TeamDavis

I am putting together Christmas cards and thought I’d share a bit here of looking back on the year of milestones that Josiah has passed.  In a brief summary, I recognized from reviewing our photo history of 2010, that we started the year celebrating Josiah’s ability to stack and his enthusiasm for walk behind a push toy.  He loved riding in his wagon and being outside.  After his first birthday, he took off walking down the hall. Now he’s running, jumping, climbing and rolling.  His desire to do things often outweighs his ability, but that continues to push him to learn and grow.

His vocabulary has increased dramatically; it’s amazing to have him express specific thoughts, wishes and feelings.

Of his growing vocabulary, his most frequent words seem to be: crash, wet, stuck, train, fall, uh-oh, oopsie, hot, tractor, truck, dump, bob (as in the builder), wet, ‘side (for outside), no, shoe (=going out) and ah-ha.  He sweetly says “thank you” more frequently, and he has also been praying at the table with us and ending with “a men.”  Just recently we’ve also come across him singing little sweet songs.  One common one is just a tune with “ma ma” and “daddy”.  But it’s sweet to hear his creativity translating into his language and music development.

He has taken to caring for some of his stuffed animals: feeding them, and introducing them to his favorite things.  He tried the same with my dad’s cat over Thanksgiving. It’s sweet to imagine how he will take part with our new child.

At some point over the year, the trucks and construction equipment switch was flipped; and more recently his obsession with trains flipped into high gear!

Josiah has consistently tried to be a big helper. The more physically able he is, the more he tries to do.  When we were preparing to move this past Spring, we often turned around to find him trying to lift heavy boxes and sometimes “packing” by putting stuff in boxes for us.  We still have him rush up to Scott when he’s carrying things; he will try to put at least a hand on whatever is being carried to offer his “help.”

He often tries to help me put dishes away; I’ve basically given him the “task” of taking the silverware and dumping them in the drawer; I just sort later.  He helps some with pulling laundry out of the drier and often tries to carry the basket!  The latest thing he tried to do was very surprising. He’s always been interested in helping sweep, and a couple times I have actually found him grab the dust pan and hand broom trying to sweep up things here and there un-requested. it’s quite amazing what they come up with on their own!

We look forward to more learning and growing ahead. It goes so quickly, sometimes it’s nice to reflect back and try to remember what we already miss!