The tomato doesn't fall far from the tree

One of the less impressive stories from my early childhood: I had never encountered a cherry tomato until I was at least in kindergarten, and the first one I saw stole my little heart. It was soooo cute and tiny! Despite my parents' remonstrations, I managed to hide one away in my bedroom. Unfortunately, the long-term outcome wasn't pretty despite the best of care tucked under my baby bassinet cushions. :) Today Josiah got his hands on two cherry tomatoes of his own and fell equally in love. They were VERY fun playthings for ages this evening...but we know that playing with Daddy tomorrow night will be even better!

...and Mama makes three.

Three words, that is. Today Josiah said his first three-word sentence: "More cheese, Mama!" While mealtimes aren't quite the pinnacle points of his day that they once were, Josiah heartily enjoys his food, so it's no surprise that his vocabulary involves a lot of food terms. :) He's getting better and better at using his spoon, too. In contrast to these successes, we have some work to do on steering. Our little next door neighbor boy, Riley, gave Josiah this popping push toy this afternoon, telling us with sincere 2.5-year-old wisdom that "it's for babies." Josiah immediately forged a deep love-hate relationship with the thing. He thinks it's tremendously fun, but he sort of follows where it goes rather than steering it, so he's constantly (i.e., every 5 or 7 seconds) yelling "stuck! stuck!" as he has it jammed under a chair, run into a wall, or pushed against piece of furniture.

Havin' Fun

We were too busy having fun today to dig out the camera! This morning consisted of a trip to F&M: Krista visited with a former student who was in town while Josiah had a wonderful time playing ball, chasing bubbles, and running all around the vicinity where we sat outside. The afternoon included many highlights, chief among them blowing up the queen air mattress for a huge jumping-tickling-tackling-climbing surface, playing outdoors with the neighbor kids, and finding a mama mallard duck on her nest behind our next door neighbors' front shrubs!! We can't wait for the ducklings. :) And while it might be unrelated to the surgery and Josiah having tons of fluid removed from his ears (i.e., perfect hearing reinstated), it's been intriguing that Josiah's been chatting up a storm for the past 48 hours. He's had dozens of words in his vocabulary for a while now, but this is the first he's begun jibber-jabbering away while playing. It's almost entirely unintelligible, but so fun and so cute! Come home soon, Daddy!

Daddy's in the DR

With Jesse off to the Dominican Republic for several days, we're back to blogging for him. It's been a busy 24 hours: Three house guests with us last night (one arriving after we went to bed), Jesse rising at 3:30 a.m. for a crack-of-dawn flight out of Baltimore, guests rising by 5 a.m. for a morning flight out of Philadelphia, Josiah and I out of the house by 6:15 a.m. for his surgery. Yep, surgery. Just really minor -- tubes in both eardrums. Josiah's been on antibiotics more than he's been off of them since October with ear infections that just won't go away despite increasingly strong drugs. The procedure went well and, as is clear in the pictures, he was right as rain by afternoon.

In Memoriam

Jesse is away, but the purpose of this post is not to keep him "in the loop," as is our norm when he travels, but to reflect on the reason for his absence. Last Thursday, April 10th, Ma Penha -- Jesse's maternal grandmother -- passed away. Josiah and I have not joined Jesse for the 3-day trip to Brockton, Massachusetts to be part of the celebration and mourning of Ma's passing. Although the reasons for this decision were several, chief among them was the fact that less than a month ago, we all drove north to celebrate Ma's 90th birthday. It was a wonderful weekend, and Ma thoroughly enjoyed the surprise and joy of having her entire family show up from around the country for this milestone in her life. We had a private room for an enormous lunch as a family, and we spent several hours sharing stories of Ma and expressing our love for her. So often we regret waiting for a funeral to let people know how we love them. Little did we know that this sadder event would so soon follow, and what a privilege to have done it the right way around. The photo here is from the party. You can see here she was beautiful in years, and what the picture doesn't show I can tell you: she loved her family fiercely and proudly, she held to life tenaciously, and she was as courageous and strong as women come.

Grandma and Papa White's visit

Krista's home from Vancouver, Jesse doesn't have any international travel for a few more weeks, and life is pleasantly normal (which is to say, of course, chaotically full, but we wouldn't recognize our lives any other way!). Yesterday Grandma and Papa White visited, en route home to NH from FL. Josiah was yet again the happy beneficiary of "guest readers" for some favorite books, showed off his best dance moves, and loved playing ball. We were sad to say bye so soon -- after breakfast this morning -- but were thankful to enjoy even a brief visit. We love you, Grandma and Papa!