Kadia Comes to Visit, A Few Things to Say About Josh, and a Craft

KADIA'S VISIT

Our really good friend from medical school, Kadia, came for a visit!  It was so fun to have her!  The boys loved every minute of course.  It was so fun to visit and catch up and to have an adult around during the day!  She was so helpful with the boys and around the house.  Josh was so sad when she left and for days Josh asked over a hundred times if he could go to Kadia's house.  I explained over a hundred times that she was back at Iowa very far away.  Maybe soon we'll venture back to good-old Iowa.  We miss Iowa and all our friends there.  We do NOT miss the winters though!  We'll definitely wait til winter is over before we plan anything!

John barely made it home from a long day in the Operating Room to see Kadia, just before she had to leave back home.  So, I quickly snapped a photo.

Please come visit us again soon!!!

I just have to say that Kadia has the most awesome hair!

JOSH

I love this kid!  I love his creativity!  I love all the many wonderful things he makes!

I love that he cares about Nate so much.  Today, Nate was having a great time with pouring a cup of water all over the carpet, so I took it away from him.  Nate of course, didn't want his fun to end, so he began sobbing.  Josh immediately gave him back the cup, gave him a kiss on his forehead, and told Nate that it was alright.  In an instant Nate was beaming from ear to ear.  And I was made to look like a mean mom.  It was so cute though.

This week Josh started to put himself in "TIME OUT"!  It is so cute to me and so funny!  He is finally getting the whole "time out" thing.  It really has never worked until the last few months.

"GOOD NIGHT MOMMY!"

The last few weeks Josh has been going to bed all by himself most nights.  This is a SERIOUS TRIUMPH!!!  As Josh has had extreme difficulties with sleeping for over a year.  I mean at 2 to 3 year old who has never gotten a good nights sleep at all.  For about a year or so Josh has battled severe asthma, allergies, reflux disease, and excema.  Seriously, who can sleep when they can't breathe, haven't stopped coughing for months and eventually a year, have acid burn in their chest and throat, have stopped eating due to heartburn, and itchy skin all over that bleeds from scratching in their sleep.  Seriously, it took us forever to really figure out what was going on and to find medications that actually worked and didn't make Josh crazy, literally.  And mom crazy too.  I'm so happy that my happy Josh is back and that he is gaining weight, learning faster than ever before, and he actually has color in his face!  It's amazing what good health can do for anyone, especially a 3 year old. 

So, After we finish our bedtime routine which starts at about 5pm of dinner, clean-up, medicine, bath, more dinner, book, scriptures, prayer, and yes usually more dinner (Did I tell you that this kid eats and eats and eats thanks to acid reflux medication) and finally brush teeth.  I hear the lovely words "Good Night, Mommy!"  He always has a cute content smile and waves to me.  I think I may have to pinch myself.  Just a few months ago.  I would be laying in his bed with him, trying to help him calm down enough to sleep till about 10 or 11:30 at night.  Then he wouldn't actually sleep well and I'd worry every night with all the coughing that never ended and have to get up to give him his breathing treatments and many horrible medications that caused him to sleep less and less.  Those were crazy days and I'm so so sooooo happy they are behind us!!!

THINK SPRING!

The other day, Josh really wanted to blow bubbles more than play in the snow.  Surprisingly, they weren't frozen solid.  He had a blast! 

CRAFT

The other night while John was on-call, one of my best friends from college, Mel, came over and we did some sewing crafts and just talked.  It was so fun!  I made this Giraffe for Nate.  I had been planning to do it for months since he loves tags so much but hadn't gotten around to it!  Josh loves animals so he actually really likes it and wants me to make one for him too.  

Josh & Nate Update

Here's Josh on his way out the door to preschool.  

As you can probably tell, Josh loves preschool.  He is always so excited to go.

Today, he cleaned the entire house and got ready all by himself to go.  Josh is amazing!

Josh has been loving the snow.  We didn't think we would be getting much snow here in Indiana, but recently we have gotten dumped on.  Right now we currently have about 2 feet of snow!

Nate also has enjoyed the snow too.  He still isn't quite old enough to play in it yet.

I love this pic of Josh because he was just snuggled up in his chair and blanket watching the snow fall(it had been a blizzard all morning, and stopped just as I shot the photo and then started back up, oh well).

This was our first snowfall, back in mid-January.  It dropped about 1/2 an inch.  We still managed to make an awesome snowman.

Josh woke me up the other day saying: 

"Mommy, mommy, come look!  Come see what I made!  I made Daddy's hospital!"

I love the towers, buildings, temples, castles, etc. that he builds.

The most impressive tower in the wooden blocks in the dining room. I don't know if I could have even built that.

Every morning I am woken up to Josh saying something like this.  I love it! 

A couple of weeks ago, I was woken up to a similar tower like this.  I ran to get the camera and he nocked it over just as I had gotten back.  Josh knew I was disappointed and wanted to take a picture of it, so Josh immediately said: "Don't worry, mommy, I can build you another one really fast.  I kid you not he made this in 30 seconds.  Amazing!  His other one he had spent probably about 30 minutes on, so use your imagination!

Josh is always building creative train track as well.

Gary came out for a medical school interview in January!  Josh loved every minute with Gary!  It was so fun to have him out!  We are also thrilled that he is accepted to a few school that are within only a few hour drive!  We are excited to have him out here with us in the midwest!

              

I found some really cute chairs for the boys to read books in.  Nate really loves to sit and read.  

I love it that my boys love books so much!

Nate pretty much likes to read on his own or have another book in his had while I read to him.

Josh on the other hand will let me read for hours if I could handle it.  Josh has a book with 254 pages in it.  I have read it all the way through non-stop several times.  Usually by the end I am starting to fall asleep.  Reading does that to me sometimes.  I love reading to my boys!

Nate has an obsession with the fireplace.  He loves to sit in, crawl in and out, and play in it.  Thank goodness the previous owners never used it!

Nate at the Children's Museum

Nate is starting to get interested in playing trains!  Love it!

Josh fishing at the Children's Museum.

Look at his knee!  OUCH!  How can he sleep like that?!

I have hundred's of pictures of Josh sleeping in the funniest positions and places.  One day I'm going to dedicate a post entirely to it. 

Nate is starting to make friends.  Here he is with his friend Kale.

Here is Josh playing with his friend Olivia.  He thinks that he is going to marry her someday!

Here are Hailey, Kate, and Josh.  These girls love John!  John is always giving them horse rides and he seems to never get tired with 3 kids on his back!

Josh loves to color, paint, draw, etc. He is getting really good at it too.  He colors within the lines really well, can draw faces, loves to paint buildings, trees, and the sun.  He can also write several letters.  His favorites are Q, X, S, H, I, O.  He loves to write the numbers 2, 6, and 7.

Here we are watching a movie with Josh's friends.