Melting Hearts

Well, I just feel like I need to write a special journal entry for our first born.  Today, he is 23 months--WOW, where has the time gone!?!  Last year on this day, Chris and I found out that Josiah was not going to be our only child anymore.  I can remember being excited about having another baby, but at the same time a little sad.  I didn't feel like I had enough time with just Josiah.  I worried that he would feel neglected one the new baby got her.  Well, I can say now that those worries where just worries, and I wasted a lot of time fretting.  Josiah has done a great job adjusting to having a baby sister and has learned so much!  In the last year, he has started walking (and "running"), talking, sleeping through the night and eating table food.  He has learned how to read some words, recognizes shapes and letters. He has become a tremendous helper by putting the silverware on the table, helping us get drinks for our meals, takes his own rag to clean and even helps push the vacuum clearner.  But the things that make our hearts melt is the way that he loves life and the people around him.  He has a contagious laugh and a silliness about him that makes us want to be silly with him, too.  The way that he loves and protects his little sister is so precious, and I pray that this relationship will last the rest of their lives.  The way that he asks for his Bible and devotional in the morning or after dinner how he wants to pray for the next person on our prayer wall.  I'm so thankful that I've been able to stay home with him every day to invest in his life.  I pray that one day when I stand before the Lord, He will tell me that I've been a faithful servant by raising our children in way that glorifies Him.  I can't believe that in one month we will be 2 years old.  We look forward to watching him grow over the next year and be a part of all that he learns.  We will continue to praise the Lord for choosing us to be his parents. We love you, Josiah Potter, and we are so honored to be your parents!

More from Josiah

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.

18 months

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.

Measels, Rubella, Roseola, Rash

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!

15 month check-up

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.

Growing up before our eyes

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!

14 months

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!