Happy 39-month birthday, Joshua!

On Friday, December 18, Joshua turned 39-months old. It is seriously crazy how quickly time flies! We started out our day by playing his favorite gingerbread Candy Land castle game. Then we colored in his special Christmas Sesame Street coloring book that Daddy had bought for the boys. He loves to color, but doesn't quite understand why you're supposed to color in the lines. :) I colored a picture for him that he put in his big boy room in his night stand. I smiled at how special he felt from me giving him an Elmo page colored by Momma. So, over the course of time as we would color again, I also colored one for Caleb & Daddy.

Joshua's comprehension really impresses me. I love when he "reads" his books that he has memorized. It's adorable to watch. I like that he enjoys reading. He also enjoys putting together puzzles, and Daddy got him a snowman one from the dollar store that we've put together several times. But, it's the things that come out of his mouth that crack me up, and unfortunately I often forget to blog about them in my busyness. For example, that morning I was putting on make-up and he asked me why. I said "Momma is trying to be a pretty girl. Do you think Momma is a pretty girl?" He thought about it and smiled and said "nooo" then he quickly added "you are truly beautiful." I just stared at him and grinned as big as he was. To whoever taught him that one, THANKS! Later, he pointed to the little statues of the Christmas Carol that I have and (referencing the one of Bob Cratchet holding Tiny Tim) he proclaimed "Look, it's Mary & Baby Jesus!" I laughed out loud! I replied "uh, no, it's not, Mary & Jesus are over on the nativity." Haaaa!!! When does Charles Dickens come into play? We've read Christmas books and watched lots of Christmas movies this season, including "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Elf."

After a good day with the kids, we decided to go to Dutch Wonderland to celebrate Joshua's birthday. Well, that, and we saw the forecast of snow and feared we wouldn't be able to go another time. One of my students works there and had one free ticket she couldn't use and offered it to me to take the kids. Caleb is already free, so we figured it was worth the $20 to go, even though it was FREEZING COLD! Joshua loved it, and the picture above is of him sitting on Santa's lap there. The man was very nice (and much more real-looking than the woman-poser at Walmart), and he asked Joshua what his name was (and the Bean answered him right away) and he asked if Joshua was good at helping clean up his toys (which Josh really is) and he told him to continue to be good and help Momma. Then he asked what he wanted for Christmas, and Joshua replied with "trains." And they smiled for the picture. Then Joshua was offered a cookie or candy cane. He LOVES to look at candy canes but doesn't really get how they are supposed to be eaten (he tried one and didn't care for it) and chose that as his parting gift. I, in the meantime, was a sucker for his first real good picture with Santa and bought the digital download for the memory. I was glad I did, too, since I hadn't taken any other pictures of him on his birthday. I love you, my little Joshua (Bean) Douglas Good!