Chatter Box

Joshua's new favorite word = "Away" as in get away "Away mama" or as in put it away in reference to him wanting his milk in the fridge. And this morning he said to Kevin, "here you go Daddy" as he handed him a train. It's with a toddler accent, but we can understand him and it's so much fun!

Water Park

Joshua's school has its very own water park in the back of the facility. Thursday night was family night and Kevin, TT and I went to watch Joshua in action. The kids had a blast and so did we as we chowed down on hamburgers and watched Joshua and Tim play and splash in the water park (it's really a slide, some water squirt things and a fort like thing - but the kids love it).

Joshua dragging Tim to go find buckets.

Hilarious - Dads in work clothes while the boys play and get them wet!

Boys and another big kid taking turns filling their buckets up w/ water.

Joshua getting ready to throw water on TT and me.

Joshua checking out how much water Tim has left.

Boys throwing water.

Getting ready to go down the slide...

Wee... here he goes! This amazes us because a few months ago Joshua would have never done anything where he would get water in his face and now he goes down this slide all the time. Thank goodness he's not afraid of water splashing him in the face anymore.

Joshua sheilding himself from the downpour of water!

What a fun night! Even TT had a good time despite being bit by bugs and almost breaking her ankle when she attempted to walk through a bed of rocks in 3+ inch high heels. Kevin didn't even ruin his work clothes while playing w/ the kids and chasing them throughout the park - impressive.

Next weekend we celebrate Joshua's birthday party w/ about a dozen toddlers. Wish us luck!

Fathers and their Sons

Greg and Kevin getting their drink on at UGA

Greg and Kevin hamming for the camera.

Harrison and Joshua - these apples didn't fall far from the tree! :)

These two will ride the same bus when they start Kindergarten at the same elementary school the same year. Watch out class of 2021! I wonder what Harrison's and Joshua's alter ego names will be...

Playing Hard!

I love cars!

3 Generations of Milman Men

Double-fisted before 2 - Impressive!

Daddy That Way!

Joshua and Kevin took a walk before I took him to school. He LOVES to be outside! He's very curious and loves to point things out to us lately. It's so awesome watching him grow and really special to see him learn new things. While he's exerting his independence, he's still as sweet as ever! When I was getting ready to take off for school, Kevin asked me to roll down the window so he could give Joshua a kiss goodbye. After he kissed Joshua bye, Joshua said, "one mo daddy." And of course Kevin gave him one more and then Joshua pointed to me. I asked him, "do you want Daddy to give Mommy a kiss?" And he said, "yeah, momma, yeah." Love him!

Joshua bossing Kevin - pulling him where he wants his Daddy to go.

"No, no, no, no" - Finger Waiving and all!

Going for a walk - looking and listening for the birds. (This is probably one of my favorite pictures.)

Making the House OUR Home

After a whirlwind of decisions - should we stay or should we move to Houston-we decided to stay. With that being said, we started working on our mile long list to turn our house into a great home that we always wanted. One of the check list items is to replace our window treatments. We are installing 31/2 inch wood plantation shutters up on the entire front of the house, wood wovens in the basement and dinning room and honey comb shades in the back, upstairs bedrooms. The honeycomb shades and the wood wovens were installed last week. We love them, especially the honeycomb shades b/c we think that it's the main reason Joshua napped for 1 hour and 40 mins on Saturday and 2 hours and 30 mins on Sunday. Wow! That sure beats his 30 min naps and then me driving him around for another hour ever weekend.

Dinning Room w/ the Wood Wovens

TV Room in the Basement

Guest Bedroom in the Basement - No More Worrying About Kids Spying TT

Honeycomb shades in the back bedrooms

We decided to install blackout honeycombs so when the shades are down, it's dark in the rooms. The blue room in Joshua's room and you can sorta get the idea how the shade works. And yes, I know the crib is backwards... we had to turn it about 8 months ago because Joshua was climbing out of the side where the rail is lower. The green room has its shade down and you can get a better idea how it darkens the room when it's down. We hope that Joshua will permanently napl like he did last weekend and if he does, these shades are worth every penny and then some!

I'm a Big Boy Now!

The new thing that we do at the Milman household is we go down the slide at our n'hood pool. Kevin took Joshua down the slide for the first time and Joshua LOVED it. Now we practice all the different ways we can go down the slide. Hopefully a future post will include pictures of them going down the slide!

Daddy showing Joshua where to put his arms.

Joshua practicing looking at the camera while going down the slide (okay, that's a little fib - he's watching Sagwa the Cat on the Sprout Channel).

Our night time routine includes lots of different things, but it most often includes terrorizing the cats and making messes. Luckily, Fox and Nala know the pecking order around here and they pretty much tolerate Joshua.

Joshua trying to sneak up on Fox.

Joshua looking for his "Daddy" so they can play flashcards.

Joshua is going to be 2 on July 28 - where has the time gone! It seems like yesterday we brought him home and were scared to death that we were going to break him. It's amazing how much he's grown over the past year. He's talking some now - even gives us a sentence or two on occassion. "No momma, Joshy want Daddy." "No, dumb dumb down." "Uh-oh, pooh pooh, yeah." Speaking of the ol' deuce, we are making progress on his interest in the potty. If he's naked, he'll pretty much go pee in his potty now and I'd say 60% of the time now he'll either alert us that he has to go "uh-oh pooh pooh" and we'll get to the potty on time or he'll let us know he's gone and needs to be changed. I think we may try to start potty training in the 3 - 5 months. I'd like to wait a little longer once he's in his big boy bed, but we shall see. I think seeing the older kids at "school" is motivating him some to take an interest in the potty. Thanks Creme - at least you are good for something.

We are obsessed with Dora now. Dora this and Dora that - all we hear about is Dora. First it was the Wiggles, then it was the Doodlebops - more specifically Moe and now it's Dora and sometimes her sidekick Boots. Kids! We like to watch Dora, it's better than those crazy "bops!"

I'll try to post more often. Believe it or not, I've actually had work to do the past two weeks - shocking!