Last weekend

We took the boys to a nearby park last weekend. Jojo slept in the stroller the whole time, but TJ played on the jungle gym and ran around. 

This is our most frequent view of Thomas lately--he's always running, and he's usually running away from us!

  

Daddy and TJ

Some other people (see them in the background?) came prepared for the ducks and geese--with plenty of bread. They were nice enough to share. Thomas practiced his awesome throwing skills as he tossed bread chunks to his feathered friends. 

I bought a desk for (eventually my office, but for now...) our bedroom. TJ was all about helping daddy put it together while I made dinner. It came with far too many pieces, and a few of them were damaged, so the desk adventure included a trip back to the store for some undamaged parts. Happily it's now assembled, and I've enjoyed working at the desk rather than on the bed! Pictures of the desk and the rest of our place to follow at some point (as soon as I take them). 

Jojo signals "touchdown" during the Monday night Packer game.

Josiah is 3 months!

That's right, little J is 3 months old! When did that happen? He has lived in 3 different houses in 3 different states and traveled to Texas already--quite a busy kid! 

Three month stats: 14 lb; 24-3/4" long

Quite a contrast from Thomas, who was 16 lb 13 oz at three months old! 

Josiah has chub rolls, but he's definitely more averaged sized than TJ was. 

He shares these contagious whole-face grins with us--so fun to watch his face light up. He's also started grabbing at things, like hair, shirts, toys, though it's still rather hit or miss. His favorite thing to put in his mouth is his wet, slobbery fist. 

Of course, TJ had to get in the picture action as well!

Potty Training Postponed

After some apparent signs of readiness recently, we decided to make a big push toward potty training this past weekend. Here's how Saturday went:
7:30: put on undies (pair #1)
8:45: made T try to pee before we left to run errands
8:50: peed while standing at the front door watching for Ed to come back from the car; changed into pair #2
9:00: dropped laundry off at laundromat (including the recently peed-in undies and pants)
10:30: While I was feeding Jojo, Ed had Thomas try to go; nothing happened. Ed left to pick up the clean laundry.
10:35: TJ looks at me and says "I made peepee." He turns around, and I see the double whammy. That load in his pants meant that it wasn't only pee... Time for another load of laundry! Changed into pair #3
11:30: I took Thomas into the bathroom to try. No dice. I walked across the hall to the kitchen to heat up lunch. Thomas continued to play in the bathroom.
11:35: "Mommy, peepee on the floor!" Changed into diapers.

The morning's total: 3 pairs of underwear, 1 peepee on the potty, 3 accidents, including 1 mother lode.

Consensus: He's not ready. We're going to wait a couple weeks before trying again.

Our kid ate broccoli!

TJ is fairly anti-vegetable. If it's green, he's particularly suspicious of it. He'll eat carrot sticks and peapods if offered with dip (white ketchup), but that's pretty much it. And even then, half the time he chews the carrot for 20 minutes and then spits out a mouthful of carrot mush. Gross. 

However, in the past week or so, we've been able to slightly expanded his horizons. First, he ate a mushroom, which he called "mushmeat." Then, he ate broccoli from our ham-broccoli roll-up dinner. He ate everything on his plate and then asked for more broccoli. I couldn't believe my ears...

Yes, Mom, I really do like it.

So we moved on  to cauliflower (this light green stuff is Romanesco). He willingly tried it, but then spit it out. We'll keep trying...

Thomas really likes snuggling with Jojo. 

 A picnic lunch on our patio last weekend

Photo crazy

I pulled out the "good" camera this weekend to try to capture some shots of Josiah. There aren't as many of Thomas for two reasons--first, he's not changing as rapidly as little J, and second, he's entered that phase where when you ask him to smile for the camera he either puts on a dopey, squinty-eyed grin or says "cheese" while looking away. Not a great photo subject right now! But this little guy cooperated nicely! It was too hard to narrow it down to just a few, so there are lots.

 These two are my favorite. Look at those big blue eyes and that sweet, innocent expression!

 Brotherly love!

 Look at those chubba chubba thighs! And yes, he's still looking like a red head.

These next four are like a flip book of smiling and falling over.

Josiah is looking at Thomas like he's concerned about what might happen next. I think this is an expression we'll see often over the next few years...

Life in Kalamazoo

We've now had a week together as a family in Kalamazoo, and we're getting settled into our temporary townhouse. We're mostly unpacked and we're getting into daily routines. 

Here are some pictures from week 1.

 Jo-Jo passed out, with arm extended

 Bathtime for Josiah. Thomas likes that there's enough countertop space for him to help!

 We went to a nearby farmer's market Saturday morning. So many people liked TJ's hat!

 Josiah all tucked in for the farmer's market. Check out his cute hat!

 Great variety of veggies and even fruit to buy! Ed also found the sausage stand. I bought butternut squash and made soup, and also bought some romanesco cauliflower just because it looks cool.

 Thomas loved all the small pumpkins.

Toga towel time. He ran until he tripped, and then got up, got rewrapped and ran until he tripped again.  Repeat. 

Ed's first trip (ever, I think!) through the tunnel.

It's tough to be the little brother...