Three rules of driving

According to Joshua, there are three rules of driving. They are:
1. Wear your seatbelt
2. Don't go 100
3. Keep your door closed

I think I can handle that!

At the circus

Today the four of us went to the circus. I don't think I had ever been before or if I had, it was before I can remember. Anyway, I was super excited about going.

The show started at 11 but at 9:30 we could meet the animals. And then at 10, there was an "all-access pre-show." We went to all of it.

Evan was enthralled by the elephants. Joshua liked the tigers.

 

 



 

At the pre-show, we saw some gymnast type girls, some dancers, and some clowns. We also all got clown noses.

 

Blurry clowns in the sky

Blurry family of clowns





The show itself was super fun and exciting. There were definitely parts that were better than others but overall, it lived up to my expectations.

Taba and the lions

Hand-balancing and contortion artists

The Danguir high-wire troupe

Human cannonball

The ever-controversial Asian elephants

More of the elephants

The Steel Vortex (one of Joshua's favorites)
 

 I didn't get pictures of some of our other favorites, including the Trampoline Tower Tumblers and the Kiev Aerial Enchantresses. The only thing missing from this show was a trapeze act - they had skywalkers instead.

Both boys had a super fun time. Evan passed out halfway through the second act. Joshua says it was the best circus ever. And that he wants to go again. Next year, kid, you bet!



And then he was 5

In true Joshua form, we had a ghost pirate themed party to celebrate Joshua's birthday this year. We had seven 4-5 year olds and a few younger siblings. They jumped, played games, ate pizza and cake, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

 There were hats, necklaces and eye patches for dressing up.

Joshua's pirate ship, some pirates, goody bags, and a rat.

 Having fun with the jump house.

Food. And a rat.

Joshua giving out the tattoos.

 The cake. I let the candles do most of the work for me.

Blowing out the candles

Our family.

Joshua wanted balls in the jump house. So we got balls. 100 of them.

The pirate theme.

Treasure boxes for the plunder won from playing games and digging in the sand box.

 Decorations

Ring toss with pirate hooks

Pin the eye patch on the Jolly Roger

The pirate plunder pail

Meeting Diego

Joshua, Evan, and I flew down to Los Angeles at the end of July to meet my sister's new baby. My boys were mostly very nice and gentle with Diego except for a few poking incidents. And covering with the blanket. And squashing him a bit.

The visit was brief but I am so glad we made the trip. I am so happy for my sister and brother-in-law. I can't wait till our kids get to hang out again!

1.5

As of the 30th of June, Evan is now officially a year and a half old. It's hard to believe it's been 18 months since I awoke in the middle of the night with a broken bag of water, 18 months since Evan's appearance on Earth.

Now, at 1.5, Evan has added another word to his vocabulary: NO!

He can point to his head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, toes, and tummy.

He likes things that go and points out every truck that goes by and every plane that flies overhead.

He loves his Daddy and yells to wave goodbye to him from the garage every day that Brian goes to work.

He also loves his big brother so much and it melts my heart when they hug each other.

He has twelve teeth - all the fronts and all the left side. He's still missing the four on the right side. And then come the two-year molars.

I'm so glad he came into our family.

Words

"Uh-oh"

 

"Mama" or "Momom" or once it was "Mommy"

 

"Dada" or "Dadadadadadadadad"

 

and finally, "dawgdaw" for dog.

 

The 18 month well child check questionnaire asks if your child says at least 4 words.

And the answer is yes.

 

 

That's my Evan.

Sports

I'm not at all coordinated. Sports are something I am not good at and I have no qualms about admitting it. I never played a sport as a kid. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps my parents didn't know about kids' sports or maybe we didn't have the money, but since my little siblings both played soccer at one point in their youths, I'm leaning toward the idea that my parents recognized my lack of coordination and didn't want to waste the time or money trying to teach me to not trip over my own feet. (I did try playing soccer in high school and spent almost every game sitting on the bench.)

Brian played baseball and did martial arts from elementary school on. He's no pro athlete but he does have some coordination and grace in movement.

When a flyer for baseball appeared in Joshua's art folder at school, he said he wanted to play so I signed him up. Throughout the season he had fun batting but he had little care for the rules of the game. He would rather turn it into some kind of adventure game involving some kind of monster bad guy. Overall, I think he had fun and he definitely learned a few things about throwing and hitting. There were some kids who were really good and showed zeal for the game and pure athleticism. One thing I noticed about Joshua's fielding was that he'd always let the more aggressive kids get the ball even when it was closer to him.

We talked about what he wanted to do after baseball and settled on swimming. Joshua was really excited about the idea.

Yesterday was his first swim lesson. When it was explained to him that he would be in the water with his teachers (and not me), there was a bit of a meltdown about being alone. When his teacher came for him, I walked him to the pool where there was another mini-meltdown about getting in. After explaining that he only had to get in a step at a time, he was fine. I stood in the pool area and watched for a few minutes. When he looked like he was having fun and no longer caring about my presence, I made my way back to the "galley" where the parents can watch the class from the comfort of pool chairs.

Joshua really got into it. He even had fun when the teachers poured water over his head. He was smiling the entire time and so was I. The class consisted of three children and two teachers. It lasted half an hour. When it was over and I picked him in the shower area, he told me all about it and said he wants to do it every day.

my view from the galley

The lesson consisted of games and "hunts" for toys in the pool. It was a get-comfortable-in-the-pool kind of lesson. It was just up Joshua's alley. I don't know how it'll go when/if he gets to the point of learning strokes, but I'm hoping that, without the pressure of other, more aggressive kids, he'll enjoy it and perhaps want to pursue it. (If I could re-do my youth, I would have liked to have swimming lessons.) I'm thinking that, at this point anyway, he's more of an individual sports kind of kid.