Joseph Uncle Stewart

Joseph is possibly one of the sweetest people put on the planet. He has been that way ever since I have known him. He is kind and compassionate. He shares without being told. He is encouraging and polite. He really is just sweet.

Joseph came to live with us for the first time when he was four. He didn’t know what our names were so he affectionately referred to me as “Heeeyyyy Laaaady!!” and very nicely called Nigel “LIL’ BOY!”  We had these names for months…he used them so much that Judsen started called me “Lady” for awhile before we got back to “Mom.”

He used expletives correctly and frequently. I have NEVER heard such a sweet child have such a dirty mouth! Some of the strangest and most hilarious conversations I have ever had have been with Joseph. We started having these oddball conversations when I realized a simple “that’s not nice, don’t say that word” did not correct the expletive problem. Joseph needs things to be concrete…so I had to say, “Joseph, don’t say ***, say hiney, rear-end, behind…” We had a variation on that conversation with pretty much every inappropriate word that is in the English language.

A couple of months after I felt like I had the bad word problem under control Joseph was sitting in time-out for kicking his sister. He was making all kinds of noise that I assumed was gibberish. I just laughed off all of Joseph’s noise-making and said something like, “Joseph is so loud in time-out!” Our neighbor just happened to be there with her kids playing while all of this was going on and she came over to me, leaned in and said, “You do know what he is saying…right?” Our friend (who can speak Spanish) informed me that Joseph did not just curse in English.

When Joseph was adopted he wanted his middle name to be Stewart, after one of his faaaavorite people in the world…his Uncle Stewart. When I told him he could change his middle name to Stewart he rejoiced. He was thrilled beyond belief. He did a little jig he was so excited. I didn’t realize he was a tiny bit confused…From that day on, for the next year, every time he introduced himself to someone new we would hear: “Hello, my name is Joseph Uncle Stewart Irons, it is nice to meet you.”

Joseph is ELEVEN!
He likes math. He loves movies. He likes to play outside. He loves to go to the farm with Nigel. His favorite place in the world is Texas. He sings in the shower and says “BOOM-SHAKALAKA!” whenever he thinks it is too quiet, which everyone in our family thinks is HILARIOUS.
He has added so much joy to our family.
Happy Birthday to our precious Joe.