International Culture

Living in a college town affords us a lot of unique opportunities. Last Saturday we attended the International Fiesta on campus. Displays, food and activities representing dozens of different cultures were set up on the Drill Field at MSU. It was a beautiful day so we packed a lunch and went to check out the Fiesta. Lots of people and lots of terrific smelling food was topped only by the African student group's drum line leading the parade of flags. As you can imagine, Joshua danced to his heart's content to the drums. (We got a few video clips of him that I will try to load later.) We really had a great time and had one very tired baby when we left.

Joshua and this little boy probably would have stared at each other for hours had we not been standing in the middle of the sidewalk holding up traffic.
Hooray for one of the local Methodist churches for passing out balloons!

Studying the people passing by.

Joshua threw and rolled the ball all over the place...usually right at the feet of an innocent passerby.

Monday morning Joshua was examined by a local ENT who determined that he is "a perfect candidate for tubes in his ears." This was exactly what we were hoping to hear as Joshua really needs a break from taking antibiotics for ear infections. So this coming Monday he will have tubes placed.

hot and cold

Friday and Saturday we had beautiful weather. Joshua loves to be outside and fusses only when he has to come in. He and Amelia picked up approximately 100,000 sticks in the backyard and piled them up. Then he and Dave ran around and played with the bouncy ball. It was so nice to be outside and play.
Then early Sunday is started raining. While we were at church Sunday morning, huge SNOWFLAKES started coming down. So, obviously, there was no playing outside Sunday. Instead we came home and dressed Joshua in his favorite cold weather outfit...his Halloween shirt (that glows in the dark), baggy seat pants and one sock.

Dave and I had the opportunity to attend a parenting conference Friday and Saturday that our church co-sponsored with another church in town. This was an excellent conference, hopefully the audio from the weekend will be post on our church's website soon. When it is posted I'll provide a link.

Joshua has always loved routine, even down to cutting teeth. He has been cutting only one tooth a month for the past 5 months. The tooth would come in sometime around the 2nd or 3rd of the month-every month. This month has been a monstrous tooth month. He has had all 4 molars cut through and a tooth in front on both the top and bottom. I am thankful that we do not carry the memory of cutting baby teeth with us our whole lives. Dave and I are hopeful that we will soon forget how painful Joshua's teething has been for us too.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Be sure to check out the previous post about our weekend.

Natchez to Jackson

We spent the last part of last week in Natchez, MS. Actually we stayed across the river in Vidalia, LA and Amelia attended a conference in Natchez. Dave and Joshua had "guy time" for a couple days. Joshua was a little out of sorts as he has a double ear infection but we had a good time.

Strolling along the Mighty Mississippi

(Joshua was more interested in looking at the stripes on his shirt than the huge barges that would come up the river in front of the hotel. Maybe one day he will think those are as cool as Dave and I thought they were.)

Never missing an opportunity to educate, Dave took Joshua to the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians. Dave's excitement about going to the village equalled Amelia's relief that she had to sit in a conference and miss the field trip.

Joshua read all about the ceremonial mounds left by the Natchez Indians.

He even checked out their grass huts.

On our way home from Natchez, we stopped in Jackson for the weekend. Coach and Nana were at the SEC basketball tournament, so we hung out with the rest of the family in Jackson. Aunt Gay even came from Arkansas to visit while we were there.

Joshua and Abigail enjoyed the nice weather and some bubbles.

"Joshua, I told you not to touch my bubbles!"

A little drama (from both Abigail and Joshua) made the weekend fun.

Oh what a beautiful weekend

We enjoyed the beautiful weekend and start to this week.

Thank you Lord for a break from the cold!

We also had a house full of family for supper Sunday night. The Texas Gladney's came to visit and the MSU cousins came too. It was super fun. Cousin Monica Lee took some pictures while they were here, hopefully she will share those with us and we will get them posted to the blog soon.

At the dinner table...

Since Dave works on Wednesday nights, Joshua and I usually have a quiet dinner of leftovers at home. Here is a snippet of our dinner "conversation" from this evening.

Another peak at our supper table.

Coach and Nana graciously volunteered to come keep Joshua last weekend allowing Dave and me a night out. Unfortunately, Dave got sick and we couldn't go out. However, Joshua played hookie from school Friday so he could spend the day with his grandparents. He had a great time and by the end of the day I think all 3 of them were worn out.

Joshua's school sends home a "care card" each day detailing the events of the day. The first line that informs parents of their child's overall mood for the day includes: playful, fretful, tired and sick as the options to choose from. Lately Joshua's teacher has been writing in "funny" as Joshua's mood. In addition to the usual care card, today we received the school's monthly newsletter. Every month, each teacher submits a short summary of the classroom's achievements from the previous month. Ms. Susan wrote, "Joshua, who is walking, is the class comedian!" as part of her summary. We have no idea what Joshua is doing at school but it appears that he is entertaining anyone who will pay attention. Maybe he and Dave could combine their comedy routines and take their show on the road!