Happy 61-month birthday, Joshua Bean!

A month has passed since Joshua's 5th birthday. And he's already talking about turning six! I told him that we are going to enjoy each day of being five first. In fact, I'm not wishing away one single second! I used to think "how cool will it be when..." Joshua could talk, walk, run, get dressed, be potty-trained, etc. Well, now it's just going far too fast. I am not looking forward to him going to kindergarten and being away from me all day! It is starting to sink in that my little guy is going out into this cold, dark world of school where the teachers don't have to be nice (hopefully they are!) and the children can be cruel, and there's nothing I can do about it. But, I at least can pray for him, and pray I do. I pray that he'll be well-liked but a leader in doing right. I pray that his heart won't be hurt and that he'll have a good self-esteem. And I pray that he will know who he is and who he belongs to.

In keeping with that, I realize that now is the time to hide Scripture in his heart. He knows John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Isaiah 41:10 (at least the shortened version) and Psalm 118:1 "Give thanks to the Lord for He is Good; His love endures forever!" as well as many others from his singing the CD. He loves "Encourage one another, and build each other up" and "A joyful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones." His new current favorite is "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." And he enjoys "Let the little children come to me, and do not hold them back!" as well as "Do to others as you would have them do to you." These CDs have been great! And my Bean LOVES Bible stories. He will ask for the same story over and over again, and he'll remind me of bits and pieces that I've missed. From Jonah to David to Moses and Abraham and all sorts of characters in between. I'm hoping he remembers the lessons in each one as well. I realize that this - raising my children to know the Lord - is the most important job I can have right now.

Joshua is working on learning how to draw. In the puzzle buzz books, there is a page where there's a picture and then various steps to get to that picture. Yesterday, he drew a colorful fish that looked great and a koala bear. I love to see his mind working to grasp a new concept. We also worked on his new Sudoku Veggie Tales book that he was given from preschool. He understood that the pictures couldn't be the same in each row, column or box. It was fun to look at together. Joshua is also getting better and better at games on the Wii or Daddy's game cube, etc.

I realized the other day that we still haven't worked with him on going potty without taking his pants entirely down. He was wearing a belt and couldn't take it off, couldn't pull his pants down and really struggled with the "ins and outs" of potty time. So, he and Daddy have been working on it now to make sure that he's ready for kindergarten next year.

One of my favorite things about Joshua is how gentle he is. Both Shawn & I constantly say how proud we are of him and how he interacts with Ryan. He is loving and sweet. He is so careful with his brothers, and I know he would never try to hurt another child. He even goes out of his way to make sure everyone is safe. He is a really good kid. He is also a helper. He knows where things go, and he can clean up by himself. He can also get things and tell people where items are located in our house. He likes helping and we love that he takes initiative in this area.

He is loving to each of his family members. If Caleb decides that he'd rather walk with Daddy, Joshua will come over and walk with me and tell me I'm his bestest mama. :) :) :) And vice versa - if Caleb decides to sit with me during a family movie night, Joshua will go snuggle with Daddy to make sure he's not alone either. I would venture to guess that this is an area where Joshua needs reassurance - he does NOT like to be alone under any circumstances. I knew that he would never get into things when he was little because he didn't like me to be out of his eyesight. Now that he & Caleb share a room, he never has times that he's just simply by himself, and he like it that way. The other day he hadn't put on his shoes yet when it was time to go. I told him to "hurry up!" and he threw himself on the floor, burst into tears and told me "please don't leave me here alone!" It made me teary. Even though we were late, I picked him up and told him that I would NEVER leave him alone. Not for one instant would I ever leave and not have an adult there with him to watch him. When he was older, God would always be with him - he would never need to worry about being alone. EVER! I kissed his cheek and told him to get his shoes on, and I waited in the room with him while he finished. This is a character trait of mine as well. He'll ask Daddy to stay with him as he finishes his snack at the table, and Shawn will look at me and say "is he your boy, or what?" It's true! We both love Daddy and we both like to be together! :) :) :)

Joshua is learning how to write better and better through preschool and homework. Now we are working with him really thinking about where the letter should start and end via the top line, mid-line and baseline. He is definitely left-handed, too. The other day we sat in a booth next to each other, and my right elbow was hitting his left elbow as we ate. I smiled at him and said that we would need to start thinking about this as we sat together from now on.

One of the moms in my study & share group told me that she thinks her daughter has a mini-crush on our little Bean - she had told her daddy that her bestest boy friend was "Joshua." How adorable! Joshua, on the other hand, doesn't even realize there are girls in his class. I asked him about who he plays with at school, and the same boys' names typically come up. I ask him if he ever plays with the girls at school, and he said no. Haaaa!!! I'm okay with that for now - maybe when he's 18 or 30 he can start thinking about girls. For now, playing cars and sports and other things are a-okay with me!

Speaking of sports, Joshua is getting better at soccer as we play, but we've also discovered recently that he's pretty darn good at shooting baskets. He makes shots that I don't think I could at times. So, maybe that will be his sport? Who knows at this point? But, it does make me think that at some point we'll have to get him a net.

There's much more I could say about his growth, but that's good enough for now. Happy 61-month birthday, my Joshua Douglas Good! I love you more than words could express, more than hugs & snuggles could convey, more than you'll ever know or truly appreciate until you have children of your own. Haaa--speaking of which, I will end with one more cute Bean story. Joshua told me that when he was 31 or 33, he was going to have babies, too, like Daddy and me. Shawn said "when you are a daddy, my name will change to Papaw." Joshua told him that he couldn't be Papaw because there was already a Papaw in his life. We laughed and tried to explain that when he's a parent, we would be grandparents. Finally he agreed that Daddy could be called "Papaw from Pennsylvania" since we have a Grandpa Georgia and a Papaw from Florida. So sweet! I told him that he has a long time to go until he's the big 33, so we're not going to even worry about that quite yet! I love the way a mind of a five-year-old works!