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



The past month...

I realized it had been a while since our last post. We finally managed to get rid of the sickness that wanted to take up residence in our house. Joseph was sick for a whole month and now that he is better he has more energy then anyone knows what to do with. We are also thankful that it is warming up because now Joseph can go outside and run around. Whenever he walks around outside he has to pick something up (usually a branch or leaf) for each hand. If both hands aren't holding something we cannot do anything until the problem is rectified. We have spent some time at the park. We enjoyed the slide :) He went down one that was only about 4 feet tall holding mom's hands and then he went down a big one with mom (which mom barely fit).
Matt just finished up his Spring Break and we were all sad to see him head back to school. Matt is still doing the fun process of finding a internship for this summer. The ecomony has made it really hard for 1st year law students to find much of anything (unless you are in the top 5% of your class).  Here are some cute pictures of Joseph so you can all see how big he is getting!!

 This is Joseph and Mickey going for a ride in their car.

 Walking or running EVERYWHERE!

 My cute boy!

If Joseph sees you with the camera preparing to take a picture, he will give you his big cheesy grin and close his eyes (preparing for the flash of course). It is pretty cute but sometimes hard to get a picture :-D

Our past month...

February has not been the nicest to us. Two weeks ago I got really sick, 48 hours of pure misery. About 24 hours after I got sick, Matt got sick with the same virus. Joseph ended up coming down with it about 24 hours after that. I was lucky enough to only be down with this intestinal virus for 2 days, however, the boys were not so lucky. By about Saturday (the 12th) everyone seemed to be doing better, less trips to the bathroom (or diaper changes in Joseph's case), but Matt and I thought it would be best to cancel our Valentine's Day plans. By Sunday we were all doing better that we were about to enjoy Joseph's birthday party. I'll post pictures at the end. However, Matt started feeling pretty bad on Wednesday(the 16th) and got progressively worse everyday. By Thursday night I was about ready to take him to the ER, but his doctor thought we could wait until morning. Friday was also pretty bad, I thought about taking him in again, but once again the doctor didn't think it was necessary. By Friday night he was really bad that the doctor said if he doesn't improve in an hour we need to take him to the Emergency Room. He started feeling better about a half hour later so we once again avoided the ER. In spite of all my cleaning, Joseph came down with the same thing about 2 a.m. Saturday morning and is still sick with it. So once again we had to cancel our rescheduled Valentine's Day plans. Matt is finally is better enough to go back to school today. Hopefully he won't push it too fast too soon, but he is so behind. Whoever was nice enough to give this to my family needs to be beaten with a stick!

On a happier note, here are some pictures of the one fun thing we have done this month, Joseph's birthday party!


Joseph's birthday cake



Taking a big bite

His awesome birthday mustach

Everyone else's cake

Opening presents

His new horsey

Playing with Uncle Mitch

Playing with Cousin Tessa

Blizzard of 2011

We had quite the snow storm last night. Once Matt got home we were able to buckle down and enjoy the storm. When we woke up this morning we were completely snowed in... unless we wanted to walk through thigh high snow. Maintainence finally dug us out about 2:00 in the afternoon to which we immediately undug our car. Joseph enjoyed the snow, well he enjoyed eating the snow. Here are some pictures :)



This is what we found when we opened our front door this morning.



Our back porch



Our bikes were buried all the way up to the seats. Its ok we weren't planning on biking any time soon anyways.



The gazebo



This is our car. Its hard to see but the snow drift is about as high as our car.