Lessons

Mr. Joseph continues to amaze me, so I thought that I'd share some of the little things that make him so neat (besides the fact that he's mine...).

He's got a pile of words that seem to grow every week.
He can show you where his nose is, but he also points to his nose when you ask him about his toes...
He loves his kitties--live or stuffed.
He likes cheese, but none of those Kraft slices...he prefers the deli stuff. He's a connoisseur already--definitely my child :)
When he gets pissed off, he fists up his hands, straightens his whole body, and yells until his face turns bright red (kind of entertaining except for the pissed off screaming kid part).
He has [what my mother calls] the strength of his convictions. Others might say that he's stubborn, but I prefer to acknowledge his decision-making abilities and refusal to be persuaded by society (or mom).
He loves wheels, his tricycle, his wagon, and Papa's tractor.
Wheel of Fortune is a new favorite too.
And, this is a funny story: he and Matt were making breakfast this past weekend when Matt took an english muffin out of the bag and set it on the counter in front of Joseph. Joseph then proceeded to open the toaster oven, put the english muffin into the toaster oven, close it, and turn it on. We're kind of nervous about the other things that he's learned from watching us...

Whirlwind

So, we've survived a really busy week.

Max and Jackie came home last weekend for their spring break. We spent part of last weekend doing wedding things and a good chunk of the week getting ready for Jackie's shower that was this past Saturday. We were also trying to cram in a little more visit-time with them since we don't get to see them all that much. And, somehow, Joseph ended up with this nasty conjunctivitis that was just gross. Which Matt got too, of course. I think that the conjunctivitis was aggravated by this terrible cold that we all woke up with on Monday-ish. My throat has been sore since then...I'm a little sick of that feeling. I got the pink-eye Thursday-ish. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of being able to acknowledge it...what with parent conferences and all. So, I ignored it and my cold and have thus far survived. Like I said, we're recovering, but still not feeling fabulous. Joseph is still coughing, my throat still hurts, and Matt seems to be fine.

But, we had a nice weekend. Some friends from CT came up to visit Friday night, which was wonderful. Matt worked Saturday while I was showering Jackie. Sunday, we kind of crashed. I feel like I'm still kind of crashing, but this week should be better. This coming Saturday I'm taking a bunch of kids to Science Olympiad. We'll figure that out when we get there...winning might be nice, though :)

Dear Dada,

I just wanted to tell you all about the vacation that I took with Mommy and Grandma last week to Florida. Mommy and Grandma took a lot of pictures that I want you to see, too. I missed you a lot and am happy to be home to play with you.

It took a long time to get to Florida, but I slept a lot in the car. Since it was dark for a lot of the ride, I don't really remember seeing too much of it, and we only stopped a couple of times for food and gas. Once we finally got to our place, Mommy and Grandma were really happy because there was lots of sand and water right outside our little house. I was just happy to get out of the car and crawl around with my trucks for a while.

The next day (Sunday), I got up really early! So, when Grandma got up, Mommy went back to bed. We both took naps after breakfast, again. Then we went and had lunch at this outdoor mall place and I got to drive a car in a video game--it was pretty cool! We went shopping that afternoon, and I didn't really like that because Grandma forgot Linus back at our house. So, I yelled a lot.

On Monday we went and took a walk on the beach. Grandma tried to get me to walk in the water, but I didn't want to do that. It was kind of cool outside, so we started out wearing our jackets. I wasn't so sure about all the noise that the water was making, and I didn't want it to get me wet, so I yelled (and stood on my tippy-toes). A little later, Mommy made me play in the sand with the new sand truck, bucket, and shovels that I got. I didn't really want to play in the sand, but after a nice little girl showed me how it worked, I did better. We swam in the pool that afternoon. I was kind of scared of the pool, but it was okay since Mommy held on to me the whole time.

On Tuesday we played in the pool again and took a nap afterwards. Mommy and Grandma call it "Joseph Standard Time" when we take it easy and take naps. It works for me, and they don't seem to mine. We also went to this weird place with lots of concrete. I guess that people are supposed to golf there, but we just walked around and sat on the big colorful animals. Mommy and I got to ride a train at the outdoor mall, too. It was pretty neat.

Wednesday, we got up early and went to this place called Gulf World. It was pretty neat! We got to watch the people feed sea lions, then we saw the sea lion show, and then the birdy show, and then the dolphin show! I was really tired by the time the dolphin show was starting and I thought about taking a nap in my backpack that Mommy was wearing, but once the dolphins starting jumping and playing I couldn't sleep. I had to make sure that Mommy saw the neat dolphins, so I would point to them and say "Oooh" when they jumped. Then we looked at some more birdies: Grandma really liked the pink ones. And Mommy got to pet a manta ray--I liked watching them flap around the big pool that they were in, and Mommy said that they were so soft! We all took a nap after lunch and played in the pool again afterwards.

On Thursday I wore the neat shirt that I got at Gulf World, and we went to this little state park at the end of the road. Grandma said that Papa would have liked that part because it looked like what Florida was supposed to look like...whatever that means. We walked on another little beach and saw lots of jellyfish! We didn't touch them, though. We also saw a lot of cute little birds eating bugs in the sand and some big birds sitting on rocks. I was really tired by the time we left that beach...all that fresh air and ocean noise just does me in. I got a dump truck at a store, too.

Friday was the last day that we were in Florida and we just took it easy. We swam in the pool one more time, and I was pretty sure that I could swim by myself--I was kicking and flapping my arms a lot, but Mommy didn't let go of me. We cleaned up our little place, did some laundry, and walked on the beach one more time.

On Saturday we left to come home. I got scared when we drove through a really bad storm in Georgia, but Mommy read me my dump truck book and that helped me feel better. Then we finally made it home to see you again on Sunday! I even got to show you how I can walk now! I'm so proud of myself.

So, I had a really nice time in Florida, but now it's back to normal. I love you and missed you a lot, Dada. I hope that you and everyone else liked my stories and pictures.

Love,

Joseph