We had a great time in Texas. We spent the week at my mom and dad's. The kids always love to go there. They have many animals, dogs, goats, cats and cows. The kids get to fish there and ride on the lawn tractor. They spend most of their time outside with the animals. This time they fished a lot and caught 19 fish. They had a great time & so did I! Poor Lawrence had to work all week in Greenville! Joshua got to meet both sets of Grandparents and all of my sisters and a few of his cousins! What a great week! I will have to add more photos later. For some reason there is an error when I try to upload some more photos. I will update again in a few days!
Joshua has learned many things since our last update. He has finally learned to peddle all the way around. Before he would only go about half way round and then peddle backwards. He has also learned to say so many more words such as: Mamaw, Papaw, Donna, Freckles ( my mom and dad's dog), goat, tractor, fish, pow (for shooting a gun), juice, sprite, Kelsey, NO, Thank you, go to work, car, eat, gum, candy, french fries, chicken, poo-poo, Gigs go Nao-nao(meaning Gigs go teetee), and bible.
He has also learned in the last week how to really throw a tantrum! Several times this past week has has kicked and screamed and cried really hard when he did not get his way! Wow! It is something to view - even after having had three other children!! I mostly ignore the fit or make him sit down beside me until he is done with the fit. He is getting better I think. We are trying to teach him that the fit still will not get him what he wants.
We are also making him go to sleep without me laying down with him every nap and bedtime. He is doing great with that. The first night he started to cry a little bit and I said, " Well, Joshua, let's say another prayer. " We prayed for God to help him to be a big boy and to help him to go to sleep by himself. And . . . He did! I usually stay in the room and pick up and clean up for a little while or read and he knows I am not leaving and he relaxes and goes right to sleep. It was taking about 45 minutes for him to go to sleep with me laying down with him and then I would get sleepy!! So, it is getting better around here.
We also bought him some really good shoes. They are Stride Rite shoes and they seem to be really helping his walking, running and clumsiness. It seems like I can already tell a difference in the strength of his legs. He is improving in so many ways.
Today, I tried to play the memory game with him. He got more matches than me! We did not play the whole game. His attention won't last that long, but we played for about 5 minutes. When we first got him his attention span was only about 10 seconds at the most!!
We are also still trying to potty train. It is frustrating, but we are not going to give up! He is staying dryer for longer periods of time it seems. I know that the transition must be hard for him and there is so much emotional trauma involved in this transition, we are really trying to be very patient with him.
I know I have forgotten to post so many of the cute things he has done, but I will try to think of them and write them down as they come to my mind! He has truly kept us in stitches!!
