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!
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A Big Start to 2011

Welcome to 2011, everyone! Here in P-ton we've been snowbound for what feels like weeks on end. The good news is that Joe has been able to take his first adventures walking in the snow.



The bad news is, he's spent much more time indoors getting into monkey trouble. Case in point, putting his artwork literally on the fridge.

Luckily it just took a little soap and water to clean everything off. I guess the old "crayon markings all over the wall" stereotype is a real toddler right of passage!

Near the end of 2010, Joe got to take a trip to Joe Daddy's office. He hadn't been there in many months and everyone was very happy to see him. One of the first items on his agenda was to drop nearly a dozen air biscuits onto the lap of a famous political scientist. Apparently, he felt very relaxed.

After that, he took a little break to catch up on the latest headlines.

For the second year in a row, Aunt M and Uncle J came down for New Years. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that weekend.

Since Joe Daddy was home for a few weeks, you may have noticed that he decided to grow a horseshoe mustache. I thought that it was going to end up sticking around for much longer than it did, but alas, it was just for the holidays. Joe didn't seem to notice it either way.

Last weekend, we went down to Virginia to see Kim and Walter. We hadn't seen them for almost a year. When we move, we're only going to be two hours away so we can make these trips much more often. While we were there it was decided that they are officially "Grammy Kim and Pa-Paw Walter". They showered Joe (and Joe Momma and Joe Daddy) with great food and lots of love. It's just one more reason we can't wait to move in the next few months.

Joe spent long stretches of time roughhousing with Walter on the floor. No amount of growling or scary faces deterred him.



Joe also loved to jump from their ottoman to their couch over and over again like he was in a bouncey castle.



Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

The only obstacle we faced was that Joe didn't remember ever being away from home before and he had a terrible time sleeping at night. He refused to sleep in his portable crib and would only sleep in the arms of Joe Momma or Joe Daddy. I won't lie, it was kind of nice-- not the sleeplessness part, but the snuggling part.

This weekend was the first weekend in awhile that we haven't had anything unusual going on, so we mainly did chores and hung out at home. It was nice to have some one-on-one time with Joe. He's been a real momma's boy lately. Recently, when I was upset about something, Joe came over and brushed my hair with his brush and put lotion on my cheeks like I do with him. Tonight, he said his clearest "I love you" to me before he went to bed. So, tonight I leave you with a short video of me and Joe playing the "cup stuck on the face" game. He can play this one for an hour.



Next time: potty training! Oh boy!
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A Special Message for Uncle J

Merry Christmas 2010

It's Christmas! Hurray! (That video was taken last week while Uncle J was visiting, but I thought it was fitting to start off a post about Christmas.)

Joe's big present this year was a toy kitchen. Joe Daddy spent many hours on Christmas Eve putting it together so that it would be all ready to play with when Joe woke up Christmas morning.

While Joe Daddy changed Joe's diaper in the morning, I got set up in the living room so that I could record Joe's reaction as he saw his kitchen for the first time. He was shocked and he's been playing with it for hours now. Here's his reaction -- he doesn't speak until near the end:



Tonight we'll be having our traditional "Christmas tacos" and I'm making a birthday cake too (for Jesus... who happens to like the same cake I do). In less than a week, Aunt M will be here! I can't wait!! Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Thankful

Welcome to the holiday season! I am woefully behind on blog updating and I haven't even started thinking about what to do for Christmas cards, but I still wanted to take a quick minute to give even just a small update.

The biggest news (which is old news to everybody at this point) is that we are moving this summer! Nick is joining the faculty at... drum roll...


Hurray! I am very excited to move into the South and I look forward to hearing Joe eventually say (in a Southern accent, of course) "Hi, I'm Joe and I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina!"

In not so happy news, Joe has been sick fairly often the past few weeks and it seems that the whole family has been suffering as well from the various illnesses Joseph has been catching (including poor Uncle J, who threw up rather violently for 24 straight hours over Thanksgiving break). Currently, Joe has a slight fever and has been generally "under the weather". Nevertheless, every morning without fail, he looks at us and says, "COAT! MARISSA! COAT!" Which brings me to my next (happier) topic: Joe's new best friend, Marissa.


(This is not an actual photo of Marissa, but it looks a lot like her.) Marissa is a little girl in Joe's class and apparently they spend most days playing together. Joe's teacher, Ms. Padma, says that they like to "make trouble together". When Marissa gets in trouble, Joe pets her and says, "Good girl. Good girl." Today when I went into Joe's class to pick him up, he was trying to show Marissa how to put her coat on.

Lastly, Joe's picking up more words every day and when he sings, it's much clearer. Joe Daddy recorded a singing session tonight with me and Joebert that I think you might like. It's just audio, so to get it to post on the blog, I had to make it into a "video" using an old farm picture. Enjoy!


My brother is coming to P-ton for Christmas and Aunt M is coming here for New Years, so you can look forward to some super cute posts in the not-so-distant future! See you next time!

I'll Take "Halloween 2010", Trebek

Hello, everyone! My apologies for taking two weeks to get back to the blog, but it's been super busy around here. Let's start out with an explanation of Joe's Halloween outfit.

Originally, Joe Daddy bought an outfit so that Joe could be a Transformer. Joe was going to be Bumblebee and Joe Daddy was going to be Optimus Prime. Unfortunately, the costume was a little too large (and not really warm enough), so we agreed to go with Plan B: a skeleton.

The first activity was Joe's Daycare Halloween Parade. He was the leader for his class, however about 1/4 of the way around the parade route, he thought he saw Joe Daddy and started to wander into the grass and then... well, here's the video:



Here's Joe running around outside in his outfit:


After the parade, everyone went inside for snack time:


Then it was time for the Main Event... Trick or Treating!

We double layered him and got his candy bucket ready to go!


Overall, Joe did a fantastic job! He understood very quickly that the object of the game was to run up to a door and knock on it until someone came with a bowl. Next, you grab as much as you can and put it in your bucket. He was a natural!


Occasionally, there was a doorbell, so he needed an assist from Dad or there was a spooky person and he needed an assist from Mom. Uncle J was there too for support -- I was surprised at how scary it can feel to take a toddler out in the pitch black dark to run around! We went down about two blocks before calling it a night.



Here's a video:



Finally, we got home and Joe got a look at all his loot. He was impressed! The candy ended up being donated to Joe Daddy's work.


So there you have it! Halloween 2010 was a success! But that's not the only thing that happened since I last posted on the blog...

Aunt M was on Jeopardy! Holy cow! It was amazing to watch. I got teary just watching the intro.



She lost to the law school guy, however he was totally into her and then emailed her about how all his friends thought she was super cute when the show aired. So, in that way, she was a winner. :) Alex Trebek asked about her tattoo and she won a couple grand for 2nd place and HOLY COW, SHE WAS ON JEOPARDY! I'm always proud of her, but this was one of the coolest things that she's ever done. I'm sure she would say that being the first person to hold Joe was the number one coolest thing she's ever done, but Jeopardy is a close second.

I believe that we have the final list of places that Joe Daddy is interviewing:

1. ekuD
2. llenroC
3. T.I.M.
4. egelloC ynehgellA
5. dnalyraM fO ytisrevinU
6. eessenneT fO ytisrevinU
7. nisnocsiW fO ytisrevinU

Unfortunately, I can say nothing more about it at this time. I will say that for every interview, Joe Daddy is gone for at least two days and this constant "I'm here, I'm gone" pattern has been difficult for Joe. Of course, this is necessary since what happens over the course of this fall will affect our lives likely forever... but in the here and now, it's very hard for me to watch Joe be so sad/angry/confused. As I write this, Joe Daddy is gone again and Joe won't see him until he wakes up on Wednesday. :( Sorry to end on a downer, but the good news is that this process should end within a month and hopefully Joe Daddy will never have to do this interview process again for the rest of our lives. And Joe will probably forget all about the weird Dad absences of fall 2010.

First School Pictures

Joe got school pictures taken a couple of weeks ago and they came in this week. Unfortunately, Joe had a bad cold, so the pictures include some 'sneeze ready' faces and some snot. Nevertheless, I thought I would share them with you since they are his first ever school pictures:





I love the days-of-the-week in the background. "Sunday, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday..." Classic.

Joe Daddy is going to be gone all this week on job interviews. So far he has interviews at... well, I'll spell them backwards to thwart the Google engines:

1. ekuD
2. dnalyraM fO ytisrevinU
3. .T.I.M
4. llenroC

Joe Daddy and I were reminiscing today about our drive from T-town to P-ton a few years ago and how exciting it will be to move again this summer. Joe Daddy will probably drive a big Penske truck again and I will drive our car, only this time, there'll be a little one singing in the back seat. Getting a PhD from P-ton is certainly a monumental accomplishment, but I think we all agree that nothing trumps little Joebert.

Oh! One more thing! The costume this year for Halloween? Hint One: Joe Daddy is going to dress up too. They will be going as a pair from a major motion picture. Until next time...