Joshua: Baptism By Spit-Up

The other day, we were at Holly and Aaron-the-son-in-law's house helping out with the baby.

Holly had just fed Rhodes, and she was holding him. All of a sudden, we heard the sound that makes every mom freeze in place: Rhodie was making a BIG diaper. BIG. You could tell just by the sound of it.

The "pre-game," as it were.

Even Joshua, with his less-than-perfect hearing, looked up from what he was writing...and his eyes got big. He said, "WOO, RHODIE!"

Then he started talking really fast about Rodie's "windies" sounding like a "Gatling gun."

WHAT?

Holly joked, "Joshua, when he's done, I'm gonna make YOU change this diaper."

Joshua started mumbling things that included the words, "not me," and "I don't want any part of THAT."

But, when Holly got up to go change Rhodes, I told Joshua, "go with her." He just looked at me. I said, "GO ON...you've been mouthing about it, so now you need to go back there and see what's going on."

I thought he might refuse, or get upset about it, but he hopped right up and went back to the nursery. I could hear a lot of "WHEWs!" and "WHOAs" coming from Joshua. When they walked back into the living room, JOSHUA WAS CARRYING RHODIE.

It was the sweetest.thing.ever.

We let Joshua hold Rhodes, but we are careful that he is always sitting down...and Rhodie is usually asleep.

Baby steps when it comes to Joshua and Rhodes.

I know that Joshua would never intentionally hurt him, but he doesn't know how fragile babies are...how to carefully protect his little neck, and about the soft-spot on the top of his head...how squirmy he is, or how quickly (and forcefully) he can RARE BACK if he gets upset.

I mean, in his mind, he thought Rhodie would be crawling a week after he was born...and he asked us yesterday if Rhodie would be talking soon.

Holly was walking right beside Joshua...just in case.

Well, Rhodie had just eaten before he made his big diaper, and...sure enough...he spit up on Joshua's shoulder.

Instead of being upset, Joshua was thrilled. He relishes any opportunity he gets that shows he is NOT DIFFERENT from everyone else. He knew that Rhodes had spit up on all of us, at one time or another, and so he kept saying, "Rhodie spit up on me...I was the last one...he spit up on everyone in our family, but I was the last one!"

Later that night, he was talking to his grandmother...recounting the events of the day. He was so excited to tell her that Rhodes spit up on him, and he was talking 90-to-nothin'. He can be hard to understand, on a good day, but add a little excitement to his voice...and it can be impossible to figure out what he's saying.

Or if you are nearly 80 years old and DO NOT KNOW what a Gatling gun is...

So Joshua has been tee-tee'd on, and he's been spit-up on...we all know what is next, right?

"I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak His praises." Psalm 34:1