yay for Daddy!

glad to report that Craig is home safely! Joshua had too much fun with Daddy tonight and he actually showed off all his new tricks and words for him. I was so glad he didn't hold out :) For some reason, he also learns signs better for Craig so Craig got him to sign 'thank you' tonight a bunch of times. Before that he had just been saying "da" or "ta" whenever I gave him something he asked for.

In case you were wondering, the camera charger and instructions are hidden under the pillows in the guest bedroom (he thinks).

yayay, wow, moo and baa

Joshua's not much for saying new words lately, he usually sticks to his core vocabulary (dat, ma (each have several meanings) pup, brrr, ba (ball and other things that start with b), ch (cheerio and diaper (change)), nana (as in, ba-nana), numnum (yummy), tss (eat, I only know this because it's accompanied by a sign), up, ap (apple), oeoeoe (Zoe), po (phone), "woah woah woah!" and a bunch more I can't think of right now. He does lots of signs too but I can't help wanting him to say more words (mostly to reduce the amount of 'eh eh eh' when he points to things he wants)

So, yesterday was a big day for us!! He was on a roll with repeating and here's what he got:
Yayay - we have a magnet of cousin Emily on the fridge and he likes to play with it. When I say who's that, now he says Yayay (Emily). Too cute!
Wow - he's an expert at "woah woah woah" but yesterday he repeated 'wow' a few times, I'll count that as new :)
Moo & Baa - we were reading his "fluffy chick" book which has animals and the sounds they make, and he just decided he wanted to say 'moo' and 'baa'

He also learned a SUPER CUTE new sign for cheeks - he either made it up or learned it at Sunday school. I can't wait for Craig to see it.

our bouncing baby boy

Oh thank God (yes, I actually prayed for this)! Joshua was back to his 3 hour nap today!! And that was after he slept until 9:45 this morning (when I finally went in to get him up because I had run out of quiet things to do at 8:45, decided to make us both smoothies and the blender still didn't wake him up at 9, and Bible study had started at 9:30). I think he would have kept on sleeping had I not gone in with the video camera to get a video of him - he was on his back with his hands behind his head like a little sun-bather.

Anyway, on to tonight. Bedtime is never without event and tonight was no exception. Joshua, never the consistent baby, has not had the same sleep routine for two weeks in a row since birth. Just when I think I know what he's going to do at bedtime, I can count on him to do something different. For the past week or so, he's been letting me lay him down, cover him with his blanket, give him an animal to cuddle with and then looks up at me with his big brown eyes as I say goodnight. After that, I haven't heard a sound until morning. So tonight, generally the same thing. He batted his big brown eyes as I wished him sweet dreams and walked out. As I was closing his door, I heard him jump up - which at naptime is usually followed by a brief screaming bout. It's OK, I thought, he'll stop in a second. But wait, no screaming... then, I heard it... bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce. So, I stood at the door chuckling and listening to him in there jumping in the dark. He usually likes to jump when he wakes up (he gets pretty high, and now I'm pretty sure I know how he hurt his lip!), but I guess he was just in the mood tonight. He was still going strong a couple minutes later when I walked away, and I haven't heard anything since so I guess he wore himself out. Maybe I'll get to sleep in again tomorrow!!

Joshua learns to share... or not

Joshua got to play with his little friend Cassidy today while her mommy was getting some things done. We went by Cassidy's house this morning to visit during our walk and Joshua played nicely and sweetly with Cassidy and her toys, even feeding her veggie puffs. What a sweet big brother he will be, I thought.

Candice dropped Cassidy off a few hours later and the fun ensued. Whichever one of Joshua's toys Cassidy wanted to play with suddenly became the one that Joshua had to have. When they were happy with their different toys and Cassidy started to crawl towards Joshua (anywhere remotely near him, in fact) he started to scream as though the world was about to end. He was thoroughly opposed to the idea of sharing his big toy play kitchen or his piano table thingy. He kept pushing Cassidy's hands off whatever she was trying to play with (Cassidy was minding her own business, she just wanted to play near him).

I could just see Joshua getting so frustrated with this little girl trying to share his toys... HIS toys!!! He wanted Mommy to make her go away and he kept trying to just take a toy and go somewhere to play alone... and she kept following him. I could see the utter confusion and frustration on his face and just wished for him that learning to share wasn't going to be such a hard lesson.

Well, 2 time-outs (for Joshua) later, it was naptime for all. They both woke up happy and Joshua was happy to see his little friend again. That didn't last long. We had a little more of the same and I got Joshua to play in a different room for a while. They took turns eating (and, consequently, having all the toys to themself) and Joshua seemed to be getting the hang of the whole sharing thing... a little. He even started to bring Cassidy a few toys. They sat next to each other in the car on the way to Olive Garden and there was no crying or whining to be heard when I peeked in the back and saw Cassidy yanking on Joshua's shoe.

I'm sure he'll be a wonderful big brother -maybe not the little angel I am picturing, but a wonderful big brother nonetheless. This sharing thing just moved way up on my prayer list!!

Pray without ceasing

Well our sweet little Joshua has truly embraced this verse!! We've always prayed with him before meals and started getting him to hold our hands a few months ago. He has really taken to reaching for our hands before meals and then bowing his little head to wait for us to pray. Recently, I've realized how often I forget to pray with him when it is just him eating. He started a week or so ago, when I was bending over his high chair fixing his food or something, to reach for my hands. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on but when he grabbed my hand and bowed his head it was quite obvious that I had forgotten to pray with him. It was THE CUTEST!!! He does this pretty often now, usually every few minutes throughout a meal he'll reach for my hand (or whoever's sitting next to him) and bow his head. The head bowing is the cutest part because he keeps his eyes open and tries to peek at whoever he thinks should be praying until they start to pray.

Today, Joshua and I went out for dinner with our neighbor Pam and her kids for her oldest son's birthday. When is was time to pray, Joshua reached for my hand and the hand of Pam's younger son on the other side of him. We prayed and then a few minutes later, Joshua stopped eating and grabbed Cody's hand again and bowed his head. The fun part is trying to come up with a different prayer every time. He wanted to pray every few minutes throughout the whole meal. It was too funny!

Joshua has been a wonderful reminder to me that the Lord doesn't just want us to pray during our quiet time, before meals, or before bed. He wants us to pray without ceasing and - just like Joshua - stop right in the middle of what we are doing, quite frequently, to praise Him, thank Him, talk or listen to Him, or just think of Him.

Joshua's new lawnmower

Now that it's warming up a little and the grass is starting to grow, Craig has been mowing every weekend since he's been back from Iraq. Joshua loooooooves to watch Daddy out the windows, which is great for me too. I stand him in his crib while Craig is in the front yard and he just waves every time Craig goes by, then I move him to our bedroom and he walks back and forth between the two windows to get the best view of Daddy. Every time we're out walking and Joshua hears a lawnmower, he starts looking around feverishly going "brrrrrr brrrrrr brrrrrr" (also his noise for trucks, the vaccuum, the dustbuster, helicopters, anything with wheels and anything cold) and if Craig's not with us, he days "Dat, Dat". Also, when we're in the garage, he points to the lawnmower and says "Brrrrr, Dat" over and over.

Anyway, I figured since Joshua loves the lawnmower so much, he should have one of his own so I got him a little plastic one. When we got home, he pushed it all over the driveway (it didn't move too well on the grass), then we came inside and he mowed the entire house. For 20 minutes. Then he ate dinner, mowed the whole house again, took a bath, and mowed the house again... naked. It was too funny. Hopefully the novelty doesn't wear off. We've got him on video mowing the kitchen & living room, I just have to figure out how to get that on here.

big foot

I love this picture of Joshua trying to walk in Daddy's shoes! I know I've shared this picture before, but my blog felt so naked... Speaking of naked, Joshua just got out of the bath and is running around naked. He did have a dinosaur bathrobe on but there's no telling where that went. He looooooves to be naked. He's up on the couch with me now, I guess I'd better go put a diaper on him before something happens...

Oh nooooo....

Since I'm almost done with school and since I love how easy it is to visit the Johnson's blog to see our adorable nieces, I guess it's time to get the Tripps online so we can easily keep in touch and share the latest and cutest from Joshua and, in a few short months, baby Zoe! We also just got a video camera and I'm sure sharing videos on here will be much easier than emailing them out to everyone. So, those are all my excuses for finally succumbing to blog culture. I can't tell you why I've been so anti-blog (I think I just don't like the word 'blog') but oh well. We'll see how well I do with keeping this current.