Family Alive

Brian, Kristine, Analise, and Josiah Toone

My handsome little 18-month-old

23rd December 2007

Eighteen months ago, I was 2 weeks into adjusting to the crazy juggling life of parenting 2 kids. Josiah was eating and sleeping and snuggling on our chests, tiny as can be. Where has the time gone?

Today he’s a busy boy, pushing trucks around the house, climbing on stools to see what he can get into on the counters, romping on the couch, dancing in circles, chattering with a growing vocabulary of recognizable words, charming me all the time with his strawberry blond curls, chubby cheeks and blue eyes. He seriously melts me.

Yes, he drives me crazy, too, making messes all the time, finding the bin of sprinkles no matter where I put them, splashing in my lukewarm coffee when I’m not looking. But his sweetest word is "Mama", which he says with such meaning, such desire, determination, because he knows that I’m the one to come to. He’ll come try to crawl in my lap while I’m at the computer, wanting to watch a little video, a photo card from Poppa Dale, or The Slurps. His little giggle every time the doggy slurps at him is so cute. He’ll bring me books, tugging me down to the floor to read with him. He loves his big books about vehicles and anything with animals.  When he wants something, he’ll come find me, with "Mama", and grab my hand and tug me to wherever he needs me… usually the kitchen ๐Ÿ™‚

He loves noises, especially sneezes or blowing noses, and they make him break into a little belly laugh that is so contagious. He’s finally decided that English is worth diving into, and he’s starting to say most anything you ask him to, but his commonly used words – mostly food! – are "cake-cake" for cupcake, "chee" for cheese, "cookie", "boo" for book, "ca" for car, "ou-si" for outside, "go", "no" which is so cute – very short, and when he’s done with things or he doesn’t want them, he’ll hand them back to you, gently but firmly, pushing your hand away, saying "no". Much better than pushing them off his tray or tossing them, as he used to do! He also loves to say "Poppa" for Grandpa.

He’s still waking at night, most nights, and though I’m weary of it when morning comes too quickly, I know it won’t last forever. I snuggle him close in our bed for a few minutes, before taking him back to his bed. He snuggles into my shoulder when I carry him back, and I get extra nuzzles in his soft neck. I love my sleeping babies… In his bed, he’s so cute, sleeping all curled up on his belly, with his knees under him and his butt up in the air. Most of the time, he’s amazing about going to sleep on his own. He likes his bedtime routine, right about 7pm, and he’s happy to head into his quiet, dark room to curl up with his Glo-worm telling him a story and maybe the water sounds on his crib-side aquarium soothing him to sleep. He still uses his pacifier at night, preferably 2 of them, but he’ll toss them out in the morning and after his nap, the "clink" on the hardwood floor signaling us he’ll start making more noise soon if we don’t come quick! Just in the last couple weeks, we’ve dropped to one solid long afternoon nap, and though I thought it would be miserable to lose my quiet morning time with just Analise, we’ve settled into the new routine nicely. EVERYONE naps from 1:30 to 3:30 or 4, including Mommy for a short time ๐Ÿ™‚

He has loved watching our evening Advent celebrations. As soon as we dim the lights in the dining room to light the candles, his eyes get all wide and he starts blowing for the candles. He’ll listen as Analise chimes in with Brian’s reading of the Christmas story, sing songs with us, and of course, he’ll blow when we blow the candles out together.

He likes to ride on his little push vehicles outside, and he’s pretty good about avoiding Analise’s crazy riding on her bike.  He’s quite good at entertaining himself when he’s home with just one of us, but when he and Analise are together, watch out! Territory wars! He wants to be in on anything she is doing.  He’s learning the dramatics of his sister, and though he’s mostly sweet, he’s definitely got a quick red-headed temper. When he wants something, he makes it known. Whew. We’ve got our hands full with these two!

But I love my little man. I love mothering a little boy, and I’m so very blessed.  I love seeing his personality develop more and more each day, and I’m praying that each day his heart grows more into the character of his namesake, the young king Josiah, who loved the Lord and turned the people’s hearts to God’s word.

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