Two weeks ago we were able to take Joshua to the zoo for the very first time. Kristin and Laney invited us to join them. Peter was able to take the day off work and go with us...it was so much fun to be there all together! Needless to say, Joshua loved all of the animals, and especially enjoyed running around the zoo.
Here are Joshua and Laney checking out the elephant. Their favorite thing to do was to climb up on the fence to get a better view of the animals.
Joshua and Daddy checking out the ducks...
We saw lions...
elephants...
flamingos...
gorillas...
And Joshua's favorite sight to see was the construction workers building the new penguin house...
He got to touch a chicken at the petting zoo...
Joshua's GQ pose...
I have not done a very good job of recording developmental milestones in Joshua's life. So I have decided that I am going to try to start recording each month something new that each of the boys are doing...here goes!
~Joshua is quickly learning shapes, colors, letters, and numbers. He received this puzzle for Christmas and knows and can say all of the shapes (except pentagon and octagon).
~He surprised us one night when we were stuck in traffic on Hwy 360S (yes, that awful traffic). It was actually on Valentine's Day when we were on our way to the drive-in movie. All of a sudden, he starts saying "i-n-gle" over and over. When I looked back at him, he was pointing to a sign with this logo on the side of the road. He was pointing out the triangle ("i-n-gle")!
~Also for Christmas, Auntie Alicia gave him this great Leap Frog alphabet set that is magnetic. He plays with it quite a bit, and has been spouting out letters ever since! He doesn't know them all and still gets them confused sometimes, but here is a cute video of him trying to name the letters (and throwing a few of them)! Sorry about my annoying voice that is also in the video!
~About a month ago, Joshua began to say our names alot. He enjoys going through the names of all of our family members and all of the friends that he can think of. It is really sweet! One day, he started saying "Hotdog Momma Hotdog Daddy Hotdog Gabriel" and so on with the long list of names. It was hilarious! Why he decided "hotdog" was the appropriate word to put in between the names I don't know. Peter then taught him to say "Hello Momma", etc. instead, so now he loves to say that.
~A reprieve from the constant "No" has come! Now Joshua loves to say "Yah!", with a very long drawl. It is such a sweet sound, and he will probably answer "Yah" no matter if the answer is yes or no.
~Another sweet thing he has been doing is giving an emphatic "Amen" or "A-en" as he does it, whenever we pray. He raises his right fist in the air when he says it...so sweet! He loves to pray before bed. That is the one sure-fire thing that will calm him down if he happens to not want to go to sleep yet.
Happy 22 months, Joshua! I can't believe you will be turning 2 years old in just 2 short months!
Here is Gabe's one month picture! In a post a few weeks ago, I mentioned that we weren't too thrilled with them so we were going to get more taken. Well, with the busyness of life, we never got more pics taken...but this one is pretty sweet!
The last week has held a lot of craziness...some fun times and some not so fun times. Last week I had my final post-pregnancy appointment with Dr. Clark. I finally got a picture of him holding Gabriel! He is such a caring doctor and we will miss not seeing him every week for quite a while!
Our friends, Jared and Krystal, had the opportunity to go to the Mavs game last Monday night, so we had the privilege of watching their sweet daughter, Karoline. She loves her monkey, named "Dangles", and Joshua has a monkey that he sleeps with every night, simply named "Monkey" or "Ti Ti" as Joshua says it. Here they are right before bedtime enjoying their milk.
Last Tuesday and today, we were able to get together with Kristin and Laney for some mall fun! Both malls we ventured to have great play areas and Chick-fil-A...enough to make toddlers and mommies happy! Joshua always enjoys a good slide...
...and so does Laney!
Joshua is the captain of the tug boat!
Here they are enjoying their ice cream from Chick-fil-A!
So you may be wondering why last week was not so good...after all, everything this far has looked like fun. Well, on Tuesday night, an unwelcomed visitor came to visit our family...the flu! This was the rundown of how it ran its course...
Tuesday night - Joshua running a slight fever
Wednesday - Joshua still running a fever, but I didn't think it was worthy of taking him to the doctor...after all, he was still playing and wasn't too cranky. Peter woke up with the beginning feelings of being achy. By that night, he was feeling so bad that he got someone else to fill in for him at church...that's a big deal, because he never wants to miss Wednesday nights with the students!
Thursday morning - Joshua running a higher fever, and very cranky. I called the doctor and they were able to fit us in later that morning. The nurse saw us, and after the yucky flu test, she said that he definitely has the flu. She prescribed him medicine, and was kind enough to prescribe it for Peter also.
Friday - With two sick boys, I am just praying that Gabriel and I don't get it. Before going to bed, I noticed that Gabe was warm. When I took his temperature it was 100.4. The doctor said that they should be notified if he ever had fever when he was younger than 2 months. I called the after hours nurse at 10:30pm and she said that if the fever continued to rise and wouldn't come down to call again. I took his temperature at 3:45am and it was 101.6...yikes! I called the nurse again and she had the doctor call us back. She decided that since the fever wasn't too high and we knew that it was probably the flu, that there wasn't any reason to rush to the ER. She told us to go to the dr. office on Saturday at 8:15 am.
Saturday - Bright and early we went to see Dr. Dickey, along with lots of other sick kiddos! They did the flu test (which involves sticking a q-tip-like swab up the nose) which Gabe did not appreciate. Then they tried to get blood out of his heel...when that didn't work, they tried the other heel, which again, Gabe did not appreciate. I have never cried at a doctor's appointment before, but the tears were rolling! I tried to hide it at first because I was embarrassed, but then I wanted the nurse to see that she had a protective mommy on her hands and she should try to get the blood a little faster. With all of that, the doctor said that Gabe definitely had the flu, but no other secondary illnesses. There is nothing they can do for him because he is so young. The only line of defense that she gave me, was to nurse him more often so he would get the antibodies from the breast milk. Good news, Joshua stopped running fever!
Sunday - Peter was feeling worn out still, but managed to make it to church for a while to make sure everything was running smoothly for Bible study with the students. Joshua and Gabe stayed home with me and we spent our fifth day locked up inside the apartment. Gabe rebounded quickly and stopped running fever on Sunday.
Monday - We are back to normal...Peter went to work, Joshua went to KDO, and Gabe did his normal routine. We are praising God that the flu bug has left us and I managed to escape it!
Joshua did not have his normal appetite during those few days of feeling bad...he also did not take very good naps. Here is one of the better naps he had when he fell asleep in his high chair.
