Racing Into Boyhood!

Josiah, or “Siah” as he calls himself, is now two and a half!  Though if you ask him he’ll say he is four, since that is his favorite number.  With some coaxing he’ll come clean and say he’s two.  I guess we can officially kiss babyhood goodbye and welcome boyhood and all that comes with it.  I know that the first year of life  is supposed to bring about the most change, but surely this phase is a close second.  I can’t believe how much he has grown and developed.  I can have whole conversations with him without even thinking about it and he is physically capable of so many things that I can’t even keep up with it in order to challenge him a little.

Josiah “helped” Jacob put mulch out with his dump truck.  He loved it and still talks about it.  I’m thankful for a husband who takes the time to do tasks with his son for two reasons.  One, I believe it is good for both of them on many levels.  Two, it gets him out of my hair for awhile!

Josiah is excellent (one of his favorite words – so cute to hear!) at puzzles.  So good, in fact, that I’m often surprised.  His new favorite song is “Row, row, row your boat” and he enjoys “Ring Around The Rosie”, too, except he says bad words when it comes to the “ashes, ashes” part, if you know what I mean.  This summer he has taken great delight in experimenting with his swimming skills.  He is still a great eater, though a bit more opinionated at times and pizza is still his favorite food by far.  His newest thing is to ask for a “party” at the end of his meal.  This started one day when I had made him Jello for the first time and told him that I had a surprise for him.  “Surprise” somehow turned into “party” and now that is what he calls Jello.  When I correct him he just calls it “prize” instead.

Josiah is also becoming pretty good with catching, throwing, and kicking balls.  He’s pretty good with his t-ball set, too, but you never know what direction the ball will go!

He seems to know his numbers and colors pretty well, but he picks and chooses when he’s willing to show his skills and he pretty much won’t do it with me for some reason.  I’m not sure about his knowledge of the alphabet yet, mostly because that often involves the song and, again, he’s not fond of singing any song with me except his current favorite.  But, in general, he always seems to know more than he lets on, then one day he just comes out with things you never knew he knew.  I guess he listens after all.  It’s like he’s a teenager.

Speaking of teenagers…he is now in a big boy bed!  Later I’ll post pictures of his whole new room, but here is a sneak peak of him in his horse bed.  He made the transition really well and does not get out without permission, though I have caught him holding onto the sides and jumping.  Bad boy!

Jacob couldn’t resist taking this bed head picture.  This was after he slept in until 10:30 the other day when he was sick.  We knew something was wrong then because he always wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30.  By the way, I think he looks SO much like Jacob as a kid here.

Aside from dirt and stains, we have had our first home damage due to a rambunctious boy – we have a hole in the wall.  He knows he’s not allowed to hit the walls with his toys or run the ride-on toys into them to stop and he’s usually really good about it.  However, we discovered a hole low in the wall that neither of us can account for and it looks mysteriously like it was a result of being a backstop.  I’m sure it is the first of many, though I’m not excusing it.

I’ve had a gigantic bubble wand in the closet for about 2 years and I finally broke it out the other day.  I should have done it much sooner.  So cool!

In the past Josiah has been pretty attached to Jacob and I and has preferred to stay with us.  Even though he’d stayed there on occasion in the past, there was a time period where he didn’t even want to stay behind at Grandma’s to allow us to go on a date, much less spend the night.  Grandma is a softy and didn’t have the heart to make him (though we were willing!).  He loved being there, he just wanted us there, too.  Last month, though, out of the blue he started wanting to go home with Grandma when she left our house and to stay behind when we left hers.  So we took him up on it and he stayed at her house one night and had a blast!  He’s been willing ever since, but finding an opportune time is tough.  Grandma is much more fun than us so I have no doubt it is more fun than being with us!  It is cute to hear him say “bye Mommy, bye Daddy” when we are trying to get him to come home.  He also kicks us out of his room that way at night.

We continue to struggle with Josiah’s GI problems, though we are relieved that it is not to the same miserable intensity.  It seems to fluctuate from one extreme to the other and we just can’t get it under control, despite our best and tiresome efforts.  I’m really looking forward to potty training because I believe he’d do great (mentally and cooperatively), but I’m just not sure his GI tract will allow it.  We’ll see.  The other thing we have been working on is the thumb sucking.  I also wanted to do this sooner, but with the GI stuff, the room change, bed change, and new baby, I’ve put it off and let him have it.  We’ve been working to only allow it in the car and when he sleeps (two times that seem impossible to end at this point) and he’s been doing really well with it except when he’s tired and grumpy, then we compromise. 

  Here they are on the bobcat driving over to our neighbors house to help do some work.  Josiah loves this!  Here he’s saying “bye Mommy” and waving.

The other thing that has become a bit of a struggle is the “terrible twos”.  I can vividly remember having a conversation with Jacob when Josiah turned two that I was worried that he wasn’t learning discipline and things that go along with behavior modification because he was always so well behaved and we very rarely had to punish or correct him.  Well, those days are over!  He is still a very good boy, but whether it is due to his age or having a new baby in the house, he has begun to test his limits – sometimes tirelessly.  Though he obviously loves Elijah, we think there is a direct link there, not to mention the increased stress in our household not only due to the needs of an added family member, but also due to Jacob’s busy season and my return to work.  So, we are now making conscious efforts to counteract that and we’ll see how it goes!

Before Elijah was born I read several things saying that the older child will often revert back to baby-like behavior after they observe the new baby.  Some examples were refusing to feed themselves or no longer using the potty.  This is what Josiah does…he asks to be held like a baby.  It is farely rare and is usually short lived, but it is very sweet while it lasts.  This particular day was after naptime when he got some juice.  He ran and got his blanket, then asked Jacob to hold him and feed him his juice.  He refused to hold the cup himself.  He could also be doing this just because up until about 2 months ago we rocked him in our laps at night while reading a Bible story and drinking milk before bed.  Now we just lay in bed with him, so he may miss that.  Thankfully he’s too active for it to become habit!