Joshua at 5 years old!

Joshua turned five on October 12.  In the craziness of life, I failed to post anything about his birthday.  Better late than never!  

Joshua is a complex mix of sweet and tender and tough and aggressive!  He is nothing like his big brother, Will, which is good!  It keeps life interesting around here!  He is a lot bolder and more adventurous.  He is a joy to have around (most of the time) and it is super sweet when his tender, affectionate side comes out.  

Josh is currently in afternoon Pre-k at Oklahoma Christian School and enjoys going every day and interacting with a his friends and his cousin, Quinlyn, who is also in that class.  His teachers are Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Weber was Kent's kindergarten teacher.  Josh finds that very interesting and will sometimes ask Kent if he sang such and such song or did such and such activity when he had Mrs. Weber as his teacher.  Josh loves OCS and likes going to the same school as his big brother, Will.  

Celebrating his birthday with Mrs. Weber and his class at OCS.

Josh is currently playing basketball with the YMCA.  Kent is the assistant coach and Josh really loves to play!  Every Tuesday night they have practice and Josh loves to get all decked out for the occasion.  

        He always wears his KD shoes and a different basketball jersey. It is fun to see him get so excited about the practices and games.  

Josh is really into cooking!  We started watching Master Chef Junior and since then, he is into making up new recipes and plating the food and serving it to us.  Sometimes the combinations aren't too appealing (eggs, sugar, salt, butter) but I always try to take one bite :)  

Josh is our child who doesn't just want to sit and watch something on TV like basketball, hockey, gymnastics, cooking, etc. He will watch for a view minutes but then gets up and starts doing whatever he was just watching on TV.  This happens all the time!  It always makes me smile!  

Back in the fall, Josh decided he wanted to play hockey.  I think part of this came from watching hockey on the winter olympics last year and going to a couple OKC Barons hockey games.  We signed him up for intro to skate at a local ice rink.  The first couple of times were very painful for me to watch as he feel countless times.  Each time though, he got right back up and was determined to learn to play hockey. His determination truly was admirable.  He is one tough child and once he sets his mind to it, he does it!  At the 5th or 6th lesson, he was getting a little better and was about halfway through the lesson when he reached to grab the rink wall and his feet slipped out from under him and his chin hit the ice before his hands.  He ended up with 8 stitches and (which he called whiskers) and a story of how he hurt himself at "hockey" practice.  Needless to say, that was his last time on the ice.  I'm not sure if hockey will or won't be in his future but for this mama, it was time to take a break and decide if that is something we want to pursue more in the future and if so, with some type of helmet with a chin guard.  

Right around Josh's birthday, he learned to ride his bike without training wheels!  He was so very proud of himself and we were excited to enter into this new phase of his childhood.  He is a natural at it and loves to ride with Kent and Will.  

We celebrated Josh's birthday by having a fall themed dress up party with his friends and cousins.  It was a lot of fun and the piñata was a hit!  

Josh has an adventurous spirit and a can -do attitude.  He made his mind up last February when the new YMCA opened that he was going to swim the length of the pool and get the wrist band needed to not have to wear a life jacket.  He promptly jumped in and sank to the bottom.  We couldn't believe that he even tried!  We were so proud of his determined attitude and learned then and there that when he sets his mind to something, he will try it!  He proceeded to try the swim test a couple more times of the summer month and every time, would fail to swim the 25 yards required to get the wrist band.  Finally, last fall around his birthday, he said he wanted to try it again.  I really thought there was no way based on his current swimming ability but he jumped in and swam/doggy paddled the whole length of the pool and was even able to tread water for 10 seconds! I couldn't believe it!  He was so proud to finally get his pink wrist band and I was one proud mama….not just by the fact that he accomplished his goal, but that he made his mind up and kept going until he reached his goal!