I feel like I'm falling for fall

How do we know fall has arrived?

The temperature is 60 one day and 88 the next, the leaves are beginning to change, Halloween decorations are being put up at the daycare and the Country Pumpkins Pumpkin Patch is open.

(If you look hard you will see Dave coming out of the straw maze behind Joshua. From all reports, "It was really dark in there.")

Coming soon...

Halloween costume pictures...will Joshua be a St. Bernard or will he be a carrot?

Only time will tell.

2.75 years of age

I recently looked back at the 1.75 years of age post from last year. That post talked about Joshua's increasing vocabulary, his love of helping others, "giant strides in the sleep department," and him leaving baby-hood and becoming a little boy. Now here we are at 2.75 years of age talking about the same things.
Everyday I am amazed at the words Joshua knows. Just this morning he, very quietly and to himself, counted to ten in Spanish. He obviously comes from a long line of talkers but has already challenged me to learn the words for things to teach him.
Joshua continues to enjoy helping others. He voluntarily picks up after himself and often after Dave and me too. It is wonderful to see him help clean up the classroom at school before he leaves each day.
Unfortunately, after wondrous months of fantastic sleep, Joshua has taken a couple steps backwards. Some nights are glorious with no wake-ups while other nights are filled with tears and frustration. To make matters worse, Joshua is testing the waters of manipulation and claiming to be scared of everything from the dark, his door and even his own nose. We are hopeful for a speedy return to sleep-filled nights.
A couple weekends ago we ate lunch in Tuscaloosa with some dear friends at a favorite Chinese restaurant. Joshua's fortune was perfect. It read something like, "You will make a lot of money playing sports." Dave and I resolved to keep that fortune until Joshua signs a multi-billion dollar contract to play professional sports but alas, the fortune was lost in the washing machine. Joshua's throwing and kicking skills have reached the point that he is now banned from playing ball inside the house.
Joshua loves going to school and Sunday School. He takes in all that is said. Days later he will share his knowledge but only when he is ready.
Last week, the firetruck came to school and Joshua met firefighters and climbed in the truck. It was a truly monumental day!
Three years old...here we come...ready or not.

there are no words...

There are no words to describe this scene.

Just thinking about it cracks Joshua up.

The things he says...

walking into the bathroom, "It is spooky dark in there. It might be a ghost."

at the supper table in response to Amelia burning her fingers while making supper, "When I was a little boy, I burned my fingers on my blue oven."

having never eaten at McDonalds there was some confusion when Nana pulled into the parking lot and Joshua asked, "is this the farm?" thinking of Old McDonald's Farm".

while pointing at Dave's spine, "Yesterday when I was a little boy, I had bones in my back too, Dad."

to Dave, "When I was a little boy I put my red hair in that water in the toilet."

Counting his Thomas the Train UNO cards...

still counting those cards...

taking a break from counting to identify a beloved football hero

(Joshua also positively identified Lou Hotlz, do you think we watch too much football at our house?

"look, I'm a builder"

Joshua is a busy bee. Always exploring and imagining. He loves to pretend which makes it difficult to decipher truth from fiction. He told the nursery workers at church, "I saw a huge black and white frog in my backyard with my dad." This is not all together true. Joshua and Dave saw a frog in the backyard months ago but a recent episode of Dinosaur Train featured a big black and white frog. And just for reference Dinosaur Train is not filmed in our backyard.

Too Much Mulch!

When this much mulch and debris comes off Joshua during our initial clean up after school...

then it is straight to the tub...

for a clean, happy boy!

Joshua had so much mulch in his hair that it looked dark brown instead of bright red. He confessed "I threw mulch at Ginger on the big playground and she threw mulch at me." After 3 rounds of shampoo-rinse-repeat, I think most of the mulch is out of his hair.

whatever it takes

I don't suffer from insanity...I enjoy it!

A Labor (Day) of Love

We visited Jackson for the Labor Day weekend. The rain from Tropical Storm Lee fell from the time we arrived to the time we left, leaving us with little option but to watch football all weekend. This sounds ideal for us but Joshua was not in the best of moods most of the weekend. As always the Glads loved on us and got us through the weekend.

Uncle Chad was gracious enough to open the gym at his church for us to play in Monday morning. Joshua and Abigail burned off a lot of steam and sharpened their skills in multiple sports. We love to visit Jackson and appreciate the hospitality and fun.

Joshua loves to hold "baby Luke". Luke is getting old enough and big enough now that he isn't so sure he wants Joshua to hold him for very long. He was a trooper all weekend and watched Joshua and Abigail very closely. I think he is already trying to devise a plan for how to handle the two of them once he is mobile.

Joshua attempted to touch all the cars at once so that he could say "I was playing with that" when Abigail came over to play with one.

With a follow through like this, the golf world is about to be taken by storm.

Contestant #1 in the slam dunk contest adds a little twinkle toe action to finish off her shot.

Contestant #2 in the slam dunk contest hangs on the rim as his shot falls.

Coach acts as the holder as Joshua carefully approaches his kick.

The kick is good ladies and gentlemen!

"I tackle you Coach!"

Abigail trying out her kicking foot

Uncle Chad's awesome ball handling skills proved too much for Joshua.

It's All About Me

Sunday at lunch we asked Joshua what he learned about at church that morning. The conversation went like this...

Amelia: "Joshua what story from the Bible did Ms. Edna Joy read you this morning?
Joshua: "About me."
Dave: "About you? What story was that?"
Joshua: "I gather my people together and lead them around the city not one but three times. And the last day I tell them to make the big tall wall fall down to the ground."
Dave: "What was the name of the city you marched around?"
Joshua: "Battle of Jericho."
Amelia: "Did you tell the people to make lots of noise?"
Joshua: "No, I tell them to play trumpets."
Dave: "Were those horns loud?"
Joshua: "Not horns dad, trumpets. They were very, very loud and they hurt my ears. And the big tall wall fall down to the ground."

~there is another new post below too~

A fan of many teams

Much to Joshua's delight he got mail last week. Gulley and Great Gay sent him a package. As if a package in the mail wasn't exciting enough, the box contained Arkansas Razorback clothes. AND to sweeten the deal even more there was a basketball jersey! My Oh My, did we have an excited "razor pig" at our house. We had a very in depth discussion about whether Joshua was going to wear his jersey to bed that night or to school the next day. He waivered back and forth. He wanted so badly to put the jersey on right then but he also wanted to "wear it with my tennis shoes to school" too. He finally decided to delay gratification and wear it to school.



He was so proud walking into school with his "razor pig basketball man jersey" on he could hardly stand it. As we were walking into the building another mom said, "Woo pig? Wow, he sure wears lots of schools." I laughed when I considered that Joshua had already worn a University of Florida shirt on Monday, an Alabama shirt Tuesday and a Mississippi State shirt Wednesday and here we are on Thursday sporting the razor pigs!


And to really seal off the week, he wore his "Razorback Fanatic" shirt to school on Friday. Thanks Gulley and Great Gay for making our fan week complete.

The number 6

6-the number of different pairs of "big boy underpants" Joshua wore on Saturday alone

6 x 5 = 30 minutes-the number of minutes between required "go to the potty" sessions (and yet he still wore 6 pairs of underpants!)

6-the number of minutes we were home Monday before Joshua wet his underpants-the same exact pair he had kept dry ALL DAY at school.

6-the number of chores I could think of for Joshua to do...including sweeping the kitchen floor-especially while wearing his "I'm A Helpful Kid" hat he made at school

0.6-the number of seconds it takes Joshua to turn any common household tool into a sword

16-the number Joshua leaves out along with 12, 13, and 18 when counting to 20. It goes something like this...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 17, 14, 17, 19, 20.

Wednesday Update

It is time for an update on happenings around the Nolen house (with a couple videos for fun).

We have been busy with the semester starting back and stuff going on. We are looking forward to this coming weekend when we don't have anything planned...yet.

Joshua continues to be all boy! He loves to jump as you can see from this video.

We successfully completed "Operation No Paci" with very few lasting scars. There were some tense days in the process but we are free and clear of all pacis. In other news, Joshua is now a thumb sucker!

Joshua started a new class at school a couple weeks ago. To say he loves his class and his new teacher would be a huge understatement. He is having such a good time despite being stung by wasps (or dragonflies according to him) yesterday.

He still talks about our vacation to the beach. Whenever one of his classmates is absent from school he comes home and tell us they are "on vacation at the beach." He consistently answers Dora (through the television) when she asks, "What was your favorite part of the trip?" referring to plot of the show he just watched and Joshua always answers, "going to the beach." So in honor of his love of vacation enjoy a video from the pool.

Great strides have been made in potty training. Although we have miles to go before I can declare victory over diapers, Joshua's new teacher is all business about the toilet. He has been dry all day 7 of the last 10 days. This weekend the "big boy underpants" are going to be tried and Ms. Courtney, his teacher, wants him to wear them to school Monday. There is a high probability he will drop his pants multiple times a day to show people his Mickey Mouse underwear but I guess that goes with the territory.

The greatest victory of all right now for us is that Joshua has made it almost 4 days without having to have a spanking. If he makes it 1.5 more hours 4 days will be in the bag. His temper gets the best of him and leads to "consequences" that most often include spanking(s). Thankfully he has been mellow and under control the last few days. He is very proud of himself and each night we high five for another spank-free day. Continued prayers are appreciated!

Beach Bacation

We just returned from a most wonderful vacation. We spent a week at Seabrook Island with Aunt B and Nana. (We missed Coach alot but also know that "it is good to be needed.")

As soon as we hit the beach, Joshua took off for the water with Nana chasing him.


Beach Buddies

Joshua kept the sand bucket close, just in case we caught one of the hundreds of blue crabs in the shallows on Sunday. (Sadly, his bucket never had a crab in it)
Nana even found fish shaped bread for a beachy lunch.

Many long minutes were put into trying to pour the ocean into the sand. Joshua employed a couple different methods. This is the standard scoop and pour method.

And this is the scoop and toss method, which I find much more entertaining.

A quick attempt at burying Joshua.

Besides outdoor fun, the beach is always good for a few laughs inside too. Joshua was quite pleased with his new pirate wallet.

Aunt B was a trooper this week. She played with Joshua at his demand and was gracious even when woken up early by his screams.

Aunt B and Joshua kicked up their heels on the boardwalk out to the beach.

We saw animals everywhere on the island. Deer on the beach, rabbits on the boardwalk, blue crabs in the water, dolphins playing in the ocean, horses, lizards, pelicans. What a treat!

We also got the chance to visit PopPop and Grandma Giet. Joshua is pictured here gladly accepting another dollar for his wallet from PopPop.

Grandma's assisted living facility has ponds of fish and ducks. Joshua spent one of his nickels to buy food and feed them.

Grandma drove Joshua around on her wheelchair at speeds I did not know existed for such equipment. That was a highlight for him and her.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather!

Aunt B finally gets a moment of peace while Joshua is in the water.

An excellent sequence of pictures.

Another sequence I couldn't resist. Please note Beth's facial expressions. Who is having more fun Beth or Joshua?

Then we surfed our way inland to see Dave's family.

Gran Robbye turned 94 years old last week, so we surprised her with a visit.

Joshua and Dave waited with her for BINGO to start.

A rare moment when everyone is together. So glad we were able to get this picture.

Thanks Jonathan and Michele for coming to see us!

Joshua just can't resist riding in wheelchairs with his great grandmothers.

We were able to visit Gran Robbye several times over the weekend and spend some good time with her. What a blessing that Joshua has 4 great grandparents living and that he has met them all!

We went to Kingstree on Sunday to spend the day with Dave's parents. Joshua enjoyed playing with Dave's rocking horse.

We had a wonderful vacation. The ride home went so well we made it the whole way in one day instead of our intended two days. So we have loved having a couple days at home to recover and prepare for returning to work and school. Yesterday we all went to see Winnie the Pooh at the movie theatre. Joshua did great for his first real trip to the movies. Joshua starts a new class tomorrow so I am sure there will be stories to come.