What has Joseph been up too lately?

Quite a bit actually . . . .

Talking: Either Joseph is saying a lot more words or we're getting better at understanding what he is saying. He talks all the time . . . we understand about 2% of it. He is very expressive in other ways as well. On Sunday his paci was lost in the church nursery. All the workers looked for it and couldn't find it. I asked Joseph where it was and he put his hands out to say "I don't know!" and then he tried to help me look for it. Finally I said "Joseph - I just don't see it." He looked at me mournfully and said "see it." Daddy finally went in the nursery and started emptying out toy buckets until it was finally found. . . in the bottom of the big block tub. "Dada" is still his favorite word. "Thanks" is still a close second. Other words: duck, book, bye-bye, cookie, dog, mom-mom.

Books: He loves to sit and look at books. He loves to read books. He loves to have books read to him. He loves to take a book off the shelf in his room, run to me and hand it to me, wait for me to say "Thank You!" and then run back to his room. This repeats until about 5 books are with me . . . and then we reverse it. He reaches for one of my books, I give him the book, he says "thanks" and then runs back to put it on the shelf. And we repeat this for awhile.

Clothes: Joseph goes through phases of not wanting to get dressed. Currently we are in a great cooperation phase. I hope this lasts longer than the last time. He puts his arms in the arm holes by himself and tries very hard to put his socks on. A couple of days ago he brought me a tennis shoe and then lifted his foot to have it put on. I put it on for him and then told him to go get the other one - which he ran to do in a little lopsided one-shoe-on/one-shoe-off sort of way. He was very proud of himself for bringing back the correct shoe for the other foot.

Food: Joseph is a power eater. He eats anything and everything. . . unless he can see something else he'd rather have. The other morning at brunch he refused fruit (which normally he loves) because there were pastries on the table. Who wouldn't rather have sugar??! At Christmas in Nashville he saw a fruit salad on the table that he wanted so he looked cross-eyed at his spoon and would refuse to eat unless pink salad was on it.

Crazy boy: When we ask him if he's a "crazy boy" he'll shake his head from side-to-side as fast as he can.

Games: He loves to play "hide and seek." He'll go in our foyer and wait for us to call for him and then he'll pop around the corner with a huge grin. Then he'll walk backwards to hide and wait for us to ask where his is again. Sometimes we'll catching him peeking around the corner to see if we've noticed that he's gone yet. We've been trying to get video of this so hopefully we'll be able to post it soon.

Running: Joseph goes everywhere at a run. On Sunday he beat me down the aisle and out of church. He can maneuver between people much faster than I can. Good for future career in the NFL - not good for momma trying to catch her little boy.

Daddy & Momma's night out

We went to the MUSC Oyster Roast last night - outside. It was pretty chilly but we got there early enough to stake out a bistro table by a heater. After some chili dogs and oysters, we headed back home to put Joseph to bed. Thanks to Uncle Pat & Aunt Gib for entertaining him for a couple of hours!

Some pics from this week . . .

Notice Joseph's "I Voted" sticker from this morning's poll visit. :-)

Video clips . . .

Uh-Oh

These days everything is "uh-oh" . . . Joseph's favorite new "words." Joseph accidentally falls down . . "uh-oh!" Joseph accidentally drops something . . "uh-oh!"

Now we've moved on to - Joseph purposefully falls down . . "uh-oh!" . . and . . . Joseph purposefully drops something . . "uh-oh!"

Case in point - I was holding the sweet angel recently while he drew on his DoodlePro. His daddy had showed him how to move the slide and erase so he was contentedly making a little squiggly and then erasing . . . squiggly . . erase . . . squiggly . . . erase. Then he accidentally dropped the stylus. "Uh-oh!" Then commenced about 5 minutes of . . . drop stylus . . "uh-oh!" . . . giggle . . .drop stylus . . . "uh-oh!" . . . giggle. . . drop stylus . . . "uh-oh!" . . . giggle.

Little Stinker

Joseph's favorite toy is the remote control. It's sad . . . all those toys and this is his favorite. He does play with all his other toys. And most of the time the remote is hidden. But every once in awhile he'll find it and then. . . notice the smug look of satisfaction . .
and the pure glee of pushing the buttons. One small problem. . . the other day he locked the remote. (Who knew remotes could lock?) After some googling, Daddy figured out how to unlock it and we're back in business. (and we have tried to fool him with other remotes . . it doesn't work)
Recently, as part of his mission to destroy all order, he carried the office trash can into the living room and scattered the trash everywhere. Then he proceeded to take the pieces of trash and tear them into smaller pieces.

Our Little TV Watcher

Until now Joseph's main interest in the TV has been the fun buttons on the front and the remote control. But now, we have a watcher. His favorite show is Blues Clues . . . although Curious George is pretty great as well. And starting yesterday, he gets mad if I change the channel during his show. Seriously. This morning he got mad at his daddy because he thought he had changed the channel . . but in reality, the show was over.

Please pray . . .

for this family - Nate, Tricia & Gwyneth.

Ride 'em Zebra

Great-Aunt Mary and Great-Uncle Gene got this riding zebra for Joseph for Christmas. He loves it. He loves to bounce and spin and make a lot of noise. Hopefully I'll get it on video soon!

Fifteen months and A-OK

The little big man had a checkup again today. He impressed his pediatrician by exclaiming "Merry Distmas" or something like that. Joseph also knows how to communicate with cows (Moo), explain that did not hurt himself when he fell (Uh-Oh), and is so appreciative when you give him some milk (Danks!).

Stats at fifteen months...
Head Diameter - 20" - Off the chart
Height - 33.5" - Off the chart
Weight - 27 lbs 14 oz - 80th percentile

All this means that Joseph is growing just right.

The Time of My Life