Joshua - The Sandwich Kid

 Joshua is a true blue middle child.

The girls are 10, 11, & 12.

He is eight years old.

The little boys are 3 & 4.

Completely sandwiched.

I've been blessed with a good dose of down home common sense and so far I've been going with the gut as far as parenting Joshua goes. 

Joshua is on the small side. Actually he is tiny. Because of his heart condition, all his energy and calories goes to maintaining his 36 pounds. My other boys are small for their ages too possibly because of DNA and/or birth circumstances. At least I thought so until Joshua came and I saw what skin and bones, like count every rib, looked like. Joshua makes Micah and Trey look positively robust.

It's been easy to group these three together. Learning English takes some time providing a great opportunity for for Trey and Joshua to catch on to the ABC's together. A little friendly competition spurs them both on to make great progress. They play together all day long and it is an all-boy threesome that works for now.

 Staging their own "Power Rangers" showdown.

On the other hand:

Joshua IS eight years old. And he's smart. He came to us a very capable second grader. He can do grade level math, read Chinese, write beautifully: some Chinese characters and our alphabet. He understands everything and is a fun and willing student.

He likes to play with the big girls. He wants to listen to their lessons and he can out-craft and outdraw all but Cora, our resident artist. 

Joshua is certainly old enough to be a kitchen helper and learned the fine art of chopping and sauteing from Cora, our omelet maker extraordinaire. He loves chores and can unload the dishwasher and clean up with the best of them.

 Honestly, some days I don't know which way to swing. Factor in that he was an orphan for eight years and emotionally, he is all over the map.

Common sense prevails and we let him go where he needs to be.

 For now.