Joseph Updates

I feel bad not updating the blog with what Joseph's been up to, so he'll get his own post as well. Joseph is loving life at the new house, and had an awesome summer!

We took a trip down to the Lake of the Ozarks, where he got to spend a lot of time driving Papa's boat and spinning us in circles. He's getting pretty good, too, and loved spending every possible minute behind the wheel! 

He's having a lot of fun getting to know the neighborhood kids. One night in July some new friends invited us over for dinner. They have two girls, both almost exactly the same age as our kids. Joseph had a blast with Ellie, and after dinner she took him out to her play house where they enjoyed eating ice cream cones together. While she doesn't go to the same preschool as Joseph, we do see them out a lot, and he's started asking if Ellie will be where we headed. I'm so excited for him to get to start making friends that he'll have all through school at such a young age!

Joseph's imagination has completely taken off this summer as well. We spend a lot of time playing pirates, typically with Joseph as Captain Hook. After I brought home some popsicle molds, he realized that the stick part looked enough like a sword that we started using them for sword fights. One day, Joseph thought Joe should take one to work with him to "fight off the bad guys." How sweet!

When I was packing up the old house, I couldn't believe how many large boxes of toys we had. I dreaded Maddie's birthday and the excess that would come, so I requested that our friends not bring gifts. It's not like she would notice (or mind), and luckily we didn't end up with a lot of new things. I still think we need to purge, so last week Joseph and I made a very long paper chain, counting down the days until Christmas. He was really excited to help make the chain, and I explained that each day he could tear one link off. 

The catch is that he and I need to pick one thing a day to donate to other kids - books, toys, clothes, whatever. We will see how well this continues, but so far he's gotten over the initial desire to just pick Maddie's toys, and is making really good progress about picking those toys that he never plays with. 

When it came to choosing something from his bedroom this weekend, he surprised me when he sorted through his stuffed animals, pulled out his Mickey Mouse and handed it to me. I asked him if he really wanted to give Mickey away, knowing that just a few nights prior he pulled Mickey into bed with him when he was nervous about some bad weather we were having. His response? "Mom, Mickey is a good friend to sleep with, but I have all of those other stuffed animals over there (gestures to the full basket). So I think a boy or girl who doesn't have a toy would like Mickey to sleep with them and be their friend." I kid you not, those words, almost verbatim, came out of his mouth. I was really proud, and knew that he really did understand why we were going through this activity. I'm hoping I can sort through the things that just need to go to Goodwill versus finding a place to take Joseph to make a donation, so he can see the end result a little better.

While we were making the chain, Joseph started singing to himself. He's becoming more interested in the words in various songs, and will frequently just break into song. I captured him singing while making the chain, after just a bit of reminding that he had been singing before I started recording:

Finally, Joseph is LOVING gymnastics class. He looks forward to it all week, and I'm thinking we may need to sign him up for another day of classes next spring. He seems to have a strong aptitude for it, although running is still his strongest skill - check out the last video. The teacher breaks their skills sets in half, and to transition they all start on a red line on one side of the gym and run the perimeter. Joseph is consistently the fastest, and this week it was almost funny how much further ahead he was of the rest of the class!