freaky friday (or was it monday?!)

Josh was such a ham today. Who am I kidding?! Josh is such a ham EVERYDAY these days! We got pictures of him doing a couple of things that took us by surprise today:

When I'm preparing food or cooking in the kitchen, Josh likes to pull up his stool and watch or help. Today, I was cooking and Josh stood on the stool at the counter beside me. He discovered that there is a whole new world of "toys" on the countertop! He started pulling things off the drying rack for baby bottles and such. Next thing I know, he's doing this:
Apparently, Mommy pumps milk alot!

Josh is almost 3 and has shown absolutely NO interest in the potty. No worries, though. I'm not up for a potty battle yet, so I figure we'll wait until he's ready. So, we were shocked today at the dinner table when Josh said he wanted to sit on the potty! He said he didn't want to sit on the "little potty" but he wanted to sit on the "grown-up potty". Of course, we took him because he was showing interest! Well, he sat there for 45 minutes. All the while, one of us was entertaining him - reading books, playing with toys. At one point, he asked for his guitar. Ha! Playing guitar on the potty...freaking hilarious...

goodbye cooper

We lost our good friend, Cooper, this week. He was Nikita's buddy up in Mt. Curry. We often called Nikita "Mini Cooper" because she looks like a smaller version of him. Cooper was 10 years-old and, in Labrador Retriever fashion, always acting like a puppy. He was such a wonderful and loving dog. His owners, the Bushes, are HUGE dog people (Nikita has stayed at the Bush ranch). I feel very sad for them and it makes me want to hug Nikita and never let her go.

We hope you are running and playing with your brothers, Dexter and Tanner, in doggie heaven, Coopie. We love you and will miss you dearly.

the power of suggestion

I LOVE my conversations with Josh these days. This was a conversation we had in the car yesterday:

Josh: Mommy, we need a new kitchen.
Mommy: We need a new kitchen?!
Josh: Yeah, Mommy, we need a new kitchen.
Mommy: Why do we need a new kitchen, Joshie?
Josh: Because, Mommy, they said so on t.v.
Mommy: Oh really? They said so on t.v.?
Josh: Yeah, Mommy, they said on t.v. we need a new kitchen.
Josh: We need a new kitchen from Ikea, Mommy.

Ha, ha, ha...apparently, Ikea's commercials really work!

h1n1

Yes, I got it. Two and a half weeks ago. It was the worst flu I've even had. And I had a mild case! I'm almost back to normal now. Usually, when I get the flu, I recover in a couple of days. This took 2 weeks!

Luckily, Josh and Avery got a VERY mild version - both kids only had a fever for 1 dose of Tylenol and then they were better. I had a fever for 4 days! Of course, many symptoms lasted much longer than 4 days, but I'm glad to say that we're all better now.

Brian, somehow, managed to bypass the whole thing and stayed healthy (knock on wood!). Brian's mom also helped us out by taking Josh for a couple of days when I was at my worst. She managed to escape infection it as well (btw, thanks Mom for helping us out!).

It's so weird that I have no idea how I got the h1n1 virus. It was probably some passing contact with someone who was infected. And then I exposed Brian, his mom and the kids to it and none of them really got it! Weird...