In the mornings I'll often ask him what colour shirt I should wear, and almost every morning he decides that I must wear my purple shirt. Even if it isn't in the options that I give him... But he really likes Mommy in purple apparently. And then when he's getting dressed he almost always wants to wear his orange shirt (of which he's got a few). And he'll very proudly touch and talk about his orange shirt during the day then! But he's started also getting his own clothes out of his cupboard now sometimes, so his choice is now broadening - but probably mainly because he can't always see or reach an orange shirt.
We try to do Family Home Evening with Joshua every week, sometimes more successfully than others... In general it consists of an opening and closing prayer, one slightly more reverent song, and one fun song, and then a 1 minute lesson where we talk about some pictures in the Nursery manual. And of course he has his favourite ones, like there's a picture of a family playing with a ball... But that's my son for you. But what he also often asks to see is a picture of "Je-yus". He takes great delight in looking at pictures of Jesus, often studying them for a long time, and also just pointing out pictures of Him as we're going through a book or something. The main thing that we try to bring out in every one of our very brief lessons is that all the different things we talk about all come back to the fact that "Jesus loves you".
Joshua is also very observant while we're driving around in the car. Almost constantly he'll be telling us about things he's spotting - the cars, trucks, buses, traffic lights (and he pretty much knows red means stop, and green go), umbrellas, planes, animals, bikes, trees, shops - it amazes me how much he's seeing all the time. And when he tells us about it he'll normally also tell us the colour and the size, so he's practising all the time!
He loves to "drive" our cars any chance he can get. One day when we got home we literally were in the car for 45 minutes with Joshua driving! (Andrew's arrival home was the only thing that stopped it)
We were giving Cindy and Richard a lift home from church one day, and on all of the hills around the Bellville chapel the 3 of them in the back were pretending they were on a roller coaster. There were all sorts of squeals and long "uuuuup"'s and "dooowwwwn"'s. Just look at the little tongue Joshua was pulling when he was going down!
We bought Joshua some sunglasses for when we're driving - he often complains that the sun is too bright, and I know that I can't drive without sunglasses. He doesn't always want them, but if he does ask he generally keeps them on for quite a while!
Of course it's not always fun and games when we're driving ;o)
I'm trying to take Joshua to the library every two weeks, and while we're there he'll go and fetch a chair so that he can sit by the shelves that have his books, and then he'll take great delight in looking at all of them. The last time we were there he (completely on his own) chose a train book and a truck book. He's such a boy! And then since we've had the books at home he and Daddy love looking at these books especially when they're together ;o)
Then a couple days after we'd been to the library, when we were driving home, Joshua suddenly started talking about the "libry". So I decided to take a detour so that we could drive past it - and he just looked with big eyes as we drove past, and then we came home and looked at his books again...
Some of the other really cute things he's saying is "e-koo" for "Thank you", but the pitch of his voice tends to be quite high ;o) And I think its much more of a game than knowing that he actually should be saying Thank you regularly. And to get him to say "Please"! Almost impossible! Then when he's looking for something he'll go around asking "Where car" or whatever, but also the "where" is in a high pitch. So cute!
He's also discovered that my name is Shelly... And if he's calling me, he'll often now shout out "Shelly" instead of "Mommy". But he does it completely as a joke, because he gets a very naughty look on his face when he does it. I have to remind him every time what his name is for me. Funny that he doesn't really do it for Andrew.
He's also been taught (mainly by the day mother, I think) that if someone gets hurt they need a hug. So very often if he's hurt one of us (usually unintentionally) or if he sees we're hurt for some other reason he'll come and give us a hug or a snuggle. I love my affectionate boy! (Sometimes he'll just decide to give us a hug or snuggle for no reason too, which is the absolute best!). But when he gets hurt he also doesn't quite have the word right - he always says "hurtyou" or "hityou" as one word to say that he or one of us has been hurt. It sounds really cute, but I know he'll grow out of that pretty soon...
And he loves to walk around and then pop around a corner and say "Boo!" We often have this little face popping out at us. And then in our bedroom we have a full length mirror, but the bottom is probably 75cm above the ground or something. So he'll crouch down so he can't see his reflection, and then its a big game to ask "Where's Josh" (he'll also say it...) and he'll jump up so that he can see himself again ;o)
With all of the playing outdoors that he likes to be doing these days, and with how often he'll ask to go over and visit Granny we've had to teach him not to just run out into the road. But he's actually very good. He'll stop at the end of the driveway and look around (although I don't think he really knows what he's checking for because there are so infrequently cars coming into our quiet culdesac) and only then will we go over the road. There have even been a couple time where we've forgotten to do an obvious stop and he's stopped and we've had to go back to stand with him and check!
Andrew got Joshua to help him put out some bread crusts for the birds. Of course Joshua can't let good food go to waste ;o)
With this pregnancy I've been struggling with some pain - if I lie down, then I struggle to walk for a bit afterwards. So at night if we have to get up for Joshua I was having a real struggle. So I borrowed a walking stick from Andrew's mom just to help with the first few meters while everything loosens up. But Joshua saw me using it a few times in the mornings, and he's realised that when I say I'm sore I often need it. So now he'll often fetch it next to my side of the bed and bring it to me when he feels that I need it. Of course it's often then a matter of sharing it with him... But he's very thoughtful if he thinks that I'm struggling. And maybe also if he wants me to move quickly? ;o)
He was helping me put on a load of washing one morning - I was taking the washing out of the basket, putting the whites to one side, and giving him the darks to put in the machine. And everything I gave him he'd say who it belonged to, what it was, and usually the colour as well! Even socks he mostly got right, which is really impressive ;o) And remember his love for my purple shirt? Well it basically got a big hug before going into the machine!
My dad made a big board for me a few years ago to do puzzles on. Well Joshua discovered it, and decided it was perfect to play with his cars on! It became quite a curse always having it on the study floor!
A row of garages courtesy of Uncle Andrew...
I've started trying to do a few crafty things with Joshua - not really very successfully. But here he was trying to make a picture with torn pieces of paper. He was certainly very proud of his picture! He carried it around like a priceless treasure wanting to show it to Daddy and Granny!
It's been a really fun month! I feel like Joshua has just grown up so much! I just hope he's ready for his little sister ;o)
No comments:
Post a Comment