Two and a half

Today Joshua turns 2 ½ years old. In some ways it seems so long ago that we brought him home from the hospital. It seems impossible that we once worried he would be super serious because he so rarely smiled. Or that all he wanted was to be held and he wouldn't fall asleep or do anything else except cry if you weren't holding him. I find second birthdays sad because I feel like it's really the gateway to childhood and leaving babyhood behind. That has definitely been true of Joshua. He is such a boy now. He runs and jumps and likes smashing things. He recently has been on a lego kick mainly because he has realized that smashing the legos with a hammer to break them apart is super fun. His vocabulary has really exploded since he turned two. He now uses pronouns and phrases and has even done a sentence a time or do, though I am not sure it was intentional. He has a very keen sense of what is proper right now. When I took this picture he asked where his sticker was for his shirt. When we didn't have any clean cups for him I told him to drink from a sippy cup and he told me no and that it was for babies. He is far from serious and may have a future as a class clown. He loves to perform and make people laugh. He is really excited about colors and counting, though he doesn't have them all straight yet. He loves singing songs and dancing and he loves being outside and kicking and hitting and throwing. He loves wearing hats while playing sports. He has outgrown most of his baby talk, but we have held on to dita for blanket and Gaga for Clara. He sometimes says blankie now and that makes me sad. And he is definitely capable of saying Clara, but he prefers Gaga and I don't correct him. He still struggles with pronouns and tells me to "Hold You" when he wants me to hold him. He is very helpful and likes feeding the dogs and letting them in and out and putting Hannah's bottles in the sink when she's done eating. He will help clean up the toys, but he most often starts playing with whatever he is cleaning up a few seconds into it. He is such a great big brother to both girls and I can't wait to see what kind of boy he continues to grow into.

Joshua 2 ½ Years Ago

2 Years Ago 

1 Year Ago