Anna and the boys!

Well, it looks like we will be adding another boy to our family. I am so excited! Joshua will have a little buddy to play ball with. I know my dad (especially) was hoping for a girl, but...he'll have to wait a while longer. It's actually pretty funny, because we haven't added a girl to our family since I was born in 1982. My parents have gained 2 sons-in-law and 5 grandsons. My boys and Katie's boys will hopefully be good friends though. They are all so close in age. We have added one each year for the last while...
Spencer--2005
Travis--2006
Joshua--2007
Nathaniel--2008
future baby--2009

Kind of fun! Today is my dads birthday, BTW, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! (or as Joshua calls him...ba ba bee!)

Breaking the Curse and News

So Justin was flown down to CA to visit UCR this weekend and is having a great time. As for Joshua and I...we broke the curse! We drove up to Logan Saturday morning with no car problems. Phew! We had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa (both called "ba-ba-bay" by Joshua).

We have heard back from a couple of more schools...here's where the count is right now:
-Accepted at UCR
-Wait-listed at Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
-Rejected at Yale, Stony Brook, Northwestern and Penn State

Still a few more to hear back from, but so far California is still looking like a good possibility! In the mean time, when I pick Justin up from the airport tonight, we are going to stop by the hospital in Salt Lake and Justin's uncle is going to give us an ultra-sound and we will hopefully find out if I have a little boy or girl inside my tummy! It's like Christmas! :)

Graduate School Update

We are still waiting to hear back from a number of schools, but here is what we have so far....

-wait-listed at Vanderbilt
-rejected from Stony Brook (in New York)
-ACCEPTED at UC Riverside!!!!!!!

So far...California is our #1 option. It's one of the top schools Justin wanted to go to anyway...so we are very happy!

Farm Country

On Saturday afternoon, my dad came down to play with us and we went to "Farm Country" up at Thanksgiving Point. It was awesome! Joshua is learning animals right now, so it was fun to see real ones. He is feeding the goats some straw.

He is riding the fake cow. He is making a "moo" sound, that's why his mouth is shaped the way it is. (There were lots of real cows too, he just couldn't ride them!)

But he could ride the horses! Grandpa made sure he didn't fall off, but Joshua was a pro-horse rider!

New Words

I decided to start off February on a good foot. Day 1 and a post done already! :) Joshua is quickly learning lots of new words. We had a little worry a couple of weeks ago when we visited my sister in North Carolina and she noticed he wasn't really talking much. Her oldest is autistic, so she's pretty aware of where kids are supposed to be. A lot of why he wasn't talking there was also because his cousins were pretty overwhelming to him, but still.

We had his 18 month check a few days later and the Dr. was also a little concerned. The only two words he was saying very consistently at that point were "ball" and "gog" (dog). The Dr. said they like to see them saying 15-20 words consistently at 18th months.

So he might participate in an early intervention program. But while he's getting tested for that, Justin and I decided we were going to try extra hard to really WORK on words with him, instead of just assuming that he'll pick them up when he wants to. He has come SOO far in the last week and a half. Here are some things he likes to say...

"meow"
"woo-woo" (woof woof)
"moo" (for a cow)
"moo" (moon)
"clock" (doesn't pronounce it quite right, but...close)
"doh" (door)
"cah" (car)
"uh oh"
"no" (nose)
"no" (as in N-O...usually more like 'no, no, no!!!!')

A few other words are in the works, but these are the ones he says regularly. A month or so ago, Justin and I went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with Brian Stokes Mitchell. He sang a song called "New Words" that really touched both of us and now I am experiencing it! It really is incredible. Here are the lyrics:

NEW WORDS
Words and Music by Maury Yeston

Look up there,
High above us,
In a sky of blackest silk.
See how round,
Like a cookie,
See how white - as white as milk.
Call it the moon, my son,
Say "moon".
Sounds like your spoon, my son,
Can you say it?
New word today…
Say "moon".

Near the moon,
Brightly turning,
See the shining sparks of light.
Each one new,
Each one burning,
Through the darkness of the night.
We call them stars, my son,
Say "stars".
That one is Mars, my son,
Can you say it?
New word today,
Say "stars"…

As they blink all around us,
Playing starry-eyed games.
Who would think it astounds us,
Simply naming their names.

Turn your eyes,
From the skies now,
Turn around and look at me.
There's a light,
In my eyes now,
And a word for what you see.
We call it love, my son,
Say "love".
So hard to say, my son,
It gets harder…
New words today,
We'll learn to say,
Learn "moon"
Learn "stars"
Learn "love".

(as a side note, I am pretty sure Brian Stokes Mitchell is coming out with a CD that has this song on it. He has a pretty incredible voice and a fun sound...I would recommend it!)

The Logan Curse

What began as a joke has become actually kind of creepy. And really annoying. My parents moved to Logan, UT (a mere 2 hours away from me!) a couple of months ago. Naturally, I want to go visit them often. I have now attempted 3 times. Yes, THREE. My car has yet to make it. I have even attempted in two DIFFERENT cars. Still, each time, the car has broken down.

I have been to my parents house now twice. Only because they love me and have come down and picked me up. Maybe that's the only way I will ever be able to make it there...

Fascinations

I used to think that there were a few things that Joshua was just terribly, terribly fascinated with. But I think I am wrong. Joshua is not fascinated with "things", Joshua is just fascinated. Period.

Fascinated with life.

Here is a list of a few current fascinations (which grows daily):

1. Fans. Joshua loves fans. We don't have any ceiling fans at our house, but over the past week, he has been in a few different houses with ceiling fans in almost every room. When he spots one, it is very clear that he wants you to turn it on. The second it turns on, he gets very excited and points and exclaims "ooo! oooo! ooo!!" If we leave the fan on and he walks out of the room, you can guarantee that within 30 seconds he will come back, just to make sure the fan is still on.

2. From Day 1 Joshua has loved lights. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is point up to the light on his ceiling and grunt. I wish I could blog this sound. It's not like a deep guttural grunt, but just a monotone, straight-faced "uhh". And his pointing is not with one finger, but it is his whole hand reaching up in the air. My dad calls it his "HARK" arm.
Incidentally, I have a rather funny story about this fascination that happened just a few days ago. We have an IKEA moon night light that is supposed to be mounted on his wall, but has just been sitting atop his dresser, because his parents have yet to mount it. We had to rearrange Joshua's room the other day to make his 'basketball court' and the night light got placed on top of the filing cabinet, which happens to be right next to the crib. After he had gone to sleep that night, I went in to check on him and found that he was snuggling with the moon! He had taken it off the filing cabinet and was lying on his back with both arms hugging the moon, fast asleep!

3. Running water. I don't think it is just the running water itself that fascinates him, but putting his hands IN the running water. It can just be dripping even, it doesn't really matter. Joshua would sit in the bathtub for hours if I let him. Not playing with toys, but taking his dads washrag and dipping it in the water and lifting it out, letting the water drip from the rag onto his hand. Over and over and over and over...

Oh, and just FYI, if you want to check the temperature of the bathtub water as it fills the tub and put YOUR hands under the running water, you better watch out...Joshua doesn't like ANYONE elses hands in his running water!

4. For the last few weeks, every time Joshua hears music, he starts conducting it. You can imagine I am very proud and I think he is a musical genius, but I might be a little biased...
It doesn't matter if he's in the middle of eating or playing with a toy, the music starts and he is riveted in the moment. His arm goes up and he is entranced. We've noticed that his movements change with the type of music he is conducting too. Today we had Coldplay's Viva La Vida playing and he was just rocking out like I've never seen him before! But when the MoTab is singing, it's a much gentler conducting.
I know you probably accuse me of teaching him this, but honestly, he started it all on his own. I think I should make YouTube video of it, it's actually pretty impressive.

5. One of the newest fascinations is his new car he got for Christmas. There is a little button on it, that when pushed, makes the car move by itself. It will go a couple of feet, stop, make some other noises, then move a couple of more feet. It doesn't matter how many times in a row we push the button, EVERY single time it moves by itself, Joshua's eyes widen as big as they can, he looks at us, points to the car and says "OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" It's like he is saying "Mom, Dad! Look at what that car just did! Can you believe it?!" At first we thought he was afraid of it, but after it happened so many times, we just realized it was another one of his fascinations. It's like he forgets that the car did the same thing 5 seconds ago and it is a completely new and exciting experience to him.

Why can't we be like that? Every time the snow falls, why don't we sit outside and notice how quiet the world is? Why do I take for granted kissing my husband? Or rocking my son? I know I could be a lot more fascinated with life. Good thing New Years is coming. I think that will be one of my resolutions.