Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty average. We went to the park quite a few times since the weather is better for it (plus we need to enjoy it before it gets too hot). Joseph thoroughly enjoyed music playtime, and we enjoyed a night with friends over to play games.
The Weekly Weather: The beginning of the week was nice and mild, and then it started to warm up toward the end of the week. Not too bad for the first part of May. What I like is that it takes a while for us to reach the projected high temperature (sometimes that doesn’t happen until four or five in the evening), so we can still do outside stuff in the morning. The down side to that is that it makes it hard to do stuff in the evening. It also doesn’t really cool down in the evenings too much. It’s kind of hard to believe that summer is quickly approaching.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s still enjoying work and is starting to get some more projects done that we have talked about. Yesterday was a busy day for him. He mowed and edged both lawns, did some more work trying to get the future tomato patch ready (this has been difficult for him because the soil is so full of clay, but we went to Lowe’s and got another tool, so hopefully it will be easier for him), helped me plant flowers where the cilantro used to be (it wasn’t turning out well, so we had to toss it), and installed a ceiling fan in our loft. I’m so happy with it! Now it circulates the air up there a bit better and hopefully it won’t get too stuffy when true summer hits.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I have been plugging away with my piano students (and may even pick up two more in a month or so; just waiting to hear back from their mom). I have also done a couple of crafts (just little banners for decorations. There’s pictures of them further down in the picture section of this post). I’m also being kept on my toes by an almost three-year-old (in four months…when did that happen?!). Which leads to…
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been trying to bargain with me on occasion: I asked him one morning, “How about some oatmeal?” His answer was, “How ’bout a cheese stick?” It took some convincing (and a promise of a cheese stick after he ate his oatmeal) to get him on my side. When it’s his turn to say the blessing on the food, he’ll often throw in other things that he’s thankful for, such as: temples, church, forks, hot dogs (or whatever other food might be on his plate…by the way, he LOVES Ranch dressing), Little Einsteins (one of his favorite shows), and cars (still one of his favorite toys). His imagination is also just exploding. He was watching Paul mow the lawn and making mower sounds. He later came up to me and said, “I’m a lawnmower! Vvvvvvmmmmmmm!” Oh, and the other day, he had one of his “play” phones (one of Paul’s old flip-phones). He was talking into it and said, “Hi! Guess what? Great news! (followed by some incoherent words).” He then handed me that phone and said that his Uncle Jason was coming. He talks a lot about Uncle Jason coming and Grandma and Grandpa coming. It will be good when we get to see them all in December. 🙂 Finally, he’s demonstrated that he’s got a rather excellent memory for shows that he’s seen multiple times. We were watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that he’s seen quite a few times and he was telling me all about what happened at the end. And he was right. His mind amazes me!
This Week in Pictures:
Getting to hang out with this little man is SO worth it!One of my craft projects. I did this for Memorial Day/Flag Day/Fourth of July. 🙂 I put it in our entryway. It’s sort of hard to see in the picture, but each of the squares have a letter on them that spells out, “America!”If we’re outside (or in the car, which is effectively outside), he needs his sunglasses. We think he might have super-sensitive eyes like Paul.He loved getting a postcard addressed directly to him (from Barbara Diamond, one of Paul’s former foster parents, who we still keep in contact with).It had a harbor seal on it that was sort of 3D.Riding his bike in the street in front of our house. I love that our street isn’t super busy. It’s getting busier as they add more houses, but right now it’s pretty calm. We obviously are out there with him. 🙂Sporting his new shirt (which I kind of hope will still fit him in October…it would make the perfect Halloween costume): a Superman one (with an actual cape that Velcros to the back).Even Superman needs to have healthy teeth…Cheesin’ it up for the camera.At the park in our neighborhood. He almost always has to find a stick to hold as soon as he gets there…Giving Paul a good smile…and showing off that he can put on his own sunglasses. 😉Hanging out on some of the equipment.He’s got quite a bit of upper body strength.My other craft project: this one is hanging in the kitchen. It says, “Bon Appetit”. 🙂I came in to get him one morning and he said, “Look! My tower!” He was pretty proud of his stuffed animal tower.Hanging out at the park one evening…
Weekly Happenings: The beginning of the week was pretty average. Paul got off of work early on Friday because it was a holiday in San Antonio (The Battle of Flowers parade which was started a long time ago to recognize the heroes of the Alamo, along with Fiesta, which is a 10-day celebration that was started to coincide with The Battle of Flowers parade), so we went out to eat after he got home. Saturday we ran some errands and then went to lunch and the zoo. At lunch, Joseph had gotten a toy in his kids’ meal (a little plastic X-Men figure) which he wanted to carry with him everywhere afterwards. When we got to the zoo, the parking was all full, so we got adventurous and tried some roads that we hadn’t been down before to see if we could find some more free parking. We ended up fording the San Antonio river (no, i’m not joking, and yes, it was legal) and found parking in a secluded part of Brackenridge Park, which is a huge park that is right next to the zoo. It was only about a 10 minute walk to the zoo, through a really pretty and scenic part of the park. There are nature trails all over. We will definitely need to go back and explore it another day. We were wandering through the zoo when a mini-disaster struck: Joseph dropped his beloved new toy over the wall, into the Addax (a type of African deer) enclosure (I didn’t realize that it was still in his hand). He started flipping out and Paul and I were worried about a foreign object being dropped in there (we weren’t sure if they would try to eat it). While I got Joseph under control (and myself, too…I was pretty embarrassed that I had let something like that happen), Paul notified an employee of what happened. They sent some of the workers in to retrieve it, who reassured me that stuff like that happened all the time, so not to worry. Well, needless to say, this is the end of letting Joseph bring toys with him! After we got home from the zoo, we got ready to have friends over for dinner. They are the family that lives next door, and they have little boy who is a little bit older than Joseph, and I think they are going to be really good friends. The boys liked playing and the adults had a good time talking. They even asked us about the church and said they might like to check it out some time soon.
The Weekly Weather: It has been rather hot and humid. Methinks that spring is already behind us and summer is in full-swing.
What Paul’s Up To: His weight restrictions from his surgery are no longer in effect, so he can pick up Joseph again, which made both of them really happy. When he picked Joseph up the first time, Joseph just snuggled into him (practically melting into his shoulder), wrapped his arms around him, and didn’t want to be put down. It made my heart just about melt. Paul’s also done quite a few jobs around the house/yard. He dug up a chunk of sod so that we can eventually transplant the tomato plants (he wants to mix some healthier soil/fertilizer in with the top soil before we transplant them, though), he replanted some cilantro (the last storm wiped out half our seedlings, but new ones are already popping up), he changed light bulbs and batteries in smoke detectors which had been chirping and scaring Joseph (they were pretty loud), and he’s done a bunch of other stuff which I’m sure I missed. 🙂 He’s also getting involved in scouting again since he finally has another 11YO scout (he’s the scoutmaster for the 11YO scouts, but there haven’t been any for quite a few months).
What Sarah’s Up To: I had two more piano students start this past week. They are the only ones whose mom didn’t start out as a friend of mine first. They live next door to some of my students, so my students’ mom referred me. That’s kind of flattering. I have nine students and it’s been really great. It’s kind of challenging, because they are all on different levels, so I’m constantly having to rethink my teaching strategy with each student, but it’s rather fun. The other thing that I did this past week was practice my flute like crazy because I was playing it for part of the musical number that the ward choir did for ward conference today. 🙂
What Joseph’s Up To: He’s let out some pretty cute phrases this week. Here’s just a few: “Cookie! Om nom nom nom!”, “Ummmmmm”, “Hey, I know! Let’s go for a walk!”, and “Mom! I missed you!” (this was after I had been gone to the bathroom, so all of 3 minutes?). 🙂 He is also surprising us with new vocabulary. The other day he was holding the thick dowel that we keep in the track of our sliding glass door. I walked up to him and he said, “Look, a cylinder!” (Paul has mentioned cylinders to him, as well as some of the shows he sees on PBS). Another word he whipped out was “crescendo”. He was walking up the stairs with me, and was patting his belly and saying, “Crescendo!” This is from Little Einsteins. To get their rocket to go faster, they have to start patting louder and louder (the show is really music-based), so they talk about crescendos. Pretty great!
This Week in Pictures:
Joseph’s friend pushing him on the swing.This is what he would do while I was practicing my flute. He even hummed a little tune.He wanted a space helmet, so I had to get a little creative.He loves sitting on this ball and bouncing.He kept saying, “Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!”Still loves the swing.Enthralled with “The Joy of Painting” with Bob Ross on PBS. Seriously…wouldn’t let me change the channel.Wearing Daddy’s “ears” (hearing protection for when he goes shooting).Lining all his cars and trains up.Here’s the river we had to ford to get to our parking spot.Joseph in front of some lily pads.Showing Paul his smooshed penny.It had a desert toad on it.At the petting zoo portion of the zoo.He wanted to give each animal one gentle brush each.Down there in the grass is the poor X-Men superhero before he was rescued from certain doom…I think Joseph may like sitting on the bronze elephant more than looking at the real one.Killing time while waiting for food to arrive.Swinging with Daddy.All tuckered out today. We took a drive after dinner and he fell asleep. He wasn’t really ready to wake up, so he laid on the couch a while.
Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty regular. We were mainly gearing up for the big Easter celebrations over the weekend. There was an egg hunt at church (I love that the sports field is completely fenced, by the way) which Joseph kept calling an egg search, and then family and friend time today (we had a family from the ward over for dinner tonight). One out of the ordinary thing that happened was that we ended up having to call the AC company (our house AC just wasn’t working correctly…not broken, but not up to snuff). Since we have a warranty, we thought we should call them to see if the problem was covered. This was Friday evening. We thought for sure that because of the holiday weekend, we wouldn’t get anyone out here until Monday at the earliest. Nope. They sent someone out Friday night! He noticed a valve was leaking coolant, so he tightened the valve and added quite a bit more coolant. He’s going to do a follow-up visit this weekend to make sure the coolant amount is what it’s supposed to be (and make sure that there aren’t any underlying problems). Now that’s customer service!
The Weekly Weather: We seem to have settled into our normal spring pattern of a few cooler days followed by a few warmer days, rinse and repeat. We got a good rainstorm that hopefully helped the aquifer out a bit. If it keeps dropping, we’re going to have to go into even more strict water restrictions.
What Paul’s Up To: Paul is continuing to do well at work. He deals with people from a lot of different countries. He says that it’s interesting trying to understand what some of them are saying because not only are their accents really thick, but they don’t quite have all the vocabulary needed to communicate totally clearly. One example: a student will come in and ask for a blue book; no other information. Paul has to try to explain to him that he needs to know more, because, well, there are a lot of blue books! Health-wise, he is continuing to heal from his hernia-repair surgery and is happy that the weight restrictions will be ending this week so that he can do more with Joseph (though he is going to still take it slowly to make sure he doesn’t re-injure himself). Oh, and we just discovered (while talking to another person at the egg hunt) that there is a man in our ward who was in the same ward as Paul when he lived in Temecula. Crazy small world!
What Sarah’s Up To: I am still taking care of Joseph full time which has its highs and lows. He’s starting to realize that he has an opinion and that on occasion, his opinion will influence some decisions we make with him. As a consequence, he has started to voice his opinion more and it’s not always at the most proper time or decibel. He also gets frustrated easily, which is understandable. His mind thinks he can do something, but his body hasn’t learned it yet. In spite of all this, for the most part he is loving, happy, cheerful, and entertaining. I have also started teaching piano in the afternoons. I currently have nine students who keep me on my toes. 🙂
What Joseph’s Up To: Saying funny things, such as, “What was that?!” when he hears something he can’t identify, or random words/phrases (such as “gelatin mold” which he heard from a Veggie Tales Silly Songs song). Oh, and the other day, he walked into the kitchen and said, “Hey, Mom? I need a Coke!” (for the record, we have never given him soda, let alone Coke, so I’m not sure where THAT came from). He’s also really developing his imagination as well. The other day, we were at the store and I had gotten him some new shoes (which he insisted on holding while we got the rest of the things we needed…and hey, I pick my battles). He was holding up the plastic hook part and saying (to anyone who would listen), “Arrrrrr! I’m Captain Hook!” Another instance occurred when I was letting him play with an old wire whisk that I don’t use anymore. He was “chasing” me around and saying that he was either a skeleton or an egg beater monster. 🙂 Another thing he’s started doing is singing along with things. When we’re singing at church, he’s singing right along with us, even if he can’t get in any of the right words. He also sings along when I come to get him in the morning and sing my “wake-up” song (my mom sung it to me growing up: “Good morning, good morning! You slept the whole night through. Good morning, good morning to you!”). Finally, he really wants to be independent. This includes having to be encouraged to try new foods (I finally got him to try my home made pizza, which he loves, by the way), wanting to talk to whoever I’m on the phone with (regardless of if they would be interested in hearing his chatter or not), coming up with his own way of describing things (we were driving past the base where Paul works and Joseph noticed that one of the planes they have on display there is an old Red Cross plane. He said, “Look, Momma, a doctor jet!”), and running to open the door when the doorbell rings (especially since he’s learned how to unlock the deadbolt). Luckily we have a glass storm door that has another deadbolt which keeps him in, because we have had several discussions about how Momma or Daddy need to be the ones to open the door.
This Week in Pictures: *WARNING* Since this is a post including a holiday, there are A LOT of pictures!
He wanted under his “snugwee bwankit”.“Arrrr! I’m Captain Hook!”Of all the places that he could sit in the living room, he chose to sit on top of my legs…I guess that means he loves me a lot, right? 😉Mr. Independent wants to brush his own teeth now. I’ve convinced him to give me a turn first and then he gets a turn, so his teeth get relatively well cleaned between the two of us.Wearing his cowboy bib. This was a bib that my Relief Society president in Highland, CA made for Joseph while we were still living there (and we didn’t know that we would be moving to Texas yet). Joseph loves it!Bluebonnets!We’ve joined the “take pictures of your cute kid standing in a field of bluebonnets” club that has a lot of members…especially since it’s our state flower.Even firefighters need really clean teeth…when doing teeth brushing, we sing a song loosely based on one he hears on episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood that are about sharing: instead of singing, “You can take a turn and then I’ll get it back.”, we sing, “Mommy gets a turn and then you get a turn”.Very busy man. The laptop’s a broken one, so it’s all pretend play, but he’s watched us enough to know that the mouse goes on the right. 🙂At the beginning of the “egg search” (as he kept calling it) with one of his best buds.Lookin’ for eggs.He loved getting to put them into his bucket.Each family brought in 12 eggs per kid participating, so each kid was allowed 12 eggs. This way, nobody got short changed and there were good feelings all around.“Cheese!”Checkin’ out his loot.I love being this little boy’s momma!Discovering his Easter basket.Takin’ it all in…Seeing the fire truck and dump truck that both fit on the train tracks that we got him for Christmas.Analyzing the contents: fruit snacks and goldfish crackers (though there was a golden egg that had a few coins in it that Joseph got to put into his bear bank).Gettin’ down to some serious play time.He loves lift-the-flap books (especially the Little People ones), so he was excited to find an Easter one waiting for him.Showing Paul his chocolate bunny……which he thought was too cute to eat. He wanted to play with it instead.Helping me stir the veggies for tonight’s dinner.He wants to help all the time, so I’m trying to find safe things that he can help with.Joseph has never been a fan of sweets (though recently he has started to branch out a bit), so I didn’t think he’d want any ice cream for dessert tonight. Um…I was SO wrong.Reading a book before bedtime.
