Joshua loves to ask David to "go run fast" with him. Our house has a long, straight open stretch from the front door through the living room and dining room to the back sliding door, so he loves to run laps from the door to the window and back again. But it's so much more fun when his papa is running with him! (Thankfully, he knows that mama doesn't run fast -- this is apparently an exclusively papa-oriented game!) It's so hilarious watching them run together -- David runs full tilt, and is only slightly faster than Joshua! And they both laugh uproariously the entire time. Great exercise, and so much fun!
Another fun game he's created is "zoom to the carpet." He'll run endless circles around our coffee table while I sit on the couch and watch him. My job is simply to yell "zoom to the carpet" when he reaches the carpeted section, and "zoom to the floor" when he reaches the hardwood. I love that he takes pity on me and doesn't force me to run around with him. :)
Joshua's vocabulary continues to grow in leaps and bounds, and he's well into full sentences and mini conversations with us now. It's so interesting to see how his mind works, and what connections he makes! He still has some vestiges of babyhood in his speech though -- I love how he says "amibles" instead of "animals," and "converbillow" instead of "convertible." :) And he still confuses "I" and "you" (though this has been disappearing in the last couple weeks). Which makes sense, because the I/you distinction is a fairly abstract one to grasp, especially given that his language acquisition is entirely based on parroting back things we say to him. So for instance, every time he spills something by accident, he'll gasp loudly and say "Oh! You spilled!! I clean it up!" And then sit there and wait for you to clean it up. :)
We've also been having success at teaching him to use polite phrases. He still needs heavy prompting, but he'll tack on "please" after a request, and he's learning to frame his requests in "May I" or "Will you" sentences. (It's funny when this learned sentence construction combines with his I/you confusion to create sentences like "Will you pick you up, please?" or "May I pick you up, please?")
Joshua loves helping out in the kitchen these days! As soon as he sees me pulling out bowls and spoons, he races over to push one of the dining table chairs over to the counter closest to me, climbs up to stand on the chair, and insists on helping me cook. His favorite part of any cooking activity is mixing -- in fact, he views mixing as *his* job, and gets offended if I do any stirring on my own! He prefers dipping the spoon into the bowl, pulling it out, and examining the texture/viscosity of whatever is inside. Not really a great method of mixing batters or doughs, but a surprisingly good way to fold blueberries into muffin batter... :)
And speaking of food... Joshua has unfortunately developed some very strong opinions about what he will and won't eat. He's never really liked meat, even as a baby, and now he refuses to eat any meat (the two exceptions being fishsticks and low-grade chicken in Chinese takeout). Very, very occasionally, he'll consent to trying something off my plate, but for the most part, he only wants to eat a few set items: peanut butter sandwiches, peas, string cheese, strawberry yogurt, Kashi cereal, Kix and Cheerios (always mixed together, with no milk), Clif bars (what he calls "bar cookies"), blueberry muffins, blueberry bagels, and the few items of junk food we allow on occasion (goldfish, pretzel sticks, animal crackers, etc.). We're working on presenting him different options on a more regular basis and getting him to at least try new things...
Oh, but the cute part about his food stubbornness -- he still says "bye-bye" instead of "no." So even when he's in full-out toddler tantrum mode, it kind of doesn't sound quite as bad... :) He'll often scream things like "Bye-bye chicken!! Hello peas!!!" (And, well, we want him to eat his veggies, so I guess that particular preference isn't so bad...)
Joshua has graduated mostly away from board books (though he still has a few beloved favorites), and he loves climbing up next to me or on my lap and requesting that I read to him. His attention span is generally long enough for us to read a full story to him, but he also still loves pointing out the repeating animals or objects in each of his books. For instance -- did you know that "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is a book about a dog? And "The Berenstain Bears' New Baby" is a book about a baseball? :)
Joshua also finds it absolutely hilarious when I "accidentally" misread something in one of his books. It started when we were reading "Green Eggs and Ham," and I was going through it a bit too quickly, and accidentally said "I will not eat them with a moss," rather than "mouse." He stopped me by laughing uproariously, saying "no, not moss! Mouse!! Mama made a mistake!!" So now when we're reading a book he knows really well, I'll occasionally throw in a wrong pronunciation, and giggles ensue. It's SO MUCH FUN creating these inside jokes and having these giggle fits with our little guy!
Joshua also really loves to sing these days. And he's getting better at actually differentiating pitch, rather than just rhythmically screaming the lyrics! :) One of his favorites (and the inspiration for his birthday party this year) is "Old MacDonald." He'll request a verse by asking "Old MacDonald had a cow?" He usually starts with a cow, but his favorite verse is "Old MacDonald had a Papa, and Mama, and Joshua, and Baby Sophia, and Anna, and Elly, and Ms. Lucy, and Mr. John!" We apparently say "blah blah." :)
He also typically sings along with his bedtime lullabies. Our bedtime routine has developed now to "pray, and Soft Kitty, and Twinkle Twinkle" -- we do a simple prayer with Joshua (starting off with a list of things we want to thank God for, and closing with a list of people we ask Him to bless), and then sing Joshua's preferred two lullabies. One of which, yes, is "Soft Kitty" from "The Big Bang Theory." And a lot of the time, Joshua will request "screaming Twinkle Twinkle," which requires you to shout the words along with him as loudly as you can. Not exactly a soothing exercise (and I've had to be creative about "screaming" as quietly as possible when Sophia is napping right next door), but for the most part, Joshua goes quietly to sleep after this routine.
Joshua now knows how to count up to 50, with just a little help on the 40 and 50. He thinks it's hilarious, though, to shout "twenty-ten" instead of 30... About a year ago, we had a hard time explaining to him that twenty-ten, imminently reasonable though it may be, is not actually the number after 29. He knows that 30 is the right answer now, but thinks it's super funny to shout the wrong answer, wait for our reaction, and then chuckle "no, not twenty-ten, thirty!!" He's also still a bit fuzzy on actually counting objects rather than just reciting a long string of numbers -- if you ask him to slow down and count the objects, he'll generally get it right, but he would clearly prefer to rattle off the numbers he knows. And he'll often skip objects or double-count them in order to reach the number he wants (usually 10 or 12).
Speaking of feats of toddler memory -- thanks to a series of kids' YouTube videos, Joshua has also memorized the planets of our solar system. (Which sadly does not include Pluto...) I submit to you that there is very little in the world that is cuter than a little toddler voice saying hello to each of the planets in order. Especially when he finishes by very politely saying "bye bye planets, see you next time!" (All thanks to this video about a "planet train.")
Joshua has really come into his role as big brother in the last couple months. He loves trying to teach Sophia things -- perhaps most notably, by chiding her with rules we've set for his own behavior. It's clear he knows he's not supposed to scream, or kick, or throw his cars, because he consistently tells his (placid, non-screaming, non-mobile) little sister "don't kick, Sophia! Sophia! No screaming!" Good to know our rules are sinking in for him. :)
He also enjoys catechizing his little sister. :) A cute example from the other day, during Sophia's post-nursing play time:
Joshua: "Sophia! What noise does a fire truck make?"
Me: "I'm sorry, buddy, she doesn't know that yet."
Joshua: "It goes wee-ooooh-weeeee-oooooh! Sophia! What color is a fire truck?"
Me: "Yeah, she doesn't know that either."
Joshua: "It's red!!"
*clearly trying to come up with a question she could answer*
Joshua: "Sophia! Are you a lamp??"
It's so hard to believe that our little man is already three. (We just sent in our deposit for his preschool tuition for the fall -- *sob*!!) It's been an incredible three years, and we can't wait to see how he continues to grow and develop!
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