Ch-Ch-Changes!

So it has only been a couple weeks since the last post, but it seems like Josh has changed a bunch since then. Honestly, the Tuesday after that post, Josh woke up and was a very different kid. For one thing, he that look in his eye, like he was going to be up to something, like he was going to explore and there was nothing we could do about it (you parents know the look I'm talking about). Ever since then, he has been more adventurous, more talkative, more everything. He seems to have double the energy he used to have, but not in an "oh-crap-terrible-twos" way. He has actually been very well behaved lately, for the most part. Anyways, the changes. First and foremost, he has finally decided that he wanted to talk a little bit. We always knew that he understood everything we said and we would catch him occasionally spitting out a word. But he has definitely expanded his vocab in the last two weeks: bump-bump (wanting to go over speed bumps), puppy, cookie, grass, key, amen (pronounced meh-men), beep (pronounced buh-p). He also is making up his own little sign language... he will point to his eyes if he wants his sunglasses, his ear if he wants the phone, his head if he wants his hat, his mouth if he wants to eat or drink and his hand if he wants to draw with his markers (don't ask).

Another exciting development is that he has shown a lot of interest in his potty. He has been wanting to sit on it a lot, and over the past few days he has peed in it quite a few times. Today he actually led Mommy into the bathroom, took off his shorts, had her take off his diaper and sat down. He got distracted when he didn't go, started playing with the door, noticed that he had peed on the floor, pinched it off (ouch!) and went back to the potty to finish! So he is definitely figuring out what it is for. Hopefully he will stay on this track!

As far as being adventurous, he has been testing his courage at the playground, conquering both the wobbly bridge AND the chain ladder in just this week alone. He seems to be developing a lot of confidence in himself lately, on the playground and everywhere else, and we are super proud of him, as always.

On a side note, his future sibling is developing just fine. We had another ultrasound last week and everything appears to be developing nicely. We are still on track for a mid-August arrival, which will be here before we know it. Please keep Brenda and the baby in your prayers.

Look Ma, No Pants!

Joshua continues to add new skills to his arsenal every single day. Last week, as the picture shows, he learned how to pull down his pants! It was funny at first, walking in to check on him and seeing him with his pants down. It was even funnier to watch him shuffle off with his pants around his ankles. Not quite so funny when he whipped 'em down repeatedly at our Bible study Friday night! Luckily it seems like he only does it when he is wearing his jammies, so we haven't had any problems in public just yet. Thanks heavens for buttons and zippers!

Sick Boy

Well, we made it almost 21 months, but over the past weekend, Joshua finally came down with his first ear infection. At first it didn't seem like anything worse than a common cold: fever, cough, runny nose. But then the fever kept sticking around, and then the diapers got a little, uh, looser and more frequent. We finally took him to the doctor and she said that he had an ear infection in his left ear. He's now on a 10 day course of Amoxicillin, which amazingly is his first prescription ever. Unfortunately the antibiotic is also making his tummy a bit worse. Okay, a lot worse. Wednesday night between 5:30 - 8:30, we changed somewhere around 14 or 15 diapers. It slowed down a bit on Thursday, and it appears to be even better today (knock on wood), but he's still staying home from school, just in case. And even though Brenda and I are up to arms in dirty diapers (Brenda more so than me, she's a trooper), we still feel very blessed that this is the first time in Joshua's 21 months on Earth that we have had to go through something like this. He is a very healthy kid and we are so thankful for that. Now go buy stock in Huggies!!!

Kick It!

Thought I would throw a quick update on here while Joshua munches on his waffles and Cheerios. The J-Man has recently discovered that he can kick things: his big blue ball, his legos, the patio door, Copper, Mommy and Daddy's shins. When he hasn't been practicing for the World Cup, Joshua has also been cutting what we think are his final baby teeth. Yes, he is getting his 2 year molars at 19 months. He is our little alligator. These ones don't seem to be that much fun for him (or us)... he has definitely had his cranky moments. On a funnier note, Joshua has learned to close his eyes on demand. The funny part is that he does it using his index fingers. We're not quite sure where that one came from, but it sure does crack us up. Not much else to report on Joshua, at least not that I can think of. We have our first ultrasound appointment on Thursday, so please pray for that. We will be sure to post results and pictures as soon as we can. Hope ya'll like the new layout!

Joshua's Little Buddy!

The J-Man apparently has a friend at daycare... the teacher says they do this almost every day!

Monkey Hear, Monkey Say

Over the last couple of days, Joshua has taken great strides in his journey toward being verbal. We have noticed that he definitely has words that he uses a lot, but they are either made up words, or ones that he has switched all the consonants to ones he knows so that they don't sound like what he's trying to say. But we have noticed that he makes the same groups of sounds in similar situations, like when a light is out, or he finds something missing from somewhere. He still doesn't have that many real words that he actually says and uses regularly, but he is turning into our little parrot. He has started to mimic a lot of the sounds that we are making, his favorite being the "P" sound, which he always whispers. He also has learned how to say "silly", which is really cute. There are two copycat things that just really crack us up. He has been entertained by rapid eye blinking for a while (watching mommy or daddy do it), but now he is trying to do it himself. He doesn't quite have the rapid part down, and he keeps his eyes about halfway closed when he's doing it, but it is the cutest thing! The other is copying us when we put our fingers to our lips and say "Shhhh". Apparently it looks like we're pointing to our noses, because Josh will point to his nose and say "ssssss". He never ceases to amaze us in the new things he learns everyday. We think in the next few months he will decide that there is really something to this talking thing and will really start to turn it on. That seems to be his personality... kind of an all or nothing kind of guy. That's how he was when it came to walking, so it shouldn't be any surprise that he's doing it again in the verbal department. We'll keep you posted on our hopefully soon to be little chatterbox.

Joshua's Big News

Behold, the Christmas Tree

When we put the Christmas tree up a few weeks ago, Joshua was an instant fan. It was assembled while he was down for a nap, and when he woke up, it stopped him dead in his tracks, and got a "whooooaaaa" out of him. After that, every morning he had to present the Christmas tree to us. He would march out to the kitchen to where the tree is, and walk toward it with his arm outstretched and his palm up, as if to say, "behold, the glorious Christmas Tree!"

18 Month Update

Just wanted to update you all on our big guy... can't really call him a little guy anymore. Joshua went to the doctor for his 18 month well-baby check up, and we were amazed to find that he has grown almost 4 inches since his first birthday!!! He now stands at 34 3/4 inches (97%) and weighs in at about 25 lbs (40-50%). We couldn't get an exact weight, as Joshua is not a big fan of the doctor's office right now. He is scared of the scale, so in order to weigh him, they had to weigh mommy holding him, and then weigh mommy by herself (which mommy as SO happy about!) =) But he's still a tall and skinny dude. Everything else checked out perfectly. He's such a healthy kid, and we are very thankful for that.

One of his favorite activities is still stacking blocks. He is very meticulous about it, and can stack up to 12 at once, all by himself! He even will straighten parts of the stack that aren't exactly flush. His doctor said that he will be the one in all of the honors classes. =) If the whole NBA thing doesn't work out for him, he has a bright future in engineering. He also still really enjoys books, and we hope that this love is here to stay. His mommy and daddy were both big readers when they were younger, so we hope he will follow in our footsteps.

Spoon Master

Joshua has perfected the art of eating with a spoon...

Ho! Ho!... Im not so sure about this!

This week, Joshua went to get his picture taken with Santa. He was happy to see Santa, as long as Santa kept his distance. But Santa was nice enough to make room for Mommy on his chair so that we could all get our picture together. I think he was a little traumatized by Santa, since the rest of the afternoon and into the next day he was super cranky and clingy, but he's recovered now, and we got to begin to chronical Joshua's second Christmas season. Next year he should be a little more excited to see Santa. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Slip Slidin' Away

Joshua shows Mommy how he uses the slide all by himself.

Crackin' Up

Snackin and crackin... up

What's up with the J-Bird

Sorry yet again for the long gap in posts. But there is never a dull moment in the Maple house with the J-man around! He has really been cracking us up lately, and learning so many things. So here's what's up with the J-Bird over the last month...

Joshua is beginning to realize that his mouth can be used for more than shoving food into, and he has discovered some words... actually we think he is deciding to bypass single words all together, and go straight for sentences. His favorite thing to say is "Don't touch it." (Gee, where did he get that?) He also says "what is it?", as well as Copper, fishy, ma ma, da da, and he tries to say his own name. His teachers are amazed at how much he understands, and tell us that he is way ahead of the curve in that area for his age. It seems that everyday he is doing something new. You just never know what he's going to do next!

Joshua took his first trip to the zoo a few weeks ago, and had a blast. His favorite part was the petting zoo. He chose one goat that belonged to him. Whenever anyone else would want to pet "his" goat, he had to go make sure they were not going to take his goat away. As he gets older we're sure he will grow to really enjoy all parts of the zoo, as he really seems to love animals.

For Halloween, Joshua dressed as Superman, and was the cutest kid on the block! Our neighborhood was so festive... everyone got in on the fun. We had such a good time taking him trick-or-treating down the street, and meeting some neighbors we had not yet met. He was really getting the hang of trick-or-treating. After a few houses, he knew what to do, and would take off running for the front door once we were half way up the driveway.

Well, I guess that brings you up to speed on our little J-Monkey. Make sure you check out his photos!

Goofball

Where's My Nose?

Our little genius points out various body parts...

Hot Diggity Dog

Just a short clip of Joshua chowing down on a hot dog using a fork. Enjoy... he sure did!

Long time, no update

Well, life has been a little crazy these last few weeks, so the Maples sincerely apologize for slacking. On the Joshua front, the little man is full steam ahead in the walking department. He really decided he was completely done with crawling right after we moved into our new house. I think he loves the open space that we have now. Plenty of room to run around and places to hide and get in trouble (i.e., fireplace). He is also really starting to show us his silly side. He sits at the dinner table (no more highchair)and makes funny faces at us, just to get our reaction. He is able to identify many animals, and is great at following directions. He definitely has his stubborn streak (gee, where did he get that?), but most of the time makes good choices and does what he is asked to do.

Now that he has hit the big 0-1, he has been promoted into the big-boy classroom at daycare. He loves to participate in the activities with the other kids, like painting (more on him, the other kids and his teacher than on the canvas), blowing bubbles and dancing to music. He no longer sleeps in a crib, but on a little cot, and all of the kids eat together around these little round tables. Joshua took a few days to warm up to sleeping in a non-confined environment, but after a few days, he was back to normal, taking naps of more than an hour.

On the family front, for those of you who don't know, the Maples call a new house home. We moved into our "dream house" about 4 weeks ago. This is the same house (same floorplan, anyway) that we almost bought three years ago. It's a little bit bigger than our old house, has a HUGE back yard and the best part is.... its ONE STORY! It's an older house, so there are a few fixer-upper things, but that gives Andrew a chance to finally get all those tools dirty!

I suppose that is enough of a novel for now. We promise to try to be better about posting (Andrew has finally showed me how, so it's not all on him anymore.) So until next time...God bless!!!

Test

Video!

Our old digital camera died a few weeks ago (after we had squeezed a little over 4 years of life out of it). We missed out on a couple weeks of pictures, but our new camera has the capability to take decent video clips, and it is much easier to upload those instead of our video camera. I posted a cute clip of Joshua playing and running around, check out the link: