A Big Week for Josiah

I think Josiah got a little too comfortable in the kitchen last week when he helped out with Caroline being sick.  We walked downstairs Monday morning to find him and Henry eating chocolate syrup out of cups.  For breakfast.  And while we're on the subject of sweets, Caroline's potty training has gotten a whole lot better now that she gets rewarded with a cookie for having a productive "extended stay" session on the toilet.  For the most part, the tears have stopped and there is more of an effort on her part.  We are glad for bribery in this situation.  And she is happy that Daddy always comes home from the store with a new type of cookie for her to try.

One evening this week, Todd and Josiah went to visit a scouting troop to see how they liked it.  It is part of Trail Life USA, similar to boy scouts, but with a Christian focus.  Josiah came home and with a big grin, told me that they had a secret handshake and then proceeded to show it to me.  So, really it was more of a handshake, and not so much of a secret.  They also had uniforms, so Josiah was all-in once he saw that.  I will be very surprised if he does not end up in a profession that wears a uniform.  Todd and I are slightly leery of all the camping trips in our future.

Before they went to the scouting meeting, we met up with Todd and ate at our (my) favorite restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes.  The boys did great.  They loved it and they have shown just how much easier they are to take to restaurants now.  Caroline went off her rocker while we were there.  She first ran away while Todd was paying for our food (you pay first - salad buffet restaurant).  She had gone to find us a table apparently, because when I rounded a corner looking for her, she had sat down in a booth by herself (looking quite pleased at herself for doing so).  Then while we were eating she took off another three times.  She had never done this before, so we were not prepared for all the dashes to freedom.  Needless to say, it did not make us want to take her to another restaurant any time soon.  Towards the end of our meal, while we (I) were at the end of our rope with Caroline, Josiah chimed in, "She needs better keepers."  Yes, son.  She probably does.

On the way home from the restaurant, Caroline and Henry fought over whether to ride with the windows down or up.  We started with them down until I could take it no longer with Henry screaming to put them up.  Finally, when we were at home he explained his dissatisfaction with the wind.  He was worried that: 1-the wind would physically blow him out of the car (and his five-point harness carseat); and 2-since he had his mouth open, the wind would go down to his stomach, and since there was so much wind, it would fill him up and he would explode.  These were very real concerns of his.  So we addressed them.

Caroline was proud of the tower she built.

Josiah has been learning beginning addition and subtraction in his math lessons.  We have been doing a lot of stories in which we have to add people/pennies/objects or take away the same.  Part of his worksheets have him draw a picture of the story that is written.  The one he did on Friday was so typical of him, I just had to take a picture.
The instructions say, "Two dogs were playing in Tony's yard.  Three more dogs came to play.  Draw a picture to show what happened."
So, Josiah starts drawing a fence, then the siding of the house, then grass.  Then he draws the first dog (front and center in the picture).  He is wearing a helmet, goggles, and has a rocket booster on his back (insert Josiah cracking himself up at this).  There is one dog peeking over the fence at him.  The other two dogs are to the left saying, "Woof!"  The last is parachuting down to play.
I think that if I were six, I probably would have drawn five dogs and not much else.

Awana started back up this week as well.  Josiah was beyond excited to have this start up.  He was constantly talking to Henry about what to expect, what they do there, the book he would go through, he got out his old Cubbies vest for Henry to try on and explained all the patches.  This kid was excited.  Henry was excited, but also nervous.  After picking Henry up after Awana, he told me that he had cried a little when I left.  But the smile I got when I picked him up was priceless.  I always wish I could have a picture of these occasions.  Then he proceeded to talk about it the entire drive home.  He and Josiah kept comparing notes about what they did in their respective classes.  I heard a lot of, "Hey, we did that, too!"

Caroline got a shot of the boys.

Josiah finished the week off well with First Grade Bible presentation at church.  We had to be at church at 8:30 a.m. to go over what they would do.  They mentioned there would be breakfast.  They had fruit, pigs in a blanket, and cupcakes.  So you better believe that every first grader in there had a cupcake on their plate.  We practiced in the sanctuary where they would stand when their name was called.  During the practice session, Josiah had a girl in front of him (while they were standing on stage) that was quite tall in comparison and had a gigantic bow on her head.  Needless to say, she blocked out his head.  Fortunately, during the actual church service she stood a little to his left so we could see him better.

A picture before the second row in front of him were called up.

Josiah also made a very important decision at the end of church.  He has been asking to walk forward at church for some time now.  For us Baptists, this means that we walk to the front of the church to tell the pastor that we want to be a follower of Jesus.  Josiah kept witnessing baptisms at "big church" and really wanted to do that.  We had talked about how we, as Christians, believe that after professing faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, you follow that up with believer's baptism.  The Bible always has it in that order: profess faith, then baptism.  So, today, he walked forward at the end of the service (with Todd and I behind him).  Since he is still so young, the church gave us a book to go through with him to make sure he truly understands what he's doing - not that he just wants to play in the baptismal waters.  So we will be working on that for the next several weeks.