He's getting "bigger and bigger" by the minute!

Josh really likes school, even if he doesn't like mornings. His latest "thing" is so cute! He's been walking around with The Bible CONSTANTLY. He keeps telling us that he's "reading God's word". And that, "If you read God's word you'll get bigger and bigger!". It's SO CUTE!

He then takes The Bible and copies words from it. He is, of course, "writing God's word". He takes this VERY seriously.

He told my brother's girlfriend last night that he was going to read ALL of God's word TONIGHT! LOL!

At least I know he's paying attention and taking to heart what his teachers say. God's word is a good thing. I can't wait until he can really read it.

Since when is going to school optional?

Trying to get Josh out of bed for school has been a different challange everyday. From hiding in his closet, to getting dressed in his uniform only to change into play clothes 3 minutes later, to just flat out refusing to get out of bed. What interesting mornings I have. *Sigh*

Chocolate donuts sprung him out of bed one morning. And today it was the "race" to see if he could get dressed faster than the baby. LOL! I'm not sure I can keep coming up with tricks to get this child out of bed.

Learning from the past, as soon as he's dressed, fed, and has brushed his teeth we are out the door. I'm not giving him a chance to change his clothes again. LOL! I'm also not giving him a chance to think up another delay tactic!!

You know what though? Josh LOVES school. I would say that mornings must be his enemy, but I know that's not true either. He rises just fine and enjoys his mornings. On my day off I'd really like for him to sleep in but that doesn't happen! I guess the really "enemy" is that Josh HAS TO do something. He doesn't have a say in it. I think that's the problem.

So ... give him choices you say, right? Well, here's the tricky part. Josh canNOT handle choices too well. Especially ones that come with time constraints. For obvious reasons any type of choice I'd give him in the morning is probably a bad idea. I can't even get him to decide what he wants to eat, let alone ask him to make choices so he'll feel like he's in control of the situation! KWIM?

Maybe I should just invest in a lot of donuts ........

A Soldier in the Making?

Even before the events of Sept. 11th, Joshua has been obsessed with what he calls "Army Stuff". Camaflouge is his friend. Army green is his friend. And yes, his guns are his friends. No, that doesn't worry me. Jeff and I have been adament about teaching him gun safety. He has a respect for the real weapons they are and the destruction they can do. And his friendship with his "Army gun" is more about the fact that it represents Army or Army policemen than the fact that it's a gun.

Joshua's take on the tragedy of Sept. 11th is that the bad guys killed us because they want our freedom. He intelligently told me that "Even if they kill all of us, they still won't have our freedom." At 5, his comprehension of the state of our country is pretty accurate. He doesn't really get it, but he understands that freedom is something to be proud of. Freedom is something people died for, and something that people WILL die for. Funny that he knows that when I'm positive he doesn't even really understand what freedom is. YK?

At any rate ... standing on the arm of the couch (where he shouldn't be and has been told so 100's of times) Josh proclaimed, "i'm going to kill all the bad guys." I'm still not sure what to think of that proclaimation. He then proceeded to ask how old you have to be to be in the Army. Josh couldn't even comprehend how long 13 years is. He also said he really doesn't want to join because he doesn't want to be killed. Then he reminded me that if you join the Army you have to shave your head. And that he'd join if he could be a leader that stays at the base. If only it were that simple of a choice.

That's a lot of complicated stuff for such a young mind to think of. Things I'm sure he had no idea about until 12 days ago. I hope by the time he's registering for the draft he'll be at peace with what it means to serve our country. I have a lot of teaching to do --- God grant me the wisdom to do it.