Haircut!

Josh's hair has been getting a bit unruly, so we knew we should get it cut soon. Julian and I both wanted to be there for it, so we just hadn't found a good time to do it. Last week I ended up needing an emergency dentist appointment, and Josh needed a sick visit to the pediatrician. Both appointments went fine and we are both doing well now. But as a result I ended up taking a sick day. So we decided to go out to dinner after we picked up Josh. We went to dinner near a kids haircut place, so we decided to get Josh a haircut. Josh was very good for the haircut. They had TVs at each haircut station, and we had them put on Thomas for him. He wasn't really sure what was happening, but was willing to sit in the chair and let them cut away. They cut his hair a bit shorter than I wanted, but I have recovered. Josh seemed a bit upset later at night, because he likes to play with his hair and he didn't understand why it felt different. He has also recovered :-) He looks like such a big boy now!
Most importantly, we got some cute photos.

I don't know about this!

Trip to Florida

Our posts are getting out of order chronologically, but we wanted to post about the rest of our trip to Florida. I've been to Florida a number of times in Dec/Jan and the weather is always hit or miss. We got lucky and had sunny 70/80s the whole time we were there. Josh LOVED getting to be outside, and had a great time on the trip. He also loved getting to spend time with "Pop Pop, Bunya, Ella, Unce Mark and Baby Monna."

Every morning Josh wanted to sit out on our balcony to drink his milk or play on his new "laptop". We did a lot of walking on the trip, and toddler wearing in our new toddler size tula. I was even able to comfortably wear him at 24 weeks pregnant which I thought was impressive. Our condo was walking distance to the beach, aquarium and restaurants so we ended up not moving our car for two days.

We went to the Clearwater aquarium, which was a really nice aquarium. It was much smaller than Baltimore, but they have a focus on helping hurt animals which I thought was nice. They had some nurse sharks and big grey fish that Josh found very impressive. They also had a touch pool of stingrays. Josh didn't actually touch one, but he liked putting his hand in the water and watching them swim around. They also had some sea turtles, dolphins and river otters which Josh enjoyed watching. It was actually a great size for taking a toddler because we could let him roam freely, but it wasn't so big that he could get lost quickly.

We also got in two really nice trips to the beach. We like to go to the beach after Josh's nap so that we miss the direct sun. Josh LOVED being on the beach. He liked building houses, watching boats and people in the water, and looking at all the birds. All he wants to talk about these days is water and the beach. He was able to sucker Pop Pop into bringing him buckets of water by asking, "peaseee"

Our last day we went to the Busch Gardens in Tampa. It is safari themed, and Josh really enjoyed all of the animals. We took a little train ride through the park that went past most of the animals, and Josh was most impressed with the Zebras. They also had other exhibits set up around the park with animals you could see. We took Josh over to the kiddy ride area and he enjoyed going on a few rides with us.

The flight home went relatively smoothly. Our flight was a bit delayed, and it was already a later flight which wasn't ideal for Josh's bedtime. We did finally get him to lie down and go to sleep on the plane after about an hour. More impressively, we transfered him to the tula without him waking up. I then was able to wear him while we waited for our bags and we kept him on my back for the shuttle ride. He actually didn't wake up until we were on the shuttle ride to our car (because the driver was taking the turns waaaaay to fast).

While traveling with a toddler certainly has its difficulties, it was really nice to be able to do some fun things that Josh could enjoy and learn from. It is nice that he remembers our trip and wants to talk about it, and of course see all the pictures we took.

Enjoying some banana and ABCs

"Go over dere!"

Cool kid :)

Pengie!

Sting Ray petting :)

Rides with Daddy!

Riding a Zebra

<3

Building houses

Finally sleeping on the plane

Zzzzzzzzzz

Happy Birthday!

We can't believe Josh is already 2!! He has grown up so much over the past 2 years and it has been truly a joy to be a part of. I know that Josh will always celebrate today as his birthday, but I can't help but feel like Jan 7th is important to me. I was pretty sure I was in labor in the morning, and was hopeful that it wouldn't be long before I got to meet my little guy! While I know it was a pretty painful day, I can't help but only remember the joy and excitement I felt that day.

Josh is so much fun these days. He is talking so much, and it is great to have conversations with him. We talk about his day, and things that he likes. He can count to 10, and can do some of his ABCs. He loves drawing, trucks and animals. If you make a deal with him, you had better remember to follow through with it or he will catch you. He has an endless supply of energy and loves running around and playing outside.

Julian put together a video that shows some of his big milestones physically over the past two years. We'll post some more pictures and stats after we have our 2 year checkup next week.

Merry Kis-mas

This year we wanted to give Josh the full Christmas experience.  Margaret thinks I'm generally a grinch around Christmas time but Josh enjoyed the tree and the lights so much that it was hard for me to not want him to fully enjoy it.

Josh helped to decorate the tree and then proceeded to take the ornaments on and off the tree.  As a result we had a bit of a bald spot on the tree near the bottom (anywhere within Josh range).  He really liked the tree, and liked seeing other trees when we were out. When we came downstairs in the morning he would get very upset if we forgot to turn on the "kis-mas tee". While driving at night Josh would say, "yights, yights" when he saw our outdoor lights and loved to look out the window to see the lights outside our house.

For Christmas we went over to my dads house and stayed the night.  Last year Josh didn't fully appreciate presents but this year he is a pro taking off the wrapping paper and he now knows there is a fun toy inside the package. He loves his Santa pajamas and will tell you "I like Santa!", but isn't so sure how he feels about actual Santa. Daycare had a little holiday party complete with Santa, but Josh wanted no part of sitting on his lap or saying hi. On Christmas morning Margaret told him that Santa had brought toys for his stocking, and he started to cry :-P  I guess we will have to wait until next year for him to really get into Santa.

We got to visit with a lot of family for the long Christmas weekend, and it was nice to see everyone. We had a great Christmas and hope everyone else did too!

Josh decorating the tree

Picking out a Christmas Tree

It needs to be just right

Yights!

"I did it!"

Adding the ornaments 

Finishing touches

Pretty happy with what was in the stocking, even if he wasn't happy with Santa

Josh would not smile without "Blackie" being in the photo too

Merry Christmas

Opening the rest of his loot at home!

Modeling his new toys

Airplane

Yesterday we took Josh on his 3rd flight. We were headed to Florida for a long weekend with my family. I actually thought the flight was better than our flight to CO last year, but Julian disagreed. For the most part Josh was what you would expect from a kid that had to sit still for 2 hrs and missed his nap. He only escaped from our seats once ;-). He figured out how to remove his seatbelt in 0.2 seconds, so it was hard to keep him sitting unless he had a toy or snack. But he didn't cry much, just wanted to explore. He loved seeing all the airplanes and buses driving around at the airport. Julian bought him headphones and a little cheapie MP3 player so we could play him his favorite songs. That kept him quiet about 10 min, which honestly I thought was pretty good. I made sure to feed him a snack on takeoff and landing to help if he had any ear pressure, and either he had no problems or my trick worked. The return flight we will probably break out the iPad for him, so hopefully that will help.

This was our first flight with Josh when he was big enough to walk onto the plane. It made him seem both big and really small at the same time!

Here are some pictures from the flight

The shuttle driver left his bus unattended...

Happy Hanaanaa

This year has been really fun to teach Josh about the holidays. He is learning and understanding so much, and he has been so happy and excited. On the first night of Hanukkah we has a little low key celebration with lighting the candles and some easy pre-made latkes. We taught Josh about the menorah, which he calls "Hanaanaa" and told him the candles were hot. He was a pro at opening gifts, he must have remembered some from last year :-)

Last night we had a few people over to celebrate Hanukkah and I cooked latkes, brisket and apple sauce. We have been getting a bag of apples each week in our CSA and I have found the only way to keep up is to make apple sauce in the crockpot. Josh really enjoyed his latkes and apple sauce :) He also kept pointing to the menorah and saying, "Hanaanaa, hot".

Hopefully by next year Josh will be ready for some dreidel playing!

Brisket ready to bake in my new brisket pot!

"Hanaanaa, hot!"

Playing with his new book

Elmo!

Baby brother

I think by now all of our readers know that Josh is going to be a big brother :-) Here are some cute pictures. 

Big news!

He wanted to see his brother

Giving his little brother a hug :-)

20 week bump picture, for those who have requested one