"Um, bye-bye!" [VIDEO]

I actually took out the camera today!  Hurray!  :)  I'll have more photos posted soon, but I just had to share this absolutely adorable video.  I was trying to get some photos and videos of Joshua enjoying his latest game of putting toys inside other objects, and got a few of him playing with this monkey rattle.  But check out the very end of this video!!



Joshua does have quite a few words now, but he rarely says them on cue.  So this was super exciting!  :)  Look at how smart and cute he is!!

Drips and dribbles

OK, so I didn't expect to go quite this long between blog posts... Who knew that returning to a full-time BigLaw job would take up so much time and mental space?  :)  I have, however, been jotting down little bloggable moments over the course of the last few weeks, so you're going to get them all in one big potpourri post!

But first, the new job.  Three weeks in, and I'm still really liking it.  It feels GOOD to be needed and productive again!  It's definitely an adjustment, but the area of law (labor and employment) is fascinating, my cases are interesting, and I really like all of my coworkers.  What more could a working girl ask for?

And now, complete with bullet points, all the random little stories I've been wanting to tell over the last three weeks!

• Joshua is stacking blocks now!  He still vastly prefers just taking one in each hand and running around like a maniac, but as of about three weeks ago, our demonstrating block-stacking just clicked, and he balanced one block on top of another.  And then another.  And then another.  He kept looking at us quizzically while we cheered him on -- like, "come on guys, this is no big deal.  Give me a real challenge!"  He also stacked blocks on command for his grandparents and Uncle Donald while we were skyping with them.  We had the laptop on our coffee table, and put one of his blocks on the table in front of it, and jokingly ordered Joshua to stack his blocks -- and he did!  So not only is he a fine motor skills genius, but he's also amazingly obedient and polite!
  
  
• The other day, I was in the kitchen (which we have gated off for his safety), rinsing out his sippy cup.  He was playing in the living room with David, when he tripped and fell, and started whining a little.  David looked him over, and seeing that he was perfectly fine, told Joshua to be a big boy and keep playing.  Joshua looked at him, picked himself up, marched over to the kitchen gate, stared right at me, and started saying "Uh-oh!  Uh-oh!"  Clearly, the kid knows from whence his help comes.  :)
  
  
• Joshua has his first molar!  The outer half of it has cut through his gum, and he's working on the inner half, and possibly also on another molar on his other side.  So he's been drooling and chewing on his hands like crazy.  But other than that, he doesn't seem to be terribly bothered by the teething.  So he now has 9 (maybe soon to be 10) teeth!
  
  
• The new routine hasn't really bothered Joshua much.  He really loves Carrie, and is fascinated by Phil, and is warming up to Jennie.  And it's such a good thing for him to have the opportunity to play with others on a regular basis.  What's been messing him up more, though, is our taking him to Sunday School.  He's in the one-year-old class, and he has SO much fun there, what with all the fun playmates and the chance to play with musical instruments and different toys and all.  (And the class is taught by Jeff and Tae, who he already sees every week at our Sunday small group!)  The problem, though, is that kids' Sunday School is only at the 9:30 service -- which is right in the middle of his morning nap.  He's old enough now to power through skipping the nap, but he gets so worn out (understandably, since not only is he not napping, but he's also running around and playing as hard as he can), and he crashes hard on the way home from church.  So hard, in fact, that he stays asleep as we take him out of the car, through the parking lot, up two flights of stairs, and into his crib.  And then he's thrown off for the next day or two.  So we're trying to figure out how best to handle this one...  It's good for him to learn to play with others, and we want to build in the habit of going to church as a family.  It's just unfortunate how the timing plays out...
  
  
• In other church and playing-with-kids news -- we went to a leadership brunch last Saturday, as part of the stewardship campaign for the church relocation project.  (Guys, it's actually happening.  How exciting is that??)  They provided childcare, but I think it was mostly envisioned for much older kids -- there were a few high school babysitters watching a large crowd of kids in the gym.  So I ended up staying there with Joshua, and watching while he stared at the big kids.  A group of boys were playing basketball at one end, and Joshua was so fascinated by them.  He stood on the sideline and just stared while they ran back and forth dribbling the ball.  After a few minutes, it was like he'd decided he had figured out the point of the game, and was ready to join in -- he started running after the big boys, with his hands raised high in the air, as though he were saying, "Hey guys, over here, I'm open!!"  It was so cute, but also so sad -- he just wanted to play with the big boys, but he was clearly way too small.  I scooped him up to make sure he didn't get trampled, and tried to explain to him that he would be big enough in a few more years.  And then little 3-year-old Laura S. saw that Joshua was a little sad, so she gave him a smaller ball to play with, and all was right in his world.  :)
  
  
• Peanut butter sandwiches!  I was a little worried about possible nut allergies (not that there's any history of it in either side of the family, but still, the idea of anaphylactic shock is scary!), so we waited until he was almost 14 months to try offering him peanut butter.  But WOW, does he love it!  He now has half of a peanut butter sandwich for lunch every day (along with some steamed veggies, usually peas).  He's slowly learning to actually bite into the sandwich, rather than pull apart the bread slices, tear off little bits of bread, and smear peanut butter all over his tray, his face, and his hair... It's the little victories, y'all.  We treasure every bit of peanut butter that goes in his mouth rather than in his hair.
  
  
• Drawers and bins!  Joshua figured out how to open and close drawers a while ago, and he would amuse himself by opening the (now emptied) drawers of our little side buffet -- I think he just likes pulling on the little knobs.  But recently, he's discovered how to put things inside the drawer.  So now, he'll go into his nursery, pull his sleepsack off his bed, bring it out into the living room, and when he's done playing peekaboo with it (video example of this from back in January), he'll open a drawer and put the sleepsack inside.  SO cute!!  He's also learned to put little toys back inside the toy bins, which gives us great hope for him learning how to clean up after himself soon.  Of course, more often than not, he'll put his cars on the bookshelf, and blocks inside his toy bus, and DVDs inside his diaper bag... But he's learning the basics of putting things on or in other things, so that bodes well!  :)
  
  
• I have taken zero photos since I started my job.  Oh wait, that's not completely true -- I have taken cell phone pics.  But that's it.  I'm hopeful that with the weather finally starting to get a little more spring-like (after that one golden evening, it went all New Jersey and turned cold and snowy and wet again), we'll have some opportunities to play outside, and I'll have the mental fortitude to get back into the photography thing.  But since I always prefer blog posts with photos, I'll post my three cell phone pics here, even though two of them were already posted on Facebook.
  
  Joshua with his beloved blocks after our family walk; Joshua in his coat and super-cute hat made by my friend Jodi (just three days after the spring evening walk); and Joshua at church, scared of Alex's thesis beard.
  
  
• And that first picture reminds me -- I think I've mentioned it here before, but in case I haven't, Joshua seriously loves having two identical objects in his hands.  Usually, it's two of the smallest Mega Blocks (which also made an appearance at his first haircut).  But he'll also carry two plastic cups, two cars, two DVDs... He seems to be happiest when the objects are exactly identical -- I think he's shown a slight preference for carrying two green blocks rather than two different colors.  Then again, he also seems to love carrying "Hotel Rwanda" in one hand and "50 First Dates" in the other... We're working on teaching him the difference.  :)

And that's it for my scrawled notes.  Good to know that even when life is crazy busy, I'm still mentally chronicling our lives for all of you, right?  :)