Joely updates

I decided to provide some updates on Joel since he has changed so much in the past months and weeks. As much as I want to keep him a little baby, he reminds me that he's determined to be a little boy
1. Joel loves to sweep with a broom. The last few weeks have been rainy and our dogs have tracked in lots of mud. Joel has grown accustomed to seeing Murad or me sweeping up dirt in the mornings. Now, Joel gets the broom out and sweeps before heading to his high chair. If anyone knows were we can get a child-size broom, we would greatly appreciate it
2. Joel loves to load and unload the dishwasher. Today after breakfast I washed dishes and put dishes in the dishwasher. Joel came over, so I gave him a (plastic) plate to load. He did it perfectly. I gave him a spoon and he did that as well. He just loves to be a little helper
3. Joel refuses to use his "baby" flatware when eating. He now uses the same forks and spoons that mommy and daddy use to eat
4. Joel loves to dance. I mean he dances anytime music plays. His dancing consists of stomping his feet, but it's still dancing
5. Joel is in the toddler group at the library story hour. We had tried the toddler group over the summer, but we still wasn't ready, so we kept him in the infant (0-20 months) group. Now he's in the 18-36 month group and he loves it. He still has a hard time remembering not to run under the parachute until after we sing "Ring Around the Rosy," but he's learning.
6. Joel's vocabulary has expanded quite a bit. He has now added phrases and one complete sentence. Here are some of his favorite things to say
"Abby"- he says her name probably ten times a day. Even though he's not old enough to fully understand who she is, we try to talk about his sister and show him pictures of her. I guess it's working because he loves saying her name
"Why?" - he usually asks this after we tell him to stop doing something
"Hi!" - he's always saying "hi!" It's usually to his cell phone or to strangers
"Eww!" - lately he's been saying "ew" when someone (usually his dad) does something gross. He must've learned it at daycare, right? How does he know when something is gross? Enigma
"What are you doing?" - he started asking me this question this week. The other day he picked up his cellphone and put it to his ear: "Hi! What are you doing?
7. He finally has an interest his LOL Elmo. He likes to tickle "Melmo," talk to "Melmo" and give love to "Melmo."
8. Joely has been "using" the potty, but nothing has hit the bucket yet. We're just glad he sits on his potty chair
9. Our friends were kind enough to gift us their old toddler bed, so we're getting it ready to put in Joel's room. Not sure how this will go, but we're excited as he has already "thrown" himself out of his crib once
10. Finally, Joely will go on his first time away from mom and dad. We've both been away from him overnight, but he's never stayed away from both of us at the same time. He will get to spend the night with Nana and Papa while Mom and Dad head to Kansas City to see friends and celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary. Nana and Papa's excitement is through the roof as they've already bought diapers and alerted most of the city of Wichita of his arrival. Joel will have his two best buds, Sampson & Maya, there for support. We're hoping he does well with them so that we can plan more trips in the future. Well, that's it on our awesome little man! Hard to believe he's 20 months. He's given us so much joy over the past 20 months!