My Birthday Boy-(Young Man)

At 8:23 am on August 13, 1986, the world added one more person to its population count.  That’s the day 7 lb. 15-½oz, Joshua Davis Falan was born.

As you can imagine, things were different than they are now.  Weather wise, Oregon and Washington were experiencing a heat wave; unlike the weather we’ve been having this summer. 

The Newberg Hospital in Newberg, Oregon, hadn’t been expanded.  It was still a small hospital with a nursery for the babies that had been born there.  It was small enough that the nurses had a rocking chair in the nursery, and would rock all the babies throughout the day.   That summer the hospital experienced a baby boom the second week of August.  They had nine babies that were born, which was more than they were used to.  Josh was one of those babies.

From the time he was born, we all knew Josh was going to take after his dad as far as his size.  As my mom put it, if Josh had been a puppy, he’d be a Great Dane based on the size of his hands and feet. 

When he was about 2 months old, we found the cutest little one-piece  "tuxedo" sleeper, (well, *I* thought it was cute); it was Josh’s first Halloween “costume”. 

 I’m thinking this may have set the tone for some of the things Josh decided to wear sometimes.  For instance, the following photo shows Josh wearing his new “hat”.  Thankfully his potty training seat was brand new when he did this!

  I’ll fully admit, Josh had his work cut out for him being born to the parents he has.  The kid got a double dose of stubbornness for sure. His sense of humor also came from both his dad and me; though I’ll admit, the more warped part would be my fault. 

We’re talking about a kid who asked lots of questions about everything.   Like when he was 4 years old; it was January, 30 degrees outside, and there was snow on the ground.  It was sun shining though, so Josh wanted to know why he couldn't go swimming in his kiddy pool.  We finally convinced him he could use our “indoor pool”.  He got his swim trunks on and was a happy little camper playing in the “pool”. 

Funny thing was, if he was in his “pool” he HAD to wear his swim trunks, big boys didn’t swim naked according to Josh.  However, when it was time for his bath, he could NOT wear his swim trunks, that would just be silly, that’s what he told us; you don’t wear clothes during your bath, that’s what the washing machine is for. 

We had him convinced for almost a year that we had an “indoor pool”.  Then he realized everyone had one, and his grandparents’  “pool” was much cooler, because it had water jets in it. 

Not Josh's grandparents' actual tub.

 There were a few times when we’d get busted on answering Josh’s questions; like how ice cream is made.  We told him that ice cream comes from white cows that live at the North Pole and eat frozen vanilla beans.  If someone wants a flavor other than vanilla, the cows are fed whatever other things needed to make the ice cream into a different flavor.  For instance, want strawberry ice cream?  Just feed the cows a few strawberries with their vanilla beans.  Mint chocolate chip…add mint leaves and chocolate with the vanilla beans.  We were pretty proud of that one, until we were busted. 

After hearing the explanation, Josh told us we were wrong, and proceeded to tell us how ice cream was made, according to what he saw on Sesame Street.

The learning has gone both ways over the years.  When he was 5, Josh came home from school and told us he'd been learning about "oviparous" creatures.  I had no idea what that was; Josh had to tell me "oviparous" means anything that lays eggs.  I'm not sure I could have even SAID that word when I was 5, let alone know what it meant!

And then there are sunrises; at least that's what the rest of the world calls it when the sun comes up.  For me, a sunrise will forever be "magicking".  That's what Josh told me a sunrise is, because it's easy to make things dark, but it takes magic to make things light.

There are so many other things I could go on about when it comes to Josh, and his childhood, but I won’t.  I’ll just let everyone know that over the years, Josh has turned out to be a fine young man, with good morals, a kind heart, and a wonderful sense of humor.  His random twitching is only occasional now.

As he got older, Josh developed his own personality, likes and tastes, as one should.  He definitely has his opinions on things, and can be very “deep” when it comes to things like politics.  At the same time, he can still be like a little kid.  Over all, it’s a great balance.

One of Josh’s real talents is his natural ability to take photos.  He can just point and shoot a camera, and get some of the most beautiful shots.  A couple of blogs ago I posted one he took of a dragonfly.  I’ve put a few more of my favorites here. I'd put more, however there are just so many they'd take up this whole blog! 

 

 

As I said, these are just a small sample of my favorite photos Josh has taken.  Since this blog is about him today, and it's his birthday, I'll also post one of *his* favorite photos he's taken.  A true combination of two of his passions, rally cars and photography.

  Over all, the past 25 years have been a great adventure watching my “baby” boy grow up into a young man.  There’s been rough spots, like there are in any family; though over all, I wouldn’t change a thing that’s happened, because I sure am proud of  the person who came into the world, and started my life as a mom 25 years ago today. 

Happy 25th birthday Josh!!!