On Josiah

Josiah had some memorable moments recently:

I love the mix of gender colors and how it did not bother Josiah at all.
I am 2 for 2 on having extremely extended potty training experiences. Josiah has the peeing part down pretty well. He hasn't gotten the getting-redressed-after-you-pee-part down very well. Pooping is another story altogether. It hasn't happened on the potty yet. This morning he needed to poop and came asking me for his pants. I said, "No way! Go sit on the potty!" He ran exclaiming how he would get his grinder if he pooped on the potty. He sat there and I checked on him. With the biggest puppy dog eyes he says, "Mommy, will you push for me?" And with all the compassion that only a Mommy can feel I tell him that I wish I could, but there is no possible way for me to do that for him. Then he says, "But, Mommy, the poop is scared to come out." Awww.
After supper he wanted to wear one of Aliza's princess costumes to be a superhero. She has a white dress with puffy sleeves and lace around the neckline that has a red cape with it. That was his superhero costume. It soon turned into a fire fighter costume. Later, he showed me that the white dress had gotten some ketchup on it. I took it off and he told me that he was going to put it in the dryer. The dryer had some clothes in it and so I told him to put it in the "other dryer." He did and turned it on. Josiah came running back in to the living room saying, "Liza, I put your dress in the wet dryer."

Josiah crawls into bed with us every morning and promptly falls back asleep, but only after he wedges his feet between my legs or under my hip. If I try to give myself a bit of space he scoots right over and snuggles back in. I try to smile inside and remember that this won't be forever.

At mealtimes he sits beside me. He scoots his chair smack dab against mine. He would be happy if I held him, but that is not a possibility. At lunch today he was touching my shoulder and then wanted to touch my hair. He wasn't getting away with it, but then he looked appreciatively at my messy stay-at-home ponytail and said, "Mommy, your hair looks great."

For as challenging as 3 year olds are they sure are cute and loveable!

2nd Honeymoon--Day 3

On our 3rd morning I don't think either one of us could hardly fathom that we had another day to fill before we traveled home. There were a couple interesting possibilities for the day and we weren't sure what we wanted to do. We decided to go to a lake and State Park. As we had been doing, we followed Jeremy's iphone GPS app for directions. It seemed like we were consistently taking the long way over back roads, but this time it was certain. We were directed to a dirt road that ultimately led to a Danger sign saying the road was closed. We turned around and tried again.


We found the lake and it turned out to be a bit disappointing. There was only a paved path along the lake.
We were hungry and Jeremy found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant recommended on Yelp. They served breakfast all day which suited me just fine!

This is the largest omelet I have ever attempted to eat. It was yummy!


Since the lake was a bit disappointing we decided to visit our other option for the day, a Natural Bridge. The natural marble bridge spans the Hudson Brook over a 60 foot deep gorge. This was an area that we really enjoyed walking around--or climbing around.

A marble dam.
This is the bridge. It took a few trips "around the block" to realize that this was the bridge we were looking for! haha.


Later that afternoon Jeremy wanted to go golfing again. This time he just played 9 holes and, you guessed it, I took up my position on the couch!

That evening we went down to the pool. The only other people there was a family with 3 children who appeared to be very close in age to our children. The mom was even holding a baby. I could hardly stop looking at them. Jeremy asked me if I was ready to start driving home that night. I said the thought had crossed my mind. We didn't, but it was good to know we were both ready to go home to our family.

Later, I tried to watch a movie with Jeremy. He chose Date Night. It did not entertain me at all. Maybe I was just ready to go home. I was a bad date that night. I didn't finish watching it. Movies and I just don't get along very often.

Sunday morning we headed home. I couldn't wait to see Aliza, Josiah and Anna. Aliza jumped in my arms and hung on. Josiah wasn't sure he wanted us to be home. He told Daddy right away that he and Grandpa trimmed some trees and found a "snake hole." Then he started running circles around the house begging for Daddy to grab him in a big hug. I kissed Anna's cheeks for as long as I wanted to. =) It sure seemed like she waved to me from Grandma's arms. I'm pretty sure she is too little to wave, but there have been several times since that I'm almost sure she has waved. Otherwise, no developmental milestones occurred while we were away.

Our first evening at home was not easy. Aliza and Josiah were not fun. At all. But the next morning everyone settled quickly back into routine. I'm happy to be home. I'm also happy for the wonderful memories that Jeremy and I have of our extended time alone. I've also been frequently thinking about those hours I had to myself on the couch!!!

2nd Honeymoon--Day 2

Jeremy and I enjoyed a botanical gardens in Vancouver Island, BC on our first honeymoon so when we saw there was a local botanical gardens in Berkshire we thought it would be a fun stop. Nothing can rival the colors in Vancouver Island, but we enjoyed the colors here and the walk was very pretty.



(Someone took a lot of pictures of me.)

Later that afternoon Jeremy wanted to go golfing again. I felt more like doing nothing so Jeremy left me at the resort and went golfing. We both enjoyed ourselves immensely. He played 18 holes. I took a nap, read, and watched TV while I cross-stitched. I was settled comfortably on the couch for the best of 6 hours that afternoon and evening. I was a complete bum and I smile at the memory now. It was most lovely.

2nd Honeymoon--Day 1

We went to Massachusetts for our anniversary trip. Less then an hour from Albany, New York. It qualifies as "in the mountains" for us East Coast United States folks. In fact the resort that we stayed in is a ski resort in the winter.

Our trip was dubbed a 2nd honeymoon by Aliza after she read the Bearenstain Bear book A Week at Grandma's House. The cubs stay with their grandparents while Ma and Pa go on a "2nd Honeymoon." Aliza asked if Daddy and I had ever gone on a 2nd Honeymoon--a perfect opening to tell her that she was going to stay with Grandma and Grandad for 2 nights and then with Grandma and Grandpa for 2 nights. It also worked out well because she seemed to think that a 2nd honeymoon was a destination so I didn't have to tell her exactly how far away we were going.

I shed a few tears when we left. When I hugged Anna I couldn't help it. Aliza was crying too. But that stopped quickly and she was fine the whole time we were gone. I was fine too! Quite fine, in fact!

The first day happened to be our official anniversary. The last several years we have gone golfing on our anniversary so we kept up the tradition. This was the first year that I golfed too. It is far easier to golf when one is not 30+ weeks pregnant. I was pretty much horrible. Jeremy only got mad at me once for not trying. =) It was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed being outside. The course was nice and I enjoyed the views of the mountains.


Jeremy scouted out a nice restaurant several weeks before we left. It was very nice. The food was really good. We ate every bite....figured we better get our money's worth!

The "official" anniversary picture!

More to come...

10 Years Later...

(I thought I had Blogger figured out on how it uploads pictures, but it must have changed. My pictures are all out of order!)

We are home from our anniversary trip which you will hear much more about in the upcoming days. First I must backtrack just a bit. A close friend of mine got married 2 weeks before me and she started talking about wanting to put her wedding dress on for her 10th anniversary. After a couple conversations I caught the vision and really wanted to put my dress on. My fantasy was to actually walk down the aisle of the church we got married in, but that didn't happen this year. Maybe another time!

One night about 6 weeks ago, I locked our bedroom door and got my dress out. I put it on and confirmed my suspicion that there was no way that dress was going to zip up. A couple weeks later I took it to my Mom's house and she and Janell trip to zip it--unsuccessfully. I left it at Mom's house and on July 4th when we were there I realized it was the last time Jeremy would be at Mom's before our anniversary. So late in the evening, with no pre-planning, I pulled out my wedding dress. With much sucking in, squeezing and sheer determination Jeremy zipped my dress. It is not an exaggeration to say that I could not breathe. It is also not an exaggeration to say that I was grinning from ear to ear. I was so incredibly excited. And I sure do wish that Jeremy had brought his camera that evening....

Aliza and Josiah both wanted to marry me. They insisted on "walking down the aisle" around the house. I mentioned it was late in the evening. They had to take impromptu baths at Grandma's house because they got so dirty outside. Since it was impromptu they are wearing Grandma's t-shirts because their Mommy didn't bring extra clothes!

10 years later I can remember how much I loved that dress and how perfect it was for our wedding. I have no memory of how heavy it was! I also did not remember how huge a semi cathedral train is. I did remember all those tiny buttons all way down the back including the train. That is what I wanted and my Mom patiently shopped with me until I found it!

Getting ready to embark on a 10th anniversary adventure!

Digging Potatoes

(I'm distracted. Josiah is begging me to read the instructions that come with tampons. From the pictures he has figured out that it must be something you put on your leg and he informed Aliza that Mommy will not read the paper. Now I will discard that paper and no longer be distracted.)

On to far less interesting topics! Friday the children helped Great Grandad harvest potatoes. What fun that was!
Harvesting potatoes is like hunting for Easter eggs. Everyone exclaimed when they found one.

They also found some overgrown zucchinis.

It wasn't long before Caleb and Josiah wanted to be able to dig too.