3½!

Joshua turned 3½ on Saturday, but we didn't have a chance to get an official picture until today. And, since we met him when he was two days old, today is the 3½-year anniversary of the first time we laid eyes on him. In many ways three has been a challenge for us. Joshua has definitely realized he is his own person who can say no and that he can make his own choices on what he does. But mostly he's still the sweet kid he's always been. He's a very good sharer and super cuddly and affectionate. He is such a kid now. He talks in complete sentences and learns new words all the time. He is always trying to figure out how things work and it's really adorable because Clara considers him the expert on these things. If she hears a noise she'll say, "Joshua, what that noise?" even if Jason and I are both around. Joshua and Clara have long been BFFs and that continues. They play together a lot. Joshua is super active and has 10 lbs on the girls (which is a lot since they only weigh 20 lbs) so we do have to remind him to be gentle with them. Especially because Joshua loves tackling and being tackled and hitting things with sticks and stuff like that that they don't necessarily love. But they get along reasonably well. He has more recently really enjoyed playing with Hannah. She thinks he is hilarious and he likes being funny so it's a good match. Potty-training is a super big challenge for us. He is totally capable of staying dry, but most of the time he will not. He is a pretty intrinsically motivated kid so it's hard to get him to do things in general. He really likes positive consequences and dislikes negative ones so it's not that he doesn't care at all. But in the end, he is totally self-entertained and makes baseball games out of a shoe and a piece of trash so if it doesn't work out, he's cool with it, which is rather irritating. We hope to get Clara potty-trained over the summer, so it's possible that will motivate him. He loves Veggie Tales, Frozen, and tablet games (Angry Birds, Trucks and Skulls, and the Children's Bible App are his favorites) and anything involving dirt or outside. His favorite way to play outside is in the sand or dirt. He is a great eater and will try and enjoy most foods. He is a good helper and will usually help in any way I ask him. We love him so much and can't believe how big he is getting.