"Bacation"

Reporting on location from Seabrook Island, South Carolina where the beach is beautiful and vacation is in full swing:
day 1: a very long car ride

day 2: fabulous fun on the beach

day 3: see day 2

day 4: rainy in the morning = bigger waves in the afternoon

day 5: today...rainy but a great visit with the great grandparents

More of this story in addition to videos and pictures will be posted soon.

signing off...agn

2.5 years of age

At 2 1/2 years old, Joshua loves:

-building forts

-eating Popsicles

-playing ball

-Handy Manny

-trucks, police cars, fire engines

-using his Elmo umbrella

-asking what letter a word or name starts with

-playing pirates and cowboys

At 2 1/2 years old, Joshua challenges us

-to discipline consistently

-love unconditionally

-teach the gospel daily

-forgive quickly

-laugh a lot

At 2 1/2 years old Joshua may be heard saying

-"I missed you."

-"You look nice!"

-"Disobeying hurts!"

-"Baby Jesus was born to rescue me from disobeying."

At 2 1/2 years old Joshua is quite a little man!

It's hard to say goodbye

The standard Baptist Hospital-issued pacifier has been a main stay in our home for the last 2.5 years. For the first 18 months of Joshua's life we never left home without multiple back-up pacis for those "just in case" moments.

The pacis have been relegated to bedtime only for the last year. Until yesterday. For the last couple weeks we have been talking to Joshua about using his pacis to purchase a new toy, specifically a bubble-blowing lawn mower. He was very excited about the idea of a new lawn mower but not as enthusiastic about using his pacis to purchase it. This week he has spoken with much more commitment and purpose about making that bubble-blowing lawn mower part of his collection. After several trips to the store over the last 2 weeks to look at the mower, last night Joshua handed over a ziploc bag of 6 pacifiers to the cashier to pay for his lawn mower.

He could not have been more excited. He has "mowed" every room in our house multiple times and practically slept with the toy in his bed with him last night. Please note I used the word "slept" too. He had no trouble sleeping without the paci. Tonight there have been a fair number of tears of regret by both Joshua and me but he is already asleep and will hopefully stay that way. We are excited about this additional step into "big boyhood" and are grateful that the transition so far has left no casualties.

Thank You Note

Dear Gran and Buddy,

Thanks for coming to my house to see me. I had such a good time visiting you. Thanks for the Thomas the Train book you gave me. I know we read it 1,000 times and that I pushed the noise buttons on it 1,000,000 times but I still love it.
Thanks for going to the playground with me and watching me climb the rock wall. I know it was really hot that day but I had so much fun.

Thanks for sitting by my swimming pool while I splashed around. It was funny when Buddy almost got sprayed by the water.
I had fun kicking the balloon around the house with you both. And Gran is pretty good at playing ball in the hallway. Thanks for playing boo with me. I love to be scared and y'all are good at "getting me."

I'm glad we got to spend time together. See you in a few weeks.
love you,
Joshua