The Rest of the Story

This is the rest of The Letter of the Week story, so if you haven't read that post yet, go read it first and then read this one.

So after that happened, John said, "I'm not old." Josiah: "I'm going to DRAW you old." And he did. Not only did he draw John old, but he drew himself old, too, complete with wrinkly foreheads. (But still with 4 year old stature) He drew the two of them walking a dog in their old age. I thought his picture was really cute, so I'm posting it here for you all to see, too. Here it is: Josiah and John "old," walking a dog. Oh, the squiggly line coming out of John's leg is "the hairy stuff when you get old."



Josiah asked John last night at dinner if when they were old if they could play swords with their canes. John said probably not because they would fall over. :)

The Letter of the Week

Every week at school, they have a letter of the week that they work on with the kids and then at the end of the week everyone brings in something for show and tell that starts with that letter. This week the letter is O. We were going to make oatmeal cookies for them to take, but then that never happened so this morning at breakfast I was asking Josiah what else he could take that starts with an O. He chose the word 'old' and said he would draw a picture of it. So, John comes walking through the dining room and says, "Have you figured out a word that starts with the letter O?" Josiah said, "Yes. Old." John: "But how are you going to take 'old' in your bag?" Josiah: "I'm going to draw a picture of you." Ba-dum-bum.

Josiah's Water Party

Josiah got to choose the theme for his birthday party this year, and after debating about pirates, knights and water, he decided on a water party. So that's what we did! The weather was perfect for it last Saturday--somewhere around 90--and from a parent's perspective, it was an easy party because the kids entertained themselves! Josiah and Micah got to experience water balloons (those were at "hit" with everyone) but really all the kids, and even some of the adults, had fun just playing in the water and getting wet. Oh, and Josiah chose all of the cake and ice cream parts too: chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting in the middle and cream cheese frosting on the outside with "Eye-Scream" (vanilla with marshmallow swirl and candy eyes--like mike in "Monster's Inc"). So, now for the best part of the party blog: THE PICTURES!!

Here are some of the kids playing in the pool:

This is Josiah plotting to launch a water balloon:

Micah with his defrosted frog: (we had frog ice cubes)

Josiah attacking the water balloon maker (aka John):

The Birthday Boy and his cake:

And then opening presents:

I don't know if you noticed or not, but in all of the party pictures, Micah was wearing an orange hard hat. He's been doing that off and on for a couple weeks, but that particular day he WOULD NOT take it off. He cried when I made him take it off for nap. Here's another picture from a different day with it on (though the best is the days when he wears the hat AND the boots!)


And then last Sunday was Micah's standoff...our first big battle of the wills. It started first thing in the morning, before anyone had even had breakfast. Micah and Josiah were playing and Micah hit Josiah. Now, proper procedure in our house is that the offender not only has to say sorry, but also check to make sure the offendee is OK. Micah REFUSED to ask Josiah if he was OK. We tried to reason it out of him (Did you hit your brother? Yes. Is it ok to hit? No. What do you need to do? I cant). We tried to force it out of him (I don't even know how many spankings he got). We tried to "hunger pain" it out of him (you can't eat breakfast until you ask your brother if he's ok). We tried to make him lonely enough to ask it (You have to stay in your room by yourself until you ask him). None of these things worked. He held out ALL DAY LONG and ALL NIGHT LONG. By that night he was in such a bad mood he was saying "I don't love you, I don't love Daddy, I don't love Josiah." I was hopeful that in the morning he would forget about his resolve to not ask and he would just do it without thinking. I was wrong. He got up and we fed him right away and he was chattering away while he was eating. As soon as he was done I asked if he would ask Josiah if he was ok. Micah said, "No," crossed his arms ,stuck out his lips and stopped talking altogether. He went back to his room and believe me when I say that by this time I was at the END OF MY ROPE. It was one of those times where I'm praying, "God, I know You know best, but I REALLY can't take much more of this!" About an hour and a half later, Micah FINALLY asked Josiah if he was ok. Like I told John, I wish I could tell you what I did differently or what I said to change his mind so that we could remember it for next time, but honestly, I didn't do anything different. All that changed was that I guess Micah decided he'd had enough of being alone and so he asked. Who knows. And who knows where he got such stubbornness. Considering his gene pool I'd have thought he'd be safe from...oh wait, no! I've got that all backwards! :)

So there you have it.

Mr. Fantastic Four!

Oh my. It's already been a week and I'm just now posting about the big birthday. One week ago today Josiah turned four. YEA!! This has been the first birthday he's really counted down to and it was so much fun--the anticipation! And what a big day he had, too! In the morning we went to eat at IHOP...you know, to start the day off right! Both boys had the funny face pancake and Josiah decided that at 4 he was old enough to "knife" (i.e. to cut his own food). He did pretty well, but then it was a pancake! He certainly had a good time being a big boy! And of course, with whipped cream first thing in the morning, how could you go wrong? :) After breakfast Nana, Sue and Renee came over and Josiah got to open his first presents--one of which was the "booger ball" movie! Wa-hoo!


For lunch Gpa and Shirley took Josiah to eat at his favorite restaurant, none other than Ronald McDonalds! Gpa let him play there for almost 2 hours--a definite treat! Needless to say he came home and collapsed for naptime!

And then that evening we had the requested tacos for dinner. YUM! And cake, of course, with ORANGE icing. He was on an orange kick that day because he wanted to wear an orange shirt and have an orange cake. But then again, we do live in Tennessee, so is that really so surprising?? Anyhow, we had a great day, we ate lots of food and just celebrated our wonderful little four year old boy who is so terrific in so many ways.



I'm going to post about the party and Micah's standoff in the next couple of days (we all know what that meant last time!) so be sure to check back! :)