5

Josiah turned 5 years old today. I find myself simply astonished by this fact, lending further proof to the theory that I'm actually getting old. I hear myself saying exactly what "my elders" said when I was young...
~ "I can't believe how big you're getting!"
~ "My, how time flies!"
~ "Another birthday already?"
~ "I remember you when you were THIS big!" (with hands held roughly two feet off the ground...although in the case of Josiah, I could literally say this with hands held an inch apart, and it would be true)*

Josiah, at age 5, seems like such a real person now. This is the age of genuine conversations, kindergarten, a world of activities that suddenly open up when a child turns 5. He's such an interesting little/big guy...one minute I think how much easier he is to deal with than he was a year or two ago...the next minute I'm comforting him because he clumsily whacked his head on a table...the next minute he's having a full-blown tantrum because another kid touched his toys in the play area of Gift & Thrift, or because, horror!, his balloon string is lying across his leg. Despite his growth, he's still a kid; and I find the balance hard to maintain sometimes. I know I treat him "too young" at times, and at other times I push him to be "too old."

Today at Gift & Thrift, I saw a prime example of a child pushed to be too old. In the play area, there was a little boy who was probably about David's age with his big sister (who I'm guessing was in the 8-10 year old range). The little boy was being a bit of a brat (as were my boys at times, so I'm not throwing any stones!). Once the mother stopped by the play area to let her children know she was going to continue to shop, and I heard her tell the daughter, "Now you watch him and if he does something he shouldn't do, just slap his hand or something." Hmm, I don't think that's the right type of responsibility to put on an older sister. To keep an eye on a younger child, yes...but to be the disciplinarian??? Not in my book.

Anyway, back to the birthday boy... :)

So far the birthday celebration has included:
~ LOUDLY saying "happy birthday!" to Josiah as soon as we all got out of bed
~ Jeff taking the boys to the mall to play while I had my first official prenatal appointment (which went fine, by the way...mostly talking...nothing major happened at it...but I'm continually impressed by how nice and helpful everybody at this OB-GYN practice is!)
~ going to a Christian bookstore to buy Josiah his very own first Bible WITH ALL THE WORDS IN IT...this was a special request of his, and is actually his gift from Grandpa and Grandma...we have lots of Bible storybooks, but he was very interested in having a "real" Bible, so even though it's a little over his head, we were more than happy to encourage him in that way!!!
~ going to Home Depot to buy paint for his room...at some point, we are going to move David into Josiah's room in preparation for the baby sleeping in our little nursery...we want to do some painting and re-arranging of furniture before that happens
~ going to the barbershop for Jeff to give both the boys a haircut (at the barbershop, Josiah wanted to take his Bible into the shop to show the other workers his new gift)
~ going to a local fruit market to get a gallon of strawberries
~ home for two sleepy boys to have a nap

Later we plan to go out for dinner, then head home for Josiah to open his gifts from us. On Friday, we'll have a few people over and celebrate more then...but today has been a wonderful day of just being together as a family and celebrating this most special gift from God, our wonderful firstborn Josiah!

* Last night as I wrapped Josiah's gifts, I looked down at my ever-increasing tummy and thought, "It is really unimaginable that someday I will be wrapping birthday gifts for this little baby's 5th birthday!" Yet, Lord willing, that will be happening sometime in the early part of 2013! Time is so strange--sometimes crawling, sometimes flying--often catching me off guard.