OK, now I'm on a grove getting back into this blogging mode. Truth is my office is such a disaster right now that I don't even open my computer at home (for work or personal stuff)...tonight is the night that I will clean it! By the way, a great site that I'm loving right now is Unclutterer. So back to the point...some updates on Josh. Josh keeps getting funnier and funnier as his mind keeps soaking in more and more facts (he of course spits out several of his 'own facts' which is a blog topic on its own). I haven't updated the readers in a while on Josh - not since his broken leg, so here are a few that pop into my head that epitomize what we love about Josh.

Good Manners - Josh is doing very good on having good manners...chewing with his mouth closed, saying 'Excuse me' when he wants to talk to someone, saying please and thank you unprompted more than any other kids his age I've seen, it truly makes me (and I hope Ann since she works on all of them with him - maybe not the chewing one as much as me - inside joke to many) proud to see such a well behaved kid. It is kind of funny, and a little bit embarrassing, when Josh starts critiquing others on their manners. Almost always he is commenting on someone not chewing with their mouth closed, lol. Think I have him on the right track of good table etiquette.

'He has smoke in his mouth!' - Another thing I work very hard at instilling (probably too much) is that smoking is bad. God knows when you are supposed to approach this subject with your kids, but better early than late is my philosophy. So, I've gone a little over board (albeit the truth) in telling Josh that smoking will 'kill him, and I will cry forever if he dies'. I like how Josh is just as dumbfounded as me when we spot someone smoking and wonder how they knowingly can still smoke, but what is entertaining is how vigilant Josh is about. Whenever we are driving, he is constantly peering into cars that we are passing to make sure that no one is smoking and if some one is, thank God Josh doesn't have a bullhorn because he goes off on them ;) Additionally, whenever we are walking into some establishment, you of course have to make it through the haze of smokers standing outside the door...well, Josh spots them about a block away...freezes as if he was about to be spotted robbing a jewelry store or something and covers his mouth. It almost takes an act of congress to get him to walk towards 'his death' ;) And as he gets close, he gives them a puzzled/dirty/scared look and sprints by with his mouth covered trying to avoid 'certain death'. When he makes it in the clear, he proclaims, 'I didn't get smoke in my mouth Daddy! I'm not going to die!'...Phew, that was close, disaster averted! As long as I can keep him having this attitude on smoking I'll feel like I instilled something good in him ;)

That's my 'puter, please don't touch - Josh's second cousin (I think :S) Jacob (Kelly's kid) gave Josh an old Bob the Builder computer that he no longer played with. Josh couldn't have been happier. That was several months ago and he still loves the thing. But he had a classic line he used to utter a few times a day. Every morning he had to 'make money' so he'd go turn on his computer and would sit there waiting (as if it was really doing something, lol), then he'd turn around and inform us the reason for the delay, 'Daddy, it's chugging a little bit...it doesn't chug as much as Tom's computer...it just chugs a little bit'. Then he'd proceed to make some money which he says he's going to give all his money to Dad...I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Then after working, he'd close the computer and warn anyone around, 'That's my 'puter, please don't touch it' as if it was top secret. Anyone who can visualize Josh's speaking patterns are getting a chuckle right now I'm sure, me being one of them.

And, of course, John Deere - He definitely gets this side of his personality from his Hennen side. This kid loves mowing lawns almost as much as his grandpa. Every day he mows the lawn, then we get him the real weed wacker (without the power source of course) so he can weed whack! The way he says that with his crinkled nose makes us crack up every time. And of course the sound effects he makes as he waves the thing around gives my cheeks cramps just watching him, but he'd do it hours on end if we let him. It the same thing over and over, put baby Jazz in the back pack (since I carry one or both of him and Audrey in backpack(s) when I mow) mow for 10-15 minutes, set baby Jazz down 'because she's hot' Josh informs me as he comforts her in the shade, then get the weed whacker down from the hook (we have to hang it back up every time he finishes), weed whack for a while, then start the cycle over again. It's gotten so 'bad', that even if I offer to go play tennis or baseball with him, Josh looks at me in all sincerity and says, 'Dad, I can't, I still have a lot of grass to mow'. We load the mower up in the car wherever we go so that he can mow the lawn when we get there. If we can pull him away from our yard with some sort of bribe to go on a walk down to the park to play, he of course has to bring along the weed whacker and trim everyone's lawn on the way down to the park and people practically think it's child abuse when they see Josh lugging around a weed whacker basically bigger than he is 7-8 blocks down to the park and back...but he wouldn't have it any other way!

Now I lay me down to sleep... - Josh's best friend Elizabeth Arendt is moving to Boston for a year as Katie (her Mom) will be working out there and then returning to Rochester. Josh, in his 'fact creating' self informs us that 'Elizabeth is going to Americas for three weeks' and ensures us that there is nothing to worry about ;) What is pretty funny is the prayer we say every night, the well known one, Now I lay me down to sleep.... Well at the end, we always let Josh decide who to 'God bless' as he says 'God bless X' and I/Ann repeat and it continues on unprompted until Josh doesn't want to God bless anyone else. As long as I can remember, it always starts and ends with Elizabeth - even if a week or two goes by without seeing her...almost as if it has become part of the prayer ;) Well, as I said, it is unprompted and for the last month or so, it goes like this every night...

God bless Elizabeth...(I repeat)
God bless Pattttttt...(I repeat...for each one)
God bless Katie and baby Cassie...(those are all the Arendt's by the way)
God bless my lights...(Bob Tougas just reinstalled a few of the original 'toys' in Josh's bunk beds recently)
God bless my drawers...
God bless my gate... (guess we ge to keep him locked in there for a while longer ;))
God bless Elizabeth...
Say Amen...Amen (in unison)

Josh will definately start to miss his best friend once he realizes 'three weeks' have turned into fifty-two, and I'm curious to see how long they stay on the 'God bless list' as Ann and I call it...hopefully until they get back! :)