Josh is workin' on the railroad...

Just a warning. This WHOLE post is going to be about Josh. I am going to shamelessly gush about how much I love him, how cute he is, and how he's basically the best baby on the planet. If none of this interests you, just mosey on along. ;)

I kept the Josh-man today. I felt like I was the one working on the railroad! Whew! I love that little man, but he can suck the energy right out of me! We had a great time today! He had just received his 1 yr. shots yesterday (4 of them! Poor Josh!) and the first things I noticed this morning were the brightly-colored bandaids on his legs. None of them lasted to the end of the day...they all were pried off one-by-one by little fingers. Josh's personality has really started coming out, and it is so amazing to see!

Some observations about Josh from today:

1) Josh is basically a happy kid. He doesn't fuss unless he's sleepy, hungry, or dirty. Or wanting some toy or something that he can't reach.

2) He's getting really sweet! Josh has only previously hugged me once in his 13 months of existance, and today he hugged me 4 times! Just out of the blue! Man, let me tell you, my heart melted. It's melting now, just thinking about it! He'll also hug other things like his toys (especially the giant pooh bear in his room!) and Mattie, the dog. (That situation about to get a little dicey, I'm afraid.)

3) He's an independent little sucker! Honestly, I think he'd be content playing in his room alone. Of course, I didn't let him do that, but I think he would! Most the time, he can just entertain himself!

4) He can do some serious chowing down. He ate so much today! I just love the way his belly pooches out after a meal. So funny!

5) He loves books. Being read to, flipping the pages, etc. It's wonderful to see, especially for me - an avid reader! My Josh is a genius! (haha!) That's one of my favorite things to do with hiim - read to him. He loves it, and I love it! And it is SOOO good for kids to hear fluent readers read to them. Just hearing it makes such a difference! (had to say that...the teacher in me.)

6) He loves looking at pictures of his family. Suzi has three albums full of pictures that Josh looks through all the time. He'll sit in my lap for 15 minutes...or more!... looking at those pictures. I'll say, "Josh, where's Aunt Lee?" Or, "Where's Mommy?" and he points to whoever I'm talking about. He LOVES it. And he loves flipping the pages back and forth. Sometimes he'll get to doing it really fast and furious - it's so funny!

7) Josh loves music! If a song he likes comes on or I sing to him, he'll dance. (One of his favorites is "Josh is workin' on the railroad, all the live-long day..." We sing lot of songs to him, and we put his name in all of them. (One of my friends says we're raising an ego-maniac, but I don't think so!) He has a variation of dances that he likes doing: the bounce, the sway, the sway-with-headbang, and the butt-in-the-air bounce + sway. I think he may have a promising future in choreography. He's also begun to echo me singing. I'll sing some tune to him, "la la la," and he'll sing it back! Maybe not EXACTLY the same, but pretty dang close!

8) He HATES having his diaper changed. He really freaks out. He gets so mad - with the red face and the I'm-so-mad-at-you cry. I hate to do it, too, Josh, but it's gotta be done!

9) He loves to be outside. It sprinkled all day today, but we still went out and stood under the awning for a little while. He was amazed with the bricks on the house. I love how little things amaze him!

I guess I'll stop for now. I could go on forever! Hope I haven't sickened too many people with my sugary-sweet post. Deal with it! :)