Dear Joshua,

Today you turned 22 months old. We are getting really close to your 2nd birthday, and when I think about it, I'm still baffled that it's already been almost two years since you rocked our world and changed our family for the better. We cannot imagine life without you. You make us laugh constantly, and you amaze us with new words every day. Tonight, you said "butterfly" like it was no big deal. REALLY? You've never said it before, despite momma's best attempts to get you to say it.

You are very particular, lining things up on the table, on the floor, or on your bed-

You love love LOVE books (and spend almost an hour reading them in your bed when you should be sleeping at night), you adore your sister and still doggy lick her whenever you want to give her a kiss (which seems to be fairly often), you like lying in the play gym with her and playing with the toys hanging from it. Recently, you figured out how to kick a soccer ball-sized ball around the house. Now you and Daddy kick it through the door frame and run around yelling "goal!" Daddy is very happy about this, as I'm sure you can imagine he would be. :) You love going places, and most of the time, you like to have Elmo with you. Elmo is now a permanent fixture in the car for this reason. You have also become quite enamored with Handy Manny, and you started calling Daddy "Manny" this weekend when he was working with tools to put up your ceiling fan. This made us both smile quite a bit. You are also absolutely OBSESSED with fire trucks. Whenever we mention them you start making siren noises, and you get really excited when we see one on the street while we're in the car. You LOVED it when the fire truck came to our house to replace our smoke detectors! You even held the fireman's hand!

You are starting to come out of your shell a lot more. In fact, we just had week #3 where you walked into the church toddler room and never looked back. No crying, no nothing. You were ready to play. Mommy even joined the YMCA this week and took you into the play room while she worked out. You had never even been in this room before, but you walked in like you owned the place, and didn't even realize I left. When I came to pick you up, you showed me the toy you had been playing with--a fire truck of course! :)

Joshua, you are so incredibly loved and we are so grateful for you. We can't believe all the new things you are learning every day, and we are so excited to see who you become as you grow older.

We love you Joshua,
Love, Momma