It's hard for me to believe that this time four years ago my sweet boy looked like this:
It's equally hard for me to believe I looked like that. How is that possible?! Anyway, that sweet bump turned into the boy that has brought my heart more joy and love than I imagined possible. He will turn 4 on Friday, and it's truly hard for me to believe so much time has passed so quickly. He is far more fun than I could have ever anticipated. I wanted to take a few minutes to share more about life with him these days. Please bear with me as there is a lot to say and I don't think I can adequately transition from one subject to another smoothly.
This week he has been on a kick of calling us by our first names. Despite our persuasions on why he should not, he continues to insist that he be able to call us what others do. It isn't an issue we feel should involve disciplinary action, so we are just reminding him we prefer "Mom" and "Dad" and waiting for it to blow over. I have to admit it was secretly funny to hear him holler, "Jonathan, your phone is ringing!" yesterday. It has also been somewhat amusing to wonder how we have confused the strangers around us when out in public. Picture it: Woman with one child the same color as her and one that is not. Child that is the same color as her addresses her with her first name rather than "mom." If you started off a little perplexed, you are now really confused at what the relational dynamic is.
This age has been the easiest yet with him. He initiates his own independent play (and can be trusted to not eat his toys while we aren't looking, which is something I am remembering is valuable). I love to stand in another room and just listen to his conversations between his toys. It makes my heart so full to hear him creating. He loves to play with his cars and Mack trucks the most. He likes to play games, but he is still learning how to handle losing. We are shocked at how good he is at Memory. He is very technologically savvy and likes to watch "YouTube Trains" which means watching random videos of trains at crossing bars.
He is growing increasingly independent with dressing himself, which is proving itself to be helpful and difficult at the same time. It's not as simple as handing him a shirt and pants anymore. He has to actually like them now. He has decided to refuse to wear jeans or any other pants he deems "hard." Ask me if he has even tried them on this year, because the answer is no. He only wants to wear "soft pants." So far that has included corduroys, select pairs of khakis, and sweats. To make matters worse, he is in between a 3T and 4T, and he has also deemed it completely unacceptable to have pants that are too long, pants that touch the floor, pants that are rolled up, or pants that just "feel" too big even when they fit perfectly. That means that his expansive pant collection has been reduced to about 4 pairs of pants we don't have to argue over, two of which he has put large knee holes in this week. Dressing this fall has been quite an ordeal. If the "acceptable" pants aren't clean, it takes some pleas, 4 wardrobe changes, and about 15 minutes to get him dressed without tears. The other stipulations this fall have included: a refusal to wear shorts when his knees were skinned because he didn't want to have to see the boo-boos, only wearing pants even if it's 80 degrees because it's fall and that's when you wear pants, and refusing to wear a hoodie because "I like being cold." Unfortunately I actually believe the last statement. This kid is as hot-blooded as they come, quite the opposite of his mother who likes a sweatshirt in the summer. On the upside of this newfound independence, he IS able to match his clothes very well and assuming he has found pants he likes, he can dress himself including shoes without any help at all.
A small victory for me in the clothing department...Josiah chose a race car driver costume at a consignment sale in September. In my thrift store hunt for a helmet I inadvertently found an awesome dragon costume in his size on half price day. I bought it and was slightly devastated when he informed me he still intended to be a race car driver, but I counted my $3.03 loss and decided not to push the issue. Last week out of the blue he informed me, "Mom, I think I am going to be a dragon for Halloween, and I'll be a race car driver next year." Perfect. I acted very casual about it, knowing that this was a decision he felt was important he reached on his own. T minus 2 days and he seems pretty committed to the dragon. He put it on last night and he when he jumped up on the table to show us his claws I couldn't help but think of Max in his wolf suit (of "Where the Wild Things Are"). It is precious...way cooler than a race car driver, but I don't want to remind him.
This weekend we had an early birthday celebration, as Josiah's desire for his birthday was to have a "spend the night party" with Noni and PawPaw at our house. We let him choose his birthday celebration dinner. He chose sushi. I love that given no limitations my 4 year old chose sushi for his birthday dinner. I also love that we let him choose whatever movie he wanted from the RedBox and he chose "Tangled" because he wanted everyone else to see Rapunzel with him. Our night consisted of dinner, opening presents from Noni and PawPaw, playing Memory, and watching Tangled with popcorn, ice cream sundaes, and sodas. At bedtime he got to sleep in our bed, which was a very big treat in his book. In the morning he got his favorite breakfast by PawPaw--bacon and eggs. It was a very fun "spend the night party," and I think it was everything he was hoping for and more.
It is so fun to spend some time reflecting on how thankful I am and how full my heart is thanks to this little man. How joyful it is to raise a son that came in the Lord's timing and not my own (thank goodness!) I'm sure there will be more birthday celebrations to document, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss this chance in the frenzy of the coming week!
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