Joshua is constantly creating things out of paper. He loves to write and color, cut, glue and tape. For Christmas he asked for a tool box that had "different kinds of tape," scissors, and glue in it. We've already had to restock his scotch tape twice! Whenever Jacob or Brigham come home from school with an art project that Joshua likes, he often recreates one for himself. For example, last fall, Brigham made this moose out of a paper bag and construction paper. . . . and Joshua did too (Joshua's is on the right).

In January, the theme at Brigham's preschool was dinosaurs. One day Brigham made a pair of dinosaur feet that he could wear. Joshua just had to have a pair. So, he went to work and made himself a pair. Jacob also made a pair. Then, Joshua decided he wanted to make himself a complete dinosaur costume. After he got started, Jacob got excited about it and decided to help. It was really cute watching them work on it together. My favorite part is the mask. It is a profile, but of course you can see both eyes (I love how children always do that).

Joshua, The Teranodon

(which technically isn't, or I suppose wasn't, an actual dinosaur)

So, Joshua had a hay-day making Valentines. He made one for just about everyone . . . all his grandparents, many of his aunts, uncles, and cousins, his primary teacher, neighbors, friends, our hometeacher . . . and many more. They were all very similar. He hoped everyone had a "happy Valentine's Day" (he memorized how to correctly spell Valentine's Day) and a "nice day" and a "good day" and a "happy day." I think Shane and I each received five or so Valentines from the sweet boy. I love how Joshua writes. He his completely uninhibited by not knowing how to properly spell words. He just writes phonetically. So, for example, on his Aunt Heidi's Valentine, he wrote "Aunt Hitey." Last week he wrote to his cousins "Willyum" and "Josif" and Aunt "Cirshten" (Kirsten). I just love it. In fact, I keep way too many of his papers. I just can't throw them away. I keep them because I know they'll always make me smile. Time moves so quickly and he is growing so fast. He's already figured out that "luv" is really spelled "love." And soon enough he'll know that the correct way to spell "elifint" is "elephant."

I just hope he never stops writing me Valentines.