Josh has had quite an eventful week this last week. We've had High's and Low's, happiness and tears, laughter and screaming, proud and disappointed, every emotion possible has happened.

Let's start with the proud. Last Friday, right before bath time, Josh did his acrobatic climb up to the toilet. I'd film this and post it because it is so funny, but I'm afraid I'd get in trouble for child porn or something. Anyway, the way he scales the toilet and balances on the lid, then in one quick motion, drops 'into position' is something to see. He's been doing this for a while and peeing before getting into the tub. We haven't started 'potty training' yet, because several other 'signs' you are supposed to watch for haven't happened. But he likes to take pees before bath, and also likes to falsely declare that he is going to poop. This in itself is pretty funny as he starts grunting and groaning, then with a cheer, "No Poop?!" as if surprised and happy at the same time that nothing came out from all his 'work'.

Well, tonight was going to be different. I was actually in the kitchen as Ann volunteered to get in the tub with the kids when I heard the exclamation from Ann, "Terry, I think Josh pooped! Come in here." So missing out on the surely 'dramatic performance' Josh put on the toilet, I came in and saw that Josh indeed did poop (rather large too :S). He was so pumped about it. He couldn't stop telling everyone he has seen. Anyone that will listen, Josh will enthusiastically explain to them how he "had a big load on the toliet, yep."

Moving on to the tears. The next day after his poop accomplishment, Josh woke up in the middle of the night crying. This is not uncommon enough to get me to concerned, but as I got out of bed and walked downstairs towards his room, all of a sudden, the crying turned into screaming. I picked up the pace getting to his room, expecting to see him 'hurt' in his bed somehow (bumping his head on something was my first thought). I turned on the lights, and Josh was sitting there with a shocked look on his face, the kind you see in cheesy 'thriller' movies where the person has blood all over their hands and face but in such a state of shock that they look like they 'don't know how it got there'. Well, that was the exact look Josh had, but instead of blood, it was puke all over. As I took down the crib gate and reached for Josh to console him, what do I get for this 'caring gesture'? He proceeds to puke again all over me and him as I rush him to the bathroom. Now Josh was really crying as this was the first time he had really puked and realized, if you want to call it that, what was going on. I'm sure it was still pretty scary, but he only threw up once really before, and that was at about 1.5 years old.

When I was in the bathroom, I quickly stripped Josh out of his PJs and I could tell that Josh was going to puke again and I held him over the toilet and had him puke in there. He threw up a bit more, then was 'finished'. I stood him up and he was trembling and covered in vomit. It was everwhere, in his hair, ears, nose, face, chest...everywhere. I told him we had to shower off and told him to wait for me. I started the shower and quickly went and got his blankets and anything else with vomit on it from his room and threw it in the laundry room. We took a shower together and he was pretty lethargic and miserable. By now, Ann came down to see why the shower was running and I told her what happened. We finished the shower, then took Josh up into our bed to lay down for a while. Almost immediately after laying down, Josh wanted to go down to his bed instead and used his sure-fire phrase "Snuggle me Daddy" to make sure I stayed with him. Of course I was going to tonight. The clock read 3:30 or so and it had been about 25 minutes since he had woken up. I told Josh that you only puke in the toliet and to let me know if he has to puke. Not more than five minutes later, Josh tells me that he has to puke and we go into the bathroom and low and behold he vomitted in the toilet. I was quite impressed with how mature/brave he was about telling me in time to get to the toilet, more than I can say for some of our family members ;)

Well, this was just the beginning. We moved out to the couch and with Josh sitting in my lap, we started to watch Polar Express (Josh's new favorite movie). Over the next 3 hours, we watched Polar Express back to back and Josh probably puked about 8 more times. Again, the most impressive part to me is that every time Josh told me when he had to vomit and we went into the bathroom and did it in the toilet. Even in the last few times it was quite an internal conflict with Josh. He'd tell me he had to puke, and when we walked into the bathroom he'd start crying because he was sick of puking and didn't want to, but when the 'moment of truth' came he'd always lean over the toilet. Poor little bugger. And every time he puked, even if just a couple spit ups of flem, he wanted to get into the shower to clean off. It was hard to convince him through all his tears that we didn't need to shower every time, but he'd always come to an understanding.

So we finally got to bed about 6:45 or so, and Josh woke back up at 7:40, so he didn't get a ton of sleep. Of course this night was one of the first nights Audrey didn't wake up every three hours. She only got up once! (too bad Josh had us up all morning) You know, as parents, you never can win can you?!

Changing the emotion to disappointment, last night, Josh got into a bit of trouble. I think he's still recovering from being sick and is more tired than usual, of course leading to misbehaving. Anyway, bathtime was ending and I had Audrey in her room putting on lotion and PJs. I heard Mom trying to get Josh to get out of the tub and he wasn't listening. It went back a forth a couple times, then Ann gave Josh the 'count to three' warning. Usually by three, Josh is 'snapping to it' regarding anything that he is being warned about but not tonight. So Ann resorted to, "I'm going to get your Dad." She came in and told me to 'deal' with him, and I handed over Audrey to Ann. When I walked in the bathroom, Josh was face down in the tub (no water of course) and didn't see me walk in, which would make me all the more effective.

"GET UP RIGHT NOW!" I boomed in my 'mad' voice. Josh flinched/jumped so much that he almost hit the ceiling. "WHEN MOM TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING, YOU DO!" This is where the challenge comes. I can easily discipline in my 'mad' voice, but I need to make sure not to laugh when Josh is reacting to it. By this time, Josh is sheepishly, fumbling his way out of the bathtub. Trying to do it fast, while at the same time he knows he's in trouble and has a cowardly slump in his shoulders and his head is down - all contradicting his efforts to move fast. Just to get a little entertainment out of it, I boom, "HURRY UP JOSHUA!" He gets out of the tub and I wrap him up in his towel 'fast' and with a 'pissed off look' and refuse to look at Josh in the eyes. I do this because Josh 'loves' interaction and chatting, so I think (I'm probably wrong) by doing this, I'm taking away something he likes and he knows he is being punished.

"I want to listen now..." Josh manages to mumble is the humblest of voices.

"BE QUIET! YOU ARE BEING BAD! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU TALK!" I pick him up and we 'storm' out to the kitchen and as I set him on the island, "YOU SIT THERE AND BE QUIET, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR A PEEP!" Josh covers up his face with his hands and towel and fights back the tears. I prepare his bottle and by now, it almost time to 'make up'. I pick him up and set him on the floor, "YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO MOMMY! GO SAY IT AND HURRY UP!" Josh takes off sprinting so fast his towel falls off, so I see his little tush bouncing towards Ann.

"Sorry Mommy for not listening" Josh says in his most tender voice. Ann gives him a big hug, then he comes running back to me to get approval too. "I wanna listen now!" He must have told me he wanted to listen and that he was sorry about 15 times while I put on his PJs and lotion. Making up with him is so much fun because all he wants, is for us to love him and he'll do anything to get it (of course he'll always have it and doesn't even realize that when we are 'mad' we are faking it). I don't look forward to the days when we discipline him and he 'hates' us instead :S

Note, funny thing about this was that Ann said as soon as I started 'scolding' Joshua, Audrey perked right up and was looking around all nervous. Trying to figure out what was making her normally 'nice' Dad soooo mad. She already knows the tone of my 'mad' voice and Ann said she was pretty attentitive and even didn't do her Royce Gracie routine during the bedtime ritual. Maybe I should 'scold' her during that to get her to calm down ;)

Finally, we'll finish with proud again since that is what Josh makes us all the time. This morning, Josh had to go to the dentist to 'get his tooth fixed'. He was pretty excited about it since he loves drills and I told them they would use a drill to fix his teeth. I don't think he quite understood what was going to happen ;) Let's back up a bit, we took him in about a month ago, because we noticed a 'black spot' when we were brushing his teeth that we couldn't get clean. While he was in there he was extremely good. A dentist and two dental assistants were in the room and were very impressed with how he sat still and listened to what he was told to do. Of course this makes any parent proud. So today, I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go given that they need to give him 'Laughing Gas' (I'm not even going to try and spell the real gas name), and then would proceed to drill his tooth.

We got called back and Josh immediately morphed into his 'listening' mode. I can tell when he does this by the way he looks at people - almost with a hint of timidness, but more like sincerity - and just moves a little more slowly in general. Anyway, they placed him in the chair and the assistant started chatting him up (which of course is Josh's favorite thing to do). They have flat screen TVs at our dentists (I don't think dentists make enough money <sarcasm> so they turned on the Doodle-bops and Josh was pretty pumped. After 10-15 minutes, the dentist came in so it was time to give Josh the gas. Of course the mask was too big and that was an issue, but Josh was a trooper sitting still and doing what they asked. Even when the mask would slide down onto his mouth or up into his eyes, he'd just sit there waiting for someone to notice and fix it. So once the mask was positioned in the right spot for the most part (it kept falling off during 'surgery' which was annoying for Josh), Josh didn't realize that he was supposed to stop chatting. I mean he was having a blast talking about all the drills, the vacuum (the thing to suck spit/stuff out), the big flashlight (the light dentist uses), and the Doodle-bops, but as soon as they asked Josh to keep his mouth closed and breath through his mouth, that's exactly what he did.

So much so, that I was getting a bit worried - can anyone say addiction? ;) Josh had his lips pinched shut and was taking deep breaths through the mask. I was trying to watch him for any signs that the gas was taking affect, but I didn't notice any. The dentist asked how Josh was feeling only to get back his standard reply, "Goooood". But to me that meant nothing. I saw that the dentist was getting ready to start, and I thought no way in hell is this going to go down right now because I didn't think the gas was working since they had to keep adjusting the mask and it kept falling off. Well, I was very surprised. They got the drill out, asked Josh to open his mouth, and he complied. They fired up the drill and that awful sound started and I expected Josh to jump when it touched him. Maybe even exclaim one of his patented, "Ooouch! That hurts! Don't do that any more!". But Josh didn't flinch one bit. He looked like a statue. They drilled away and filled his tooth and he sat there taking it better than I probably do.

Here comes the bragging ;) Although, people who knew Josh was going to dentist are going to ask me how he did and I'll just direct them to this post. A couple assistants had walked in and out. I didn't realize what for at the time, but after the procedure, the dentist asked how old Josh was. I told him 2.5 years old and he replied, "That's amazing. I think he's our youngest patent ever and he did fantastic. I can't believe the way he sat there." Then the assistant who helped out said she'd never seen anything like it either, and the praises for Josh kept coming. The two other assistants who had walked in and out stopped Josh and I on way out and commented how impressed they were with him. They said when they saw the scheduled appointment at the beginning of the day for a child, they always expect 'screaming' to be going on and that was why they walked in. They didn't know if the dentist wasn't working yet or if the gas had knocked him out or what. But when they saw him awake and mostly alert following direction they couldn't believe it. Great job Josh! You make Mom and I look better than we deserve ;) You are definately a trooper and very well behaved little boy. I think Mom will be taking you someplace 'special' when she hears about your dentist trip today.