On Wednesday
afternoon our sidewalk was poured so Joshua got to see the cement truck in action once again. The cement contractor was going between putting our sidewalk in to a pouring a porch for a new house down the street so he was back and forth a few times that day. One of the times the contractor came back to work on smoothing out our sidewalk he brought Joshua a painter turtle that he had found walking in the middle of the road right by our house because he thought Joshua would like to see it. Joshua was thrilled! We've found plenty of toads and frogs throughout the years, but never a turtle. We kept the turtle in a bucket for a couple hours and then I put him in the laundry tub where he would have a bit more room to move around. We kept the turtle until Cory got home and Joshua was able to show him. Then we popped the turtle back in the bucket and took him over the lake (or what I call a pond) across the street to release him. We've seen so much wildlife in the 2 months we've lived here including geese, ducks, swans, wild turkeys, deer, hawks, rabbits, woodpeckers, etc. so we can now just add a turtle onto the list! I'm sure this won't be the last turtle we see as we now live in a more wooded area with wetlands, a pond and a creek all very close by!

Machine Mania!

So the last two days have been a little boy's dream come true in terms of all the machines Joshua has gotten to see, oh and ride on. Monday night the cement contractor came over with his Bobcat and leveled the area that we are building a shed on in preparation for the cement slab. Joshua was this guy's shadow all night long. Thankfully this contractor was very kind and didn't mind having a "helper". He even took Joshua for a ride in the Bobcat and Joshua got to scoop and dump the dirt!
This morning the cement contractor arranged for the cement truck to arrive early enough that Joshua got to see the cement be poured before we had to go to preschool. Joshua got to put his hand print in the cement and have his hand sprayed off by the hose from the cement truck, which he thought was pretty cool. Then the cement truck driver asked Joshua if he wanted a ride in the cement truck to which Joshua immediately and enthusiastically replied, "YES!" Joshua got to help drive the cement truck from our backyard all the way up to the front yard! Needless to say the child has been on a bit of a machine high between daddy's tractor, the Bobcat and the cement mixer! There is video of all his machine riding below.

A Boy's Toy!

Monday night Cory brought home something he has had his eye on for quite some time. Now with an acre lot to mow he had a good excuse to buy a tractor. I'm not sure who was more excited about this purchase, Cory or Joshua. Let's just say these guys are looking very forward to using this tractor this summer - uh once the lawn goes in and is actually needing mowing! Of course the boys had to take a ride on it that night just to test it out. Take a look at the video below!

Artistic Improvement!

Okay, so a few times on this blog I've said that Joshua has very little interest or talent in art. Well this last week the little stinker has been really into art kinds of things like coloring, cutting, drawing and gluing! Amazingly I've already seen improvement in his coloring and drawing within the last week! He is also writing his name more frequently and the letters are usually in the correct order instead scattered all over the page. Today he colored the frog picture to turn in for a prize at preschool registration tomorrow night. Then he proceeded to turn the paper over and draw a train and a flatbed truck on the back. I just love to see this kind of growth, especially in an area that I didn't think Joshua had any interest in!

Daddy's little helper

Saturday Cory built some shelves downstairs in what is going to be our storage room. Of course as soon as Joshua heard that daddy was going to be building he promptly found his Home Depot apron, his safety goggles and his own tools so he could help. He loved copying everything Cory did from the measuring and marking to the sawing and hammering. It was so cute to watch! Joshua's got a great start on learning those building skills!

Marking his measurement.


Gotta concentrate when sawing!

Sawing the wood takes lots of muscle!

Grandpa Bob (aka Bob the Builder) in Preschool

The preschool Joshua attends is unlike a lot of preschools in the area. The teachers do not form the curriculum, the children do. The children's needs and interests dictate much of the curriculum for the year (one the many reasons I love this program so much and invested 7 years of my life in growing it!). This year Joshua's preschool class is interested in building, specifically they want to learn how a house is built. They started their learning process by stating what they know and asking the questions they had. Then the teachers took them to the library to do "research" (find books about building). They have been reading the books and having conversations about what they want to build, what to include in the house they want to build and what they might need. Knowing that my father-in-law loves to build and has a talent for drawing up plans as well as enjoys working with young kids I asked if he would be interested in helping the kids build a house in their classroom. He happily agreed! So, today "Grandpa Bob/Bob the Builder" came to preschool to talk to the kids about their ideas for the play house. He also brought some of his tools along to show the kids. Since he works at Home Depot he brought along a kid-sized apron for each of the kids! The kids were glued to what Grandpa Bob was saying the whole time and were eager to ask questions and share their ideas. Can't wait to see this project get underway!

Creative mind at work!

Okay, so to most people this pile of stuff would look like junk, but to a child (and a former preschool teacher) this is treasure! Today my friend and once co-worker Lorna took Joshua and I to a little, hard-to-find place called Learning from Scratch. It's a small corner in a warehouse that has bins of recyclable materials (wood blocks, foam pieces, tubes, cardboard shapes, magnets, etc) that you can choose from and fill a plastic bag for $3.00. It was like Christmas for Joshua when I told he he could choose whatever he wanted! We filled to plastic bags up to the very top (thanks to Lorna's tip of putting the plastic bags in a sturdier bag to hold it upright) and collected quite the variety of goodies for Joshua to create with at home. When we got home Joshua gleefully dumped out all his loot and we sorted through and organized his materials. Then Joshua decided he wanted to create a flatbed from some of his new goods. So, I got out the glue gun and he placed things where he wanted with no help from me (besides me controlling the glue gun). He has been playing with his finished product ever since. This is a great way to get our not-so artsy kid into a little more art play! He loves the freedom to create whatever he wants!

The sorted and organized loot.

Putting the wheels on his flatbed truck.

Decorating his flatbed truck.

The butterflies are flying!

Today Bright Beginnings was offering discounts for moms and kids to Frederik Meijer Gardens so Joshua and I met some friends from church/MOPS there for a morning of fun. It was a bit on the crazy, busy, chaotic side but the kids had fun anyway! There were actually more butterflies there than I had thought there would be at this point in the exhibit so at least there were lots of little creatures to look at. Being that this was a Bright Beginnings event we figured there would be some fun kid activities offered, but unfortunately there weren't. However, Joshua was happy looking around at the spring plants and going back in to see the butterflies a few times. He really wanted to have one land on him, but that didn't happen. I'm sure we'll be back before the exhibit leaves so he'll have another chance to have his wish come true. The nice part about this year is that they handed out a little butterfly passport and Joshua really liked going around and trying to match the different kinds of butterflies. We had a great time this morning!

Transformers

Cory still has a few of his toys from childhood, one of them being transformers and as you may know they are now back out for this next generation of kids. Well Joshua found Cory's old Transformers the other day and has been playing with them, however he found a bunch of extra pieces along with 6 vehicles/robots that he wanted to know what were for. Cory told him that together the 6 vehicles and the pieces made one big robot. Tonight Cory found a picture on the internet of the large robot put together and figured out how to create it for Joshua.

Creating

I've been going through some of Joshua's old baby clothes and other items the last few weeks. I was surprised to see I kept his old burp cloths, because they probably would have been better off in the trash after all the use and abuse they took during his first year of life! For this next baby I did purchase a set of burp cloths made out of Amy Butler fabrics from a lady whose items I saw at a craft sale (she also has an Etsy shop) but a few don't really cut it. So today I searched a few stores for some ribbon and bought some cloth diapers (a package of 6 that actually had 7 in it - BONUS!) and created some new burp cloths to use with this little guy. It only took me a couple hours and it only cost about $2.50 a burp cloth in the end. Now at least we have something new to use with the little guy and we won't have to use the old raggedy ones!

The finished products all lined up for a better view of the cute ribbon.

Another view of the 7 cute new burp cloths for about $18!

Ouite the Opportunity!

The trains that run behind our house periodically stop in our neighborhood from time to time. We have no idea why they stop and there is never a set time they stop for. Last Saturday a train was stopped on the tracks by our neighborhood for 12 hours. I figured that one day, when the weather turned a little nicer I would take Joshua to see the train a little closer (not like it's not close enough in our yard as it is, but I knew it would be a thrill for a little boy). Well today we saw the typical Friday afternoon train come through as we stood out on our deck. Joshua waved and the engineer opened his window and waved as well as tooted his horn for him. Joshua was tickled to say the least! Then we watched as the train came to a stop as it sometimes does at the cross street by our development. With the weather being so beautiful today I figured we could for a walk down the street and take a closer look. I grabbed my camera and told Joshua I would take his picture by the train. Once we got close to the edge of the tracks by the first of the two engines we stopped to look at the massive size of the train - Joshua was amazed! As we stood there just looking the engineer came out of the engine and came over to us he asked Joshua if he wanted to go in the train engine! Joshua of course said yes and immediately began walking over to the engine (which is very high off the ground). Thankfully the engineer helped him up the steps of the engine as I tried to get myself up. We got to go inside the engine and Joshua got to sit in the engineer's seat. The engineers (there were two other guys in the train besides the engineer that had greeted us) showed Joshua the gears and levers they pull to make the train go and they let him blow the train whistle and bell and turn the bell off! Joshua was just in awe! Let me tell you those are some close quarters those men ride in for up to 12 hours at a time. These guys were the same engineers who happened to haul the Barnum and Bailey circus train into downtown GR last September. By chance that evening we were visiting the house to see the building progress and saw that train come through. They told me it actually carried all of the equipment, all of the circus crew and some of the circus animals.
After a few minutes in the train we had to get out as it was time for this crew to head out (their 12 hour shift was done) and be picked up by a taxi and another crew to come and take over driving the train. Apparently they "tie down" the train quite often in our neighborhood so they can trade crews. We were able to snap a few pictures, none with the engineers as we really weren't supposed to be on the train (I'm sure for legal and safety purposes). Even though we weren't supposed to be on the train the engineers said they knew it would make Joshua's day and wanted to do that for him. What an once in a lifetime experience that was for Joshua!

Looking at the massive engine!

Pretending to drive the train (his hand is actually on the throttle).



Pulling the lever that sounds the horn and the bell!

Special Person

Joshua is the special person in his preschool class this week which means he got to take the special backpack home that contained Ladybug, the journal, crayons and The Grouchy Ladybug book. Today Joshua dictated a story (I wrote his words) about his adventures with Ladybug and drew a picture to go with his story. It's interesting to look back at his first story from October and see the notable differences. His artwork still leaves a bit to be desired, but coming from two not so creative parents it's not surprising; this being said, his art work has improved as well. Tomorrow he will bring his story back and have it read to the class. He also gets to bring his Playmobil motor home for show and tell. The other highlight of the week (at least for me as a mom) is bringing a special snack. This time there really wasn't anything particular to coordinate the snack with (a holiday, project the class is doing, or topic they are learning about) so I figured something snowy would be good. I of course turned to my favorite Family Fun and found a recipe for sweet tortilla snowflakes. It was a bit time consuming, but fun. Too bad next year won't bring these fun treats as his new school requires all snacks to be store bought.

Joshua's story and illustration.
(click on picture to enlarge)

A sweet, snowy snack!

A blow to the ego. . .

So I finally broke down today and bought a maternity support belt. It made me feel so old to be asking for such an item. However, it feels like this kid is sitting low (much lower than Joshua did, at least until the last couple weeks) and along with that is giving me some delightful back pain. It might be manageable, but with chasing and interacting with a 3 year old all day I seem to be uncomfortable. (By the way, there is nothing wrong with the baby, he is as healthy as can be and my OB doesn't seem to think the baby is any lower than Joshua was, but my OB doesn't live in my body and doesn't have to deal with the discomfort!) The bonus of getting the maternity belt was that I got to visit one of my favorite stores that I haven't been to since Joshua was an infant, Baby Beloved Inc. It's a wonderful resource for pregnant moms and nursing moms! Not only do they carry products necessary for these stages in life as well as adorable little baby items, but they also have lactation consultants on hand to help with nursing questions or troubles. Since I last visited they have moved to a really nice new location in the new Women's Health Center in Grand Rapids. I was surprised to see an old high school friend of mine working there! She reassured me that many pregnant women of all ages use maternity support belts for comfort. So at least I'm not the only one who wears one of these wacky things, but it's still a blow to the ego if you ask me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's our family tradition to give Joshua a little Valentine's Day surprise, but this morning we did things a bit differently than we have before. Instead of just giving him his gift Joshua had to go on a "surprise hunt" to find it. I made little clue with words and pictures and put them all over the house. Joshua had to find and read a clue which lead him to another clue and another, etc. His final clue told him where to find his surprise. It was so much fun to watch him "read" the clues and figure out where to find the next one and finally his surprise! From the smile on his face and the excitement he showed running from clue to clue, I'd say he had a good time too! His Valentine's Day surprise was a new Cars movie car called Wingo, a little Lego set that can make 3 kinds of planes and a small tin of candy cars.

The first clue to begin the "surprise hunt".

Finding the clue on dad and mom's bed.

One of his clues.

"Hmm, what does this clue say?"

His final clue which led to finding his Valentine's Day surprise.

"Is it in my monkey bathtub?"

The surprise!

Little Valentine Creator

Joshua had already created valentine cards for family, but since Joshua is in preschool now I thought it would be fun for him to make valentines for his friends at school. Knowing I had the time to help him create valentines (and knowing this time spent as just the two of us doing projects is fleeting as #2's arrival is coming) I searched for a valentine that would be fun to make. Of course I started my search with http://www.familyfun.go.com/ and came upon the perfect valentine card for Joshua to create; it of course involved a car! Today we spent some time mixing up the right color "mud" paint to drive his cars through and then he drove his cars on his valentine cards. After the paint dried he chose where to stick each of the little chocolate race cars. I finished the cards up by writing the words. He had a blast creating his valentines and is very excited to pass them out to his friends tomorrow at school!

"Zoom, my truck drove fast on that one!"


One of the finished products.

Gorgeous!

Today was such a gift from God! The warm temperatures and continuous sunshine were just what we needed! I know it's just a tease and the snow will soon be flying again, but for today we enjoyed every moment. We went for a walk around our new neighborhood and played outside for a couple hours. The question is, how does a 3 1/2 year old entertain himself when there is no yard to play in? Well, climbing piles of dirt and digging for rocks did the trick for Joshua today. Hope this is a favorite activity for him as we have a couple months until we can actually plant a lawn.

Digging in the dirt.

King of the dirt pile!

Time and patience. . .

. . . is what it took to create the back splash in our kitchen. We started 2 weeks ago Saturday with Cory, myself, Shawn and Erin all putting the tiles up in the kitchen. This past weekend Cory and I sealed the tiles and then finally had the time to grout it all. Man what a pain in the neck grouting back splash tile is (gravity definitely doesn't help the situation)! We now know why we were going to be charged $600 in labor for the professional to do it! It was a horrendous mess and took longer than we expected (oh and we aren't completely finished because we ran out of grout with 3 feet to go). However, we are very happy with the almost finished project (once completely grouted we have to caulk and seal it). I guess in the end the pain of the whole project was worth saving the money.

Adjusting

Moves are difficult for children, but this move really hasn't been easy on Joshua for some reason. (Mind you we do a lot of talking about moving prior and during the transitions as well as reading books about it and yes, we do expect behavior issues regardless.) The last move 6 months ago seemed to go smoother, I mean we still had some behavior issues to work through at the beginning, but it wasn't horrible. This time around it's been a bit harder for Joshua to adjust. He's had issues with not listening and being disrespectful for the last couple of weeks. On top of that his sleep pattern has been disrupted and he is up once a night with nightmares and was waking up earlier than he ever has before. Thankfully he is back to sleeping 11-12 hours a night and is up by 7:45am at the earliest for school (and I usually have to wake him), but the nightmares are still an issue. I'm also not sure if he is still adjusting to not taking naps anymore. He does well most days, but by Friday (at least the last few weeks) he has been unbearable by lunch time and actually asks for quiet time. Both this Friday and last he has fallen asleep and taken a nice nap that helps refresh him. The picture above was taken today when I snuck in his room as I was suspicious of the lack of noise I was hearing. The little stinker had climbed down from his bed and apparently was playing, but he was too tired even to play! Oh and if that weren't enough, Joshua was also sick the second weekend we were in our new house. I'm praying that soon he will be back to his happy little self who has fully adjusted. We keep promising the poor kid that we will never move again!

New favorite place

Joshua has a new favorite place to sit in our house for meals now that we received our bar stools. Cory picked them up on the way home from work one night this week (they've been on order for 6 weeks and finally arrived). Ever since the night they came home Joshua will only sit at the island on the bar stools for meals. We've tried explaining that it's a great place for us to eat if only two people are home, but when all three of us are home we should eat at the table together; however, Joshua prefers to sit at the island for all meals and will even request that one of us sits next to him for dinner while the other has to eat at the table. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon and we can go back to having dinner at the table as a family. He's a funny kid!