Keddiebears

A new family photo!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:57:00 +0000

(I know, I know, I have such a huge blog backlog to get through... And hopefully will find time for a good old-fashioned blog burst sometime soon, and will back-date all those posts. But here's something we've been dying to share for a while now!)

Expected due date: August 9, 2012. :)

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Our 2011 Christmas card

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:18:00 +0000

This year, we simplified things a lot for our annual Christmas card. No professional family photos this year, and, unfortunately, not enough time for a handwritten note like we did last year, which really disappointed the etiquette stickler in me. But know that we thought of each and every one of you fondly as we put together and addressed our cards this year, and that we wish you all much joy this holiday season!

(By the way, that photo of Joshua on the back of our card is hands down my favorite image of him from this year. And we thought it was the perfect photo for spreading some holiday joy!)

Merry Christmas to all of you, dear friends and family!

Christmas craftiness

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:15:00 +0000

One more post for tonight's blog burst... I think it's okay to go ahead and post this since the grandparents who regularly read this blog have already received their Christmas present from Joshua, and the other, less tech-savvy grandparents will be getting theirs on Sunday. :)

In a fit of craftiness on a rare weekend off, I decided to actually DO some of the many fun ideas I've pinned on Pinterest over the last year. (Side bar: have you gotten hooked on Pinterest yet? It's such a fun place to dream about the many fun ideas that I would, of course, perfectly execute, if I only had the time...)

The first project I took on was a fingerpainting canvas, adapted from the idea originally found here. I got enough white letter stickers to spell out Joshua's name twice (the white blended in with the blank canvas, which I think helped prevent the wee maestro from getting distracted and trying to pick off the letters), then set up a little paint station for him. This was his first time playing with paint, and I think at first he was very distressed at how messy his hands got. I would dip them in the paint and try to show him how to smear it on the canvas, but he would immediately lift his hands up to me and complain until I wiped the paint off. So the first try was a bit of a fail.

Then I gave him a paintbrush to play with, and all was right in his world. :) Of course, because he was sitting in his booster seat, and because I'd squeezed the paint onto plastic plates, he apparently thought I was giving him a new utensil to try eating a new snack... It's a good thing the paint is nontoxic! But I eventually convinced him that paint =/= food, and we started getting somewhere with the project.

Once the paint set, I peeled off the letter stickers, and was pleasantly surprised at how the canvases turned out!

After the paint project, I tried to take Joshua out of his "smock" (a large t-shirt that I never wear), but he kept running back to it and asking for the shirt, so I relented and let him run around the house with it on for a while. What an adorable little artist!

Then, later that weekend, I tried my hand at another Pinterest project. Or perhaps I should say, I tried Joshua's hand at it... ;) We have a yearly tradition of choosing an ornament that somehow epitomizes the past year for our family. You can find blog posts describing past years' ornaments here. This year, we decided an ornament made by Joshua would be a fun addition to our family collection. So I decided to try replicating this super-cute idea...

And, okay, by "replicate," I mean "copy exactly." But look! It's Joshua's hand! And super-cute little snowmen! He was very curious about just what exactly I was pressing his hand into, so he actually held still and just watched while I placed and pressed his hand. Then after 24 hours for it to dry, I got to bust out our fine-point Sharpies and play artist myself for a bit. And I'm really happy with our little homemade ornament -- the first of hopefully many homemade additions Joshua will make to our collection!

Christmas Vespers 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:48:00 +0000

Sunday evening, December 11, was the annual interfellowship Christmas Vespers. And as always, it was such a beautiful service! There were a record-breaking 38 students in the choir, which sounded absolutely majestic in the soaring splendor of Rockefeller Common Room, singing music beautifully arranged, as always, by Jamie Rankin. We also had a harp, several string instruments, a percussion section, some woodwinds, and Rob Dunlop '01 coming back for his umpteenth year as the French hornist. :)

The readings, though familiar, always bring home to me new facets and applications of the Incarnation. And we had some seriously powerful soloists this year! The songs chosen for this service always move me to tears, and this year was no exception.

David Buschman gave a touching message on how the Old Testament comes to a point or apex with the birth of Christ, which then spreads the message of God's salvation to all peoples everywhere -- the hourglass view of all history, if you will.

It was so restorative, in the midst of this busy season in our lives, to come together in worship and be reminded anew of God's great gift of grace.

How to illustrate a successful children's book [VIDEO]

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Attention all aspiring children's book illustrators -- here's a tip from our very discerning 22-month-old that will guarantee instant success with the obsessive toddler set!

Include on every single page a tiny, cute critter, utterly unrelated to the story itself, but noticeable enough for toddlers to latch onto the unrelated critter in favor of anything else going on in the story itself.

Maybe this is just Joshua, but in no less than five of his books (all five of which are his current favorites, by the way), the illustrators have included a random little critter which repeats on every spread of the book. For instance, in the newly-released "Charlie the Ranch Dog," by Ree Drummond (a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman), there's a little chipmunk that sort of acts as Charlie's little sidekick. I say "sort of," because the chipmunk is never mentioned in the story itself, nor does it actually play a role in moving along the plot. And yet, there he is, hidden on every page -- and Joshua loves finding him. He knows where the chipmunk is on every page and will gleefully flip through the book, shouting "munk! MUNK!" and pointing him out.

And it's not just some newfangled trend, either. The 20-year-old Helen Oxenbury book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" has a plucky little dog on every page. And "Goodnight Moon," the undisputed children's classic, has a little mouse hidden on every full-color spread. Now, the mouse is mentioned twice in the book, but I still think this counts.

Let's watch as Joshua demonstrates how fun it is to fixate on the little things:

This video is actually a couple weeks old -- Joshua can now rip through the entire book forwards, backwards, and upside down and immediately point out the little "mow! mow!" on each page. I have to say, I can't wait until he's old enough to read through the "Where's Waldo" books -- I have a hunch that he's going to love those!

Thanksgiving with the Keddies!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:33:00 +0000

Let's see if I can get a Thanksgiving post up before Christmas... :)

We hosted David's family for Thanksgiving this year -- it helps having David's brother and his wife living in Manhattan now. (Still getting used to thinking of Iain and Erin as married!) So David's parents drove out from Indy, and Iain and Erin took the train down from the city, and we all missed Donald, who's out in South Korea now...

The last time we hosted Thanksgiving, I was heavily pregnant. And now look at our great big boy, imperiously commanding all of us on a brief walk around the neighborhood!

He had so much fun exploring with Grandma and Grandpa -- and I don't think they really minded being ordered around by such a benevolent dictator. :)

(Here's where we switch to iPhone/Instagram pics...)

After a lovely, Wegmans-catered Thanksgiving dinner, we all hung out with Joshua and his books and trains. Mostly his books -- he loved having so many new adults to beg to read to him!

Then on Black Friday, we made a trip into the city to hang out with Erin's family. It was Joshua's first time on a train -- and both Joshua's and Grandpa's first time on the New York subway!

We then walked the High Line, a really lovely park converted from an old elevated rail line. Currently, it runs from the meatpacking district up to Penn Station, but I believe there are plans to expand it further north. I'm afraid Joshua wasn't terribly impressed -- but at least he got a nap in during this very busy and exciting day!

All in all, it was a lovely holiday weekend with family. We have so many things to be thankful for!

The Joshua update

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:41:00 +0000

Clearly, I've given up on regularly tracking Joshua's daily, or even monthly, milestones... But here's an attempt at preserving some of the memories and developmental milestones from the last few months!

One of his favorite games this fall has been finding the smallest possible nook or cranny into which he can fit himself, and then cramming himself into it, waiting with gleeful anticipation for us to find him and yell "boo!" At our apartment, that's the eight or so inches between a buffet and the wall. But over at his buddy Phil's house, he's managed to squeeze himself into spaces that can't be more than five or six inches wide, much to our amazement and laughter. He just looks so darn cute as he squishes himself into the space and grins out at us...

In the last two months or so, Joshua's vocabulary has exploded. Back in August, he had a few command words, and would dutifully repeat some words after us, if we caught him in just the right mood. But since about 20 months, he's become a regular chatterbox! He'll gleefully repeat pretty much anything you ask him to say, but he also has dozens and dozens of words that he'll say of his own volition. It's so exciting watching him make connections and figure out how to express what he wants. And it's remarkable how quickly he picks things up! Case in point: his own name. He started responding to us asking "what's your name?" with bemused giggles and the occasional "mama?" Within a day, after just a little coaching, he learned to respond with "Dosh-oo!" The next day, it was "Dwosh-oo," then "Josh-oo!" Just a few days later, it was a full-fledged (and extremely adorable) "Josh-oo-a!" His name is, I think, the only 3-syllable word he's managed so far, but I tell ya, more will be coming soon, at this rate.

Speaking of new words, one of the best new acquisitions to date is "please." :) He went through a phase where he would point at what he wanted and then grunt at you insistently. Our wonderful nanny, Hana, was the first to have success in breaking that particular habit -- she taught him to grunt and then say "please" (or, in Joshua vernacular, "pease! pease!"). It was actually really cute, what with the deep guttural grunt immediately followed with this tiny chirping "pease!" More recently, he's begun to drop the grunt entirely, usually pointing insistently and then saying "pease," sometimes without our prompting. So heartmeltingly sweet!

Joshua has also clearly inherited our organizational tendencies. Though he's very much a toddler, prone to tossing his toys around and delighting in making messes, he also has a strong natural bent towards straight lines and meticulous organization. He's taken to putting all of his cars neatly in a row on the table as part of his game play -- either lined up next to each other all facing the same direction, or lined up end to end. He also knows how to put his books away after dumping them all out on the floor. And perhaps his most useful new trick is throwing away trash -- he'll pick up bits of paper or tissue and march them over to the trashcan and dutifully throw them out. He'll also take our trash (packaging from online purchases, napkins from dinner, etc.) and throw it away for us -- he's already becoming useful around here!

He still likes carrying around identical or similar objects, but these days, it's usually particular pairings of his toy cars. His current favorites are his red fire truck and yellow SUV, but in a pinch (i.e., if one or the other is lost under a couch), he'll run around with his taxi and police car. But it's always these pairings -- lose both the fire truck and the taxi, and you'll be faced with toddler confusion and meltdown.

If I'm ever in danger of forgetting that our son is pure boy, I'll be forcibly reminded with his multiple requests for "airplane" and "fly" and other physical games. Joshua loooooves roughhousing, and never laughs harder than when he's being flung up in the air. He'll come up to you, give you his most entreating look, and ask "Flyyyyy? Pease! Pease!" It's quite the upper body workout, but so worth it for the glee on his face!

This fall, he's also learned to love going on walks with us. During the day, while I was at the office, David would take him for long rambles around the neighborhood, over to the nearby shopping complex, or down the canal and up as far as campus. For the longer stretches, Joshua would ride the stroller for most of it, but his little legs can go as much as a mile before he'll start asking to be picked up. He's also learned to hold our hands when walking outside -- more often than not, he'll reach up imperiously and demand that we both hold his hands. As that's a habit we want to encourage, we always give in to those demands. :)

Though Joshua's vocabulary really has been growing in leaps and bounds, he's also reaching the stage where he has desires that he can't express clearly -- or worse, where he's learned how to express a desire, and knows that we understand him, but for some terrible, unknown reason, we're maliciously denying him his request. Or at least, that must be how he feels, given the extent of his meltdowns... Most recently, he's started getting frustrated when David sits in a particular spot on the couch -- the spot where he wants to bounce up and down. He'll come up to David, and say things like "moooove" or "pease!" If that doesn't work, he'll dig his arms underneath David and attempt to physically move him. And when that doesn't work, he'll go into full out meltdown mode. His tantrums don't really last that long, and he generally knows that he's not going to get anywhere with us with the meltdowns, but it still makes this softie of a mama feel bad.

The worst tantrums Joshua throws directly at me are centered on my iPhone. I've loaded a few toddler game apps onto it, and he loves sitting in my lap and tapping on the screen to make different things happen. But when I move to take it away from him, he'll start pleading with me -- "Phone, mama, phonnnnnnne! Pease! Pease!" His addiction to my phone is such that when he catches a glimpse of it, he'll start demanding to play with it. So we've decided to cut him off cold turkey. Which makes it difficult for me to take iPhone photos or videos of him... I've realized, though, that if I take my phone out of its case (which has a lovely family photo printed on it), he won't want it immediately. I think he assumes that the black iPhone is his daddy's boring old phone? So while we work him through a toddler 12-step program to wean him from his phone addiction, I can at least buy myself enough time to take quick snapshots of him now and again. ;)

And to show that our son isn't just a screen junkie -- he absolutely loves his books. Every single one of them. As of a couple weeks ago, he was in a phase where he would bring you a book, plop himself down in your lap or next to you, and point at your mouth saying "pease" until you started reading to him. And then he would repeat over and over and over again, sometimes with different books, sometimes with the same book from the very beginning. He has a few particular favorites -- he loves pointing out the chipmunk on each page of the beautifully illustrated Charlie the Ranch Dog, and naming each animal throughout The Mitten, and I think he really likes my rendition of Chugga Chugga Choo Choo. These days, though, he seems to prefer "speed reading" through the books himself, flipping through the pages with just barely enough time to look at the pictures. But when he's tired, or in a patient mood, he'll still let us read to him. It does our book-loving hearts proud!

I wish I had time to blog more regularly, if just to capture each of these little memories more completely... He's growing up so fast!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:49:00 +0000

OK, so I have to confess -- I found my idea for Joshua's Halloween costume this year on Pinterest, so I can't exactly claim creativity points on this one. But I still think our wee Clark Kent is the cutest Clark Kent ever!

We already had most of the pieces of this costume -- a cute little navy blazer for him to wear to weddings and for Christmas, plus Superman PJs (because every toddler boy looks ridiculously adorable in Superman PJs!). The only thing missing was horn-rimmed glasses. I found a $3 pair on Amazon -- and it's a good thing I didn't spend any more on them, because the first time I let him play with them, in hopes of getting him acclimated to actually putting them on his face, he gleefully snapped off one of the stems within seconds. Oops. But I taped it back on, and let him just hold them during our little Halloween "photo session," and I think it still works!

So without further ado -- the cutest Clark Kent / Superman ever!

And my very, very favorite:

[Just as a comparison: I can't believe how much he's grown up since last Halloween!]

Interfellowship Friday, fall 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:30:00 +0000

At the end of October, we had an Interfellowship Friday large group meeting -- it's fast becoming an every-semester tradition, which is awesome to see! The speaker this fall was R. York Moore, a National Evangelist for Intervarsity, and someone deeply involved in the work of the International Justice Mission, an organization dedicated to freeing modern-day slaves and using the rule of law to end human trafficking. York gave an inspiring message on justice and the role that we as Christians are all called to play in doing God's work. It was a message that I particularly needed to hear, and one that I'm still working through, so I was very thankful that I got to attend this session.

It's also always encouraging to see the different Christian groups gather together to worship. "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!"

A fall day full of photography

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 21:19:00 +0000

One beautiful Saturday in October, I had not one, but TWO awesome get-togethers with friends who have been bitten by the photography bug. It was so good to reconnect with my old friend, the camera... :)

The first get-together was with a group of amazing women I initially met through an online photography forum, but have since gotten to know in real life and now consider dear friends. I brought Joshua along and took some photos of him for the first time in weeks -- and took advantage of having other photographers there to get some really cute shots of the two of us together! (The two below of the two of us were taken on my camera, so I'm not 100% sure who they were taken by, but I think both were shot by Kim Schmidt, local photographer extraordinaire and amazing kid-whisperer!)

Then later that day, I got together with a bunch of PEF girls who were itching to go off-campus on a photography ramble. We first went out to the hiking trails in the Mountain Lakes Preserves, and then to an overgrown 17th-century cemetery in the middle of West Windsor fields. As I didn't have a (delightful but in need of much supervision) toddler along with me this time, I had more of a chance to actually take photos on this excursion!

I'm thankful for every opportunity I have in our crazy busy lives just to enjoy sharing a hobby with friends. And I'm so thankful for the wonderful friends with whom I made these memories!

Greg's 40th birthday party!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:56:00 +0000

The next major "event" from this fall was our dear friend Greg's surprise birthday party. Earlier this year, Greg helped plan a surprise baby shower for his lovely wife, Aime, so she decided to return the favor with a surprise birthday party for him. Surprisingly (hehe), both parties were actually surprises to the guests of honor -- they're both either really sneaky party planners, or really gullible guests. ;)

Joshua was unfortunately under the weather that weekend, so he and David had to stay home. But there were tons of other little kiddos to play with at the party -- as well as good food, good friends, and great conversation!

And one shot of Greg's family members who came into town to celebrate his birthday with him:

Happy birthday again, Greg! Wishing you a richly blessed and joy-filled next forty years!

PEF Beach Retreat 2011!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:04:00 +0000

And now we've made it to the beginning of the school year! :) PEF kicked off the year with its annual beach retreat, and I took a half day so Joshua and I could go for part of it!

The theme this year was hospitality as evangelism and outreach, and I think the students really, really took the messages to heart. It was incredibly encouraging to see students reaching out to incoming freshmen, thinking about ways to expand their natural friend circles, and just seeking to love the entire body. And now, three months into the school year, it's still going strong.

And here are just a few (okay, a ton...) of my favorite photos from the retreat!

Iain and Erin's wedding!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Also back in August, David's brother Iain got married to the lovely Erin! I was the semi-official photographer, and it was so sweet to (try to) capture just how *happy* they both were. It was a tiny wedding -- they had actually only given us a few days' notice, so it was just immediate family, and not even all of our immediate family, given the time constraints and difficulties with traveling. But those of us who were there were overjoyed to celebrate with the happy couple!

Congratulations again, you two! We love you both!

Vacation in Indianapolis

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:25:00 +0000

So hmm, it's been almost four months... Yikes. Life has just been so full and busy for us! But I'm determined to not let this blog die -- so I'm taking this holiday weekend to try to catch up on everything that hasn't been blogged this summer/fall! These will likely be mostly photo dumps without as much scintillating commentary, but at least I'm finally getting something back up on the blog...

Back in August, we got to spend a lovely vacation with David's parents out in Indianapolis. We had so much fun being taken care of, and the grandparents loved playing with Joshua -- it's pretty clear that Skyping with them has taught Joshua their faces and voices, so he was comfortable with them from the get-go. And he loved exploring and re-learning their house!

We took Joshua to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, which is apparently the largest children's museum in the US. Joshua enjoyed most of the exhibits, but wow, did he LOVE the water table... We tried directing him away to see some of the other play areas, but every time we let go of his hand, he made an immediate beeline back to the water table. And who can blame him -- it really is so much fun to splash around without restraint!

And then we had a day trip to the Indy Zoo!

And perhaps my favorite photo from this trip: a sweet moment between Grandma and grandson.

I would close by saying something about how we can't wait to see family again, but, well, we just hosted them for Thanksgiving. :) Hopefully I'll get to posting about that sooner than four months from now!

Another potpourri update

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:35:00 +0000

What's that, Joshua?

You're wondering how there could be a Keddiebears blog burst without a post dedicated to you? No fear -- here we go with another bullet-pointed attempt to keep up on your daily milestones!

The photo above reminds me -- I cut Joshua's hair myself for the first time, and we both survived! As you can see, it was getting pretty scraggly, especially over his ears... His first visit to a salon, kid-friendly though it tried to be, was not exactly a roaring success, so I decided to give it a try at home. In preparation, I spent a fair amount of time watching YouTube videos and googling for tips -- my favorite hit was this 25-step guide to cutting a toddler's hair... Surprisingly, though, our experience went fairly well. I set up his travel high chair on our porch, downloaded a Backyardigans video onto our iPad, and very gingerly set about trimming his hair while trying to keep his attention focused on the cartoon. Which mostly worked -- though every time I brought scissors near his ears, he would crane his head around in an attempt to look at and/or lick them. So the sides of his hair are very, very uneven. Sigh. But we made it without any injuries, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to cut his hair at home at least until he's old enough to want something cooler than what I can manage... :)
Joshua's vocabulary has been exploding in recent weeks. He has two "command" words down pat -- UP!, and CHEESE! (which sounds more like "chizzzzz"). He'll imperiously yell "UP! UP! UP!" right at his chosen target until said target picks him up; he's getting better about letting you off the hook if you tell him "not right now," though. :) And when he's hungry, he'll march over to his high chair and start saying either "UP!" or "CHEESE!" until you get him some food. But he's also starting to expand his regular vocabulary, which is really exciting to watch. Some of the many words he now clearly understands and (mostly) clearly enunciates: mama, dada, bye-bye, hi, hello, light, hat, chase, knee, wall, apple, vroom. And he's been attempting "dinosaur" -- his version consists of him getting very, very excited when he sees toy dinosaurs and yelling "DIE! DIE! DIE!" :) And he's also fairly reliably repeating us when we ask him to say words (like book, spoon, fruit, train, fan, and any number of animal noises). So much fun!

Joshua has also recently experienced crazy leaps and bounds in comprehension. And obedience! The other day, David was getting ready to take Joshua out for some errands, and told him, "Let's go out!" And Joshua immediately toddled over to the shoe closet, found his shoes, and brought them to David for help in putting them on. Such a smart wee boy! :) He also responds to "Do you need a diaper change?" (by running to his changing table and waiting), "Leave the ___ alone" (by sloooowly and reluctantly moving away from the tempting forbidden item), "Put the ___ back" (by actually putting the item back in its proper place!), and so much more. It's incredible how much he clearly understands what we're saying to and near him -- we're going to need to start watching what we say around him!
Speaking of understanding the world around him... He seems to think that all little rectangular objects are phones. The other day, he grabbed the power cord to my laptop (which he knows he's not supposed to play with), but before I could tell him to put it down, he picked up the (little black rectangular) power brick, put it to his ear, and said "Hello?" I'm afraid we were too busy laughing to discipline him for playing with the cord... :) Other objects he's used as a "phone" include a large Mega Block, rectangular fridge magnets, remote controls, small cardboard boxes, and of course our phones themselves, when he can get his hands on them!

The three of us have also recently invented a fun new alphabet game. Joshua loves running laps around our dining room table, so I'll sometimes sit off to one side and say "boo!" or "hi!" when he rounds the corner and sees me. He started to repeat what I would say, so for fun, David tried getting Joshua to repeat the alphabet after him -- and it worked! Though currently only up to the letter J (he seems to have trouble with the hard K sound), and only when Joshua is in the mood to perform... But it's so ridiculously cute, seeing his little legs run and hearing his renditions of the letters A through J. Especially when he gets distracted by how similar "G" is to his version of "cheese," and gets stuck on one of his favorite words. :)
Joshua also knows an ever-increasing number of body parts. He has obediently pointed to his head, ear, belly and knee for a couple months now, but he's recently added to his repertoire cheeks, hair, mouth, belly button, legs, feet and toes. His response to "cheeks!" is the cutest -- ask him where his cheeks are, and he'll think for a second, and then put both hands on his cheeks ("Home Alone" style) and give you a huge grin. We love demonstrating that particular party trick. :)

We've also started allowing him to feed himself his yogurt with a spoon. He's a very independent little guy, so he's been wanting to grab the spoon himself for a while, but it's taken his OCD parents a considerable amount of time to be ready for the mess that this entails... The first few times were incredibly messy -- he would stick the spoon into the yogurt, then gleefully wave it around in the air, flinging yogurt on the floor, in his hair, all over his tray... But after just a week or so, he started to get the hang of the whole self-spoon-feeding thing. These days, he gets probably about 80% of the yogurt actually into his mouth? Progress!
And we've made some real progress on teaching him not to throw his milk sippy cup. For months (it feels like), he would take a sip of milk, then fling his cup as hard as he could. I think he thought it was a fun game? And of course, because we want him to drink his milk, we would always pick it up and give it back to him. Our usual methods of discipline weren't working -- we tried getting him out of his high chair and putting him in his play pen after he threw the cup, but because it's kind of a long process to get him in and out of his chair, we think the separation wasn't sufficiently linked to his action of throwing the cup -- he'd just look up at us, very confused, and then would immediately throw his cup again once back in the chair. So a couple weeks ago, David decided to just take all his food away when he threw his cup, leaving Joshua strapped in his chair with his tray and food just out of his reach on the dining table. Joshua felt this separation more keenly -- he would reeeeeach for his food and whine (or yell "CHEESE!"). We would then calmly but firmly tell him that if he wanted his food, he needed to stop throwing his milk, wait about 30 seconds, and then give him his tray back. And wonder of wonders, this effectively communicated our point to him! He'll now drink some milk, look quizzically at his cup, and then gently set it down on the side of his tray. And though he tests us still, he also now knows that throwing his cup will result in having his food pushed away for a time, so the throwing has dramatically decreased.

Our wee monkey now also climbs all over everything -- including up onto the back of our couch. Which is not a little terrifying... We have to spot him now when he's on the couch, not because we worry about him falling off, but because we worry he'll climb right over the back of it and fall off the other side. So yes, David was just off to the side while I fired off that shot on the right. We're trying to teach him not to climb up the back at all, but until we can get that lesson down, we're removing all the decorative pillows, which only serve as stepping stools for our little guy... (Also, notice how he still has two identical objects in his hands, even as he climbs over guests like Bryce and all over the couch!)
And his current favorite activity is squatting to read. Not sitting, but squatting -- he'll take a beloved board book, squat on the floor to flip through its pages, and happily "read" for several minutes at a time in a full squat. The kid must have incredibly strong hamstrings and calves by now!

So there's your latest installment of all things Joshua! And that brings us to the end of this blog burst... Thanks for sticking around with us, despite the long periods of radio silence!

Morgan and Brian's wedding!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:49:00 +0000

On July 16, David's cousin Morgan got married! We made a day trip of it out to Harleysville, PA, and had such a wonderful time catching up with family and celebrating Morgan and Brian. There were so many lovely family touches to their wedding -- a cousin playing the prelude and another as the matron of honor, a marriage quilt made up of squares designed by friends and family, black and white family wedding photos as the centerpieces, and so much more. What a wonderful celebration of the joining of two families!

And Joshua continued his good wedding streak, very contentedly being held and played with by other family members, enjoying his kids' meal of chicken fingers and mac and cheese, and clapping with glee at all the fun noises and sights at the reception. :)

Morgan and Brian, we're so glad we could be there with you as you joined your lives together! And we're definitely looking forward to the next cousins' get-together!

July 4th trip to southwestern VA

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:12:00 +0000

As long as I can remember, my dad has dreamed of someday owning some property in the mountains somewhere, where he could build a family vacation home close to the Appalachian Trail and retire to a life of hiking, fishing, and playing with his grandkids. Well, that dream just got a little closer for him -- my parents recently purchased a property in a lovely and remote corner of southwestern Virginia! It's still undeveloped (currently rented out to a farmer to pasture his cows), but my parents have all kinds of grand plans, and are really excited about slowly implementing them over the next several years.

So over the 4th of July weekend, we took a flying trip down to meet up with my parents and brothers and spend a couple days in Hillsville, VA. We were only there for a couple days, but it was such a fun time! The last time my family had seen Joshua was over Thanksgiving -- i.e., before he was even walking. It's incredible what a difference seven months can make... :) My parents were continuously marveling at how fast Joshua can run, and what a funny little personality he has. He invented a game to be played with my brother Eric and my dad, where he would reach across the table for a high five first from Eric, then from my dad. And then he invented a game for my mom, where he would squat to pick up gravel or sticks or other little objects, then look for her and share his spoils with her. SO cute!

Our trip started with dinner at the Old Mill at Mabry, which has an old water mill and some walking trails. Joshua totally led the way in exploring the area. :)

Then the next morning, we drove over to visit my parents' new mountain property. And by "drive," I mean off-road over hills and fields, briefly getting stuck at the bottom of a particularly difficult hill, but finally conquering it with our rented all-wheel-drive Jeep and making it to the top. (And by "we," I mean David -- thank you, honey, for taking on that stressful task!) My parents are thinking of building at the top of that particular hill, which would give them some really beautiful mountain views -- we can't wait to see how it all turns out!

And then later that day, we went on safari. Because that's what one does when one visits southwestern Virginia, of course. ;) My mom found a brochure for the Fort Chiswell Animal Park, a really cool zoo/conservation area, where you can take a guided bus tour through the 45-acre park and interact with camels, water buffalo, zebras, and so many more animals. Joshua was entranced -- even though he was hot and tired, he was still super excited every time an animal approached the bus. What a fun family excursion!

And one of the many videos we took of Joshua on safari! (More can be found in the 2011 Videos gallery of our SmugMug.)

What fun memories! We're looking forward to many more down in this little corner of the country!

Someday, I'll get perfect outdoor Father's Day pics...

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Remember last year's Father's Day photos? Perhaps I was a bit ambitious back then, hoping to get perfect, placid, D-A-D shots with a 5-month-old who had never really spent much time outdoors... But surely it wasn't too naive of me to try again this year, with a much more worldly and experienced 17-month-old, right?

I was determined to continue the tradition we'd started last year of getting D-A-D photos in honor of Father's Day. And while Joshua has continued to be somewhat skeptical of grass, we have had some successful "photo shoots" outdoors this spring (like the wonderful evening walk we took out on the Battlefield), so I allowed myself to dream dreams of perfectly-lit, bucolic outdoor photos of a smiling toddler obediently holding the wooden letters...

Perhaps I should have been warned by the fact that on that lovely evening walk, Joshua flatly refused to walk on the grass, running for the comfort of the paved sidewalk whenever we let him go. And by the fact that the wee emperor has been on a throwing kick, gleefully flinging his toys all over the house...

I took him outside the day before Father's Day (yep, I didn't even give myself any extra lead time to get these photos done), stuck him on the grass, handed him the D, and sprinted back to take the photo. And this is the very, very best I got:

Furrowed brow, confusion, and extreme distaste at the feel of wet prickly grass at his feet. And not two seconds later, the poor D was flung to the ground.

I tried again a few times, but wasn't fast enough to get a shot with him holding the letter. This was the *only* A photo I got:

Not exactly the face I was hoping for...

Tired, sweaty, and on the verge of a meltdown (him more than me, though I was probably close!), we packed it up and brought it all inside. Once we were back in the comfort of home, Joshua was actually curious about these white wooden letters -- he kept rooting around in the bag for them and trying to carry them off to his room. So I figured I would run with it, and try again on the daybed in his nursery.

Turns out, all he needed was for the photo session to be put in terms of a new game. One where he grabbed the letter, put it on his face or on top of his head, and then tried to throw it to me while I sat on the floor next to the bed. :) We had some close calls (thankfully, the letters never hit my camera, though I did get a direct hit to my knee), but I think we got some really fun photos this time around:

These really capture Joshua's playfulness and joy, and are so HIM at this stage of his life. So even though it's not what I had originally planned, these are perfect. Which is a good reminder for this type A over-planner of a mama... :)

And here's the final, official Father's Day 2011 set:

Happy (very) belated Father's day to all you wonderful dads out there!

Rachel and Shay's wedding!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:49:00 +0000

On June 12, we drove out to Long Island for the wedding of one of my college roommates (and one of the very first people I met at Princeton), Rachel! The wedding was held at the DeSeverky mansion, a former DuPont mansion and one of the most beautiful wedding locations we've ever been to. If it weren't a 2.5-hour drive away, I would seriously consider taking Joshua there just for a photo shoot! It was an absolutely lovely backdrop for a beautifully romantic wedding. (For some truly amazing photos, check out the sneak peek from their pro photogs here -- and check it out, Joshua made it into the sneak peek!)

Rachel and Shay really did have such a lovely wedding. They met in Israel while Rachel was posted in Tel Aviv with the State Department, so they officially got married there back in April. But I personally was very, very glad that they had a ceremony close enough for us to drive to in a day with a toddler. ;) Joshua had SO MUCH FUN celebrating -- he played with a fountain off to the side during the ceremony, was enchanted with the hora, clapped along after all of the toasts, and generally charmed the pants off of all and sundry. And we had a lovely time being there for Rachel and Shay and catching up with dear old friends. We all really should get together more often!!

(And this was the first big event I got to use our new 70-200mm telephoto lens -- I looooove this beast of a lens!)

Morgan's bridal shower!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:08:00 +0000

[After another super long blog silence, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things... I'm unconscionably late with this post, so I'm backdating it a few weeks. Stay tuned for more catch-up posts to come!]

Another McMillan cousin got married this summer! Seeing as how we've already been to her wedding, it's probably about time for me to post about her bridal shower earlier this summer... :)

Morgan had a really lovely shower back in early June, hosted by her bridesmaids and friends of hers from church, out in Perkasie, PA. Which, it turns out, requires you to take a number of back roads to get to from central Jersey... I don't think I've ever been so thankful for GPS. It was a really pretty drive, though, with a beautiful home and fun party at the end of it!

Morgan was as beautiful and happy as ever. :)

Tons of gorgeous and delicious food:

And so much fun was had by all!

So glad I could be there to celebrate this wonderful time in your life, Morgan! [And hopefully I'll get your wedding blogged sometime this week while we're on vacation! :)]

PEF Reunions and Graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Just to wrap up the PEF-related year-end posts... One more photo-dump for tonight!

The last weekend of the school year is one of the busiest for the PEF staff. Friday and Saturday are filled with Reunions craziness -- thousands of alumni and their families descend on campus, and a couple hundred of them are PEF alumni who come to our events. SO much fun to catch up and engage in the orange-and-black craziness, but so busy...

And then the Monday following is a big dinner for the senior class and their families, with graduation on Tuesday morning. This dinner is always such a bittersweet time -- a beautiful celebration of four years with the graduating class, wishing them well as they go off into a new season of life...

Congratulations, again, class of 2011! Godspeed, and God bless you all!

PEF Senior Testimonies 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:58:00 +0000

The last two Friday Night Fellowships of the year were devoted to testimonies from the graduating seniors. Unfortunately, Joshua and I weren't able to attend -- though the testimonies were recorded, and I hope to listen to them sometime this summer. (All photos below taken by David, who did a wonderful job!)

Class of 2011, we miss you already! May the Lord bless you and keep you as you move on beyond Princeton!

PEF year-end events!

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:36:00 +0000

Finally, finally, I'm getting around to blogging about all the busyness of the last couple months! First off, a post about two of the PEF year-end events -- the Olympics, and the spring picnic!

It's still so funny to me how athletic and hip PEF is these days... What happened to the "last desperate alliance of geeks and Asians"?? :) We love the Olympics, though -- it's a fun way to spend a Saturday during reading period. And it's full of awesome photo ops!

Another reading period event was our annual spring picnic, right before one of the last Friday Night Fellowships of the year. I posted a bunch of Joshua photos from that night in the last potpourri update post -- he had so much fun running around and making friends that night! And I think the students all had a pretty good time, too.

I especially love this first photo, of Isedua and Joy. I took a fun photo of them their freshman year, and two years later almost to the day, they decided to try to recreate it!

So okay, I couldn't resist including just a teeny bit of Joshua in this post as well. :)

Stay tuned, more catch-up posts to come!

No way out but through...

noreply@blogger.com (Christina) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 21:30:00 +0000

It's been kind of a downward spiral, my relationship with this blog of late... I want to blog. I have so many random little notes scribbled to remind myself of little things I want to share here for posterity's sake. But it's been SO long, and I have SO many stories to share, that I start to get overwhelmed at the backlog... So I wait a little longer, until I have a bigger stretch of free time. And then the backlog grows... But! There's no way out of this backlog but through (because trust me, we're not giving up on this blog!), so here goes nothing... I'm breaking the dry spell with another bullet-pointed potpourri of an update! This time with random, mostly unrelated, but all super-cute photos!

Joshua has become quite the host. :) We have two grad student small groups, one of which is held at our house every Wednesday night, the other of which is hosted at different homes on Sunday afternoons, but sometimes ours. And we live in an apartment building where people have to buzz at the front door to be let in. These days, whenever Joshua hears the buzzer, he'll jump up from whatever he was doing, run to the intercom, and point as hard as he can to the switch until someone pushes the button to open the door. Then he'll run to our front door and stare at it until his friend walks in. So cute!

He clearly believes that people come over to our place for the sole purpose of playing with him. Which is almost true... On Wednesday nights, he'll play with everyone there until his bedtime, which usually means that we get a fairly late start on the actual Bible study. :) A few weeks ago, David tried to get the discussion started, and jokingly told Joshua to go off and play by himself. Joshua obediently toddled off, and David situated himself to start reading the scripture passage. Just as he started, though, Joshua came toddling back, with a determined gleam in his eye -- and maracas in his hands. So much for quiet playing on his own!

One more quick small group Joshua story... He's learning to share! The other week, he was stooping by our coffee table, pulling DVDs off the shelf, while people were coming in and chatting. Joshua picked up one of the DVDs, walked over to Richard, and handed it to him with a huge smile on his face. He then made a game of giving Richard a DVD, walking off a few steps, then running back and asking for it back. After a few passes of this, Joshua ran off to his bedroom -- and came back with his beloved "Dear Zoo" book, which he then shared with Richard. So heart-meltingly sweet!

Joshua looooooves pushing buttons -- on his toys, on our electronics, on his shirts, on his belly... :) My parents got him this great ride-on school bus for Christmas, which he's played with since then, but he's recently really gotten into it. There are buttons you can push to make honking noises and to play a song, and he figured out how to push them all by himself! Of course, that led to him trying out his new button-pushing skills on things like our printer, our CPU tower, and our remote controls... We've had some luck teaching him not to touch the computer table, but it's clearly still a huge source of temptation for the little guy. Putting him in his playpen still works as a good discipline/diversionary tactic, so that's what we're sticking with for now, but we're going to have to branch out and actually read some toddler discipline books soon, I think, so any recommendations would be appreciated!

In an effort to help Joshua move past frustrated whining/tantruming into communication, I started asking him a few weeks ago to say "up" whenever he came to me whining and wanting to be held. To be fair, he was communicating, and loudly -- but we'd still prefer that he learn to use words rather than whining/crying! And "up" is a word he'd used with some frequency in the past. So I figured I would try to see if I could get him to say "up" whenever he wanted to be held. And wow, did that go like gangbusters... It took a couple days of calmly saying "up" to him while he was whining, and only picking him up when he verbalized the word, but he caught on much faster than I expected! Because we wanted to cement the meaning of that word in his mind, we would cheer and pick him up every time he said "up." Which may have backfired a bit... Now, he expects to be picked up every.single.time he says "up." And he knows we know what he means! So next on our list of things to teach Joshua is the meaning of "not right now"...

Speaking of "up," though -- Joshua has recently learned how to climb up onto the couch by himself! He first figured out how to shimmy backwards down off of the couch and our bed, which was a huge safety milestone -- we no longer fear that he'll fall off and hurt himself. And then he gradually reverse-engineered that move. :) He'd shimmy halfway down off the couch, then struggle to figure out how to get himself back up on top. And then he figured out how to use his beanbag as a boost to get up onto the couch. And now, he can climb up all by himself -- he starts out on his tiptoes, throws his head and torso onto the couch, streeeeetches out his right leg until his knee is on the couch, and then pulls/climbs/rolls the rest of the way up. So determined and cute!

Joshua knows so many body parts now! He'll point to his head, ear, nose, belly, and knee fairly reliably, and he'll point to my eye, nose, cheek, ear and chin. Of course, he has to be in just the right mood to comply with our requests, the stubborn wee boy... But it's clear that he knows these words!

We took him in for his 15-month checkup (yikes, over a month ago now, so these stats are old...) -- he weighed 23 lbs., 5 oz., was 32 inches tall, and had a head circumference of 19 inches. And Dr. N was very pleased with his growth, and babbling, and gross/fine motor skills. It's such a blessing to have such fast and easy well-baby visits -- we're so thankful for how healthy our little boy is!

Joshua has four molars fully in now! For a while, we thought he might be working on some more teeth, since he kept chewing on his hands and drooling more than usual, but I think it was actually the back/inner half of the molars. These four molars have fully broken through now, and he seems to be back to a manageable level of drooling. :) Teething hasn't seemed to really bother Joshua at all of late -- I'm hoping this continues, and that we'll have an easy go of the rest of his teeth!

An old friend of ours, John Paul, came over for dinner the other night -- he and his wife are out in Chicago now, but he just got a tenure-track position at Rutgers, so they'll be moving back into the area this fall! Woohoo! One thing I didn't know about John Paul until this dinner visit -- he's totally a baby whisperer. Joshua is generally iffy about new people, and usually squirms and runs away when other people try to hold him. But John Paul gave him his space, and Joshua was fascinated by him... By the end of the evening, Joshua was climbing up onto the couch to be right next to John Paul, and cuddling up to him, and sitting peacefully in his lap while we all talked. David thinks this is because JP is half-Asian... ;) I'm hoping this is signalling the end of stranger anxiety -- especially since Joshua has been more and more okay with new people over the last month. (Like at the PEF graduation dinner, where he was happily held by Dr. Chen for over ten minutes, giving me and David a chance to actually eat!)

Joshua still loves having identical toys, one in each hand. And though I joked a while back that he seemed to have a preference for truly identical toys, that actually seems to be coming true now -- he'll sort through his blocks until he has not just two random blocks in his hands, but two green, identically-shaped blocks. Sorry, kiddo, looks like you got your parents' OCD tendencies...

And he's learning to help us clean up! He's known what the word "inside" means for a while now, and has been able to put toys inside random bins and drawers. But lately, he's followed along after me to pick up his blocks and put them in the right bag. And just this week, after he goes on a bender and throws all our DVDs out on the floor, he's begun stooping down to pick them up and put them back on the shelf! Of course, he generally follows up by throwing them back down on the floor... But still, progress!

And that's all I've got for right now, for random Joshua update tidbits... Stay tuned for posts on all the various events we've been to since the beginning of May!