" 'cadas mama"

The cicadas have been gracing us with their song and their skeletons for several weeks now. Dave has used their presence as an opportunity to teach Joshua not to be afraid of bugs. They spend a lot of time in the backyard talking about and touching the cicadas.

(Please note I said "they" and not "we".)

"Oh look! I'll get it."

"See dad, a 'cada."

"I can wear them too"

"No, I don't want to go inside and wash my hands!"

What did he just say?

As Joshua adds word to his vocabulary, his ability to tell us funny thoughts increases. For example, he loves to talk about his favorite TV shows and characters. He identifies with them so much that every night he has to pray for Pablo, Uniqua and Tyrone from the Backyardigans. Sometimes words get mixed up and make for entertaining conversation, like when he talks about another of his favorite characters, "Monster Cookie." And every morning he wants to "push the big butt" on the garage door opener. And sometimes he purposely tries to use his words to cause confusion, like when he bumped his arm on a toy at school and said, "Ryder hit me," even though he was the only child in the room. In addition to his verbal skills, he is learning trades. As you can see from the pictures, he practiced his carpentry skills the other night repairing the fence in our backyard. And he even practiced balancing his plate on one hand in the air like the servers at "Applebeans" the other night.

You only turn 2 once

Joshua's classmate, Ginger, had a birthday party last Saturday night. The party was in her grandparents' backyard with a giant slide and a castle bounce house. Joshua refused to play on either of the main attractions, while other kids were enjoying them, opting for a 30 year old plastic slide in the corner of the yard. When dinner was served and everyone else was eating, Joshua slid and jumped with reckless abandon.

Joshua and Ginger the birthday girl

As if giant inflatables weren't enough, there was ice cream and cake too. Joshua didn't touch the cake but slurped every last drop of ice cream off the plate. (Please note the other party guests jumping in the bounce house while Joshua is eating. He certainly wouldn't have won Mr. Social at this party).
Ginger gave Joshua a kiss after she opened her present. He responded by taking back what he had given her and claiming "mine".

Heads Up

Joshua loves to play. He plays hard and rough. He falls a lot due to his style of play. Joshua's head seems to take the brunt of all his horsing around. Never have we had to doctor a hurt knee, but always a gashed or bruised forehead. His latest forehead wound came from a dash across the playground that ended in a head first dive into the dirt. So here we are again receiving suspicious stares in the grocery as Joshua has a black and blue bruise with a gash in the middle of it.

When has a head wound ever slowed us down from doing a little hammering?

Enjoy our video of a little backyard adventure with a frog.