Joshua is having a great time in our new home, running around and getting his hands into everything. It is taking me forever to put those child latches on cabinets in the kitchen because the latches just aren't designed for the type of cabinets available here in Thailand. However, we've got at least *some* latches in place so he no longer plays with the cooking oil and soy sauce bottles. When he is not opening doors that he shouldn't, Joshua especially loves carrying tubs, buckets, coolers, and other large objects around the house. The bigger the better. Then he stacks them up or tries to get inside of them. Here's some recent pics.

Today we celebrated Joshua's first birthday! Praise God for the healthy happy little boy that God gave to us one year ago today. He is still the same cute bundle of joy that we held in our arms in the hospital but, unlike then, he now wriggles out of our arms and flees naked across the room while we chase him down to put some clothes on him. So many changes within a year. Joshua was pretty oblivious to the fact that it was his birthday today although we think he enjoyed the icing on the cake and sucking on his new toys. Here are some photos from our celebration for Joshua (during lunch time with some other missionaries.)

It's official! Joshua can walk. Sure, he stumbles and falls on his face or his bum sometimes but he can definitely walk. He loves exploring and just about runs anyplace he wants to go. Of course, with greater mobility comes more opportunity for trouble so Mom & Dad don't get much of break even though we are not holding him all the time now.

A couple weeks ago, Joshua decided he didn't want to be spoon fed anymore. He'd twist and turn and shout and the spoon just wouldn't go in. From that point on, picking up little pieces of rice, meat, cracker, vegetable, and so forth was the order of the day. Since then he has allowed some spoon feeding again but overall, he still prefers to use his pincer grib to pick up food with chopstick-like precision between his thumb and pointer finger. It is often the left hand he uses for this so we wonder if he is a lefty. Only time will tell on that front. Personally, I am routing for ambidextrous as it seems much more versatile.  Here a video of the boy going after a raisin.

 

Joshua is sprouting teeth like crazy. His eigth one just popped through his bottom gum a few days ago so now he has four on the top and four on the bottom. These later ones have not come with as much drooling, screaming, and sleeplessness as the first few, thankfully. Here is good picture that we got recently which shows Joshua's toothy grin.

Here on our vacation at OMF's holiday home on the beach in Southern Thailand, Joshua has had a number of first time experiences. We'll try to post more vacation pics later but here is photographic evidence of some of Joshua's firsts.