The birthday boy

Our big boy turned 3 this week. At last! I feel like he's been 3 for at least 6 months... Weird, but with his birthday being at the end of the year, a lot of his school friends turned 3 before him and it seemed his birthday was never coming.

What a joy this little man has brought into our life these last 3 years. I know I have moments when I wish I could relive the freedom and carelessness of my pre-Mom life for a few hours, but I can honestly say I have never been happier than since this sweet, cuddly, smart, mischievous, overly active tornado has come into our family.

Josh is a very independent and responsible child. He loves to be a big brother and boss his little brother around (which results in more and more fights since little brother is proving to have the same independent strong-willed personality). He is incredibly tall (40inches-just over 1m), and rather skinny (34lbs-15.5kg). He loves to eat (broccoli, soups, pizza, pasta, cheese, and basically anything I put on his plate), he has been potty trained since September. He can spell his name and is getting close to recognizing all the letters of the alphabet (capital). He loves to play with cars and planes, likes to pretend he's a pirate, or a tiger, or a race car. He likes to build "temples" with his blocks. His favorite song is ABC. His favorite books are 10 Little Ladybugs (he can read it by himself and insists on counting the ladybugs on every single page) and Horton hears a Who. His favorite TV shows are "Super Why" and "Little Einstein". He likes to add "ie" at the end of all his adjectives like:

I'm codie (I'm cold)

It's goodie - talking about a lollipop

It's hottie - talking about his halloween costume freshly out of the dryer 

I need a kissie

That's an eggie

Mom, give me a kiss on my headie etc...

He still speaks a lot more English than French but he's slowly adding some French vocabulary to his sentences:

Me: Joshua tu as tout mange? (Did you eat everything Joshua?)

Josh answers: I tout monge it.

Me: Josh, partage un morceau de fromage avec William. (Josh, share a piece of your cheese with William).

(He cuts a tiny piece with his nail).

Me: Non pas celui la il est trop petit. (Not this one, it's too small)

Josh answers: It's trou piti? 

He still likes music and dancing, but not as much as he used too. 

He likes to comment on everything, and make up stories, he calls EVERYONE friend and likes to hug his friends (mostly one friend in particular), he is very organized (slightly OCD), he loves to organize his cars in rows, he likes to label things and loves to enumerate. Recently he pointed at the poop in his potty and said: This is Daddy, this is Mommy, this is Joshua, this is William and one more.

Aside from Josh and Joshua, I like to call him Jo, Jobanjo, Joshy-Jo, Jo-loulou...

There's so much more I could say. This child fills my days with fun, excitement and an abundance of energy. 

 3 days old

 1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

We had a fun little pirate party for him last Saturday. He and his friends had a lot of fun fighting with their balloon swords and digging for their treasure in the bathtub. His birthday falls at a bad time (finals/end of semester, Thanksgiving/Christmas season) so it's always stressful to plan a party around this time. It was a very last minute thing, I HAD to ask Russell to help cut out the decoration when people started arriving (HAD to because I would never otherwise - he can not cut a straight line). But thanks to great friends we had a great time despite the lack of organization or the last minute decorations.

 pirate island cake

 pirate ship pizza bread

  Ahoy mateys!

 tattoos and snacks

 "look at that!"

And on Monday we had a second celebration with Joshua's preschool classmates. 

Phew... now we have 1 year to start preparing for the next one.