His first priority whenever he comes home is to go and say hello to Hannah, and he loves holding her. He'll constantly ask to hold her, and he's even started trying to pick her up now, so we need to watch him very carefully. One of his latest things whenever he goes anywhere is that he has to go around and say "bye" to everything. So it's, "bye car, bye chair, bye bed" etc. And of course now that Hannah is around he loves to say bye to her and has to make sure to kiss her too.
Before Hannah was born, when we were getting her room ready, Josh was very interested in the cot. He wanted to be in it and playing around. I was a bit worried that we'd have a problem, but beyond the occasional interest in it, he's been fine.
The only place in the house that Joshua can't climb up onto on his own is our bed, and with me recovering from the caesar we really felt that we needed to do something about that. So we got a little step so that he can now get up and be with us. He very much enjoys the new found freedom it give him, and this step gets carried all over the house now! (Excuse the messy bed - this was 2 days home from the hospital, so I was living in a very small space...)
Messing around with the wash basket - he can now get under it by himself.
Joshua likes the fact that he's a big boy. But he wants to be even bigger! He's decided that he likes to be lifted up and touch the roof. I reached a point where I had to say no, but he can still get his Uncle Richard to do just about anything for him ;o)
He's discovered that clothes have pockets (and the way he says it is too cute!) Now that he's figured out how to get his hands into his pockets he likes to walk around like the big stuff that he is.
Saturday mornings are falling into a nice little tradition. Because Andrew wakes up so much earlier than me, when Josh wakes up they'll have some time together and then come and wake me up. One thing that has become an absolutely essential part of these morning routines is a cup of Milo for each of them, or "choc milk" as Joshua calls it. And he has to drink it with a straw. Actually a straw has become a common request for just about anything he's drinking out of cup... Then when they've had their choc milk and played a bit they'll come to our room and we'll all lie in bed and read Joshua's books for a while. Sometimes a long while. It's a really nice way to spend a Saturday morning!
My son is a real boy! No one can have any doubts about that. He is fascinated by worms and bugs and all things crawling.
One of his favourite things to find is a millipede. We've got quite a few that get around in our house, but Josh knows that the house is not the place for them. So he'll pick them up, getting them to curl up, and then he likes to go and put them on the grass outside. If the doors are all locked I can usually convince him to just put it out through the gate, but he wants them outside.
And my son's love affair with cars... While we're driving around he'll be naming all of the vehicles - he even knows the differences between buses, trucks and bakkies among others. And he'll recognise the petrol garage when we drive past. He loves it when we actually stop to put in petrol, and he can name all of the vehicles while we wait.
I think one of his favourite parts of coming to visit me in the hospital was the drive there. The shortest route from our house to the hospital is through Montague Gardens - an industrial area. So he loves getting to see all of the trucks and buses on the way. He also asks to go the library, and right now I think we have every single truck book out of the library. Josh will be very sad when it's time to take them back! But he can always get them out another time at least.
And his car collection is growing constantly, including a helicopter or "ka-ka". And despite the size of it he'll often ask about specific cars if they're not there. And not always the same cars, but for ones that he hasn't played with in a while, and I've generally forgotten he even has.
And almost no bath is complete these days without the cars joining in the fun...
And of course it also extends to "racing car game". My brother, Andrew, will often play a racing game on the computer for Joshua to watch before he and Andrew go off to work in the morning. And here are the three of them playing a different one of Andrew's X-Box.
We decided to let Hannah give Joshua a present at the hospital, and we got a car park with nice ramps for him. This has become a very firm favourite!
Grandpa joining in the fun...
Most children go to bed with a soft toy... Not my son!
This is becoming almost a daily occurrence. I have to go and take them away before I got to bed and put them on his bedside table, because I sure wouldn't want to be lying on little cars!
One of his favourite things to do is watch videos of himself on the computer. He really likes the swimming ones from his last swimming lesson, and there are a few others that he will ask for. But his absolute favourite is watching the video of him not blowing out his candle for his birthday party. We all sang, and then tried to convince him to blow it out, but he wouldn't. But anyway, he loves this video! He'll say "watch Josh birthday to you" and then if we let him he'll sit for ages. He knows how to pause it and get it to replay, so he could actually sit by himself for ages with it...
And then this child's use of language... It actually astounds me!
He has got into a habit of giving a running commentary of everything that happens to him, probably copying what I tried to do for him. And his vocabulary is so good now that he really can describe most of what happens. I've also been trying to teach him to identify different emotions in other people, and then starting to get him to identify what he's feeling. But he's getting pretty good at looking at a picture in a book and being able to say what the individual is feeling. His favourite book, the "George book" (The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson) is beautifully illustrated, and George feels lots of different emotions, so that's been a great tool, and he loves talking about it. One morning when we were looking at it he also was wanting specific pages, and he was saying he wanted "that George". And while I'm talking about this book... There's a little rhyme that gets repeated through the book which Andrew made up a tune for, and he'll sing it for Josh. And sometimes Joshua likes it, and sometimes he's not in the mood. But it's very funny to watch the baiting between the two of them as they decide who wins today's little battle ;o)
He also has cute things he says, like he's picked up Andrew's phrase, "Careful Josh", and so whenever he's doing something which he now knows can be a problem we hear "careful Josh". He's also realised that he can guide a conversation now. So if we're all talking about something that he doesn't want to discuss anymore he'll change the subject. And in true adult fashion he'll also do this if we ask him a question he doesn't want to answer! And for "everybody" he's starting saying "all-body" sometimes. He can also say "everybody", but I think he prefers "all-body"... And he's picked up my "No way!". The way he says it... He's also started saying "umm" when he's thinking about something or deciding on a choice that we've given him. No wonder we all do it when we're adults if we start so young! Sometimes he'll also do a very deliberate few blinks while he's thinking about something and making a choice.
He's started recognising that writing means something. Now if he sees numbers of words written he'll start naming some numbers, usually high ones, like he'll say "8, 5, 7" etc. Completely random, but he knows that the writing means something...
He's also then just starting to use quite complex language. Quite early on in the month he started pluralising words by adding an "s" at the end. (Just once he only got it half right though, by saying "two's stars", but that's also just cute). But he also started using "I". The first time I really noticed it was when he said "I like it", but he's now using it regularly. And towards the end of the month he then started using "you" and "his" (although only the masculine, even when he's reffering to me, at this point) and he's started changing the form of words, like he added "-ing" to something yesterday and he'll say something "fell".
And then perhaps my biggest triumph of the month, although there's still a long way to go! Joshua's been willing to say "Thank you", but he just refused to say "Please". He would get completely stubborn about it... Then I decided to try and convince him that butterflies say please. He's very happy to copy animal sounds, moo, oink etc, so I thought maybe he'd be willing to at least say the word if it was in the same format. The first day I introduced it he very casually used please in the evening when he was asking for something, and I thought yay! We're getting somewhere. But then he went back to the same stubbornness. He'd tell me that a butterfly says please, but he wouldn't be tricked into using it when asking for something. Then Andrew got him a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD, and he absolutely fell in love with it (also a great one for good facial expressions to discuss emotions, and also he'll willing to talk about what he's seeing the whole time instead of just staring blankly!) So when he was then asking for it we told him he had to say please. At first there was the normal stubbornness, but then he gave in! "Thomas please" he asked! Yay! And he's been more willing to say please since then! Still not all the time, but a big improvement!
So there he is. I'm really amazed at this child, and I look at Hannah now and think we've come so far! And we have to go through it all again with her... But there are lots of fun times ahead for both of them!
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