Matchy-matchy and other weighty matters

Elora and I were totally twins on Sunday. See, I got two yellow shirts on my birthday: one I had ordered for myself -pictured below- and one from my mom. Then on Saturday Elora and I were having a girls' afternoon out, hangin' at the D.I., and I found both her cute dress and my awesome white skirt!
Seriously, I've been looking for a white skirt that I like for about 5 years (or more) and I finally found this! It has another layer underneath, so it isn't too transparent, as far as I can tell. Plus it actually fits me (which is sometimes an issue when looking for things at a second hand store). Bonus: it still had all the tags on it...tags that indicate it probably cost a lot more originally than the $5 I spent on it! Woo hoo!
Anyway, I didn't intend to get matching stuff, it just worked out that way:





I was going to throw this second photo away, but it's so funny to me. Doesn't Josh (in this photo) remind you of John Candy's character at the beginning of the movie, Splash ?



Also as you may have gathered...it was my birthday last week! Which you would know if you're on Facebook, because it won't let you forget anyone's special day. This is me with the awesome cake Joseph made for me. Why yes, those candles DO say 22, how observant of you! Oh wait. That would mean I had Elora when I was like 18. Okay, I guess that works. Do you like my snazzy apron?




This is a closeup of the deliciousness, and just looking at it makes me want more!


In between the two layers is yet more whipped cream (yes, the real stuff) and cherries. mmmm.

Joseph was awesome making me stuff that day; he made homemade blueberry muffins with a special blueberry sauce for breakfast- he got the recipe from Pioneer Woman. Then for dinner he made spinach and mushroom manacotti!
While he was putting it all together, he kept making the funniest faces. I was trying to catch it on camera, but he usually saw me and started laughing:



But I did get a few choice expressions in my shots... trust me, there were even better faces that I WILL get on film someday! Bwwaaahahaha.



I should mention that Joshua's birthday went well over the previous weekend. He loved all of his presents, including bubble toys, a flashlight, and a magnifying glass!




He chose a red velvet cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles this year. Probably not the best choice, considering we think he reacts psychotically to red food dye, but fortunately he mostly just ate the frosting :).



Finally, Jonah is doing great at standing on his own. This is a rare pic we caught of him in his superhero guise! (note the cape.)

Don't you love his little curl tribute to Clark Kent?

Jonah's Two Teeth

So, Jonah only has two teeth. But Joseph decided it was high time he had them brushed- especially since he's always so interested when Elora and Joshua brush theirs. He thought it was great! Though it was kind of tickly. Is that a word?
Enjoy!

Three!!!

Sweet little Joshie is three today, hooray! For some reason, it seems weirder than when Elora had her last birthday; its almost like I still see her as the three year old (she's almost five) and Josh is still my cute little baby boy. Or maybe its because it took so long for him to grow hair. Hmm. He certainly still has that cute baby face!
Anyway, indulge me for a minute (I know you've all seen these pictures several times before)...but its amazing to me to see how fast he's grown!

Meeting his sister was the first big event of his new life. (yeah, you've seen this like 20 times now. So.)



They share all kinds of experiences together! Hee hee.



He was daddy's buddy from the very beginning!



And to this day, our photo album is bursting with more photos of these two than any other duo!



Well, there might be quite a few of him and Elora hanging out...



Playing together slightly more often than they fight. Slightly.




My favorite pictures of Joshua to date are those from when he turned one. How can you resist those big brown eyes?



And he's still got those big brown baby eyes (and no hair) at 15 months!



He's even cute when he's crying. ..which he kind of does a lot. Ask his nursery teachers at church! Josh still has hard time being left somewhere without mommy or daddy, though he seems to do better when there is a male authority figure present. He is getting slowly better! After a week of swimming lessons this summer, he now only cries the first five minutes of class, as apposed to the whole half hour (as he did the first two days).



There's no doubt about it, we love our little brown eyed boy! (Though he won't admit it, daddy is especially partial to his little twin.)



Josh is always trying to be like daddy. He tells people "Now I'm big like daddy!" And, "Someday I will grow up and turn into daddy!"



Last summer when he was going through the terrible-two's (which probably had something to do with his baby brother being born) Josh did all kinds of naughty things his sister never thought of: squeezing toothpaste, shaving cream, dish soap, contact solution, body wash, etc. onto the floor almost every day. Seriously. But that little baby face saved him (from certain destruction) time and time again. We're so happy he seems to have outgrown most of his destructive tendencies a year later.


In the last year Josh has also accomplished something really big...he was completely potty trained (day and night) by February! He only ever has accidents when there are unusual circumstances, i.e. he's sick or something major is going on... maybe once every month or month and a half. (And its almost always right in front of the toilet, because he just can't get his pants down fast enough!)
People always mistake little Josh for already being three, because he speaks pretty well for his age, and is very tall! Sometimes he has a hard time because more is expected from him because people think he's older. I hope he'll be able to handle finally being a big three year old, and all the expectations that come with it.



But with his funny personality, I'm sure he can handle it. Happy birthday Josh!

Summer Begins

Officially, Summer starts on my birthday, June 21st, the longest day of the year. But in relation to human events- school getting out, holidays, barbecues- it seems that the official first day of summer is really Memorial Day.
My family always took flowers to the cemetery that weekend, visiting our extensive family sites: my grandpa on my mom's side, my great grandma and grandpa, my dad's parents, and others whom I never knew personally. Each year since I've been married, I've mentioned to Joseph that it would be nice to walk around a cemetery to commemorate the holiday, even if we didn't have relatives there. Somehow, this has never actually happened until this year.
I don't know if its because Joseph's mother died when he was young so he doesn't like going to visit headstones, or if it just didn't appeal to him, but I've always been sad that we've foregone this tradition the six years of our marriage. This year, my mom reminded me about our great, great grandparents buried in the cemetery in the town where I live now, so on the spur of the moment, I dragged everyone to the store to buy a flower and we headed over to the town's main cemetery. (It's literally two blocks from where we live, so I don't know why we haven't done this before!)
I was surprised by how many people and flowers filled the place with life: it was a wonderful sight to see. It was also fun to note that we must have distant relatives nearby, because someone else had already left memorial wreaths at our family's graves! I was glad to be able to teach our kids about this holiday in a little more personal way this year.




During the summer, we've always liked to go on walks in the evening as a family. Unfortunately, so far its been strangely overcast and rainy most days of the week! The other evening we went out anyway, and found a "secret" side street we'd never been down before. I love finding secret places. This street led off of a main street in town, but it felt like we were suddenly several miles outside of the city, as we passed a cow pasture and some verdant fields full of white dandylions. The road also stretched along one of the many canals crisscrossing town, adding to the feel of a country stroll.
It wasn't very long- at the end the street turned either toward a private road or back to main street, so we stopped there to engage in one of my kids' favorite activities: throwing rocks in the water, and blowing on dandelions.



Jonah was enjoying the show, but was getting frustrated by all the pop grass surrounding his stroller, just out of his reach. I finally pulled one and handed it to him, knowing full well he'd be doing this:


but I wasn't too worried about it... at least he was content! Mmm, chewy.

Another summer tradition we have is going to various parks in the area, and we're lucky that our town has many parks to choose from.
Elora likes to pose:



Josh likes climbing and sliding:



And Jonah has fun hanging out with Daddy.



Finally, remember how we found all those baby ducks down the creek a while back? One of those families (or maybe an entirely new one?) has taken to visiting our apartments on a daily basis. I'm sure this has something to do with everyone giving them tons of bread when they come, for which they're willing to endure small children chasing them all over the place. This was the very first day we saw them on our lawn...they're already a lot bigger than this now!


Not a bad start to summer, wouldn't you say?

What I'll Miss (additionally)

Our Sunday School Class.
It is the perfect blend of fresh college student couples -some about 12 years younger than me-, ancient wise-women, and wise-cracking ancient men. Also, middle-aged people who fill in the gaps. I'm not sure if I still fit in the fresh group or the middle somewhere.

In the three years I've lived here I've found a comfortable place sitting next to Margaret. She reminds me of my great-grandmother who lived around the block from me. She endured baby Joshua and now baby Jonah picking at her hand-knit shawls, always smiling at their baby charm and not taking herself too seriously. Often she is mumbling facts under her breath in my direction when others are spouting false doctrine, but usually not volunteering the comment aloud. And I do the same back.

Jonah loves her (he probably thinks she's his grandma!) and when he realizes we're sitting by her, he grabs her shawl and looks into her face until she notices him, then he grins at her. He'll do it several times throughout the class too.

I am going to be Margaret when I'm like ninety. But first, I have to learn to knit, so I can donate stuff to humanitarian aid every single week. Seriously.