A wee bit Irish

Joseph has been looking forward to his birthday for a long time, since for his 5th birthday he would get to have a party at the gymnastics center.  He had a lot of fun with his brothers, cousins, and some friends. His favorite presents included a Wild Kratts vest and some new creature power disks, and a little Goofy fan. Happy birthday, Joseph!

Teaching moments

The YMCA karate program only lets kids start at age 5, so Joseph can't do it yet but he is very interested to watch his brothers do it.  Recently he asked Michael if he would show him how to do some karate moves, especially kicks.  It was very sweet :)

More things Joseph says

Joseph: Did you know that a million Earths could fit into the sun? Oscar thinks that's so crazy.

Mike: Joseph, your nose is like a waterfall.
Joseph [puzzled]: No Dad, a waterfall is *fast.*

Me, in the car: Okay, I think I actually remembered everything today.
Joseph: Great job, Mom!

Joseph, out of the blue: If I am going to marry [S], where would the wedding be?
Me: Well, I don't know for sure. But it would have to be a church.
Joseph: Where did you and Dad get married?
Me: At Lita and Papi's church in Orlando. I can show you when we go there.
Joseph: No, actually I don't want to get married. I will be a priest. But what do you have to do to be a priest?
Me: Well, you have to go to seminary school and learn about the Bible, and the Mass, and and the sacraments.
Joseph: And then you get to wear the priest clothes?
Me: Uh, yes.
Joseph: Great. So I'll be a priest. But Oscar wants to get married, don't you, sweet boy??

The next week when we were at church, he went up unprompted after Mass and tugged on the priest's robe until he bent down. Father was just going to give him a high five but Joseph said, "Do you know what? I'm going to be a priest." Father was pretty tickled and asked him name and said he would pray for him. It was pretty sweet. He may be back to wanting to get married next week but it was cute. Although we ought to get one priest out of four sons! :)

Joseph is very much into dinosaurs lately, too. He got a Q-and-A dinosaur book by Usborne for Christmas and we've been reading all the questions and lifting up the flaps to find the answers. Joe has quite the memory when it comes to "reading" and it's funny to me how precise it is. Could dinosaurs swim? "Yes, many of them could. But the swimming reptiles were actually ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs."

Things Joseph says

I have to keep a record of these things, because I will never remember them all in the future ... or believe they came from a three-year-old!  Note: Most of these conversations happen in the car, at completely random times.

Joseph, in March (so just turned three): Mom, did you know it is women's history month?
Me: I guess you learned some things at school today!
Joseph: Yes. I learned about Maria Montessori.  Maria Montessori was a doctor.

Joseph [pointing to collar bone]: What's this bone?
Me: It's your collar bone.  It's above your ribs, and your ribs protect your lungs and heart.
Joseph: Yes.  And God is in my heart!

Joseph: [K] sits with me at lunch.  Sometimes she's my friend.  But sometimes she's not.
Me: It sounds like you and K have an interesting relationship.
Joseph [thinking for a minute]: Yes!  It's a sym-bi-otic relationship. Like a rhino and an oxpecker.

Mike, picking up the kids from school one day: So where do you think your mom is?
Michael and Malcolm: At work.
Joseph: At work.  But Oscar thinks she's at a restaurant.
Malcolm: You don't know that, Joseph.  Oscar can't talk.
Joseph: But that's what he's thinking.  He thinks thoughts in his brain.

Joseph: Mom, why are you sad?
Me: I don't know, that just happens sometimes.
Joseph: Yeah.  Like when Jesus died, that was a very sad thing. I don't know why the soldiers got him because he didn't do anything bad. 
Me: You're right, Joseph.  He was good, so that was sad.  But then he rose from the dead, and it was a miracle.
Joseph: So we are happy!  I feel better now.

So did I, sweet boy.  You sure do have an amazing mind.

Puzzle time

Joseph surprised me this month by starting to do small puzzles on his own.  He likes to talk to himself while working on them (well, he talks pretty much constantly anyway!) and he was very pleased with himself.

Milestones

Joseph cut his last main two teeth - the bottom incisors - two weeks ago.  He was very grumpy and bothered about it, but once they made it through he seemed to be back to normal.  Relatedly I think, that weekend was also the weekend we weaned.  I nursed Michael for almost 14 months, Malcolm for about 16 months, and now Joseph for...26.  Because he really wanted to keep doing it and it was important to him, and I didn't mind and was (mostly) happy to keep it up.  It was down to nighttime and naptime on the weekends for the last few months but he still wanted to.  When I saw he was getting distracted, it was a very noticeable change within the space of a couple of days, so it was an easy call to make.  He was really sad about it for two days ("because I crying"), and then he moved on without a backwards glance.  (Except for some lingering grumpiness about precisely how it's acceptable for me to put him to sleep, as opposed to Dad.)  I was really sad, surprisingly so, for two days also.  Dr. Google told me it was because I was no longer producing oxytocin.  But La Leche League also said, unsurprisingly, it's because it just represents moving on from an important stage.  No more nursing my baby now.  It is bittersweet.

For all those who think I'm a crazy attachment mama in other various ways too, I finally turned Joseph around in the car seat at about 25 months.  (The others stayed rear facing until about 20 months.)  No regrets about doing that, either :)  But Joseph was quite happy to be able to climb in and out of his seat "all myself".  With getting in and out of the car, as well as most other things lately, including taking off his pants, Joseph's favorite phrase is "I do it!  Joseph do it!"  (He uses pronouns quite well, but in case we dim parents don't get it, he'll clarify for us by using his own name... :)  Getting to be quite an independent little toddler.  Sweet boy :)

Joseph birthday pictures

Obviously this is way late also, but here are a few pictures from Joseph's birthday this year.  He is a pretty awesome two-year-old :)

Songs from Joseph

A few songs from Joseph today (but not too many, because he apparently already did the other ones we requested):


Malcolm and Joseph and I were really enjoying the nice weather this evening after so much rain the past few weeks - good for the drought, not so good for playground and outdoor time!

Joseph is two!

Here are a few pictures of Joseph right when he turned two last month :).  I don't have any idea where this kid came from - he's so conversational and funny.  We love you, sweet boy.

With his new animal sounds book

Love that little grin

More chatting with Joseph

Here is Joseph thinking of some people in his family.  The first time he said his own name, he said "Jophess" just like Malcolm used to do :)  But then he figured it out.  His new silly thing to say, when I say, "You're crazy, Joseph," is, "Not crazy.  Mama crazy.  Michael crazy." 

Toddler songs

I finally got Joseph to sing a little bit of the ABC song for me (with a little prompting). He really likes to sing it for his brothers. He actually came up to me the other day holding the "J" from his alphabet puzzle and said "Joseph!" That was pretty cool. He also recognizes D for Dada, F for fish, M for Mama, A for Apple, B for Ball, and O. I think Michael was starting to recognize his letters around now (23 months) and it's really neat to see.

Joseph surprised me in this video, too. He's been saying his numbers to us recently (he can pronounce "eleven" very precisely), so I was trying to get him to say the numbers up to ten. I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes, though, because I didn't even realize at first that he was saying the nursery rhyme (one, two, buckle my shoe) instead. He must be saying that one at preschool, because it isn't one of the ones we've been practicing at home. (Like "Ring around the rosy" as well.) His teacher says he is very attentive when they sing their little nursery rhymes :)

Speeding towards two

Joseph is going through quite the developmental stage at 22 months.  He's becoming even more expressive, by which I mean more prone to: wail at the drop of a hat, talk up a storm, look for things to throw/dump on the floor, eat two helpings of every meal and then beg for some of yours, sing songs, and chat with his brothers. 

I think the most notable things he's done lately are to really start singing and talking clearly.  This past week he said his first complete sentence.  He was sitting with me in our room, and then looked behind him at our Guadalupe picture and said clearly, "I see Mary."  I think we were BOTH really excited about that because he started "seeing" everyone else after that, too :)  "I see Michael.  I see Malcolm.  I see Dada."  He says, "I got it, Mama" when he gets his hat.  And when I said, "Mama loves you," he repeated it but added more people again :)  "Dada loves you.  Papi loves you.  Uncle Chris loves you."  He says every word very precisely and slowly - it's like you can see the wheels turning in his head to put together the sentences.  It's really awesome to see.  The other one that cracked me up this week was once in the middle of the night, he popped up when I came in and said, "Hello, Mom," and then when I changed his diaper after nursing him he lay there quietly, thinking, and said, "Michael Malcolm sleeping, Mama."  Yep, and you better go back to sleep too.

Joseph is exceedingly polite.  He uses everyone's name when he talks to them and always says please ("meese") and thank you.  "Meese, Dada.  Thank you, Malcolm.  Agua and ice, meese, Mama."  He says hi and bye to all his little classmates and any friends who come to our house.

In his high chair recently, he started swaying and singing, "Ashes, ashes, all fall down."  I think that was from preschool - he's very attentive to all the little songs they do.  He also sings along to Michael's "Incredible Flexible You" CD by singing the words to use your "WHOOOOOOLE BODY" to listen.  More and more words keep being added for these songs, which he really seems to like.  It's fun to dance with him.

He did throw his first tantrum the other week over where and on what conditions he was allowed to eat a banana.  That earned him his first, and so far only (but we all know it's coming), trip to time out.  I was amused to note recently that when Mike told him to stop crying for French fries and ask nicely if he wanted one, Joseph took a huge breath and actually did stop crying pretty quickly.  You could see him using all his control to calm down and then stick his finger up and say, "One," very clearly.  Little negotiator in training.  I was kind of amazed he could turn it off that quickly, but I'll have to remember that lesson!

Joseph's current favorite books are The Foot Book, Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell, and a Thomas the Train ABC book he got for Christmas.  He likes to put on his own winter hat.  He does not like footie pajamas.  He does like snacks in his snack pack.  Life with this little boy is a blast :)

A very merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  We've really been enjoying Advent around here this year and are so happy to be in the Christmas season now.  I feel like December was ridiculously busy at work, with at least ten loan closings between Thanksgiving and last Friday, when I proceeded to pick up another four on behalf of my colleague who's out on leave for a few weeks, plus one of my own.  It's a lot for "part-time" (even though it mostly works out...).  But despite the hectic nature of the season, I think we did a nice job of getting out to Christmas activities, like the city parade and the ND Club brunch, and doing fun things at home like decorating the house, singing carols, doing the Advent wreath each week, reading Christmas stories, and watching the new DVDs that St. Nicholas brought on his feast day: the new Signing Time Christmas special and the Brother Francis Christmas story.  You always wonder what the kids will key in on.  In our case this year, Malcolm was particularly focused on the soldiers.  "How come they wanted to kill baby Jesus??"  Not the part you usually focus on, but I guess it grabbed their interest!  They also liked the detail of Zechariah not being able to speak until John the Baptist was born.  For his part, Joseph was very attentive to some of the new signs.  When Christmas trees popped up on the altar last week at Mass he tried to sign "Christmas tree" - so cool.  He also got the sign for "Mary" and "candy cane." 

For Christmas morning, we had one false start at first.  The boys snuck into the living room before we were up and had quietly started tearing open presents, including one for Joseph, before we caught them.  We said, "Didn't you know that you were supposed to get us before you opened anything?" and Michael said, "I did know, but I decided we should just go ahead."  Admirably direct, I suppose.  We took a couple of minute to reset while I rewapped Joseph's present, then started again with everyone, and had a wonderful morning.  We Skyped with some family members and managed to make it out the door on time.

Mom and the boys

Malcolm holding Dad's present for him

Walkie-talkies!

Malcolm likes watching the old Disney three little pigs cartoon so he was excited about the book

New movie about St. Augustine that I have wanted to watch for a long time - cool!

Say cheese, Joseph!  He loved his Thomas books.

Benjamin Bunny story for Malcolm

Reading new books with Dad

Nice present from Michael I to Michael II

Malcolm loved his new Cubs outfit from Uncle Ryan

At church everyone was pretty well-behaved, but when I tried to get a family picture before we left, Malcolm threw himself down at the altar rail and did the dead-weight routine, refusing to look.  I suppose that's in character for him so the picture is accurate!  Later in the day, though, Malcolm took at least a hundred pictures on his own new kids' digital camera, including some lovely blurry shots of the roof, the carpet, his shoe, and Joseph's hat.  He also took his first selfie.  He had a grand old time.  We got a kick out of it and are very happy he likes the new present :)  We enjoyed some play time in the backyard (LOVE this Texas weather) and had a family dinner of ham, carrots and potatoes, and rolls, which surprisingly, everyone ate.  A few more stories and the exhausted kiddos were down for the count.  Merry Christmas!!

A Christmas classic

We don't actually have a Christmas tradition of Santa Claus pictures, but I think this one is an instant classic of the genre, at least for our family:

We went to the Notre Dame Club's Christmas brunch last week, our first Club event in some time, and it was a lot of fun.  They had a photographer there so we actually got some really nice pictures from the event, which was an added treat.  Excellent food and nice to connect with some old and new Irish friends.

Joseph wanted pretty much everything in sequence: eggs, pancakes, potatoes, fruit, and anything else we had

Malcolm carefully decorates his own ornament

Malcolm and Joseph spinning around

New conversations

Joseph is figuring out how to say people's names this month. Michael is "Ky-cull," Canon is "Nannon," his little friends at preschool are Grace and Connor, and he got "Papi" down completely this past week. He is combining them with new words every day and even carrying on little conversations. Yesterday I told him it was time for a bath. He said, "No, Mama. Movie." He started kicking his feet and wailing while I relocated him to change his diaper and take a bath, and stubbornly sat still in the bath, rejecting every toy, for several minutes. Eventually he gave in and started playing with the rubber Percy and Gordon trains (as an aside, I'm amazed he can say those names and recognize the silly trains already). But after a few minutes of being distracted, the thought visibly popped back into his mind and he looked up and said, "All done bath. Movie," and stood right up in the tub. He doesn't stay distracted very long! He also remembers if we promise to go to the playground and bring bikes. If I don't remember the bikes he gets upset. Can't pull anything over on this guy.

Later, after I got his pajamas on and he watched a little bit of his movie with his brothers (they had been watching after dinner - I pulled him away for the bath), he wandered back to find me in the bedroom, looked up, and earnestly signed and said, "Cookie, Mama." I got down on his level and said, "No more cookie, Joseph. All done." He looked me right back in the eye and insisted, "Cookie, Mama," and grabbed my hand to confidently lead me back toward the kitchen and straight to the pantry. The focus and determination made me laugh out loud. I admit I gave him two animal crackers. He was quite satisfied with the results.

Here's a video of Joseph zooming on the tricycle at the playground. He's getting pretty good and he wants to go the same distance around the park as his brothers do - but at 20 months!  I am keeping him reined in to more reasonable limits...

Joseph pictures

He actually said "cheese" for this picture, silly goose

Joseph loves bath time - always happy to run to the bathtub and very serious about the business of playing and pouring water

I've been trying to go to confession on more of a consistent basis and usually take Joseph with me, but we were too early a few weeks ago so he hung out with me in the community lounge

Grocery shopping with a sweet little companion

Hanging out with Dad at the zoo

Holding his brother's hand at the playground.  Melting mom :)

Signs and words

Joseph's communication is really taking off this month and we are loving it.  This month has seen the arrival of a lot of two-word phrases and one sort-of four-word one: "All done appa joo!")  Some of them include, "Bye-bye playground" (comes out like puh-goun), "Mama up," "Dada car," "Pooh stuck" (looking at the picture in his room of Pooh stuck in Rabbit's front door).  But by far the most common combination of words is anything involving the word MY, which is now crystal clear.  My agua, my appa joo, my appa, my nana, my car, my cup, my shoe, my Elmo, my playground, my cracker.  MINE!!!  Hahah.  This child must be a third child or something.  It's hilarious.  He is actively defending his turf.

Joseph also says "truck" whenever he hears a fire engine, "buh" when he sees the school buses go by, "spoon" and "plate" when he helps unload the dishwasher, and "duck" and "quack quack" when we walk by the creek.  He vigorously signs and says baby, girl, boy, rain, wind, cracker, plane, help, and go.  I have so much delight in this age as he learns to communicate something new almost every day.

Help, help

Go!!

Trying to sign "bug"

One and a half

At eighteen months, Joseph is so much fun.  With a great little personality, he is generally happy, easy-going, and keenly interested in everything that's going on around him.  It's interesting how with him I notice many more personality traits defined by how he relates to his brothers, since they're such a huge part of his life!  He loves to play with them and tries to keep up, playing chase, sitting right in the middle of their train tracks, and playing with cars.  He's also very protective of his things - he can screech and do a close approximation of "Mine!!" when Malcolm tries to take a toy away.  We're continuing to work on the concept of, if you want to play with Joseph's toy, you need to offer him another one in exchange first.  That usually works pretty well since Joseph is still quite distractible.  Joseph loves to play games like his big brothers too.  He likes to kick the little soccer ball during their soccer practices.  He also carefully placed the big soccer ball on the t-ball stand a few times and tried to bat it, which we found hilarious.

He can get on the tricycle by himself now too!

A little more adventurous than I would like at this age on the playground

 Joseph's expanding vocabulary now includes most prominently "no," which he deploys constantly.  I'm trying to teach him that "yes" (or "si") is another perfectly acceptable reply to us.  He can also say "up," "go," "Elmo," "on," "sit," "appa joo," "crack-uh," and "nana."  His signing vocabulary includes quite a bit more, with some new signs including "hurt," "outside," "help," "cookie," and "hat."  Not having the benefit of being around Elizabeth like the other boys did, :( I still have managed to teach him to answer "uno!" when I ask "Cuantos anos tienes?" :)  I love how much one-year-olds can understand - he can follow directions quite clearly, like if you ask him to go bring something to Dad in the other room, or put something in the trash.  He can identify the fish, dog, cat, bird, and frog on our wooden puzzle (and he goes to get his puzzle out if you ask to play it with him.)  And of course that physical communication works great - he loves to grab Mike's and my fingers to lead us exactly where he would like us to come.  If we let him lead us along, he'll have a pleased look on his face and wave "bye!!" to everyone else in the room.

The cutest

Joseph is also a nice helper around the house.  He likes to help us sweep, and scrutinize every purchase at the grocery store before tossing it into the back of the cart.  On one trip he came with me to Walmart, he spent the whole time noticing Elmo all around the store and chatting away unintelligibly about everything he saw :)

Joseph still loves to read his board books and will happily go get some books for you to read to him anytime.  He's such a busy little toddler that I just love when he still wants to snuggle up to read a book or put his head down on my shoulder.  I do continue to wish he'd sleep through the night but as long as those sweet little arms are reaching up to give a hug when he says "Mama," I still can't  mind too much.  We love you, Joey B.