Thanksgiving Recap

We started out our morning surprised by the dusting of snow that had fallen overnight. Joshua, along with our cat Logan, were the only ones really thrilled to see the white flakes. Joshua wanted to go walk around on our deck, but instead just laid on his belly and reached out the slider to touch the snow. We have been reading winter themed books for a week just in preparation for our first snow. One of his favorites is A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. He was quite puzzled when the little boy's snowball disappears from his pocket after bringing it inside. So, we gathered up some snow off the deck and put it in container on the counter to see what would happen. Joshua enjoyed little tastes of the snow and was interested to see the snow melt and change into water. All the excitement over the snow along with watching the Macy's parade on TV made for a very fun morning.
For lunch we headed over to my uncle and aunt's house. We had a scrumptious lunch and some great family time! Joshua got to explore some of my cousin's old toys which he thoroughly enjoyed. He even got to take a little remote control car home which he has played with every day since Thanksgiving! Then it was over to Cory's uncle and aunt's house to spend some time with his side of the family. We didn't eat much at this gathering as we were still stuffed from lunch, but we did have some fabulous time catching up with family. Jeremy, Cory's cousin who is in the Army, was home from Iraq and shared some pictures and video of his experience over the last year. It's a whole different perspective, that's for sure! You'll have to pardon my lack of pictures, I was spending too much time talking and hardly ever reached for the camera.

This Thanksgiving we give thanks for an almighty God who has blessed us with wonderful family and friends and so many other blessings we can't even begin to list them all!

Gathering with family.
Joshua tickels my cousin Matt.

Taste-testing the snow.
Checking out the snow!

Birthday Girls

Our friends Doug and Sheryl have two beautiful girls who have November birthdays, Ava's was last week and Hannah's is this week. So last night we went over to their house so Joshua could give them their birthday presents. Joshua usually loves giving people gifts as well as offering his help in unwrapping them, but this time he was too enamored by all of the girls' toys. Ava, having just turned one isn't into the presents yet, but Hannah had a great time opening up Ava's gifts and her own. I must say it's kind of nice being able to shop for girls instead of a boy all the time. All those cute toys out there for little girls makes me want to be a kid again! Of course many of the toys I had as a child are now returning to the current scene - Strawberry Shortcake, Dolly Pops (now called Snap 'n' Style) just to name a couple. And has anyone noticed how many classic Fisher Price toys have been redone and have returned to the stores?!?! Glad my mom kept all of our Fisher Price toys from our childhood as they are now the old classics.

Joshua gives sweet Hannah her gift.

Joshua tried out Ava's new Bouncing Zebra toy.

Remembering . . .

Two years ago today my mom passed away, or as I tell Joshua, she went to live with Jesus in heaven. So today Joshua and I went to visit her grave site. We had planted flowers there this spring and I wanted to make sure that everything was cleaned up for the winter. I'm not a huge fan of those ugly fake memorial things and neither was my mother so we will be leaving her grave site undecorated until we can plant real flowers there again in the spring just like she would have wanted. Joshua helped me brush away the leaves and debris from around the stone but was more interested in the acorns that he found. He also asked where Papa was since he recalled being here the last time with Papa. He obviously doesn't understand all of this stuff yet. I try to keep my mom's memory alive for him by occasionally looking at pictures of her with him, which he loves to do, but yet he doesn't know who she is . I want to share with him what an amazing person she was and how much she loved him even though she only got to see him for a little while.

The one thing I have learned from this whole experience of losing my mom is that you can never spend to much time with the ones you love or love someone too much. DO NOT take the ones you love for granted because you never know when they will be gone. So be sure continue to make those wonderful memories with them, spend time with them, let them know how much they are loved. We have made a real point of doing this with our families since we have had Joshua. I want him to have relationships with the important people in his life and create those memories that will last a lifetime!

Strange Fascination

This is Joshua's newest friend, "penon" (that's penguin for those of you who don't speak Joshua). With the suggestion of the ER doctor the other night we thought it would be best if Joshua had a humidifier in his room to help him recover from croup. I remember having one in my room as a kid, however it wasn't nearly as cute as the ones out there now, it was much more of an eye sore! We took Joshua to Target and he picked out the "penon" humidifier over the frog. He actually said, "That's Owie's frog" as he looked over his two choices in the store. So we set up the penguin in his room and ever since Joshua has had a strange fascination with it. He likes to kiss the penguin and try to suck in the mist as it is blowing out of of the penguin's mouth - I think this comes from the fact that I was trying to get him to breathe in the mist from the warm mist humidifier on Thursday night when he was having trouble breathing. Joshua also likes to remove the penguin's head and drink the condensation that has collected off of the top of the tank. He's even tried picking the humidifier up to take it elsewhere in the house. Strange child!

Drinking the water off the tank.

A kiss for the penguin.

Boys can play dress up too!

Yesterday we went to our niece's birthday party. Just like any typical 4 year old girl she is into dressing up. So, we along with Shawn and Erin got her a trunk of dress up clothes. Not only did Gabrielle enjoy her gift, but the rest of the kids got in on it too. By the end of the party 5 out of the 6 kids were dressed in some beautiful dress up outfits, and 3 of those kids were boys! What a riot! Who says little boys can't pretend to be princesses too?!?!?! I'm sure Joshua will thank me for these pictures later in life :)

First Visit to the E.R.

Joshua has a had a cough the past few days, no big deal I just figured it was his first cold of the winter season. He sounded like he had laryngitis by Wednesday evening. However, Thursday morning he woke up with a fever and a barking cough and couldn't even get a cry out. I gave him some meds and we laid low all day. I searched around for some information on the internet and when I read about croup I figured this is what he had. Everything I read said to be very careful because children under 3 have small trachea's and croup causes inflammation in the trachea and around the larynx and can cause difficulty in breathing which may need medical care. I did dig out our warm mist humidifier and stuck it in Joshua's room to see if this would help. During dinner he sounded as if he was wheezing. I told him to cough, cough, cough and after he did so it seemed like the wheeze had gone away. After dinner he was playing and started barking/coughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath, he was gasping for air. I immediately took him outside in the cool air and tried to calm him down seeing he was very upset and scared. At this point, every time he coughed he could barely get anything out and he had very labored breathing. Since I'm an asthmatic there is a chance that I passed this on to Joshua so I wasn't going to take any chances. We called the pediatrician's office and got in touch with an on-call nurse who told us to head down to the emergency room. At 9:15 pm we were on our way down to the hospital. We checked in and were put in a room in the DeVos Children's Emergency Room. The nurse came in and checked Joshua's vital signs and said his oxygen intake was good and his lungs sounded clear - good no asthma. He still had a fever at this point and was barking instead of coughing. So after about an hour of sitting there the doctor came in and told us he had croup which was causing inflammation in his trachea making it difficult to breathe. She ordered a liquid steroid called Decadron and some Tylenol, because by this time Joshua's fever had gotten higher. The steroid is a one time dose that lasts for three days, reducing the inflammation in the trachea. After lots of waiting he finally was given the meds and shortly after was discharged. Joshua was a trooper through the whole ordeal and never once cried while at the ER. The ER nurse said he was such a good boy he should have a prize and as we were walking out she gave him a beanie baby crab which Cory immediately named "croup the crab". We arrived back home at midnight and Joshua went right to sleep - we never heard a peep out of him until I woke him up at 10 am this morning. He has no fever today, is breathing much easier and his cough is back to more of a normal sounding cough versus the bark he had yesterday. Here's hoping we are on the road to recovery!

Just a side note for all you moms out there, the ER nurse told us that you can rotate Tylenol and Ibuprofen doses every 4 hours if needed (I already knew this thanks to Erin). However the nurse went on to say that you can even give your child Tylenol and Ibuprofen at the same time due to the fact that they are different meds and target different things and don't interact with one another. Interesting tidbit of information!

Crazy Kid

I'm not sure where our cautious, fearful son went this afternoon . . . He asked me to put his horse seat up on our bed this afternoon. I complied with his request thinking he just wanted to sit and have a different perspective. I then went back to finishing vacuuming his room when I heard tons of laughing coming from our room. I went in to find out what could be so hilarious and this is what I found. . .

Obviously not the safest thing to do, but why put a damper on the fun when he's learning to take a bit of a risk?!?!

Thank You Judy!

Last night we were over at Cory's parent's house for dinner. After Joshua finally finished his food Grandma told him she had some surprises for him. She gave him his Halloween treats which he loved, especially the car filled with candy! Then she told Joshua that a friend of hers who she works with had something special to give him. She unveiled a huge helicopter to which Joshua's reaction was, "Whoa! That is cool!" Judy has a son who flies helicopters and when he got married not so long ago they had this helicopter as a prop for something at the reception. Her son didn't want the helicopter because it isn't the kind he flies so Judy held on to it. Well, Judy saw the post a while back on our blog about the construction helicopter that entertained Joshua and thought he would like this helicopter. As expected, Joshua loves playing with the helicopter! Thanks for thinking of Joshua! Below is a special message for Judy . . .

"Daddy's Funny Car"

This is the car that Cory drove for his business trip last week. Joshua got a kick out of it and kept calling it "daddy's funny car". He had that right! How often do you see a car totally wrapped in vinyl graphics, including the windows, hood, and roof??? It looks a little extreme, but it gets you to look so I guess it's doing it's job. I think a little someone may be disappointed when daddy's actual car comes driving back in our garage tonight!

Two and a Half and counting!!!

So, this little stinker is 2 1/2 today! Can't believe he is half way to 3 already - time really does fly! The two's have brought their challenges as well as lots of joys! Since I am pathetic at keeping track of things in a baby book I will just jot things down here so at least they are recorded somewhere!

Here's a little about what Joshua is all about at 2 1/2 . . .

~He loves cars! He can actually identify over ten kinds of cars by name - he spots and names cars while we are driving (even in the dark)!

~He enjoys any kind of construction vehicle.

~He is very ticklish and has become much more cuddly.

~He adores books and loves being read to.

~He is very stubborn, or to put it more nicely he has a strong-willed personality.

~He is a pretty poor eater and holds food in his cheeks (takes after his uncle Dave with the holding food in his cheeks thing).

~His language has improved so much, he has too many words in his vocabulary to count!! He is also saying 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 word phrases consistently! For the most part his words are very clear too.

~He has his share of temper tantrums.

~He has a memory that amazes me daily!

~He still loves his "Bunny-Bear"

~He knows all of his colors.

~He knows most of his shapes.

~He is learning to count.

~He loves to sing, which is hilarious because you can't really understand but a few words here and there when he sings, but man does he have the tune down!

~He is naturally skilled when it comes to sports - he can dribble a soccer ball, throw a Frisbee, throw, kick and catch any kind of ball, and recently we started working on dribbling a basketball.

What a blessing he has been in our lives!!

Halloween 2007!!

Yesterday was filled with lots of Halloween fun from beginning to end. We spent the morning visiting Papa and Phil's office, Great Grandpa and Grandma and Cory's office. This was just basically so people could see Joshua in his costume, as we planned to trick or treat around our neighborhood at night. Joshua ate up all the attention and even collected a few treats along the way! After a quick dinner my dad and I took Joshua out trick or treating so Cory could finish packing in between handing out candy (he had to leave last night for a business trip). Joshua really got the hang of the whole trick or treating thing this year - we kept hearing, "I like this"! He loved going door to door and collecting treats. We were able to go around the block and gather lots of yummy things - near the end of our walk Joshua handed his spider bag to me and said, "Spider too heavy, you carry mom". Our neighborhood was much better than last year and the kid hauled! During our trip around the block we ran into our friends Doug, Sheryl, Hannah and Ava so we stopped at their house and the kids traded special treats. We of course had to have our annual Halloween photo op with them too - the girls were so adorable!! After making the rounds in our neighborhood we hopped in the car to make a quick stop at Owen's house to give him his special treat. It was too cute, Owen greeted us at the door and made sure we got plenty of candy! Then it was time to come home and unwind from our busy day!

Old Becomes New

Good thing our parents saved some of our toys from our childhood! The old toys we have let Joshua play with have been a HUGE hit, probably more so than any new toy we have purchased! He adores the old style Little People from Fisher Price and can play with them for hours. So yesterday when we were at a friends house and Joshua spent most his time playing with a semi truck and trailer it reminded me that Cory had something like that from his childhood that his mom had saved. Sure enough, Cory looked in the attic last night and found his two Steelcase semitrucks and trailers! Joshua was beside himself with excitement as Cory and I cleaned them up. Joshua played with the trucks the rest of the evening and had a tough time saying goodnight to the trucks. As I predicted, he woke up this morning bursting with excitement and the first words out of his mouth were, "Play with trucks!" Glad we are able to share a bit of our childhood with Joshua!

Carving Time

Last night we decided to carve our pumpkins. Joshua was excited at first,although I don't think he really knew what was going on, but his excitement simmered down as the process of carving takes a bit of time. So, Cory and I kept on scooping and carving while Joshua played nearby and checked back on us frequently. He liked to share in little parts of the process so at least I was able to get some cute pictures. Joshua did however enjoy the end result. He especially loved blowing out the candles and having Cory re-light them. Today it's just too cute, Joshua has kept peeking out in the garage to check on our pumpkins. Just another fall tradition we got to enjoy together as a family!

I roasted the pumpkin seeds last night as well using a new recipe I found online - I'm not one for the traditional butter and salt recipe. They are absolutely delicious. I used Teriyaki sauce instead of Worcestershire sauce because it was what I had on hand. The recipe I used is below and highly recommended if you are interested in something different.

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 Tablespoons margarine, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

2 teaspoons Worcestershire (or Teriyaki sauce works well too)

2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Combine the margarine, salt, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce (or Teriyaki sauce) and pumpkin seeds. Mix thoroughly and place in a shallow baking dish. Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Scooping the seeds out.

Helping daddy get the carved pieces out.

The end result.

Joshua is mesmorized by the jack-o-lanterns.

The Candy Drop!

Yesterday we met my dad and some friends of ours from church at a local nursery for some fun fall activities. First we headed out on a scavenger hunt to find out what some animals do during the winter and collect a prize at the end. Then it was time for the "candy drop"! We all lined up and waited for the loader to drop the candy and then mass chaos ensued (not really since it was a bunch of 5 and younger kids with their parents gathering candy). Joshua and I waited for some of the crowd to clear before we hopped in to gather some candy and a little beanie puppy. Cory and Papa stood by observing the fun while we gathered the candy - Papa spotted a little football that had fallen behind the tarp that the candy was on and grabbed that for Joshua too. The kid got so much candy he doesn't really need to gather any more on Wednesday night! We were going to go on a hayride after the candy drop, but the wind had really picked up and the rain was starting to fall so we had to skip the hayride. Instead Joshua and Cory checked out the loaders that were dropping the candy for a few minutes before we headed to the warmth of our car.

This made a little boy's day

This is what we saw as we came down the street to our house today after playgroup and a running a few errands! There is a major construction project going on at a business pretty close to our house. Most of the time we just hear the noise of the construction machines because the construction sight isn't visible from our house. Today was a different story! For 20 minutes Joshua sat/stood and watched this construction helicopter fly back and forth from picking up a piece of something from the construction site and flying back to the opposite end of the area where the business is to drop the piece off. It kept Joshua entertained and has been all I've heard about the rest of the day.

Dad's Influence

Lately Joshua has been saying "I like _(fill in the blank)__" about everything. We were at Target yesterday and people were actually laughing as he walked by and said, "I like____" to every other item he spotted. So last night as Joshua was looking at a Fisher Price catalog that had come in the mail he found a picture of a ride-on Mustangs. First he identified them as Mustangs (yes he knows what several cars are by name, including Mustangs) and then went on to name them as red and pink Mustangs. Then to the shock of his father he said, "I like pink!" The look on Cory's face was priceless! He never thought his car-loving son would choose a pink Mustang over a red one! So Cory went over to the catalog and pointed to the pink Mustang and made a wimpy sounding engine noise; then he points to the red Mustang and uses a loud, boisterous engine sound. Joshua of course followed suit and has been pointing at the pictures and copying just what his dad has taught him. Not exactly what I want to teach him, so hopefully it won't stick. If you need a good chuckle for today watch the video below.

A Fall Day at the Zoo!

Today we headed over to the zoo for the annual "Zoo Goes Boo" event (going on this Saturday and next Saturday). It's a great way to get more use out of the Halloween costume! We met up with Shawn, Erin and Owen to enjoy the fun together! It was the perfect fall day to enjoy some time outdoors while gathering treats and looking at all the animals. We attended this event last year, but this year Joshua was much more aware of his surroundings and what was going on - he actually gets the concept of trick or treating. He loved collecting and eating his treats as well as looking at and touching some of the animals. The highlights of his day were seeing the monkeys and touching a real snake (he had no fear)! The video below shares our fun.

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Frisbee Throw!

I have no idea where Joshua 's talents in sports are coming from, because they most certainly aren't from me or Cory. We've both played sports, but we weren't extremely good at them! So where in the world Joshua is getting his skills from is beyond me. We play outside all the time with him throwing, catching, kicking, hitting and dribbling balls. The kid has quite the arm for an almost two and half year old! He also has one heck of a kick with a soccer ball! At the end of this summer Joshua found a couple of frisbees in his outdoor toy box so I showed him how to throw it and then helped him do it. Since then he has been praciting his frisbee throw and has gotten quite good. I never expected a two and half year old to throw a frisbee correctly! Check him in action below.

A Visit to Robinette's

Off to Robinette's we headed this morning to meet some friends from my MOPS group. We started with a delightful snack - I had a pumpkin donut and Joshua chose a pumpkin cookie. Before I could even dig my camera out for a picture Joshua had snarfed his cookie (hmmm how come the cookies and candies are inhaled and the veggies sit on his plate?)! After a little browsing through the store we headed outside to play. There isn't a ton to do at Robinette's besides eat, but we had a good time socializing and playing nonetheless.

Birthday Celebration

At the end of September my grandpa turned 92! In the beginning of November my grandma will turn 86! My grandparents aren't ones to celebrate themselves, so we had a combined celebration for them last night at our house with my dad, Phil and Ciejae. In my opinion when you've come that far in life one must celebrate such birthdays! We had a great time eating and catching up with one another. What a blessing to have two living, happily married, generous and loving grandparents in our lives! I also love how Joshua has been able to get to know them and is blessed to have a relationship with them! Happy Birthday Grandpa and Grandma!

Big Boy Bed!

We may be crazy, but with some encouragement from Joshua's pediatrician and many friends we have taken the plunge of putting Joshua in his "big boy bed"! The pediatrician suggested having Joshua in his toddler bed by the time he was two and a half. It's not that I didn't think Joshua could handle it and it's not like I'm trying to keep him a baby, the truth is I just wasn't sure if I was ready to give up the freedom the crib gives me! No worries of him playing in his room or destroying his room, just stick him in the crib and walk away! But he's almost two and half and it was time for a change. Since Joshua's behavior issues have been drastically improving and he has been going down for naps and night time very easily I figured this was good time to try the toddler bed. Now mind you this isn't a ton different than what it used to be since we just took the front of his crib off and replaced it with a bedrail that's only a few inches shorter, but he now knows he can get in and out of it by himself. Last night was his first night and he never got out, although it did take him a while to settle down and go to sleep - perhaps he was just too excited about his new bed. This afternoon was the real test at nap time! He actually tried to get out a couple of times, but before his feet could even hit the ground he pulled his body fully back onto his bed. It's like he knew we were sitting there watching him on the video monitor and he was just teasing us! So far so good, but it's only been a day! We'll give this a while before we move to the next step and get rid of the bedrail all together.

Today we had nothing on the calendar so I decided to take Joshua to Koetsiers (a local greenhouse) for a morning of fun. Koetsiers has a huge area set up with fun fall activities for kids, all inside their greenhouse. We went there last October with a few of our friends from MOPS, but Joshua was so young he wasn't able to fully enjoy things. This year I knew he would get a kick out of all of the activities. We went late in the morning in hopes that not many people would be there - it turned out to be great timing because as we got there a school group was walking out! There were a few other moms with kids, but soon we had the area to ourselves! It's $5 for children over 2, but parents pay nothing. This cost includes painting a pumpkin, popcorn and all of the activities - the corn crib, pumpkin ball toss, maze, big wheels, blow-up train, blow-up pumpkin with blowing balloons, bean bag toss, pumpkin bowling, and face painting. Joshua especially loved the corn crib (a sandbox structure filled with feed corn) and being in the big blow-up pumpkin trying to catch all the balloons flying around! Not being one to take risks Joshua didn't dare try crawling through the blow-up train - although I must say, it's pretty intimidating for a small kid to crawl up and down obstacles for quite a long ways, all on a pillow of air in which you don't have great footing. I did have to coerce Joshua into painting his pumpkin, trying the maze and going on the big wheels - mind you he did enjoy it all, he just had to be talked into trying it! It was tons of fun and not too costly!

Painting a pumpkin!

Catching balloons!

Playing in the "Corn Crib"

Racing!

Finding Snoopy in the maze!

Joshua loved finding all the blow-up creatures in the maze.

Parent Coalition

Joshua's Bright Beginning's parent educator recently told me about a parent coalition that was in need of having more parents join called Great Start. There are meetings for the parent coalition on one or two Thursday evenings a month where they discuss early childhood issues in Kent County - they really want real parent's input!!! Seeing as one of my passions in life is early childhood and educating people in the importance of the first 5 years of life I felt I needed to join this group. Last night was my first meeting and Joshua actually got to go with me because they offered free child care. It was a great meeting! They began by taking a look at a report that a committee is working on that proposes a plan for an Early Childhood System in Kent County. I haven't yet read the report, but from what I heard last night it is just the thing that needs to instituted in our state that would benefit every child. I am excited to read more about it! The second half of the evening we had a speaker talk about basic child development and the five love languages of children. The information was great! If you have a heart for helping young children in our county, including your own, and would like to share your opinions on early childhood issues I encourage you to join the Great Start Parent Coalition. From what I heard you get some awesome free materials as well - one of there first meetings this year they gave every parent attending a free Franklin Planner worth $50! If you are interested in joining just click on the words Great Start at the beginning of this post and you will find a registration form in the information about the parent coalition or contact me and I will give you the necessary info.

A Weekend of Fall Camping

Due to the beautiful weather forecast for the weekend we decided that we were going to go on one more camping trip before winterizing our trailer for the year. Shawn, Erin and Owen had nothing planned for the weekend so they decided to camp with us. We chose Wabasis campground this time and since it is so close to Erin's dad's farm we decided we would do our annual fall trip to the farm while we were camping. Since we had looked back at pictures from past visits to the farm Joshua was filled with anticipation of seeing the tractors, the cows and "Farmer Joel" (as Joshua calls him). So, Saturday we headed to the farm in the morning and spent about two hours playing on the tractors, the combine, feeding corn to the neighbors cows (Joshua and Owen loved this), cutting down corn out of the field, and feeding more corn to the horses. The boys were going to be in need of lunch soon so we headed over to Paulson's Pumpkin Patch right after the farm and quickly picked out our pumpkins and gourds. Usually I get lots of great pictures of Joshua in his fall attire with the beautiful color gourds, but this year Joshua wanted no part of sitting for pictures and the fall attire was not going to happen due to the 85 degree heat! We headed back for lunch and naps back at the campground. It was still hot when the boys woke up, so we walked down to the beach and let them play in the water and the sand for a while - who would have thought we'd be playing in the lake in October?!?! On Sunday we spent the morning playing on the playground, despite the wet dew that covered everything. While Cory and Shawn packed things up Erin and I took the boys to the nature trail for a walk. It was such a beautiful weekend to be camping and doing lots of activities outdoors! We had a great time just hanging out with friends, relaxing, playing, having fun together and enjoying God's wonderful world! Of course I took a ton of pictures to capture all the memories so check them out in the video below!

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