Running and trains

As soon as I got home and opened the front door, I heard Joshua's voice: "Dadda!" It is music to my ears. These days, Joshua runs so exuberantly, whipping his left arm back and forth, while keeping his right arm still. He also loves to ride this toy train that Annette ordered from him online. His favorite book is Charlie Parker Played Be Bop. I'm not even sure who Charlie Parker was? But Joshua loves to read that book before bedtime, and especially the part where they BBQ the chicken bone. He pretends to pick at it and feeds himself and us. Yum!

Itchy Balls

The hardest part of caring for Joshua right now is keeping him from tearing up his itchy red scrotum! We've have switched from Huggies to Pampers, changing more frequently, antifungal creams, and powders. And yet, he still grabs and scratches away, leaving bloody balls. I'll spare you the photos.

Dog or Duck? and drumming

Joshua ends his "dog" with a hard "K" sound, so whenever he looks out the window and he sees a dog, he says, "Daughk!" Tonite, I was making dinner and heard him yelling "duck" again, when lo and behold, he surprised me by running up to me holding the litle rubber duckie that has been missing from the bathtub and that he had just found!

He is also really into drumming these days. He is always looking for his drumsticks and trying to assemble his various cans and bowls into his customized drum set. He wiggles his elbows up and down as he drums, and loves to perform for an audience. He will occassionally use the real drum set downstairs in the music room, but his real passion is kitchenware drumming! He has a lot of creative energy like his mom.

Joshua the Builder

This one of Joshua's first lego scuptures, which he just started doing a few days ago. He carefully puts one piece on top of the other, and pauses to clap vigorously in celebration in between.

I don't want a haircut

Tulips and Mother's Day

Ma-Ma took me to see tulips at the Public Gardens

The park ranger busted me for trampling the grass!

Of all the flowers, I liked the dandelions the most!

Sleep Miracle

OK--I admit it--Joshua's pediatrician is way better than me. He has totally transformed Joshua's sleep routine (and our lives). On Monday, it took 25 minutes, Tuesday 15 minutes, Wednesday 7 minutes, Thursday 5 minutes, and tonite--no joking--5 seconds for him to protest and wail a good 2 or 3 cries, and then he just lay down on his pillow. I came out to the kitchen and Annette, wondering if something was wrong, asked "What happened?"
I said, "He's asleep!"
Annette: "No way!"
Me: "Yes way!"
High fives all around.

We had been fooling ourselves all this time that Joshua needed us and the whole lying-on-the-floor-together in order to sleep. And I was beginning to be convinced he had a phobia of his crib. What psychological harm I would be inflicting on him by forcing him to face the harsh cruel nite alone in the crib! Rubbish. We had actually been preventing him from falling asleep by being with him!

Joshua has definitely given me a good story to tell my patients.

Sleeping in the Crib

Today at Joshua's 18 month old visit, our pediatrician basically told us that our bedtime routine stunk--our lying down with him to help him fall asleep was doing more harm than good. Ever since Joshua had that bronchiolitis and lost all the weight when he was barfing around the clock--we had started babying him and gotten away from his routine of putting him to bed in his crib. I actually enjoyed dozing off with him on his bedroom floor mats--but I also saw how he had lost his ability to self soothe and fall asleep in his crib. In fact, he pretty much screamed and wailed bloody murder anytime he set foot in the crib while conscious.

So tonite, I read to him some books, and then announced it was bedtime, pulled up a chair next to his crib, and listened to my IPod and Joshua screaming for 25 minutes, until he abruptly curled up on his pillow and fell asleep. I was really having doubts about this technique--because I've watched Joshua go crazy crying and screaming in the crib before--and with my sitting right next to him--I thought that would just infuriate him even more. But I guess our pediatrician was right. The goal is to slowly move the chair further and further away from the crib, until we are out the door.

BTW, Joshua is 18 months, 26lb 12 oz (60%), and 33 inches (75%) tall.

Seeing Joshua Again

Joshua gave me a big smile and said "Dada!" as soon as I opened the car door, when Annette and Joshua came to pick me up at the airport after a 2 day trip to Toronto. Even though it was only 2 days, it seemed like he was bigger, smarter, different. I don't know how Annette will do it--she has 2, possibly 3 trips this month: to Florida, Washington DC, and maybe Vietnam. I was dreaming about Joshua and reminded of Joshua the whole trip because the conference was about preliteracy and reading aloud with infants-toddlers. Every time I saw a book, I pictured what Joshua would say or do with it--I couldn't help it. I was really missing him!

Tonite at dinner, I heard him say "wheel" for the first time, and he really enjoyed eating raspberries by sticking his finger into the hole and picking it up and turning it into a lollipop.

A couple of weeks ago, Annette and I tried to count all the words Joshua knew:
up, down, bus, book, rice, cheese, water, "O", no, umbrella, go, ball, balloon, dog, hole, bath, back, mum mum, apple, all done, star, that, trees, bye bye. It's incredible to think his vocabulary will balloon out to 200-300 words in 6 months!

He turned 18 months yesterday. He's a big boy now!