Oh, To Be in Cali ...

They Say It's A New Year

2012-01-03T21:06:00.000-08:00

I so need to blog about our fantabulous Christmas, but a friend of mine [if I were more tech-savvy I would hyperlink that to her blog but I'm not tech-savvy] just blogged about some of the things she learned in 2011. I loved the post and thought I'd do the same here while my thoughts are fresh.

So, here I go:

(1) I came to a deeper understanding of the importance of gratitude. I am really starting to see that it is our attitude about our circumstances much more than our circumstances themselves that determines our happiness. We hear this so much that it might seem trite, but it's so profound and so true. In many ways, my 2010 and 2011 were mirror images of each other. I was home with a baby on maternity leave for the first half of 2010 and worked the second half, and then I worked the first half of 2011 and was home on maternity leave the second half. There were a lot of similarities in the years. A lot of the things that were challenges in 2010 were still challenges in 2011. But 2010 was a much harder year for me. And I think a lot of that was because when I was having a hard time in 2010, I started working on my attitude and focusing on the good, appreciating what I had, and living in the present, instead of focusing on what I didn't have and worrying about the future. That shift made 2011 a really happy year.

(2) I don't need to let the fact that I can't do something perfectly prevent me from doing it at all. So often I am paralyzed from action because I over-analyze and want to do the very best possible thing and can never settle on what that "best" option is (or even if I figure out what's best, it's totally not within my ability to do). For example, I spend so much time analyzing and stressing over the "BEST" possible work-out or the "MOST HEALTHY" possible diet or the "PERFECT" way of journaling for myself and my kids that I just don't even do it at all. I'm trying to let go of that and to just know that doing SOMETHING is better than doing NOTHING. A specific example is that for a long time I have wanted to do a better job of documenting my kids' milestones and funny/cute things they do and say. I have a lot of these things in scattered places but not in any one place because I couldn't decide on the PERFECT way to keep track of these things. Well, I dumped it all into word documents for each of the kids and am going to try to keep those updated. Is it fancy or beautiful? No. But will my kids appreciate having at least some sort of record of their childhoods, however shabby, over having nothing? Of course!

(3) Related to (2), I don't need to let the fact that I have failed to do something in the past prevent me from doing it now. This applies to a lot of the same types of things I talked about in (2): Just because I have never consistently exercised in 30 years doesn't mean I can't start now. Just because I haven't done the greatest job of keeping a consistent journal for myself and of my kids' milestones and what have you doesn't mean I can't start now. I'm sure my kids would rather have at least some documentation - even if they are some time gaps - than none. It is never too late to make positive changes.

This New Year I'm thinking a lot about something I try to remind the girls I teach in church: We don't have to be what we've always been. If we want to be better, we can be better. We don't need to let our old mistakes weigh us down. As Florence + the Machine says (in a song that is all about letting go of our past and re-starting and is my mantra for the year and is amazing and makes me cry and you should listen to it), "It's hard to dance with the devil on your back - so shake him off!"

I'm planning on doing some shaking this year.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Our families had a lot going on over Thanksgiving, so we ended up staying in San Diego and doing it on our own for the first time. I was a little worried I'd get sad/homesick/whatever, but it ended up being great.

On Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, we headed to Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs. We did some short hikes in Joshua Tree and then in Palm Springs we took the Aerial Tram up to San Jacinto State Park. There was snow up that high and the kids had fun playing in it.

Wednesday was cleaning, cooking, and prepping for Thursday's feast. We had Joseph's BFF, Ashton, and his parents over for dinner. I made all of the things that are most important to me: rolls, cream corn, mashed potatoes, jello salad, cranberry relish, stuffing, banana cream pie, and pumpkin cream pie. Ashton's mom made a great turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes, and two more pies. It was a LOT of food but it was delicious! Since I didn't cook the turkey this isn't saying much, but it didn't end up being too big a deal doing so many dishes and they turned out very yummy. In fact, Joseph and Audrey loved the rolls so much that we caught them finishing off the whole bunch of leftovers the next morning ...

Halloween!

2011-12-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

Joseph wanted to be a hamburger for Halloween, which I thought was cute particularly considering he's at an age where lots of kids want to be superheroes or characters from T.V. shows, etc. It must be because we never, ever let him watch T.V. and so he's so creative. (HAH!!! Just kidding. Everything that kid knows he learned from PBS.) Anyway, since Audrey and William didn't have an opinion, we went with a family theme. Cute banquet, huh?

We had a Halloween party at work, a trunk-or-treat at church, homemade caramel apple night at homes, and finally, trick-or-treating on the actual night. Joseph went with his buddy Ryan. This was the first year where Audrey knew what was going on. It was hilarious. She would just stare people down as they kept giving her candy until she felt she had a sufficient amount. Then she'd say, "duh duh" ("thank you", obviously) and move on to the next house. If people let the kids pick their own candy, Audrey would grab two handfuls. She also strongly preferred lollipops and took them whenever available. It was a little embarrassing but she is such a tiny thing that everyone just thought it was funny.

We decided that the day after Halloween, the kids could just eat all the candy they wanted - but then it was going to disappear. So they did gorge themselves but it wasn't too bad and they were fine the next day when it disappeared. The best part was that with all the lollipops Audrey had collected, she'd have us open them, then take a few licks, and decide she was done and throw them in the trash. Fine with me!

Smiles

2011-10-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

Capturing baby smiles is always tough, but William sure has some sweet ones. He is really happy. Especially right when he's slept and eaten. He gets that from his dad.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-26T21:49:00.001-07:00

We've gone to the same pumpkin patch every year since we moved here. Also, clearly I'm a sucker for holiday-themed clothing.

Road Trip

2011-10-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

We took the kids to Utah so that William (and the rest of them) could spend some time with family. They had a great time at Grandma White's house, and the fall weather was beautiful.

One day we took the kids to BYU to hang around where Todd and I met. We took them to the Bean Museum, which is basically just a bunch of dead stuffed animals. Joseph was very concerned with what was going to happen in that building during the resurrection. Good point. He was also curious about whether his body was going to be put in a museum when he died. We said NO, and we will remember not to take him to BodyWorld anytime soon.

We also took a road trip to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. I think National Parks are definitely our favorite family destination and I have been pleasantly surprised at how accessible they are and how many hikes are available that even we can do. The kids love being outside and Joseph especially enjoys doing "awesome hikes."

William Shadrach Goodsell

2011-10-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

We welcomed sweet William into our family on August 7th. Todd and I love him, and Joseph and Audrey also love their baby brother like crazy. He is a sweet little thing.

We named him William because Joseph's suggestion that we name the baby Phil Mickelson didn't gain much traction.
His middle name continues our family tradition of names from literary heroes. In the Bible, Shadrach was wise, brave, and unwaveringly faithful in a challenging world. Shadrach is also a family name of a great-great-great-great grandfather who did a lot of things worthy of gaining a namesake.

I can't talk about William's birth without giving a huge shout out to Todd's parents, my mom, and my dear, dear friend Lauren. Todd's family stayed with Joseph and Audrey while I was in the hospital. Four days after William was born, Todd had to go to Indiana for two weeks. My mom and Lauren both spent time with me so that I did not totally lose my mind and I would not have survived without them! Many other good friends also helped with meals and babysitting and we were well taken care of.

Life has been pretty crazy with three kids (hence the severely delayed birth announcement), but we are sure a happy little family right now!

Torrey Pines

2011-07-10T23:18:00.000-07:00

Went hiking. Kids had fun. Kids got very dirty. Joseph wore his super awesome sunglasses. Mom was exceedingly pregnant.

Father's Day

2011-07-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

None of them are looking in the same direction - but they are all smiling. Score!

Family Vacation

2011-07-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

We've been wanting to take a last little family vacation before our family of four becomes a family of five, so when a busy trial at work wrapped up, we seized the opportunity to take a few days off and headed north to Newport Beach for some family fun.

We stayed at some nice little villas that were perfect for our family - two bedrooms, a kitchen, family, two big bathrooms, etc., so everyone had plenty of space. Joseph kept commenting about how HUGE everything was. He *loved* the hotel. They also had a number of swimming pools (including a kiddie pool), a putting green, a play ground, and other activities for the kids. So we spent most of our time hanging around there.

But we also went to the beach, where Audrey decided she was not interested in the chilly water (fine with us, as that meant we didn't have to chase her around the whole time), and Joseph decided he was more interested in "protecting" our stuff from aggressive squirrels and birds than really doing anything else.

Before we left we spent the day around Balboa and Newport Beach, visiting the places where Todd spent many of his family vacations as a kid.

Joseph didn't want to come home, but we came home anyway.

The end.

Happy Birthday Dr. J!

2011-05-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

The "special plate" place setting is ready to go for a birthday breakfast of donuts with rainbow sprinkles ... the aquarium is set up and hidden in the bathroom, and will house a fish that joseph picks out in the afternoon ... the cupcakes are ready for joseph to take to his preschool class tomorrow ... a couple small things to wrap and we are ready for our little guy to turn FOUR tomorrow!

BIRTH day birthday:

First Birthday:

Second birthday:

Third Birthday:

This is what happens when ...

2011-05-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when we leave any food on the table. Our little forager here is helping herself to a hamburger.

This is what happens to Audrey's hair when it's been in piggy tails.

This is what happens when we wash the piggy tails out.

Happy Children's Day

2011-05-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

(Trying on some bug costumes at the Wild Animal Park.)

Today, after having a lovely Mother's Day dinner, Joseph and I started talking about what he might get Todd for Father's Day. He gave some thoughtful suggestions ("a new cable that he doesn't have"; "a new toothbrush that he doesn't have"; "a new golf ball or golf club that he doesn't have"). Then he excitedly told me, "Hey! I have an idea! After Father's Day why don't we have Children's Day? Is that a good idea? Children's Day?"

I said yes, that was a good idea. (I also thought to myself, as I'm sure many of you would in a similar circumstance, *every* day is Children's Day!) But I have been thinking today about my children and how grateful I am for them and that they have given me the opportunity to be a mother.

(Joseph on "Crazy Hair Day" at Preschool. He wanted to look like a "Stigimoloch" - a kind of a dinosaur with spikes and horns all over his head.)

Joseph is so sweet and thoughtful. His thoughtful suggestions for Father's Day - when thinking about gifts, he really does try to think of something that the recipient would like - demonstrate that. He frequently gives compliments and praises others. He is affectionate and cuddly. He loves to make other people laugh and lately has been really into making up jokes and then asking us if we think they are funny. He is (generally) quite patient with his sister. He likes to call her by her nicknames - "Miss Bee" (which Todd and I coined), and "Audj", which he came up with on his own.

He loves his family and friends. He loves animals, dinosaurs, and bugs - and knows a LOT about them.

I am so grateful for his sweet spirit. We have been working on bedtime (going to bed on his own and staying in his own bed all night). After a few days of me sitting in the room with him while he fell asleep, I moved to outside of his door. We had talked about how I would do this and we had talked about how, if he got scared, he could say a prayer (which was actually his suggestion).

Anyway, he got a little sad when I left the room. Then he got quiet, and a few seconds later I heard him softly praying: "Heavenly Father, please help me to not be scared. Please help me to go to sleep and stay in my bed all night. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Then he hollered out to me, "I can go to sleep now!!!" And he did in fact stay in his bed all night long that night (for the first time in ... a very long time) and was beaming with happiness when he ran into our room in the morning. I was so proud of him.

(Audrey at the Wild Animal Park).

Audrey is a little ball of sunshine in our home. She is constantly beaming with happiness. She is not very cuddly (too busy moving to be cuddly) but freely gives kisses and hugs to us and to her toys. She is super determined and fearless and loves mastering new skills; whatever she puts her mind to, she will be very good at. It is impossible not to be happy around her.

She has gotten a little shy lately, but generally is really friendly. She loves waving at people. We took the kids to the Wild Animal Park a few weeks ago to see a butterfly exhibit and she thought that all of the butterflies were "waving" to her as they fluttered around - and she vigorously waved right back at them. So cute.

She is also the cutest little thing ever. Today, someone told Todd, "She is the cutest little girl I have ever seen in my life." Todd said, we thought so too but that we were biased. The woman continued - "No, I mean, I am not biased - she is cuter than my own daughter was." So, there you have it.

Easter Sunday

2011-04-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Easter Saturday

2011-04-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

Because Joseph remembers what we did in previous years, our family tradition is for him to go the park with Dad while the Easter Bunny comes to our house and hides eggs. Here's what went down when Joseph came back:

The Video

The Hunt

The Spoils

The Post Sugar-High Daze

The Birds Nests

The Girl Who Likes to Wear Necklaces (Always) and Figured Out How to Climb into Her High Chair

Ultrasound results

2011-03-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Joseph has been saying for a while that he only wants the new baby to be a boy and that if it's a girl he's going to be sad--or scared of it.

As we approached Joseph to tell him the results, he started excitedly calling out "Is it a boy? Is it a boy?" Here's what followed:

In case it's not clear from the video, Joseph will have to wait a bit longer to learn how to deal with disappointment in life: we're having a little boy in August.

We're all very excited. For Joseph's sake, we're thrilled, and we're convinced that Audrey can easily handle two brothers.

However, there are some serious matters to attend to: we have less than 5 months to come up with a non-conventional spelling of "Jimmer" so that our Jimmer stands out. So far, the leading spelling is Gymhur. (It's sort of Ben-Hur meets Gymnasium).

Potty Pants

2011-03-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

Audrey has been really interested in Joseph's big boy potty pants for a long time. Whenever she finds the laundry basket, she digs through it and pulls out a pair of his potty pants. She likes to walk around the house carrying them. As long as the laundry is clean, we don't really care--we don't understand, but we don't care.

Sometimes when Audrey is resisting getting her diaper changed, I'll grab a pair of her brother's potty pants from the dresser drawer and give them to her to distract her. The last couple of times that I've done this, she's done something that looks like she's trying to put them on herself.

Today, I helped her out, and she's never been more proud:

When I set her down, she kept pulling on them to admire them and checking to make sure that she really did have them on. After giving them a few tugs to make sure they weren't going anywhere, she set off feeling confident and empowered.

V-Day, D-Day, B-Day

2011-02-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

Miss Bee turns one year old on Tuesday.

If I said I couldn't believe she was turning one already, that would be a lie. She's been acting like a one -- or two -- year old for quite some time. So, it's about time.

(She moved that box over to the table so she could climb on top of it.)

(I turned my back on her at the park for 1 minute and she had climbed to the top of the playground equipment.)

(She climbed up onto Joseph's bed and then reached into her drawer and pulled all of her pajamas out.)

(Climbs everything she can.)

Last year, on Valentine's Day Sunday, we came home from church and had a nice Valentine's meal of filet mignon and twice-baked potatoes. (This year, we celebrated v-day a day early, came home from church and had an even nicer dinner of rib-eye and roasted garlic mashed potatoes, thank you thank you Pioneer Woman.) I was a few days away from my due date, but a few days past when I would have had a c-section had I chosen to schedule one, and so was still feeling "overdue." I vowed I wouldn't go to church again/leave the house till that baby came, and I was doing everything short of castor oil to get things going, but I wasn't optimistic I was going to have that baby anytime soon. I went to bed early that night and woke up at about 1 in the morning and knew (I'll spare you the details) that it was d-day.

I woke up Todd and told him it was time to go the hospital; he wearily asked if we could wait till morning. I said no, and called the hospital to check just in case, and they said yes indeed I needed to come in. After trying 3 different people we finally found somewhere to take Joseph at 2 in the morning and headed to the hospital.

Well, we should have known after the delivery experience that our little girl is a stubborn one. She was happy as a clam to stay lodged up way high in my ribs and so after a lot of laboring and no progress, we had to do another c-section. We also definitely should have known she was stubborn when she hollered and pouted after being forcibly (and there was a lot of force involved, it was not pleasant, like I said she was pretty determined to remain in my ribs) removed from the womb. But we were glad she made it safe and sound.

She forgave us for birthing her eventually.

I cannot even say how grateful we are to have her in our family. I don't think a day goes by when it doesn't strike me how completely awesome she is and how I can't imagine our family without her. Although she is stubborn -- a stubborness that leads her to pitch a mighty fit when something doesn't go her way, and that propelled her to walking at 10 months and climbing all over everything and getting into all kinds of mischief -- she is also one of the happiest little things you will ever see.

When Todd blessed her, he said that she had been blessed with a "happy spirit." At that time we knew she was a pleasant, good-natured baby but we didn't realize how happy she really is, (almost) all of the time, and how she radiates that happiness to everyone else.

(Blessing day with mom and the grandmas.)

She is an independent little thing, and will spend hours and hours just playing on her own, content to wander around the house looking for interesting things to play with/climb on, and needing very little attention. (Except to intervene during power struggles with her brother, though they get along quite well in general and love each other fiercely.)

She loves people and will beam at anyone willing to look her way. She is by all accounts a gorgeous little baby, what with the curly hair, bright blue eyes, long lashes, perfectly chubby cheeks and dimples, etc. But it's really her radiant and happy personality that make her especially lovely.

We love Miss Bee!

Holidays and Stuff

2011-02-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Well, between a totally hectic Christmas season (now I know why people get Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving -- so they can actually enjoy all of the other stuff going on in December instead of being a total stress case! I thought people just liked to brag and look like they were really on top of things or something), working a lot of hours, being addicted to my Kindle (and so spending my spare minutes at night reading instead of blogging), and having two crazy kids -- this has gotten seriously out of date. But inasmuch as our kids are still exceedingly cute and we've been up to a lot of fun things lately, I feel a blogging frenzy coming on. I'll start with the holidays.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah -- all of my siblings were there so it was great.

Joseph loved playing with his cousins and this was the first time we've all been together where he's been old enough to really play with them on his own without any supervision, so they would play all day together in the basement and had a lot of fun. He also enjoyed playing outside in the snow/ice. Oh, how that boy wants a backyard! Primarily because he is under a very mistaken impression that we will get a dog once we have a yard. But also because he loves to play outside.

Todd enjoyed playing board games with his brothers-in-law (since I don't really play board games -- they stress me out and I have enough stress in my life at work).

I enjoyed reading and chatting with my sisters. And I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, which was temporarily in crisis when our oven turned to a smoking monster but turned out great.

Audrey enjoyed ATTENTION, as usual. She also mastered the art of pulling herself up on furniture at Grandma White's house, leading to Todd's prophetic insight that she would be walking by the New Year. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

And evidently, we took only one picture during the entire Thanksgiving trip. Oops.

Christmas

We continued a lot of fun Christmas traditions this season. Decorating was fun because for the first time, Joseph really was able to help put Christmas ornaments on the tree. (Though we had to put them very high out of Audrey's reach.) We did an advent calendar where every night we got a piece of a nativity and read a scripture about Jesus. We made (well, "assembled") a ginger bread house; Christmas cookies of many varieties; visited the lights and nativity at the San Diego Temple; attended Joseph's very first preschool program (which went even worse than we had anticipated -- Joseph refused to participate and cried the whole time); went to a really cool live Nativity at Joseph's preschool (complete with a great petting zoo, llama rides, crafts, stories, etc.); had a Christmas party with Joseph's cousins; and visited Santa at our church Christmas party. Probably some other stuff, too.

Another thing that was really fun about this Christmas is that Joseph decided himself what gifts he wanted to get everyone in the family. Totally unprompted, he decided to get Dad a razor, Mom some jewelry, and Audrey some "pretend" jewelry. It was fun taking him shopping and so adorable that he picked gifts for everyone. And did a pretty good job at it, too!

Joseph was also very excited about Santa Claus. We had a lot of fun leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve -- but Joseph did NOT want any presents. Anytime we asked him what he wanted, he said "ANYTHING!" Which actually means "nothing" in Joseph-speak. We got him some presents anyway and he didn't seem too disappointed about that in the end.

Todd and I went through a parental rite of passage on Christmas Eve -- Todd stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG putting together the kids' toy from Santa -- a play kitchen. (I stayed up till 2 making breakfast but knew I wouldn't be any help with the kitchen and so went to bed.) But it was all worth it to see how excited the kids (even Audrey) were about the kitchen and to watch them play with it together.

After we did our own Christmas thing we went up to Todd's parents and had Christmas with his whole family. Once again Joseph loved playing with his cousins, who are so sweet with him.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas season -- but this year I'm getting everything done before Thanksgiving for sure ... so that I can spend more time baking cookies and looking at Christmas lights during December.

Off to the pool!

2011-01-27T13:44:00.001-08:00

We heart January in San Diego.

School Pictures

2010-11-18T15:44:00.000-08:00

Joseph's very first school pictures. I am really impressed that they got him to look at the camera and smile, and not surprised that in his class pictures, he's next to/being restrained by his teacher. So handsome!

Falloween

2010-10-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

I love fall, and for some reason this year in particular I have been obsessed with fall. This means wearing sweaters, baking pumpkin bread and making soup even when it was still pretty hot out (but being SUPER excited about the rainy weather we've had over the last few weeks). It also means participating in fall activities to the max.

First we went to Utah for a wedding and enjoyed, among other things, some fall foliage and riding ponies at a darling little farm.

Back home, we held our annual tradition of going to Bates Nut Farm. Joseph had already gone to a pumpkin patch with his preschool, but we couldn't resist going to the Farm because it is so big and beautiful and we've gone every year since we've moved here. Joseph in green = his preschool trip; the other pictures are our trip.

And, of course, we enjoyed Halloween. Joseph had three costumes this year (which was still a lot fewer than the number that he requested): he wore his Tigger costume from last year to his preschool "animal" parade ...

He wore his astronaut costume to my work party, the party we hosted here, and to trick-or-treat ...

And today, he dressed as his sister Audrey. (He did this all on his own.)

Audrey only had one costume, but she was FOR SURE the cutest Audrey Bee ever.

All About Dr. Joseph

2010-10-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is a post about Joseph. Because he is just that funny, and he deserves a post dedicated to some of the funny things he says and does (whether or not anyone will read this whole thing ... I just want to get these down in one place.)

***Joseph and the "dragon" that he made out of blocks (relying on the "menu" or "directions" that he had drawn to tell him how to build the dragon).***

Joseph and the Pet

Joseph (like many children) has always loved animals. He loves running into dogs at the park and when we're out walking, he loves playing with my mom's cat, he loves going to the zoo and to the pet store. At one point I even considered (briefly) getting a dog back before Joseph had a sibling, but then I saw that they were about as much work as getting him a sibling so we did that instead. Anyway, it was inevitable that he finally formally ask for a pet. This happened the other night.

He said, "Can we go to the petstore and get a pet to come home and live with us?" (Note the precision in his language. More on that later.)

I said, "What kind of pet would we get?"

He said, "A worm."

I figured that was pretty reasonable, so I said, "Maybe."

Emboldened, he continued: "Can we get a kitty cat?"

"No, kitty cats make daddy sick. But you can play with Grandma White's kitty cat."

"Do dogs make daddy sick?"

"No."

"Can we get a dog then?"

"No, because we don't have a yard for the dog to play in and go potty in, and dogs don't use the toilet."

Joseph's final plea: "I will wipe the doggies bummy."

Anyway, anyone know anything about worm care?

Joseph the Linguist

Joseph is really clever with language. He seems to really understand nuances in words and really likes experimenting with new ones.

For example, the other day he tested out a new word:

"I have an email hypothesis."

"What is your hypothesis?"

"It's about email in the water. It's an interesting hypothesis."

The next day, he was testing "worried" and "worrying." Everytime we asked what he was doing, he was "worrying" about one thing or another: "I'm worried about Audrey. I'm worried about those cars."

Similarly, he's good at using nuances in language to try to get out of trouble. For example, when he's getting in trouble for "hitting," he explains that he was actually "patting," "clapping," "tapping," or any number of euphemisms he's come up with. When we ask him not to "step over" Audrey, he clarifies that he was "jumping over" her. He fell off of our bed the other day, and explained that it wasn't a fall: "I didn't fall; it was a jump. When I sometimes fall over, it's a jump."

Another example: Often when Joseph is grouchy in the morning (for instance, because he had stayed up till 10 the last two nights ...), he'll yell at me, "go away!"

Todd will have talks with him about needing to be nice to mommy. The other day, after having a talk, Joseph came back into the room and said brightly, "hi mommy! how are you mommy!" and then declared he had said a nice thing.

A few days later, however, he was a bit cleverer. After getting in trouble for yelling "go away!" at me, he said, very sweetly, "mommy, will you please go away?" and then said, "I said it nicely."

I think he's also figured out that his parents are good with language, too, and so he has learned to be very precise when he asks for things so that we cannot twist his words and give him something else. For example, the other day Todd had a drink that Joseph wanted. Rather than just asking for a drink (because he has learned that Todd will say "yes" and then get him a different drink, even though we all know Joseph wants Todd's drink), Joseph said, "Can I have that green drink right there in your hands." Hard to get around that one.

He has also figured out language to always be right. The other day he was reading a chapter book ... not a kid's book ... specifically, he was reading "The Elements of Style" by White and Strunk. I told him, "Joseph, that book doesn't have any pictures in it." He responded, "Yes it does. It has pictures of words."

He's also really into "matching" and "categorizing" things. A few months ago Joseph would often tell us that certain things were his "favorite." Examples: "lettuce is my favorite kind of a vegetable"; "a horse is my favorite kind of an animal." (Don't think he really knows what "favorite" means because he will then go on to tell us that "broccoli is his favorite kind of a vegetable" and that "dolphins are his favorite kind of animals." Anyway, he was making a "lawnmower" today out of tinker toys and said:

"Lawnmowers are my favorite kind of a ... kind of a ... [pause as he tries to figure out what kind of category lawnmowers fit into]. Lawnmowers are my favorite kind of a vacuum!"

Joseph the Joker

Along with his interest in new words, he likes to make up jokes that play on words. I think this is actually quite sophisticated for a three year old. Here are his jokes:

"One day, I was walking in the night." It took us a while to figure out that he thinks this is funny because you say day and night.

Another one: "Meat-eaters eat plants."

Joseph and Audrey

Joseph loves Audrey and is almost always really sweet with her (though he still has trouble sharing with her. Luckily she doesn't notice this yet.) The other day he said, "I like my baby sister, Audrey." Todd said something like, "Yes, she's cute. That's nice of you to say." Joseph replied, "I'd like a baby brother too someday."

Joseph's Baptism

Just FYI, it's going to be awesome when Joseph gets baptized in a few years. Here's why.

A few weeks ago we took him to a baptism. After watching, he said, "When I get bigger and get baptized, can I wear goggles?"

Todd said, "no, but you can just close your eyes when you go in the water."

Joseph responded: "That won't work. I'm going to wear goggles . . . and flippers."

Joseph the Golfer

Joseph is still really into golf. He likes to pretend he's Tiger Woods (pre-scandal) and usually if anyone else is golfing with him, he makes that person be Kenny Perry. His other favorites are Phil Mikelson and Rory McIlroy. Lately, he also likes to pretend that Audrey is his caddy, and he asks her for imaginary balls and golf clubs.

Joseph and Preschool

Joseph has been in preschool for a little over a month now and he loves it. We think it's helping him to be a little more independent and social. We're happy he's happy there.

The End.

A First

2010-10-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph and Audrey, both looking at the camera, both smiling. At the same time. And Todd managed to capture it on camera.

That's good news.

The bad news is that this is likely a once-a-year occurrence, and we have family pictures scheduled for Saturday. So I think odds of a repeat performance then are bad. Oh well! They're still cute.

Road Trip V: Portland

2010-10-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

So the day after the Redwoods was mostly a driving day. We had planned to go to Crater Lake but we had been doing so much driving and it was pretty far out of our way, so we decided to just head up to Portland in a leisurely fashion that day. It was a beautiful drive through nice forested areas. We stopped in Eugene around the University of Oregon for some lunch, and then got to Portland in the evening.

Once we made it to Portland we drove up the Columbia River Highway or whatever it's called up the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped at some beautiful waterfalls and did a little bit of hiking. The Gorge is really lovely.

Then we had the BEST Thai food we've ever had (even though it was from a restaurant in a slightly sketchy neighborhood -- but Yelp told us to go there, and Yelp did not lead us astray; Todd doubted Yelp, but I believed, and I prevailed). Then we actually made it to our hotel before midnight or later for the first time in several days, so we got some sleep.

In the morning we headed into Portland. We first went to the famous Powell's bookstore. I was surprised at how much fun we had (I mean I like bookstores, but we were taking two small children so it wasn't like we could just leisurely look around). Plus, massive bookstore with massively high shelves and an escape artist for a toddler = recipe for disaster. But Todd and I took turns exploring a bit in the store while the other stayed with the kids at some tables in the children's section and read lots of books with Joseph. Joseph loved getting the books off of the shelves and reading. I took pictures of some books I wanted, and then downloaded them on my Kindle. Sorry, Powell's. We did buy a couple of children's books, though.

After Powell's we went and found some lunch, and then explored a bit around town. We went to a fancy-pants children's toy store that was a lot of fun. Oh, except that the children's toy store did not allow you to throw away diapers in the trash cans. Which I understand because they don't want the place getting smelly, but here is the one problem with Portland: there are no trash cans anywhere in public! This is very bewildering to me because it is a very clean city. But how is it so clean if it is impossible to find trash cans? I guess people are like backpackers and then pack it out. Anyway, I digress.

After the toy store, we went to a splash park/fountain and Joseph had a great time splashing around. Then it was getting time to head up to Seattle so we grabbed some cupcakes and then headed up north to my cousin's house.

MAJOR Milestone

2010-10-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

This has probably been possible for a long time now since Audrey has always had a lot of hair, but today I officially discovered that I can give her little piggy tails. We'll still always love her headbands, but I am certainly excited about this development and celebrated by visiting Target to pick up some more hair clips and rubber bands (since, as is evident from this picture, I did not have matching clips until now). AWESOME.

By the way -- anyone have any recommendations for cute places to get hair clips? I am obsessed with babyblingbows.com for headbands (a girl from church introduced me, and I don't know what I would have done without them), but they don't do clips...

Not that it's necessary to do anything to this girl's awesome hair. It is so dang cute, although it is getting so long that it actually gets snarly in the back and we have to carefully comb it out after we bathe her. What kind of kid needs detangler at before hitting 7 months?!?

As her hair has gotten longer, I think the curl is getting weighed down a little bit. Todd recently discovered the solution to perfect ringlets: we just stick Audrey in the exersaucer in the steamy bathroom while we shower, and the steam perfects the curl. These are some pictures taken on the day Todd discovered and perfected the technique (and the day we were trying -- unsuccessfully -- to get some pictures of Audrey and Joseph in their Halloween jammies).

In addition to the hair, I will admit that dressing Audrey is a bit of a hobby/obsession for me. A recent favorite from last week. The picture does not do this outfit justice. These adorable jeans (Todd accused me of "pegging" them but it was just that they were too long) and a cute white top, but that wasn't the great part. She had these darling yellow, pink, and green shoes that Sam's parents sent us, perfectly matching socks, and of course, a perfectly matching head band. She was such a big girl. Of course, we went to a botanical garden on the hottest day of the year (it was literally the hottest day in L.A. since like 1880 or something), and she kicked off her shoe at some point and I had to wander around in the sweltering heat looking for it. She was probably trying to get back at me for putting her in jeans on the hottest day of her life. Anyway, I found the shoe.

Another good one -- this was for my sister Kiersten's book signing/release party when her awesome book came out. If you've read the book (and I hope you have), you'll understand why I dressed Audrey in hot pink and animal print.

Joseph and his cousins were looking pretty sharp at the book signing, too.

Last but not least -- Audrey is not without her fashion disasters. A few weeks ago, we went to the Wild Animal Park. Knowing that this would present photo opportunities, I of course dressed Audrey appropriately for the occasion. Unfortunately, en route to the park, she had a major blow out. We used to pack extra outfits for these kinds of occasions but have long since discontinued this practice, since blow outs are rare these days. So, I didn't have anything else to put her in. We had, however, started packing extra pants for Joseph since potty training him in case of accidents. So we stuck her in some of his shorts and she was good to go.

And yes, someone thought she was a boy. Though, that still seems hard to believe.

Road Trip IV: Redwood Forest

2010-09-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

So I think this was our favorite day of the whole trip. A good combination of beautiful scenery while driving, punctuated by some short but sweet hikes to break things up a bit.

We drove very late into the night to arrive at Eureka, California, just south of Redwood National Forest. We slept for a few hours there and then grabbed a delicious breakfast at a little diner. By the way, a major shout out to Yelp for excellent restaurant recommendations. We had a goal on our trip not to eat at any chains and I'm pretty sure we fulfilled it except maybe once or twice (when we really didn't have any more options), so we relied heavily on Yelp to guide us to good eats and were generally quite pleased.

After we ate we drove up to the forest. We got out at one point and did a nice little loop hike in the forest. Beautiful, but no Ewoks.

Then we drove some more to some look out points, and started heading to Oregon. On our way to Oregon we saw a look out point that was supposed to be nice so we drove up and got out of the car. It was really foggy and we saw this little out-cropped lookout point way down below the cliffs and decided to hike down there to see if we could get a better view away from the fog. This was a super fun hike. There were tons of wildflowers growing in the sides of the cliffs and the scenery was stunning. The one drawback was that there were hundreds of little snakes slithering around in the grass, which was a little bit disconcerting, but we managed.

Then we kept heading north to Oregon, stopping in Crescent City to look around a bit and eat some dinner, and then stopped some random place in Oregon for the night.

Road Trip III: San Francisco

2010-09-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

After our day in Monterey, we went into San Francisco. We explored around the pier and took a boat ride around the Bay to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. It was really beautiful, but also very windy outside. Audrey couldn't keep her eyes open it was so windy, so we went back inside till the wind died down. Todd headed to the Flagship Apple Store in Union Square to get a case for the "I-Pad Mini" I got him for Father's Day (that's our clever name for an I-pod Touch), and we finished up the day by grabbing some Mexican food and cookies in the Mission District. Oh, well we actually finished the day by driving until 1 a.m. to get to our next destination, Eureka.

I love San Francisco, I do. I love that it is the closest thing to an old European city on the west coast that we have. There are many other things that I love about it. What don't I love, though? Well, let me tell you: All of the young hipster people there who think they are really, really cool. And they were all at the Mexican restaurant we were at, feeling really self-important and hip. But other than that, I do love San Francisco.

Random Happenings

2010-09-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Todd's brother came down to help do some things around the house. Joseph was very helpful.

So was Audrey.

We had a church picnic at the beach. We anticipated it would be chilly so we didn't take swimsuits. We should have known that Joseph would insist on swimming anyway -- we turned around and he had stripped down. So we put on a pull-up and he had a blast.

Joseph is officially potty-trained. It was a long process but he is enjoying the "laptop" he got as a reward.

Meanwhile, Audrey's learning to drive.

She's also learning to eat finger foods.

And to get into mischief.

Road Trip II: Monterey

2010-09-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

So blogging about this trip will never happen if I try to take the time to do elaborate posts and picture captions ... I am already a few months late. So, quick descriptions and a bunch of pictures and that's that.

We spent our first day in Monterey. In the morning, we walked around Monterey from the Wharf down through Cannery Row to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After spending the rest of the morning in the aquarium and grabbing some lunch, we headed to the 17-Mile Drive to see the beautiful Monterey coastline and visit Pebble Beach. (I am editing this post to note that Todd insisted on changing into slacks when we got to Pebble Beach. Even though he wasn't golfing, he didn't want to APPEAR to be a non-golfer.) That night, on our way to a hotel near San Francisco, we ate at this adorable little German restaurant in this tiny little town in the Santa Cruz mountains. Todd didn't think the food was as authentic as he wished, but it was an idyllic little place in these huge trees and it was still pretty fun.

Monterey:

Aquarium:

Pebble Beach:

6 months of Audrey

2010-08-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today our little girl turned 6 months old. Here's what you need to know about Miss Audrey B.

Her body is still too tiny to contain her smiles. She wiggles, squirms, flaps her arms, and kicks her legs when she smiles.

She does not cuddle. She does not want to be held. She only wants to roam the floors and go wherever her rollings take her. She'll cry when she gets tired or hungry, but mostly she's just content calling the shots about where she goes.

She owns many "age-appropriate" toys. She plays with none of them.

She's especially fond of cars, dinosaurs, and wrenches.

Unlike her brother at this age, Audrey ~~likes~~ needs to put EVERYTHING in her mouth.

She's now learning to eat solids. She enjoys rice cereal, applesauce and mashed bananas.

Mostly she enjoys grabbing the spoon away; it feels like fighting a hydra to get the spoon to her mouth, but we're making progress.

She loves the camera

She looks like her mommy

But her daddy thinks she has a little bit of grandpa in her too

Her favorite person in the world is her brother. Oddly enough, other than a few immunizations, Joseph has been the source of every traumatic, painful, and bothersome experience in her life, yet Audrey still beams whenever he walks into the room.

Audrey is under this tent:

This is how she got in this tent:

This is how she feels about her brother putting her in this tent:

She loves watching what Joseph does and wants to do whatever he's doing.

In turn, Joseph loves taking care of her and greeting her when she wakes up from sleeping:

They like to play a game Joseph named "T-Rex and Meat."

They take turns. Audrey doesn't like being the meat.

Other random details: She's strong enough to sit on her own, but hasn't figured out the balancing part yet. She's got a couple of teeth poking through on the bottom. She may just have an ear infection, but she frequently does this cute little thing where she pulls on a curl on the side of her head.

Living Scriptures

2010-07-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight, as we were getting Joseph ready for bed, we read the parable of the Prodigal Son.

We've kind of been slacking on our read-a-scripture-story-before-bedtime routine, but (much like updating our blog) we're not going to let past failures deter us. Tonight, Joseph also gave us new motivation to keep up with this tradition.

In the past, we would find a picture from a scripture story and then repeat the same story two or three nights in a row and ask him questions to see what details he remembered from previous nights. Sometimes we'd come up with some kind of game to act out from the story (e.g., Gathering animals like Noah, putting our nets in the water like Peter, building a boat like Nephi. I guess nautical-themed stories seem to lend themselves well to activities for two-year olds).

So last night, we talked about how the dad forgave his son and was so happy to see him even though the son had been doing naughty things that he shouldn't have been doing. We just focused on the picture and the story and didn't bother coming up with an action for "riotous living" or for wanting to eat pig food.

Tonight, after we reviewed the story, Joseph announced joyfully, "I'm going to pretend to do something naughty." Not knowing what was coming next, we watched with amused anticipation. Joseph quickly ran around a little table, wound up, and whacked me on the arm as hard as he could. He then looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye and waited for me to do my part where the daddy forgives his son with a great big hug.

Erin fought off laughter by biting her knuckle, but was able to recompose herself after he hit me again for the repeat performance.

I have now determined that Erin gets to be the robbers whenever she agrees to let us act out Ammon defending the king's flocks.

Also, we're also going to hold off on David and Goliath for a while as well.

(we'll explain the story behind those last two pictures soon)

Not to be left out, Audrey is also ready for her key role in the "Solomon/split the baby" story:

Road Trip I: The Prequel

2010-07-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

We are pretty much on the verge of giving up on the blog -- been working ten-plus hour days since I started back to work last week, and things are looking to get even worse in the next month. But, I would be remiss not to blog about our big road trips that we took while I was still on my maternity leave. So.

We decided to do a "mini" road trip to Bryce National Park and Zion National Park on our way home from my parents' house in Utah. This was a test run to see if we thought the kids could handle a much longer road trip from San Diego to Seattle and back. Needless to say (since we ended up doing the San Diego - Seattle trip), it was a huge hit!

Joseph was a great little hiker some of the time. Other times he liked to be carried. Still other times, he liked to get "hiking sticks" that were about 6 inches long and actually made hiking far, far more difficult because we all had to crouch down to the ground to use the hiking sticks. But he really enjoyed it and I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the Parks were even to families with young children like us. We were able to see a lot of amazing things without killing ourselves toting our kids around.

I'm going to let the following quotes from Joseph speak for themselves, and then just post a bunch of pictures that I will not bother to caption or explain or anything. Enjoy!

Joseph's Quotes

(these also include quotes from the stay at Grandma's house):

"I was looking into Kiki's [my parents' cat] beautiful eyes and eyelashes, and she was tickling me with her claws and teeth!"

"I forgive you, daddy." (Said to Todd after a time-out.)

"Did grandpa have a bug cake, too?" (Said in response to us telling him it was his grandpa Goodsell's birthday the day after his.)

"I want to hear the stream say, 'Give-oh'." (Said while hiking in Zion.)

"This is a nice swordfish, not a mean one." (Said about the imaginary swordfish he caught in the Virgin River.)

"Is this bus [the shuttle in Zion] taking us to Joseph's house?"

"Hoodoos [rock formations in Bryce] are amazing and cool."

"At one point, I saw a T-rex." (Reflecting on a trip to the dinosaur museum.)

Bryce:

Zion:

Three Years and Four Months

2010-06-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

Today our little Audrey Bee is four months. The time has flown and we love having this girl in our family. We love Audrey's huge, infectious grin. She smiles with her whole body at anyone who will look at her. Her blue eyes sparkle and she has cute little dimples. Also can't fail to mention her amazing hair. We have no idea where she got dark, curly hair -- Todd, Joseph and I all have very straight hair -- but it sure is fun!

And a couple of weeks ago, Joseph turned three years old. We also love him. He keeps us in stitches with the crazy things that he says, and he is such a sweet big brother. He's also a sweet friend, usually. Although he has a hard time sharing his things when people come over, he still loves his friends. Last week we were hiking (more on that later) and he was having a great time and kept saying that he wanted to bring his friends Ashton and Chase there. He's sweet and thoughtful.

We were in Utah for Joseph's birthday. He had requested a bug cake so I made him a bug mountain cake and his aunt made a ladybug cake.

Then when we got back, we had his first-ever "friend" birthday party. It was, again, a bug theme. The kids had bug races (where they crawled like ladybugs, flew like butterflies, and hopped like grasshoppers); ate "ants" (chocolate sprinkles) with no hands; and went on a bug hunt for some fake bugs we'd hidden around the park (of course some found some real bugs too). It was cute and easy and I think a success!

We love our little kids and the buddies that they are becoming!

P.S. Although it appears in some of these pre-3rd birthday pictures, the pacifier is now officially GONE from Joseph's life. And it was a lot easier than we had feared ... we should have banned it long ago.

House of Slytherin

2010-05-17T10:02:00.001-07:00

For the last little while, we've been listening to Harry Potter books on CD in the car. Joseph usually looks out the window or plays with books and toys while we drive, but recently we learned that he was also listening along when he requested to listen to the "talking" while we were out and about. We asked him what the "talking" was talking about, and he told us some of the things that had been mentioned on the CD the last time we were in the car: "dragons," "scorpions" etc...

Since that day, every time we get in the car he asks to listen to the talking. We also learned that not all talking is created equal because turning on NPR doesn't fool him. He even tries to get us to sit in the garage for a while and listen to it when we're not driving. We enjoy asking him about what he remembers from it and thinking about what he imagines when he listens to it. (I'm often surprised to see how differently I now perceive books/movies/tv shows that I hadn't seen since I was a child.)

We realize now, that he absorbs even more than we had previously thought. This morning while we were making breakfast, Joseph entertained Audrey on the couch by bringing her his giant rubber snake, which brought a big smile to his sister's face. As Audrey sat there cooing, Joseph announced happily, "She's speaking parseltongue!"

Those of you who know Erin's love of Harry Potter can only imagine the joy this brought to her heart. Not only is Joseph conversant in Harry Potter, but--more importantly--muggles don't speak parseltongue, which can only mean one thing: we've got ourselves a little mudblood.

You see, Erin has long dreamed of her children growing up, receiving owls announcing their acceptance at Hogwarts, shopping for books in Diagon Alley before eventually being sorted into Ravenclaw, acing--as prefects, naturally--both their Ordinary Wizarding Levels and their N.E.W.T.'s with straight O's, and ultimately settling into their positions as Heads of House and Headmasters--with perhaps a brief stint as Aurors before leaving the Ministry for the private sector or academia.

(Suddenly dreams of Joseph making it on the PGA Tour don't sound so far-fetched, do they?)

Although I'm convinced that Audrey's ability to speak to snakes strongly suggests our baby is headed for Slytherin, Erin is very quick to point out that Audrey hardly has the pedigree and that at this point we're just as well assuming that all her smiles indicate Hufflepuff or that she's suited for Gryffindor what with all the bravery required to handle Joseph's attention.

Regardless of what house she's placed in at Hogwarts, one thing is certain: whatever color robes she ends up wearing, she's already prepared with a coordinating bow.

Astronomical Ambitions

2010-04-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

I love this boy. The other day he told us he wanted to be an astronaut when he grows up. I got teary-eyed thinking about how he was growing up and what kind of dreams and ambitions he would have.

Of course, then today he told us that when Audrey gets bigger, he's going to be a baby again so that he can swing in her swing. (It causes him much consternation that we won't let him in it because he's too big.) Two steps forward ... three steps back.

In any case, I guess these space monkey jammies are fitting. He is also really, really into Buzz Lightyear right now and likes to "play Buzz Lightyear," which involves climbing onto furniture and then jumping off, yelling "To Infinity and Beyond!" or "Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!".

Strawberry Fields (Forever)

2010-04-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went strawberry picking. Once we convinced Joseph that the yellow strawberries were not in fact desirable, things went well. He had a great time with his cousins, and enjoyed running as far down the rows and away from us as possible (luckily Uncle Matt was there to jump over the rows and apprehend him).

Easter

2010-04-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny visited a couple of weeks ago. I'm not real clear on Easter Bunny lore, so he just left a few things and hid some eggs while Joseph and Todd were at the park. Joseph enjoyed the egg hunt around the house.

Easter festivities also included dying eggs. This, I decided, is not an age-appropriate activity for a toddler/pre-schooler. Way too messy. Notice how Joseph's shirt was eventually removed. Audrey just laid around during the whole thing; she thought it was boring.

I figure that I don't have many years left where I can match my son & daughter, and Todd is never thrilled when I make him match us (in fact, if he ever notices that he and Joseph or he and I are wearing the same color shirt, he'll go change), but he obliged for some quick family pictures taken before church last week.

Many (Many!) Visitors

2010-04-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of visitors the last few weeks. It has been great to let people meet Audrey, and because Joseph is so taken with all of the visitors and wants to play with them, Todd gets some welcome relief from "talk like Ernie" duty. (Joseph's new game is to require Todd to talk like Ernie from Sesame Street pretty much 24/7, with occasional breaks where Todd is permitted to talk like Bert instead. I am only allowed to talk like Elmo. Sometimes we ask Joseph if I can talk like Ernie instead of Dad to give Todd a break, but Joseph insists that I "don't understand" and that talking like Ernie is "too hard" for me.) (Also, most of Todd's talking like Ernie must take place in a dark closet or bathroom -- Joseph's two favorite play spots.)

So, the purpose of this post is to put up some pictures memorializing those visits. Todd would suggest this post is too long, but I guess we have had too many visitors. Besides, it's mostly pictures, little text, so there shouldn't be too many complaints.

Anyway, first, Nana, Grandpa, and Uncle Brent came.

Then Lindsey, Lauren, and Asher came. We went to the Wild Animal Park and explored Coronado. And Joseph had a grand time entertaining Asher and sharing with him (especially since he could just take the toys right back away from Asher when he felt less generous).

Then, Uncle Matt came. We went to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs and went strawberry picking with Elena and Jonah.

Joseph thinks Matt is the coolest thing ever. Perhaps this is because Matt looks like he walked straight out of the 70's. Not really in a vintage way. In a, "really did this guy travel time from the 70's?" kind of way. But we love Matt and his unique style and his nieces and nephews certainly love him too!

Next, a repeat visit from Nana, Grandpa and Uncle Brent so that they could check out a special butterfly exhibit at the Wild Animal Park. Audrey was a bit under the weather, and given that she had pooped all over me the first time we took her to the Park, I decided we'd sit that visit out.

Finally, Grandpa White came into town to meet Audrey and she's now met all of her grandparents!

Most of my family and a bunch of Todd's will be down again next week for Audrey's blessing at church ... but that can be another post, hopefully.

Buddies

2010-04-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

Joseph loves, loves, loves his sister Audrey. One of the best parts of our day is when Joseph goes to see Audrey in the morning -- he is always so excited to see her when he wakes up. We recently documented one of these encounters.

As you can see below, Audrey loves Joseph (and apparently all of the toys he brings her) just as much as he loves her.

She decided to return the favor the other day, waking him up from his nap.

They are good buddies.

Sunday Best

2010-03-29T20:47:00.001-07:00

As any of you with more than one kid knows, getting out the door these days is a major production. Our church services start at 1 p.m., and to get there on time, we need to start getting ready at about 10:30 a.m.

Luckily, yesterday I had Joseph to help me bathe Audrey. While he was washing her toes (the task dad delegated to him), Joseph declared that he was "having a good time."

The finished product was worth it -- Audrey was a hit in the dress I bought for her the day I found out I was having a little girl.

All the primping wore her out, though.

Brotherly Love

2010-03-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

This post is about how Joseph shows love to his sister.

Here's a video of Joseph holding his sister during her first week home:

I especially appreciate how "helping her" morphs into "helping her hit herself" as warning voices and rescuing hands coming flying in from all directions.

Sometimes his love is just too intense for a tiny newborn. Here's Joseph giving his sister a hug:

Notice the bulging eyeball?

Fortunately Joseph noticed that too:

So he pushed it back into place.

Caring=Sharing

Joseph is really good at sharing with anyone who lets him take stuff away without a fight, and Audrey is no exception to this rule.

Pretty much daily, we come across scenes like the following:

Audrey & Bulldozer

Audrey & Snakes & Lizards (& Diapers)

(And, yes, we've had many talks about how we never put things on baby Audrey's face)

Audrey & Aquatic Life

Audrey talking on the cell phone after good strong drink

March Madness

2010-03-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

This year, our family decided to take part in the grand old American pastime of making our picks for the NCAA Men's basketball tournament.

Each of us employed our own special form of divination to fill out our brackets, and you can view the status of our family's competition by clicking here.

Audrey
Because Audrey has only been on earth for 4 weeks, we gave her a bye for this year. But she's on notice: if you're old enough to eat solid food, you're mature enough to predict the outcome of sporting events.

The Toddster
Realizing that he again forgot to watch any college basketball this year, The Toddster tried to project an image of self-assured confidence by not picking Kansas to win it all.

Erin
Relying on a complex blend of logic, statistical analyses, and regression models Erin ended up with an all-Beehive-State final.

Highlights of her picks include:

Wisconsin advancing to the final four "because Sam's from Wisconsin";
#1-seeded Duke cruising to the elite eight before running into the buzzsaw that is the Utah State Aggies (sorry, Nancy); and
My personal favorite moment: BYU taking down Georgetown in the semi-finals (even though it means Crystal will have one less Christmas card to send out this year).

Joseph
When we found out President Obama was filling out a bracket, we figured Joseph ought to as well.

~~ESPN filled out the President's first round picks for him, so~~ we put Joseph on equal footing by filling in the first round for him before letting him call the shots on all of the remaining matchups.

Joseph labored through his first NCAA bracket with a multi-hour process that involved painstakingly looking up each matchup's mascots and logos and then answering which one he liked better or, alternatively, which one would be better at basketball.

Although no one will believe me, the only time I coached him was when he tried to eliminate the Hoyas right off the bat. I told him that mommy had gone to the gray bulldog school when she was younger, and he wisely agreed to switch his pick, even though the other team had an orange dog.

Market researchers looking to capture that elusive toddler/pre-school demographic would be well-advised to note that:

animal mascots always beat out human/"character" mascots; and
mascots resembling muppets tested strongly among this sample of two-and-a-half year olds.

Accordingly, a showdown between the Syracuse Orangeman and Xavier's Blue Blob was inevitable:

Ultimately, however, Joseph proved--once again--that he is a miniature version of his father by picking Kentucky (aka "the other Wildcats--with yellow") to win it all:

Again, I promise, I didn't coach him on his responses (other than his first Georgetown match)--but if he wins the whole thing, I did teach him everything he knows.

Wrap Up
Once more, here's the link to our brackets.

For comparison's sake, we've also included the President's brackets and an entry that shows what would happen if you just picked the higher seed to win every time ("chalk").

With a year's worth of bragging rights at stake, the next few weeks are going to be intense around here.

One Month

2010-03-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Audrey turned one month old yesterday. We celebrated by having a photo session and picnicking in the park.

Audrey enjoyed her birthday milk and birthday nap and Joseph enjoyed showing Audrey his golfing skills and digging in the sand.

She is one gorgeous little girl and is becoming more and more awake and alert. She has even given us some real smiles -- she likes smiling at her daddy. We can't wait to see more of her personality.

As an early birthday present, Joseph drew Audrey a picture. Here she is checking it out.

She weighed in today at 9 pounds, 8 ounces. We're glad she's healthy and growing. Mostly I'm glad she's fitting into 3-month clothing now; the wardrobe possibilities are very exciting.

First Day at Church

2010-03-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

Audrey went to church for the first time last week. She was a vision in her navy blue dress and everyone was very excited to meet her.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of her in her pink polka-dot Sunday dress today -- we were in a hurry to leave (as always), and she needed to eat right when we got home, so I changed her before we could snap a shot.

Natural Nurturer

2010-03-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

Todd and I wanted to bring Joseph a present home with us when we brought Audrey home from the hospital. I had been pushing to get Joseph a baby doll for some time -- I thought that he would like "taking care" of his doll as we took care of Audrey. Todd was a little reluctant but finally caved.

Joseph did enjoy the doll at first -- he dubbed her "Marjorie," fed her, changed her diaper (and took it to the dumpster to pretend to throw it away), and gave her a pacifier the first night. He even utilized the boppy to aid his nurturing:

By the next day, however, he had basically lost interest in Marjorie and went back to his trains, cars, and the awesome stretchy snakes/lizards/frogs that his grandma brought him from Utah. But I'm happy to report that he's still manifesting his nurturing skills in caring for his lizards -- he brings them blankets when they are cold, makes sure they are fed, and even attempted to breastfeed one of them the other day:

(You can see Todd's mortification in the background.)

I'm grateful for my two nurturing boys. I love the below picture because they are both looking at Audrey with such love:

Although sometimes I get a little stressed that Audrey will not survive Joseph's "love" (and, at rare times, jealousy) unscathed, she is so lucky to be growing up with such a sweet big brother who loves telling her "I love you so much," giving her hugs, and "being gentle to her."

The Score

2010-03-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Today, after he had been up all night with a sick toddler and I'd been up all night with an insatiable newborn, Todd declared: "The kids are winning."

So true. And we aren't even outnumbered.

Audrey thinks it's pretty funny:

(I know this picture isn't great quality -- I took it with my blackberry -- but I love her face.)

Audrey the Corythosaurus

2010-03-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

Joseph has been really into dinosaurs for some time now -- I would estimate that he knows the names and dietary preferences of between 20 - 30. One of his favorite dinosaurs is the crested Corythosaurus:

So, you can imagine his delight when I gave Audrey a "crest" after her bath the other day -- and he declared her to be "Corythosaurus Audrey" and pointed out and talked about her "crest" all day long:

Audrey's first 2 weeks

2010-02-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Audrey has now been out and about for two weeks. Here's the low down on what she's been up to:

Audrey

Met/charmed 3 of her 4 grandparents:

Bathed:

Slept:

Bonded with her brother:

and played with snakes:

Obviously, there's also one other thing she's done a lot of:

We won't go into any detail, but because we've now got two in diapers, we are now the proud owners of a three-bedroom changing table.

Joseph

Overall, Joseph has dealt pretty well with having a new baby in the house. He loves giving his sister hugs, and he's gotten really good at fetching things for us when we're sitting down holding her.

He likes to read stories to his sister:

He's very concerned about his sister's well-being. Throughout the day he'll come up to her and ask, "Audrey, are you happy?" And whenever she grunts or squeaks he asks us what she's saying.

He loves to come find her when he wakes up in the morning or when he comes home from some errand or adventure.

So far, there have only been two occasions where he has asked if we could put Audrey back inside of mommy's tummy, so we think we're off to a pretty good start.

We've only made one trip out in the car (to the doctor's), but we hope this is a hint of roadtrips to come:

Introducing Audrey Beatrice Goodsell

2010-02-20T21:13:00.000-08:00

Just before 5:00pm on February 15, 2010, we welcomed a little girl to our family. An over-achiever from the start (like her mother), Audrey has already mastered the art of sleeping and eating (like her father).

The vitals
Weight: 8 pounds, 3 ounces
Length: 19 ½ inches
Hair: lots

The birth
Both mother and daughter are recovering smoothly from the delivery, which came by c-section after 16 hours of labor.

Those looking for more graphic descriptions of the birth filled with phrases no man wants to discuss (let alone type in an email) can appeal directly to the mother for all the details.

The reception

We’re happy to report that Joseph loves holding his baby sister, helping change her diapers, and sharing toys with her (his favorite object to share, unfortunately, has been a wooden hammer).

The name
We named her Audrey for no other reason than we like the name.

During most of Erin’s pregnancy, we called our daughter “Pinkie”—a name that Joseph insisted on after it was suggested to us by a 4 year-old with no sisters of his own. Joseph has agreed to alternate between “Audrey” and “Pinkie,” and we sometimes catch ourselves slipping too.

We’ve decided to stick with our family tradition of giving our children middle names from great characters in good books. Although we did enjoy Beverly Cleary books as children, we did not name our daughter for Ramona Quimby’s older sister Beezus.

When Erin and I were dating, we discovered that one of the many things we share in common is a love for the works of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (and people wondered why it took us a long time to ever find a spouse). Beatrice plays a significant role in Dante’s writings, and entire books have been written about what Beatrice represents, but one of the traits we hope our Audrey shares with Dante’s Beatrice is that she will lift those around her and make them want to become better people.

The thanks
Many people have helped us during this exciting time. Everyone at Scripps Hospital did a top-notch job in caring for all of us.

Meals brought by caring friends have helped us tremendously.

Special thanks go to the Skousen family who took Joseph into their home at 2 am and comforted him until he fell asleep at an even later hour.

We also appreciate Nana and Grandpa Goodsell and other friends who made sure Joseph didn’t want his parents to come back home from the hospital stay.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers throughout the pregnancy.

With love,

Todd, Erin, Joseph, and baby Audrey

A Christmas Miracle

2009-12-19T11:38:00.000-08:00

It took two-and-a-half years to reach this moment: all of us are smiling and looking--with open eyes--at the camera.

We hadn't planned on taking a picture. We only took one shot. We look forward to another moment like this in 2012.

The Last Few Weeks

2009-12-14T20:32:00.000-08:00

I'm too lazy to think of a theme or anything much clever to say ... so, here are some of the things we've been up to the last few weeks.

We went to some Christmas celebration thing at Sea World. The special Shamu show was scary for Joseph and awkward for me and Todd. But Joseph enjoyed sitting on a fake manatee.

Joseph's buddy Ashton turned two. While all of other kids were watching Ashton open presents, Joseph managed to escape and climb halfway up a very, very steep hill until he lost his shoe and had to give up. It is a good thing that Todd stays home with him and not me, because he can outrun and otherwise out-maneuver me any day.

Joseph did manage to stick around for the cake, though.

We went to a Christmas party at our church. I thought Joseph would be terrified of Santa but he ended up being okay with the whole thing.

Joseph's cousin Asher visited which was great fun. They are the cutest little guys, and Joseph is (generally) really kind and nurturing with Asher, so we are hoping he keeps it up for the new baby.

Cross-town Rivals

2009-12-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

On December 22, the BYU Cougars are scheduled to face the Oregon State Beavers in the Las Vegas Bowl.

There are a number of factors that make this a good match-up, but our house is fired up for this game for one reason above all others: Joseph's closest buddy Ashton just happens to be a HUGE Oregon State fan (and maybe Ashton's parents graduated from OSU too).

Joseph prepared a little message for Ashton (who incidentally happens to be turning 2 today):

(Joseph came up with the "knock 'em over" line himself--I'm not sure how he came up with that; his line was supposed to be "stomp on them")

Hopefully, Ashton has had a very happy birthday, because he won't be smiling come December 22!

Go Cougars!

Trick-or-Treat

2009-12-04T12:07:00.001-08:00

Don't want to spend a lot of time on this post since it's totally outdated anyway, but we still need to display Joseph's cute little Halloween costume before the New Year.

After our trip to Disneyland (more on that later) we decided Tigger would make a great Halloween costume for Joseph. (After all, Joseph had waited dutifully in line for quite some time to meet Tigger.) He was definitely adorable.

The day of, we had a "pumpkin party" at our place with Joseph's cousins and buddy Ashton. We decorated cookies and ate popcorn balls.

That night we went Trick-or-Treating with Ashton. It was really cute seeing the two of them go up to doors by themselves, knock, and say "trick or treat." Joseph was pretty good at saying "thank you" at first, but eventually he decided he'd rather eat candy right away than put it in his bucket, so he started telling people, "open it" as soon as they'd give him anything.

Halloween was definitely a hit and it took him a long time to get over it. We just never could get him particularly excited about Thanksgiving, try as we might. We're hoping we'll do a better job with Christmas, since that, too, involves candy.

Side-by-Side Comparison: The Toddster and Joseph

2009-11-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

There's no denying it now. Joseph is definitely the mini-Toddster. The only feature that Joseph lacks is the ever-present Tang-mustache of the Toddster's childhood.

With the last post, we had Aunt Lindsey fooled--but only for a few seconds. After her first comment, she quickly called us out in a follow-up reply. The editors of this blog removed the second comment to keep things going for a while and wish to thank her for agreeing not to spoil the post for others.

Grandma White responded with an ambiguous comment, so we'll ambiguously declare that we think she might have possibly spotted the trick (maybe).

We're also declaring that anyone who didn't post before now was also fooled (and don't even try to give us any grief about how you just didn't check the blog before now or how you did see the post and knew all along but just didn't leave a comment--we're not buying it!).

Playing with Hamsters (at Nana's House)

2009-11-04T22:19:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure what we're going to do when Joseph figures out that other families have pets at their houses all of the time.

A Pumpkin Patch and a Re-do

2009-10-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

We have a Halloween tradition of visiting Bate's Nut Farm. It has, as this post evidences, traditionally provided great photo ops. This year promised the same, so I bought Joseph a cute little Halloween shirt that would match his surroundings and optimize the photo shoot.

Fail!

We went a couple of weeks ago and it was like 100 degrees outside. Joseph spent the first twenty minutes or so running around like crazy, looking for a "white pumpkin" (we found one) and getting very sad everytime he saw a rotten pumpkin (these poor rotten pumpkins were very upsetting to him). We couldn't get him to sit down around any of the pumpkins. So, no good photos there. Then, once he calmed down, heat exhaustion set in and he was pretty grouchy. No good photos there either. We cut our trip pretty short so that everyone (well mostly me and my overheated preggo belly) could cool off. We were left with very little.

Joseph and his white pumpkin:

Joseph not willing to sit for pictures:

Joseph sitting on my lap for a split-second:

Today we got the opportunity for a re-do. Joseph's Nana, Grandpa and Uncle Brent were in town so they all decided to take advantage of the cooler weather to return to the pumpkin patch.

Success!

Joseph even got to ride a pony -- but if you tell him it was a pony, he will emphatically claim that it was a horse, NOT a pony.

I'm just bummed that Joseph has TWO Halloween shirts that he could have worn, but both were dirty. Luckily this did not seem to diminish the significance of the trip for Joseph, whose prayer tonight included effusive gratitude for "pumpkin patch, pony at pumpkin patch, scarecrow at pumpkin patch, candy, and trick-or-treat." He had a happy day.

Introducing Joseph's sibling

2009-09-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

The first picture of our new baby on this blog:

In case the picture doesn't help. Here are some purchases that Erin made tonight:

Joseph, Erin and the Toddster are pleased to announce that next February we will be welcoming a baby girl to our family.

Ultrasound Images

2009-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

This morning, we got some great images of our new bundle of joy from the ultrasound technician.

We'd like to post them here, but unfortunately, we're having technical difficulties getting the images onto our blog.

We hope to have this remedied shortly. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Baby Names

2009-09-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

EX POST FACTO DISCLAIMER:We are likely NOT going to be using any of these names for our next child. This post was originally written as a part of a series of posts designed to drag out the process of announcing whether we were having a boy or a girl.

The names on this list are examples of what could be considered androgynous or unisex names. We were teasing people by giving a list of names that potentially could be used for either a boy or a girl.

For a current list of the most "gender neutral" baby names click here.

Agreeing on a name for Joseph was a lengthy process that didn't end until after Joseph's birth. We don't want to deal with the same struggle in naming our second child, so we're taking input on a good name.

What do you think of the following names?

Pat
Chris
Jamie
Jessie
Alex
Riley
Jean
Robin
Terry

We're hoping to engender some useful suggestions here.

Big Announcement

2009-09-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

Erin went in for an ultrasound this morning, and Joseph is pleased to announce that somewhere around February 20, 2010, Joseph is going to become a big brother.

We are all VERY excited.

Happy Halloween

2009-09-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

The other day after I got home from work I mentioned that we could go shopping for Halloween decorations. Although Joseph didn't know what those were at the time, he heard me and started insisting that we go get Halloween decorations, so we did.

The next day, he insisted on wearing a Halloween shirt that his grandparents had given him - even though it is black, long-sleeved, and it was 100 degrees outside. So, I figured it was as good a day as any to decorate (even if it was a bit premature).

Joseph had a great time helping me.

He is really excited for Halloween. He loves the pumpkins and ghosts and other Halloween things, and I think he finally understands the concept of a costume (though we haven't decided on one yet -- any ideas???), and we've been talking about saying "trick-or-treat" and getting candy.

(He is just mad that we are trying to take his picture here.)

Yesterday we even spent some time playing in last year's costume, since he is so into dinosaurs right now and loves looking at last year's pictures of "baby Joseph being dinosaur".

Apparently he doesn't need the costume to be a triceratops, though, because tonight he informed me that he has horns.

However, even this excitement did not prepare me for the purchase that Todd made the other day.

Meet Ludwig the skeleton/skull. Todd didn't catch on about my "cute" Halloween-themed decorations, and instead went straight for creepy. I guess this is to get me back for getting Joseph a super-girly, hot-pink Valentine's Day playset.

But Joseph loves Ludwig. He plays with him, shares with him, hugs him, and gives him hats so he doesn't get cold (since Ludwig lacks hair).

It is a good thing Joseph is getting a sibling soon because obviously the poor child is lonely.

The Other Part of the Visit

2009-09-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

We also spent some quality time with family in Utah while we were out for the wedding.

Mostly, it involved me playing with this really, really cute little guy:

Joseph absolutely loved his cousin Asher too. He liked holding him and cuddling him and making him smile and telling me how "cute" Asher is. He was generally pretty gentle with him (we just had to watch to make sure he didn't try to "share" his own food with Asher).

We also got to meet my sister's fiance, Devin, who immediately won Joseph over with his talent for making strange noises. Joseph loves talking about how Devin and Keegan are getting married. Inasmuch as Keegan is actually Lindsey's husband, Lauren and Lindsey aren't as happy with that arrangement, but hopefully Joseph will get things straight eventually.

Joseph also got to go swimming at the splash park, meet Keegan's horny-toads, and play with the kitty cat. (The other day he spontaneously told me that he "loves Kiki at Gramma White's house" and that she is "his friend.") He loved playing with his aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa White. He was not happy about coming home.

Hopefully I'll have more pictures to post -- but I'm waiting for Lindsey to email me. Hint, Hint.

The Wedding

2009-09-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

Last week we flew out to Utah to attend the wedding of our good friends Sam and Nancy.

Joseph, waiting for our airplane.

I think Todd and I would both rank Sam and Nancy's big day as one of the happiest of our own lives. Sam has been a dear friend to Todd for many years, Nancy has also been a good friend since law school, and the two of them are the most perfect, happy couple you will ever see. Also, on a completely selfish note, it was fabulous attending the wedding of people that we introduced because everyone wanted to meet us and thank us. It almost got embarrassing ...

Some of the other thing that made it so great were:

Nancy and Sam are both amazing party planners, so we knew this event was not to be missed. Sam is a professional chef and his boss, one of the best pastry chefs in the country, made the cake:

It tasted as good as it looks.

Joseph got to wear a super cute little outfit since he was part of the wedding party. Unfortunately, he did not cooperate very well with the pictures.

A beautiful Nancy, showing grace under pressure as the little children start falling apart.

Joseph, not cooperating with the nice photographer.

But, hopefully they got some good candids of him running around - he had a really good time.

I don't know who this woman is in the picture, but mostly we took this to show Joseph wandering far off in the background:

Hopefully he didn't end up in the professional shot.

Joseph especially enjoyed the live band and dancing. Seriously, he danced for most of the night. Everytime a song would end, he'd get mad and yell, "More music! More singing!" until they started up again, and he'd be back dancing.

Almost as fun as the dancing were the sparklers.

We got to catch up with some law school friends (most of whom we hadn't seen since graduation), and Todd was able to see lots of friends from his mission. Todd and Sam's mission president performed the ceremony and did a lovely job. It reminded us a lot of our own wedding day.

Law school friends, most of whom we hadn't seen since before Joseph's birth.

As you can see in this happy picture, all of us (even Joseph!) had a grand time. We are hoping for another inadvertent-but-successful set up soon. Baby #2 is coming in February, so we're thinking maybe he or she can fill Joseph's shoes and facilitate another marriage.

Dining with Joseph

2009-08-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

For breakfast this morning, Joseph had a milkshake and a powerbar.

Before you start searching for those nominations for "Father of the Year," let's reflect on some of the other dishes Joseph has requested (and usually received).

Guacamole

Dipping chips in guacamole is a favorite pastime at our home.

One of the hardest things about being two is that you can't always get enough guacamole all the way from the container up to your mouth using something as crude a tortilla chip.

Joseph remedied this by requesting a "green spoon" for his guacamole.

Who needs to bother with chips when you can just spoon the guac directly to your mouth?

Pico!

Joseph (and everyone else in this household) loves Trader Joe's Pico de Gallo. One day we tragically ran out, and for several minutes he kept yelling "Pico! more Pico! want more Picooooooooooooo! Pleeeeeaaaaseeee!"

Joseph loves his pico so much, he even dips his pacifier in it.

(Mental note to readers: Never eat the pico at the Goodsell house)

Gnocchi and Humus

Joseph doesn't always get what he wants. One morning, while trying to figure out what to give Joseph for breakfast, he asked for gnocchi. We didn't have any gnocchi, so he asked for humus. We didn't have any humus. So we had popcorn for breakfast.

Unfortunately, he didn't think to ask for powerbars or milkshakes.

Milkshakes and Apple Juice

Despite my love for chocolate milkshakes, it was actually Joseph's mother who introduced him into his latest beverage of choice.

Here's a photo from Erin and Joseph's most recent Saturday afternoon together.

This is Joseph watching some TV with his apple juice in one hand and his milkshake in the other.

A Very Belated Post On The Real Birthday

2009-07-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

As noted, Joseph celebrated his 2nd birthday several times, only one of which (the party with his Brazier cousins) has been adequately documented on this blog.

His actual birthday started out with a cupcake and candles for breakfast, and he opened a present (a DVD to watch later that day).

Todd took me to work and then he and Joseph went to the airplane display.

After work, we went out for pizza (one of Joseph's favorite foods) and then took Joseph miniature golfing.

He had a grand time. He was only interested in golfing the first couple of holes, and eventually got distracted by the pond, but had a lovely time nonetheless.

Then it was back home to more cupcakes, candles, and singing.

Professor Goldsmith

2009-07-10T23:10:00.000-07:00

During law school, I worked for Professor Michael Goldsmith, a dynamic and accomplished man with big ideas and a fantastic sense of humor. Many of our friends who read this blog also survived classes in Evidence and Criminal Procedure from him.

Recently, Professor Goldsmith was diagnosed with ALS (a.k.a. as Lou Gehrig’s disease), a disease for which there is currently no cure.

Although ALS does not affect the intellect, the disease takes away the brain’s ability to control voluntary muscle movement. Symptoms of ALS include muscle atrophy with sufferers experiencing impaired use of their limbs, as well as difficulty in breathing, speaking, and swallowing.

Last year, Professor Goldsmith wrote a piece published in Newsweek magazine (link) calling out Major League Baseball for having failed to do something meaningful about the illness that ended the career and life of one of its greatest players nearly 70 years ago.

Thankfully, Goldsmith’s idea of commemorating the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s historic farewell speech resonated with people.

Here’s a NBC news report from last Saturday:

A New York Times story quoted Professor Goldsmith:

“I have spent more than two decades exhorting law students to take a proactive ‘can-do’ approach to the law and life in general. And I have tried to lead by example, showing them how creativity and commitment to a cause can produce positive results. The success of this effort demonstrates yet again how the power of one can make a difference.”

To our classmates (and anyone who was moved by that video): here are some useful links--

https://www.als.net/join/donatenow.asp
https://www.alsa.org/donate/secure/default.cfm
http://www.als-mda.org
http://www.projectals.org/getInvolved/donate.shtml

Fireworks

2009-07-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, we went out to watch the fireworks with Joseph's cousins. We figured he'd either be enthralled or bawling because of the noise and the late hour.

Turns out it was more the former than the latter. At first, the loud sounds bothered him, but he was riveted by the sights. He would watch quietly, but as soon as a a lull in the explosions came around, he would briefly let out a yell to voice his displeasure at the noise before being distracted and totally silenced by the next set of fireworks. That only lasted for the first few minutes, and for most of the show, he just stared up with his jaw half-open and a twinkle in his eye while giving a running narration of the colors and lights.

The Toddster's favorite Joseph comment of the night: Joseph looking up at the sky and describing the fireworks as "wild!"

Erin's favorite Joseph comment of the night: Before he zonked out on the way home Erin asked him who went to see the fireworks.

Joseph responds by naming one of his cousins.

Erin asks "who else?"

Joseph names his uncle.

Erin asks "who else?"

Joseph, realizing that this game could go on for quite some time, responds "people."

Hiding Place

2009-06-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

I was missing Joseph (he was up at his Nana's house) so I asked Todd to send me some pictures. This was my favorite. It's of Joseph in his "hiding place" (a.k.a. a cubby intended for electronic devices such as DVD players, etc -- but we don't use it since Todd built a nifty contraption up higher so that we can keep said devices well out of Joseph's reach). As you can see, Joseph loves hanging out there.

Fat Communist

2009-06-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Usually Todd does an amazing job keeping Joseph handsome, well-groomed, and well-dressed. Every once in a while, however, I come home to find Joseph in an outfit that makes me embarrassed for him.

For example:

These shorts are (1) too small and (2) clearly not meant to be worn with tucked-in shirts. I think he looks sort of like a communist or young German schoolboy or something.

But he was happy enough to wear them in public to the park. He was also happy to wear them riding his new tricycle.

Our big birthday present to Joseph was this tricycle. It's very well-made (German, so I suppose the outfit is fitting) and a big selling point for Todd was that it will sustain up to 400 pounds of weight. I guess Todd is worried about Joseph getting really really fat.

I'm not too worried given that the kid has not put on a pound since he turned 1. But, considering his diet at times, I guess it's possible.

Joseph recently went through a difficult phase where he did not want to eat ANYTHING. It is particularly bad when we are traveling and he's more interested in new surroundings than eating. My family can attest to the fact that I would chase him around the house when we were in Utah trying to feed him cookies, cake, anything that he would eat because I was worried he was starving to death. Todd's family found this solution:

Yep, Trix and French Fries. Yum!

Even at home, his tastes are odd. He's really taken with salt lately, and did this to a potato and then said, "salt! yum!"

He also likes to get into the pantry and dig around for the yellow bag he knows contains CHOCOLATE (chips), so we have to hide them now. So it's comforting to know that Joseph will still be able to ride his tricycle for many, many years, and many, many pounds, to come.

Buddies

2009-06-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

Joseph's friend Matthew got a new baby sister this week, so Matthew came over to play one morning. Matthew is pretty patient with Joseph, who struggles with sharing since he usually has all of his toys to himself. But Joseph was apparently happy to share his motorcycle:

This motorcycle was a birthday gift from Joseph's Goodsell cousins. He loves it!

At one point, Matthew hit his hand with a golf club and started crying. Joseph, who was across the room, started crying too. Todd was comforting Matthew and told Joseph that Joseph hadn't hurt himself and didn't need to be crying. Joseph promptly (and intentionally) hit himself on the head with a golf club, and started crying even harder. Good times!

Unabashed Bragging

2009-06-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post does not contain pictures. I do not have time. To those (three of you) upset with our lack of blogging, I say: blogging falls by the wayside when one (i.e. me) is working 10-14 hour days every day. Blech. Anyway, ten tidbits about some awesome tricks Joseph has.

(1) When asked who the President is, Joseph usually responds "Barack Obama." Occasionally he responds "Gramma White," for reasons that remain to be determined.

(2) Joseph is into planets and the solar system lately. This trick is hit-and-miss, but frequently he will identify "the tiniest planet" as "Mercury," the next planet as "Venus" (his favorite), the "planet we live on" as "Earth" (or sometimes, "San Diego"), the red planet as "Mars," and the "big planet" as "Jupiter." We're working on the last couple. He really likes looking at pictures and videos about planets lately, though.

(3) Joseph can now identify a few letters, especially "W", and likes to say, "One, Two, Three" for no particular reason.

(4) Joseph is a great singer. We listen to kid's songs in the car and he will sing the main phrases that repeat a lot. He also gets very demanding about which songs he wants to listen to, so we have to skip around a lot. He can sing most of Old McDonald with a little prompting.

(5) Joseph has started to pretend to make things out of play-dough. The other day, he pounded it for a while and then announced that he had made "Tiger Woods." He likes to make "robots" and "tunnels" to put trains through, and pretend food (like french fries and pizza, two favorites) and pretend to eat them.

(6) Speaking of Tiger Woods, the other day he was practicing his swing outside with his dad, and, upon making a good shot, exclaimed, "Tiger Woods!"

(7) He also attempted to hit the moon during said-golf outing. He'd hit the ball as far as he could, look at the moon, and say, "Almost."

(8) Joseph loves hummus. So whatever they say about nature v. nurture: this kid is with his dad an awful lot but sides with mom on the hummus debate.

(9) Joseph has discovered that saying, "Daddy snuggle!" is a great way to get what he wants. "Daddy snuggle! Cupcake! Daddy snuggle! Paci!"

(10) Joseph is still not into giving kisses (but gives great hugs). I circumvent this by tricking him into pretending to "eat" my cheeks.

He is really a joy.

Printer!; Fix it!

2009-05-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today, Joseph removed the paper from the printer. This is nothing new.
The only reason Joseph does not remove paper from the printer is:

a.) he does not see the printer; or
b.) I have not replaced the paper back since he last removed it.

While making a phone call this morning, Joseph happily entertained himself near the printer. After I put him down for a nap, I found the following in the trays and crevices of the printer:

I have this dream that one day I'm going to get a printer with a hidden paper tray. Aesthetically, I think printers look better with the paper hidden, but now I have even more motivation to get one.

At some point a couple months back, I forgot to recover one of our electrical outlets with our plastic safety covers. The next morning, I stumbled across the following scene:

Joseph also loves to "fix it!"--which is his name for picking up my tools and getting into mischief.

It may be unclear from the picture, but this is how one properly uses a socket wrench to repair a pear.

Ever since he's been mobile, Joseph has enjoyed being my helper. We've assembled (or re-assembled since we moved) a lot of things together including: his crib, garage storage shelves, bar stools, a china hutch, closet shelves, curtain rods, and the porch swing.

Building stuff together usually takes a lot longer--especially since he still really doesn't like the sound of a power drill, so I have to use it on the sly--and I never quite know where the hex keys will end up, but I think we both enjoy our bonding time.

(April 09)

I also have the advantage of knowing that everything is sturdy and secure, because my helper stands on each part as it's being unwrapped or put together.

Pet Ant, or Why we don't need a dog

2009-05-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph found a new friend.

Joseph was standing by the door giggling and saying "hand! arm!" so I went to find out what he was up to. When I saw the ant, I thought Joseph would get creeped out by something crawling on him, but he just kept talking and laughing

By the time I got the camera out, he had moved on to "poking. poking." I like at the end where he thinks about sharing a ball and then a book with the ant, but then decides he can't reach around that far.

Later, Joseph brought a dead ant to Erin. We're not sure if it was his pet or one of its cousins, but Joseph didn't seem to traumatized by the experience.

A Very Merry Joint Un-Birthday

2009-05-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Joseph's cousin Elena turned five last week and Joseph turns two at the end of the month, so we had a little birthday party for them yesterday.

Joseph was really excited for his party and was talking about "cake" and "Lena and Jonah" and "cars" (the theme of the party) for several days beforehand.

We had presents first (which wasn't really the plan, but as soon as Joseph saw them, he yelled "open!" and he started ripping into one -- luckily it was for him). He wasn't sure what to make of the fact that Elena also got presents and she was a real sweetheart and let him play with her new present (a guitar, which Joseph preferred to use as a golf club).

Elena got Joseph a magnadoodle, which he loves. My sister and her husband are both very artistic and Noah drew a picture for Joseph on the magnadoodle. After they left, Joseph asked for Noah all day; I finally figured out he wanted Noah to draw more pictures.

The cutest thing was that we also got some cars for Elena and Joseph and his other cousin Jonah so that Jonah wouldn't feel left out. When I handed Jonah a wrapped box, his eyes--which are already huge--got the size of moons and he said, "For me????" He was so happy! (We have some video of this but I will have to have Todd put it up.)

After presents, we ate and played a bit. Corndogs, which we also had on Joseph's first birthday, seem to be becoming a bit of a tradition.

Then we had cake. I made Joseph and Elena a car cake. I wanted to make it red since that is Elena's favorite color, and I had to use an entire package of red food coloring to make sure that it was red and not pink. Todd never would have forgiven me for making my son a pink birthday cake (especially after the Valentine's day fiasco.) I think it turned out pretty cute, especially for the first cake I've ever decorated (note the stop-light cupcakes); unfortunately it did not taste very good, and Joseph, who had been asking for cake all week, ate about one bite. I think next time I will stick with a boxed-mix instead of trying from scratch!

But Joseph did love the song "Happy Birthday" and has been requesting that we sing it ever since then. Tonight he even said to me, "Happy Birthday to Joseph," which I think might be the longest sentence/phrase/number of syllables that he has put together so far. Nevermind that when he says "Joseph" it sounds an awful lot like "Spaceship."

The cousins also enjoyed playing in Joseph's favorite little hiding spot.

Luckily for Joseph, the festivities will continue. Next weekend we are going to be in Utah to meet baby Asher and we'll have a little party there; the weekend after that we plan to visit Nana and Grandpa to celebrate Joseph and Grandpa's birthday; and then after that it will finally be his *real* birthday. So I guess Joseph will have 4 birthdays this year (to beat our 3 Christmases last year). Should be fun!

Happy Teething

2009-05-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

We have about a million things to post about, but I've been busy at work and Todd has been busy at home getting things ready for painting and new windows and organizing and shelving everything in our garage.

So for now, I present the interweb with this cute picture of our little guy:

No, he did not spill water all over himself and no, he is not sweaty. Joseph has been teething and this saliva-drenched shirt is a casualty of that unpleasant process. I love how happy is in this picture despite the fact that he's soaking in spit (not something I'd particularly enjoy). He has been a little sick and grumpy with the teething but this time around seemed better than a few weeks ago.

You might also notice a handsome new haircut. We had to go to no fewer than 3 places before we found someone we thought was competent enough with children to cut Joseph's hair. You might recall from past posts that Joseph is absolutely terrified of getting his hair cut. It's really bizarre because he's generally pretty mellow, but the second we walked into any place, he'd flip out and thrash around. So it took two different stylists, and Todd, to get the job done. Todd left a 100% tip. Let's hope he doesn't need a haircut again any time soon.

I'm not looking forward to taking this one to the dentist when it comes time.

Going places

2009-04-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Joseph’s new thing is to take things with him when we go places in the car. He doesn’t have a favorite toy or stuffed animal, but it seems like every time we tell him we’re going someplace, he runs off to grab something to bring along for the ride.

Today, he decided to take three stuffed animals with him. The only problem was that he couldn’t carry all three at once and negotiate the stairs at the same time, so he just handed them all to me to take down the stairs for him.

Kicking the Pacifier Habit
Every few weeks, I get it into my head that Joseph’s done with his pacifier. It seems like we get him pretty much weaned (excluding when he goes to sleep), but then something comes up where it becomes too easy to give it back to him, and he’s hooked again. I’m not too worried, because I figure by the time he gets to junior high he’ll want to cave to social pressure and stop using one.

Today, we were about to get out of the car to do some grocery shopping—car rides are always a time when he hits us up for his “pacie”—and in the parking space next to us was a woman getting her baby back into the car.

The baby started to cry and fuss, so Joseph pulled out his pacifier and stretched his hand towards the crying baby on the other side of the car window and said “Baby. Cry. Pacie.”

Joseph has his fair share of power struggles over toys with other kids, but there are times like this where he just does things that are kind. He came to earth with his sweet nature, and we love him a lot.

"Asher. Hug."

2009-04-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

On Monday we welcomed Joseph's newest cousin, Asher, into the family.

I went to bed Sunday night sure that I would have a new nephew when I woke up, but it took a little longer than expected: my super tough sister Lindsey got this guy out after 17 1/2 hours of labor and 4 1/2 hours of pushing. Whew! He was 8'3", even though ten days early. His cheeks (like Joseph's) must account for a lot of that weight.

We get to meet him in person in a month. For now, Joseph likes looking at pictures of him, and tonight I showed him a picture and he said, "Asher. Hug." So I'm sure Asher can look forward to lots of affection when we visit next month!

Easter Decorations

2009-04-08T22:36:00.001-07:00

Once we put away the Valentine's decorations, Joseph enjoyed looking around the house for Easter decorations. Joseph likes the word "egg" lately, so Easter came at a good time in his development.

Joseph's Nana gave us some decorations for Easter, and Joseph took a liking to a couple of stuffed mice who sit on our mantle--unless Joseph is awake, in which case the mice are usually driving dump trucks or under the chair.

Here's Joseph after insisting that the mice come with us in the car one day:

By far, Joseph's favorite decoration is a tree with a bee on it (I'm also hoping that through this post I might find support from other people out there, who, like me, didn't realize that trees, bees, or mice had entered the milieu of Easter decorations).

We have some bar stools at our counter, and Joseph loves to sit up high so he can help the bee to "fly" by batting it around.

I originally started filming this moment because Joseph had been feeding the bee, but he didn't really do it much after I pulled out the camera (much like the other day, when I tried to film him at lunch only to have him stop repeatedly putting deli meat on his head and then leaning forward to watch it fall back on his tray. . . come to think of it, pulling out the camera actually may be a great way to get him to stop misbehaving--I guess by that I'm also saying that at our house putting lunch meat on your head isn't misbehaving).

Unrelated Addendum
This may be the last of the one-a-day posts for the month of April. There are a number of reasons behind this decision:

1.) I only gave myself a 1 in 7 chance of posting every day, so this isn't really that big of a deal

2.) We think Joseph second molars are coming in. Last night, cumulatively between the three of us at our house, we almost got a full night's sleep for one person.

3.) Lately, I've thought a lot about why we write this blog, and I want to make sure we do it for the right reasons.

I used to be a humanities major, and back then I used to sit around (humanities majors sit around a lot) thinking about the motivations for doing things (for example, like most humanities majors, I thought a lot about what drives people to pursue a career rather than actually pursuing a career).

Once I got to law school, I realized that money is the only meaningful motivator, and frankly this blog isn't paying the bills.

But seriously, I think why people do creative acts matters. I'm going to reach a point in this post-a-day mode (if that moment hasn't happened already) where I just post something for the purpose of making sure that I don't miss a day of posting. I even have a couple of back-up posts saved under "drafts" to give me a buffer in case I get to a day where I don't feel like coming up with something new to write about.

I don't want April 2009 to be looked back on as the month where this blog jumped the shark (speaking of which, don't get me started on this season of 24).

For now, I think this blog will be more enjoyable if the posts continue to arrive often but haphazardly.

4.) The first round of the Masters starts tomorrow.

Holiday Decorations

2009-04-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

Now that we have a place that we're going to be in for a while, Erin has decided it's about time we decorate for holidays.

Joseph had a grand time playing with his Fisher Price nativity set that Grandma had given him for Christmas, and Erin thought it would be nice if we had some child-friendly decorations for other holidays.

The marketing department at Fisher-Price had similar thoughts, and has designed play sets for every holiday imaginable (we're still waiting on that Guy Fawkes play set, though, so it looks like the kids will have to make do with homemade effigies for the time being).

Erin looked into these online and ordered the first one right before Valentine's, so that Joseph could appreciate the holiday.

I hadn't really thought much about the concept, so imagine my surprise when this showed up on our doorstep, for my son:

Erin: Did the Valentine playset come today?
the Toddster:
Erin: "It's not that girly."
the Toddster:
Erin: "We'll have daughters one day."
the Toddster:
Erin: "It didn't look that pink in the pictures."
the Toddster:
Erin:

Not surprisingly, Joseph likes getting new things (I guess he takes after his father in that regard), and he figured out that Valentine's had something to do with kissing:

One day, I found Joseph playing with the Valentine playset, so I watched him for a while. My heart swelled with pride as I watched him crash his truck through the window of the sweet shop ice cream parlor.

That's when I knew that all those YouTube clips of the A-Team I've had him watching were paying off.

Disclaimer: After making that last joke, I had to repeatedly promise Erin that I don't watch the A-Team with Joseph (even though historically more people have died on Sesame Street than on the A-Team). For the record: The baby has never watched clips of the A-Team on YouTube--I looked, but I couldn't find any. (That part was also a joke).

Fortunately, Erin never asked me about Rambo or Chuck Norris clips (That part may not have been a joke).

Matchmaker, Matchmaker

2009-04-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

Important Announcement
Joseph is pleased to announce a first for this blog: a marriage. That's right because they both read this blog (and because of some very fortunate "coincidences"), two beautiful people are getting hitched.

Background
Joseph was born just a few weeks after we graduated from law school, and shortly after his birth we moved to California. As a result, Joseph wasn't able to meet very many of his parents' law school friends (except for his rich and powerful NYC-lawyer-Aunt Jenn).

"Nancy"
After reading about Joseph on our blog, one of our dear classmates, whom we will refer to as "Nancy," decided that she needed to meet Joseph in person.

Around the time Nancy told us about this desire, it just so happened that we were heading out to Utah to visit Joseph's grandparents, and since Nancy worked in Salt Lake (where she, with the assistance of her staff--including her own male secretary--ran the show at a very, very large charity--trust us, you've heard of it) it worked out that Nancy would get to meet young Joseph in the flesh.

"Sam"
Totally unrelated to our get-together with Nancy was another Utah rendezvous with one of Todd's closest and best friends, whom we will call "Sam."

Shortly after Joseph left the state of Utah, Sam took a position in the kitchen of one of Park City's most exclusive resorts (we'd never heard of it, but Will Smith stays there). While working in this kitchen, Sam has never given any celebrities food poisoning.

Like Nancy, Sam had also enjoyed hearing about Joseph and wanted to meet the little guy for himself.

The Set-up
It just so happened that both Nancy and Sam were available on the same evening, so we had them both over for dinner at Joseph's grandparents' house.

We won't go into the rest of the details, but here's how the story ends:

bling. bling.

The Offer to all of our Single Friends

Ladies: do you need "a husband type person in [your] life to open jars, reach high shelves, help make the bed and kill mice"? (I stole that quote from one of our single readers who described her views on the utility of husbands, so I figured it was relevant)

Guys: to quote Sam, "Todd, why didn't you tell me your friend is hot?"

Free of charge, Joseph will set you up with someone who is perfect for you. So far, he's batting a thousand.

You've tried every other way to find a spouse, now let a toddler find one for you.

Joseph ponders his next pairing

Act now. Supplies are limited.

Re-cap
You heard it here first folks, Nancy Kennedy and Sam Major are getting married!

(We're even more up-to-date than facebook!)

We couldn't be happier, and after talking to them, we don't know if we've ever heard a happier couple. Sam and Nancy compliment each other extremely well. Each of the knows how to throw a party, so this wedding celebration is going to be "epic."

One week ago, Sam and Nancy called our house at 2 am to shout out the good news--Sam made good on his promise to tell the Toddster before they even told their own parents.

We considered posting something about this sooner, but we enjoyed making them wait for this post--and we also needed to protect ourselves because any claims of "just kidding" or "Actually, I had my fingers crossed when I said, 'Yes!'" have a one week statute of limitations on them, and now they can't take anything back.

The Lonely Goatherd

2009-04-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

Joseph's new favorite part of the San Diego Zoo is the children's petting zoo. Specifically, the goats at the petting zoo.

During our first visit to the goats, Joseph decided that they needed some extra-help with their breakfasts, so he started hand-feeding the goats.

I thought that his duck-feeding experience earlier this year (when an anxious duck bit him) had traumatized him, but Joseph seemed to have put that behind him as he shoved little fistfuls of leaves into the goats' faces.

Fortunately, these goats weren't as impatient as the ducks at the Wild Animal Park; they seemed to enjoy having someone do the work of getting the individual leaves off of the branches.

We spent a good half hour feeding them without a single goat ever biting Joseph. This is pretty remarkable considering that Joseph's death grip on the leaves--which he fed to them one at a time--often only left a tiny bit of green sticking out of his fists.

Each feeding followed the same routine: Joseph would pick a leaf, select a goat and then force his hands towards the general area of the goat's mouth (i.e., nose, eyes, or neck). The goats wouldn't realize what was going on at first, but eventually they'd take aim at Joseph's darting offering.

After a few seconds of reaching out and missing Joseph's never-quite-stationary hand, the goat would eventually get a hold of the leaf. Joseph would hold on for a brief second and then snap his hand back, rub his own tummy, and then look up beaming proudly and say "mmmm!!!"

The cycle then repeated itself for 30 minutes.

Here are a couple videos of the scene:

I love this first video because of his little nod after the goat takes his leaf, and because Joseph takes the branches of leaves away from the goat so that he can pluck off a single one to feed the goat.

I love this next video because I think he imitates me and Erin when we try to get him to eat his meals by saying, "Eat some more. It's yummy!"

Here, Joseph comes up to the goat and says "yum!" The goat ignores him so he says "more! more!" as he shoves the leaves towards the goat's face.

When we went back for a second visit to the goats, there weren't any fresh branches out, so Joseph dug around in the dirt for old leaves to feed the goats. With a little extra coaxing, the goats even ate some of the dirty old leaves, which pleased Joseph.

We're still looking into local pre-schools to see which ones are feeders for the more selective goatherd prep-schools. Otherwise we don't really see how he'll ever get into an ivy-league animal husbandry program.

Opera!

2009-04-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

Joseph is now the youngest opera fan in his extended family.

For our anniversary this year, Erin and I went to the Los Angeles Opera's production of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute." This is by far my favorite opera, and I was excited for Erin to experience it as well.

To get ready for the opera Erin read a short book about it and began listening to a recording of the opera to familiarize herself with the music.

(If anyone is interested in learning more about opera, I highly recommend a series of books published by Black Dog. Each book contains a brief background to an opera, the full text of the libretto, and best of all a well-respected recording of the opera.)

The cd's to the opera were in the car for most of January and for Christmas Erin got me a video from a production of the opera that I had been to a few years ago.

As a result of this saturation, we'd often find ourselves humming bits of songs or singing little parts of it as we went about our days (Erin will freely admit that she has recurring dreams where she speaks German, but communicates solely by re-combining the eight-or-so phrases she actually knows).

The highlight of the opera is an aria (Der Hölle Rache) by the Queen of the Night:

This video is worth watching in it's entirety because it's amazing and because it gives you an idea of what I'm about to describe.

Although a recording of Erin imitating this would be a valuable contribution to the world wide web, that's not going to happen (but I'm guessing if you came for a visit, it wouldn't take much of a bribe to get Erin started). Joseph, however, has frequently enjoyed Erin's impromptu arias and has even begun to imitate her.

Those of you already familiar with the opera will understand my concern as I listened to Erin sing for Joseph a song in which a mother tells her child that the child will no longer be her child unless the child kills its father. Apparently, Joseph never understood Erin's accent, because he hasn't made any obvious attempts at my life.

Despite the message, Joseph loved hearing that particular aria. We'd ask him, "Joseph, can you sing opera?" and he would then attempt to belt out a few of his own high-F's.

At this point in the post it would be great if I had a video of him doing his impersonation of the Queen of the Night, but I'm just going to cite Joseph's refusal to perform on command in front of a camera and move on. BUT--if I EVER get a video of him doing his opera singing, I will post it and put an announcement at the front of this blog.

If you're curious as to what the Toddster's singing of this aria sounds like this should give you an idea:

(Thank you, Florence Foster Jenkins)

We only realized the extent of Joseph's love of opera on our recent trip to Disneyland. After riding in the car for nearly two hours, Joseph, who really travels well, got antsy in the car and started fussing. We offered him food and a drink, but really he just seemed tired of being in the car.

In desperation we turned on the cd player and switched to the Queen of the Night aria. Instantly--and Erin will back me up on this--Joseph stopped whining and began to smile and say "opera! opera!"

It's a good thing we've got plenty of social workers and lawyers in this family, because I'm fairly certain we're guilty of cultural abuse.