Patrick’s folks are visiting from New York, and Joe is soaking up all the extra love and attention!

Here he is entertaining the room at breakfast:

And enjoying a local museum with Grandpa:

He’s napping through a thunderstorm right now, and when he gets up we are all going out to celebrate Patrick’s graduation from grad school!

One of the many, many joys of spring is that with warmer weather comes kiddie-pool time!

I started to get some swim diapers and trunks on Joe, but then thought he might like it better au naturel.

Well what does the blue-footed booby bird say, Mr. Smarty Pants?

The gross-motor streak continues!

Joe is now pulling to stand:

… and walking with (lots of) assistance:

It may be time to look into this “babyproofing” I hear so much about!

Because his public demands it, here are some new video clips of Mr. Joseph:

He thinks it’s hilarious when we eat in front of him, especially if what we’re having is crunchy:

He has reached “Champion” level with his crawling skills:

Aaaand a little more laughter, just because:

Because he is the Best Husband Ever, Patrick declared this to be a weekend-long celebration of Mothers Day.

We began on Saturday with brunch at Strawberry Street Cafe, followed by a stroll through the Strawberry Street Festival.

Then we walked down to the newly remodeled Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which is even more impressive than either of us was expecting.

How can you not love this:

Then he stayed home with Joe while I went out for a fun evening with some mama friends.

This morning, I was awakened with the Sunday paper and breakfast in bed — coffee, OJ, scrambled eggs, waffles, turkey sausage, and the all-important Entenmann’s chocolate donut. Yum!

After that, we went to the Fort Clifton Festival, seeing a part of our tiny town that we somehow hadn’t discovered yet. It was a little heavy on the Confederate heritage (gag), but otherwise a nice way to spend an hour.

Oh, and my Mothers Day gift from Joe (as if he is not reward enough!) was a vintage ring I had admired weeks ago at The Oak in nearby Petersburg. Looky:

So that settles it: I’m the luckiest mama in the world! And I’m so grateful for the other mamas in Joe’s life: his Nana in North Carolina and his Grandma in New York. He sends you both a great big kiss today!

There was a time when Joe’s day at the office was limited to this:

But now look at him go!

Needless to say … productivity is way down.