Printer!; Fix it!

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

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

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

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

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."

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

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.