My Lil' Artist

As previously posted, Joshy is my little artist. Our porch is where his art is most prominent. You can see it in the background below. There are sidewalk chalk markings everywhere! Whenever it rains, a huge puddle forms on our porch. Today I gave Josh some paintbrushes to paint the walls with that water. He had a blast. I love that top picture. What a cute little happy face!

Opposites & "Mommy's Egg"

Do you know why toddlers are so good and fast at learning their opposites? It's because they live by that principle. Examples:

Mom: Josh, get down from there.
Josh: No. Josh get up from there.

Mom: I'm going to turn the light on.
Josh: I turn the light off.

Mom: Josh, use your spoon when you eat.
Josh: I use fingers.

(Ok, that last one wasn't necessarily an opposite, but it is to a toddler. If he's not using a spoon or fork, he eats with his fingers...makes sense to me!)

And the last word...
The first thing that Josh does when he wakes up in the morning is run into my room, climb up on my bed, and lift up my shirt to see "mommy's BIG egg". I told him that mommy is carrying "an egg" for the baby to live in until he's ready to come out. It seemed to be the easiest way to explain my bulging belly. (By the way, did you know he has a baby brother in his belly, too?)

Anyway, he rubs my belly and says "soft" and things like "baby budder, come out!" And I say, "not quite yet". His response, "6 more weeks". I think it's precious. I have high hopes of him being the best brother in the world.

Happy 93rd Birthday Grandma!

Yesterday my Grandma celebrated her 93rd birthday. I have to tell you that my Grandma is my hero. I love her more than words can say. She is the most generous, gracious, and kindest person I've ever met. I look up to her in every way and hope that someday I can come close to being the person that she is. She has truly been my 2nd mother throughout my life. She makes me feel like I am the most special person in the world. She has given me so much and makes me want to give back to the world. Thank you, Grandma for being the person that you are. You are an inspiration to everyone who knows you.

Fix It Man

As Daddy attempted to fix our dishwasher, Joshy decided to "help". I just love how boys are fascinated with tools and trying to be like their fathers.

Why is it that little

boys always have dirty faces?

Picasso Back at Work

It's definitely been one of "those weeks". Yesterday Joshy decided to decorate his "big boy bed" with crayons during his naptime. He is definitely my little artist. Our deck is also covered in sidewalk chalk art---walls, floor, and his sandbox.

Anyway, I was so upset that I couldn't even yell. I just stared in silence at the scene and grabbed my camera so I could document the makings of our monster. Josh said, "cheese!" as I took the picture. I thought I had done a great job teaching Josh that we "only color on paper". He had done great up until now. When I asked him if his bed was paper, his answer was an astounding "YES!" Aaarg.

And yet I learn another lesson as a parent: Don't leave toddlers alone with a box of crayons. Ever.

Thank goodness for Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser. That stuff came off like, well, magic!

P.S. Don't judge me too harshly that Joshy still sleeps with a binky. I haven't gotten up the nerve to send them to the binky fairy yet. Something that needs to happen soon, I know.

P.S.S. He is taking naps again, though. I am very fortunate that he has fallen asleep (even after the crayon episode) every day this week thus far.

P.S.S.S. Life is hard without Ryan around. I miss him soooo much! This residency thing is turning out to be a bit trickier than I had imagined (and the baby hasn't even come yet!)

Out Goes the Crib!

Yes, sadly it is true. Our crib time has come to an end for our boy. He became a climber over the weekend and could easily get out by himself. And he did...over and over and over...and the last time fell on his arm. We decided (for safety issues) that it was time to transform it to a toddler bed. I was really hoping to hold it off until he was 3, but kids tend to let you know when they are ready for a new phase.

Our next baby will sleep in the bassinet, then we will transfer him to the portible crib and either keep it in our walk-in closet or the computer room. This kid will not be as spoiled as Josh and have his own room. Eventually Josh and his brother will get bunk beds and our next baby will most likely have this crib again.

Goodbye to prison, hello to freedom! (By the way, I'm not a fan of this freedom thing...Josh hasn't taken a nap for 3 days in a row because of this & has been pretty darn cranky because of it!)

The Reliable Crib...

Changing into a terrific toddler bed!

Joshy's first night in his "big boy bed". I hardly got a wink of sleep because everytime I heard him move I woke up and thought, "Please don't fall off!" Thankfully he hasn't yet. I'm hoping the trend continues.

P.S. If you have any pointers on how to get a toddler with freedom to take a nap, I'd love to hear them. I don't know if I can take another day of his crankiness!

New Trampoline

This is what Joshy thinks about his new "big boy bed".

Lights Out

Last night our power went out around 5:45 pm. I was in the middle of making lasagna, Josh was watching Elmo's World, and Ryan was catching up on patient paper work. It was such a disappointment when everything shut down. We were all happy and occupied. Fortunately I was putting the lasagna together when the power shut off, so it went straight into the fridge to be saved for tonight.

Ryan had been saving all of his paper work for Sunday. He had gotten pretty far behind. He waited for about 2 hours and then packed up his things and headed over to the hospital to continue working, sleepover, and start his on-call shift. I won't see him again until tomorrow afternoon. He has a big presentation to give on Wednesday (his first), is on call on Thursday to Friday, and then gets to take a breather for a long weekend with both Saturday and Sunday off. Although he does have to give the Elder's Quorum lesson on Sunday. He also has got to find some time to catch up on his patient paperwork. The poor guy just wants to sit down to study about his profession!

The power came back on about 11:15 that night. It didn't phase Josh at all...he was in heaven playing with the flashlights. But man, did it ever get hot! I opened all the windows and we were still frying. I was extremely glad that we didn't have to sleep in the heat all night. I always forget how much of my life is dependent on electricity. It makes me want to work harder on those family emergency kits!

Oh, and the boy I'm watching...he threw up today. Fortunately it was outside on our steps, but I'm hoping it was just food poisoning (as his mom is certain). I hate it when Josh is sick.

First Week of Residency

Since this blog is slowly taking over my personal journal, I wanted to note how Ryan's first week of residency went (wife's perspective).

His first official day was Tuesday, July 1st. Apparently July 1st is always the day that intern's start---anywhere in the country. It doesn't matter if it's a Wednesday or Sunday. It's tradition, I guess. His first day was an "on-call" day. He left at approximately 4:30 am that morning. He always has to be in at 5:00 am. He came home the next day at 12:30 pm. If I'm doing my math correctly, that is a 32 hour shift. He said it was the "hardest day of his life". In that 30 hours he saw clinic patients, delivered 3 babies, and filled out hours worth of paperwork (among other small tasks). They sure have him diving in head first. Exhausted is an understatement of how he felt when he got home.

Wednesday he had off, but of course slept most of the day.

Thursday he went back in for his first "regular" shift. 5:00 am to 7:00 pm. A good, but busy day. He saw high-risk clinic patients (like myself). Joshy and I got a peek of him when we went in to see our doctor! It's weird to me to think he's talking to patients like me. Especially because whenever I ask him a question, he typically doesn't know the answer. Intern year is so hard because even though they are "doctors", they don't know much about their specialty. Ryan hates feeling incompetent and uses most of his free time with a book in his nose. I have been expecting this for a while now. I am trying my best to be supportive. I know how important these next 4 years are for him.

Friday he had off because of the 4th of July. Typically he would've had to work another "regular" shift, but he got the holiday off because he wasn't on-call.

Saturday was another on-call day. He had to be at the hospital at 5:00 am. He called once yesterday to say he loved us and that he was incredibly busy. He was fast asleep on our bed when I came home from church today at 12:30. He survived another day. But, he'll be back again tomorrow at 5:00 am for another shift.

This will be his schedule for 2 months. He is on-call every 3-4 days and doesn't have to work Saturdays or Sundays unless he's on-call. After the 2 months are up, he will work in the ER for a month with no call. It will be a nice month of an 8-5 schedule. That's good because our new son should arrive then. :) Happy days.

Anyway, I just wanted to note how crazy our life is right now. Please keep Ryan in your prayers along with our new son that's still in my belly. Life is beautiful.

Ketchup, Monsoons, & a Boat

Contrary to popular belief, ketchup tastes good on EVERYTHING (according to Josh). I gave him chicken nuggets for dinner tonight and he spit out his first bite. So, I thought I'd give good ol' ketchup a try to get those nuggets down. It worked! He loved "dipping" his nuggets in so much that he dipped everything in it---his finger, carrots, peas, peaches, and pineapple. He must've gotten this trait from his Aunt Kim. I hear she puts ketchup on her steaks.

In other news, monsoon season has begun here in Arizona. It is lovely and it cools everything down about 20 degrees. Rainbows appear after the storms as the streets are flooded with water. It's quite fun.
A nice view from our porch
Here's a few cute pics of Josh playing in his boat on our porch during the storm. He brought out the umbrellas to keep us dry, but as you can see, it didn't work too well. He had fun singing "Row, Row, Row your Boat" (well, more like screaming the words) and pretending to go over waves. I just can't get enough of my little guy!

Kung Foo Panda & The Park

This picture is to show everyone that there are regular trees and green grass in Arizona. Although, I have to admit that it's pretty rare. This was taken at a park nearby our place. Also...look at that belly! Holy moley. 12 weeks to go!

Ryan took this video clip of Joshy after he had downloaded a new game demo, "Kung Foo Panda" on his X-Box 360. I was at a doctor's appointment and it was the first thing he shared with me when I got home. He's such a good daddy. I had to post this to show him how much I adore him and his love for his son.

There's More to Arizona than Cactus

OK, so there's mostly cactus (plural name cacti), but I am amazed at how many desert plants there are here! Most of them are so lovely and I swear that everytime I look around, I see something that I haven't before. So, I thought I'd blog about my new fascination!

Just about every plant has spikes or thorns to ward off all the desert animals. And speaking of animals...there are many, many that surround us. As I previously mentioned, we live about 1/2 mile away from the canyon. Behind us is a large hill (shades our place and saves us a boat-load of money on A/C) that apparently a mountain lion lives. I have yet to see it, but there's a picture of him in the office. Needlesstosay, I am scared to go outside at dusk/dawn/and nighttime. A dog in our neighborhood got attacked by a hord of wild pigs the other week. It was around 9:00pm and the poor thing had to be taken to the ER Vet Hospital. There are also cute little cottontail rabbits living among doves and pigeons. We haven't seen any snakes or scorpians yet, but we see an occasional lizard here and there.

Anyway, here are some of the plants we saw on our Sunday walk a few weeks ago.

Pretty cool, right? Can you see why I am fascinated? They are so beautiful and different than anything I've ever seen before! I love our new home.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we're finally all settled in. We've actually been for a few weeks now, but I'm just getting around to taking and posting pictures of our new home. We are really loving it. It's 1400 square feet, has 2 bathrooms, a walk-in closet, porch, 3 bedrooms, storage closets, dishwasher, laundry room, and garbage disposal. It's absolutely lovely! We enjoy being 1/2 mile from Sabino Canyon and the mountain view. Take a look at our new place!

This is the new bedspread and throw pillows that Ryan and my mom bought for me for my birthday. The 3 throw pillows were almost as much as the bedspread set! We got a new Queen-size Serta mattress (pillow top) for ourselves. We never knew how horrible our old mattress was until we got a new one. What a difference!

My sweet Grandma gave us some inheritance money last year. We have been saving it to buy a flat-screen TV and entertainment center for our graduation present. It's a 47 inch JVC that we bought at Sam's Club. It's an understatement to say that we are thoroughly enjoying it. I think that entertainment center may be the nicest piece of furniture that we currently own. It's gorgeous!

Here's another view of the bedspread. It's super silky.

This is our living room---where we spend most of our time as a family.

Master Bedroom -- side view

Dining area--I love the 3 bay windows.

One door is the master bathroom, the other is the walk-in closet. A vanity mirror is on the outside of these.

Our LONG hallway where we play ball, chase Joshua, and play cars. It's so nice to have some room to run and play--"I get you, I get you" (Josh mixes up his pronouns--it's so cute)

Ryan put these shelves in to change our "coat closet" into a "storage closet". Who needs a coat closet in Tucson!?!

Our kitchen--it's so exciting to have a pantry, dishwasher, BIG refrigerator, and garbage disposal!
Our piano (Thanks, Grandma Morgan!)
Our shrine turned into shelves. We weren't sure what to do with this space in the wall when we first moved in, but I had the idea to put up shelves. Ryan did a great job staining them and putting them up. I love it!
Another view of our entry way.
Another view of our kitchen


A different view of the living room
Our back porch--Josh loves to spend time out here. It's shaded and in our "froggie" is a small wading pool. We like to "fish" and go "boating" in it.
Our front porch--we store our bikes and stroller here.
The long climb up to our apartment...19 steps. Joshy almost always says, "I carry you, please" whenever he has to go up. We are the only apartment at the top.
And lastly, our carport. Who needs a garage when it never snows?