Before I get to what "it" is, I must brag about our genius child. Annette will be 18 months this coming Friday, still young enough to be considered a baby but old enough to be a kid at the same time. She never ceases to amaze us with the things she learns each day. She has learned how to manipulate adults into giving her what she wants. It doesn't always work out for her, much to her disappointment. She's figured out that if she wants to be picked up and comforted all she has to do is lay on the ground and kick her legs and slam her fists. She tries this with Grandma after her cousin just a few months older than her is comforted after falling down. Her language is what amazes us most, though.She is able to communicate just about anything she wants with words. In the last week or so I have enjoyed counting with her. We were walking through the store and she started saying "one, two free, four." She said it about three times before I figured out what she was saying. Then the other morning as we were leaving she said "one two free four five sis." I was a proud momma! Since then, I've been able to get her started by saying "one" and then she'll say "two free four five." After five is sometimes six and sometimes seven. If I give her eight after that she'll say "nine" and I'll finish with ten. I'm not sure if she has figured out how to use numbers to count objects. She's been able to count to three with objects before but I haven't seen her go past that. I'm very excited to spend the next week home with her during fall break to see what new things she can learn!
So.... "it" has arrived. I thought we had hit "it" at about 13 months, but now I know it's really here. At 13 months that was just the start of the transition to toddlerhood. I think now at about 18 months, we have hit the "terrible twos." I know that's supposed to be when they're 2 years old, but in talking with other mommies, it seems like it goes for more like 2 years- from 18 months to 3 and a half. She was a pill and a half today. Nap time is usually very easy. She says she's sleepy and asks for night night and then goes to bed. If she decides she's not quite ready to sleep, she'll play until she is. Today she threw a fit and half taking a nap. And because she was throwing such a fit all day today, she ended up taking two shorter naps instead of her usual one long one. So it was two huge tantrums. Tonight we went to put her down for the night and it was an even bigger tantrum than any other today. Just screaming and crying like she might die. Speaking of manipulation, she kept throwing her baby doll (her most prized possession) out of the crib then begging for it to get us to go in there and get her out of bed. I did go in there but to her disappointment I only gave her back the baby doll and left. She has finally calmed down after some attention from daddy.
So there you have it, we are now the parents of a terrible two at 18 months. Still wouldn't trade it for anything, though!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Happy Fall
Well, writing on this blog has not turned out like I thought it might. Abram has been pestering me to update it for a while now and I'm finally in the mood and available. I'm not quite sure what happened in February but at the end of March, as a slightly early birthday present, Abram got me my very first tablet. I had been wanting one and he totally surprised me with it! But without a keyboard, it's hard to really write blog posts so I'm blaming that on my lack of updates.... :)
Obviously we finished up last school and we have started another one. Only a couple weeks from fall break now! We celebrated Annette's first birthday in April with a dinner of chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and ice cream cake. Almost all family members from both sides were able to come celebrate. She got her very first baby doll from Mommy and Daddy and it has gone everywhere with her ever since. Sometimes she likes bringing other toys with her, but baby us always one of them. When she grows up she is going to be a mommy. I don't know if she'll be anything else, too, but she's ready to be a mommy now. Every time we tell her it's time to leave she goes looking for her baby. She needs to work on how she holds that baby sometimes, though.
Our summer went by too fast. I almost worked the afternoons at the theater in June and July but in late April I decided I wanted to stay home with Annette for the summer. So we had lots of fun while Abram worked full time. We did get to go on a little vacation to Utah in late July and that was fun. We headed up there for a family reunion for Abram's mom's family. I really enjoyed getting to know that part of the family. By the time we got home, Annette was so excited to sleep in her crib again and not the pack n play. She was pretty sick of riding in the car, too.
We did get to experience two things this summer; one that I didn't mind that much and wouldn't mind happening again, and one that I hoped never would and never will again. In late June we found out we had a surprise pregnancy. I was already several weeks along and although I had some big plans I was trying to put in place for the school year right at the time I was now due, I quickly adjusted them and we were very excited. Just 5 weeks later in early August, a few days after returning from our vacation, I miscarried that pregnancy. Even though the pregnancy was a surprise, we were still devastated. Within a couple days we did become very grateful for the experience and were thankful that circumstances had worked in our favor to make the experience less devastating than it could have been. We were thankful it wasn't our first pregnancy, we hadn't worked months for it, and we did not yet know the gender. We are excited for the opportunity to try for a little brother or sister for Annette when we are ready, though, in the near future.
My school year is shaping up really well. I love my new schedule with four orchestras in a row, and then two theatre classes in the afternoon. One of those classes is technical theatre so I finally have a dedicated group of people to do lighting, sound, costume, and set design. They are helping me to be so much more organized. My other theatre class is an acting class. Our new choir teacher is phenomenal and the kids really enjoy him.
Abram is back to school with a full schedule and working three days a week. He seems to be doing fine but has to work extra hard in his Physics class. He recently got his 1976 Suburban back to our house so he could work on it and has since gutted out the insides.
Annette is approaching 18 months in October and is the joy of our lives. Her language skills are incredible.For quite a few months she's been saying full sentences like "where's the puppy?" "where's the baby?" and "where'd it go?" She has started to be able to communicate just about everything she wants with words. She knows that "up" and "down" go together and what it means to be stuck. I took her to a volleyball game at school last week and she kept pointing to the court yelling "ball!" and in between plays she'd look around, shrug her shoulders and say "where'd it go?" She just loves her cousin Kingston, who is 7 months older than her. They play together at Grandma's at least twice a week while their mommies are at work. Every time she sees him she giggles in delight. She loves books and baths and playing with toys. We were quite impressed recently when she asked for our friend, Ciara, by name. She never ceases to amaze us with the new things she learns each day. Watching children grow is an incredible and rewarding experience.
That about sums up what's been going on in our lives. So to finish, here are some family pictures taken by our lovely sister-in-law, Lindsey, while we were in Utah in July.
Obviously we finished up last school and we have started another one. Only a couple weeks from fall break now! We celebrated Annette's first birthday in April with a dinner of chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and ice cream cake. Almost all family members from both sides were able to come celebrate. She got her very first baby doll from Mommy and Daddy and it has gone everywhere with her ever since. Sometimes she likes bringing other toys with her, but baby us always one of them. When she grows up she is going to be a mommy. I don't know if she'll be anything else, too, but she's ready to be a mommy now. Every time we tell her it's time to leave she goes looking for her baby. She needs to work on how she holds that baby sometimes, though.
Our summer went by too fast. I almost worked the afternoons at the theater in June and July but in late April I decided I wanted to stay home with Annette for the summer. So we had lots of fun while Abram worked full time. We did get to go on a little vacation to Utah in late July and that was fun. We headed up there for a family reunion for Abram's mom's family. I really enjoyed getting to know that part of the family. By the time we got home, Annette was so excited to sleep in her crib again and not the pack n play. She was pretty sick of riding in the car, too.
We did get to experience two things this summer; one that I didn't mind that much and wouldn't mind happening again, and one that I hoped never would and never will again. In late June we found out we had a surprise pregnancy. I was already several weeks along and although I had some big plans I was trying to put in place for the school year right at the time I was now due, I quickly adjusted them and we were very excited. Just 5 weeks later in early August, a few days after returning from our vacation, I miscarried that pregnancy. Even though the pregnancy was a surprise, we were still devastated. Within a couple days we did become very grateful for the experience and were thankful that circumstances had worked in our favor to make the experience less devastating than it could have been. We were thankful it wasn't our first pregnancy, we hadn't worked months for it, and we did not yet know the gender. We are excited for the opportunity to try for a little brother or sister for Annette when we are ready, though, in the near future.
My school year is shaping up really well. I love my new schedule with four orchestras in a row, and then two theatre classes in the afternoon. One of those classes is technical theatre so I finally have a dedicated group of people to do lighting, sound, costume, and set design. They are helping me to be so much more organized. My other theatre class is an acting class. Our new choir teacher is phenomenal and the kids really enjoy him.
Abram is back to school with a full schedule and working three days a week. He seems to be doing fine but has to work extra hard in his Physics class. He recently got his 1976 Suburban back to our house so he could work on it and has since gutted out the insides.
Annette is approaching 18 months in October and is the joy of our lives. Her language skills are incredible.For quite a few months she's been saying full sentences like "where's the puppy?" "where's the baby?" and "where'd it go?" She has started to be able to communicate just about everything she wants with words. She knows that "up" and "down" go together and what it means to be stuck. I took her to a volleyball game at school last week and she kept pointing to the court yelling "ball!" and in between plays she'd look around, shrug her shoulders and say "where'd it go?" She just loves her cousin Kingston, who is 7 months older than her. They play together at Grandma's at least twice a week while their mommies are at work. Every time she sees him she giggles in delight. She loves books and baths and playing with toys. We were quite impressed recently when she asked for our friend, Ciara, by name. She never ceases to amaze us with the new things she learns each day. Watching children grow is an incredible and rewarding experience.
That about sums up what's been going on in our lives. So to finish, here are some family pictures taken by our lovely sister-in-law, Lindsey, while we were in Utah in July.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Back to the grind
This post may not have happened as soon as I thought it might, but it is my second one this month!
We returned to school and work the first Monday of this month and it's hard to believe we're finishing up our fourth week back already. Abram is taking classes only in his field this semester and working three days a week after school. He's taking a night class on Wednesdays, so Annette and I get to spend some quality time together that night. I went back to work the same day and I'm continuing to work hard at building up my music programs. One thing that has been "solidified" about next year for me is that I will no longer be teaching choir. I will only be teaching orchestra. When I graduated and was looking for a job, I thought that my dream job was to teach orchestra and choir and do after school drama at a small school. I found just that. Well after a year and a half at that, I've learned that that's too much for one person to do. I don't know how I did it as a first-year teacher while pregnant. I also have realized that while I'm adequate at teaching choir, I'm not great and the choir program could be much stronger with a "real" choir teacher there. Plus, my orchestra program suffers because I can't spend all my time focusing on just that. So I'm excited to welcome a new choir teacher in and hand them that program in the fall.
Annette is growing so fast! She's already 9 and a half months old and we're starting to look ahead to her first birthday. She loves spending time with her grandma during the week. She has gotten to be a pro at clapping, standing and holding on with just a couple fingers, and crawling up and down stairs. She has also gotten smart enough to know how to be sneaky. We're working on standing. She doesn't trust that she can balance herself but sometimes we get a second or two before she starts to go down. At her 9 month appointment a couple weeks ago she measured between the 75th and 90th percentile in height but only the 50th to 75th in weight. I don't know what that means for the future yet, but she seems on track to be taller than mommy.
And now that I've gone through the boring stuff, here are some pictures for your enjoyment:
We returned to school and work the first Monday of this month and it's hard to believe we're finishing up our fourth week back already. Abram is taking classes only in his field this semester and working three days a week after school. He's taking a night class on Wednesdays, so Annette and I get to spend some quality time together that night. I went back to work the same day and I'm continuing to work hard at building up my music programs. One thing that has been "solidified" about next year for me is that I will no longer be teaching choir. I will only be teaching orchestra. When I graduated and was looking for a job, I thought that my dream job was to teach orchestra and choir and do after school drama at a small school. I found just that. Well after a year and a half at that, I've learned that that's too much for one person to do. I don't know how I did it as a first-year teacher while pregnant. I also have realized that while I'm adequate at teaching choir, I'm not great and the choir program could be much stronger with a "real" choir teacher there. Plus, my orchestra program suffers because I can't spend all my time focusing on just that. So I'm excited to welcome a new choir teacher in and hand them that program in the fall.
Annette is growing so fast! She's already 9 and a half months old and we're starting to look ahead to her first birthday. She loves spending time with her grandma during the week. She has gotten to be a pro at clapping, standing and holding on with just a couple fingers, and crawling up and down stairs. She has also gotten smart enough to know how to be sneaky. We're working on standing. She doesn't trust that she can balance herself but sometimes we get a second or two before she starts to go down. At her 9 month appointment a couple weeks ago she measured between the 75th and 90th percentile in height but only the 50th to 75th in weight. I don't know what that means for the future yet, but she seems on track to be taller than mommy.
And now that I've gone through the boring stuff, here are some pictures for your enjoyment:
She was happy to be on a walk at the memorial park
Boo from Monsters, Inc!
I don't know how it ended up on her eyebrow
Helping daddy pack for a weekend drill
She does her own laundry!
Addicted to TV already
Sometimes eating just makes me tired
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Happy New Year!
It is my goal to write on this blog more often this year. Not so much for you as readers (sorry), but for me and Abram as a record for our family. So if you don't see a post for awhile ever, bug me about it.
The fall semester came and went for us really quickly. We're glad that Abram passed his classes and is prepared to move on to more. He's looking forward to an internship (hopefully at the place where he currently works!) next summer and I'm looking forward to a fun second semester in my second year teaching. I actually get to finish the school year this year since last year I left at Easter on maternity leave. My school is in the process of trying to get a bigger campus. It has been promised to us but we don't know if it will happen next fall or a whole year later. We're keeping our fingers crossed for next fall!
Annette is a happy, cute baby. She is the joy of our lives. We have enjoyed spending the time with her during vacation. She's 8 months old and starting to get where she understands how to play and laughs at the silly things we do.. She crawls all over the place (has been since she hit 7 months), stands up on everything, and is starting to throw big tantrums! Welcome to the next 18 years of our lives.... :)
Christmas was tons of fun. My brother and his family came in from Utah two days after Christmas so we had Christmas with my family on the 28th. So the celebration went on the entire week. Annette got tons of new clothes, a high chair, an entertainment saucer, a walker, some toys, and some neat dolls and stuffed animals. Just what a baby likes. Mommy and daddy got new sheets, some movies, accessories for the truck and some great decor pieces.
We are excited to see what 2013 has in store for us and the blessings we will receive!
The fall semester came and went for us really quickly. We're glad that Abram passed his classes and is prepared to move on to more. He's looking forward to an internship (hopefully at the place where he currently works!) next summer and I'm looking forward to a fun second semester in my second year teaching. I actually get to finish the school year this year since last year I left at Easter on maternity leave. My school is in the process of trying to get a bigger campus. It has been promised to us but we don't know if it will happen next fall or a whole year later. We're keeping our fingers crossed for next fall!
Annette is a happy, cute baby. She is the joy of our lives. We have enjoyed spending the time with her during vacation. She's 8 months old and starting to get where she understands how to play and laughs at the silly things we do.. She crawls all over the place (has been since she hit 7 months), stands up on everything, and is starting to throw big tantrums! Welcome to the next 18 years of our lives.... :)
Christmas was tons of fun. My brother and his family came in from Utah two days after Christmas so we had Christmas with my family on the 28th. So the celebration went on the entire week. Annette got tons of new clothes, a high chair, an entertainment saucer, a walker, some toys, and some neat dolls and stuffed animals. Just what a baby likes. Mommy and daddy got new sheets, some movies, accessories for the truck and some great decor pieces.
We are excited to see what 2013 has in store for us and the blessings we will receive!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Fall Times
Things have been great around here at the Joslin household. Mommy and Daddy go to work/school every day and Annette goes to Grandma Joslin's or Aunt Becky's. She finally decided about a month ago that bottles were ok again and ever since then she has been perfectly happy going wherever we need her to go. Daddy got a job three weeks ago and really enjoys his time there breaking concrete and running other samples. He got a brand new truck two weeks ago as a reward for getting his new job. There's not much more of an update to give you so I will grace you with many pictures, as I know that is the reason you all get on here anyway :)
She loves her Jenny Jump Up
Which toy do I choose......?
I ready for school!
Ciara, give me your Taco Bell or I will unleash my thumb!
The new baby
She's gonna be a Trekkie :)
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Change of Plans
When last I wrote, Abram was preparing to leave for deployment to Afghanistan and I was going to be home all summer with Annie until I went back to work the first week of August. Within 2 weeks all of that was changed. A couple days before Abram left, I got a call to teach half days at summer musical theater camp during the month of July. I agreed to do that, knowing I would have to leave Annette with a family member every day for about 3 hours. We didn't really need the money with Abram's deployment pay coming in but I still felt the need to take the job.
Abram began his duty on June 9th and took off for 30 days of training an hour away in Florence the following day. A week later, on June 16th, he informed me he was on the way back to Mesa to go to the hospital. He had been having issues with sitting down without pain for the entire week. After a few hours at the hospital, he said they were going to perform surgery to remove an abscess. So Annie and I went down to the hospital and got to see him and wait while he was in surgery. The surgery went great and he came home with us the next day. His recovery time was at least 4 weeks of no physical activity. When the Army heard that he would be missing all of his deployment training, they closed the books on his chance to deploy. All of a sudden all of our plans were changed! While the con to this was losing that extra income his deployment would bring in for us, the pros were numerous: staying home with and taking care of Annette through her first year, getting another year of school done, and not needing to be separated from his family. And we were very happy that I had gotten some work to do for the month of July!
So the summer has passed quickly and I have already been back at work full time for two weeks. It took a few days for Annette to adjust to mommy being gone all day every day, but she has come to love her daddy so much and almost doesn't need Mommy at all anymore. And if she was still as willing to take a bottle as she used to be, she really wouldn't need me. She gets by with just cereal during the 9 hours I'm gone.
In July we took a trip to Salt Lake City to see my brother, his wife, and their three boys. The youngest is 5 weeks younger than Annie. We had lots of fun and Annie actually did pretty well on the long drive. We did the drive in one day both ways so by the last 2 hours or so she was getting pretty cranky but for the majority of the ride she was an angel.. It was so fun to see our family up there and her cousins Shawn and Alex sure enjoyed seeing "Baby Nett."
As I said, I am back to work. Four months was almost too long to go without seeing my students because I really wasn't looking forward to going back. I would prefer to stay home with my baby girl. But once I saw those 180 students of mine and started talking with them, I was glad to be back. I still would love to be home with Annette but the fact that I really love my job makes it that much easier to be there every day.
Annette and Abram have been having too much fun at home without me. The first day I was gone all day she was traumatized by the time I got home. The second day she was just upset. The third day she seemed pretty neutral and by the fourth day she was happy and didn't really care that I was home. After two weeks now she is a little angel while I'm gone and even helps daddy with some home projects, like painting a wall in our bedroom last Friday.
Abram starts school this Thursday and is sounding like I did three weeks ago. He doesn't want to be away from his little princess every day. We know she will be in great hands with Grandma Joslin and Aunt Becky, though, while we are both at school.
And now I will finish with some more recent pictures of Annie. She's growing so fast!
Actually, just kidding. I forgot Abram emptied the pictures onto his computer last night. I will post them later from his computer!
Abram began his duty on June 9th and took off for 30 days of training an hour away in Florence the following day. A week later, on June 16th, he informed me he was on the way back to Mesa to go to the hospital. He had been having issues with sitting down without pain for the entire week. After a few hours at the hospital, he said they were going to perform surgery to remove an abscess. So Annie and I went down to the hospital and got to see him and wait while he was in surgery. The surgery went great and he came home with us the next day. His recovery time was at least 4 weeks of no physical activity. When the Army heard that he would be missing all of his deployment training, they closed the books on his chance to deploy. All of a sudden all of our plans were changed! While the con to this was losing that extra income his deployment would bring in for us, the pros were numerous: staying home with and taking care of Annette through her first year, getting another year of school done, and not needing to be separated from his family. And we were very happy that I had gotten some work to do for the month of July!
So the summer has passed quickly and I have already been back at work full time for two weeks. It took a few days for Annette to adjust to mommy being gone all day every day, but she has come to love her daddy so much and almost doesn't need Mommy at all anymore. And if she was still as willing to take a bottle as she used to be, she really wouldn't need me. She gets by with just cereal during the 9 hours I'm gone.
In July we took a trip to Salt Lake City to see my brother, his wife, and their three boys. The youngest is 5 weeks younger than Annie. We had lots of fun and Annie actually did pretty well on the long drive. We did the drive in one day both ways so by the last 2 hours or so she was getting pretty cranky but for the majority of the ride she was an angel.. It was so fun to see our family up there and her cousins Shawn and Alex sure enjoyed seeing "Baby Nett."
As I said, I am back to work. Four months was almost too long to go without seeing my students because I really wasn't looking forward to going back. I would prefer to stay home with my baby girl. But once I saw those 180 students of mine and started talking with them, I was glad to be back. I still would love to be home with Annette but the fact that I really love my job makes it that much easier to be there every day.
Annette and Abram have been having too much fun at home without me. The first day I was gone all day she was traumatized by the time I got home. The second day she was just upset. The third day she seemed pretty neutral and by the fourth day she was happy and didn't really care that I was home. After two weeks now she is a little angel while I'm gone and even helps daddy with some home projects, like painting a wall in our bedroom last Friday.
Abram starts school this Thursday and is sounding like I did three weeks ago. He doesn't want to be away from his little princess every day. We know she will be in great hands with Grandma Joslin and Aunt Becky, though, while we are both at school.
And now I will finish with some more recent pictures of Annie. She's growing so fast!
Actually, just kidding. I forgot Abram emptied the pictures onto his computer last night. I will post them later from his computer!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Annette's Blessing
Today was Annie's big day! And she cooperated really well from getting a good night's sleep to being happy all morning and all the way through smiling through her blessing at church. My mom made her dress and used some lace left over from when she made her own wedding dress 34 years ago. She always wanted to make a blessing dress for her own daughter using some of that left over material but ended up with something different for both of her own daughters. So once she knew she was getting her first granddaughter she was prepared! Here she is in her beautiful dress:
Yes, the dress goes a few inches past her little feet. She has not gotten quite that tall yet!
The blessing was beautiful. 14 men standing in the circle around her as she was blessed with health, happiness, and a wonderful companion some day. Abram said she was smiling and looking straight at him the entire time. She was still staring at him after he finished and he was coming back to the bench. She is official in the records of the church now and has her first big ordinance complete!
After the meeting was over, the Joslin and Benitez families took off and went back to my parents' house for some brunch. It was so delicious! We took some pictures there while some of the food warmed up. Here she is with her best friend and cousin, Spencer.
The blessing was beautiful. 14 men standing in the circle around her as she was blessed with health, happiness, and a wonderful companion some day. Abram said she was smiling and looking straight at him the entire time. She was still staring at him after he finished and he was coming back to the bench. She is official in the records of the church now and has her first big ordinance complete!
After the meeting was over, the Joslin and Benitez families took off and went back to my parents' house for some brunch. It was so delicious! We took some pictures there while some of the food warmed up. Here she is with her best friend and cousin, Spencer.
We took a four generation picture today, also. My grandpa, my mom, me and Annette.
We were so excited to share this special day with our families. It is so fun to see how our entire families get along with each other! We missed a couple of our brothers and their wives and four nephews though.
One last thought: Annie has been working really hard over the last 10 days to master thumb sucking ever since the first time she figured how to do it. The other night she was getting sleepy but wasn't going down so I just set her on the couch between me and Abram. A couple minutes later, this is what she looked like:
Our continuing steps to getting her to pacify herself while sleeping are working! She'll be able to put herself back to sleep on her own before we know it!
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