Chee-Its!

Joshua loves playing with his train set, but he loves Cheezits even more. Tonite, he practically jumped up and danced when he saw Annette luring him into the bedroom with Cheezits. He spells out all the letters on the box except for "Z."

Annette has been trying to get Joshau to eat pasta with tomato sauce without luck. But tonite, I had Joshua cook with me, and he happily dunked his rotellis into the sauce saying "Dip sauce." I felt very proud.

We made our probably final trip to Wingershaek Beach for the year today. It was an awesome beach day--80 degrees, sunny. Food at the vendors was great. Water was a little chilly, but Joshua loved it, and kept on asking for "More waves!"

"Pangu Dadda!"

Joshua loves to say "Pangu Dadda!" Pangu means "fart" in Korean. Enough said!

Our conversation tonite at dinner:
"Joshua--where are you going tomorrow?"
"Beach!"
"And what are you doing to play with at the beach?"
"Sand!"
"And what are you going to put into your bucket?"
"Sand!"

Eleven and Kim Bop!

Today, Joshua counted up to "eleven", and said both my and momma's name for the first time.

He also saw his first jaguar and sleeping snow leopard, but what he loved most at the Stone Zoo was transferring little pebbles from one pile to another.

I was feeding Joshua dinner and he kept asking for "Kim Bop" which I didn't understand until Annette came home and told me that it means "sushi" in Korean.

While driving at rush hour to the Esplanade Concert, Joshua kept on commanding, "Go! Go!" whenever we were stopped in traffic. We explained to him that when the stoplight is red, we have to wait, and that when the light is green, we can go. So then whenever we were stuck in heavy traffic at a green light, he would say, "Green Go! Green Go!"

Inza!

Annette has taught Joshua to "inza" which is the Korean custom of bending down and bowing the head as a way to say goodbye. When I leave for work, Joshua inzas and then says, "Bye Dadda!" He is still working on various forms of inza--sometimes he just nods his head, but sometime he will dip almost all the way to the ground.

Cooking Salmon

We were at the market the other day and Joshua kept asking for "Salmon!" Annette cooks up a nice teriyaki salmon that Joshua loves. He has expensive tastes.

Annette's friend Nancy came to visit with her husband Armand, and Joshua really took to them, flashing his coy smile and trying to show off, counting the lights in the dining room: "1,2,3,4,5,7,9,10!"

His favorite games these days:
1) Dancing and falling down. He likes us to join in: "Dance Dadda!" "Dance Momma!" And then he points to the floor and commands us to "Fall down!"
2) He likes to sit at the dining room table and arrange the placemats into a big "choo-choo."

Annette noticed yesterday that he has started to jump with both feet off the ground when he is dancing.

While changing his diaper the other day, I was surprised when he named not only "Elmo" on his diaper, but also "Ernie" and (Big) "Bird!"

I can't count how many words he knows now. It seems to be growing by the minute.

The Zoo

Joshua and I went to the Boston Zoo for the second time this week. It was the first time this summer I decided not to go to the beach even though I had the chance--beach burnout?

Joshua asked to see the monkeys first. Maybe because of his book, "Goodnite Gorilla?" When he thinks about the zoo--he thinks about monkeys?

But what he liked most was the lion, and in particular, the jeep driven into the lion cage such that you can sit in the driver's seat and feel like you are in the lion cage! The lion was sleeping at first, but then he got pretty active and started to walk around and growl, or as Joshua explained, "Lion talking!" At one point, the lion came so close to Joshua that he flipped out, spilled his Cheerio bowl, and jumped into my lap!

We also sat on the carousel, but Joshua wasn't interested in riding the horses, giraffes, and camels going up and down. He just wanted to sit on the bench and just go around and around. He did seem to enjoy it nevertheless--at the end, he wanted to do it, "Again!"

He also got a big kick out of visiting the chicken coop, noting that the rooster was "sitting!" And he also liked seeing the newly hatched flamingos in the nursery--"Baby!"

It is fun exploring with Joshua. We take our time and notice things like bees in the trash and rocks on the ground.

Back Seat Driver

Joshua and I were driving back from Nantasket Beach when we ran into a traffic jam at a draw bridge. I tried to entertain Joshua by raising and lowering the windows, but eventually he got tired of that and issued the command "Dadda go!" OK, OK. Must take after his mother.

Swim Lessons (part 2)

Apres swim wear

Swim Lessons

Joshua has progressed well in his swim lessons. He loves the beach and standing in water. But he's not totally crazy about the pool yet. He has gone from clinging to us like a monkey to now being able to do more water play.

Swimming with a kick board!

Swimming with a dumbell!

Chewing on a dumbell!

"Dad! How am I going to swim if you're always kissing me!"

Race Cars

We had a hard time peeling Joshua away from the spectator railings at the go-cart raceway yesterday. He was so fascinated watching the race cars go around and around. Annette got a little worried that car racing may be Joshua's passion in life. After we left the racetrack, Joshua was intently studying how to embark on a career in F1 racing.