It's hard to believe that our precious little Joey turned SIX this February!  He has grown so much in one year... going from a size 4 in January 2003 to a size 7 these days, and he's still growing...  He's been complaining of leg aches, and it finally dawned on us that he must be having growing pains!

Joseph continues to amaze us with his many talents and brilliance.  His obsession of cars started to shift over to vehicles that turned into robots and he's become a huge fan of the Transformers cartoon series.  He has a huge collection of Transformer robots, but his interest has expanded into robots in general.  Bionicles in particular are a favorite, but he also likes to build his own.  He's even gone as far as to flip the helmets on his Rescue Hero figures, so their faces would not be visible... making them look like robots too.  Joseph's bedroom has turned into a robot shrine!  For Halloween last year, he was Jengo Fett from Star Wars... only because the costume looked like a robot.  :)

Some of his favorite books lately are about how things work and are put together...  Lego's is another love of his, and he's always creating something new.  He'll probably be an Engineer of some sort... not a surprise considering his engi-nerd parents!

Joseph has been doing great in school as a Kindergartner.  He's attending ISGT in Perrysburg, and has started reading both English and Arabic...  truly amazing considering the alphabets are not only completely different, but the reading and writing is done in opposite directions (Arabic is read right to left).  He's also learning about as much religion in one year as Laila learned in the four years she lived in Jordan!  And just recently, he asked his teacher if he could start 1st grade math along with a couple of other students in his class...  We're so proud of him!

The most admirable trait of Joey's is his compassion for others... especially his family.  He can't be dropped off at school without at least three hugs to send him on his way.  He's so loving toward his little sister, and is always ready to protect her and the rest of his family.  He hates to say good-bye to his grandmothers, and doesn't like the idea of them going home alone.  Joseph is promising to build a huge mansion, so that we can all live together!