He's a Bloomin'

That Joshua boy.  He has done some big time blooming and growing in the last couple of months.

There are so many things we take for granted when it comes to early child development.  It's easy to think about in an abstract way, but we are face to face with it everyday watching Joshua and Scout (sister) develop side-by-side.

I've talked about this before, but it constantly amazes us how Scout learns so naturally.  She adds new words everyday.  She imitates us in actions and speech so effortlessly.  I haven't explicitly taught her anything in the way of numbers or colors and yet she observes and is starting to pick them up.  We are so, so grateful for her "normal" development thus far.

We recently potty-trained her.  That "we" being Mom and me.  Joe really lucked out on this one.  He was out of town for work and I had the genius, seriously, genius idea to do the main potty push while I had another adult with me at home all day.  Thanks Mom! And in the weeks following it has been such a huge difference from when we trained Joshua in the fall because SCOUT TELLS ME WHEN SHE NEEDS TO GO. Oh happy day.  It has made the process so much smoother.

Because Joshua has never told us.

We just take him periodically and hope for the best.  A lot of the time at home he will go to the bathroom by himself- we just have to listen for the clang of the toilet seat and come running to supervise.

But yesterday.  Yesterday!  Not only did he tell me (in his way) that he had to go, he GOT OUT OF THE POOL to do so.  His beloved pool! He volunteered!

He came out and grabbed my hand and started pulling me.  My first thought was that he wanted to go to the big pool where Daddy was, but then something made me check for potty.  I said,"Potty, Joshua?" and he said,"Poppy!"  And in this case I knew he was talking about the potty and not my dad.  So we ran in there and success! So proud.

And another concrete story of his recent growth:

Earlier today Joshua walked into my room and I said,"Hi Joshua!"  I'm not expecting anything back necessarily, but always modeling.  Always the one-sided conversation. I know from experience that it's sinking into that little head, even if I may not get anything back for months... years.

BUT.  He responded! Right away!

"Want some juice! Want some hot dog!"

I did a double take.  (Or double listen?)

For a few weeks he has been repeating "Want some juice" really well.  He has requested "juice" on his own for months. We are constantly providing scaffolding to get him to the next level of communication.  So when he says "Juice" we automatically say "Want some juice?".  We don't require him to say it, just let him hear it over and over.  I'm sure the next phase will be "I want some juice".

But the hot dog!  Oh, the hot dog! We have NEVER said the hot dog sentence that I know of.  And certainly not the 150x we've said the juice part. He made the connection on his own! YAAAAY Joshua!

Well, I jumped up and said OK! Juice and hot dog! and ran to the kitchen. Where I discovered we were out of hot dogs.  No, no, no!  I HAD to positively reinforce this big step!  I thought about calling Joe to get some at the store on the way home (not quick enough), cursed the Stephensons a little bit for not being 4 doors down with extra hot dogs, and then thankfully remembered that I had some hot dogs from Costco in the freezer.  Oh, joy of joys!!

Happy Mama, happy boy.  Boy that works so hard everyday; so much harder than most of us to communicate, process and interact.  We are so proud of him.