Amazing Fruit Dip

Ingredients:
1 tsp Orange Zest
1/2 Orange, Juiced (about 3 Tablespoons)
1 8 oz pkg Cream Cheese (works best at room temperature)
1/4 C Powdered Sugar
1 6 oz Container Horchata Yogurt (kroger brand) or 1 6 oz Container Vanilla Yogurt and 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Instructions:
Beat zest, juice, and cream cheese together. Add powdered sugar in gradually with beaters stopped to avoid spraying it everywhere. Beat in yogurt (and cinnamon, if vanilla) until smooth. Serve with your favorite fresh fruit. Makes about 1 pint.

Too Long for a Status Update

First off a little business: Google Reader is dying July 1st, so all 2 of you who follow this blog (actually I think it's like 30! and you are all my favorite people ever!) should research and figure out which new rss feed reader dealio you are going to switch to and follow me again. I know I know I haven't been posting...at all, but I can make a false promise that I will post every-other day for the next year if you follow me with other readers! I have started using Bloglovin' and I'm lovin' it. (BAH ha)
Ok, I had a really great day! I decided to potty train Joshua yesterday, since he's been asking to go potty all the time and he always tells me when he poops and all sorts of other signs that he's ready. So I started yesterday and put him in some Cars underpants....we went through 12 pairs of underpants in one day and only twice did he pee in the toilet (thank goodness none of the messes were more than pee!). He'd pee 2 to 5 minutes AFTER we would sit on the toilet for 5 minutes and we'd go sit on the toilet every 15 to 20 minutes (if that made any sense, my brain is starting to shut off...). The two times he went on the toilet he was majorly rewarded with excitement, and hugs, and marshmallows.
Anyway...I wasn't terribly discouraged, and I figured today would go better and he would start to get the hang of it (spoiler: he didn't).
On to why today was so amazing:
It snowed. Normally I am very bummed when it snows after the first day of Spring, but I told myself this year that, "duh, it's spring--if it snows, it will just melt in a day or two and won't hang around for months like it does in the winter...no big deal!" and I was more happy to see the snow. (Also note, we were potty training, so no huge need to go anywhere.)
-- Precipitation. Check.
We had a women's conference thing for our church this morning, and I went, and was very spiritually uplifted. I missed the first few minutes so I'm not sure what the theme was, but I loved it. There was also a brunch after and I sat with a few ladies I already knew, and met a few new ladies.
-- Spiritual lift and social time. Check and Check.
Then I came home to Dave and Joshua and he informed me that Joshua had only had one accident, but that he was really starting to hate going to the toilet. Dave fed him lunch and then I took him to the toilet again, and was rewarded with a mini-tantrum. Whatever, it was naptime anyway, and I figured it'd be better after naps. I strapped a diaper on him and sent him to bed.
-- He did not get out of bed once! Check.
-- Dave and I got to take a nap, too. Check.
I threw together some lunch/dinner for Dave (Pita Pockets with lunch meat and cheese, smashed in the quesadilla maker = paninis? anyway, they were good....and then leftover corned beef for dinner) and sent him on his way to work.
-- Best wife ever. Check. (Didn't iron his shirt...check minus)
Joshua woke up from his nap and I was still tired, so we hung out in bed, Joshua still in his diaper, for probably 2 hours just watching shows and playing games on the phone. Joshua was super cuddly and very happy. He's been whiny all week so this was a great break. I decided I was going to enjoy this time with Joshua and stop the potty training before he started to absolutely hate the toilet.
-- Fun time with Joshua. Check.
We lazed around the house and played a bit and snacked all evening. Then Uncle Alex came over and Joshua had a blast entertaining him and I decided to go to the gym after Joshua was in bed. So Alex walked Monkey to his apartment to pick up some Baklava supplies, which was his plan for the evening, and I made dinner, got Joshua fed and ready for bed. I put Joshua in bed and took off for the gym once Alex got back and had an incredible pathetic workout.
-- Joshua in bed with no fight. Check
-- Monkey exercised. Check
-- Workout = endorphines. Check.
Then I ate the delicious dinner (after having to re-cook the rice...fail! oh well.) I had made of Indian curry. YUM!
-- Home-made, delicious dinner. Check.
Now it's actually tomorrow and I have church at 8-stinkin-am tomorrow, so 'night all!

More Joshua Talking

Joshua has another phase where several words he says sound exactly the same as each other...this time though, the words, even to me, don't sound even remotely like the words they are supposed to be.


And just for kicks, here's another red-bib video...Joshua eating yogurt by himself, and then using his spoon to scrape it off his face like I do when I'm feeding him.

Piano Toddler

Joshua likes playing the piano, but he doesn't really play it by himself ever. He's a duet kind of guy.
Examples:

Josh read it

Joshua loves reading. His favorite book is anything with a moon in it, especially Goodnight Moon. We have read that book so many times he can "read" it himself. Ok, so he really just goes to random pages and talks about whatever is on that page. With other books he "reads" the book by saying "wawawa" and it's so funny.
Here's a video from a few months ago with Joshua saying his favorite parts of Goodnight Moon:



Here's Joshua reading a book by himself:

New Years' Fireworks

Dave was working for New Year's Eve this year so we celebrated a couple days later, still within the 3-day law for fireworks. We got out our sparklers and a few other fireworks and went outside to show Joshua. Joshua loved them and was talking about them for weeks afterwards. We were outside maybe 10 minutes and our hands were hurting from the cold, so we went in and turns out it was like 2 degrees outside...whoops. We had to run Joshua's hands under cold water to warm them up. Still fun. We got some mediocre videos of his first experience with sparklers:

Pillow Fight!

I started watching my niece and nephew some mornings so my sister-in-law can sleep since she works at night, and it's been fun watching them play with Joshua. D is 8 months older than Joshua, and T is about 4 months younger than Joshua. It's been really great that they play together because I get a ton done actually, since Joshua doesn't need me every second. Here's a great video I got of Joshua and Talia playing together on our new couch last week: