Joey is 4!!

Behold, everyone, for I give you something rarely caught on camera: Joey's real smile, not the "Chandler Bing face" he gives anyone who aims a phone at him and says, "Say cheese!" Unfortunately he had some jelly next to his mouth when I took it, that I tried only somewhat successfully to fix with the Snapseed healing tool before deciding to give it to you in its unretouched glory. 

Joey has me several times, "I can't believe I'm four!" That makes two of us, Joe. I've told him time and time again that he's not allowed to get any bigger; he has to stay little forever. He just grins at me and of course does not listen.

His mouth has been growing faster than the rest of him. He is the king of witty retorts these days. Examples include:

Delaney: Can you pass the ketchup?

Joey: Yes, Your Highness.

Me: Did you toot?

Joey: That's what you paid for!

And this is the one that could get him in trouble: "That's not my problem." I think we all know who he gets that from -- his father. That is Tim's favorite comeback, and his response to pretty much anything he disagrees with.

I am so crazy about this little boy who just the other day, hugged me and said  "Woo-hoo!" when I picked him up from preschool, and who tells me I am his "best ultimate friend", that I can forgive him for almost entirely giving up his nap within the last couple months. I did not give up trying easily, but after a couple weeks of going through the song and dance of trying to get him to go down and stay down, I threw my hands up and said (no, just thought), "You win." But he has been such a bear without naps, the longer the day wears on. Sometimes if I lie down, he will get in bed with me and go to sleep. Other times he just jabbers in my ear incessantly or climbs all over me until I finally tell him naptime is over. On the days that he does nap, he sleeps quite heavily and then has a hard time settling at night. So we're kind of in an awkward phase of not-needing-but-still-needing the afternoon nap. I expect that will pass after another few months.

Most nights after initially going to sleep, he wakes up two to three hours later to go sleep with someone else, usually Annie. Then he started coming to our bed, and since he is so little and cute, we are loath to turn him away. He brings his own pillow, and tucks it right in the middle. For one of his birthday presents I gave him a Twilight Turtle like Delaney's, in hopes that it would help him like his own room better. It didn't. I enjoyed all the stars on my walls last night.

We have done absolutely nothing to move him in the direction of being nighttime potty trained. He continues to soak a pair of Paw Patrol training pants every night. I really need to get over my laziness and start training him the same way we did Delaney and Annie way back when. The thing is, I don't know if he'll be as compliant as the girls were with being woken up and brought to the toilet late at night. It took months of that, and then still having wet laundry in the morning, before it worked for the two of them. I think I might be a little afraid of the specter of a grumpy Joey being dragged out of bed. It is so much easier for us all to just sleep, and for our beds to all stay dry. Why couldn't he have made it easy for me like his brother did, and start spontaneously waking up on his own to go to the bathroom at night? Because he's not Timmy, and Timmy was an aberration, that's why. Before disposable diapers and "training pants" (a misnomer -- they've never helped train anyone) became so cheap, everyone had to do what it took to potty train their kids for day and night, the sooner the better. And as Joey might say, "That's not my problem."😆

I want to talk about something besides Joey's sleeping and toileting habits, so I had to start clicking through pictures to jog my memory. And, a-ha! This is one of my most recent and will be for all time, one of my favorite Joey stories. Tim and I ran the Turkey Trot this year, as we also did last year. The race takes place in our neighborhood, and the route takes us right by our house in the home stretch. Wouldn't it be something to see a kid or two outside cheering us on? Last year, nothing but crickets. So this time on Thanksgiving morning, we made sure they wouldn't forget. "Did I mention already that Daddy and I are going to be running right by this house?... Oh, I did just five minutes ago?" Well, someone was listening. At the end of the 5K, as we were running toward our house we saw a little figure in blue standing next to a race volunteer in our yard. It was our sweet Joey smiling and waving. Tim dashed over to give him a high five, then we ran through the finish line and turned back around right away to go squeeze that boy. And with that, he secured his place as our favorite child.

It makes me a little sad to say, after nine years in our family, the jig is up with Chippy, our Elf on the Shelf. What could I say in the face of his increasingly pointed questions that went something like: "Did you put him there?" "Can I touch him?" "Is he real?" He wasn't buying that it's "magic". So I gave him the truth.* "You're a smart boy, Joe. Chippy is just pretend. Yes, you can touch him." (Sigh) The Big 3 were very much into Chippy for years, but maybe that was because they were all so little? I don't suspect any of our other kids of spoiling Chippy for Joey, but I think that just being around them and all their talking and arguing over just about anything, has maybe made the logical part of his mind develop a little differently. I won't lie, though, I'm a little relieved. It was so hard to stay on top of moving that elf around every night, but I didn't want to stop if it was something Joey was still enjoying. If I were to offer any Elf advice to new parents, it would be, "Don't do it!!" That's what Tim tells all his Marines.

So far, he hasn't asked any pointed questions about Santa, and that's great. Santa is way more popular in our house than the Elf ever was, furthermore, he is real.

Joey loves school. His favorite things to do there include running around the playground with his friends Noah and Ethan. He can recognize his name and spell it. He does not like girls, and shies away from their friendly advances. He's getting better at counting all the time, counts things every chance he gets. Once a month, I pack him a lunch and he stays an extra hour for "lunch bunch". He really looks forward to that. He also asks me all the time when he's going to be the "snack helper" again, because the snack helper also gets bring something for show and tell. His turn for that comes once every month, he does not grasp the concept of time. As with everything else he looks forward to, he keeps asking me when is it going to happen, but doesn't understand my answers.

We celebrated his birthday a few days early because of this upcoming weekend being a busy one with half of us going out of town. He was one excited little man as we sang "Happy birthday" and he got ready to open his presents. Then Tim played a mean little joke on him that started with, "Smell this spot on the cake."😦 Poor Joe was in tears with cake all over his mouth and nose. I didn't take a picture, which would have added to his humiliation. A few moments later, all was well as he was opening all his presents. He even said something about it like, "Yeah, that was great!"

I know that everyone thinks their own child is the most unique, amazing, and intelligent creature to walk the planet, especially in these little years when they change so quickly. Even though he's our fourth four-year-old, I still feel this way about Joe. He makes us all laugh, melts our hearts on a daily basis, and completely wears this 40-year-old mama out.🤣 I am excited to see everything that age 4 holds for him.

______________________
*After all, we're bringing them up in the Catholic faith, which requires belief in things we can not see, and things that don't make logical sense, such as bread becoming the body of Jesus. In light of that, many would say it's never a good idea for us to tell our kids that Santa comes down the chimney and the Elf flies to our house every night from the North Pole. I would disagree. I think that pretending things is OK when they're little, and I cherish my own memories of looking out the window trying to see Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. But when they ask questions, they are ready to hear the truth, and we owe it to them. 

Joey: 3 Years Old

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: someone needs to figure out a way to stop time, because my baby is growing up way too fast, and he is just the cutest right now. Just last night at bedtime, Joey was trying to put back together one of his little cars, and he was fending off Timmy's and my offers of help. He said to me, "Would you please stop saying that and let me fix it?" I cracked up and said to Timmy, "This is three."

We love reading books together. We read about four to six books a day, at naptime and bedtime, and anytime on request. It's supposed to be two at naptime, two at bedtime, but he can often sucker me into one more. He's gotten a lot of nice new books of late, and his current favorite is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is another one he chooses often, and he has it memorized, so he can "read" it to me. It's the best! I have to find a way to record him without him knowing. He really enjoys his Clifford books too. He asks the same questions on the same pages, and in response to the same answers I give him, he says, "Why?" 

Joey is signed up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and he gets a new book free every month. I don't know who's more excited about a surprise book in the mailbox -- him or me. From them we've gotten The Snowy Day and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as well as The Little Engine that Could, and a couple of others so far. 

He and I have this little game we play right before I leave the room after putting him to bed. He opens his arms wide and says, "Come here." I kneel down by the bed and he either wraps his arms around me or holds my face in his hands. Then he says, "That's not my Mama! Her face is too ... " he searches for a description that he thinks will sound funny. "... bumpy!" I laugh and say, "That's not my Joe. His earlobes are too stretchy." Then we go back and forth for a couple minutes until I say "enough" and extract myself. For awhile he was into a series of Usborne touchy-feely books called That's Not My Truck, That's Not My Tractor, and so on. Each page would say something like, "That's not my truck. Its hubcaps are too shiny." I thought it was the silliest thing, but he was mesmerized. Now it's like our little inside joke. He does it with Annie too. Annie is like a little mama to him, when he allows her to be.

For the past couple months, after it was suggested by Timmy's CCD teacher, we've been going around the table at dinnertime and having everyone share their "roses and thorns." It's intended to be a little exercise in examining our consciences -- to think back on situations we wish we could have handled better, or things we said that we wished we hadn't. In theory it's a nice, small way to help prepare Timmy for his first confession, but in practice it's been an occasion to air our petty gripes (as well as the thing that made us happy). At least it ensures about five minutes of conversation. Joey always wants to go first, and he almost always says, "My rose is fire trucks and my thorn is ambulances." 

Just like the other kids did, Joey is going through a "backseat driver" phase. He tells us to watch out for this or that person or car, and lately he's been asking Tim or me if we have both hands on the wheel. I don't even know where he gets that. Just today, while I was waiting at a light, he said, "Mama, could you back up a little? You're gonna hit that car." What?!? He also regularly asks us to turn the music up or down, or the heat. It's funny, as well as a little annoying.

We've had no more lapses in potty training, and he stays dry all day and through his two-hour nap, as long as he's gone to the bathroom beforehand. I finally got rid of the yucky little potty, and he uses the big toilet with a stool. If I'm there when he needs to poop, he says, "Would you go away and shut the door?" He wears a pull-up at night for now, but I'll try to see if I can't get him nighttime trained by the time he's 3.5. I recently read that once a kid reaches 3.5 and is not nighttime trained, it becomes a lot harder from that point on. Their bladder is trained to NOT hold it. I hadn't looked at it that way before -- that their bladders are being trained one way or the other, even if I'm neglecting to try training them at all. When I think back on my experience with the other kids, I believe that's true. We nighttime trained the girls together at the ages of 3 and 5, and Delaney was the longest to need a pull-up at night simply because we thought she'd eventually figure it out. We lucked out with Timmy waking himself up to use the bathroom at night soon after he turned 3. So if Joey hasn't figured it out by himself in the next few months, I'll have to take action. These darn disposable diapers and pull-ups make it too easy to be lazy.

And now we're off to take him to his first day back at preschool after the break. I'm hoping he takes a good nap afterward.

Joey: 2 1/4 (and thoughts on weaning the fourth time around)

It's time for an overdue quarterly update on Joe. I am amazed at how much he's changed even since he turned two. I just love this age on him. He is hilarious with the things he says and does, makes "duck lips" when he pouts, thinks Tim's truck is a "monser truck", and gives the best hugs.

For the record, he is still in diapers and still in a crib. He wears 2T clothing and size 7/8 shoes (cutest little feet ever!). He takes a nap every afternoon for two to three hours, and is in bed every night from about 7:30 to maybe 6 or 6:30. He is not asleep that whole time. He usually cries for me at least once to come cover him up again. (The weighted blanket is heavy, but it maybe, possibly helps him sleep as long as it's on.) Still, we're in a lot better place than we were around the time he turned two. Are we out of the woods yet? I dare not say.

He is getting to be quite the little chatterbox, and he's been starting to use phrases and sentences more. "What time is it?" is his latest favorite. He likes to assert his opinions loudly. This past Sunday in Mass he declared right at Communion time, "No Jesus. Not like-a Jesus."😬 Last night when he was in the bath, I was being silly and acting like I was about to get in with him fully clothed. He said, "No, Mama." I said, "Why not?" "Clothes off."

Bathtime is his favorite. Unlike the other kids who regularly skip a day or two, Joey doesn't miss a night of taking a bath, and sometimes he gets more than one a day if he's had a messy enough diaper (since he is intact and pulling back the foreskin to clean is a big no-no). He'll sit there till the water is ice cold if I let him, filling up the cup, dumping it out, putting the cars in the cup, lining the cars up on the edge of the tub, etc. He hates it when I wash his hair, so I only do that once every few days.

He was getting so fast on his Strider Bike before we moved. I can't wait till he gets it back. He was riding it to the playground and back, and coasting down the little hills.

In the midst of all the chaos of the last month or two, we've reached a big milestone: he is completely weaned as of March 18. And I was (am) OK with it! I didn't get depressed for days like last time, even though I was more apt to since I'm only becoming more sentimental the older I get, and that much less willing to let go of the babyhood of my littlest. I applied the lessons I'd learned from weaning Timmy and did it a lot differently this time. We were already down to just one session, the bedtime one, for several months. Dropping that last session was a big deal to me though, so I had to take it slow. First I started to mention to him frequently at bedtime, that he was getting too big to nurse and we'd be all done soon. I don't know if he understood that at all. This was January or February. In the back of my mind, a deadline was looming; we'll be leaving all the kids with Tim's parents while we go to Quantico for about a week at the end of this month and beginning of May. To say I found this daunting would be a huge understatement.

Then I tried testing the waters, omitting nursing from the bedtime routine. If I distracted him by maybe talking about something, or having someone else come into the room, he'd forget and go to sleep OK. But more often than not, he'd say, "Nurse!" if I tried taking him straight to bed after we'd looked out the window and said goodnight to the ferris wheel and the tree and whatnot. If he requested to nurse, I'd nurse him.

That went on for a couple weeks, and then I started to get more intentional. For two nights in a row, we'd skip nursing, and I'd either distract him and he'd forget or if he remembered, I'd say, "It's not a nursing night." He only got upset once, and between Tim and me, we managed to soothe him. Then the third night I'd nurse him. I worried that this would confuse him, but forged ahead anyway. Dropping it cold turkey like a bad habit the way I'd done with Timmy, hadn't worked out at all for me at all, emotionally or physically. It takes awhile before the milk factory gets the message to shut down, so this gradual approach was mostly for my benefit, I admit. Fortunately he adjusted to this schedule with minimal fuss.

Then I stretched it to every third or fourth night, with him sometimes remembering to ask but most of the time not. I told Tim that I was sure we'd be done for good once we moved out of the house and into the hotel, and we were in new surroundings; and I was right. He forgot all about it and that was that. I feel relieved and a bit wistful whenever I think about it, but all the distractions and busyness of the past several weeks have been good for my coping. Nothing else has changed -- he's still my baby. Whenever he wants to be held or to snuggle up to me, I just drink him in, more grateful than ever for those moments.

Joey is TWO!

I just love this little face.

Our Joe turned two yesterday, and birthdays at this age are the best. The kids all counted down the days almost as eagerly as they count down to Christmas, because they couldn't wait to sing 'happy birthday' to their baby brother and lavish him with gifts and extra love.

We began the day by seeing the Big 3 off to school and heading to the naval hospital for his well visit. Joey is a hale and hearty 25.4 pounds and 33 inches tall. He's sitting just under the 20th percentile for his age. He stood on the scale and put his feet against the wall to be measured, no problem. After chatting with the doctor about what a bad sleeper and picky eater he is, he trotted out the door after her when she offered him stickers. No shots were due so it was an easy appointment.

Back home I got the house in order, made lunch and let him play outside before his nap. He happily pushed around his handmedown Strider Bike friends gave us a few days ago, and the scooter that he's commandeered from Timmy (both of which he's still too small and uncoordinated to use, but no matter). During his nap I baked his cake and blew up a bunch of balloons. When he woke up cranky as usual, I brought him downstairs and he saw those balloons and forgot all about being cranky. First he batted them around every which way, then tried putting them in the cabinets and in the kitchen sink.

Annie and Timmy came home, Tim got home from work early, I picked Delaney up from school where she'd stayed for board game club, and then came back home. When the breakfast casserole stubbornly refused to be done, and Tim and Timmy were going to have to leave for basketball soon, we were left with no other choice -- dessert before dinner!

It was everybody's lucky day. Here is the link to the video of Joey as we sing happy birthday to him. Maybe one of these days Blogger will make it easier to embed videos, but not today. I loved watching his expression as it changed from one of bewilderment to enjoyment.

He ate nearly all his cake and ice cream, and unlike last year, was a very polite young man with his fork. Once we were done with that it was time for presents. It was a bit chaotic, but once the dust settled Joey had some nice new things from us and his grandparents, including a toy truck, motorcycle pajamas, some clothes, books and a Plasma Car. He's got quite the collection of wheeled things now!

At two he seems to be changing at warp speed. I felt like even just driving away from his checkup he was talking even more than he'd been going in. He says short phrases and sentences now, like "Baby crying", "kids school," "Annie meanie", and "Mama, (where) are you?" Whenever I sing he says, "Mama, sop!"

He loves his outside time, and the weather here is beautiful this time of year so we're outside every day. After lunch and before nap I sit out back and watch him play and sometimes follow as he wanders around the grassy area behind our houses. I know my favorite memories are going to end up being those times. Then once the other kids get home from school, he can't wait for Annie to take him to the "gound" (playground). He needs lots of time outside. He turns into a little monster without it.

He really enjoys his baths too, and has one just about every day, many times on request. Every time he poops and doesn't like me wiping him a whole lot, he says, "Bah! Bah!" Sometimes it is easier to just plunk him in the bath than to wipe him completely clean.

He nurses just once a day, right before I put him to bed. As part of our bedtime routine I read him a story and then let him make his rounds giving out goodnight kisses. He goes down easily by 7:30, usually with a little car, truck or train in each hand. Sometimes he sleeps through the night, but more often than not he wakes up once or twice and needs to be resettled. We had a few really bad nights this month that made me desperate enough to reach out the Young Living rep on Oki and order him a weighted blanket from Etsy. Still waiting on the blanket, and my meeting with the busy Young Living rep isn't until the 20th. When I'm not having the really bad nights I don't mind waiting forever, but when he's waking up four, five or six + times in a night, I feel like I wait forever for anything that might give me relief.

He might drive me crazy sometimes, but I sure do love this little man.

Joey: 22 Months

Our Joe.. When he's good he's very, very good. When he's bad he stomps his feet, he snarls, he growls, he throws things, he hits, he glowers and shrieks. Just this morning I had to put up his wooden train set because he was swinging a couple of the tracks at Timmy's head. He exhausts himself trying to compel us to do his bidding. He's waiting for us to realize that he's really the boss of this house, and once that happens everything will be so much easier.

As of the last couple weeks we are down to one nursing session, the one right before bed. I'm thinking I'm going to have to wean him completely by March. That way when we can leave him with Tim's parents when go to Quantico for a few days this spring. (Deep breaths) These are big steps for me. Even after months of preparing my heart, I will probably not be ready -- either for the weaning or for the trip. But time marches on.

When the Big Three are getting ready to head out the door to school, Joey asks for his backpack, and I put our little old Paw Patrol backpack on his shoulders. He loves walk around with it on and feel like one of the big kids. He makes sure I put water in it too. I tell him to get on the "bus" which is one of the couches.

When he and I are getting ready to go somewhere and I'm getting my things together, he always says, "Keys!" I am so glad I have this little man to remind me I need my keys. I say, "What would I do without you, Joe?"

Always take a water bottle when you go down the rollerslide.😆 Also take something to put under your bum because yoweee!

When I'm getting to the bottom of my cereal bowl, he demands that I give it to him so he can slurp down the remains. He thinks cereal-flavored milk is the yummiest.

His face in this picture -- I die!

The one big bummer of this last month is that he woke up more nights than he didn't -- usually just once or twice a night but three or more times definitely happened too, on at least one occasion. As soon as one of us goes in there he flops back down onto the mattress and just wants to be covered back up and told to go back to sleep. Last night he didn't even wake up once, and I don't know why it can't be this way every night. Of the four he is taking the longest by far to become a consistently solid sleeper. 

Joey: 21 Months

For the first time ever, just a few mornings ago, I woke up to the sound of Joey laughing instead of crying. I was immediately confused and disoriented. What time is it? What's going on? I looked at the clock and it said 6:23. It was light in the room. Morning. Now I heard two voices, Timmy's and Joey's, and they both sounded like they were having fun. I went into their room and saw Joey out of his crib and the two of them playing. Okay! A little while later when I was remarking on how strange it was to hear Joey happy first thing in the morning, Timmy said, "He woke up good and I got him out before he got mad." And that is all fine by me as long as it takes place after 6.

This brothers' room-sharing success story is another sign of a partnership I see starting between the two of them. Neither of them had much use for the other until recently. Timmy was too young to take care of any of Joey's needs, and Joey was too much of a baby to be a buddy to Timmy. But now that Timmy has proven himself able to help Joey do things he can't, and Joey can now amuse Timmy as they play silly games together, we're seeing the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.

Another new development is that Joey, at long last, has adopted a lovey. I figured the window for loveys had passed, but as of the last few weeks every time he goes to sleep he does so while clutching "Car", a little blue Ford GT. Cuddly, right? It's about 6 inches long so it's not as easy to lose as a regular Hot Wheel would be. It used to be Delaney's, but after he dropped it one two many times and the doors stopped closing the right way, she gave it to him.

It never gets old hearing everything he says in his baby voice.There are a lot of motorcycles here in Okinawa, and Joey loves them all. He points them out and calls excitedly, "Gagoo! Gagoo!" The kids love getting him to say their favorite words, like 'poop' and 'butt'. He says the former like "put" except with p at the end, and the latter like "bet." It's hilarious and cute. And isn't it great the vocabulary we're helping him build? He's also starting to add some phrases in. For example, we'll go around the house looking for Car, and when we find it he says, "Eh you ah!"

He still loves his Elmo, and since we still don't have our TV I let him watch it on my Kindle a couple times a day. It's so nice for getting him out of my hair. He yells out the parts that he knows and sings along with the song. Annie got him a little stuffed Elmo at the Exchange.

We were at one of the sushi restaurants at American Village. The table they put us in is a little different than what we're used to. We have to take off our shoes, climb up some steps and then sit down on the floor with our feet going down into an opening in the floor. They provide these lovely boosters for the babies, but when the booster isn't strapped to a chair, you see what happens.

I've started taking him to "lap sit story time" at the library for babies up to two years old. He is at the perfect age for it. He loves the songs and the big stuffed puppy that goes around giving hugs. I love how laid back it is --- the babies can wander around and that I don't have to try to make him sit still and "behave". I used to try taking Timmy to a story time when he was that age, and they were very strict about kids not being allowed to move around or make a lot of noise. I had to take him out for breaks and what's the point of that? It's supposed to be for the toddlers, not for us. We're going there tomorrow morning, as a matter of fact.

There's a page in The Little Blue Truck where the toad character is smiling all big and toothy and showing his muscles because he's going to help; and Joey looked up at the page to me, smiling the same way. He is so cute and funny.

Last night after his bath I was holding him as I pulled pajama pants out of the drawer and selected just a random shirt to go with them. He said, "One. One," and reached toward the drawer as I was carrying him away. I went back to the drawer, and sure enough he wanted to pick a different shirt. Already?

This is our bedtime routine as of right now: At around 7, I tell him it's time to get ready to go night-night and bring him upstairs to put on his pajamas. Or if he's having a bath, I put on his pajamas afterward and tell him it's time to get ready for bed. Once he's in pajamas I take him back downstairs so he can make his rounds and give out his "mas" -- kisses. Once he's given everyone a "ma", I take him back up to his and Timmy's room and turn out the light. He always likes to take a look at the ferris wheel out the window, and I say, "Goodnight, beautiful ferris wheel." Then I nurse him and I say prayers and lay him down. He likes for me to kiss each of his hands. He holds up one and then the other. Then we blow kisses to each other as I leave.

I know I said I love watching him grow and change, but right now I kind of just want to freeze time. Is there a way to do that?

Joey: 20 Months

Six months ago I was filled with worry and dread about going through an overseas move with this little man who seemed to unravel every time we took him from his routines and familiar surroundings. No, the word I used was "horror" to describe how I felt at the thought of us being "displaced for weeks and living out of suitcases." I wonder, was all the angst about how he would cope with it or how I would? By the grace of God, we're both doing perfectly fine.

There were some difficult times of course. There was the dark plane ride from Seattle to Yokota Air Base in Tokyo. I'd been advised beforehand to do the bulk of my sleeping on this leg of the trip, as soon as breakfast was over. The lights were off, shades were drawn and movies played continuously. Everyone slept on that plane -- that is, everyone but me and Joey who fussed off and on the whole way and slept maybe 15 minutes out of the whole 9 hours. So that stunk. Fortunately for the rest of the passengers, the engine noise was loud enough to muffle any crying that happened and let anyone sleep who wanted to. I guess because I had built this day up in my mind to be such a horrible ordeal, it was really not that bad on the whole. He gagged on a pretzel and threw up some of his breakfast at one point, but I had a change of clothes ready to go. The second night at our hotel here did not go so well, with him being up several times, but that was the worst of it. For the most part he's been his cheerful and decently sleeping self since we arrived. For the most part.

As I explained to some new friends the other day, I think that somewhere along the way he realized that even if he's somewhere new and has to sleep in a different room or a different bed, if he has us he has all he needs. And maybe a little Elmo too. I introduced him to Elmo after the other kids went to Massachusetts and now he can't get enough of him. Very helpful at times to put some Elmo on the Kindle. He says, "Memo!" All of our kids have gone through an Elmo stage and I have a soft spot in my heart for that red furry monster.

So, month 20 has been a lot less rocky than I expected. There have been major changes to our circumstances, but none to Joey. He's a happy and affectionate little guy. He ate up all the extra attention we got from family while we were staying at Tim's parents'. One thing I've noted is an increase in the roughhousing between him and Timmy. He will wrap his arms around Timmy's legs, tackle him to the floor, and climb on him. Timmy is super physical too, and I worry that he'll get carried away and hurt Joey, but that hasn't happened yet. Then there was that nasty patch of rug burn on Joe's belly, now that I think of it..

He's at such a fun stage right now -- part sweet baby and part hilarious and headstrong toddler. I want to keep him this way forever with his adorable baby hands and feet, that chirpy little voice calling out "Car!" or "Know?" or "No!" His newest command is "Way!" (Go away) I don't encourage that, though.

Annie always shares with Joey. Here, he kept saying "Bite," and she ended up giving him half her ice cream cone.

He still wakes up unhappy every time. He's the only one of the four who doesn't talk to himself and play in the crib for a while before he needs me to get him. He wakes up angry that someone didn't already get him 10 minutes ago. I cuddle him for awhile and give him lots of TLC after he wakes up, but he doesn't perk up until he's had a change of scenery. So it's best to get out and do something after his nap.

He still nurses twice a day, before nap and before bed. He goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up at 6 typically. He still wears size 4 diapers and both 12-18 and 18-24 month clothing depending on the type of clothing and the brand. In pants he's still smaller. The 12-18 cargo shorts that have been a staple of his wardrobe for months now, seem to be getting looser around the waist. 18-24 month tops usually fit OK. His feet are tiny just like his siblings'. He's in size 6 sneakers right now, and they have a little room.

It really is a joy to watch this little guy grow.

Joey: 18 Months

A few days ago there was a dispute between Delaney and Timmy over a fidget spinner. Timmy had bought two from Amazon and had given one to her. Then he had lost the one he'd kept and tried to say that the one he'd given Delaney was also his because he'd paid for it. It was time for a lesson in what happens when you give something to somebody. After dadsplaining it all, Tim then said to Timmy, "Now I'm asking you, whose fidget spinner is this? There's only one answer." Without missing a beat, Joey called "Miiine!" and reached out his plump little hand to grab it. We all died. Then he threw back his head and laughed at all of us laughing, as if to say, "I know I'm hilarious."

He still says just one word at a time, and he's adding more to his vocabulary all the time: go, ball,  bah (bath), home, boat, Joe and no are a few that come off the top of my head. He tries to say his sisters' names too. He says "Annie" and "Nay-nee" for Delaney. I haven't heard him try "Timmy" or make the "t" sound at all. Sometimes if I ask him a question he'll say "know" instead of "don't know." He still likes to use his own made up sign I call gimme -- extending his arm from the elbow repeatedly in the direction of whatever he wants. By the end of our beach vacation, his 22-month-old cousin Elise starting doing gimme too! She saw it was working for him.

I know a great way to distract him from having a toddler meltdown: ask him to do something for me. He will literally be in the midst of crying and having a fit, but if I ask him to "throw this sock in the hamper" he will stop in his tracks, look confused for a second, then change gears and be at my service. It's amazing. Same goes for "put this back", "put it away", and "throw it away". He's better at it than the other kids!

It's been nice having the Big 3 done with school, because he was getting bored to death of hanging out with me. He just couldn't stand seeing me trying to get things done around the house. So sometimes I'd stop and get down to his level and do things with him, but I know it was never enough as far as he was concerned. One thing he likes is looking at books together. He doesn't have the attention span to listen to me read the whole way through, but he loves flipping through books and looking at the pictures and listening to me read or talk about what's going on. Our favorite is Little Blue Truck. He can't get enough of looking at the pictures of the truck stuck in mud and pointing at the animals and making their sounds. They like to read with him and entertain him in all kinds of ways.

He loves to point at all the different kinds of vehicles we see in books and in real life. No matter what we tell him they are, he calls them all "cah!" It's the Worcester in him.

He needs some outdoor time every day. He gets stir crazy inside. I would hate to spend a real winter with him, but we won't need to worry about that for the foreseeable future. By the time we do, he'll be old enough to bundle up and push out the door.

His horrible haircut is mostly grown out by now, thank goodness. There will be no more scissor haircuts from Mama.

I took him to the doctor today and he weighs 23 pounds and is 30.7 inches tall. He's a peanut at only the 13th percentile for weight and 10th for height, but he's growing well. He is still wearing mostly size 12-18 in clothes and size 4 diapers. He's sleeping solidly (most of the time) from 7 p.m to 6 a.m. and taking one afternoon nap lasting a little longer now that the other kids are with us all day: about 1.5 to 2 hours. He slept well on the last two trips we've taken, first to my Mom and Dad's and then to a beach house in NC, and that gives me some hope and encouragement for the crazy summer ahead. He still wakes up from his nap in a terrible mood, but we can turn that around with a snack and an activity. We just dropped the morning nursing session, so now we nurse before his afternoon nap and before he goes to bed at night.

Toddlerhood really agrees with Joe; he is cuter than ever, and I am going to gobble him up one of these days.