interview with a three year old

What's your name? You call me Joseph. Make a J for me.
What do you call yourself? Joseph. Leo calls me Ba Ba.
How old are you? Three! (Holding up four fingers)
What is your favorite color? Green
What is your favorite food? Macaroni, yogurt, oatmeal
How do you make oatmeal? First we need the dyeing thing (food coloring). Dyes in the oatmeal, put in my oatmeal, then water, yogurt, chips from strawberries like Papa makes. That's all. That's all I said.
What is your favorite animal? Dog
What is your favorite book? Lion King
What is your favorite store? Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee is my favorite, favorite store.
What is your favorite restaurant? The macaroni restaurant far away.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A priest
Why? I want to sit in the big chair. I'll go up there and get the gold cups, after I read the Bible story. Other people will get the wine and water for us to make Jesus.
When I get bigger I will drive a tractor.
When I am BIG BIG BIG like my Daddy I will drive a John Deere combine.
What do you like to do with Mom and Dad? Ride in the car, and with Leo, and get the mail.
*At this point Leo coughed.
I gotta get down and see...what's the problem with Leo. What's the problem Leo?
*Assured that all was well, we continued.
What is your favorite game? Hungry Hippos
What is your favorite place to visit? Cole's house, she makes apple pie. HoHo (Santa) he brings presents. Nana and Papa, pumpkin pie (it's a secret family recipe-I told Leo), Wahoo. I like to grow pumpkins.
What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk
What do you want to do today? I am going to the library, and to Runza, and to Daddy's work, and to the music place (Jazz in June) and to Applebee's (all but Applebee's was true).
What do you like to do in the yard? Dig
What did you plant with Papa? Pumpkins
What is your favorite outfit? Bulldozer, underwear, overhauls, tennis shoes.
Not your cow boots? My cow boots if I am riding a cow-just in case-I get a lasso and I ride it!

my sweet pumpkin pie,

Today marks three years since our Firecracker burst into the world. You are such a precious gift to our family and I thank God everyday for giving you to us! You teach us to laugh, often. To slow down and watch the pumpkins grow. You are quite the little host. I love to "spin around" and dance with you. We are so proud of the gentleman you are becoming, and grateful that you are not "an adult," quite yet, even though you declare it to be true, often (causing me to become misty eyed of course).

You request copious amounts of books and are able to quote many of them, even though you lament, "I can't read." You take such good care of your animals, which, for various reasons, are all named Brownie. Except for the two yellow dogs named Clifford. You are such a sweet and loving brother, although you think Leo is your turtle and try to ride him every once in awhile, justifying that it is okay because, "he didn't cry." You encourage his tackling and hair pulling with belly laughs that are contagious. You sing endless verses of Old McDonald when he is fussy.

Sometime, somewhere this year our toddler turned into a pre-schooler. Your tummy became "flat like a dodge ball" to quote VeggieTales, although any time we mention it you puff out your belly and say, "No, round like a dodge ball." You can reach the counters and help Dad make brunch every weekend. You go potty "like the big boys do it." "I can do it," is one of your favorite expressions and with that mischievous sparkle in your eyes, you usually can.

Happy Birthday Joseph!

green monkey party

give thanks for all things

Joseph: Thank you Jesus, for kites, and bacon, and polka dots.

oh my

Joseph did not start walking until he was 16 months old. I suspect Leo will be sooner!

renegade

We spotted this growing in our flower bed shortly after it sprouted:

The vine is now encroaching onto the sidewalk.

At first we suspected my dad, Mr. "If there is a hole, then you should plant it." We had bright red tulips growing in the middle of our old lawn, an Easter surprise from him, that re-grew and even multiplied in spite of the fact that Jude mowed them down and never dug up the bulbs. However, he denied any and all responsibility.

Suspect #2. We questioned Joseph, who readily admitted his guilt. We asked where he had gotten the seed, "From the package," came his matter-of fact response.

Jude proposes that we make our jack-o-lantern right on the vine. What do you think?

father's day 2009

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Jude-thank you for being a great husband and father to our kids. I am especially grateful that you took off work to help the potty training effort. You are the best!

Inspired by several mother's day interviews, I picked Joseph's brain about his Dad:

What is your Dad's name? Jude
What does he like to do? Daddy likes to dig
What does he like to eat? Food
What kind of food? Potatoes
What is Daddy's favorite game? Jumping
What do you like to do with Dad? Jump
Where does he like to go? Hy-Vee
What does he buy there? Pancakes!!!
What is Daddy's favorite color? Blue
What does Daddy like to wear? What I pick out for him everyday (his Newman Center polo)
What does Daddy do best? Cake baker, putting out a fire, cutting the grass
How do you know Daddy loves you? Because he's a hard worker, he's working outside

Jude (in the aforementioned polo) and Joseph

Jude's Dad

My Dad

dinner prep

Joseph decided to help wash the tomatoes for our salad-with soap in the bathroom sink!

musical petting zoo

One of our library summer reading events that I thought Joseph would love since he always wants to play my flute. There was also a saxophone, xylophone and violin, along with a symphony member helping the kids at each station, but the trumpet was his favorite! What did/do you play?

stopping to smell the roses

downtown after Jazz in June. Joseph loved this week's "picnic" from Arby's: ice cream in a cup (chocolate shake) and pig tails (curly fries)!

felis biaje

Farewell (in Chamorro) to our assistant pastor!

name that person

Joseph: What about that one who can't walk?

(perplexed pause)

Me: You mean your brother?

Joseph: Yes!

rose garden

lions

and Leos. At ten months old, our little cub is loving table food-especially black olives, yogurt, cheese and crackers. He loves crawling through the "hobbit hole" behind the couch and is trying to climb the stairs! He has started putting weight on his feet, forcing them down when we put him in a sitting position. Leo loves balls and seems to have the same panache for attempted escape as his brother. He loves playing with his tongue, sticking it out, making odd noises and chewing on it-which has resulted in multiple forced jaw openings to check for choking hazards. He seems to be tree nut allergy free-who would have thought Health Nut bread actually contains nuts? Oops!

zoo

Our parish Mom's group trip to the zoo.

unexpected pro-life message

qha

Joseph knows the entire alphabet! He began singing from q-z, the h-z and now the traditional a-z!

Pedagogically I find this very interesting. Have any of your kids memorized things in a similar backward manner?

aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas is a special saint for our family, and one of those included in our nightly litany. Rather than simply saying "Pray for Us" in response to the name, Joseph says "Aquinas?!? Why you say Aquinas? You don't need to say that!" with his emphatic two-almost-three-year old authority.

Tonight we visited the chapel of a high school named for this saint to surprise one of our Godteens on retreat there. Joseph made many visits to the chapel. I love the engraving! On the the lectern it says "THE WORD," on the altar "THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH" and below the tabernacle, "AND DWELT AMONG US."

Joseph continues to play "altar" and dispense the "chips" from his plastic ciborium. He said when Jude gets really, really old, he can be one of those guys on the altar (an acolyte) and he will ring the bells.

cheers

Our Girl's Night Out at James Arthur Vineyards Summer Concert Series.

Their Pokey Red, Late Harvest Seyval and Rasberry Mede were new finds from my tasting.

a boy and his dog

Joseph decided to take Brownie the dog (not to be confused with Brownie the horse, baby orangutan or cheetah) to the Farmer's Market with us today.

lip lickin' good

YoBaby!

cataracts and art

Jude's dad stayed with us after his cataract surgery. Joseph made his first finger painting as a get-well gift. I picked up a Crayola Color Wonder finger paint set with paper at one of our neighbors garage sales, I thought Joseph would like the "magic" of paint that changes from clear to a color. Turns out he prefers normal acrylics and water colors. Nonetheless, it was a nice picture, a bit impressionistic, which I found ironic since Claude Monet himself suffered from cataracts.

workin' on the railroad

We had a play date today with a few of my college friends. Joseph and the other boys (there were only two little girls in the bunch!) entertained themselves digging and filling in a hole:

(You may notice that the infamous 'apple boots' have been replaced by cow boots. Although they served him faithful in rain and sun, they are cracked and had to be replaced. Luckily these were on clearance at Target. They even have tails!)

We were treated to a colorful smoking train by our hostess Lisa:

Joseph liked the bell:

the pod squad

Joseph, Jude and Collin at Jazz in June. We enjoyed the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra's beautiful evening concert with some friends, it is always fun to see who you will bump into there! One of Jude's student secretaries took this photo (thanks Michaela!)