Electrical Plug Safety Covers

Today I watched Joey take a cord out of the wall socket it was plugged (very securely) into by pulling very hard. He then picked up the safety cover which was on the table nearby and stuck it back in the socket. Then, changing his mind about any impending danger, he pulled the safety cover back out, and plugged the cord (that was in the wall) back in.....three pronged cord and all.

So, either we will be changing our rules, or we will be replacing all the safety covers in the house.

M & M Juice

M & M Juice: What happens when your toddler has finished his "one more bite" of lunch and you decide that he can have a few M & M's as dessert, but he can't bring himself to chew and swallow that last bite, so he crams in all of his M & M's and basically just sucks on everything in his mouth (which later you may or may not have to scoop out the remains of the lunch he "ate") while the actual dessert melts away, and or dribbles onto his chin and bib, hence... M & M juice.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

I have discovered that Earth Day, like Election Day will yield certain bargains if you are willing to hunt for them. Like these from Yahoo! or these from babycheapskate.

There are some cool things in there people! So, on Friday I am going to take advantage of one of those deals. I got an appointment at our local Paul Mitchell school to have my hair cut for $10!!! This is very exciting for me because a "cheap" haircut in the bay area would be like $20 or $25 and that is at your random strip mall no-name hair cut place (usually where I get my hair cut). It's also great for me (probably not everyone) because I mostly (ok fine! always.) wear my hair up, so the idea of a student cutting or styling my hair is of very little consequence to me! And still even more exciting because the cut hair is all being donated to an organization called Matter of Trust an organization that, among other things, weaves the donated hair into hair mats to soak up oil from spills. Random - I know, but cool too. On their website the home page picture is of SF Bay Area citizens cleaning up after the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill.

So Happy Earth day (and week) everyone! Hope you find a neat way to enjoy it!

The Unsupervised

Buoyed by Joey's recent developing spoon abilities, I was sitting next to him while he was eating dinner, but not watching him. In fact I was reading blogs. When I turned to check on his progress I noticed that instead of his dinner, he had decided to use his spoon to consume all of his ketchup.

Joey: 1

Mommy: 0

Just In Case You're Interested...

In case you are interested in keeping up with the rapid growth of our wee pup, I'll be continuing the chart at the bottom of the blog... so you can view it by scrolling down your entire page. It's fun to get an idea of how fast he is growing. There won't be any rhyme or reason to the days we weigh him. They mostly coincide right now with bathing (we are trying to keep him used to water and getting a bath in the hopes that we don't have a huge stinky dog in our future) since that's where the scale is. Hope you check in occasionally!

Get Thee To a Bookstore!

... Because my husband's talented photographic work is featured on the current cover of CMYK magazine!

You can see the whole cover here. Since it is a quarterly publication, you should be able to buy the issue (supposedly at Barnes and Nobles or Borders) through the spring.

One Sick Puppy...

Awww...poor Ziggy is sick!! Without boring you all with the gory details (didn't I do that enough explaining Joey's potty-training ;-) we had noticed before we took Ziggy to the vet that he was a little "off" digestively, so we took in a sample to be tested.

We found out that he has Giardia :-( a pretty common, but annoying parasite found mostly among pets (and people who drink infected water). Matt has actually already had it once, most likely from overseas traveling and bad water.



Although it's very easy to treat in pets it would definitely have been causing him some discomfort (stomach cramping, lots of hunger) and extra fatigue. Since he started his antibiotics today he has been even more hungry, playful and energetic. We are seeing a whole new side of our puppy!! He is also on a special diet of (no dog food) white rice and boiled chicken with cottage cheese or scrambled eggs. He thinks this is the greatest thing ever and ate 4 times today each time begging and begging for more. It's hard to know how much he is really supposed to be eating or needs to eat since he's pretty much been sick for the week and a half that we've had him.

Hopefully within the next 4 days Ziggy will be back to normal and test negative for the parasite next Monday. Until then we need to be careful to keep him from other dogs (he still isn't done being vaccinated AND can infect others with Giardia) and be careful around him ourselves since any one of us, or Mocha could also get it.

*sigh* It's a really good thing this little puppy is so sweet already because he isn't off to an easy start. Contagious disease and eating us out of house and home...

What's next??

Addendum

I sound like I am making this up...but I'm going to post it anyway.

We hadn't actually weighed the dog since Thursday and when I weighed him today he was 10.4 pounds, which means he's actually gained 3 lbs. or so while he's been here. Granted he might have lost a pound in the day of flying to us and adjusting to our food, but wow! Can you imagine if humans grew like that! I mean at this rate he'll double his body weight in his first 3 weeks here.



I think we'll take more puppy pictures now, since this will clearly be a very small, small window.

Introducing Ziggy...

He was a little smaller than we expected when we got him (only 7.5 lbs) but in 6 days he gained over a pound and a half! He's over 9 now and still putting it on! I guess since he doesn't have anyone to compete with for food anymore...? We are really enjoying him (except Mocha, who is feeling very resentful right now). We are working hard on housebreaking him, but got some great tips from Matt's mom (who just got a puppy a few weeks ago) and recommended treats when he goes outside and using the crate (or we have a pen sorta thing) when we can't be in the kitchen with him. This has really helped keep down the accidents. Actually we haven't had any, anywhere else in the house (except the kitchen and family room where we keep him-and really only a few there). He came to us paper-trained, which was a great surprise after we put down some newspaper and has really been trying to get us to take him out when he has to go. (those treats must be working!!).

He's been hugely patient for baths, a collar, walking on a leash, and sleeping in a crate (all of which are new things). We are working on helping Joey to understand that he is bigger than Ziggy (because Ziggy tends to get excited with him) and can stand up, move away or even push Z down if he needs to (like he is getting bitten). Joey is learning to grab and protect his toys "Nah!! Nah!!" (No!) and run away with them, (Ziggy's toys too for that matter when he wants to make a point). But Z just seems to enjoy having the company and attention and love. He sleeps ALOT, and wants to be held and pet as much as possible. We're enjoying it now, because it will be hard to hold him later!

He'll visit our vet for the first time tomorrow morning and we'll make sure he is in good shape and we know how to take care of him well. As far as a slight increase in laundry though (and ALOT of trips outside) we are loving this puppy and so glad that we got him now! This was definitely the right time for us!



And we're hoping that eventually we might be forgiven...

A Year and A Half

**Disclaimer: This post may contain too much information for some!**

And what a great year and a half it has been for our little branch of the Beardsley Family! For the 18 months (and 2 weeks ;-) Matt and I have been blessed to watch our little Josiah grow from a little barely kicking in the womb guy we didn't even know, to a smiling, mellow baby, to a toddler who is full of energy, spirit and independence. There are so many moments where I find myself saying "I just love this guy so much!" or "Matt look, look at Joey, isn't that cute!!??"

I've written his 18 month post for weeks in my head and rewritten and rewritten and.... I have taken a billion pictures and short (and long) video clips to show how much he is changing and how he has grown. I'm not sure how much I will actually post so beware that this could be dangerously long and (let's hope not, but-) boring, unless you are family or a really really REALLY good friend.

With that caution, please enjoy.... :-)



Food!
Joey is doing great with his foods! He is eating everything that we eat. I keep a few granola bars and fruit cups in the diaper bag to tide him over or for emergencies, but now even when we go out or to friend's houses, he eats what we eat. In the last week alone he had curry, rice, poppadom, and naan (not spicy and loved it!) and wontons, all the tofu from my hot and sour soup (ummm.. not that I don't eat tofu) and chinese beef and broccoli. He is working on using a spoon when he eats and getting good at it.



The hardest part about the spoon is that there isn't alot of independence for Joey eating. I have to stay with him because if my attention waivers for a second then he'll flip the bowl just to see what will happen or use the spoon to drop food on the floor. It's amazing though, how much just that little bit of independence in being able to feed himself things that I used to feed him, has encouraged him. He wasn't a big fan of rice or pasta before. He'd eat it, but sometimes there would be some coaxing. Now he'll just shovel it in. It's great to watch him grow up like this, hard too, but wonderful.

Language!
We're still working hard on our talking but Joey is a man of few words! Honestly, sometimes this is a relief to me. Having been around kids so long it's exhausting when they talk and talk and talk. Joey really enjoys talking to himself and babbling and doesn't seem discouraged by our lack of actually exchange of ideas. He can communicate enough to ask for what he wants, and say please. He understands us even more than I think he does and is able to follow all of our directions. Notice I say "is able" not necessarily "does".



Day-to-Day!
Some things that we are working on now are dressing and undressing. Putting on shoes, taking off shoes, and working the velcro straps. We are always working on cleaning up and especially (even harder, because then Mommy needs the motivation too) making sure that the toys go where they should and not in "random toy basket". We are also learning which toys will be devoured by the puppy, (most) and where to put them. It's a task finding a spot high enough to keep out Ziggy and low enough that Joey can get to it.

Once Upon a Potty!
We are in the beginning stages of Pre-potty-training. Again I say, PRE-potty training. We ARE NOT potty training. We aren't even thinking about it in the near future. A while ago while perusing Mckmama's blog I read a post about her potty training. There were some great ideas in it that I thought would be helpful to start now before we were ready to potty train. If you are potty training, planning on doing it again with another child, etc, I would definitely recommend reading this blog.
Since reading this we started doing a few intentional things (stop reading now if this doesn't interest you!)... when Joey is totally undressed (not every time, but usually once every day or every other day, I sit Joey on the toilet. No mini potty, no potty chair. Since the first few weeks he can now balance himself and stay there for a minute or so. He looks SO TEENY, but concentrates (on balancing ;-) and will stay there until I ask "all done?" and give me the all done sign as best he can with whichever hand he decides he can spare. I get him down and then give him an M&M. We flush, he claps (for himself) and we get on with it... He has yet to do anything in the potty, but that isn't really the point. The point right now is for him to learn to sit there, bare butt and all, by himself.

We also talk about what he is doing when we catch him going to the bathroom in his diaper (in really obvious manners). If we ask him, "are you going poop?" he usually points to his diaper and then trots off to his bedroom for a change. Several times he has come to us and pointed to his diaper in the back right before a poop, which is very exciting. I don't plan on taking him to the potty for it, for a while, I am just working on him being conscious of it right now. I would like him to be more willingly verbal before we drive down that road.

We both take him to the bathroom and talk about what is going on. He flushes the toilet and points to the M&Ms for us and we remind him that he can have one when he sits on the potty. He seems interested in what we are doing but not in going any further and that is fine for now.

Since we are currently potty-training a rather small and furry new member of the family we'll be waiting for anything else until after baby #2 unless there is an EXTREME increase of interest and speaking ability.
We did get some training pants though and are excited to try wearing them a few times just to see what "wet" and "dry" feel like and be able to learn what those words mean. We have yet to get them in the mail, but I'll be sure to post more eventually.



Time with Daddy!
Joey loves spending time with his daddy. They have a great time together and I love to watch them!! Joey loves to try to imitate Matt, and is always curious about what he is doing/working on/where he is going, etc.










Playing and Interests!
Joey is really interested in so many things! He really likes to play with his trains and can put the tracks together himself now and loves to run his trains along them!
He really seems to be interested in airplanes though! He loves to point them out in the sky and will hear them from inside the house, even if the sound is SO FAINT and drop everything to point them out to us. The other day I checked out an old old DVD video from the library about trains and planes and buses. It was seriously the first time I ever saw him pay attention to anything for more than 2 minutes. It was so cute. He kept on looking and pointing and going "OOoohhh!!" his little amazed sound.



Joey loves to play outside when we visit playgrounds and go for walks. This is a clip from Fairytale Town in Sacramento.

And of course, Joey with a train...


The Terrible One and a Halfs!
We are definitely noticing that we have a toddler on our hands in the last month or so. He tends to whine when he wants something before remembering that "please" is a better option. Some days I feel like all I say is "stop whining, stop whining, no whining, say please." We also had (and are still having) a bout of jealousy with the new puppy. When I call the puppy, pet the puppy or talk to it in a puppy voice he will run over and insert himself in between me and the puppy (or Matt and the puppy). He has been more fussy and demanding when the puppy is around, but his normal self when the puppy is in the crate (which is a pretty good amount of time also because he is such a baby and sleeps so much!). Actually I'm really glad that we are doing this now and we've noticed this because now we have an idea of what to expect with a baby and what to look for from Joey. We are also getting alot of practice with giving him attention and reassurance and teaching him patience at the same time. I think that a with a new baby or maybe even 2 kids, getting a dog would have been overwhelming and now that we have another 10 weeks to train Ziggy and help Joey adjust to sharing the spotlight, I'm really glad we got the dog at just this time!

The Lord has truly blessed us with our oldest son and I'm so glad to be able to share all of these exciting things about him. He is such a joyful and happy guy and we love him so much!!