Starting his education

Half Birthday Fun

After a crazy week of helping Jennifer set up her new Kindergarten classroom (hooray for super last minute jobs!) and leaving Joseph in St. Louis so I could work for Joe during his business transition, Friday came much faster than anticipated.

My parents drove Joseph back to KC on Thursday afternoon so he would be back in time for his first day of Parents' Day Out program that we signed him up for this year. While he seems awfully little to be going off to a preschool/daycare program, we figured it would be good for him socially and good for me to be able to get more stuff done around the house or helping Joe at work. It just came a lot faster than I was expecting!

Friday was also Joseph's 18 month birthday, so a big day all around. We had a bit of a rough start due to some severe weather that came through late Thursday evening that knocked out our power (and it didn't come back on until this afternoon). I wanted to take a few pictures of his first "day of school" but I also didn't want to tip him off that I'd be leaving him behind for a few hours. So here's the little man on the way to the center:

 And his classroom when he first walked inside. Luckily, no tears! Of course, I didn't pause to say goodbye or acknowledge that I was leaving, so I'm sure that helped.

The program is once a week and runs from 9-2:30, with the 10 kids in the class taking a nap from 12-2ish. I was a little apprehensive about how he'd do napping someplace totally new and on a cot, but he did good for his first day and managed to get some sleep. Nevertheless, I tried to get him to nap a little later once we got home, and he quickly shut that plan down.

Dinner without power was going to be interesting, especially since we weren't about to use anything in the fridge. I attempted to give him a normal-ish dinner, but he wasn't really interested in it. Instead, he had more fun dropping peas out of the bowl, onto the table and putting them back into the bowl to repeat. Every few times he'd drop the peas into the spoon and eat a bite or two. Then the dropping game became more fun.

Notice the surroundings for his meals looks a little different? He's decided this week that he's not really a fan of eating in his high chair, so we've set up the booster seat at the dining room table. I'm hoping that we can keep him in the high chair for a while longer, but he's definitely fighting us on that!

 After Joe finished working, we met up with some friends, Scott and Tricia, for a "carb loading" pasta dinner. Joe and Scott are competing in a triathlon on Sunday, so the pasta dinner was for them. Joseph decided to eat a second dinner, which made us happy. The cupcake that I brought along to celebrate his half birthday made him really happy.

 But because this is only a half birthday, he could only have half the cupcake.

 Can you believe how high the frosting is on that thing?? There was more frosting than cake!

 Joseph wasted no time picking the cupcake up the proper way (by the frosting holder, a.k.a. the cake itself) and going to town on that mountain of frosting.

 He made sure to stop every few bites and laugh at his great fortune to be eating nothing but sugar, sugar and more sugar! :)

After polishing off the frosting and refusing to even try the cupcake, Joseph questioned where the rest was. Apparently he forgot about the frosting mustache he was saving for later! :)

I can't believe he's getting so old! His 18 month checkup is later this week, so we'll have updated stats to post soon!

Day at the Park

This summer Joseph and I have stayed quite busy. Between playgroups and play dates, trips to the zoo, Deanna Rose Children's farm, the library and several indoor playgrounds, we've spent a lot of time together being quite active. I realized this week that I haven't been good at documenting most of this summer, especially since Joseph isn't hitting milestones as frequently as he was this time last year.

Now that the weather is finally cooler (highs have been below 90 for the last few days, hooray!) we've spent more time playing outside again. Today we headed to a neighborhood park for some fun.

 Although we were at the park around lunchtime, it was completely empty, save for a few people walking the trail nearby. Joseph loves running around in the open space, and climbing all over the playground equipment. Of course, he's happiest when he thinks he's being chased, and that's when he'll take full advantage of going down the slides.

Here's a little clip of us playing. All of those background noises are him babbling to himself and giggling. Too cute!

 He still prefers to slide down on his tummy, feet first.

When he hits the end, it's time to try and climb/walk right back up to the top. Unless he's on the shortest of slides, he's never successful. It still doesn't stop him from trying it over and over though!

We took a few minutes to play on the swings too. Joseph is really hit or miss on whether he's interested in swinging, but today he didn't want to stop.

Before we headed out, he ran over to the picnic table where I had left my soda. He's a crazy climber these days, and had no trouble pulling himself up and sitting in the shade. A passing airplane made him stop and sign airplane over and over, so I took that opportunity to prompt him on some of his signs. Unfortunately, I didn't make a list beforehand, so this is less than half of all of the signs he knows and uses regularly. At least I got some recorded, though!

Sweet Teeth

Joseph's sweet tooth is finally here in full force. Last weekend when my parents, Ashley and Mikael were in town, mom made sure to pick up a few different types of cookies and pastries. Guess what Joseph wanted to eat for every meal, every day until they were all gone? Yup, the cookies. He hasn't learned the sign for cookie yet, so he just signs cracker when he sees anything that is covered in frosting/sprinkles/sugar/etc. It's kinda cute, but next to impossible to get him to eat anything else right now!

Of course, since he's off to Nana and Papa's house for the weekend while Joe and I go to Warrensburg for an ultimate frisbee friends reunion, I made sure to send a fresh batch of snickerdoodle cookies with him. (They're really more for Nana and Papa, so that Joseph will get invited back again!)

Why wouldn't we think the little man would be perfect on his weekend away? Oh, because right now he's cutting at least 2, but I think more like 4-5 teeth. Yeah, he's gonna be fun! So far I've definitely felt one new one on the bottom, and I think possibly two on the opposite upper side. So like I was fearing, waiting 6 months to cut a new tooth means they're all going to show up together! It'll be a few weeks before we can see what we're really working with, but I'm going to miss being able to fish the random crap he stuffs in his mouth out without being bitten! :)