Ending the Drought

Sorry for the blogging drought! With the cold/rainy weather, life hasn't been very photo-worthy lately. Luckily my child could play with trains forever. We've also had our house on the market, which has meant lots of cleaning for me!

Here are a few tidbits about Josiah lately:

• Characters. At least three or four times a day, he changes his identity and ours. He'll say, "You be Thomas, and I'll be Percy" or "You be Mama Bird, and I'll be Baby Bird" or "I be motorcycle, and you be kiwi truck." (No kiwi truck is not a character; he just made it up.) When we become a character, we stay that way for a while, and he'll end every sentence addressed to me with my current identity at the end ("Where are we going, Elmo.") He'll also remind you that he's not Josiah, he's Cookie Monster. It's really quite amazing to see his imagination go wild. It's also very helpful because he can make anything a character (i.e. rocks, pens). He also does this regularly with his food, which is a good and bad thing. Good: it means he can entertain himself sitting in his chair for an hour. Bad: very messy. And it backfires when you're in a hurry.
  
  
• He's gotten more brave on playgrounds, not that we've gone much. He actually went into the play set at Chick-fil-A. He tentatively went through the tubes, other children lapping him several times. Then he finally went down the slide with a big smile, and "I did it!" We also busted out our Thomas tunnel the other day, and he really liked it.
  
  
• He's singing more. Sometimes known songs, sometimes ones he makes up.
  
  
• The weather and house showings have brought us to the library quite a bit. He gets in "ruts" with the books. He only wants to read his new library books. Currently, we've read the same five library books for every nap and every bed time for four days straight. I'm happy it's these five because the last set of books were really long and boring.
  
  
• He's finally counting. He's still not consistent every time, and prefers to count correctly on his own initiative, as opposed to a request by Mama.
  
  
• He's super-friendly. He'll say hello to other children in stores or restaurants. He said "hi" to everyone who passed by the checkout lane yesterday. When they don't respond, he's a little offended and says, "That little boy not say hi to me."
  
  
• Developmentally, he's very conscious of emotions. He regularly identifies emotions of characters in books or other children. "That little boy upset" or "That engine is mad" or "He's happy!"
  
  
• He's a little obsessed with "happy." I was having a few, er, less happy days in a row. He was always asking, "Mama, you happy? Be happy Mama." This comes into play with discipline mainly. I'll tell him it's time for bed or to clean up toys. He'll start crying and say, "Make me happy, Mama." Most of the time he's manipulating me, so Jonathan and I will say, "Obeying will make you happy." I'll point out that it's not about making Mama happy, but about making God happy. And I want him to know that I love him no matter what, but his sin doesn't make me or God happy. If he's complaining, I'll try to remind him of Scripture about that and focus him on being thankful instead. I'm still searching for the best way to handle it. It's not something I've run across directly in any parenting books lately!