Wednesday, February 21, 2007

A Good Boy

We recently had friends over for dinner who are expecting their first newborn in a few weeks. They said they had been a little worried seeing how so many kids seem to behave poorly, so they like to come and see Joshua. It gives them hope because he's such a good kid. Annette and I felt very proud.

First Letter and Number

Joshua has learned the letter "O" When we ask him to point it out, he points to the magnetic letter on the fridge, or fingers the shape on the Cheerios box. We were really impressed the first time he did it. He's also started to hold up one object in a hand, and then when he raises up another, he says, "Two!"

Friday, February 16, 2007

New words

Some new words that Joshua at 15 months understands: "clock" & "shoes"

Crayons

Joshua loves crayons. He likes to walk around holding them, banging them, eatin them, and occassionally drawing with them. Annette has been training him to draw only on paper, and not the walls or furniture.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Cranky Boy

Joshua has suddenly started at age 15 months to transform from a sweet happy little boy to someone who says "No!" to almost anything we feed him, gets frustrated very quickly when he doesn't get what he wants or is unable to communicate what he wants, and subsequently has been having an inordinate amount of tearful angry meltdowns--somewhere around 1 every half hour! I guess very typical toddler behavior associated with increasing independence. But the degree of his willfullness is surprising to us both and challenging for us to be patient. ADDENDUM: We later found out that this crankiness was (thankfully) shortlived and almost entirely due to his illness and probable resultant hunger. It was such a relief to have our happy little camper again.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Feeling Better

I was walking home from the subway and ran into our babysitter Carmen. She told me that today, Joshua was finally feeling better--he was walking around the gym, and actually ate some lunch and dinner. Seems like the first meal he's had since Sunday--5 days ago. He's been surviving only on Cheerios, sips of water and milk. I felt his skinny little legs this morning and grieved. In any case, I was so thrilled to hear the good news from Carmen--I hugged her and started to tear up. My boy is back!

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Vomiting

Joshua's been sick with vomiting, fever, and cough for 4 days now. It's sad to see him not be able to eat and not acting like his usual happy self. The only plus is that he loves to be with us these days. Today, all he wanted to do was to be pushed around the stroller in the dorm--for about 3 hours. Now I understand why bronchiolitis gives parents so many problems and why they want a shot to make it go away.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Just staring

Tonite at dinner, I was staring in wonder and amazement at our little hungry boy, while Annette was doing all the work of feeding him. I can't help it. I wonder what's going on in his mind, and marvel at all the little things he does. Pretty typical toddler behaviors--but still incredible to his daddy. Annette and Joshua drove me to work this morning, and as they were driving away, I saw his little head peeking over the window and it struck me just how tiny he still is--and yet so full of life and personality.

Pop up books

When Joshua goes to the book shelf and asks for a book (after saying hi to Frida), he has recently been picking out his pop up books: Tails and Alpha Bugs. He knows how to get the pop ups to work and especially likes to wag the piggie tails.

Museum of Science

We bought a membership to the Museum of Science, and have been taking Joshua about twice a week--very handy in the winter. He loves to "fish" and splash water in the water play area and gives a hug and goodbye to the stuffed giraffe in the gift shop. His favorite things to say hi to are the bear and duck family in the discovery center and the moose on the staircase. He wanders from one exhibit to another, and pushes as many buttons as he can find.

Nose picking

Joshua recently started to stick his index fingers up his nose--hopefully he didn't learn that from me! Tonite, we found Joshua in a pool (a little bitty one) of blood in his crib, with blood smeared all over the pillows, blankets, walls, and his right nose. Poor little guy.

Vocab

Joshua's current vocabulary consists of: "dog", "book", "bus", "bah-bah" (daddy), "ma-ma", "wa-wa" (water), "ball", and his favorite: "No!"