Goodbye P-ton, Hello Triangle!

Hello from NC! We are officially residents of The Triangle... Joe Daddy has his NC drivers license and everything. As always, my apologies for leaving you Joe-less for so long, but as you can imagine, it's been hectic around here. But, without further ado, let's start from where we left off.

The gentleman pictured above is one of Joe Daddy's best friends from P-ton. He lives in NYC, so I will refer to him as "Manhattan". Manhattan wanted to take Joe to Central Park before we moved away, so Mr. and Mrs. Manhattan met us there a couple of weeks before we moved. It was awesome! Also, he brought along an amazing camera which provided us with a slew of great Joe pics. Besides checking out the Central Park Zoo, we also had a picnic in Central Park. Joe had a lot of fun seeing the waterfall and the petting zoo and the NYC skyline. While walking around the city, he kept pointing and screaming, "BUS! BUS! BUS!" Thanks for a wonderful time, Manhattan! We're going to miss you.

After the Central Park trip, we realized that we only had a week left in P-ton and it was time to say goodbye to our friends. We met some really special people during our time in P-ton. Here's just a couple of them...

The folks pictured below were friends with us pre-Joe and after meeting and loving on Joe, they decided it was time to have a little lad of their own. Mrs. AMR understood me like no one else in P-ton. She was a real lifesaver during a time when I felt very lonely and out of place.

Joe Daddy was in the company of many famous political scientists during his time at P-ton. Despite their prominence, many of these colleagues, advisers and mentors felt more like family to us. They were never above getting drooled on or farted on by Joe. That's love.

There were many more goodbyes, but really, they are just "see you soon" because we'll be headed back to P-ton in August.

The day finally came to leave. The only hiccup was that the moving truck arrived 6 hours late. Nevertheless, they did almost all of the packing and loading, so I'm just glad they were there. We had Joe go to school so that he wouldn't get confused or crushed by a falling box.

Once everything was loaded up, we turned in our apartment keys and went to pick up Joe from school. When I arrived, I told Joe he had to say goodbye to everyone. Up until this point, I had not shed a single tear. But when Joe and Marissa hugged goodbye, I totally lost it.

The good news is that Marissa's parents have family in VA, so we hope that we can all make some time for Joe and Marissa to see each other again someday.

On our way to our new place, we stopped to see Grammy and Pa-Paw. This was the first time Joe experienced water play. Of course, he decided right away that the best way to play in the water is naked. Here's our naked gardener helping Pa-Paw and cooling off in the tub.

Pa-Paw also put Joe in the basket of his motorcycle and drove him around the driveway and yard. They are quite a sight together, aren't they?

After a couple of days, it was time to continue on to our new place. Along the way, Joe got to experience his first Happy Meal. I'm pretty sure that I never had a Happy Meal as a kid, so I was pretty excited about it myself. He LOVED the chicken nuggets and french fries. Joe Daddy now makes a slightly healthier version of it at home and Joe has it practically every day for dinner.

I have to say that ever since we arrived at our new place, we have really been overwhelmed by happiness. It is indescribably beautiful here. This is the view from our back deck.

Joe has enjoyed all the new green spaces, which surround both our new apartment and Joe Daddy's new office. We live in an apartment complex on an angus cattle farm. Joe Daddy's office is on the west part of the ekuD campus, which is pretty green. Here's Joe hanging out near the door of Joe Daddy's new office building.

But, of course, for me, the biggest part of the transition was seeing how Joe would do changing into his new school. The first day, we only stayed for about an hour. I should not have been so concerned about this transition, because within about five minutes, Joe's attention had gotten pulled over to a young lady named Izzy. She's about 6 months older and very verbal. She had been at the school for about two weeks and decided that she needed to show him the ropes. Joe happily complied with this forced tour.

The best part of the tour was the gerbils. Joe LOVES the class' gerbil family. The momma just had babies and is already pregnant again. Gerbils for everyone! Here's the little rodent family enjoying a snuggle nap.

I have to say that it was very tough to leave Joe's old school. His teacher there, Miss Rita, and all the folks at K-Care loved Joe so much and we loved them too. I was really scared about trying to find a place that could rival K-Care, but I think I may have found something that is just as great, albeit in a different way.

Joe's new school is an interesting mix of fancy food and very un-fancy surroundings. I guess it's just all very "natural". Kids play in the mud and Joe usually comes home filthy everyday, yet he's eaten way better meals than I ever have. Check out just the last couple of days' menues.

I'm fairly certain that I've never even seen a lemon thyme scone. I couldn't even draw a picture of it. But other than the fancy (yet delicious) food, the place is very 'rural'. There's a pig at the door that Joe says hi to every morning and goodbye to at the end of the day.

Kids play in giant mud puddles and run around in their underpants. They take walks in the woods while visiting the "Magic Tree", which apparently is a large tree that fell down during a recent storm. More than once, I have heard little girls say things like, "I can't go inside without my crickets!" or something similar.

So far, I'm very pleased with this school. It's about a 15-20 minute drive from our apartment, but it's well worth it to know that Joe is happy and well taken care of. With any luck, he'll develop an adorable little Southern twang while he's there.

I should mention one notable change recently -- Joe has become really obsessed with Joe Momma during the move. He won't let Joe Daddy carry him and in general, he just wants to spend his time doing whatever I'm doing wherever I am doing it. I'm trying to enjoy this attention as much as possible, because I know that in no time he'll be back to being a daddy's boy.

And last, but not least, there's a new member of our family. This is Modester. She lives in Malawi and in honor of Joe Daddy's cousin's wedding this past weekend, we sponsored her through Save the Children. We already sent her a letter introducing ourselves and telling her that we loved her very much. As I get updates about her throughout the years, I will include them here on the blog. Welcome to the family, Modester! We love you!

We are leaving in a couple of days to take a vacation to Music City with Aunt M and her family. It should be an amazing time in celebration of Joe Daddy's completion of his dissertation. He mails it into P-ton tomorrow! Yay! Five years of work and 234 pages! It's time for a vacation! Have a wonderful holiday weekend, everyone.

Joe Turns Two

Take it away, Mr. Joe!



Indeed, my little Joe has gone from an enormous baby to an enormous two year old right before our eyes. Aunt M (who Joe calls Aunt May-May) and Uncle J (who Joe calls Uncle JoupPHHchH) came down to visit for Joe's birthday and we had a wonderful birthday weekend. It started with a party at home, continued with a trip to the aquarium and finished with a fantastic party at school.

The Party at Home

The first thing we did was open presents and look at cards. Joe got some Thomas toy trains and a stuffed bunny from Uncle J and a construction dinnerware set from Aunt M. Uncle J also got Joe an Elmo card which turned out to be the biggest hit of all.



Next came cake time! In the tradition of my mom, I made Joe's cake myself. I always thought that was a normal thing until I became a mom myself and heard that people usually buy birthday cakes, but where is the fun in that?! I remember vividly being excited about my cake, getting to pick the ingredients, smelling it baking in the kitchen and waiting impatiently for it to cool so we could eat it. That's the only way to do it! Here's the final product:

We sang to Joe and he and I blew out his candle.



Just like last year, he didn't really want to have any cake, but the adults in the group were more than happy to take care of it for him. He did enjoy some vanilla ice cream, though. Here's the birthday family picture (sans me who was behind the camera).

Finally, it was time for Joe to get his present from Joe Momma and Joe Daddy. We got him a Thomas the Train tricycle. He was a little hesitant at first, but before we knew it he was flying down the sidewalk.

Trip to the Aquarium

After some rest from the home celebration, we went towards aihpledalihP to go to the aquarium. I think Joe had as much fun in the car as at the aquarium mainly because he got to spend quality time with his Aunt May-May.

Here's the dynamic duo playing peak-a-boo on the road to the aquarium.



Once we arrived, there was so much to see and touch! Joe even touched a shark and a sting ray! Here's a few of my favorite shots from the day.

Party at School

Last but not least, since Joe's actual birthday was on a Monday, we decided to have a little celebration with his friends at school. After thinking a lot, I decided that what two year olds would enjoy the most would be balloons.

That's probably true of people of every age, but it turned out I was right on the money with my hunch that they would love to play with balloons. Joe showed the group how to best play with them.



The rest of the class joined in after eating some cupcakes and yogurt.



I had a lot of help from Joe's teachers which allowed me to sit and play and giggle with the class.

After Joe calmed down a little, he joined in on the food too.

Who's that pretty little lady on the left? Why, it's his girlfriend Marissa of course! She was very happy to share in Joe's special day.

Final Thoughts

I can't imagine Joe having a better second birthday. He got to have a sweet family birthday at home with his favorite people, a trike, a trip to a magical land of animals, and a party at school with his friends and balloons. That would be a great party for anyone! Happy Birthday, Joe! Your mom and dad love you so much.

You are my sunshine, my love, my sweet son. You are the prize in the cereal box of life. Thank you for another wonderful year and I hope I'm blessed enough to see many more. Love you forever!

------------
Side Note: I'm know I'm behind on the blog, but I have a good excuse! We're only a couple of weeks away from our big move. I'll be posting in the next week or two about how we're closing out our time here. It includes our first family trip to our new home at ekuD as well as a recent trip we took to Central Park. Get excited!

A Gentleman and a Scholar (and a Model)

Well, I thought that I could wait to post until after Joe's birthday, but so many cute things happened since my last post that I just couldn't hold off! Plus, it's been chilly around these parts (see picture above!) so I have some extra time indoors to blog.

While the weather may not indicate it here in P-ton, it is in fact March and along with March Madness (which I am absolutely obsessed with this year... GO BUTLER!), we celebrated St. Patrick's Day. A trip to the dollar store afforded us some cute hats and headbands that made the holiday festive both at Joe's school and my work. Here's Joe in the car on the way to school and Joe Momma at work with Dee.

One week shy of Joe's second birthday and he is really starting to exhibit some serious talent and smarts. I don't know where he gets it. :) I present Article #1: Two awesome pieces of artwork that Joe created using his hands and feet:

I present Article #2: Joe loves to match the Audio/Video cables by color on our DVD player. Red, White and Yellow... this boy has got it down! Every time, perfect matches.



Finally, I present Article #3: Joe isn't even two years old and he can count to ten. He doesn't like to show off this skill, but I got lucky in Target today. I played a game where we would go back and forth with the numbers until we got to ten.



I know I'm bragging, but I'm not going to stop yet. It's school picture time again and Joe's pictures are just out of this world adorable. I've been showing them to people at work who say things like, "You should enter him in contests with Gerber or something" and then I tell them that he was in fact one of the faces of "Earth's Best". Look at this handsome boy!

Joe's class picture was even better. In an unbelievably providential moment, Joe's lady friend, Marissa, was dressed in a ekuD cheerleading outfit for picture day! Apparently her parents are ekuD alumni. Joe stood behind Marissa with his hands on her shoulders. It's just precious.

I want to end this post by saying a little something about family. I define family as the community of people who love you. With that definition in mind, I want to say that I love my family. I love how they have welcomed me into their life and how they've surrounded Joe with the same love. Two of these folks, Aunt M and Uncle J will be coming into town for Joe's second birthday in just a few days. I know that Joe will be surrounded by love and I know that there's no better gift than that... but I'll save all the mushy talk for the next post, which will most likely be Joe's 2nd birthday post. (I really mean it this time!) I leave you with a cute impromptu family photo.

See you next time!

Member of the Uncle-Thomas-Cherokee Tribe

As a belated birthday present for Uncle J, we took a trip to Washington DC to visit him (and eat ham and lemon meringue pie). I came up with the idea that perhaps Joe could sleep better at someone else's place if he could sleep on the same cot he uses at school. So Joe Daddy asked his teacher if we could borrow a cot and they said ok and bada-bing! It worked!

Joe had so much fun seeing Uncle J's place and slept very well, which means we were all able to sleep well! As was posted in an earlier entry, Joe's present to Uncle J was learning how to say the word "Uncle".

It's unclear whether learning the word "Uncle" was the cause or if Joe just suddenly decided he missed his Uncle horribly, but between our visit to DC and Uncle J's next visit to P-ton (which was about a month), Joe used most of his free time to ask for (read: beg for) Uncle. Call Uncle. Phone Uncle. Where's Uncle? So when Uncle did come and visit, he made a short video so that Joe could watch it and get his "Uncle fix" anytime. And it has worked! Joe loves to watch his Uncle video.



Joe has also become obsessed with Thomas the Train. He loves watching the Thomas videos, so it made sense that Joe's first big boy underwear should be Thomas underwear.

He now pees exclusively in the toilet. He poops about once a day and sometimes overnight -- so far, it's always in his underwear or his overnight diaper. But he almost always comes home in the same underwear he goes to school in, so I consider him mostly potty trained at this point. I credit much of this to the fact that I have told him, "You don't want to pee on Thomas." He takes that pretty seriously. Look at how handsome he is! He's already a model.

For some reason which we cannot understand, just as Joe became potty trained, he became terrified of taking a bath. My best guess is that he thinks that the bathtub is a big toilet and he's going to get flushed. I tried everything to help-- I even got in the tub and took a bath with him to try to wash him, but he screamed anyway. Joe Daddy saved the day by purchasing tub crayons and large foam letters that stick to the tub tile. Joe was hesitant at first, but Joe Daddy drew Thomas the Train on the tile and before I knew it, Joe was happily playing in the tub for the first time in at least three weeks.



Along with potty training and talking up a storm, Joe has become a great little helper when it comes to chores, especially cleaning and laundry. He loves to help out and do big boy things. Joe Daddy put together a set of clips while Joe helped him in the laundry room in our apartments.



The most monumental update for this post is that after almost two years, Joe finally got his Cherokee tribal membership! See us receive the happy news:



We still have to have a little ceremony and I have to buy him his Cherokee present, so there will probably be one more blog post about this wonderful development.

I leave you with two adorable photos of Joe. Playing with Dad and sitting at the kitchen table. The next post will probably be a birthday post... I'm getting teary just thinking about it. See you next time!

---------

Big Haircut, New Class and Potty Time

Hi, fans of Joe! Since I last posted, Joe got a big haircut via Joe Daddy's shearing kit and the decision was made that it was time to move Joe into the 2s class, even though he's still a couple months shy of the big t-w-o. Many of his friends *MARISSA, cough* had moved up into the new class and the teachers decided that he was going to be "too bored" if he stayed back with the younger folks. Here's a look at his new class' cubbies.

I work (and Joe goes to daycare) in an area that is primarily a community of newly immigrated Indians, which is why his class is made up of Anuli, Ruhi, Rajitha, Umer, Srikar, etc. I have to say that I had little contact with my new friends from India before about a year ago, but Miss Padma this year and Miss Datta last year provided a type of maternal care that I have rarely seen even among mothers themselves.

One of the main differences between his old classes and his new one is that his new one is focused on teaching and is slightly less sort of "free form". Miss Rita (his new teacher) was very impressed that Joe was immediately able to sort his number cards correctly on his first day of class.

To be honest, Joe had a little of an unfair advantage, because ever since he was born, we have counted "1, 2, 3!" in the elevator as we enter and leave our apartment (on the third floor). He loves watching the light change to say "1, 2, 3" or "3, 2, 1" and he loves pushing the buttons, so he's had a great deal of experience with 1, 2 and 3. Nevertheless, I just smiled and said, "Yes, he is the smartest child on earth." =)

Also, I was given a poster board and asked to make a family collage to be hung in the classroom. I waited until the last minute because I couldn't figure out how to do it in a way that would be cute, but my friend and coworker, Dee, came to the rescue and created a fantastic collage that Joe loves to see every day. His teachers say that he likes to look at it and point at me and say "Mommy!" Thank you, Dee!!!

The most important difference about Joe's new class is that the changing area has (drum roll please........)

A TINY TOILET! It's labeled and everything.

Joe had been interested in me and Joe Daddy using the toilet and he seemed to understand the concept, so we decided to get him a potty for home use too.

Every day Joe uses the potty a little more and his diaper a little less. Today he went for almost six hours only using the toilet and I feel like he would do even better if we were more consistent with putting him on the potty at home. He uses the potty almost exclusively at school. I'm so proud of him! His teacher said she thinks he will be in underwear for his second birthday. As a former nanny who potty trained a boy who was a couple months shy of four, this seems like a miracle to me. Joe is growing up! He'll kill me someday for uploading the following picture, but it's necessary and adorable.

To even the score, I scoured my computer to find a picture of me as a toddler on the toilet. I know I have one somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. I did find a file that included a picture of my brother on the potty, so I'll post that instead.

Last, but not least, Joe got to go on an adventure with Joe Daddy while Joe Momma was out of town... to Petsmart! They didn't pick any pets out to take home, but Joe still loved seeing all the different kinds of animals, especially the fish.

Next time: Valentine's Day!
---