The Third Child

Poor Joshua. He's so rarely featured on this blog. But as he moves beyond infancy and develops personality, he seems to naturally capture more of the attention of the primary writer (that would be me). So I wanted to share a few things.

Standing, but not walking.
Even though both Aubrey and Elijah walked at 11 months (and Elijah started running a week later ;-), Joshua has been a bit lax in moving about. Of course, once he started crawling, he quickly became a pro. But even at 13 and 1/2 months, he still hasn't really taken his first step by himself. Even with help, he seems to quickly drop down, realizing that he could speed crawl much faster. He seems to exhibit many traits of a natural Phlegmatic. The easier way rules.

Loving Blankey
Aunt Riya has made crochet blankets for both Elijah and Aubrey, and even though she has promised Joshua's is on its way, he seems quite attached to Elijah's old one. In fact, we often find him lying upon it in the mornings. And when we take it out from the crib and put it on the floor, he likes to shove his head in the heaping mass or use it like a pillow. Sometimes, he seems to get wrapped up in it in the middle of the night, and awakes crying. We come in the room to find him standing in the crib in tears, wearing the blanket like a ghost costume. Stephanie and I laugh as an old King of Queens episode comes to mind, when Arthur Spooner (played by Jerry Stiller) tells of his experience getting stuck in trying to put on a sweater. "It was terrifying," he described.

Different Growth Patterns
Every child is different. In every way. Joshua started out the smallest of our children, weighing under 7 pounds. He has followed a much slower growth patterns, his weight being below the 10th percentile. So, even though Elijah was born in the same month, he's been behind the growth curve while Elijah was ahead. So it seems like much of the clothing we had for Elijah is now the wrong season for our slower grower (especially the pajamas).

Eating Habits
He still only has six "toofers" (as Stephanie refers to them), but loves to still feed himself. He is quite the angry eater like his sister, although he's tailoring off a little from when he first started being feed real food. I guess he's learning that screaming is the only way to be noticed when you have two other vocal children to compete with. Another funny fact, is that we have to put just a few things on his plate at a time so he won't shove mass amounts of food in his mouth at one time (like his brother who eats too fast, who probably takes after their dad). Boys.

"He's so quiet."
That's what everybody says. Mrs. Patti. The women in the nursery at church. The grandparents. "Does he ever cry?" people will ask. Oh, yeah. You just haven't witnessed meal time, I want to say. But now he is beginning to find his voice and vocally protests when his sister grabs toys from his hands. And he is finding his delighted smiles and mischievous grins. It's a joy to watch him bonk his head on the back door as he looks out at the dogs waiting to re-enter after a bathroom break, or watch him crawl with his head on the carpet like a bulldozer.