thirty two months

Dear Joshua,

Today you are thirty two months old. Just yesterday you embarrassed the heck out of me in the grocery store by declaring loudly, "Mom, I want one of those!" while you pointed at a box of tampons.  You certainly keep us on our toes.

You're constantly falling down as you walkrun down the sidewalks and it seems that you'll forever have a bloody knee, but I don't mind because you still say, "Kiss it, Mama."  Plus, your chubby cheeks still jiggle a bit when you run.

You're strong and obnoxious when you "play rough" with Jules and daddy.  You can honk my nose with the best of them and you can pull sister's hair hard enough to make her cry.  You might be small, but you are a strong fighter.


Speaking of your size, you long to be tall enough to get the mail from the mailbox and you still can't really reach the pedals on our tricycles enough to really ride them but you can open door knobs like a pro now and that pleases you so much.  Maybe by next summer you'll be able to wear your 2T or 3T clothes.

We're working with getting you to not wet the bed at night.  We're down to about ten pull-ups and don't want to buy more.  I started bribing you with candy on mornings you wake up dry.  It seems to be working and you haven't had a wet pull-up in a couple of weeks or more.

Whenever you need to go poop you calmly say, "Mama, I need to go poop.  Will you go?" and then you ask for me to shut the door and if I try to stay you demand privacy.  You can sit on the toilet long enough to make your legs falls asleep.  Two and half years old and already a man.

You'll do a lot for candy.  I think it's your most favorite thing in the world.  In fact, I think you'll do anything for candy.  Except eat your vegetables.  You won't eat vegetables for anything.

I get so tickled every time I think about how you've finally figured out to irritate your sister.  Just this morning you turned on your very loud Handy truck while Julianna was trying to watch one of her favorite shows.  She grabbed the remote and turned the volume up a few notches.  When you realized that didn't work as well as you thought it would you decided to sing, "LALALALALALALA" at the top of your lungs.  From an onlooker standpoint it's pretty funny.  From an every day at home in the summer mom standpoint it's about as funny as my left arm.

Your giggle is infectious.  You squeal when you splash water on the dog.  You cackle when someone says, "I'mmmm gonna get you!"  You laugh at the ridiculous shows on Nick Jr.

Some of the things you learned this month include how to spell your name (which you say E-O-S-H when you say it fast, but if we ask you to clarify you'll slow down and spell it correctly) and you've also learned how to swallow gum.  The first couple of pieces we gave you were fine, but then for whatever reason you started swallowing some of it.  Yeah, we'll keep working on that one.

"Why?" you say.  I don't know why, Josh.  I do know that I love you though.  I think one day you'll understand that.

Love,
Mama