Josh Moments

Our sweet little boy has been very busy growing up over the past two months. I haven't been good enough about recording the cute moments, sweet new skills, and things that drive Mommy crazy, so here's a bunch of them all at once.

Right before we moved to Chicago, Matt bought Rockband 2, a Playstation 3, and a brand new big screen HDTV. (Ya think someone needed to get a little spending out of his system before we entered into many years of debt? I think so.) Spending money is very unlike him, but I will say that he got all of them for crazy good prices that would have been a shame to pass up. Anyway, for about a week after we got it all set up, we spent hours every night playing Rockband with Matt's brother Andrew. This is how Josh learned to be an expert drummer before he could even walk. Don't let the Tigger onesie fool you -- he's a rockstar!

Speaking of our beautiful new TV, it didn't take Josh long to figure out how to push all the buttons and put his fingerprints all over the screen. He doesn't watch it very much, but his favorite show so far is Harold and the Purple Crayon (since it's pretty much the only kid show we can find on Hulu -- we don't have any kind of cable). We've been trying to teach him not to get so close to the screen...

...but he won't have it. One day, he got a little too close. Like most babies, Josh thinks everything is a toy just for him. Especially Mommy and Daddy's toys. This little troublemaker taught us a very valuable lesson a few weeks ago: Do not put your nice new TV where your toddler can reach it! We learned that one the hard way. First, take a look at the screen while the TV is off.

Looks great, right? A perfectly good piece of furniture. However, after Josh got his hands on a fun metal broom handle and started hammering it like a drumstick on the TV, here is what happened.

I can't seem to get a good enough picture, one that shows exactly how sickening this little accident was. Matt and I both just sat there staring at the TV in silence for a while, feeling sad and stupid. This TV had belonged to us for a whopping three months. Matt's mom had generously helped us pay for it as our early Christmas gift. And now? It's not totally unusable, but it's damaged enough to make me hear money flushing down the toilet every time I turn it on. We can't even take our emotions out on Josh, either, 'cause the poor thing isn't really old enough to understand what he did. Don't get me wrong, a broken TV is not the end of the world. But when it's one of our only legitimate possessions that we bought brand new, not used or hand-me-down or cheap, it makes me feel a little sick.

In other news, Josh has been working on his sad face. Here is how he looks at me when I try to wipe his nose, introduce him to a stranger when he's not feeling friendly, refuse to share my drink with him, or take him out of the bath tub before he is ready. He's getting pretty good at it. Doesn't that face just scream "How could you do this to me?!"

Some might say 15-months is too young for a dye job. I say "Whatev, I do what I want!" Okay not really. This little brown splotch in his golden locks wasn't intentional. While my friend was dying my hair at my apartment, Josh woke up from a nap and snuggled up to me when I got him out of his crib. I didn't realize his hair had touched mine until it was too late. I even noticed a weird brown spot on his head while I was still in the chair, but figured it was just a chocolate chip I had given him earlier. Ha. Now he's forced to live with this "fashion statement" because I have so far refused to cut his hair.

One of Josh's favorite things to do at home is rearrange the kitchen. Often I'll find him taking everything out of of the cupboards and then trying to crawl in them himself. He has a very specific way of doing this.

Step 1: Remove all dishes/pots/pans/tupperware from cupboard and scatter all over the kitchen floor.

Step 2: Plunge into the cupboard head first.

Step 3: Once in the cupboard, turn around so just your head is poking out when Mommy comes to look for you. This movement is very similar to a dog entering its doghouse and circling before settling down to rest. (I can't tell you how much I wish I had snapped a better picture of that.)

Josh also likes to reorganize the recycle bag and throw things in the trash for me. Sometimes it's nice because if I ever forget to throw a diaper away, he'll do it for me. But this little hobby has created some nearly terrible situations, like when Matt found his keys at the bottom of the garbage bag, just before taking it out. Fortunately, it has also produced a few good laughs, like when I opened the cupboard to get a casserole dish and found THIS instead.

Yeah, that's an empty carton of milk. I imagine Josh tried to open the fridge, but couldn't, so he picked the closest cupboard with enough space.

His new proudest achievement is climbing up onto the kitchen table all by himself. At first, he could only manage to climb onto a chair, which he would proudly sit on like a throne until everyone noticed and asked how he got there. Recently he started just making his way up to the tabletop like it ain't no thang and hangs out there until someone removes him. This was a little nerve-racking, since our table and chairs are the small, lightweight, cheap set from IKEA, very easy to tip over. Now, it's strictly off-limits. I feel so bad disciplining him for it, but there have been too many near-disasters to let it slide.

Another thing we need to work on with him is dropping his food on the kitchen floor. This is how he has decided to let us know that he doesn't like something or that he is done eating. He used to do the baby sign for "all done", but maybe he decided that was too babyish for him and he needs to throw food to assert his masculine dominance. I dunno, just a guess. You can tell by his spaghetti sauce beard that he can't wait to be a man!

A couple of weeks ago, Josh had a really bad reaction to boxed Macaroni and Cheese. (At least that's what I think caused it.) Right after trying it, he started itching his eyes like crazy, rubbing cheese sauce all over himself and making it worse. It looked like hives to me, but I wasn't sure. So FYI, if anyone is so kind as to watch Josh for me during lunch time, Mac and Cheese is not a great idea. Poor thing.

Despite all these shenanigans, Josh really is a good baby. He makes me laugh more than anything and I don't know how I ever lived without his snuggles every day.

I actually have a lot more to write, but some of these next "Josh moments" need pictures, so I'll revisit this topic soon.