Josiah brings us JOY

I have been thinking about wanting to do this post since Josiah turned THREE!  I want to remember all of the things he is doing right now and share with you the funny, cute things he does every day.  This way if you don't know him, or want to get to know him better you can by reading this list of cute things (at least I think they are cute) that he does.  Things that I will miss him doing once he "outgrows" them.  Bear with me, it may be a long list....


*Josiah has always been a really good talker.  He started talking at a young age, but he still has some cute things he says "incorrectly" and I love it.
    He will ask us "May I have some WATERN?"  Watern = water!
    I know most kids say this but instead of saying Don't he will say something like "I not yike (Like) that."  I love that he doesn't say "I don't." and he says "I not" instead!

*It melts my heart into mush when he hugs me around the neck and says "I yove (love) you so much, Mommy!"  Or "You are my favorite."

*I love it when he says "Mommy, ask me nicely for...(whatever toy he wants me to have to play with).  This is a newer thing that he has started and I think it is so cute.

*Sometimes when he is being silly he will pretend to wipe my kiss away and he thinks it is hilarious!  He cracks up.

*He loves to say "I do it all by myself, Mommy."  (I am pretty sure he gets that from my independence),

*He ALWAYS knows where we are going even when I don't tell him.  He has insanely good sense of direction and can tell me where to drive to get there.  He will say "turn here mommy to get to_______."

*Josiah LOVES LOVES LOVES his daddy!!!  He wants to do everything that Josh does and can't wait for him to come home.  If Josh has to work late and he doesn't get to see him, his first question to me the next morning is "where my daddy is?"  Or if I am talking to Josh on the phone Josiah has to say something to him.  He will say "Hi Daddy.  I obeying Mommy today.  I yove you!"
       
*He always wants to play with his friends and wants people to come over everyday or asks to go to someone's house.

*Recently he has gotten a really great imagination. He pretends things all day long.  He loves dinosaurs, matchbox cars and Mickey Mouse!  I enjoyed watching him play and playing along with him. 

 *He has really gotten good at puzzle and completed a jigsaw puzzle completely on his own today (of course it was a t-rex dinosaur.)

*At least 4 times a week he will ask either Josh or me (or both) "Mommy/Daddy can we go to the I-Cream place (which is ice cream)?"  Our favorite place to go here is Sweet Berry Frozen Yogurt and it is so good and very cheap!  We are able to go about once every 10 or so days.  The employees know Josiah...and Josiah gets the same thing every time.  Vanilla I-Cream with blueberries, 3 gummy bears, cookie bears (which are Teddy grahams..that is what he calls them), marshmallows and rainbow sprinkles.  WE LOVE SWEET BERRY!!!

*He still LOVES his blankie and will always love it.  A friend of mine gave me one that is the exact blankie, but he totally knows the difference and won't take the other one.  The only time he will use the other one is if I am washing HIS and he will say "Ok, I take the other one, Mommy."  He will never sleep a night with it though.  I always wash his during the day.

*He goes to bed with a "friend" (AKA Mickey Mouse), but never usually ends up keeping him in there.  If Josiah gets up once he looses his friend.  For some reason, he very rarely stays in his bed the first time.  It is like he needs one more kiss or something, so we take Mickey.

*Josiah is VERY good at sports and his favorite one this week is football.  He can catch and throw a football great for his age.  He also loves baseball...he can even hit a pitched baseball.  He then has to throw the bat down and "run the bases."  We love that he is so into sports.

*He now enjoys his bike with training wheels and just last week rode a mile on it
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*As I am sure every parent has this with their kids, Josiah tends to test the limits lately.  He will say or do something that he knows is not ok with us and look at me with his big brown eyes as to say "what are you going to do?"  Of course we take care of it and move on to the next thing.  I wonder when he will stop testing the limits...ha ha - probably never!!  There will always be a new adventure and stage we have to push/discipline through.

*Josiah loves to help and recently has started pulling his step stool out from beside the refrigerator to help me do whatever it is I am doing.  I love it, but some times I would rather get it done faster...however, I know there will be a day when he won't want to help me anymore or will be busy playing with friends or in school and won't be able to help so I let him do it as much as he wants. 

*We started giving Josiah showers about 3 months ago when he started getting a rash on his bottom.  We weren't sure what was causing it, but soon determined that he has a sensitivity/allergy to the bathrooms wipes and it is now gone.  But, now he is set on taking a shower and if we say something about it being "bath time" he quickly corrects us and says "it is shower time, Mommy."  I guess bath time is in the past!! 

*While Josiah was a baby we never had to deal with him being a climber or being rough.  He still isn't a climber and doesn't test his limits by climbing on things.  He just doesn't like heights, I guess.  But...HE IS ALL BOY!!!  He LOVES to play ROUGH!!!  I don't mind him playing rough, but I am trying to learn a good way to teach him there is a time and place to be rough.  He can't wait for Daddy to come home everyday and before Josh even walks into the door he asks him if they can wrestle.  I don't want to take away his want/need for being a rough/tough kid, but I want him to be able to know when it is right and wrong.  I honestly didn't think he would be like that when he was younger because he was so timid and gentle.  Things have changed for sure and he keeps me on my toes all day long!!

*Josiah loves the computer and I am shocked at how well he knows how to use it.  He will ask me if he can look at pictures or videos of us on there and he knows how to work it.  When we go to the library he helps me with the computer there - using the arrows to look for books that he wants to check out!  Kind of crazy that I didn't even know how to use a computer until I was in high school and they have definitely changed since then for sure!!

*I am very grateful that Josiah eats and sleeps well!!  We never have to argue with him over eating healthy or taking a nap!  I will always feel blessed with that!!  He usually always asks during lunch if it is nap time and always goes right down and straight to sleep.  We had a short time where it was difficult at night making him stay in his bed, but we seemed to have conquered that (I hope)!  He only wakes up in the middle of the night if he has to go potty, but that only happens on the occasion he drinks to much at dinner or something and when he gets up he always goes right back to bed!

*In the last few months, he learned his very first Bible verse Philippians 4:13.  We are so proud of him!! 

*He knows how to spell his name out loud and I am slowly working on teaching him how to write it.  That may take a little while! 

*Josiah LOVES music and used to call it "mumic."  He says it correctly now, which makes us sad - ha ha.  He is constantly either playing his toy guitar or singing into his microphone.  He gets his love for music from his Daddy.  If it were up to the two of them there would be music playing in our house 24/7.  I have to have some quiet sometimes. 

I could go on and on about Josiah!  I just wanted to blog about some of the things so that I can remember them as time passes.  It feels like he is growing up SO fast and I don't want to miss a thing!!!

"Debbie Downer"

I am usually not one to have a "Debbie Downer" kind of day.  I am a very optimistic person who enjoys everything I do.  Not a real fan of feeling this way and I know things will be better tomorrow.  I just feel like I have a lot on my mind.  The day started off with me not being able to workout because my alarm didn't go off.  I feel so much better when I exercise and I needed that today.  I have taken some time off of doing Insanity the past couple of weeks to see if that may help with our pregnancy issues.  Since I am not pregnant and feeling kind of blah about myself I thought I would start it back up this morning.  If you are like me, and you don't get your workout in first thing in the morning, chances are you won't fit it into your day!  Things get busy and it just gets pushed to the next day.  Plus, once I am showered and dressed I just give up on it for the day.  It is hard enough some days to get a nice shower and dressed properly with makeup and hair, so forget about doing it twice in one day!  I like being presentable when Josh comes home from work..not in workout clothes or sweats, but in something decent with my hair done and at least a little makeup on. 

Another thing that has gotten me down today is thinking about this court date we have tomorrow morning.  Back in March we had a patio put in our backyard and the guy did a completely awful job!  We decided since he wasn't going to try and make it right, and to be honest, we don't want him to be on our property anymore, we would take him to small claims court (which is something we have NEVER done before).  The day we were scheduled to small claims, he had a lawyer come and try to settle with us by saying he would come and fix it.  NO THANK YOU!!  So, we hired a lawyer to help us with going more into it.  Our pictures are good enough to win and our lawyer feels sure it will be fine, but I am nervous.  We spent money on this patio and now we can't even use it.  We are more than likely moving in May and will need to have it fixed before we put our house on the market to sell or rent.  We have to win in order to pay for the repairs, but even if we win, we are definitely not guaranteed to see that money any time soon.  I am just praying that it all works out for our best.  We have a professional witness come with us to state that is was in fact done incorrectly and is now a safety hazard.  We shall see!!!  Praying for a nice judge - one who will see that he lied about the work that the guy did.

I have been reflecting today on our miscarriages, too.  I don't know why some days are harder than others.  Back in July when I had the second miscarriage I felt like I was doing fine.  It has gotten harder as the days go by.  I think about how far along I would be right now...I see other women who are pregnant and are probably where I would have been in their pregnancy.  Believe me, I SEE A LOT OF PREGNANT WOMEN!  Today at the library for story time I am sure there were at least 5 in there (I would like to drink what they are drinking)!  I would be 5 months along right now, so if we wanted to find out what that baby was going to be, we could know by now.  I would be feeling the baby move and planning what to do in the nursery.  It just stinks to be honest!!!  I don't know why the Lord took those two babies to Heaven, but I never imagined you could love a baby without ever meeting him or her.  It is a pain that I wish upon no one and if you have experienced a miscarriage I understand and I am SORRY!!!  17 Months is a long time of trying...although I know for a fact that there are people out there who have tried longer!!!  I know that there are mothers out there who have had harder pregnancies...even birthing their babies and having to say goodbye!  MY HEART ACHES FOR THEM!!!!  I cannot even imagine their pain and empty feeling!  Josh and I long to have another child, but I wonder if that is God's will for us.  I am not saying that in a negative way, but what if He has other plans for us?  I am praying now for my heart to be open to those plans!  I am definitely NOT giving up on us having another little blessing from the Lord, but realizing that I may need to be open to other options, too!  We never imagined it would be this hard or take us this long to get pregnant again.  We got pregnant so fast with Josiah and I had a wonderful pregnancy.  I loved being pregnant.  It is just a shock to me (us) that we don't have another little one already!   We will keep on trying, knowing that the Lord knows best and will protect us and allow us to grow through all of this.  I am grateful for whatever He is teaching us through this and I promise to grow deeper in my relationship with Him and Josh!!!

I am beyond blessed to have such an amazing husband!!!  He is so amazing and encouraging!!  He is my best friend and I am so thankful to have him home with me!!  He is such a great husband and father to our little man and it brings me so much joy to see them interact!  I can't imagine my life without either of them!!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Josiah!

Happy Birthday, Lil Man!!  I meant to write this several days ago on your birthday but time got away from me!  We are so proud of you and can't believe you are already 3!!  It seems like we were just bringing you home from the hospital yesterday and now you are riding a bike with training wheels, catching footballs, hitting pitched balls, spelling your name and running around like crazy!!!  You definitely keep us busy and on our toes.  You are such a blessing to us and we are grateful to the Lord for allowing us to be your parents! We hope and pray that we are being the parents the Lord called us to be for you!! 

I hope this year goes slowly with you.  I hope we can treasure each new thing you learn to do and just enjoy our time together!  You are growing so fast!  I can't believe you weigh 40lbs and are 3ft. 2 inches tall.   Didn't you just weigh 7lbs. 8 oz???  You do love to eat...you will pretty much anything that we feed you.  You wake up every morning and after saying "good Morning Mommy" you then ask "is it time for breakfast?"  I love that you eat your vegetables and fruit so well and it is always so fun to see you enjoy the food I prepare!  Your doctor thinks you are a future football star and I do agree with her!  You are just a solid boy!

Speaking of being BOY...you are ALL BOY!!  When you were younger I would talk to friends whose children were climbing and jumping off of things and you never did that when you were younger.  Your "no fear" factor came recently.  While you still really aren't a climber, you definitely like to do other things that make me cringe and pray that you won't get injured.  You LOVE your friends and sometimes get a little too excited to be around them!!  You are much calmer when it is just us at home, but I love watching you play and interact with your friends.  I love that you have a gentleness about you when you are around your friends that are girls and you care about them, but it sometimes scares me at how rough you can be with your little buddies.  While I want you to be a BOY, I want you control you roughness sometimes and make sure you are respecting your friends.  I am sure this "roughness" will be something we battle for a while but we will continue to work on it.  The fact that you love your friends and are always asking to play with someone in particular makes me happy...but then sad knowing we will move away soon and you will learn what it really means for you to be a son of an Army man. 

I love when you wake up from your nap and you just want to sit with me and read a book (or two, or three...or the same book over and over and over).  I know that there will be a day when you may not want to do that again, so I cherish this time with you everyday!!  I love taking you to gymnastics, even though sometimes it is quite the workout for me keeping up with you.  You look forward to going to the library every Monday to have story and music time.  You always get into the songs they sing.

You have been three for 5 days and it has been filled with fun and tough times.  Daddy and I say that a switch went on the day your turned three with a whole new set of "phases" that we have to work through.  I know I have said before that I wasn't a fan of the word "phase" when it came to a child, but I am learning!  They are phases and it is a matter of how long the phase will go on based on how we discipline for it.  Overall, you are the best child for us!!  We are beyond blessed to have you as our son and we can't wait to see what this year brings. We love you, buddy!!!  We hope you know how proud we are of you each and every day!!!!!  Happy Birthday, Josiah!