A Happy on the Front Porch

We came home Monday and found a box on our front porch.  Joshua immediately recognized his name on the label and nearly pulled a hamstring trying to get inside to open it.

The tension mounted as he pulled each piece of newspaper our of the box to find "A DARTH VADER MASK LIKE THE ONE I LOOK AT EVERYTIME WE GO TO THE STORE!!!"

Dear Gully and Great Gay,

Thank you for making my day...week...month....!

Love, Joshua

 

Dear Gully and Great Gay,

Thank you for making my day...week...month...!!!

Love, Dave

3.5 years of age

The following are what Joshua reports as his "favorites" (at least as of tonight):
color: "black and blue"
food: "chicken nuggets"
dessert: "ice cream"
thing to do at school: "play outside"
toy: "light saber"
tv show: "Star Wars"
movie: "Star Wars"
song: "ABC and Poncho & Lefty. Willie Nelson sings that song mama."
Willie Nelson song: "Get on the road again"

animal: "giraffe and zebra"
friend: "Owen"
sport: "baseball"
game: "tag"
place to go: "zoo with my cousin Abigail"
restaurant: "Oby's"
bug: "grasshopper"
vegetable: "crunchy carrots"
fruit: "apples"
instrument: "drum"
number: "3, because I am in my 3s"
letter: "J"

What do you want to be when you grow up?: "a baseball man"

It is hard to believe that Joshua is 3 1/2.  He has grown up a lot in the last 6 months. 
While he still struggles with a fiery temper he is practicing being "calm" and praying to ask God to help him to "have a new heart so I will want to obey." 
In the last week or so Joshua has been staying awake for sometimes up to 2 hours after we tuck him in.  He has been found in our room playing with our alarm clocks, standing in his rocking chair playing with the light switch and a couple of times on top of the cab of his fire truck bed scooting across the top while singing.  Each time we ask him, "what are you doing" and he responds "nothing." 
Joshua loves to try to sound out words.  In the middle of a conversation with him he will stop (often mid-sentence) and pain-stakingly sound out each letter in the word.  He does pretty good and it is always humorous to hear. 
And of course the stories.  He is always good for a story.  In fact, today on the way home from day care he said, "Mama, see that dog?  I think he got really dirty today and had to have a bath.  He was digging in the grass with his sharp claws because he was looking for a doggie biscuit.  And when he found the doggie biscuit he ate it.  And then when it started to rain the dog said 'hey, I'm really dirty and it is bath night.  So he got some soap and took a bath in the rain.  And I think he had a rubber duck too.  Mama, how would that dog hold his rubber duck, 'cause he doesn't really have hands?" 

Wednesday's Wit

After spending a couple days with his Coach and at a table full of family after a beautiful wedding Joshua remembers to ask, "Coach how was Haiti?  Did you see any pirate ships?"

Joshua has been practicing writing his letters.  He was proudly showing off his work to Dave when he said, "Look Dad, that looks like an O or a chicken."

At 5:00 am I opened my eyes to find Joshua about 6 inches from my face when this conversation took place:
J: "Mama, is a beetle a good bug or a bad bug."
A: "You know Joshua it is really really really early.  Can we talk about this later?"
J: "Well, I just need to know before I go back to sleep."
A: "Ok, I think that beetles are good bugs."
J: "I thought so.  They are good like roly polys right?"
A: "Sure."
At which point he got back in his bed.

Dave was telling Joshua about a gun his grandfather gave him and was showing Joshua how it worked when this whopper of a story was told:  "My granddad, Coach, used to have a gun like this when he was a little boy.  And he used it to shoot deer. And a snake.  When I was big, I helped him.  And we went hunting at night and killed a zebra and it falled down.  Bam!  Bam! Like that."

Photo Highlights from a visit to Coach and Nana's