PJs, Pez and Jack in the Box

Joey loves wearing those one-piece pajamas, with the feet in them. His favorite is this monkey pair we got recently.

He was very happy with his new Pez dispenser we got him today. He doesn't like the yellow candy and was happy to get some yummy flavors instead.

Once while Joey was watching a cartoon, he called me into his room to tell me he wanted a Jack in the Box that he just saw on his show. Today at the toy store we saw one and he had to have it. He's very happy with it!

We finally agreed on a name for the baby: Tanner William. I'm happy to have the naming part behind us. Now we can just look forward to his arrival!

Me and Joey will be making a trip to Asheville on March 22 for our last trip there before Tanner is born. We can't wait!

I have lots of stories and updates about Joey. I always forget things I want to write about him by the time I get photos uploaded to the blog, so this time I had stuff typed up and ready to share. I'm turning the blog into a book in hard form, so I'm trying to be more detailed for when we go back to look and read them later.

So, one night Joey took an early bath and didn't realize it. (He usually pays attention to the clock and knows that 8:00 is bedtime.) When he got out of the bath and got into his pajamas, he assumed it was bedtime and I didn't tell him differently. It was when Earl was out of town in NC for a few nights. He slept awesome that night without the usual constant crying and whining in his sleep. The next day I told him he must have slept so good because he went to bed at 7 instead of 8. I asked if he wanted to make his new bedtime 7:00 now. He must have thought he earned some special privilege because he was very excited about it. So it was very easy to make his bedtime earlier! He sometimes gets up earlier now, but it helps not to have to wake him up on school days.

He still loves to help cook. His favorite sweets are Hershey Kisses, Oreos (but only with milk), and Reeses Cups. He finally gave spaghetti a chance and decded he likes it. But he won't eat it very often. Or very much of it. It's usually a few bites off my plate with tons of parmasean cheese on it. His favorite foods are cereal and chicken nuggets.

When he comes home from preschool, he always tells me which kids got time-out that day and what they did wrong. Joey's only had time-out one time. When he brings home things he made at school, he loves hanging them on the fridge. And he's constantly drawing pictures at home and taking them to the fridge himself and hanging them up. I always find new artwork on the fridge.

He refuses to spit out toothpaste, so he's still using the swallowable baby toothpaste. He claims he's going to be ready for big boy toothpaste when he's 4.

He calls his daddy "Daddy-o" all the time. He likes to help with laundry by folding the wash rags all by himself. He has a special spot picked out on the guest bed that he likes to show me daily, where he's going to hold his baby brother when he's born. He sits on the edge of the guest bed and wraps the Boppy around his back (instead of his front like it's supposed to be) and says he'll hold the baby there. He's always telling us what he's going to teach his little brother (such as how to talk, how to play with Zhu Zhu Hamsters, how to crawl, etc).

He went through a very tough phase (for me) a couple months ago. He was obsessed with death and dying. He must have learned that Jesus died on the cross while at school or church during Christmastime. He kept talking about that at first. Then that turned into him talking about how Jesus must have been sad for dying because he had to leave his family. Then that turned into him upset because he didn't want to die. And he started asking questions about where he'd live when he dies. He got upset that he couldn't come back and live in this house when he died, he didn't want a new house in Heaven. Then he started randomly bringing up that we're going to die soon, or that he was going to die soon and he didn't want to. I tried to convince him that we're not dying soon and he still had to grow up and get married and have kids and watch his kids have kids so he could be a grandpa, etc. It didn't really work. I tried to explain how happy Heaven would be, but he didn't care. Finally after weeks of this, I finally just told him he didn't need to be worrying about it now and we didn't need to talk about it so much. (I was kinda worried about him bringing it up at school and scaring his friends.). One day I picked him up from preschool and he mentioned something about dying soon, and I went into my lecture about us not needing to talk about it so much, and he interrupted me to say, "Well, Mama, you don't have to keep talking about it. We don't need to talk about it so much." I laughed and shut up. He hasn't mentioned it much since then. That was tough for me. He was so analytical about it. I didn't think I'd have to deal with that till he was a little older!

He knows lots of colors in Spanish, and can even count in Spanish. He just started writing his name backwards (from right to left) even though he used to write it right. He does know his left from his right, without guessing, so I try to use that to remind him that the J goes on the left, because that's the front.

He randomly names out letters from the alphabet and asks me what he just spelled. He gets a kick when I can try to pronounce the made-up words and they come out silly-sounding.

Tomorrow, which is Monday March 1, I will be 30 weeks along in the pregnancy, and we'll be just 6 weeks away from the first amnio to be performed.