Baby talk

Not!

We've been busted.

It seems that our relationship with #3 is enabling him a bit.



He really doesn't seem to mind, does he?

Why would he? We pick him up--a LOT! When he screams, we give him what he wants, automatically! because he is soooo loud. He enjoys liberties that his brothers never enjoyed. He eats candy, peanuts, ice cream. He roams the home, climbs the stairs, and plays with toys parked in every room. And, he doesn't have to say a word to get anything. We talk to him (I think), but usually it is to tell him how great he is.

And, now he is paying the price.
Again, though, I don't think he minds that much.



I took Baby Joshua to the doctor today for his 15-month checkup.
He's slow on the mobility front, no surprise there. The other two were very delayed walkers as well.

But, the language skills concerned the doctor a bit. I'll admit, I hadn't even noticed.

I did a double take when she came face to face with the baby and she took away a cup of Cheerios clutched in his fist. He screamed, as we knew he would. But instead of giving it right back, which I would have done, she said, "All right, Joshua, you have to ask for the Cheerios."

Umm, we haven't asked him to do anything in the last 15 months. Oops. And he actually started to babble and hold out his hands for the cherished food. Double oops. He's been craving this!

Of course, the bright spot is that he seems to be a well-fed and a cheerful child. He measures 31 inches long and weighs 21 pounds and 2 ounces.

She might have been trying to appease me, but the doctor did say he was exceedingly pleasant for a toddler. Friendly, even. That, I already knew.

A weekend away

It won't be long now. The baby took his first step last week. Just one. Then he sat back down.

We have been warned.



We had the pleasure of spending some time with Uncle Frank, Aunt Cora, and the cousins.
Do you know how hard it is to gather all these little people together to snap a picture? You can tell how that effort turned out. At least they were all in.



The boys thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with their relatives. They ate well, played video games, and basically ran around Uncle Frank's house. We saw many smiles from them there.

It was a different story earlier in the day.

We visited the Air & Space Museum in Dulles. Fascinating place, really. Aircraft and spacecraft as far as the eye could see.




The baby didn't seem to mind the sights. Michael was cool with it as well. Jason, on the other hand, just wanted a snack.

I asked Jason if he was interested in becoming an astronaut.

"No," he said.

So much for Jason's journey to the moon.

Changing face

It has been a long time since the Tooth Fairy stopped by.
Last night, she paid up for tooth #3 for Jason.



Do you remember what it felt like to have a loose tooth?
I didn't have to remember.

For the last few days, Jason has been talking constantly about the changes taking place in his mouth. It was one of his front teeth. He kept poking and pulling, he complained of pain, and yet didn't want us to help speed up the process.

Yesterday morning at church, Jason finally lost his tooth. Of course, the poor people in the pews behind us were the first to witness it. They sure got an eyeful. Jason, with his hands all in his mouth, with bloody tissues, and finally, success! The tooth held up for everyone to see. I'm sure they, like the rest of us, were breathing a sigh of relief.

Summer camp craziness

It seems like every minute of the kids' days during the summer is filled with activity. They are taking part in camp at the YMCA. Jason and Michael are enjoying it very much. They get to ride the YMCA bus, travel to the park, they sing camp songs, and play dodge ball.

The best thing is they come home tired, yet full of stories.

We love it.

On the weekends, we try to relax. Here's crouching Jason.



We have visited with Peggy, Grace, and Rob. The boys drew us pictures after they had a bit of fun in their pool. We saw them on a beautiful Saturday. It was just so funny seeing them sitting at a bench, busily drawing, while the pool was behind them.

Not to worry, they got back in.



We've recently also seen Claire, Mike, Elizabeth, and Tommy.
Look at how big these two have gotten!



The baby continues to thrive. He is still not walking, though.
However, he is showing his helpful side. He enjoys putting things away for me.



And smiling.



And, we've found that he follows in his brothers' footsteps, not just in the walking department (the other two walked very late as well), but in the Star Wars world.

Jason and Michael's lightsabers were on the floor the other day, and the baby just couldn't stay away.



The older boys are on a science kick right now. I guess it started a few weeks ago, after I picked up a science experiment book at Target. Plus, this week's YMCA camp is called "Crazy Science." Last night, they got adventurous. The boys decided to make a concoction of water, food coloring, salt (lots of it), and cooking spray. I asked them if they would drink it, and of course, they said, no.



Then again, that shouldn't be a surprise.

I made chicken last night. Jason looked it and said, "I don't want to eat it right now. Ask me when I'm a teenager."

Really? Already?

Here's another one

With all three of them, I tried desperately to make pacifiers enticing.

Here it is, I would say. I had all different kinds, all different brands. I put sugar water on the ends. And for all three of them, it was the same.

They would hold it in their mouths for about a minute, then push it out. And this was only in the first couple of months. After that, they would have none of it.

So, it is not a surprise that people want to know what's inside another one of my children's thumbs that is so tasty. I wish I knew.



But I have to tell you, Joshua is different in one respect.

While the thumb is never far from his mouth, he also needs to have human contact.



And he's not totally content unless he has it.

High notes

Thank goodness for iTunes.

It introduces our musical tastes to our children, which, depending on whom you ask, might not be the greatest thing. In any case, you could say our iPod is filled with an eclectic mix...from opera, to country, to hip hop, to pop, to rock.

My playlist consists of some sappy love songs as well as songs that make me cry. Isn't country music great?

So, at the top is "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith. It's a song that came out while Doug and I were living apart, he in Chattanooga, me in Richmond. Every time it comes on, it reminds us of that period of our lives. I shared the story with the kids. They seemed remotely interested. Michael even asked, "So, Mommy, why did you want to be together?"



Can you tell I'm still pining for some fun in the sun?



In any case, we really have had a great week so far. The weather has been mild, the children, for some reason, all delightful. I suppose it's because the older boys are having such a blast at summer camp. Who knew? We're waiting for growing pains, teething issues, etc., but, so far, so good.

It is so important to me that we have dinner together, even if it tends to be on the late side due to Doug's schedule. I do believe it pays off. And our dinnertime conversation always makes us smile.

I played the Aerosmith song during our meal last night. Then I asked the boys why I liked it so much. Yes, I was testing them.

They both answered, in unison, kind of like robots. "Because you and Daddy lived apart. It reminds you of it."

So, this time, it was Jason who asked, "Why did you want to live together?"

And Doug took this one.

"Because we love each other and we wanted to get married and live together. We were sad that we couldn't be together back then."

Jason, bless his heart, said, "I'm confused."

Don't worry, ladies. I've got many years to help him become a romantic.

Enter Sandman

We were treated to pretty wonderful weather while we were in the Outer Banks.
But, on the top of "hot sand mountain" as Michael described it, the smiles were tough to find.

In the beginning, everything was fine. The summer heat was on, though the humidity wasn't too bad. We posed for pictures on top of one of the big dunes. We were paying a visit to Jockey's Ridge, the largest natural sand dune on the East Coast.

You might wonder why you would head to such a spot in the scorching summer heat, but, it certainly has made a name for itself. And we weren't alone.



Lots of people joined us as we made our way up what felt like miles and miles of sand.



Thank goodness I brought the Babyhawk. The stroller wouldn't have worked well in these conditions. I got a workout that day, with a wiggly Joshua on my back!



Of course, what goes up, must come down. While I took the baby back down the way I came, slowly making my way down the piles of sand, the boys decided to take another route.

Doug, Ezekiel, Elijah, and Jason ran down what looked like a wall of sand to get to the bottom, the place that would eventually get us back to our car and much-needed air conditioning.

As boys will do, they had to make a race of it. I watched nervously as Jason ran down the extremely steep hill to catch up with his older cousins. He made it to the bottom, no problem.

So I walked back the long way.

During our walk, Jason and the boys decided to try the race again. They climbed back up the steep mountain and ran back down, but this time, Jason just bit it.

He was trying to move too fast, to catch up with his cousins, and his little legs couldn't keep up. As he was hurtling down the mountain, the sand won. He toppled, got a face full of sand, and Doug said, once he stood up (thankfully he was fine physically), his entire face was covered. Only his eyes could be seen. And he was angry.



Look at him. This was a picture I snapped right after he and Doug caught up with us. Still so much sand coated his little face. We couldn't help but smile when we saw his emotions right there for all to see. He was angry until well after we left the park. Some chewing gum and a Tropical Smoothie made it better, though.

Outdoor adventure

There was a little nature trail outside our beach cottage in the Outer Banks.

And the boys were happy to explore.
The first time, they returned filled with great stories of the flora and the fauna they encountered.
Jason picked up a frog on his visit outside and apparently enjoyed the experience. Fortunately, he left it in the wild to continue its life.



Trip number two was a little different.
The nature part was great, so was the flora, but this mission included the introduction of an unexpected and unwanted visitor--a snake. As described by Jason, "He just looked really mean with eyes the color of my eyes." Yikes. It went on its way and didn't bother our group, but it certainly left a lasting impression.



Our family of brave explorers came back shortly thereafter.

Michael announced, "I will never go on another nature trail again."

Our cup runneth over

This time last week we were recuperating from our trip to the Outer Banks.

We are still catching up. Good thing memories of our time in the sand and surf linger.

We also know we spent a fair amount of time at the area's putt putt establishments.



We found one that had a little train that took us to the top of putt putt mountain. It was an adventure for us all.
Michael displayed an intensity in the game we didn't anticipate. Each hole, he gave it his all. Countless times we showed him the proper way to hold a little putter. He still turned it around and used it like a Swiffer to push the ball into the holes--all 18 of them.



The baby looked on.



He watched big brother Jason with his Tiger Woods-like intensity, trying to sink every putt perfectly. He was very serious in his mission. We wouldn't mind some of that Tiger Woods-like precision. In any case, we were surprised that after an evening spent at the putt putt golf course, they wanted to return.

So we did.

The boys had an even better time the second visit.



As Michael was sweeping his ball across the putt putt greens, finally getting it into the hole, we would ask him how many strokes it took.

Always, the answer was "two." I suppose if you treat it like a hockey puck, that would be the case.

When we returned home, I asked both of them about their favorite part of the trip to the beaches of the Outer Banks.

Unanimously, they said, "Putt Putt."