The Mosh Pit

A new blog

2008-03-15T12:10:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone,

I won't be updating this blog anymore, but I will leave it here for until I can work out if there is a way to merge these posts with my new blog.

The new blog is called 'Catch the Clouds' and is about anything and everything - but still mainly about my boys!

I just think it is going to be easier to update one blog, rather than trying to keep up with two.

Hope to see you over at the new blog.

Trace

Number 12 - Josh's least favourite number

2008-01-22T21:02:00.000+11:00

We had Josh's needles today... horrible, horrible experience. I didn't even tell him what we were there for, but as soon as we walked in (had to go to the 'cattle call' community hall session) he said "I don't like this place".

I told him we just had to get a number. He said "I don't want a number". We sat and waited. He had fun playing his Leapster while we waited. They called number 12, and I got up and got our name marked off, then sat down again. Then the nurse called number 12 and I told Josh, that's our number. He said "I don't want that number", crossed his arms and put on a grumpy face. We started walking toward the nurse and he cracked it, and ran the other way. I had to drop my bag and chase after him. Then I had to pick him up kicking and screaming and take him to the nurse. The whole time he was screaming "I don't want that number". He didn't even know what we were there for!!! The nurse was trying to tell me all the things she needs to say, over his screaming. Then she tried to talk to him, ask him about kinder and all that. He kept screaming, "I don't want that number". She said "Should I just do it?" I said yes. So I had to hold his arms still while she did the first one, with lots of people staring at the screaming kid. And of course the screaming got worse after the first needle. Then we had to do it again in the other arm! Horrible! We walked back to the seat, Josh said "I don't like that". But I managed to calm him down with some chocolate. Then we had another game on the Leapster, and then, surprisingly I had to talk him into leaving!!! He wanted to stay and keep playing the game!!!

Josh's Fourth Birthday - Luna Park

2008-01-21T22:15:00.000+11:00

Josh's party was on the Saturday, but his birthday was on Tuesday. (And he was clever enough to realise that he had a number four cake at his party even though he wasn't four yet).

So to celebrate the day, Josh got to choose what we did for the day. This started with a Macca's breakfast, followed by a trip to Luna Park!

At first Josh was a bit scared and only wanted to go on the baby rides with Sam. But then he saw this ride and had to have a go....

He was so excited after that ride, that he went on it again straight away with me. As it was going up, he was telling me all about it and what was going to happen. The best quote of the day was "Mum, do you need to scream?". I said not yet, I would probably wait until the ride had started moving!!!! We had lots of fun screaming as loud as we could (and yes, Josh was the loudest!).

He is 106cm tall, and could get onto most of the rides, except for the ones where you had to be 110cm. But even one of those he was able to sneak onto... he stood on tippy toes when they measured him! His favourite ride was the Giant Drop ride (mine too!) and his least favourite was the Ghost Train... he literally came off that ride with a white face.

Josh's Fourth Birthday Party

2008-01-21T21:38:00.000+11:00

We had a magic themed party this year... I thought it was a good idea at the time! It all started when Scott showed Josh some magic tricks about six months ago, and ever since then everything was 'magic!'. We booked a magician named Crazy Pete. Kel had seen him at Mumbo Jumbo before. But the week before the party Josh started saying how he didn't want a magic party, or a magic man at the party. So I tried to talk him into it. We got a magic trick set and I showed him some tricks. He got right into it, with "Ladies and Gentlemen", "Abracadabra!", and making the magic rings pull apart. A while ago I asked him what cake he wanted (I was dreading doing a rabbit coming out of a hat!). Luckily for me he said he wants a number four. So I took him to the cake shop and showed him all the tins and he still wanted a four - so that was that! I just wasn't really in the mood for an extravagent cake this year! I was happy with it in the end - even if it did look like a Starlight Foundation cake!!!

The party started well with my Nan and Pop arriving first. Josh raced into the kitchen to tell me that my Grandma and Grandpa were here! I think it made their day that he remembered who they were. And they also got some great comments while he was opening their present..."That's a cool present".

The magician turned up, and Josh cracked it big time! He went off in a huff because he "didn't want a Magic Man!". In the end we worked out that he was upset because he wanted to be the magic man. So I gave him his magic hat, and wand and he stood up in front of everyone and performed a magic trick.

Crazy Pete was great! Some of the highlights were when he turned Mark's $20 note into a $5 note! The look on Mark's face was priceless! The whole rest of the show you could see that he just wanted the rest of his money back! Mum's watch got taken off her wrist without her even noticing! Josh's friend Laura was so excited by the whole show she could barely contain her excitement - she screamed and laughed the whole time.

All in all it was a fun (but exhausting) day. And it couldn't end before we got our traditional birthday family photo at the letter box!!!

Funny Stories

2008-01-21T21:35:00.000+11:00

We were at the playground in Point Lonsdale and Josh is very friendly with the other kids and always introduces himself to everyone. There was a group of three girls (probably sisters?). One was about Josh's age and the next two were older. The two older sisters were trying to set their little sister up with Josh! They even got him to take off his sunnies so they could see what colour eyes he had, and they asked how old he was (where he went on and on about how is is three now but he will be four next week). They pushed their sister to try and get her to kiss him, they made her follow him down the slide together, and when we were about to leave she ran up to him and said "Bye, I love you". Then she ran off. I said to Josh, don't you want to say goodbye to your friends... "Nah, lets go home"
So cute, and so funny to watch.

Funny story number 2: Josh got given a Thomas plastic battery operated train set (it was a freebie too - so lucky to get it, its worth over $100). He was dying to play it yesterday morning, but it is too noisy when Kel is asleep.
Josh: I'll go wake Dad.
Me: no, he'll be grumpy.
Josh: Then you go wake Dad!
Me: No, then he'll be grumpy with me
Josh: I'll go tell Dad that Sam bumped his head!

Cheeky thing! Because the day before Sam stepped on a piece of glass and it was bleeding everywhere and I freaked out and told Josh to quickly go wake Dad. Sam had bumped his head, but it was nothing to worry about... but Josh must have decided that was a good way to get Dad up!!!

Josh's First Christmas 2007

2008-01-21T21:25:00.000+11:00

Now I know that this wasn't really Josh's first Christmas... but to me it seemed like this was the first year he was really into it. He couldn't stop talking about how Santa was coming, and how many sleeps there were to go.
We wrote a letter to Santa. It said "Dear Santa, I have been a good boy. For Christmas I would like a trampoline, a camera and lots of Thomas's. How do the reindeer fly? Can I pat the reindeer? From Josh
If you would like to know how reindeer fly, there is a really cool website that tells you all about it!

We left out a plate of cookies and milk and some carrots for the reindeer.
The next morning Josh woke up, came out to the kitchen and started watching tv... about ten minutes later, he looked at me and said "Santa was a naughty boy".

I said "Why?".

He said "Coz he didn't leave me any presents".

Me: Did you look under your tree?

Josh: Which tree?

Me: The tree in your room

So he raced into his room to find a few matchbox cars and a chocolate Santa.
Then we were ready for the big Christmas tree in the lounge room.
He was just so excited about everything! He kept saying "Wow", "That's amazing".
After opening his scooter his comment was "Now I can scooter everywhere!"
The boys spend so long opening their presents and playing with them that we barely got time to send them outside to discover that Santa has left a present outside too! A 3m round, fully enclosed trampoline! They love it. First thing in the morning before breakfast and Josh is asking to go out for a jump.
We had Christmas lunch at Aunty Tina and Hunky Gordon's house. The kids had fun playing with water pistols.
Christmas Dinner was at our house. Josh started called Aunty Anna, Tickle, because she kept trying to tickle him while he was on the trampline.

Really bad blogger :(

2007-12-21T21:39:00.000+11:00

I have been such a bad blogger lately - I'm so sorry!
(though nobody has complained, so maybe nobody reads anyway)
Here are some posts that have been sitting on my computer for a while now:

6/12: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas is in the air... Santa is everywhere, the Christmas parties have started, the tree is up. How wonderful to be a child and everything about Christmas is like new! Josh doesn't seem to remember last Christmas, so he is very excited about everything - like it is the first time! He is really into Christmas this year, and very friendly with the many Santa Clauses he meets. He goes up to each one and when they ask what he wants he always tells them he wants more Thomas's! We had our work Christmas party at the zoo this year. It was a good family event. The carousel was running and Josh went on it a couple of times. Sam had to ride in the elephant - which is 150 years old! The next night we went to the Friends of the Zoo Christmas party (yes we went to the zoo two days in a row!!!) At this one we had a nice KFC picnic on the beautiful green grass as the sun was going down behind the trees. Josh went up to Santa and asked for Thomas. Santa gave him a gift bag. As we walked away, Josh opened his bag and was soooo disappointed that there wasn't a Thomas in it! It was so funny, but I felt so sorry for him! He truly expected to open the bag and get a Thomas!!! (They actually got a lunch box and drink bottle). The giraffes were getting ready for bed and we got to see them very close up in their 'house' as we looked in the window at the back. And we got to hear a very loud and long roar from the lions at the end of the day.

Monday we went to the city to see the 'Real Santa' at Myer. It was a huge line. While we waited, I took Josh to the Santa train (it's on a different floor this year). He also played with the Thomas table that is set up at Myer. Though I have to keep reminding him that they are not his toys, and other kids are allowed to play with them too. We finally got to the front of the line and Santa's Helper had a chat to Josh about what he was going to say to Santa. Josh told her that he was going to ask for more Thomas trains and a camera. I think he asked this because the girl before him asked for one... but he has been using my small camera lately to take photos of me, and the bbq, and the tree, and himself!

Josh knocked on Santa's door and we entered. Josh ran straight up to him, while Sam clung even tighter to me! We didn't even attempt to put Sam on Santa's knee... we just did a big family photo. I think it turned out all right! Then I asked and they let Josh sit on Santa's knee while I took a photo with my camera.

9/12:"Look at me! I'm a rainbow!"
That was what Josh said as he stood in the kitchen after his bath yesterday. He just got a packet of bath crayons and had drawn all over himself with all the different colours.
Pity he had already pulled the plug on the bath!!!

Brotherly love

2007-11-12T22:12:00.001+11:00

I thought I would start this post with a very nice photo of Josh and Sam on the swing together... before I tell you what Josh did to Sam today...

I got a phone call at work today from Kel saying that Josh had slammed the door on Sam's finger and that it was probably broken. It was hard to hear Kel though because I could hear Sam screaming :(

His finger was all squashed and bent and they went down to the doctors. I made my way home from work - I couldn't really do anything, but it was better than staying at work worrying about it. I hate those sort of phone calls. It left me very stressed with a lot of adrenelin pumping.

It turned out that his finger was ok. Apparantly a babies bones are very flexible. I had time to calm down on the train ride home, and they were still at the doctors, so I had a spare ten minutes or so to grab every train, every piece of track, every building and put them into a box and hide them away.

Josh didn't seem too worried at first. He even found a train that I missed and gave it to me to 'put in the bin'. But when I put him to bed tonight he was asking for his tracks back. And he told his friend Anne at Coles that I took his tracks away. I don't think he told her why though.

Tomorrow we will go and buy some of those door stopper things that prevent the doors from slamming shut.

Three little letters, one BIG word!

2007-10-28T22:00:00.001+11:00

18/10
I read once that a two year old will ask "What?" and a three year old will ask "Why?". Since Josh turned three I have been dreading that three letter word! I almost banned people from saying that word in our house! And it worked... until last week, when all of a sudden we were being asked "Why?" to almost everything we said!

Josh tried to make a phone call yesterday to number 123456789. The operator came back with "That call could not be connected". Josh asked her "Why?".

Another new question is "What's your favourite?". Sometimes that is the entire question, and I had to explain that you need another word at the end of that sentence! For the last couple of days he has been asking everyone "What's your favourite name?". He asked the lady at the post office that and she had no idea what to say!

When I asked Josh what his favourite food was, he said Thomas cake (so I guess that second birthday cake has left a lasting impression!). His favourite tv show is Thomas - of course! His favourite colour is blue - because Thomas is blue. And then he gets sick of it and answers everything with "Nothing".

Roo Boy

2007-09-21T15:13:00.001+10:00

Josh just before kinder today. (He was trying to jump like a kangaroo!)

A Footy Team is Decided

2007-09-19T12:28:00.000+10:00

This Friday is the breakup for kinder for the school holidays. So we get a note home saying they are having a football day and to wear your footy colours. So now we had a bit of a problem...

We have three football scarves in the cupboard: Kangaroos (mine), and Ablett scarf (from when Kel followed the cats. And this is talking about Gary Ablett Snr, not his son... but it was interesting that the scarf would still work for now.) and a Bombers scarf (from when Kel followed Essendon). Neither of us is really into footy any more, so unless Josh was going to wear all three scarves to school a decision had to be made.

First we started with favourite animals... but since there are no footy teams called the Giraffes or Zebras (!) we had to take a different approach.

I read out each of the footy teams and if Josh said he liked it I wrote it on the blackboard. We ended up with Bombers, Magpies (yuk!), Kangaroos and Swans.

Then we worked on favourite colours. He usually says that green is his favourite, but this time he said blue.

A little bit of analysis of colours vs animals and we ended up with the Kangaroos (It's all very technical isn't it!)
Grandpa will be happy!
And who knows, they may actually win a grand final this year!

We went to visit a train one day

2007-08-21T22:41:00.000+10:00

One fine Sunday we decided to go for a walk to the weir, where the train crosses the bridge. It was a very long walk... especially for short three and a half year old legs. But it was pretty exciting! We were going to see the steam train coming back from Ballarat.
Eddie came with us, and here is a photo of the two mates together...

Along the way we saw five Purple trains (the new VLocity trains). These are Josh's favourite trains, because they are quiet and fast. Not like the noisy steam trains!

We made it to the bridge with a bit of time to spare, so the two older boys set off for a walk to go exploring...

Finally the time arrived... we could hear it coming from a long way off. And then we could see the smoke. We had to be quick to get some photos...

Probably the most exciting bit for Josh was when a purple train drove past and we waved, and the train driver tooted back to us!

If I get really clever I might even be able to upload some video...

A long awaited catch up

2007-08-21T21:42:00.000+10:00

Josh had his herniotomy on the 30th July. Sam went to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for the day while we drove on to Werribee. It was quite surreal being back there, with all the memories of when Josh was born coming back. (I think it was even weirder since I had Sam at Ballarat - so Werribee Hospital is all Josh memories). Josh did well with the fasting. He never once asked for any food or drink. It turned out that we had the same surgeon and aneathatist as last time. And the other weird thing was that according to their records Josh was 10 months old when he had the first operation... which is exactly the same age as Sam is right now.

We were at the hospital from 12pm. We went into the operating theatre at about 2pm. It was about 3pm when I was called into recovery. I remember recovery from the first operation and that was pretty bad... but this was much worse. Josh kept coming in and out of the general aneathetic. He was out of it, and didn't even open his eyes. But when he 'woke up' he was crying and trying to sit up, thrashing around. I had to hold him down to stop him hitting his head on the bed rail. Eventually they gave him a sedative to calm him down. We found out in the end that it was the drip in his hand that was annoying him. Every time the nurse touched it he went crazy. In the end they had to take it out anyway because he had knocked it as he was thrashing around. Finally he fell asleep and the nurses said it was best to just let him sleep it off because we had to wait for the surgeon to check him before we went home anyway. Since Josh was the youngest being operated on that day he got to go first... but the surgeon still had to get through all the rest before he could come and see us.

While Josh slept, me and Kel read some Winnie the Pooh books. They were the classic books, and they are very strange! One book was about when the residents of Hundred Acre Woods met Kanga and Roo. They like the look of them, so they planned on stealing Roo from Kanga, and replacing him with Piglet. Then when she realised that Roo was gone they were going to say 'Ahah!' ????? I never did get to see what happened in the end of that book, because that is when Josh woke up properly and we had to try and get him to eat and drink something. We also had to struggle to get him to take his medicine before we went home.

Josh had a kind of epidural block, so he was not supposed to walk until the next day. But try telling him that! We had him sitting on the couch watching a movie while we had dinner, and the next thing we know he is standing in the door way. The next day he was fine though! We had to actually give him some quiet activities to do to stop him running around. A Thomas book that reads as you move the pen over the page was a big hit!

Josh already has a Santa list... every time he asks for a new Thomas train we tell him to ask Santa. He has been reciting his list... it includes "Diesel 10, Mighty Mac, Carriages and Oliver". Oh and a Coaling Plant Now that one was funny! We had no idea what Josh was saying! I thought he had made up something, and it didn't help that is sounded like "coaling plan" when he said it. We asked him to describe it, but he struggled. I asked what colour it was... he said blue, then changed his mind to black. Then we put on the Thomas DVD and our eyes nearly popped out of our head when they talked about the coaling plant!!! (It is the thing that pours the coal into the trucks, in case you were wondering!). Don't know where Santa is going to find one of those!!!

Three and a half

2007-07-17T14:47:00.000+10:00

Here is a track that Josh built... with only a little bit of help from me. He is a seriously good track builder now!

I was greeted this morning by Josh opening the door to the kitchen and exclaiming... "Good morning!" at the top of his voice!

His favourite lunch lately has been two minute noodles on toast.
His favourite breakfast is still vegemite on toast.
And I think his favourite dinner is either Scoo-Eddie (spaghatti) and Meat Balls or Easy Mac.

My son thinks he is a train

2007-07-13T23:46:00.000+10:00

Josh thinks that he is a train! He has been making train noises all day long... and it is very annoying! And he is a noisy train too.

We have the details for the operation now... booked in for 30th July. We can give Josh breaky and then a drink at 10:30 and that is it until after the op which is scheduled for the afternoon. We go into the hospital at lunch time.

We went to the library last weekend. Walking through the aisles with Josh behind me... he yells out in a VERY loud voice "Mum... you farted!" (and I have to make it very clear that I did not!!!!!) I don't know where he comes up with these things!

Finally post this... it has been on my pc for ages now!

2007-06-30T20:45:00.000+10:00

Last night Kel got up to feed Sam at about 3am. He called me to come and have a look at Josh, who was asleep in the chair in the kitchen. He was even wearing his slippers! I don't know how that happened... maybe he sleep walks!

His new favourite song is the Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. And the CDs that Aunty Anna and Uncle Ben got him for his birthday are getting a good workout. Well to be specific, the green CD, songs 9, 10 and 13 (Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow, Animal Fair and How much is that doggy in the window (sung to Eddie who just happens to be sitting in the window!))

We heard about the recall on some of the Thomas train set. After going through the recall notice, and searching through his room we found 13 things that we need to send back. Lights and Sounds James will be dearly missed. There was also a red caboose, the fire trucks and a whole heap of stop and caution signs. Apparantly they will replace the item, and send a new vehicle to compensate for the postage.

Josh had to go back to the paediatric surgeon last week. We had noticed that his left testicle was very swollen. It turns out that he has another hernia. He will have to have another operation (probably around August) to fix it. He had the right one done when he was eight months old. He was pretty good with it last time, the worst part was sitting with him in recovery while he just screamed and screamed. I can only imagine how much worse it will be with a three and a half year old.

On the weekend, Josh rode the tricycle and Grandma and Grandpa's house using the pedals! Very proud mummy there! He just needs a little push start.

We went to Werribee yesterday to see the steam train. It was the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne to Geelong line. I think I am becoming a bit of a train spotter. I think I was more excited about the train than Josh was! And actually he got scared of it. It was a bit big and noisy for his liking. He ran away from the train. We got video of it. Its pretty funny. And since then Josh is more interested in the electric trains.

Is there any cake that Josh won't eat???

2007-05-30T09:16:00.001+10:00

The answer to that question is Yes... when Aunty Kel makes yummy orange poppy seed cake and tells Josh that it has ants in it!!!!

Trains, Trains and more trains

2007-05-29T16:13:00.000+10:00

Josh has fallen in love with a Playschool DVD that I borrowed from the library. It is a Nursery Rhymme one so Josh is learning lots of new songs like Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, and a whole heap of other ones that always get stuck in my head all day! How many times can you watch the same episode of Playschool over and over? I couldn't even count how many times Josh has seen it now!A funny thing is that he has a firm favourite in Humpty Dumpty now. But he seems to think that his full name is "Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall had a great fall". He will say something like "Look, there is Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall had a great fall sitting in the car" when reading the Playschool book (see - even more Playschool!)

He has discovered the word Love. Only very special things get the word Love. Like "I love that train" "I love chocolate" And one very special moment "I love you Sammy".

I took Josh to the model train show when it came to Melton the other weekend. I knew he would love it. It was pretty good, most people would probably see everything in half an hour. Two hours later the only way I could get Josh to leave was to take photos of everything! We had been around three times and the owners of the track were getting to know us! One of the tracks had a knob that the kids could use to 'drive' the train. Josh had a go and the train went zooming around the track at full speed. Eventually he got the hang of the controls and even managed to stop the train at the station to pick up passengers.There were some tracks that he just loved. One of them was a track that had a VLine replica train. "That's your train Mum". "I love this train, its pretty good", he told the man who owned the track.
On Sunday at about 10am I heard a train whistle... but not a normal train... it was a steam train. Josh came outside with me to listen for the train to see which way it was going. We couldn't hear anything for a while, then we saw a cloud of smoke and steam go up behind the houses. We were still in our pyjammas at that stage, but I quickly threw some clothes on and told Josh to quickly put some shoes on. He grabbed his slip on 'car shoes' and we raced out the door to see if we could catch a glimpse of the steam train. We could hear it building up steam as we got around the corner but Josh's shoes had fallen off! I told him to leave them and picked him up on my back and ran across to the station. About an hour earlier I had been for a half hour run so this was no mean feat! My legs and feet were killing me... see the things we do for our kids!!! It turned out that we didn't need to run in the end, and I would have loved to have grabbed my camera because this huge black steam train sat at the station for about 5 minutes. There were other kids in pyjammas there, and other kids without shoes! There was even another family who had followed the train for half an hour when they saw it at a crossing. It built up its steam and gave a very loud whistle. We had to cover our ears it was so loud. Then it took off for Ballarat, as we waved to the passengers. Josh was so excited when we got home and he told Kel all about the train and the people in the red caboose.

I'm a man

2007-05-07T16:38:00.000+10:00

Josh: Thanks Dad
Me: I'm not Dad, silly boy
Josh: Me not boy
Me: What are you? A girl?
Josh: No, I'm a man!

Day out with Thomas

2007-04-06T17:40:00.000+10:00

On Saturday 24th March we finally did something I have been meaning to do for ages now... we took Josh to see the Day out with Thomas show! I loved it of course! I think he was most excited to see the Fat Controller! We got to go for a ride on Thomas (same carriages as Puffing Billy) and then we watched the show where Thomas had dirty water in his boiler.

A funny story happened in the morning before we left though...

I gave Josh a brochure about Thomas and told him it was his ticket so he had to look after it. All that morning if he did anything naughty or didn't do what he was told I said that we wouldn't go see Thomas. If I found the ticket lying around I told him he wouldn't be able to see Thomas without the ticket. Kel was in the shower so I went in the bathroom to hurry him along. When I came out, Josh was crying hysterically. I thought he must have hurt himself again (daily occurance in this house!). I asked him what was wrong and I managed to get out of him (between sobs) "Sam ate my ticket". I looked down and Sam had chewed up bits of ticket all around his mouth. I saved as much as I could, and I was trying so hard not to laugh (bad mummy!). Then I had to explain to Josh that Sam didn't mean it, he just puts everything in his mouth, he shouldn't have left it on the floor, etc etc. I said he can still go on Thomas, it's ok. But he was still upset so I had to go on the internet and print off a new brochure / ticket for him.

The words of Josh

2007-03-19T20:52:00.000+11:00

Josh was playing with my phone, which has a picture of Sam on it. Sam was lying on the floor playing. The conversation went like this:
"Hello Sam"
"What are you doing?"
"Going to bed?"
"Good idea!"

Trying to make Josh eat his dinner...
"I can't want it".

The Musician

2007-03-11T19:30:00.000+11:00

We have ventured in the world of You Tube!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srhLLSlpaVU

This is a video of Josh playing his cousin Scott's Playstation guitar. He had great fun doing it and we thought Scott would really love to see Josh playing one of his songs!

The Artist and the Gardener

2007-03-11T18:47:00.000+11:00

Josh has just started recognisable people lately. He includes the smiley face (which he has been practicing for a while now) and he can now draw in the legs and arms, and in the picture above - well he said that was Batman - so I guess that is his cape! Pretty impressive hey! Its funny how the legs are always so long though - I guess legs look long to him from his height!

This is a photo of Josh gardening. He loves to help out. I bought him his own set of gardening gloves, and an Eddie proof watering can.

The other day I was feeding Sam and Josh was outside playing... all of a sudden I realised it had gone quiet... and that is usually a bad thing!

I got up and went outside. I couldn't see Josh, so I called out to him. The shed was open, but his voice was coming from the front yard. I went out the front and found Josh filling his watering can after having dug a hole with a small shovel! He had actually opened the shed, climbed up the ladder, grabbed the shovel and watering can and taken them out the front. I was shocked... we will definitely have to put a lock on that gate now! It does have a latch, but obviously not a Josh proof one anymore!

Oh and one other quick story... I have been running in the morning now and I just put the TV on for Josh to watch while I am gone (Kel is usually in bed still). This morning he said "Mum, you don't go on the road, ok? And Eddie don't go on the road."

Three Years One Month

2007-02-20T14:17:00.000+11:00

I did start doing a really nice collage of Josh from when he did some water play at home... then the computer died and I just can't get back the motivation to finish it. So I will just add the pics here...

I got this idea from the lovely Kate's blog. Josh loved it! It was a great activity for a hot afternoon.

We have finally finished our run of kid's parties. The next one won't be until April - when Little Miss Maddi turns FOUR!!!

Josh started three year old kinder this year at Mr Carberry Preschool. He calls it his 'new school' and is very excited about the fact that he walks to this school. After his first week he was so excited when we picked him up. He told us all about the painting that he did and he wanted to do another one. We even saw that they had read 'Where is the Green Sheep' that day!

On the second week (last Friday) I went and did kinder duty. I wanted to do it while I could before I start back at work (in two weeks time). I did work experience as a kinder teacher, so I was reliving my childhood a bit here, but I couldn't imagine doing this for a living now! It was good to see how Josh compared to the other kids, and how he interacted with them. It will be very interesting to see how things change toward the end of the year.

Josh had to be told to sit down quite a few times, and to be quiet while they ate their lunch. He had a nice little conversation with a little girl who was in the next cubical to him in the toilets! And then he was showing her the picture on his jocks! ha ha (It was Lunar Jim - from the ABC tv show).

Josh is still going to Occassional Care - that is his 'old school' that he goes to with Riley. The carers there were happy to have him back and commented on how much he had grown over the holidays!

Josh has been singing a lot more songs lately, like Baa Baa Black sheep (three bags fall down) and Five Little Ducks (Mumma duck said quack quack quack quack). He was singing Happy Birthday to Mummy today (but I didn't get any cake!). I was feeding Sam at about 4am one morning and Josh got up to go to the toilet and I heard him singing Bananas in Pyjammas while going to the toilet.

My favourite memory lately has been when Sam is crying and Josh comes over and pats Sam on the head and says "its ok Sam, its ok"

The 8 rules of toddler play...

2007-02-04T22:29:00.000+11:00

(I found this and thought it was funny... because it is so true!)

1. If I like it - it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand- it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you- it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago - it's mine.
5. If it's mine it must never appear to be yours in any way, shape or form!
6. If I am doing or building anything - all pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like mine - its mine.
8. If I think it's mine - it's mine.

Josh seems to have disappeared of late... he pops up every now and then, but as soon as he takes his hat off he just disappears and is replaced by somebody named Mosh! When we ask where Josh is he points to his mouth - so we suspect that Mosh may have eaten Josh!

Well actually Josh has just had a very short haircut and it is taking a while to get used to. But he looks the same with a hat on!

And a very funny thing that happened today... we are starting to see a difference between the boys and girls already!
We went to a party and the kids had to wash their hands before eating. They all went into the toilets, but both Josh and another boy walked into the boys toilet, while all the girls went into the ladies! I don't know how they knew it was the boys toilet, but they were both standing there at the urinal with their willies out!!! It is an experience that me and the other mum will probably not forget in a hurry!

Toilet Training Update

2007-01-16T23:10:00.000+11:00

Now I just have to write this and we are all up to date...

Number one: Josh is toilet trained day and night now! It happened by accident when we forgot to put a nappy on him one night. He has been fine ever since (lets hope I don't jinx it now!) He gets up in the morning and goes straight to the toilet and then into our room to wake one of us up.

Number two: Josh now stands up to go to the toilet! I couldn't believe it the first time it happened. We haven't said anything to him about it, he must have just decided to wee like Dad!
He is just the right height now to do it, though he did say that the toilet was cold on his doodle today!

Josh's Third Birthday

2007-01-16T21:52:00.000+11:00

Last year I started a competition to see if anyone could guess the theme of this year's party...

some of the answers I got were:

Wiggles, Smurfs, Mr Squiggle and Pony.

This comment from Pop was funny... "you would look great in a cowboy suit" If you look at the photos you will see that Josh and Sam had matching outfits with a cowboy theme... Josh's said "Wanted - for being the cutest ever" and Sam's said"Littlest Cowboy". So I would have to say that Pop came closest, though I did get some comments later that it was impossible to pick a theme of something that Josh had only heard about a couple of months ago! (You don't know how close we were to having another train party!).

The theme of the party was "The Green Sheep", taken from Josh's favourite book "Where is the Green Sheep" by Mem Fox.

I found this picture of a sheep cake...

...saw a challenge,

and spent a week cooking, carving,

icing and decorating until I came up with this...

The Party...

Josh's friends and family came on Saturday morning to help celebrate Josh's birthday. The kids had great fun running around the backyard, the weather was perfect!

I took the kids inside and read them the Green Sheep book. I was amazed that most of them actually sat there and listened and interacted while I read the book. Josh was playing but did look up at the book every now and then and came over for the page with the train sheep (which I knew he would do!). For some reason he also decided it was a good time to start stripping (!!!)

While we were reading, Kel was hiding chocolate money around the backyard for a treasure hunt. We took a bit too long with the book so the kids had lots of melted chocolate over their faces by the time we got to them! Then we brought out the now famous Green Sheep!

Some of the presents that Josh got at the party were: books, clothes, runners, Thomas towel, trucks, puzzle, a bear chair and a train calendar.

Here is a picture of Josh pretending to sleep on his bear chair...

The Zoo...

For Josh's actual birthday we were going to spend the day at the zoo... but then they said the weather was going to be 31 and smokey, so we went on Sunday instead with Aunty Kel, Mark, Aunty Lou and the kids. Here is the traditional photo of me and Josh at the butterfly enclosure...
And once again Josh's favourite thing was the giraffes, but once again he spent most of the time there looking at the drinking fountain!!!

The actual Day...

Josh's third birthday ended up spanning three days (lets hope this idea doesn't continue or we could be in big trouble by his 21st birthday!).

It was a very relaxed kind of day spend in our pjs mainly :)

We played with the trains and watched Thomas videos and gave Josh a present every couple of hours. From us he got a Matchbox car thing (hard to describe), a game where fish are blown up into the air and you catch them with a net, a blackboard and a basketball ring.

He also got a kitchen set with pretend food (including chips!), and a Puffing Billy tshirt in the mail.

We did eventually get dressed and got takeaway chicken and chips for dinner and ate at the park and had icecreams for dessert. There was even some sheep head left so we could sing Happy Birthday and eat some cake on the actual day!

Christmas 2006 - Finally!

2007-01-16T20:47:00.000+11:00

This year Josh really 'got' Christmas... though most things were about Santa. We had Santa trees and Santa hats, and lots of visits to Santas in the shopping centres. We had our annual trip to Myer to see the 'real' Santa. Josh got to ride on the train there, which he loved - of course!

Christmas morning Josh woke up to a lounge room full of Thomas train tracks. Santa spent a lot of time setting up the track so Josh could play with it as soon as he woke up. You should have seen his eyes pop out of his head when he opened the door!
He got the Round House (where all the trains live) and the turntable so they can go in and out of the house. There is also the gold mine, the fire station, a road crossing and signals. The trains he added to his collection were James (which makes sounds and has lights), Diesel, Bill and Ben, Gold Mine Thomas and Christmas Thomas, Gold Mine Salty and Gold Mine trucks.

It was a struggle to get Josh to look in his Christmas stocking, or to look at his present from us (Elmo Knows your Name).

Christmas lunch was at our house followed by dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Josh had lots of fun playing with Sam's toys and helping him to open his presents. He got more trains, a playdoh table and accessories, Buzz Lightyear jocks and singlet, Thomas card game and nursery rhyme CDs. The boys also got money which we put toward renewing our zoo membership.

We also took trips on Boxing Day and the day after that to visit the Great Grandparents. Josh is so lucky to have four great grandparents who adore him. He got to help dig holes (or should that be fill holes!) and play in the dirt at Ballarat, and had fun running around outside and eating cake at Greensborough.

The tree has been taken down, the lights have been put away and Josh has finally stopped singing Christmas carols!

PS. The middle photo is of Josh covered in stickers from the bonbons!

A New Beginning

2007-01-16T20:40:00.000+11:00

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls to the new and improved website of our favourite little red head... Josh!

It was with sadness that I ended his old website. It was the story of his life from conception to almost three years old. But we are moving with the times now... and a blog is the way to go.

I have lots of news to tell you, I have been so busy between Christmas and Josh's birthday... so let me post this, and get started.

Thanks for reading... it really does make me happy to hear about you all reading about Josh and keeping up to date with the latest news, and hassling me when I haven't updated for a while!

I'm sure there are going to be lots of funny little stories to tell in here as he becomes more and more a real little human being with his own personality and funny ways.

Make sure you check in here often, you never know when I am going to update... but I will try to keep up the tradition of writing something on the 15th of every month (or there abouts).

Cheers, Trace

PS. In case you were wondering... the name Mosh came about when Kel started getting called Mad (when Josh mixed up Mum and Dad). So we had Mad, Mosh and Dum (can't say I really like being called Dum though...)