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Josiah, you have changed so much in the past couple of months. This is one of my all-time favorite ages. You’ve been able to sit up holding on to something (like your toy bin) for support since about 7 months. Now, at 8 months, you are a full-fledged sitter. You’re rolling around all over the place and starting to pull your knees up. I’m not ready for you to crawl, son. Stay little just a little bit longer?
I made the mistake, er, choice, of not giving you nasty veggies as your first food like I did with your sister. Whereas your sister would eat just about anything green as a baby, you’ve developed quite the particular sweet tooth. Second babies have all the fun, right? You love your bananas ‘n’ oatmeal, fresh-blended for you every morning. And you love your sweet potatoes. We pretty much mix sweet potatoes with everything, otherwise I think bananas and sweet potatoes would be the only foods you’d eat. But you’re getting better. I make you fresh chicken soup loaded with lots of veggies, blend and strain it just like I did for your sister. That’s what you eat most lunchtimes. BUT mixed with sweet potatoes of course. 😉
Your first ride in the baby swing was a hit. But then you smile ALL the time, so I don’t know that it had anything in particular to do with the swing. And when I say you smile “all the time.” I mean it. Even when you’re mad, you will reluctantly smile. You are endearing my dear. There is no one on the planet that could NOT love you. Your face is spring-loaded. Smiles bounce back off you like rubber off pavement. You are a joy. You create so much joy in my life.
You do get mad. One of the places you get most mad is in your highchair. You hate sitting in that seat for some reason. You get mad just about every time we put you in it. You’re easily distracted with anything novel (and baby-safe) from the kitchen drawers, but those during those initial moments you grunt and throw your head back and whine to high heaven. You really dislike it. Not sure why. It means you’re getting fed after all! So unless we’re feeding you we try to put you in the Bumbo instead. You tend to stay content there for longer periods as long as you have something to hold on to and explore. You also get mad now when we take away something you want to see. You’ll ball up your fists and turn red and grunt.
Still no teeth. And honestly, I don’t know how close you are to getting them. You haven’t entered that “everything in the mouth” phase which is really nice. For the most part you look at things but you don’t necessarily need to suck on them. And you don’t drool either. And you don’t really spit up much anymore either. You also never blow out of your diapers. You’re just kind of a clean kid. I think we threw away about 100 onesies that your sister destroyed with poop-up-the-back explosions. Somehow you always manage to keep it in your drawers. You do tend to go about 7 times a day so MORE diaper changes, but less catastrophic ones.
You’re still a momma’s boy. No complaints. I adore you. But you’re good with most people. You give the lip every now and then to a stranger, but it never lasts long. It’s usually lip… then 10 second later, a smile. You’re babbling up a storm. You say bwah, bwah a lot and dada. They don’t mean anything yet, but it looks like Daddy might get named first. Still no mamas.
I might have to cut your hair. I haven’t decided what to do, but it’s getting long. It’s covering about a half inch of ear at this point and it starting to look silly. But I love the way it sticks straight up but to the side in a kind of side sweep. Your eyes keep getting darker. They’re still dark grey/blue, but I can see flecks of brown in certain light. They’re going to be hazel like your Daddy’s I’m pretty sure. And you’re gaining weight, thank goodness. Hopefully the doctor will be proud of us during your next checkup. My goal is to get you on the growth chart, my little one. I still think you’re going to be big at some point. Your feet seem gigantic.
You’re a perfect sleeper. Down at 6:30ish. Up at 6:30ish. You sleep through the night and require about 30 seconds of soothing in order to go down for the night or for naps. Binky and blanky and a kiss and a cuddle and you’re good to be set down. You roll on your side, suck on your binky and cover your face with your blanky and that’s it. You’re good.
I’m telling you. You are easy. I’m sure there will be challenges. (Like I have a feeling things like potty training might be more difficult with your personality… we’ll see.) But for now, I really can’t even think of an area where you give us grief. No joke. You’re amazing.
Adela Lane, my big girl. You are gigantic. Not really. You are petite and adorable and all girl. But you seem so grown up to me when I look at you now. You’re changing so quickly. It’s crazy the difference between 2 and a half and 3 and a half. It’s a world of difference. You look so grown up that I have to remind myself quite frequently that you are ONLY 3.5 years old. It’s easy to expect too much of you I think. Your face is precious to me. I could look at it all day long. I can almost seeing it changing, growing up much too fast.
You started Cubbies this year and it has made your life complete. You adore it. You live for Wednesdays. I’m so disappointed for you that we’re now on break for the summer. You started asking me “What day is it?” just about every day because you want to know when Wednesday is so that you can go to Cubbies. I just sewed your Cubbie bear on your vest. You’ve graduated your first year, learned all your verses, earned all your patches. Good job, baby!
The pink outfit with the flowered short is the first outfit you chose to dress yourself in. I’m sure it was luck, but I told you to go grab a pair of shorts and a shirt and that’s actually what you came out with. I was so impressed with your sense of style. And can I just tell you how happy it makes your photographer mother that you will pose like this for me. A little chocolate bribery is generally all it takes.
You are a wonderful sister. I love to see you with your brother. You always include him. I love that you see him a whole person, as a member of this family. When you say goodbye or goodnight, it’s to me, Daddy AND ‘Siah. He always gets a kiss or cuddle or acknowledgement along with the rest of us. It’s very sweet. And you look out for him. You’re starting to notice more if he takes something of yours. Every now and then I’ll notice you taking something away from him just because it isn’t his when my back is turned. But for the most part, you’re really great at sharing, not all that jealous and easily convinced to cut him some slack given that he’s the baby. You’re really, really good with him. I’m really proud of that. And of you. I hope I can always encourage you to be as selfless as you are with him. It makes my heart happy.
You’re starting preschool in the fall. You’re all registered. I can’t believe it. But it’s going to be really good for you. I’m looking forward to it for you. Given how much you adore Cubbies, I know you’re going to love school. You’re also all registered for swimming lessons. You’ve been really into dancing and singing lately. So I want to look into ballet again possibly. I think you’re ready now.
And you’ve finally discovered coloring! In the past week you’ve started sitting down and coloring 3 or 4 pictures in a row with those mess-free magic markers. Princesses and Mickey Mouse. I’m glad. I’ve been waiting for you to get into coloring for a while. I hope you keep it up. You know how to draw a basic face now too. Maybe last month, I started drawing with you on your chalkboard showing you how to make eyes, a nose, a face, a smile.
We can actually have conversations with you now. It’s awesome. You’re starting to fill in all those extra words, propositions and whatnot, that didn’t use to be there. And you’ve finally replaced your “me’s” with “I’s. I don’t correct your incorrect grammar for the most part, very rarely. I’ve found that you fix it on your own in your own time and really you get enough correction in other areas. I figure that’s a place that I can cut you some slack.
You have a competitive streak. You like to “race” us everywhere and tell us ” I beat you!” every chance you get.
You can be really unpredictable. You are the absolute sweetest thing on the planet, 90% of the time. But when you’re especially tired or bored or we’re just having a bad day, watch out. You can dig your heels in and make an issue of just about anything. And it’s usually when I’m not expecting it that the battle is suddenly upon me. But I have to remind myself that you’re three. As much as I try not to, I know that I have high expectations of you. And for the most part, you exceed them. I need to cut you some slack. I’ve been reminding myself of that lately. I don’t want to be too hard on you. Being a parent is hard. It’s hard to balance the discipline with the grace. It has to be frustrating being told what you can and can’t do all the time. It’s no wonder you test boundaries. I would too. I did. Just ask Mimi. 😉 And I still do.
Listening to you pray is one of my favorite things. Every night, you pray to Jesus. And I pray with you. Sometimes you don’t make much sense (to me, I’m sure to Jesus it makes perfect sense), sometimes you’re brief, and sometimes you go all out. It always makes me smile. It’s amazing how much you understand. Honestly, the way that you get spiritual concepts beyond what I would imagine possible is one of the great evidences of the reality of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think that *I* could make you understand the concept of Jesus dying for our sins. I can’t even believe you get what a “sin” is. But you will randomly say things that make it clear that in your 3-year-old mind, you get it, as much as a 3-year-old can. It’s very cool. It’s good to see, to know, that God speaks to you too.
I posted one of your favorite prayers from a couple of month ago on facebook. I’ll put it here too, for posterity. “Dear Jesus, Please help Momma not be frustrated. And help ‘Siah not be sad. And please help Mimi be a beautiful princess. And help Papa not be sad. And help Daddy be a delicious cowboy. And help me be a beautiful princess too. Aaaa-men!” 🙂
I will always say that you and your brother, my kids, are the biggest evidence to me of God’s grace. I know him better and feel His love the most through you. Huge blessings. I love you both so much.
We got to see Tia Kristy and Tio Brian, freshly back from their time in the Dominican Republic. We love them and so do you. I never take enough pictures when they’re here. They are both so good to the 2 of you, on the floor playing with you every chance they got. I’ll post a few fast family portraits we took while they were here in Papi’s beautiful backyard.