Important pre-swimming skills

Joe can now blow bubbles - so proudly too!
He likes it when I do it too, so much so that he will grab my head and guide my face to the water, holding it there ever so encouragingly and not at all like he's homicidal.

Behold the power of toddlers

So, Joe has some energy.

He's using some of it for learning words and signs...

...and some for making music.

Sounds good to us.

Halloween 2011

Here's a little preview of Joe's costume! In all it's homemade-y goodness.

Hope to capture more tonight when we take him to a friend's block party.

Pumpkin Patch

Joe & I (and my friend Tami, who loves farms) took Joe to the pumpkin patch this weekend! I was expecting more of a "Picture with Santa on Christmas Eve" situation since Halloween is so soon, but the place was pretty empty when we got there (when it opened) at 9.

 There is a corn bin, which is exactly what it sounds like, a bin of dried kernels of corn. There is a slide into it  to which Joe's response was an uncharacteristic, "Oh no, I'm not letting myself move on this thing!" Could have been that just beyond the blue sheet pictured were 6 or so cows watching him. It turns out that there are 2 pipes from the corn bin to their feed bin so that you can "feed" them handfuls of corn. So they hear corn & they mosey right over.

 Joe LOVED climbing on the tractor & trying to shift gears & steer.

 I was really excited about the hayride.

 Joe got pretty into his banana, and tolerated the hayride.

I can say with 100% certainty that this was the first time that the kid stayed asleep after our car stopped in the driveway. Well played, Ganyard Hill Farms.

Edited to add a few more pics:

 

Joe says, "Who in their right mind would want a goat to eat out of their hand?" 

Oh.

Joe's Book Club

Joe is finally not treating books as objects! And he has favorites! That he will tear through his bookshelf looking for, while rejecting all the others. Sometimes he thinks that he might like Twas the Night Before Christmas, but he doesn't.

Video Highlights!

Joe is still VERY into jumping. Using the laptop as a launching pad is (apparently) an essential part of the process.

We are also encouraging him to save his pennies...

...which he can earn by vaccuming.

Edited to add:
This is the sum total of tricks that Joe can currently do.

My work is done.

Look at what Joe can do now.

 
He also asks for help when he wants it.

And just to update: He had his 15 month appt this week. He is 31.5 inches tall (63rd percentile) and weighs 18 lbs, 14 oz (0.8th percentile). 

Football Saturday! (this time with a toddler)

This weekend we took Joe to his first home game of the year at UNC. He liked toddling around the tailgate: asking us to hold him, throwing balls, eating hushpuppies - who wouldn't like that? We weren't sure how he would react to the game, but he seemed to really like the energy of it (so much so that napping was NOT an option, but when he got strapped in the carrier to head back to the tailgate he conked out).

Summer Wrap-up video post

This was summer #2 where my ONLY job was to play with Joe. I highly recommend summers off, and if you are lucky enough to do that, capture your memories with cellphone videos that are impossible to edit.

For instance, this one of the little guy's first beach trip with his big brother (and a friend):


Or this one of great mealtime entertainment:


Or this one, where you knew he was eventually going to ask to get up by saying "Up!" the cute little way he does, but you have to fast forward 35 seconds in order to see it.


And this one where he demonstrates his continued love/hate relationship with ice. It's the ONE sign that he actually uses correctly. He uses "milk" to ask for everything (open & close your fist, kind of like you are actually milking a cow), and uses "more" and "please" only when he's feeling agreeable. ("more:" pinch your thumbs, index and middle fingers together, and tap the tips of them to one another. "please:" rub your hand on your chest.) Joe loves ice, especially when we crush it for him in the blender, but it gets cold & gives him brainfreeze like whoa, and that makes him whiny.


So, lesson learned: use the flip cam to capture memories. Or just enjoy the moment.

The Evolution of the Fro

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months

Eight months

Nine months

Ten months

Eleven months

One year old!

Special father/son time

So now that Joe is fully mobile, chasing time with Daddy has taken on a new angle. It's usually takes place after dinner, either before or after his bath. So he's usually naked.

pre-bedtime chase! from teampeveler on Vimeo.

Although after his bath he wears his towel on his head like a little hoodie cape, which he then plays with and eventually ends up shifting around until his eyes are covered and he bumbles around like a little drunken ghost.

Anyway, the other night, after a very hot and somewhat stressful day, Joe was doing his usual running around, and Frank was lying on the floor of the hall. He and Joe were playing as the bathtub filled, and Joe, as a diaperless child will do, peed. On Frank's head. Then could not get traction in the wet puddle, and so fell in it repeatedly. Frank headed to the shower, and Joe toddled along after him, and invited himself to shower, too. When I went to give a towel to Joe after he was clean and fresh-smelling, he looked like such a proud & happy boy, whose dad took him along with him.

one domain at a time

While Joe is clearly making use of language, it's the gross motor domain where he really shines. This morning he dominated the slide.

It's all in the inflection

Joe is now at that super fun toddler stage, where he is a whirling ball of energy & ideas, by very few words. Most things are "Da." Or "DA!" And if he's not sure, "Da?" I love it.
He's also mastered "Uh-oh" in context - whenever he or something falls. Or he throws/drops something. So lots of opportunities for uh-oh.

da (inflections) and uh-oh from teampeveler on Vimeo.

Birthday!

Joe hit the big Oh-One this week! True to his parents' tendencies, he had several celebrations.
To kick it off, his grandfather came down to put up a swingset for Joe!

(Psst! Joe! It isn't a roller coaster!)

 

Then, we had a party with the Pevelers:

And we had a cookout at our house (with new toys! splash table and basketball hoop!).

 The slide became a WATERSLIDE!

Then it was Father's Day - yay for dads!

On Joe's actual birthday, we took his final "months" photo (with his new electric guitar):

(he isn't singing into a hairbrush here, but with me as a mom, it's not too far off)

Then it was on to TCBY: Fro-yo, for Fro-Joe!

Happy birthday, little monkey.

Joe's Birthday from teampeveler on Vimeo.