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.

Joey, Joey and more Joey

I guess I should take advantage of the time that Joey is my sole focus, since this baby will be here in a matter of weeks (it is still unnamed!) and I'll have to share the attention. Joey's been doing lots of interesting things lately. He, I guess, misses me taking so many pictures (back when we actually went places and did things that I loved taking pictures of), so he started the phase of asking me to take pictures of him or make a movie of him. So most of these pictures, he requested. His favorite toys right now are his pet monkeys and his zhu zhu hamsters. Each of them have their own favorite colors and favorite things to do. He also still loves his horse on a stick and is begging me to go buy his baby brother one today.

He asked me to take this picture of him with 2 of his zhu zhu hamsters. Sometimes he'll ask to see it on the computer and when I pull it up, he says, "there's chocolate on my mouth because Daddy gave me chocolate even though I didn't eat my supper."

Joey had his valentines party at preschool on the 12th and had a blast with the craft they had for him. They put his name on a door knob hanger and let him decorate it with hearts, birds and XO stickers. Then they handed out their valentines to their classmates.

Aunt Angie sent the purple monkey from Iraq for the new baby, but Joey is taking care of it until the new baby gets here. :) He named it Purple Monkey.

Joey's new obsession is camoflauge. I wrote in the last post how he found his camo hat and sweater one day to look like Earl. He rarely goes without those 2 items anymore. Just around the house he has to wear them.

He will go and grab random things and ask me to take his picture.

Of course I never have a rag handy when he wants his picture taken, in order to clean up his face and nose. :)

He loved his valentine from mommy (hershey kisses, his favorite).

This morning he demanded to wear his camoflauge clothes (he requests them most everyday and doesn't like it when they are dirty or in the wash). He wanted camo socks too, but all we had were green ones that had camo at the top of them. He also wanted to wear his camo crocs, but could only find one of them, so he was okay with wearing one camo and one red! :) His last obsession was red, he says he wants to wear "full red" (meaning all red) clothes, but that's wearing off and now he's more into the camo. I asked him why he loves the camo and he says because he wants to look like Daddy. Melts my heart! :)

Today Joey told me, "I wish someone would come and clean our house so you have more time to play with me." That was sweet, but funny, since I rarely use the excuse that I'm cleaning and can't play (because I'm rarely cleaning!). He's doing so good with math. He's not learning that at preschool yet, but he's known how to add on his fingers for a long time now, and has now got some of the addition problems memorized without counting on his fingers (5+5, 3+3, and 2+2 I know for sure, because he said those this morning). Also, even more amazing to me, is his ability to do word problems he makes up. In the car the other day, he told me there's 4 more zhu zhu hamsters he wants and doesn't have yet. He said he has 5 at home. Then he said, "I don't know how many I should have. What's 5 plus 4?" (talking to himself) and he counts on his fingers and says, "Mom, I should have 9 hamsters!" I think he's brilliant! It's crazy to me that a 3 year old would think like that. Maybe it's normal and right on track, but I'm impressed and that's what matters. He he. He's very eager to have his baby brother here, as we all are. I'm officially in the 3rd trimester now and have only a couple months till they perform the first amnio to see if the baby's lungs are developed. If so, we'd have the c-section April 13th. If not, they'll schedule another amnio for a week later. We registered Joey for Pre-K next year, which is Mon-Fri, 8:30am-Noon. I can't believe it's already time for him to be in school 5 days a week! Although, with a new baby, it probably will help.

Snow and School

Joey went and put a hat on one day after seeing Earl in his:
Joey said he tried on all of his hats, but this was the one he wanted that day (it's the only one that looked like his daddy's). So cute! They are also wearing their matching sweaters they got for Christmas from Dad and Wanda. :)

We got the big snow (well, big for us. almost a foot of it) a couple weeks ago and Joey got to make his first big snowman. Last year in NC we had a 6 inch snowman or something, because that's all we could do.

Joey ran and got one of his buckets for the snowman's hat.

His favorite thing to do in the snow was throw snowballs.

He had a hard time trying to get the dogs from getting too close to the snowman. He was afraid they'd knock it down. They were just interested in the cocoa puffs we used for the mouth and eyes, that kept dropping down into the snow below.

Earl, thinks he's cute for throwing snowballs at me (and my expensive camera!)

Monkey see, Monkey do.

My handsome prince Lars. :)

My chocolate chunky monkey, Thor. The dogs LOVE LOVE the snow. They haven't got to really play in any since we were stationed in Bridgeport, CA, where we got tons of snow!

At preschool a few weeks ago, Joey had Pajama day. It was his turn to hold the flag for the pledge of alligence that day.

We have only 9 more weeks till we do the first amniocentesis (sp?) to see if the baby's lungs are ready. If they are, we'll be having the c-section that next day. So as early as April 13th, the new little guy will be here. We're getting closer to having him named, but not yet. :)

Joey's doing well, still loves preschool. He's eating a little better these days, but still not a big eater. He got 2 new Zhu Zhu hamsters this weekend, and his favorite thing to do with them all is put them to bed. :) He has beds and covers for them.

Nothing else new is really going on here. :) We're just getting ready for the new baby. I've washed all Joey's old baby clothes that I kept (up to 6 months) and have those ready for the baby. I started stocking up on diapers (well, I have 1 box so far) and wipes.