Happy 58-month birthday, Bean!

Joshua's 58-month birthday was Monday, July 18. While I already posted about what we did that day, I also wanted to post about him and his growth. First, I have to say that my oldest son is a great helper. He likes to clean up toys and knows where everything goes. He also will typically respond 'yes' if we ask him to do something (not in a forceful way, but in a would-you-mind-grabbing sort of ask). He LOVES both his little brothers and is just awesome with them. He smiles at Ryan and will comment about his smile or his tongue sticking out or whatever the baby does that makes him laugh. He is a gentle and loving big brother!

Joshua knows his boundaries for the most part. He doesn't try to leave our yard or cross the street when we've told him not to, etc. It's amazing when you get to an age where you can trust your young child. I know if I'm downstairs cooking and he's playing upstairs, he's not coloring on walls or getting into things he shouldn't be. I enjoy time spent in the same area with him and typically we're together. But I don't worry when we're not (as long as we're in a safe place like home, of course). It's just a nice feeling to have a good kid. :)

Joshua loves to sing and dance. He loves to play games, and his imagination these days is wild! We love it! He's learning to read and put words together, he loves to look at pictures, and stickers are a fun activity for him to do. He loves doing mazes in his puzzle books. In real life, I also think he has a good sense of direction. Even from the back of the minivan, he can usually tell me what we're close to and how to get home.

We've been waking the Bean at night to go potty, and it's made a world of difference. If we forget one night, he'll tell us in the morning that we didn't come in to get him the night before.

Joshua still collects all sorts of treasures in his toy story bag and will tote them around. The bag will get so heavy until I make him clean it out and start over again. He'll beg for a dozen things to stay in, but he probably puts away at least two dozen more. Right now it even is holding his little Thomas book with the attached piano we bought for him. Silly Bean!

There are two more things I love about my Bean these days - 1) he is always praying. If we get hurt, he prays for us. If he wants the red light to turn green, he talks to God about it. I love his tender heart and I hope he will always have an incredible faith in God and the desire to communicate with our Lord. And 2) my boy LOVES stories. I keep introducing new Bible stories and he remembers them. I haven't done a ton with memory verses and need to get back to those, but Joshua remembers the details about stories (especially if Mommy misses mentioning it the next time she tells the story). I hope that these stories convey God's father heart toward His people and the moral messages we want the boys to know.

Speaking of moral messages, we bought Joshua a DVD of Franklin the turtle, since the Bean loved these books from the preschool library. The DVD is great! It's three hours of short clips (so we don't watch all of them together) from the books, and each one is a different life lesson like helping others, what to do when we lose at a sport, trying new activities, keeping our rooms clean, not caring what peers think if we have a new toy that we like and they don't, etc. Both boys enjoy it, and I'm glad we got it. The lessons are good and the short segments are perfect for a quick break.

I love experiencing the world through a child's eyes, and Joshua has been our firsts so I appreciate his 'bumping along' with us as we discover the best way to raise kids. He hasn't had perfect parents, but I think he's a really great little man! Shawn is an awesome father, and my hope is that Joshua will grow up to be a good daddy, too, some day (as he told me  that he wants to have his own babies some day - 67 in fact. Along with a dog that he's going to name 'Trouble.')