Birthday Party

My nephew, Caleb, turns two on Tuesday. Tonight was his Nemo birthday party. Caleb was so excited about his party when we arrived. He was running in circles and squealing. Janell even gave him a goldfish, his very own Nemo! Caleb is a laidback kid who can put up with a couple cousins wanting really badly to help him open his presents. Overall, I think Aliza did pretty well given the temptation of all those presents! Meghan puts together awesome goodie bags for her guests. Aliza and Josiah ate their Nemo fruit snacks on the way home and Aliza took her bouncy ball to bed with her. =)

Leg Attachments

Aliza took some pictures the other day. She's getting better at it! When I saw this one I had to laugh. Josiah and Aliza seem to have become permanent attachment to my legs the last couple days. Look how dirty my shorts are from dirty mouths and hands!!!

Yay for Highlights

I need some therapeutic decompression tonight so I think this might be the first of several posts.

Aliza loves Highlights High Five magazine for toddlers. Each issue contains a craft with directions. Several times the picture has been of a Daddy helping the child with the project. This has led to Aliza assuming that Daddy will help her with projects. Today was actually the first one that she completed and it was with Daddy's help. She would have liked to do about 10 projects today. And now that Daddy has helped her with one she is eager to recruit Mom to help her!


I didn't realize her eyes were closed! She was pretty proud of her picture frame.

Josiah--18 Months

Josiah is 18 months today. This is one of his favorite toys. He is very serious when he plays so I wasn't sure if we would be able to get any smiles. Too bad there aren't any pictures of me doing leap frog jumps to get him to smile--a little bit! This tractor was my Dad's and then my brother's. Now Josiah is getting great enjoyment out of it. He actually gets great enjoyment out of anything that has wheels. There is no doubt that he is a boy.



And here they are together. Siblings. Josiah with his playing face and Aliza with her excited face.

Minor League Fun

When Aliza completed the summer reading program at the library she was given 4 tickets to a game at our local minor league stadium. The tickets didn't say that tonight's game was a double header so we got there for the end of the first game and stayed for the beginning of the second game. Grandma and Grandad got in on the fun too. This was our first trip to a baseball game. At first Aliza sat on my lap, but it didn't take too long until she had fun spotting the mascot.


The most recent--pouty thumbs up!

We got ice cream cones between the games and that's when the fun really started! Aliza even voluntarily shared her ice cream cone with Josiah. It really warmed my heart. I should also note that it has been 3 days since we've had a biting incident. Praise the Lord!
Josiah loved holding the ice cream cone. He was one happy, sticky little boy. My Mom said "I never would have let you children do that, but it sure is fun to watch my grandson love his ice cream cone."
When we left we watched my parents walk hand in hand to their car and we commented on how lovely that looked. The Golden Years, right? There are certainly times I look forward to those days, but surely the parenting years are "The Silver Years." A close second to the Golden Years.

Beyond Thankful

This little face got about a million extra kisses tonight. Josiah found himself in an extremely dangerous situation tonight. I can't help but publicly express how thankful I am that he is safe and sound, tucked in his bed tonight. If anyone was praying for Josiah at about 5:20pm it was not in vain!

Playing in the Dirt

I've been fighting some bad allergy symptoms. My goal for most of the days this week has been just to survive and actually we've made out pretty well. We had some rain the last couple days that broke the humidity so it was nice enough to be outside today.

Our lovely mud area has given Aliza and Josiah many hours of amusement. I've actually grown quite fond of it too. I can sit on the hammock and watch as Aliza and Josiah play happily together or alone. And I often catch myself thinking how lovely it is to be able to sit and just watch. I really can't believe the following story happened to me:

Aliza and Josiah each had a cup that they were filling with sand. They would walk to the edge of the trees in the background of the first picture and dump the dirt. I can't tell you how happy I was just sitting on that hammock watching them play in such close proximity to each other with no squabbles. I was thinking about how much fun it will be to watch them grow up and continue to gain confidence and independence. It was a fabulous internal conversation!
I decided to grab my camera and when I came back the "pouring dirt on each game" had started in earnest. But everyone was happy. It was too late to stop it. I was going to have to hose them off anyway so I just let it go.

Then....after lunch I was holding Josiah and I noticed this (see below) on his face. I asked Aliza what happened. She said, "I bit Josiah." I asked why she bit Josiah. She said, "because he was putting dirt on me." I think I vaguely remember hearing Josiah cry for half a second at one point while they were playing. That must have been when she bit him. I guess that hammock was really nice.
No more hammock time for me! Clearly a 3.5 year old and a 1.5 year old cannot be left to their own devices. But it was a nice thought! Someday.....

Imaginary Friend

Aliza has an imaginary friend. Wags the Dog. Inspired by Wags the Dog from The Wiggles. Recently Wags has had to be accounted for whenever we leave the house or get out of the car or go on a walk. Tonight Wags was given a bite of ham to eat. (Aliza eventually ate it off the floor!) At bedtime Aliza tucked Wags in on the rocking chair--covered with her Dora blanket and given a pillow. Later Aliza decided that she wanted to sleep with Wags. She pushed the rocking footstool up to the rocking chair, laid down and called me to cover her up. Sure enough, she fell asleep. Jeremy moved her back to her bed.

New Way of Walking

Our walks have evolved this summer from Josiah riding in a stroller to him riding in a wagon--most of the time.

First we have to stop and pick some dandelions.

Aliza can pull Josiah. It is a time when she takes good care of him. She stops at times and tries to adjust his position or offers him a stick to hold. I enjoy being able to walk without pushing or pulling anything!
Then we get to the horses and Josiah hops out and runs up to the fence to look. One day I'm sure I heard him say "hi" to the horse, but I haven't heard it again. Sometimes he gets back in the wagon and sometimes Aliza hops in the wagon and Josiah pushes while I pull.
Yes, he is STILL pointing!

My Crazy Life

This has been my comic relief for the day. In case you ever thought my children were angels and I lived a perfectly peaceful life--take a look at the first video.




If my day was full of these moments...well...I'll just be happy for the few I get.