20 Months

I am determined to post this on time this month. Of course, I was already thinking I was behind yesterday; I sometimes get confused about who is the 26th and who is the 28th. I was thinking about it yesterday and they could have both easily had birthdays on the 27th since Emma came just shy of the 27th and Josh came just after the 27th. Would have made things easier but I digress. Now, on to the reason why I have called you all here today. Josh is 20 months old today and as I do every month, I will once again question how that can possibly be?

The big man has really made some leaps and bounds with his vocabulary over the last month. We are hearing new words all the time and he is really trying to repeat what we say more often. He also loves to sing and thanks to Emma for interpreting, we can figure out what some of those songs are. By far though, his favorite song right now is "Jesus Loves Me" just like Emma around the same age. As soon as he hears the opening words, a huge smile comes over his face and he tries to start singing along. Josh is also great about praying at meals and when we say the prayer that they use in his class at school, he will fill in a couple of words. The prayer goes "God is good, God is great, let us thank Him for this food. Amen." Josh usually supplies the good, great and Amen! Josh is usually quite polite and his "thank you" is about the cutest little thing around! In addition to his politeness, he is also quite interested in his personal hygiene and is always wanting to wash his hands. We have to be careful though because he will get up onto the toilet to reach over and turn on the water but the closest handle is for the hot water.

Josh can be a total copycat especially when it comes to big sister "Memma." Most of the time, she is good with it but some times, it drives her nuts. Also, you can just call him Mr. Independent because he certainly thinks he is bigger than he really is a lot of times and many problems stem from the fact that he wants to do it himself and gets frustrated.

We had our last swim lessons last month and as I mentioned before, Josh came a long way from when we started. In fact, I dare say that he grew to love the swimming pool. Hope he still feels the same way this summer. In addition to the last swim lessons, Josh also put an end to teething for a little while I hope. Those pesky canines finally all popped so he should get a little break before starting on those 2nd year molars.

A few of the things that Josh loves currently include his toy cars. He loves to make them go "vroom, vroom." He also loves to climb and has mastered getting up onto the chairs at the kitchen table. Mind you, it is a high top table so I am real thrilled about him getting up on those. One day last week, Josh and Emma disappeared into the kitchen momentarily. Emma came back and I asked what Josh was doing. She responded that he was getting onto the chair. Well, I walked into the kitchen to find him sitting on the table just pleased as punch with himself. Josh has also picked up a love of rocks and now I am usually finding them in the washing machine. Note to self to start checking all pockets before doing laundry.

Last month, Josh got to take a quick trip up to Missouri for the baptism of our newest nephew and cousin. Josh also celebrated his second Easter complete with not one, not two but three different Easter egg hunts. Josh really wasn't so interested in hunting eggs until he realized that they held candy and then he still really wasn't so interested in hunting eggs because he just wanted to eat the candy. Have I mentioned that the boy definitely has a sweet tooth!