Josiah Henry

The doctor tried to tell me to wait, don't push yet, hold on one more minute.  Sorry lady, no can do.  This 6lb 8oz child currently feels like a line backer in the 4th quarter of the most important game of the season.  He's coming right now whether you're ready or not.

I should have known.

He arrived just after noon on his due date.

I should have known.

Where his brother embraced practically every new food we threw at him, I'm pretty sure Josiah would have been content to live out his life on breast milk, given the opportunity.

I should have known.

Before he could even walk, he figured out how to give his brother a wet willy to get him to release any given wrestling move.

I should have known.

At 9 months old he could already climb the entire flight of stairs in our house.

I should have known.

At 10 months he took his first steps - determined to keep up with every move his big brother made.

I should have known.

I should have known this kid was filled with determination from the beginning.  I should have known he would always know exactly what he wanted and when he wanted It.  I should have known the sheer force of his will.

I thought will-power wasn't supposed to fully rear it's head until the second year of life.   Isn't that why they call it the terrible twos?

But this child, Josiah Henry, my beautiful surprise, with a gorgeous grin, expressive eyes, and precious cuddles, this child has been practicing the art of will-power from the very beginning.

And now he's one year old.  An entire year has passed since his birth.  Now I'm weaning him.  Now I'm moving past the stages of praying that tonight will be the night he sleeps through the night, carefully propping him up in case he falls over while sitting up, and pureeing all his food.

Infanthood is behind us and there is a little boy growing rapidly in front of me.

I should have known it would all go by too fast.

Happy birthday, baby boy!  I can't wait to see all that God has in store for you!

Without getting caught up on what was and loosing sight of the blessings of right now (this is something I must continually work on), I want to take some time to reflect on some of the highlights of the summer. Today I'll begin with something that is still going on right now. Over the last 2 months Josiah has grown and changed so much.  When we began the summer he was a total Momma's boy and we were convinced he was an introvert and would struggle with the number of people we would constantly be surrounded by while visiting family.  However, let me tell you, our toddler in the making is a whole new kid now.  It seemed like the more people he was around the more extroverted he became.  Now I'm worried he's not going to know what to do with just the four of us in the house most days.   I can't wait to see how he continues to grow and change in the coming months!  Thank you to everyone who loved on our little boy this summer and helped him to break out of his shell. In addition, when we began the summer this kid was an incredibly picky eater.  Getting him to consume any protein besides breast milk and yogurt was nearly impossible.  Suddenly, during the summer, he started embracing food whole-heatedly.  Now he rarely turns anything down and between  he and Eli I feel like I'm starting to get a small picture of what my grocery bills will be like in the years  to come (hijole!). Next, he speaks!  My grandfather who is Greek has taught all of his children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren to say "tota" (the Greek word for touch) while touching his pointer finger to theirs.  Apparently it's some sort of Greek tradition.  Anyone else ever heard of this?  Anyway, tota was Josiah's first word as he touched his finger to mine.  That's right my baby's first word was in Greek!  Watch out world this kid is going to be trilingual!  His second word was a slightly less impressive, but still incredibly cute "uh oh" (after dropping something), followed by "bye bye" and "hi."  It seems he only learns words with sort sort of gesture involved.  So, if I want him to say "mama" or "dada" I may have to start teaching him the sign language to go with it. Finally, this kid is on the move.  We will officially be calling him a toddler any day now.  He regularly takes three steps at a time and will be fully on the move and running around with his big brother any day now.  Terrifying! I can't believe my baby boy will be 1 year old in just two weeks.  Where did the time go? Ok, that's it for day 1 of highlights.  There are more to come and I promise the rest won't be me just gushing over my boys, but this proud Momma had to share a little.