The Final Countdown to THREE

Tomorrow it will be official:  Josiah will turn three.  Three is my least favorite age ever.  I prefer thirteen to three - though there are similarities between them - squirrelly and prone to temper tantrums to name two.  But I'll say this for Josiah - he is absolutely my favorite three year old, so he has that going for him.

In January of last year, I did a blog titled "Stuck in the Middle with You" - featuring tomorrow's birthday boy.  That was when he was the second of three.  Now, as the second oldest of five, life has changed.  Now he is one of the "big" kids.  And as a big kid, he gets to go to school when Granma arrives to teach science (oh, there will be future blogs on THAT!).

Then there are days like Sunday when we had a family dinner to celebrate Grampa and Josiah's birthdays.  Josiah decided to flaunt his youth with just a "touch" of blue icing lipstick.  Granma is totally useless at telling him to stop when she, herself, can't stop laughing.  His unnatural smile kept growing until Mama grabbed the wet wipes.  After all, someone had to be the adult, and I was doing a poor job of it.  In fact, I was thinking of blue lips myself.  Thank you, Christine, for saving me from myself...

Josiah has two modes - absolute-goof-ball and nothing-you-do-will-make-me smile.  But look at those eyes!  Coppery hazel!  They bewitch me and apparently they go very well with blue - he might be on to something.  He also has two voices - toddler-what-is-he-saying? and billy-goat-beats-me-what-he's-saying.  Seriously, he should think about opera - no one has a vibrato like that kid!  Fortunately, Aidan is really good at interpreting.  Actually, sometimes Aidan just shrugs when asked what his brother is saying.  He might actually understand, but it is an older brother prerogative to feign ignorance.

Josiah, I love you dearly, just the way you are!  You are a love bug of epic-ly three-year-old proportion!  I'll love you next year, too, when you are (relieved sigh) four...  Happy Birthday!