Close to Home

Jesse's not away, but he had to work today rather than play at home with us, so I figure that's close enough to qualify for a post on this blog. Lisa (Jesse's sister) and her family are here for a couple of days, and despite being sick with an unpleasant cold, Josiah is enjoying time with his big cousins: Jaron (10) and Bryn (8). This morning we went to my office so they could see my lab -- including the secret spy room! -- and for a visit downstairs to the monkey labs. We enjoyed watching the capuchins and squirrel monkeys playing with their toys, eating green beans, swinging, and peering back at us. This afternoon, while Josiah napped, Lisa, Bryn, and I went pottery painting. Lots of fun!

No Photos!

We have no working AA batteries in the house and even our rechargeable ones are so old that they won't hold a charge. That means no pictures -- sorry Jesse. :( Here are some mental snapshots of our evening for you to envision down in the DR instead:

- When I picked Josiah up at day care, he was dancing with his friend Sarah (who has some amazingly cute dance moves, I might add!)
- When we got home, Josiah and I watered the flowers. He enjoyed sticking his hand in the stream of water for a bit but then preferred to get his entire face in so he could have a "big drink" (said with glee!).
- It was 90 degrees and still humid, so it wasn't too many minutes before I had the sprinkler going so he could "wun in wain." He was completely soaked.
- While watching Kipper for a few minutes after supper, he began fiddling with his diaper -- which was accessible since I had stripped off his wet clothes when we came into the house --- and he managed to remove it. Uh oh!

All in all, we had a great day. I'll try to get some batteries for tomorrow!

100% Boy

Mom made the comment today that Josiah is 100% boy. I know what she means. He's CRAZY about trains, balls, and things with wheels. They spent ages outside this morning watching heavy equipment working on the house lot a few doors up from us. He runs everywhere, is constantly getting grubby, and eats like a champ. And today he enjoyed visiting the Habitat Re-Store shop with Papa, where we poked around building supplies and salvaged house parts. He (Josiah, not Dad!) especially enjoyed it when we left the store and could watch trucks speeding by on the highway. We look forward to you coming home this weekend, Jesse, since this 100% boy definitely needs daddy in addition to his girly-girl mother!

Halfway Point

Today was a relatively quiet, normal day. Josiah enjoyed a new book from Nannan and Papa that features a battery-operated stop light. It's been perfect for doing "red means stop and green means go"!

A Tale of Two Teddies

Well, Jesse, disaster struck this morning at 8:45 a.m. Before heading off to work, I scrambled around and started a big load of laundry. Somehow I managed to get Teddy *AND* Mo Teddy into the load, which only was discovered a few minutes later as we piled everything into the car to head to work and day care. By that time it was too late. They were both completely sudsed. With no small amount of apprehension, off we went to school as I concocted an elaborate story of how the Teds were having a special day with Nannan, since Josiah began asking for Teddy before we even backed out of the driveway. (For non-Jesse readers: Josiah's absolute best, inseparable friend is Teddy, and Teddy has a stunt double just in case Teddy should ever come to an unfortunate end. Josiah is happiest when he has both bears simultaneously; when he has a Teddy in his arms, he often asks for "more Teddy," which comes out "mo' Teddy.") Anyway...the drop off went well enough, I explained The Story to his teachers, and I finally bolted over just in time for several meetings in my lab. The plan was for me to dash back home as soon as I was free a couple of hours later, in hopes of delivering Ted in time for nap. Alas, I got a call just as I was grabbing my things to head home to retrieve the clean bear --- Josiah had done fine initially but had been sobbing inconsolably for time at that point. :( Knowing that, I went and got Josiah immediately and we spent the afternoon at home. Now I'm looking at a late night given how much I didn't get done today, but the good news is that Josiah had a great afternoon and evening in the end!

Birthdays

Today was Mom's 57th b-day and Tim's 24th, so we enjoyed a birthday supper with them here this evening. It wasn't quite as festive as I had hoped since today was CRAZY at work, leaving no time to do fun things like buy balloons en route home, but we enjoyed one another's company and ate a big, yummy supper. I took this photo right before Josiah's bedtime and couldn't induce him to remove the pacifier, but he managed a pretty good grin saying "cheese!" in spite of it. :) And I don't know where he picked it up, because I don't recall telling him that you were flying, but at dinner Josiah suddenly seemed to realize that you were missing. "Dada?" he questioned. I agreed that you weren't here, and after a moment, he said matter-of-factly, "Dada, plane, in sky, bye bye." Wow! I was blown away! We miss you!!

Missing Day

Well, Jesse, it must be odd to have pretty much entirely lost Sunday somewhere up in the air. Rest assured it actually existed for most of us! This morning Josiah and I made it to church in good time and I taught toddlers. This afternoon we played lots of Thomas, I introduced him to Kipper the dog (huge hit), we danced and played, he learned how to climb up my back and roll off (hilarious, I assure you), we played Thomas, we made a big chocolate-n-raspberry-with-cream-cheese-frosting birthday cake for Nannan in prep for tomorrow, we did several loads of laundry and got the room ready for Nannan and Papa, we played Thomas. We also did some Play-Doh, as you can see here. What I didn't catch on tape, but so wish I had, was him reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." It's obvious he knows the entire thing off by heart given how he'll fill in words for us, but tonight I left him sitting on the big chair in his room with the book and his Teddies while I ran down to grab a paci. As I was trotting back up the stairs, I heard him chanting along, "Brown bear, brown bear, brown bear, see? Brown bear, see? Red bird, see?" and so forth. Clearly we've had a great day for you, since you didn't really get a Sunday of your own!

Traveling Circus

You wouldn't know that the cost of gasoline is through the roof to look at our family this weekend. Jesse left this afternoon for a quick trip to the Philippines. We don't envy him the 16-hour flight from Detroit to Manila, which he's on even as I type! He left just as Kara arrived; she and Matt are in the midst of a 48 hour trip to PA so Matt could do tiling in Tim and Holly's kitchen today. They were gone by suppertime, but the dinner table was full between Tim, Holly, Holly's two brothers, and a girlfriend, all of whom also were here basically for just the day to help with the kitchen renovation, and of course they ate here since Tim and Holly presently have a work site (or disaster zone?!) in what was their kitchen. One of Holly's brothers will spend the night here, and they're due to be heading back north by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow. To round out the travels, tomorrow Mom and Dad will drive down from NH -- you guessed it, to help with the kitchen.


Anyway, Josiah had a great day. We went to Market with Auntie Kara this morning, where he got to make a fresh blueberry, yogurt, and granola cup compliments of a local, just-launching food place. He played lots of Thomas at his train table and enjoyed all the new faces at dinner. I forgot to take the camera out at any point, so here are photos from yesterday, when we washed the cars before Daddy left.

Fast Friends

We can't wait to be reunited with Jesse on Saturday (at London Heathrow to fly back to the States), but that reunion will mark another separation: Josiah and his second cousin Grace have, in the past 3 weeks, become such good friends. They play together, learn tricks from one another, and share hugs and kisses before leaving each other. Grace is a few months older and incredibly talkative and clever, so she and Josiah are not on a perfect par, but it's close enough. Today they enjoyed playing in a nearby playground and, this evening, read Thomas the Tank Engine books side by side before their bath. They're going to miss one another sorely...

More Fun in the Sun

We hope you've made it safely to Russia, Jesse! We've had another downright hot day here in southern England, so after a quick round of Scrabble -- see photo! -- we and the kiddos were off to Moors Valley Country Park. It's a fantastic, enormous park, with miles of wooded nature walks and bike trails (including a wooden walkway through the tops of the trees), huge sand play areas, and the most amazingly fun and creative structures for scrambling on and in and under. Some portions are clearly "playgrounds for adults" -- a high wire adventure course, zip lines, climbers, rope structures, and slides all designed for non-child bodies. We only did a few bits of it today with the wee ones, and we were happy and sweaty and completely tired out by lunch time. After naps during the warmth of the afternoon, Josiah and Grace had a bath too cool down, with about three inches of water and fifteen inches of bubbles!

Fun in the Sun

Sorry we didn't post anything yesterday, Jesse. I didn't take any pics -- but in compensation, today brought lots of photo opportunities. We started off the morning very early with Josiah up before 6 a.m. He watched some "Elmo" in his Spiderman jammies while I showered, as depicted. :) We attended Holtwood for church, as usual, followed by an enormous and fantastic lunch with all the family here, also as normal. By mid-afternoon it was very warm indeed for an English day (mid-80s, perhaps?), so we lubed Grace and Josiah up with sunscreen and had fun with them in the garden. Ann had bought a bubble blowing machine that Josiah LOVED; he stood in front of it for ages on end, simply enjoying the bubbles bursting on his face. Ann also produced a slip-n-slide which got doctored up with water and bubble bath solution. Grace was the one who enjoyed that more; Josiah only went down a few times and then got a bit frightened. Later in the evening, after supper, Josiah enjoyed a second round of bubbles, followed immediately by snuggles with Sasha. I'll leave you to imagine what he looked like after first getting completely slimed with bubble mixture and then cuddling a very furry, heavily shedding kitty!

A Quieter Day

We don't have quite as much excitement to report to Daddy today, as we've kept quieter on the heels of several busy days this week. Grace was here while Danni worked, and we all enjoyed playing with toys (inside) and playing with water (outside). Josiah and Grace especially enjoyed stamping and jumping in water puddles they'd made on the back patio.

Swanage

Daddy's still in Geneva, Switzerland, and we hope he's had a day as enjoyable as ours. This morning we (Ann, Chessie, Danni, Grace, Josiah, and I) headed southwest to the town of Swanage, where Josiah enjoyed his first proper beach excursion. It was a bit cool, but the temperature didn't prevent Josiah from charging toward the ocean (gleefully chanting "wah-gee! wah-gee!" -- his unusual pronunciation of "water") and having a fantastic time with waves of "wah-gee" coming up over his feet and occasionally to his knees. I think he could have happily stood holding my hands and digging his toes in the swirling sand the entire time, but occasionally I managed to lure him up onto the beach to dig. We enjoyed a yummy lunch of baked beans and sausages at a local restaurant, and then we headed back to Danni and Grace's for a peek at their three new hens. Loving all things animal, Josiah was keen for us to get right in the coop with them, although Charlie, Lola, and Lotta were a little less thrilled about our proximity than Josiah was. :)

Giggles In England

We've been in England since May 19th, and for the remainder of our holiday here Josiah and I will be blogging regularly because Jesse is now traveling in other parts of Europe for HOPE. He left for Geneva, Switzerland this morning. Our travels today were much less extensive than his but far more fun! This afternoon Josiah and I, along with Ann, Danni, Tasha, and Grace, went to Giggles, a young children's indoor play place. Josiah also LOVED his first dinner of salmon this evening ("pink chicken"), eating twice as much of it as any of the adults!

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!