Toddler Park

These past 6 weeks Matt and I have been geocaching. It has been a lot of fun and we have found all of these hole-in-the-wall parks. Today, we found a toddler park! It was the cutest thing. There was a big kid park and then next to it was this gated toddler park. The ground was this blue spongy turf (similar to the all weather tracks you find in high school stadiums) and everything was smaller, perfect for toddlers. This is the first park where Joseph could do everything himself. Here are lots of pictures!!!

Toddler Bed

Well Sunday morning we had the wonderful surprise of being woken up by our son who came into our room to say hi. He has developed this love for climbing this past week and now has successfully climbed out of his crib. He is only 16 months old, and Matt and I had many long discussions about whether or not he was ready for a toddler bed. Having heard many many horror stories about children falling out of the crib and breaking arms or worse, we decided to move him to a toddler bed even though he is a little young. Can't say its been a fun experience, but it could be worse. I swear we have somehow transported back 15 months or so in regards to our sleep schedule. Our first night: It took us an hour to get him to sleep-finally passing out at 8. Our poor neighbors probably thought we were torturing the poor boy. Matt went it and put him back in his bed around midnight, I went in about 2 am, and then Joseph woke up again at 4:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep. As of right now we have to stay in the room in order for him to fall asleep, but hopefully in the next week or two we can get back to him falling asleep by himself. The good news is that Joseph is so kind as to come and get us when he wakes up, which means I don't have to worry about him running wild around the house unsupervised.
Its kind of sad, the last little bit of his babyhood is now gone. He is such a big boy!

Cute Joseph Moments

Joseph has always loved music. So last week I made Joseph his own sing-a-long, because you cannot find the Disney Sing-a-longs on DVD (much to our dismay). Here are some adorable moments I have witnessed while Joseph has been watching his sing-a-long.

Lion King
 Joseph was watching Circle of Life holding his lion (a stuffed animal). I turned to Matt and said it would be too cute if Joseph held his lion up like Rafeke (sp?) did in the movie. Matt laughed and said he was probably too young to do that. At that exact moment Joseph looked at Matt and then held his lion up in the air.

Cinderella
 During A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, Cinderella is singing to a group of mice and birds. I said "where are the birds?" (referring to the ones on the TV). Joseph then ran immediately over to the window and pointed outside.

Oliver and Company
 During Why Should I Worry? there are a lot of "ooo" parts. Joseph has now starting singing the "oooo"s and then funny thing is that he is actually in key!! Now whenever this song comes on he starts "oooo"ing.

Toddlerhood

Well as most  moms out there can probably testify.... toddlerhood can give you one big headache! Joseph has started into the temper tantrums. I actually wrote a semester paper on toddler temper tantrums (got an A on it too). I always learned the cause of temper tantrums is often the result of the toddler being unable to communicate their wants or needs. Because of a developing vocabulary, toddlers often lack the ability to express their frustrations verbally. Unfortunately, this usually results in whining and tantrums. To prevent said tantrums all you have to do is establish better ways to communicate and learn to see what is causing the tantrums before they happen (so you can prevent them). There are signs leading up to the tantrum.
Yeah... thats all crap. There is no communication barrier, I know exactly what Joseph wants. He wants to play with the steak knife, or torture the cat, or stick things in the outlets at church, etc. The tantrum starts when I take away whatever item he wants or prevent him from getting to it in the first place. The tantrum ends when I pick him up and cuddle him. If I refuse to pick him up he then follows me around the house, crying, and holding up his arms. I'm not sure picking him up and cuddling him will teach him that he can't have the steak knife or that tantrums are not an acceptable way to express frustration. Rock... hard place.... Me (quote from Friends for those of you who didn't get it haha).

Summer Internship

Yeah I have been bad when it comes to posting exciting information. Matt has got a summer internship!! He is going to be working with Amin Talati (an IP firm downtown). Sadly, it is not paid, but it is a great job with wonderful experience. He starts on the 16th :) Yes, the Divelbiss Family is doing their happy dance!!


Other updates... ding dong the bronchitis is gone (hallelujah). Joseph is doing great. The weather is FINALLY warming up! Spring is here! A week from today Matt will be done with finals! Life is good! 

Easter

We had a great Easter here in the Divelbiss household. Yesterday we went to a big Easter egg hunt with some families from our church. There were about 45 kids there. Joseph was absolutely adorable! He ran up to an egg, picked it up, went to the next egg, picked that up in the other hand, and then he was set. He then began to run after the other kids shaking his two eggs. I'll post some pictures of the hunt at the end of the blog. Then today Joseph wore his brand new Easter outfit, which of course made him look so much older than he really is. I swear he is 14 months going on 2 :-D Church was great. Our ward choir performed and I think it went really well. We also had a beautiful piano/flute duet that was amazing. After church we headed out to my parents house. Joseph had another Easter egg hunt (because now he was a pro), and we had a wonderful dinner. It has been a good weekend!



Our new outfit




Daddy and Joseph





Mommy and Joseph




Waiting for the Easter Egg hunt to start



Most of the kids waiting to start hunting



Finding our eggs



One in the tree



Daddy had to help us get it



Joseph is actually jabbering about his egg that he found



We are up to 4 eggs!



More Sickness-blah!

This winter has not been kind to Divelbiss household. We all have been passing around all of our colds (most of which originally came from Matt's law student friends), and to add to the joys of it all Joseph has now experienced the joys of bronchitis :) My baby can't do anything small... he not only has bronchitis but is pushing through 4 molars all at once! He is on antibiotics now and should be feeling better in the next few days. On a brighter note, a few weeks back Joseph got his picture taken with the Easter bunny and he looks absolutely adorable!!!

We couldn't get him to hold still through his entire session but once he was in the Easter Bunny's lap he held still long enough for us to get some great pictures. This one is one of my favorites... he is cuddling with the Easter Bunny!!! The photographer said he was just about the cutest baby she had ever seen! Got to love my boy, he is a handful but he is just so darn cute!!!!






In other news Matt is still on the job hunt for an internship this summer. He has some firms that he is still waiting to hear from, so we are hopeful. His last week of classes is next week and then he heads into finals. We are both looking forward to the end of his first year with great excitement!!! Here are a few  more pictures of the cutest toddler in the world!




We call this his "Oh Mom" look





We love to play the piano with daddy