Dear Josiah –

You have grown up so much since I blogged about you on your 1st birthday! You were a late walker – and didn’t walk consistently until you were about 14 months but you have definitely made up for lost time since then! You are walking, climbing, jumping, dancing everywhere now! I have always felt like 18 months (or 19 months – since I’m running behind on this post 🙈 ) was a pretty big milestone for toddlers and you are no exception. Now, more than ever, you are an active participant in our family. You are so aware of what the other members of the family are doing and are very curious – we catch you doing the funniest things. Here are some things I want to remember about you at 19 months old!

• You bring us so much joy and laughter to our family – mainly because you are so darn cute at everything you do 
• You have the best smile and giggle 
• Every member of the family will go out of their way to do silly stuff to get you on your laughing attack 

• When you run you are mainly bouncing up and down – lol 
• You are SUPER talkative/verbal. Our pediatrician was surprised that you knew more than 6 words at your 18 month appointment. He said normally 3rd born boys with older sisters will do more listening than talking – well apparently not you! Some of your words include: All Done, Uh-Oh, Snow, Shoes, Daddy, Mommy, Ball, Book, Moon, Puppy, Feet, Nose, Eyes, Ears, Cheese, Milk, Treat, Snack, Eat, Help, More, Up, Down, Please, Orange Juice, M and M, Bye Bye, Night Night, Go, Gigi, & Bath

• You love taking baths and brushing your teeth. If you hear any hint that we are taking a bath, you run in there and start taking your clothes off – one time you hopped in with your clothes on. 
• You love going anywhere – if you hear us talking about going somewhere – you run to the garage door. 

• You are an extremely messy eater – this seems to be a trend with my kids. You haven’t been picky at all until this last month when you decided that you want to eat mainly “snacks”. If we serve you something you don’t want to eat – you will ask for a “snack” and are sometimes upset when we don’t give it to you. 

• You have started being stubborn and difficult at times. If you don’t want to eat something or get mad you aren’t getting what you want – you will throw your food on the ground on push it onto the table – and of course whining and crying too. We have started dealing with this by putting you into your room until you are done and letting you try again to have a better attitude. 
• You love doing whatever your big sisters are doing and being wherever they are. Recently this has meant that you love tiny legos – which makes me a little nervous. But it is cute watching you play carefully with their stuff just so they don’t make you leave – haha. 
• I’m not going to lie – It can be challenging having the age gap that we have currently. Sometimes the girls (ages 5 and 3) are playing great together – doing something with tiny pieces (legos or Polly Pockets) and you feel really left out – so I let you play with them, and it all goes terribly wrong. They get upset that you are messing stuff up and you get upset that they don’t want to play with you. It all ends in tears…..So it is a parenting balancing act. I try to have some time for them to play without you, and some time where they have to include you somehow. On the flip side, sometimes they love playing with you. I’m hopeful it will get easier once I don’t have to worry about you with tiny toy pieces. Luckily, you don’t tend to put things in your mouth (other than your thumb), but I don’t want to count on that. 

• Speaking of your thumb sucking – I did start to get concerned about it, because I know it has been hard on Lucy to stop and I was hoping that I could break you of the habit sooner rather than later. But every attempt has ended in failure so far. Attaching endless pacis to your outfits – you never put them in your month and they just got dragged around…Putting bandaids around you thumbs (because you suck on both of them at different times), but you pulled every bandaid off within a few minutes of me putting it on you…I even put some bad tasting stuff on you once, but didn’t have the heart to put on enough of it to make any difference. Luckily, I think you suck on it less now that you have been talking more. 
• You love going outside – and I don’t like going outside when it’s super cold like it has been the last few weeks – so I’m really looking forward to it warming up. If you get a chance, you love to go sit in the Barbie car and turn on the music. 
• You love playing with trucks, and running around our house pushing things. It has been super fun for me to see how a little boy plays. You even make car/truck noises! 
• Your schedule is: up around 7:45, take a nap around 1:30 or 2:00 for about 2 hours, and go to bed around 8:30. We still put you in a sleep sack at nap – mainly now because it is so cold and it will stay on you whereas your blankets at nap time never do. 
• You do really well when I drop you off at the nursery at church or the gym or our co-ops, Sometimes you will cry a when I first drop you off but it doesn’t last for long. 
• During our school time, you LOVE to play with the counting bears and this large set of buttons I have. 
• You had your first haircut this fall with my hairstylist, and then I let it grow out again, but about a week ago I cut it with a clipper for the first time and you look so grown up now! 
• You love to read a book in the chair in your room before bedtime prayers and going to bed. 

You have this mommy wrapped around you finger! I love this age so much, you are so curious and I just love to watch you “take it all in”. Every day is a little more magical watching you experience things for the first time. I’m glad I get to watch you grow up and build a special mother-son relationship with you. I love you so much – Your Mommy