My Sweetie Pie-uh

Very early in Josiah's life, I came up with this little ditty to chant to him:
Josiah my-uh,
My sweetie pie-uh,
Josiah my-uh my-uh my,
My sweetie pie-uh pie-uh pie,
Josiah my-uh...

Back in the middle of November, I jotted down this conversation I had with him.
Me: Thank you, Josiah my-uh.
Josiah: My sweetie pie-uh.
Me: You ARE my sweetie pie-uh!
Josiah: And you are, too!!!

He is such a sweetheart. I look at him and simply marvel sometimes that he's real and that he's my son.

On that same planner page from November, I wrote down that on a particularly stressful day for me (though I don't remember the details of what was stressing me), Josiah asked kindly, "So, do you need me to do anything for you?" Were sweeter words ever uttered? (Especially for someone whose love language is acts of service...)

Josiah has amused me by watching eagerly for the growth of my tummy during these early weeks of pregnancy and occasionally uttering, "I can't wait until you get fat!" I'm glad someone's looking forward to that. :)

I've been reminded recently that Josiah is indeed growing up, and the latest reminder is his first loose tooth! It started getting loose during the last week of December and now seems to be toying with us, getting looser and then tightening up again. Are they supposed to do that? It's been so long since I lost my baby teeth that I can't remember how long it takes once they start to get loose and exactly how the process is going to go. I do, however, remember my dad tying dental floss around a loose tooth of mine, claiming that it was so loose that it might fall out in my sleep and I might choke on it. Then he unceremoniously yanked on the poor tooth, effectively removing it from my mouth but at the same time making it disappear from the planet, so it seemed. We looked and looked for that tooth! It was finally found...in his shirt pocket. My parents didn't do the whole Tooth Fairy thing with us kids which was fine with me; the excitement produced by the loss of a tooth was quite enough without adding a financial incentive to it. Jeff and I haven't talked about it, but I don't think we'll bring up the Tooth Fairy with Josiah either. It will be interesting to see how this whole process of losing teeth goes for him, however. Fortunately, Josiah has a very timely dentist appointment next week with dear Dr. Greene, so we'll be able to get a professional opinion about the tooth situation.

I just thought of another unique thing about Josiah. Whenever he's in the slightest bit of pain or is dealing with some physical situation out of the ordinary, he is EAGER to be seen by a doctor and be given a professional opinion about what his ailment is. I'm sure that his comfort level with doctors is extraordinarily high because his own grandpa is a doctor, but I do have to smile sometimes at how quickly he wails to be seen by the doctor or--better yet--be taken to the hospital when a small injury befalls him. No matter what time of day or night or how serious or minor his pain is, he doesn't waste much time before saying, "Are you going to call Grandpa?" What a boy!

~ a picture of Josiah from today, sound asleep (in what to me looks like an uncomfortable position) on the couch after an incredibly fun visit from the Sacra family...he had such a good time that he got all tuckered out!
~ Jeff took this picture of Josiah's hands gently holding a ladybug yesterday...it's often a fun surprise to me to download the pictures from the camera and see who else got a hold of it and what they took pictures of :)