Naptime: AKA Party Time

Joshua pretty much goes to sleep right away at night. But naptimes can be hard what with his newfound freedom of a toddler bed and all. If he is only somewhat tired then sometimes he plays in his room for awhile. I am generally fine with this and his room is child-proofed. But today the bathroom door was closed, but not fully latched so he got in there. This isn't particularly dangerous because we do not store anything in there and the toilet and tub are behind another closed door. But there are various toddler enticements available in this room such as toilet paper, towels, and things like that. As you can see, he had no problem entertaining himself for quite a lot of his rest time. Doors that don't latch well are not always easy to fix, but I think this one just made Jason's list.

Not the Best Day

Today I took both kids to the doctor for their 2 and 15 month checkups. They both got vaccines and both were pretty much cranky and crying for the rest of the day. Joshua looked like this a lot of the day.

New Toys

Clara really likes toys. It has been a little surprising to me because Joshua never thought they were all that great as a baby, but Clara is pretty content for quite some time to lay on her back and reach for her toys in her baby gym. So I decided to get her a few more so she could have more long ones that dangle so they could be in her reach. It seemed to be a hit as she reached for the new ones right away.

Joshua the Dog

Joshua doesn't necessarily have a firm understanding of the concept of imaginary play. But he is starting to kind of do it. He likes to pretend to be a dog by barking and panting and crawling and he thinks that's funny. He also tries to drink out of the dog dish but we really discourage that. We had the dog crate out because we used it to take the dogs to the vet and he crawled right in and thought it was great. I am not sure if he associated it with the dogs or if he just thought it was a fun little playhouse, but he crawled in and closed the door and had a really good time with it.

Finalization

Today we went to the courthouse in Wichita to finalize Clara's adoption. First we waited for our attorney in a meeting room. Then we went into the courtroom and the judge asked us a few questions and signed our adoption decree. It was pretty quick and informal, but it felt great to have the legal process done.

Waiting for our attorney	With the judge

One thing that we were a little disappointed with in Joshua's hearing is that these things are pretty informal so there was no gavel banging, which we had really been looking forward to. It was the same for this hearing, but this time Jason got to declare Clara to be officially ours and bang the gavel.

Celebrating Finalization

Clara's adoption finalization is tomorrow.  Mom and Ron wanted to be there for it, and since it's in Wichita, we decided it would be a good idea to go there the night before so we'd be ready for the morning court hearing.  We all arrived here earlier this evening in time to go out to dinner together.  There is an Abuelo's in Kansas City, but it's not very close to us.  We've been there a couple times and really like it.  But there was one right next to our hotel tonight, so we had a nice family dinner there in celebration of Clara's finalization.

I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller

Yesterday I went to Costco and the laundry detergent and kitty litter are kind of heavy and bulky so I left them by the door for Jason to put away. Joshua saw opportunity there. He never has gotten to turn on and off the lights all by himself before, so imagine his delight when he saw a way to do just that. He was very proud of himself.

2 Months

Today Clara turned two months old. She is definitely more alert than she was last month and likes playing with toys. She has also done some smiling, though it is still hard to get her to do it unless she happens to be in the mood.

Let's Hear It For Cleaning Up

Joshua really likes emptying things, whether it's clothes from a dresser, books from a bookcase, balls from his toy basket, etc.  Naturally, this creates a mess, and Meghan and I spend a lot of our time picking up after him.  Because of this, and also for safety reasons, our kitchen drawers and cabinets are childproofed.  Some of the drawers, even when shut, have a little space to allow you to push down on the level with your finger to unlock them.  We have some safe things in one of these drawers, and Joshua likes to reach in the small space and pull those things out. 

Today though, he developed a new interest: putting those things back in when he's done.  This of course is welcome news for us.  To encourage him in this endeavor, we clapped for him, and when people clap for him, he can't help but clap too, and then he starts clapping for himself.  So here he is, applauding his own efforts after returning the items to the drawers.

New Daughters

Today our friends Kevin and Megan came over.  They hadn't met Clara, and we hadn't met their daughter Stella.  We were all so busy over the holidays that we agreed to get together in January, and it worked out with our schedules today, so they came by and we were able to hang out for awhile, including trading babies for a bit as we did here.

Two Plus a High Chair Plus a Sling

We had originally planned to go to our friends the Smiths' house tonight, but they had to cancel due to sick kids.  Since we didn't have any specific dinner plans for the night, we decided to try our first night out to dinner as a family of four.  We went to Red Robin, because it's a very kid-friendly restaurant.  Clara slept in her portable car seat the entire time, which was convenient.  Joshua was oblivious to the fact that our picture was being taken, so he continued to chew his large bite of food while staring at some unknown object.  But we had a good meal and everything went well, so maybe we'll try this a little more often.

Coloring, sort of

Joshua got some new crayons for Christmas. He is very interested in them and sort of gets coloring, but not quite. These crayons don't taste as good as Crayola crayons so that has really been a great development in getting them out of his mouth, and he is really interested in all the different color options. He just doesn't totally get how to make marks on the paper. Sometimes, like he is doing here, he gets it and does a really good job. Other times he doesn't and mostly just bangs them on the table. But he seems to enjoy himself either way so I guess it works out.

Learning to Catch

One of the things that excites me most about having a son is playing sports and doing outdoor activities with him.  Since Joshua could sit up, he's liked to throw things, and he's always had a good arm and can throw things quite far.  I realized recently that I've never tried playing catch with him.  So today I worked with him on catching things, and he picked it up almost immediately.  He'll stand with his arms at his side, I say, "Okay, catch the ball," then I lob a ball towards him, and he catches it.  I'm very excited about this development.

A Room With a View

As I've mentioned before, I love staying at the W hotels when I get a chance and when I can get low enough rates that my company is okay with paying for it.  Of the two in downtown Chicago, one is right on Lake Michigan, and many of the rooms have views that look out over the lake, and somewhat over the area near Navy Pier.  Because I'm a platinum Starwood member, they always give me those rooms, and they tend to give me rooms on the higher floors, so I can look forward to spectacular views like this one.  Sometimes being a frequent traveler has its privileges.

A Fun Lunch

On Tuesdays, Joshua goes to the Becks' so today Clara and I used that time to meet Vincent, Callie, and Callie's nephew for lunch at Panera. Clara woke up for a little bit so she could meet Vincent and see Callie again.

Summer Fun in January

We've been trying to find a time to get together with Jason and Kelli, but we've had a hard time finding a time slot that would work for everybody.  Today was a holiday for everyone, so we had some time in the middle of the day that fit everyone's schedule.  Kelli got to meet Clara for the first time, and Joshua and Hadley had fun playing.  The weather was very April-like despite it being January, so we spent some time outside, and Joshua and Hadley especially enjoyed spending time on the playset.

An Attentive Big Brother

Joshua hasn't really shown much jealousy and is fairly affectionate with Clara. He isn't the happiest when I feed her, but otherwise he is very interested and curious. Here he is wondering what she is doing and also wondering if taking her pacifier for himself is the best course of action. He doesn't really use a pacifier and hasn't done so since he was three months old, but he is still very interested in hers.

Stud Finder

Joshua's at the age where he likes to imitate me and try to do things I'm doing.  We are in the process of rearranging his room to accommodate Clara's crib for when she's ready to start sleeping in it.  Joshua also loves to climb everything right now, so we decided we should anchor the dresser to the wall as part of the process.  Wanting to anchor it into a wall stud, I got my studfinder and used it to find the right place to drill.  Joshua had been watching and wanted to try it himself.  He had been paying attention, and he put it right up against the wall and started sliding it along, just like you're supposed to do.  He needs a little more practice, though, because he had it upside-down, but I was still impressed anyway.

No Longer Advent

One of my goals for this holiday season was to make an advent calendar. I had seen a burlap one from Pottery Barn that I really liked, but it was more than I wanted to pay even on clearance and it was very very large, larger than I prefer. We don't have a lot of wall space in this house so I wanted something to fit on a door. I also wanted to do a kind of Jesse Tree/Advent Calendar hybrid. My plan was to work on this over Thanksgiving weekend. But Clara came and so we were a little busy that weekend. I finally finished it this weekend and I just did the calendar and not the Jesse Tree ornaments I had planned to do. It is not perfect, which bugs me, but it came out mostly how I wanted it to. And I was pretty satisfied with how the embroidery of the numbers came out and I really like the burlap look. This year we did some advent activities even though the calendar wasn't ready, so I really look forward to being able to implement the entire thing next year.

15 Months

Today Joshua turned 15 months old. He is an active little guy now and pretty much vetoed the idea of sitting in a chair to take pictures. So we went with an action shot of him walking around, being dramatic.

Empire State of Mind

Usually when my company has meetings for everyone in the US, we go somewhere in California, where we're based.  But this time, for whatever reason, they decided to have our meetings in New York.  We're staying in a hotel right on Times Square.  I've never been to New York City before, so I was excited to see the things I've heard of and seen on TV.  Unfortunately the trip is full of company stuff, so there won't be time for me to go much beyond Times Square to see things like the 9/11 Memorial, Wall St, and the Statue of Liberty.  But I did have a little time today after I landed to see Times Square itself as well as the outside of Radio City Music Hall (and an enterprising street performer).

No More Boughs of Holly

We left our Christmas stuff up later than normal since Jim and Deb were in town this past weekend to celebrate Christmas with us. However, now it is time for it to come down for the season. Tonight we took down the tree and most of the decorations. We still have a couple more things that need to be put away.

Big Boy Bed

This weekend we had to move Joshua to a toddler bed because he learned to climb out of his crib, which is not safe. The first few nights were pretty rough, but he is doing a lot better now and seems to be adjusting well. Still, at times he is not super tired and he prefers to remove all the clothing from the dresser instead of sleep at those times and then falls asleep on the floor. But most of the time he seems to be sleeping in his bed. We were hoping he would stay in his crib for at least another year, but he had his own ideas.

A Welcome Bit of Green

I understand that pink is the traditional color for girls.  So it's reasonable that most things for baby girls, particularly clothes, are pink.  But what I don't understand is why instead of just most or many, it's nearly everything.  When buying preemie clothes for her when we first got her, there was nothing but pink.  Even now, in newborn sizes, it's almost nothing but pink.  I'm not saying I don't want any pink outfits, just not 95% of them to be pink.  Here she is in one of the few non-pink outfits we have for her.  She even seems happy, although it's probably indigestion, but close enough.

Butyraceous Means Buttery

Usually when Dad and Deb come to our house for our family Christmas, we only have the evening to spend together.  This year everyone was able to stay for most of day today, so we played board games, which is something we often plan to do but often don't get to do due to a lack of time.  We had a lot of people, so we played Cranium.  We split up into two teams, boys versus girls.  Andrew, Dad, and I (and Joshua?) ended up winning (not that I care about winning, of course).  Here the girls work together on one of the challenges.

No One Likes Arkansas Anyway

K-State football had an excellent season and was chosen to play in the Cotton Bowl against Arkansas.  We decided to incorporate the watching of it with the normal post-Christmas get-together that my siblings and our spouses have with my dad and Deb.  So we had Joanna, Julie, Andrew, Dad, and Deb at our house.  We watched the game, but it didn't go well, as K-State didn't play like they had for most of the season, and the 'Cats lost by 13.  Aside from that, though, we're having a fun time, and it will continue on into tomorrow as well, as we have plans to play board games, which we all love.

A Little Young For Lipstick on the Collar

One thing I really like about the kitchen in this house is it has a hutch that is great for storing china and for using as a mini home office. We store mail, my purse, our house phone, and some other things. It may be time to find a new storage solution. Joshua is getting taller all the time and he is suddenly tall enough to get things that are not right on the edge. When I was in the bathroom today he got my purse off and decided to have some fun with my lipstick. Luckily he didn't do anything worse like hide my car keys.

A New Game

It had been awhile since our last visit with Elizabeth, our Parents-as-Teachers educator. She was supposed to come last month, but we all had the flu. Now that we are better and the holidays are over, we are back on schedule. She was impressed with all the new things Joshua could say and do and she brought him a fun new game to play that involved trying to get rings in a slot of a coffee can.

Switching to Cloth

I really enjoyed using cloth diapers with Joshua. We did it from the time he was little to shortly after solids because my personal rule is "If it's gross, I'm not doing it" and it wasn't gross until then. We decided to start cloth diapers with Clara. It is a money-saver and it really does allow more air in to help with diaper rash. When Joshua was very small, we tried "all-in-one" diapers, which are sort of like a washable pamper. Most people love them. I didn't. We ended up with "fitteds" which you use a plastic cover with. The cloth part is sewn into the shape of a diaper which is why it is called fitted. Since we got rid of all the tiny diapers we had since I didn't like them, I had to get more for Clara until she is big enough to fit into the ones we saved from Joshua. I didn't want to spend much money since those start at 10 pounds or so. I got prefolds, which despite their name are just flat pieces of cloth. They are the cheapest type of cloth diaper. Since most people don't use diaper pins anymore, you use a fastener called a snappi, which I am holding, along with a girly cover. I was a little intimidated at first, which is why I didn't use them for Joshua, but it's going really well and I think we have the hang of it.

They Are All His Favorite

Something I started right after Christmas is only having half of Joshua's toys out at once. He has so many that it just looked like a toy store threw up in our playroom and he never really played with that many. Other than being a mini-workout for me to cart all the toys to the basement and back (and to his room, as I am also switching out his books), it is going really well. He is really excited to play with the "new" toys each week and for the first day, like today, he goes a little crazy trying to play with them all.

A Long Walk in a New Year

We started 2012 with a continuation of the previous night's festivities in Lawrence.  We had a really great time out.  After midnight passed, the bars started to clear out, and we were ready to leave.  There are only two cab companies in Lawrence, and they both had extremely long waits (like two hours), so we decided to walk back to our hotel, even though it was 2.5 miles home.  We walked it in around 45 minutes, so it was definitely better than waiting for the cab.  It was a really fun night, and we were really appreciative that Mom and Ron watched Joshua and Clara to allow us to have a fun evening together.