Family Photo Magnets

Josh is now 20 months old and is becoming quite the mimic.

I remember when maybe only as recently as a few months ago I was getting a little concerned that Josh really wasn’t saying much. Sure he was great at pointing and grunting, but I probably didn’t help much by knowing exactly which grunt meant milk and which grunt meant something else. I don’t think he ever needed to talk because I was always there.

As it was, he started to talk. And the words just keep coming.

I feel as if in the space of this last month, he has gone from maybe 10 words to repeating every word that comes out of our mouth. Tonight at dinner he said “peach.” Where was he hiding that one all this time?

He also is now putting words together. I’m not sure when that is supposed to happen, but he will now say “hello daddy” or “big car.” Nothing major but exciting to Tim and I none the less.

The other day, he was throwing one of his toys (is this just typical of boys?) and I told him “no!” Several minutes later, he threw another toy and before I could scold him, he said “no!” and pointed with his finger the same exact way I had at him only minutes earlier.

I might have been mad but when he saw the surprised look on my face, he said “hug” and ran with his arms outstretched to me.

I’m such a sucker…

Another thing that has made me happy is that I now have proof that Josh knows his family.

It has always bothered me living so far away from my family. Even more so since Josh was born. I feel like they are missing out on seeing Josh grow up and Josh is missing out on spending time with them.

It really bothered me to hear my family say “oh he won’t even recognise me the next time I see him!”

First of all, I’m sure he will. We Skype all the time. And secondly, I have pictures up of everyone everywhere!

In addition to all the photos around the house, I made these magnets a few months ago, using pictures of members of my family with Josh. I thought it would be a good way to remind Josh daily of his family back in California.

They were simple enough to make.

I just took the pictures, glued them onto some cardboard and then covered them with contact paper. I cut each of them out and attached a magnet to the back.

I put them on the refrigerator at Josh level so that he could see and play with them. Sometimes when we’re in the kitchen I will point out certain ones and talk to him about his family in the photos.

He has always loved looking at the pictures, pointing at them and playing with them.

Then the other day I asked him to find a particular person, and he did. He went through and did that with all of the photos.

It made me very happy…