'tis the season

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. mike and i went for a bike ride in the morning while his mom watched joshua. then we went to mike's aunt dede's house in the afternoon. i made apple pie, sweet potato casserole, and pirags (a Latvian specialty). i was excited to take on the challenge of making pirags, and Thanksgiving was the perfect opportunity because mike's latvian family could give me some input. i only got good reviews, but that may only be because they all know how much work pirags are, and they wanted me to be encouraged to make them again some time. it's hard to tell, but they were quickly eaten.

Thanksgiving went by so fast. it's funny how Christmas creeps up on us every year. everything seems all hunky-dory until Thanksgiving comes, and on Thanksgiving Day, it hits us! Christmas is all of a sudden here! and the rush begins...

this Christmas is going to be very different for us. our plan is to stay out of the malls and shops this year. most of our gifts will be handmade. those gifts that we cannot make ourselves will be handmade by someone else! we have been shopping online at etsy.com and similar sources. i ordered joshua these "little rollies" from North Star Toys. i cannot say too much until after Christmas, but i have been super busy sewing during all of joshua's naps, then again after he goes to bed. i finally finished the hardest and most delicate project, and i am really happy with how it came out!

we got our Christmas tree this weekend. I thought Joshua would have had a lot of fun running through the farm, but that was not the case. he really was not having a good time. he wasn't happy walking, and he wasn't happy being held. unfortunately, those were his only choices, so, there was a lot of crying. BUT! we did get a tree, and now he is happy pulling all the ornaments off. so, the decorations are a little sparse along the bottom third of the tree. though, luckily some of those ornaments have been replaced with some cherished "ornaments" of his own... like.. his train.. spoons.. farm animals... empty bottles from the recycling bin.. you know.

it really is cute though... he studies the tree to pick out which ornaments he wants and puts it carefully into his barn and closes it up. when he first started walking he liked to take everything out of the drawers in the kitchen and drop them on the floor. now, he'll pull the tupperware out of the drawer, put it inside the drawer below the oven that holds the pans, and close it all up. the other day, i found my mixer inside the cubby of his airplane. i would have never thought to look there if it weren't for the suspiciously awkward seat arrangement.

he is a cutie!

life

well, it's been a LONG time since i've updated. so much has happened since... april?... that i don't even know what to write. we are having so much fun with joshua. i know i've said this throughout, but THIS is my favorite stage. he is doing so much now.

he really got going with his walking right after his 1st birthday. while his uncle mark was visiting for his birthday, they would run around the house together. well, mark was running. joshua was holding his hands and moving his feet, but he was really just skimming the floor while mark held him up by his arms. before then, joshua just wanted to crawl because he knew he could get whereever he wanted much quicker. as soon as his uncle showed him how fast he could go by running, he decided that's what he was going to do. and... he's been running ever since.

besides the running, he's also been climbing. he doesn't stop climbing all day. he climbs up on top of the kitchen table, stands up, and plays with the chandelier. he climbs up on top of his little tikes workbench and bangs on the window. he climbs up the outside edge of the stairs.... you know his tractor and his airplane? well, they are really just ladders to climb up the side of the TV.

he's also been "talking" a lot. actually, his best words are really his animal noises (you can tell what's important over here.)! he knows so many animal noises: lion/bear, monkey, crocodile, fish, sheep, cow, duck, bird, puppy. he's also saying a lot of words, although, most really sound like "dada". for example, "da-der" = cracker, "derd" = bird, "duh-dles" = bubbles. he also says juice, banana, shoes, duck, and my personal favorite "sssh" = fish. we went to visit the fish at an aquarium store the other day, and he ran around from tank to tank pointing at all the fish, saying "ssshhh, sssshhh, sssshhh".

he LOVES to eat his daddy's everything bagels. other flavors just don't do it for him. i'm not sure what it is about that stinky garlicky-onion flavor, smotherd in cream cheese that early in the morning, but it makes joshua get so excited. you CANNOT deny him a bite of an everything bagel! it's hard to even buy them in the store. one day i was putting the groceries away while joshua was running around, and somehow he had snuck himself his very own bag of everything bagels and nibbled right through the bottom of the bag. daddy's bagel looked like a little mouse had gotten it. learning from that experience, i bought bagels this week, and they were on sale. good ole Big Y had them on sale (buy one, get two free). so, i had to hide three bags of bagels in the cart. amongst the chaos of checking out, joshua had found a bag of these famous bagels in the neatly packed grocery bags. i quickly wrestled the bag from him and proceeded to check out, only to find him with another bag of bagels on his lap! so there i am at the Big Y check out counter with an upset toddler, a cart full of groceries, and trying to sign a receipt with a wallet, Big Y savings coins, my credit card, and two open bags of everything bagels in my hand (and i don't even like everything bagels!). chaos. it's moments like these that make me realize what's truly important in life. it's not how much (or how little!) you get done in the day, how well everything worked out, or even what you're doing. life's about the time spent together. it's about the people you're with and the needs you've met for others.