It's Organic!

We had strawberries for desert tonight, and when I asked Joshua if he had picked them at the strawberry farm himself, he showed me the strawberry he was eating and said, "It's organic!"

Annette is away this weekend on a retreat, and I made Joshua's dinner tonite: rotelli, peas, corn, meatballs in tomato sauce. It was really rewarding to see Joshua finish his bowl and ask for more, saying "Mmmmm" as he was eating.

As he was finishing his honeydew melon, stuffing it into his mouth, he said, "I'm like the cookie monster!"

Korean Belly Dancers

Joshua doesn't watch any TV, but he does get to watch some YouTube sometimes and he will request the oddest things: "Korean Belly Dancers" or "Magnet Magic Show." The funny thing is that with YouTube, you can search for a video with Korean Belly Dancers and actually find one.

Why do we have to have windows?

Joshua has become afraid of the thunderstorms. Yesterday, the thunderstorm woke him up from his nap after 1 hr and he couldn't go back to sleep. Today, he couldn't nap at all. He sat at the opposite end of the dining room table yesterday with his back to the window so he didn't have to watch the storm and lightning. He asked us, "Why do we have to have windows?"

Let's Sit Together and Talk

Joshua's new favorite thing is to pull two chairs together, facing each other, and tells his MOMMA: "Let's sit together and talk." Annette loves this--it's her dream come true.

Child labor

We force Joshua to clean the floors with a sponge daily.

Super Ripe

Joshua really loves fruit, especially this plum. It's "super ripe!"

Why dadda?

Just these past 2 weeks, Joshua has started to ask us the "why" questions. He's usually pretty happy with our answers, but once in awhile, if he's not satisfied with mine, he'll ask Annette, "Why momma?"

When Joshua says grace before dinner, he looks around the table very carefully and tries to include everything and everyone into his prayer: "Thank you God for rice, and eel, and water, and kim (seaweed), and momma and dadda, and Joshua, Amen!"

Cleaning Up

Sometimes at the end of the day when I go around the house to pick up Joshua's toys, I find myself smiling a lot as I see the things he's handled throughout the day: a shoehorn here lying against the coffee table. 2 sticks he picked up off the road today. Gift paper wrapping unrolled on the floor. his trains and cars in the kitchen. A photo of him and Elmo at the Children's museum. In a way, it's a chance for me to re-experience what his day might have been like. It's funny that I don't mind it--in fact I enjoy it. That's a real surprise given how much I dislike housework. This seems more like discovering what Joshua did during the day.

Ferry Ride to Boston Harbor Islands

Joshua wanted to sit inside the ferry to finish his breakfast. Priorities.

But then he enjoyed looking out the back of the ferry to see the superbig waves and "pizza" that the jet engines were making.

He likes "hiking", which is exploring and running around new territory.

He enjoyed the beach, but still asked at the end to go to a beach where there weren't "so many rocks".

Snowplow Firetruck

Joshua definitely shows that he grew up on the East Coast because he adds snow plow equipment to his vehicles.

Joshua's First Video

Joshua got a big thrill out this "hot dog ferris wheel" and shot this video himself (with me holding the camera).

Cranberry Balls

We took Joshua to Edaville yesterday to see Thomas the train. He loved it. He also had a blast in the Cranberry Balls play area. At the end of this video, you'll see how Joshua puts down the balls he's about to throw because I reminded him of the "no throwing balls" rule, and he complies--I love it!


Edaville had just the right amount of age appropriate rides and most importantly, lack of long lines. We'll wait a few more years before Disney.

I teach Dadda!

We were driving around in the car today and while I was asking Annette to teach me a Korean song, Joshua coudn't help but chime in every once in a while and correct me whenever I sang the wrong word. He already knows his Korean is better than mine. He says, "I teach Dadda!"

Toki (rabbit song)

For your listening pleasure, Joshua singing the Korean rabbit song.

Get the Camera Dadda!

We were walking down the hallway and I noted to Annette that we didn't have many pictures of Annette holding Joshua anymore. Josh said right away: "Get the camera dadda!" He then had Annette wait while I ran to get the camera and he posed as if on cue.

Kissing Momma

Joshua has always loved kissing momma in a way that he doesn't kiss me. Pretty passionate isn't it?

Collecting sticks

Joshua is really into collecting sticks and exploring our backyard and courtyard.

Emergency Doctor

I was really touched the other day when Joshua asked for a bandaid on his own, and put it on my scraped up bloody knee. He's really into this ambulance book and into giving medical attention to injured people.

Is it OK?

To our great surprise and pleasure, Joshua likes to ask permission to do stuff. Like before touching something, he say, "Is it OK?" Or when he's about to grab something, he ask, "Can I do it?" Maybe it's because we've scared him into thinking everything is dangerous.

I do it all the time with dadda

When Joshua is out in the courtyard with momma and wants to do some fancy stunt like somersaulting out of the hammock, or jumping off the wall onto the grass, he tells her, "I do it all the time with dadda!"

Monorails

Joshua is obsessed with monorails. He loves to watch them on YouTube, and he likes to make his legos look like "two sided monorails".

Oh My, That's Unusual

When Joshua sees something new, he'll say, "Oh my! That's unusual. I've never seen that before!"

We are family

Joshua likes me to sing the Sister Sledge song to him, "We are Family" He likes to fill in the words, "all my brothers, sisters and me!" (I know the words are wrong.)

Thank you

Joshua likes to speak a lot of languages. The other morning at breakfast, he kept on asking me, "Another one?" when I was trying to teach him "thank you" in different languages. I got to seven and couldn't think of any more: French, Mandarin, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, English, Arabic

One more minute

Joshua's favorite stall tactic these days, "One more minute." No matter what it is: changing diaper, brushing teeth, going inside, going outside, changing clothes, eating food. I regret the day I first uttered those words to him.