Copy Cat

Joshua has entered his copy-cat stage and it is so cute! He has picked up a few tricks and will do them when someone else does them...sometimes...and usually well after the fact. It is still fun.

He can:
Clap
Wave (Two different ways. Waving his whole arm with open hand and opening and closing his hand. He usually does both hands at once but sometimes only one.)
Sniff with his nose
Click his tongue
Make a popping noise with his lips
Make raspberry noises with his lips
Fake laugh

In St. George last week we would watch shows like The Price is Right and when all the people would clap, Joshua would clap. If we watched a show with a laugh track, he would laugh loudly, too.

Speaking of copying, I just yawned and he looked over and opened his mouth wide, too. I'm glad he is so stinkin' cute!

Oh, Crap!

Since the hum-drum trip to St. George didn't really seem to inspire comments, here's a post that might:
Yesterday I was changing Joshua's diaper (yes, it's going to be one of those stories) and as soon as I took it off he peed everywhere. He doesn't do that as nearly as often as when he was a newborn, but it still happens occasionally. Since it was 7:15 pm and he had had brief naps all day, I decided it wasn't worth cleaning him up, re-dressing him, just to strip him down for a bath in half an hour. So it was time for an early bath. I would just let him play a bit longer in the tub.
Usually for bath-time, I fill the tub, then I go get Joshua ready for the bath. Yesterday had to be backwards based on circumstances. So I plopped him, stark naked, on the bath mat and his towel while I filled the tub. While I was filling it, I looked down to see the face.
All mothers know the face and some non-mothers can even recognize it. This one was unmistakable. He was grimacing and bright red. Yep, it was happening.
All I could do was gasp, "AH! don't poop! don't poop! don't poop!" I wisked him off his towel just in time but I didn't save the bath mat. I am so glad it's washable. It also sounds a lot worse that it was.
After that whole experience I had to wonder, "Why didn't I just hold him over the toilet literally inches away from me?"
I hope there is never a next-time to learn from my mistakes.

St. George

We go down to St. George about every 3 or 4 months for business. I usually tag along because I can and then we stay at the timeshare resort that we are members of down there.
This time I was really excited about bringing some of my projects and not feeling guilty when I work on them because there really isn't much that I'm procrastinating down there (nothing to clean up/out, no mounds of laundry or dishes to do or put away).
Unfortunately, our first day there Joshua and I woke up with a cold. To top that, Joshua had a diaper rash from the drive down. To tippy top that he is still trying to get those darn molars in. (He has the front 8 teeth and the bottom two molars are making him miserable.)
Needless to say, I got nothing done the first two days we were there besides changing lots of diapers and slathering on the diaper cream (or should I spell it creme?).
That's ok though, he started feeling better and we had a blast the rest of the time. We went swimming and had my cousin and his wife came over for dinner one night and I sewed some stuff.
I will have to post pictures later though.

Dream Weaver

I have the strangest dreams. I have always had the strangest dreams. Pregnancy did not make my dreams any more vivid or strange--I'm not sure that is possible.

Anyway, I've had a few lately that have been really cool and would make great scenes in a movie or a book or something. I have had some like this in the past, too, but I never wrote them down and as time passed they faded a bit. 

Last week I decided to keep a dream journal. I now have a document on my computer that will house all my dreams. Someday I'd like to go through and look at the possibility of turning one or more into books. Isn't that how the Twilight series was started? 

You can like the Twilight series or not, but you can't deny that it was a successful seller. Maybe that's how I'll make my millions and have my 15 minutes of fame. 

I don't want to post my dreams on the internet anywhere in case somebody steals my idea and publishes before I do, but last night had to do with morphing from human to animal...it was pretty cool. 

Crazy Neighborhood Take 2

Remember in August, 2009 I posted about the crazy drunk lady that came to our door, and the police came, and there was all that excitement?
The previous February there was a fire across the street from us.
We have paramedics on our street on average about every other month or so. We have some neighbors that have some serious health problems. I can't imagine what their medical bills are like.
A while ago someone tried to rob the grocery store up the street and was shot by police.
A few months ago my brother-in-law wrecked his bike up the street on his way home from work, so we had flashing lights for that.
Yesterday morning there were fire trucks at the fabric store on the corner near our house and the alarm was going off.
Honestly, it gets hard to keep track of all the times law enforcement, fire fighters, and paramedics come to our street.
Last night we were coming home from the grocery store and saw flashing lights down the street. We took in the groceries and then decided to walk down the street. As we got closer we could see there were a LOT of police cars, and the whole street was blocked off with caution/police tape. There were people standing all around, so we started asking around to see what was going on. Of course the stories varied...even the people who were out there when it happened had different accounts. I can see how difficult being a detective could be when even eyewitnesses don't witness the same thing.
What we could gather was that there was a car that had been chased/followed by police and that car had run into 3 or 4 cars along the side of the road, was sitting there idling with a sheet draped across it because the driver had died somehow or another.
The people living near there said they heard the crash or the police loudspeakers and looked out the window to a whole bunch of cops running down the street with guns out. People that were outside were ordered back into their apartments at that time.
Anyway, after chatting with our neighbors for a while, we went home, scoured the news for any information (no news crews were there that we could see), and then went to bed. In the morning I found this article posted about it. What a sad story.
What a crazy neighborhood.

You know you're out of shape when...

You drive to a campus you used to walk to, you walk around a little bit, and drive home, and are sore for two days.
On Tuesday, I decided to go up to campus for the Dance Devotional. I figured it would be fun to watch and a good excuse to get out of the house. Besides, while I was there I could visit my old work and professors.
The plan was to walk up there, make the stops, and then walk home, but Joshua decided it was nap time at 10, so we didn't leave the house until quarter after 11.
Even though we were late, we got to watch more than half of the devotional. Joshua was enthralled the whole time even though we were sitting up in the nose-bleed bleachers. He didn't make a peep.
After that was over, we drove over to where I used to work and brought some cookies to my old coworkers. I got to chat a while with some of the people I used to see almost daily and realized how much I don't see people now that I stay at home all day. A lot had changed. Some of the desks were rearranged, and a lot of the people I worked with no longer worked there.
I also went to go check out the damage caused by a crane tipping over. They are building new dorms around my old office, and one of the cranes tipped over onto the building. I forgot to check out the damage while I was there, but here's a picture someone took of it: (Link to facebook picture)
Then I drove to another part of campus. I dropped off a Milka bar to my aunt at her office since it was her birthday. Then I took the rest of the cookies to the German department to see if any of my old professors were there.
*Note: I was planning on bringing my little travel stroller with me, but I forgot it, so I was carrying Joshua, the diaper bag, and a plate of cookies the whole time.
The professor that went on study abroad with us to Vienna in 2006 was the only one around, so I stayed and chatted with him a little while. It was fun to see him and catch up a bit. I really should go visit more often.
After that I had to book it back to my car since I had parked in a 30-minute zone. I'm not sure why I didn't just park in the visitor lot. "Old Habits," I guess.
It was a fun little visit to campus, but I need to get out and do that more, for sure.

Yard Sale

Last week I tried to go through my whole house and purge all my junk. Well, I did some, but I didn't do my whole house. Remember how I posted that I was going to finish up the living room by doing the magazines? Well, I never got to that.
The next day (Tuesday?) I was cleaning my kitchen and decided to attack it. So I went through every cupboard and got out all the things I never use (e.g.: lime press, tiny frying pan, old frying pan, extra turkey baster (who needs 2!?), extra knives not matching set, old water bottles) and put them in a box. I also cleaned off and around the microwave, which is my "hot spot" in the kitchen. I put all the baby bottles, sippy cups, garbage, pots (for flowers), etc. away or in the yard sale pile that was accumulating. I even cleaned off the toaster and toaster oven! My kitchen is so clean now! :)
Last time I posted, I had decided to postpone my yard sale because of General Conference. I later realized that I have plans for this Saturday that I can't postpone or multitask. On Friday, I decided to go for it, so I bought some poster board for signs and put them up. I had to have a yard sale now that the signs were up. (I put the signs up on the busiest streets at 5pm - Friday evening traffic and game day traffic! Win!)
After Joshua was in bed, I gathered up all my thrift store and yard sale stuff, labeled it all, told my neighbor/sister-in-law about the yard sale and invited them to sell stuff, too, and got to bed by 2am! I thought I was going to take all night. At 7am I got up, set everything set up, and sold stuff all morning!
I have some great stories about people offering $2 for $100-never-been-worn-leather-reeboks (seriously!?) and other things. I never realized how cheap yard sailors are. I didn't sell as much stuff as I had wanted, but I made more than $200!
I'm thinking I'll have more yard sales next summer!
As for this year, I still have a ton of stuff that I'd like to get some $$$ for if possible, so we're going to have another yard sale in two weeks, weather permitting. I still have a whole storage room of stuff that I need to sell (the people that lived in the apartment below us left all their stuff and owed us money...long story, not for this post.)