Happy Birthday Joshie!

Dear Joshie,

Today you are 4. I asked you last night if you were sad that it was your last day being 3 and you said “no, I’m happy!” I can’t believe my baby boy is not even close to a baby anymore.

This last year has been a huge change in your interests. Last year for your birthday your party revolved around boxing. That phase is definitely over! You have moved on to hockey. You are obsessed with it! You have been to a bunch of Blue Jackets games, and even to a Red Wings game up in Detroit. Everything in your world revolves around hockey.

You can name most of the NHL teams by their logos, and a lot of those you can tell me what city they are in. You love to make up fake games in your head and play them down in the playroom, often by yourself. When I get home from work the first words out of your mouth are “the Blue Jackets and the Flyers are playing and it’s 4-2 go Jackets!” or something similar. Seriously, there is always a hockey game going on in your head and it’s amazing. When you play down in the playroom (which always has to have a large open space so that you can play), you will even have fake fights with yourself! You have accumulated tons of sticks and pucks, a net, and gloves. When we went to Disney World and you saw the “make-your-own Mickey ears” you said the base hat was a hockey helmet. When I checked out and only bought that base hat, the guy asked me, with a very weird look on his face, if I wanted to buy any ears along with it. Nope. It’s not a Mickey hat, it’s a hockey helmet.

There is a large easel down in the playroom with one side being a dry-erase board. You use that as your scoreboard, and you write the numbers using dashed lines just like a real scoreboard!

Aunt Suzie lives in Michigan and is a Red Wings fan. You have made a deal with her that when the Blue Jackets are out of the play-offs, you will cheer for the Red Wings.

For your birthday this year you got a water bottle to hang on the net like real goalies have, you got a CBJ goalie stick, you got a Red Wings Jersey, and OU hockey jersey, a scoreboard, a goal light, a roller-puck for court hockey, and ice skating lessons (hockey players have to actually know how to skate).

You like to play court hockey outside (daddy puts his roller blades on and plays with you). Pappaw even used “permanent” paint to draw you a hockey rink (the guy at Home Depot assured him they would come off with the first hard rain…2 months later the lines are still there!)

When Ben the police officer was over the other day and let you guys play with his loud speaker in his car, Kylie said "put your hands up, this is the police." You said "Jackets on the power play!"

You are OBSESSED with this sport!

You also love baseball right now too (because of course, hockey season is over, and you tell people that it’s baseball season now). You set the bases up in the court every night, have daddy draw the lines with chalk behind them, and either daddy, pappaw or I pitch to you. You are an awesome hitter! And you got a new bat for your birthday this year so you don’t have to use the wooden one or sissy’s pink one!

You also like to write. You write letters to Pappaw and ask me to put a stamp on them and mail them (even though he lives next door!). You draw me pictures to take to work with me and your write out lots of lists. You also like to come up and scrapbook with sissy and me (although you are really just putting stickers on paper and drawing hockey rinks and writing the scores).

You know "The National of the Anthem" and sing it all the time (and only mess up maybe 2 words in the whole song!).

One thing that has not changed in the past year is your love of “juice warmed up with warm water.” You tell me, every single time, “don’t forget the warm water!”

You are such a fun and easy-going little boy. You still like to snuggle with me and give me hugs and kisses. But you’re also a boy and will be running around crazy and screaming at the drop of a hat.

You are such a sweet boy and I love you so very much! I love watching you grow and take in new things. You are your daddy’s buddy and I love watching the two of you do things together…you want to be just like him!

I thank God that he gave you to me and that I get to spend my days with you. Thank you for making me such a happy mom!

I love you! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mommy