• He is stuck with his ABC's and numbers. He combines the two 99% of the time as in - A,B,8,9,10. Plus, everything is red. Sometimes he will recognize green or yellow, but he calls everything red.


• Josh's library time starts on 1/20. He has upgraded to the 2's class.


• The biggest thing is that he is finally calling the grandmas "Grandma." Thank goodness for that.
• His imagination is really taking off. Just today, on the way home from the gym, he pointed out the car window and said "there's elephant". We said "there's an elephant over there?" His reply "Yes, and monkey". Us: "There's an elephant AND a monkey over there? is the monkey riding the elephant?" Josh: "yes, it's funny!". A couple nights ago he was eating some chips and after every bite he would point to it and say it was an animal. I think we had an elephant, a Rhino, and a puppy. He would then point out the different body parts of the chip animal (leg, feet, nose, tail).
  

This is Matt and Josh playing with his tunnel.

This is too funny. Matt puts the tube on and than "eats" Josh. It was hilarious watching them.
The things that go on at night when I'm at work!!

Josh has no where to go between grandpa and daddy.



Josh's convoy!

This is the latest picture of Josh's battle scars. Josh vs. Table. Obviously the table won. It was right at eye level and he walked/ran right into it. I was trying to get to him, but it felt as if I was moving in slow motion. Oh well, there will be more to come.

As far as Matt and I are concerned, which we know everyone just wants to hear about Josh, we are just working and playing with Josh. Matt starts a Hazardous Material class in two weeks. My sister Lisa is coming down this weekend, I think.

M, J, and J