J and M + j + s: Happy Birthday Josh!

Happy Birthday to Josh!! His checkup isn't for a few weeks, so we won't know his stats. But he seems to be growing pretty well!

Over the past year Josh has grown up into a curious, smart, kind and awesome little boy. He loves to help us in the kitchen, cleaning, bring things to the car, or with Sam whenever he can. He loves monkeys, reading and playing with legos or cars and trucks. He has recently started pretend play and is getting very imaginative. He loves loves, loves playing outside, and doesn't really care if it is hot or cold.

More recently his thought process has gotten much more complex. He loves to make deals, or negotiate and he has gotten very clever. He is a sponge and picks up on everything. His speech has really improved in the last month or so as well. He consistently talks in complete sentences and his vocabulary has greatly increased. He is also getting better at pronouncing words than he used to be. Gone are the days of cortiyone (cortisone), yamby (laundry), galage (garage) and other Joshisms we got used to.

Physically he is doing really well. He loves running, and is a great climber. We recently took him swimming a few times and he is doing really well. In the next year we want to get him a bit more into some organized athletics--swimming lessons and maybe soccer. But we need to be on top of signing him up before they book up.

Along with the increased thought processing, he throws some pretty typically 3-year-old tantrums. We used to be able to easily distract him, but it is getting a bit more challenging now. He has also discovered that he is afraid of some things, also pretty typical behavior. We can already tell these will be some of our biggest challenges this year.

Potty training has been a slow process. He is physically and mentally ready, but not emotionally. We are letting him go at his own pace for now, and hoping he decides that he doesn't want to wear diapers anymore at some point.

We have begun the search for a new pre-school for him. Any recommendations near the Kensington/Rockville area are welcome! The one we liked best is not nut free, and that is a deal breaker for us right now.