18 Months (well kinda)

Joshua turned 18 months old a couple of weeks ago, and again I will say where has the time gone, his 18 month birthday also means that I have been back at work for 6 months (really?).

Unfortunately, at the end of July, Janice, informed us that she would be closing her dayhome. It was a really blow, because we had become so comfortable in our regular routine and Joshua was very content. I got to work immediately on trying to find a someone else to watch our precious boy. Daycare spots can be hard to come by, but I did eventually find another dayhome and Joshua started there this week. It has been a difficult week with getting Joshua settled in to our new routine, with the evenings being the worse, but hopefully things will start to come together over the next couple of weeks.

We finally had our appointment with the Ear Nose and Throat specialist last week, and since Josh hasn't had any ear infections for the last couple of months she is going to hold off on inserting the tubes in his ears. Should he start to develop them again we need to go in and see her. I was very happy with the Doctor and Joshua seemed to like the doctors office. He was given a sticker at the end of his visit which he promplty crumpled up.

We seem to be entering the wonderful stage of the Terrible Twos a bit earlier than two. Joshua seems to be testing everything rule that we have set for him. His latest test is pulling on the curtains, previously he used to love to play peek-a-boo behind the curtains but lately that has progressed to his grabbing hold and pulling as he walks away, my biggest fear is that he is going to pull the rods right down on his head. He also laughs at us now when we tell him now. We have begun to implement time outs, so for one minute he has to sit in his room, this usually consists of a full minute of crying, when we take him out of his room we gently tell him not to pull on the curtains, however he walks right back up to them, flashes us smile, grabs the curtains and tugs and the process starts all over again. Sigh.

Joshua climbs on everything now, we can't turn our head for a moment. It started with him climbing onto the window sill in the living room so he could climb ontop of his Fisher Price Parking Garage. Now he pushing is red chair up to the coffee table and tries to climb on the coffee table, what happened to trying to climb on the couch?

Everyday Joshua walks down the stairs on his own, of course Chris and I are always there going down backwards in front of him since he has a hard time reaching the rails. I was in Toys R Us with a friend of mine yesterday and I discovered this wonderful item that acts as an extension on the rail so that it is at a better height for babies to hold on while they walk down the stairs. This might be something I need to talk to Chris about.

Meal time is easier now that Joshua eats pretty much everything that we eat. His favourite item is still his morning banana and yogurt, but he also loves cut up vegetables and fruits, and most meats. His newest thing is blowing on his food, hot or cold, because he has seen us doing it to his food so many times.