Open Door Policy

Somewhere we heard that every day with a toddler is like the scene in Jurassic Park where the velociraptors figure out how to open doors.  You just assumed they couldn't do that and you are safe but then they prove you wrong.  Well that is very true of a toddler, you assume they can't get into something and then boom you've got a huge mess.  Well today Josh officially achieved raptor ability.

Margaret got a video of it and I added some appropriate music:

If you are interested, here is the scene from the movie:

More Beach

While Josh loved playing at the beach, he also enjoyed many other parts of the trip.  We took him to Fun Land where he got to ride on a little boat (really the only ride for toddlers) and he got to play some skeeball. We brought our bikes and took him out a few times.  He got to try crabs for the first time.  Unfortunately there was too much Old Bay on them and he was not such a fan.  We'll have to try that again.

Recently Josh has become obsessed with balloons and when we took him to Grotto for pizza and he was far more interested in the balloons than eating.  Every time the he would hear the helium tank blow up a balloon he would spin around to see it.  Then when we were ready to leave he finally got his balloon and was a very happy toddler.

Last year at the beach one of the biggest problems was Josh get very upset whenever Margaret or I would leave the room.  That wasn't a problem this year as he was very happy to play with anyone around us.  He sat at the beach with my mom and sister while Margaret and I went for a walk.  He didn't mind being watched by anyone at the house.  There were other kids we stayed with and Josh loved playing with them.

This year we did a far better job of not bringing quite as much stuff (even though it was still a lot of stuff). We also did a better job of managing Josh so we each could do the things we wanted to do.  Josh being on a consistent nap schedule made planning the day much easier.

The beach was fun and we're glad Josh had such a good time.

Getting ready for crabs

Attack!

Getting the hang of it

Driving the boat

More!

Notice the several balls at once tactic

Walking away with his winnings

Having a snack on the beach

After getting his balloon

Thanking grandma for a new raincoat

Beach family picture!

Having a popsicle on the beach

Beach Bum

Last years trip to the beach was a little disappointing for Julian and I (the trip was fun, but Josh's enjoyment of the beach was not). He was not sure what to think of the sand, hated the water, and was displeased with the sun in his eyes but would not wear a hat. We had high hopes this year, because Josh loves water and dirt (and buckets and shovels!). We were not wrong, Josh LOVED his second trip to the beach.  It took him a few days to warm up to the idea of the waves and walking on sand, but by our last day he was running all around. We'll post more about our trip later, but here are a few cute pictures/videos of our beach bum :-)

Happy Joshie!

Elfa!

This post is a bit unrelated, but I'm really proud of how our Elfa turned out so I'm posting it anyway :-) I'm confident that most of our blog readers will appreciate awesome organization that is only marginally related. We wanted to make space in our guest room for the pack-and-play so that Josh's new cousin will nave a nice place to stay when he or she is born this fall. In order to make space, I decided to relocate all of my craft items to the basement. I already owned a lot of paper craft supplies for card making, and recently acquired a lot of sewing items. We decided that the best way to do this would be to put up shelving in the basement and move my desk down there. It took a lot of visits to the Container Store and Home Depot before we settled on what to do. We are still missing one part and need to go back to Container Store, but here is the almost finished product!

New craft area!

Mandatory cute photo :-)

18 Months

We can't believe it but our little guy is 18 months old! His doctors appointment is later this week so no stats to report yet but we are pretty sure he's grown a bit and gained some weight since his last appointment.  As we've said in a few posts already his increase in communication has been the biggest difference the last few months.  When I go to get him in the morning he says "hi" and sometimes "hi dada".  He now recognizes and says "mama" and "dada" when he wants one of us.  He says "wawa" when he wants something to drink.  Being able to tell us what he wants has been very useful.  He doesn't always understand why he can't have something but he does understand "all done" to mean something is over.  This past weekend he was playing outside and I said "all done" and he understood it was time to leave.  His newest word he says is "mine" although we are not 100% sure he understands what it means.  We estimate he says around 16 words in their proper context (including some partial words).  He understands far more than that.  We often ask him to get a bib or his shoes which he does.  He will also give us hugs when we ask for one.  Not much is better than a Josh hug :-)

He is still sleeping well at night although sometimes it takes him a while to fall asleep.  He will roll around in bed talking to himself but eventually he gets tired and falls asleep.  He will still eat almost any food but he really enjoys eating with dips.  Last week we went out for Mexican food and he used a spoon to eat salsa and then ate sour cream, guacamole and then reached over to eat the refried beans from Margaret's plate. He prefers to eat with a spoon or fork and has gotten pretty good at getting most of the food into his mouth.  He still makes some spectacular messes when eating but overall not so bad.

He loves to go to the park and run around outside.  We got him a water table that he loves to play with.  He moved up to the next level at daycare (Gumdrops IV) and has been taking naps in a cot.  He's been having some attachment issues when we go to drop him off but he then doesn't want to leave when we pick him up.  He walks into and out of daycare and loves pressing the handicap buttons to open the doors.

Stealing from mommy's plate

Fun playing outside

Go Nats!

We took Josh to his second baseball game for the 4th of July. We had perfect weather for the game, which made it a very enjoyable experience despite a Nationals loss. My cousins booked the tickets and got us great seats that were in the shade in right field. We also bought a ticket for Josh, and it was nice just having a little extra room.

We were a bit concerned before the game about how Josh would do, particularly since it was an 11am game and it would likely have not napped. We decided to drive instead of metroing in hopes of him taking a short nap, but he had other plans. He actually ended up being just fine and made it through the whole game! I'm sure getting ice cream and all kinds of junk food helped him rally :-)

We were also a bit nervous because this was the first game we have been too since we found out Josh was allergic to peanuts. As an avid Baseball must have peanuts type of fan, this took some adjusting for Julian. We were also concerned about the potential for there to be peanut shells on the floor that Josh would try and eat. We were with a group of 10 people and we warned them of his allergy, and they were all very understanding. Unfortunately the people behind us and in front of us were eating peanuts, which made me nervous and Julian jealous. We were very careful not to let Josh play with anything that had fallen on the floor, and tried to keep his hands clean. Overall everything went fine, and no allergic reactions :-) 

Our seats were close to a play area for kids, so I took Josh when he got a little ancy in our seats. Sadly it really was for kids a bit older than Josh so I ended up having to climb through a maze of tubes to make sure that he could get back out safely. Fortunately I was not the only parent that had to do this :-P

Overall we had a great time at the game :-). Julian and I watched fireworks on TV and were feeling nostalgic about our past 4th of July experiences. I think it will be a few years before Josh is old enough for fireworks, but I do look forward to getting to take him!

Mmmm ice cream :-)

Enjoying his first chicken fingers

Swimming

Josh is taking his very first swim class! The class is for babies 6-18 months, and Josh is the oldest in the class. After the first day, I really wasn't sure that Josh was going to learn anything in the class and it was really just for him to go to the pool regularly. We sing songs and make our babies do swim motions for pretty much the whole class. The other babies are all too young to really try and interact with Josh at all, which is a little disappointing. I was impressed to find that yesterdays class Josh was really starting to do some of the things we have been learning on his own! He will now blow bubbles in the water (something we do during the songs), and he can "jump" into the pool from sitting on the side. I'm very impressed and proud of him for imitating the teacher and learning new skills in class! I am hoping that he will learn to kick with his feet too :-)  The next class is for age 18 months - 3 years, so I had figured we would wait until next summer to take that when he can understand a little bit more. But maybe we will try and find something this fall so that he keeps being exposed to water!

I don't have any cute pictures from the pool, because I have to keep my eyes on Josh at all times. But here are some other cute pictures, because all posts require cute pictures!

Hugging Jeter

Stealing Mommy's stuff

Taking an interest in what the robo caller wants money for...