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.