Week in Review 9/22/14-9/28/14

I was not a good picture-taker this week.  In fact, I was a TERRIBLE picture taker.  But I did get a few shots and I can give you a rundown about the rest. 

On Monday, we had our garbage disposal replaced.  Our old one was leaking under our sink and there was no repairing it.  Joseph had a great time wandering around the kitchen while the repair man put the new one in.  I have no pictures of this.

Tuesday-Thursday were pretty uneventful.  Went to a few church consignment sales to look at winter clothes for Joseph, but that was about it.  I have no pictures of this, either. :-(

I also have no pictures of our homeschool week.

Photography failure for sure.

And yet ANOTHER thing I have no pictures of was me locking my keys in the car at State Employees Credit Union on Friday.  I'd gone to make a deposit and, while Joseph and I were waiting in line inside, I realized I didn't really know where my keys were.  I told the people behind us in line to go ahead and we walked back out to the car.  Sure enough, they were in the back seat (next to his car seat) with the doors locked.  Apparently, after almost 2 years of motherhood, I'm still not guaranteed to be able to keep up with my child, my purse, AND my keys all at once.  I called David who said he would leave work immediately, but with his 35 minute commute I knew there had to be a way to get keys faster.  So I called my parents who, while they did not have a spare car key of ours, they did have a spare house key, and I knew I had a spare car key at home!  So they came, waited with Joseph at SECU, while I drove around the corner to our house in their car.  Got my spare key, came back to SECU, and was able to get into my car.  Disaster averted!  Thanks Mom and Dad! :-)

I did manage to get a couple of random pics this week...

Many mornings, after school time, Joseph will sit down near his bookcase and start "reading."  So funny to watch him go through book after book.

Joseph still takes a 1.5-2 hour afternoon nap each day.  Some days he naps in his crib, some days he naps in the bed with me, and some days he takes part of his nap in the crib and finishes out the rest of it in bed with me.  One day this week, when I'd brought him into bed with me to finish his nap, I caught a couple of pictures of my sweet, sleepy boy (who still had the big red scab on his nose from his tumble last weekend :-( )

Sleepy boy cuddled up with mommy

Sweet toddler waking up happy :-)

MOSTLY what I DID get pictures of this week was our annual Mt. Airy/Mayberry Days trip this weekend.  So much fun with my two guys!  And the weather was so wonderful!  Our first stop, of course, was Snappy Lunch, for an early lunch.  I got a breaded cheeseburger, Joseph ate a biscuit, and David, as usual, got a famous Snappy's Pork Chop sandwich!

If there is a sweeter toddler in the world, I don't know where!  So blessed to be his mommy!

My two handsome men...my whole world in a picture!

David's sandwich.  That's one BIG pork chop on that bun!

My burger (of a more manageable size) :-)

After lunch, we walked down the "Mayberry Toys" a great toy store on Main Street in Mt. Airy.  We were even able to pick out a few birthday presents for Jojo while he was distracted with the train table!  He had so much fun running around and playing.  And he definitely thew a stereotypical 2 year old tantrum when we left.

Joseph making new friends

We stopped and listened to a little bluegrass...they were wonderful!

And we finished our morning by driving a little further north to the produce stand on the NC/VA state line that we always go to.  Bought some apples and a few other things.  Joseph loved exploring!

After the produce stand, we came back to Greensboro so Joseph could take his afternoon nap.  Then we finished off the evening with dinner at Sticks and Stones, one of our favorite places.  :-)

Another note from this week, I ended up with an old kid's book (copyright 1959) that used to be my mom's.  It's written about occupations that children can grow up to be.  Imagine the delight my traditional self experienced when I flipped to the middle and saw the job "homemaker" featured.  I love being a homemaker/stay-at-home mom so much, and in a world where we often aren't considered to have a "real job," it felt good to be featured, even if it was a kids book from the 1950s :-)

A few of you have asked me for a family-building update.  Right now, I'm finishing up (this week) a round of medication to shrink the two ovarian cysts I have.  I've been pain-free now for about a week so I'm certainly hoping that means they are gone.  I had 3 cysts before I was pregnant with Joseph, one while I was pregnant with him, and have had 3 since then.  So these cysts are a constant battle.  I'll have an ultrasound mid-week and, if things look good, we will be ready to proceed with our final IUI in mid-October.  If our final IUI fails, we will announce our plans to further build our family at that time (we have really prayed and discussed it and finally feel a peace about the path we have chosen).  I know God has exciting things ahead for our family, no matter how more children come into our life!

That's it for this week!  Hope everyone is well! :-)

Week In Review 9/15/14 - 9/21/14

I'll start out with two random photos I got of Joseph this week that I thought were funny.

The first was taken Monday morning.  He and I were about to go out, and there was a slight chill in the air, just enough to necessitate a light sweater.  Well, when I put the hoodie sweater on him Joseph INSISTED on pulling the hood up, despite the fact it wasn't nearly cold enough for it.  He kept pulling it up and saying "HAT!" and laughing wildly.  Here is my silly boy in our hallway...

In this next random pic you can see Joseph squatting and staring at a very small black dot.  This black dot was, in reality, a small cricket that had gotten into the house.  Joseph was tremendously interested in watching it hop around.  Unlike his mother, he seems to really like bugs and isn't scared of any of them (in fact, back during the early summer he got stung by a bumble bee because he reached out and grabbed it off of a bush in our yard!)

We did some fun stuff with school this week (including learning how to say "banana" in Spanish and playing with a hand puppet.  One thing I did NOT really enjoy this week, however, was our book for the week.  I try to use the books our toddler curriculum calls for, an most of them I adore, but not always.  This week's book was Chicka Chicka ABC.  Truthfully, I just found it boring, and I didn't think the rhythm was done very well.  Oh well, can't win them all as a homeschooling mom.  I still took a picture of the book, despite my lack of love for it.

Friday afternoon, we had a truly terrifying thing happen!  For the first time in his 23 months of life, I thought Joseph was going to 100% refuse to take his nap.  Seriously, I have no idea what happened.  Three attempts were needed to finally make it happen.  Each time, when I would put him down, I would watch him on our monitor.  He would progress from rolling around, to babbling, to crying (at which point I would go get him).  BUT, on attempt #3, he finally went to sleep (almost 2 hours later than he normally does).  Crazy!  Here are some monitor pics from the ordeal...

Just looking around.

STILL looking around.

And then to crying, so in went mommy.

Friday evening, when David got home (and after Joseph's very late nap), we went to the Greensboro Greek Festival.  This is one of our favorite events each fall!  The Greek Orthodox church is very very close to our house so we usually walk to the festival, but Joseph was very hungry this year so we drove.  For the first time ever we ate inside instead of outside because they were playing the music outside SOOOO loud.  Joseph loved the Greek chicken and Greek green beans!!!

The blurred motion of a toddler!

One Saturday evening, we had some friends over to our home for dinner.  Joseph helped with clean up by sweeping the hallway!

He was only smiling at this point because he hadn't heard the score of the Carolina game at that point :-(  (Oh, and the scarred up face was from a face plant on concrete earlier that day)

A few times a year, David and I, along with another couple, help provide some snacks for a newcomers group at our church.  Joseph has had some pretty extreme separation anxiety and always has (which doesn't bother me at all at this age because I was the same way!), and so he does not stay in the church nursery.  Instead, he comes to service with us.  But Sunday, because we stopped by the Newcomers classroom to drop off the snacks, he saw a classroom and ASSUMED it was the nursery and we were leaving him (despite the fact it wasn't set up like a nursery and everyone in the room were adults).  He started sobbing hysterically and clinging too us.  Poor, sweet child!  Once we made it back to the church lobby, near the sanctuary, he realized he was indeed going to service with us, not being left, and finally calmed down.  Sweet boy was extra still and clingy (note the hand clinging to my leg in the below pics) before service started and during the music (as if to say "Thank you so much for not leaving me!  I'll try to be good!  Please don't go anywhere!) lol.  Then, after the music was over, he was so worn out from his traumatic experience that he fell fast asleep on my lap!  He slept like a newborn throughout the rest of the service!  Love that precious boy so much.

Sunday evening, we had another fun fall event - our annual neighborhood picnic!  It is held every September by one of the lakes (Lake Euphemia) in our neighborhood.  Such a great time!

The band

The line for the hot dog cart

David and I sold the hot dog tickets for part of the time

After our neighborhood picnic Sunday evening, we came back and played outside in the backyard for a few moments before Joseph's bedtime.  I don't know why I felt like taking pics, but I did.  I love the way the light comes through the sky and trees on a fall evening.

Hope everyone had a great week!