Well,
Josiah is really getting to the fun stage. As he is learning more and
more words, we find ourselves laughing more and more each day.
*This
week, we were out running some errands. Chris was putting Josiah into
the car and was fussing about the sunshade on his window. I bought some
stick on sun shades months ago. I then made the comment that he just
needed to go ahead and hang them up. Chris then said that he wasn't
going to do it until the weather was above 30. Then out of Josiah's
mouth, "Do it! Do it! Do it!" Chris and I both started laughing so
hard! Then Chris started playing with him and saying, "I'm not gonna do
it!" Josiah's response, "Do it! Do it! Do it!" I guess I will hand
over the reins and let Josiah do the nagging for me! 
*Earlier
in the week, Josiah and I were working some with his letters. I
decided to go ahead and see if he knew any of the letters. By the time
we went through the alphabet, he pointed out 16 of the 26 letters! He
didn't tell me the names of the letters, but he could point to the
letter after I placed three letters for him to choose from.
*The
other day, I was cleaning the bathroom. I had my rags out on the edge
of the bath tub. I sprayed the inside of the shower and closed the door
to let the cleaner sit for a few minutes. I turned around and there
was Josiah with a rag "cleaning" the shower for me.
*At the
beginning of the week, we went to finish up Josiah's H1N1 shot. He was
such a BIG boy because he didn't even cry when he got his shot.
Well, that is it for now. We'll keep you posted on the latest antics of Josiah.
Well,
this is a little late for his 18 months, but better late than never!
Josiah continues to grow each day. We are really enjoying these last
few days with him before his sister arrives. As Chris has said many a
times, "It won't be just the three of us for very much longer." As
ready as I am to have Sophie here, I try to cherish each moment I have
with just him.
Josiah is really learning leaps and bounds. Here are some of the latest Josiah things:
- His
newest things are recognizing shapes. He quickly learned circle,
triangle, square, star and heart. For Christmas he got a clock that
also has shapes. He can now recognize pentagon, hexagon, octagon, oval,
diamond, rectangle, parallelagram and a quatrefoil. For those of you
along with me who had NO idea what a quatrefoil was until we got this
clock--it's a clover shape. Chris picks on me because I continually use
the word quatrefoil when we play with the clock. He says I'm probably
one of five people in the world who knows what a quatrefoil is--now we
have six--seven if you count Chris!
- He
continues to do well with his reading program. We have really started
working with him to read the flashcards on his own now that we have been
through all the videos. He is starting to show us the words that he
has learned, but it's hard getting an active 18 month old to sit still
long enough to go through all the cards. He is also doing a great job
with his animal sounds. Our newest favorite animal sound is the camel.
Some of you might be wondering, "What sound does a camel make?" Well,
we have taught him to chew like a camel and then "spit." For those of
you who have a Facebook account, feel free to go look under my video
section to see Josiah showing us his animal sounds.
- We
also bought him some great Melissa and Doug toys with some of his
Christmas money. We have some wooden cards that have words on them and
then there are some wooden letters to spell the words. Well, he is
doing a great job picking out the letters he needs to use to spell the
words and placing them in the appropriate spot.
- His
knowledge of words is just astounding. We can put a pile of pictures on
the floor (around 15 different pictures) and ask him to find a certain
picture and he does.
- He is also doing a great job with
his body parts. He knows his head, hair, eyes, ears, mouth, nose,
tongue, teeth, feet, toes, hands and fingers.
- As a family
we have started doing a devotional together in the morning before we get
our day started. He loves coming into our bed to "talk" about his
night. So we listen to him for a few minutes and then we start our
devotional. We tried to get a devotional that was kind friendly, but at
the same time had some depth to it. We got one that has some colorful
photographs to it in hopes to keep his attention. Well, he is more
interested in my Bible that we read the scripture from than the
devotional. It does my heart great joy to "struggle" with our 18 month
old son to get the Bible so I can read the passage for the day. Chris
and I took some more of his Christmas money and bought him his own
Bible. He will sit there a flip through the pages. We just pray that
as he gets older, he will still have this passion to read his Bible as
he does now.
- He is doing a better job eating. He is
starting to expand his taste buds and eating more of the food that we
eat. It's amazing what he will eat with a little mashed potato mixed
with it!
- He
continues to be a very social child. I have a feeling that I will have
many conversations with him about NOT talking ot strangers. When we
are at church, he has no problem walking around saying hi to people.
Maybe we need to get
- We have also discovered how "messy" we
truly are. Josiah will find all kinds of little pieces of lint or
crumbs and tell me "trash." One night we were eating dinner and all the
little pieces of crumbs on his plate, Chris' plate and my plate were
all "trash." I guess in a way it's our fault because when he was
smaller anything that he would pick up and try to put in his mouth, we
would tell him "trash."
- The
other day we were saying our blessing for our meal. Sometimes, Josiah
is a little hungry so he will start to whine while we are praying.
Chris will say, "Shhh..." and then continue with the prayer. Well, this
particular day, Josiah decided he was going to "Shhh..." Chris while he
was praying. The best part was he started laughing after he did it. I
think this child knows comedy already--I think I should be very scared
has his mom and future teacher--I think I will have a class clown on my
hands!
Well, that is about all that is going on
with Josiah. We are so truly blessed to be his parents and each night
during our bed time prayers, we make sure to thank God for blessing us
with such a wonderful little boy.
Well,
it's been quite a week. The Monday after Thanksgiving, Josiah had a
little bit of a stomach bug. Let's just say we were changing LOTS of
diapers! 
He was fine for a couple of days, then he started running a fever. We
saw that he had two new molars coming in, so we didn't think anything
about it. His fever went away and then a couple of days later, he broke
out in a rash. I took him to Immediate Care on Saturday and the doctor
there said he had measels--period. He told me that I needed to stay
away from him because of being pregnant. Chris was at a youth function,
so I called him crying. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he
left immediately to come him to care for Josiah. At this point there
was nothing we could do. We called my doctor's office and talked with
the doctor on call. She confirmed that I shouldn't be around Josiah.
Chris and I started reading in our baby books and on-line about
measels. Everything we read, didn't line up with the symptoms he had.
When we were reading, there was a possibility that it could be rubella.
Still putting me at risk. Monday morning came around, and we called
Josiah's ped and my doctor. We were both seen that day. After taking
Josiah to the ped, they said that worse case scenerio, he had
roseola--at this point his rash was gone, so they could only base it on
what we told them. They said with the quickness of the rash going away,
they felt it was probably a rash that was cased by the viral infection
he had. I went to the doctor that afternoon and told them what Josiah's
ped had said. They said that if he had roseola or a rash, then there
was no risk for me. They just told me to give them a call if I started a
fever or got any sign of a rash. Well, that afternoon when Josiah got
up from his nap---he was sleeping by the time I got home--I was ready to
give him a BIG hug! While we weren't allowed to be around each other, I
was able to get a lot of things done for Sophie. I finished getting
the items we needed for her. I made the curtains for her room. I was
able to wrap Christmas presents, finish Christmas shopping, etc. It
wasn't fun not being able to cuddle with Josiah and it broke my heart
when he saw me and wanted me to pick him up and I wasn't able.
Well,
the Greenwoods are all healthy again, and we are getting ready to
celebrate our Savior's birth in just a few more days. Our family will
be coming into town on Tuesday. Originally they weren't suppose to, but
Chris' granddad has been put into a hospice center. He is expected to
live anywhere from two days to two weeks. We've had a trying couple of
weeks with finding out the news of Chris' granddad, Josiah's sickness
and finding out one of my friends from NC who was due 3 days before me
died from a stroke. We are praising the LORD that her son, Ymir, is
fine. We have deep sympathy for the fact that he will never be embraced
by his mother. Even though we've had these trials, we still praise the
fact that God loves us enough to have sent His son. We have peace in
the fact that He knows EXACTLY how we feel when we are shaken by death
because He watched His son being tortured, die and then being separated
from Him because of our sin that Jesus was carrying. All I can say is,
"God is Good." Even if we don't see the good in the situation at hand,
we trust in the fact that there is a reason for these situations to
bring Him glory.
We pray that everyone's CHRISTmas season is
going well. That you are remembering the real reason for CHRISTmas--the
birth of our Savior!
Yesterday,
we went to Josiah's 15 month check up. As many of you know the doctor
visits have become not such a fun thing for me because of his whole
weight issue. Well, the appointment went GREAT! He actually went above
the 10th%! He now weighs a whopping 21 1/2 lbs and is 32 1/2 inches
long. Can we say he is definitely a Greenwood? 
He did get three shots yesterday and should be good for quite a few
months. He is running a little bit of a fever today, but he is still in
a great mood. He did his best yesterday with his shots--he cried for a
few seconds and then gave the nurse a great big smile. He was
definitely hamming it up for all the nurses, doctors and the other
patients.
He continues to
grow so fast before our eyes. This week, he has learned to sign
"please"; "all done" and "thank you." It has taken us FOREVER to get
him to learn just one, but has picked up three in a week. He is also
doing really well with "Your Baby Can Read." He started his 3rd video
this week. It's amazing that he knows the words "giraffe", "point",
"wave", "diaper", "ear", "elephant", "arms up", "cats", "eyes",
"smiling", "rattle", "clap", "tiger", "mouth", "dog", "tongue", and
"nose". He can say just a few of those words, but he mostly makes the
sounds or does the signs we have taught him. It's amazing how much of a
sponge he is and how quickly he picks up on what we show him. He is
really doing well with his walking. The last couple of days he has
gotten a little independent and doesn't want to hold my hand when we go
for a little walk.
We are in full swing with packing. We
have a week before we move into our new place. Chris is going to do a
little moving here and there throughout the week. On Thursday, I will
spend a couple of hours getting the kitchen set up. Then Saturday will
be the big day of moving furniture. We will post some pictures as soon
as we get somewhat settled. Like we have said before, any time you want
to visit the DC area, please let us know. We have plenty of space,
it's free and we're pretty close to the city.
Well,
Josiah has been growing leaps and bounds this week. On Thursday, we
were playing on the living room floor. He was standing up across the
room from me and decided he was going to walk on his own. He comes
walking towards me and stops to get a hug and then continues on his way
around the living room. Since then, he has been walking non-stop. I
called Chris at work to tell him--it was nice to not have to wait until
he was doing teaching class! I told Chris that I was so proud of our
little boy for walking on his own. Chris' response was he would ask me
in a month if I still felt the same way!
This week, we also started him on the toddler food, and he has been
doing a great job with it. He isn't spitting out every bite like he did
before. He has also started talking more. Some of his new words are:
"cat", "glasses", "cracker", "bath", "I got it." We are obviously very
proud of him. He can shake his head no when we ask him something and he
doesn't want it. He shakes his head no and has a smile on his face if
he does want it. He has started learning a few animal sounds. Mommy
has gotten creative on a few sounds, but Josiah has picked them up.
Some sounds that he makes are: a giraffe, tiger, zebra and dog. He has
started pointing where his nose, mouth and ears are. Every once and
awhile he will point to his toes. So as you can see, our little boy is
growing up before our eyes!
Where
has the time gone? I can't believe that Josiah is already 14 months!
He continues to be the joy of our lives. We had a rough patch when we
were in GA with sleeping, but we have gotten him back on his schedule.
He would scream each night I put him down. My mom told me that my
grandfather (who was a doctor) said a baby would never cry over 59
minutes. Well, Josiah blew that out of the water! The first night
home, he screamed when we put him down. I was so thankful that Chris
was here to help out. Since then, he has been fine and goes right
down. I guess he just likes having his own bed or maybe it is having
his Daddy around.
We took a
trip to the Frying Pan Farm on Wednesday, and Josiah absolutely LOVED
it! He loved seeing all the animals and hearing the sounds they made.
He even loved riding on the tractor. When Chris took him off, he
started crying.
He is eating much better now. We no longer
have to give him crackers, cheerios or bread in between his bites. He
still wants the smooth stuff, but I've been adding chunks of veggies and
fruits. A couple of days ago, I started adding chicken chunks, and he
seems to be doing well with that. He has mastered drinking out of a
straw, but still has a sippy cup when he drinks his milk before nap/bed
time.
Chris finishes his last day of teaching today. He is
very excited about that. Next Sunday, the church will be voting to make
him full time. He will continue with what he is doing now and will add
the youth position. We are very thankful for this move to full time
ministry because we all know part-time jobs aren't part-time. We will
begin looking at places closer to the church and hope to be moved by the
beginning of October. God has truly blessed the Greenwoods, and we are
so thankful. We know that ministering to the youth will require him to
be gone some nights out of the week, but with not teaching it gives him
the flexibility to come rescue Mommy during lunch if she needs it once
the baby is here.
Hope everyone is doing well. Come back next week and look at G2's website to see pictures and to find out what we are having!
We
went back to the doctor for a weight check, and Josiah has gained some
weight. He is now 20 pounds and back in the 10th percentile! So there
will be no tests--Praise the Lord! I'm so glad that we didn't have to
make that decision. In our hearts, we feel like nothing is wrong, but
you can't ignore the "what if" that lingers in the back of your mind.
We have changed how he eats. Instead of doing complete table food, we
have add chunks of food to his baby food. This seems to be working, and
he is eating pretty well. We will continue to try to transition him to
food, but we have gotten it out of our mind that he HAS to eat table
food. He has done everything else in his own timing so why would this
be any different?
We go
tomorrow to have a check-up for Baby G2. I always get a little anxious
because I am always worried that we might not hear a heartbeat. I guess
I will be worrying about this baby for the rest of my life along with
Josiah, so why not start now? We will post an update tomorrow on how that appointment goes, so come back for another visit.
