2008: Bee Ennui

2009: Little Stinker

2010: The Lion

2011: Gnomeo!

Awwwww.

For weeks, Joe’s stepping has been mostly of the “left-right-left-fall down” variety. He eventually made it up to seven steps, which was his record as of yesterday morning. By that afternoon, he had managed 16 steps at school, and another 18 in physical therapy!

Today, his teacher sent a note home saying that he’d taken 30 steps!

We haven’t gotten any of these sudden spurts on video, but I did catch this little milestone at PT yesterday: Joe let go of one surface, shuffle-stepped toward another one, and then moved over to it. Hands-free transition!

I don’t know why the audio didn’t pick up, but at the end you can see his therapist say “That’s awesome!”

We’ve been having a lovely fall weekend!

Yesterday was the Festival of India, where Patrick and I stuffed ourselves with samosas and kachori.

Today we went to the pumpkin patch at Boulevard Flower Gardens and picked a winner. Joe enjoyed the hayride and tolerated our incessant photo-taking.

Definitely a little taller than last year:

2008

2009

2010

2011

Joe is very much enjoying his second year at school! We were nervous at first, with a different teacher and building than last year, but both of them have been wonderful.

Miss Deena, his teacher, is great with him and sends sweet notes home every day:

His bus driver, Miss Theresa, is driving him for a second year now and loves him to pieces:

And he has a couple of new classmates, bringing his class size to four (he seems especially fond of Courtney):

Here he is showing Dada all the classroom amenities on “Meet the Teacher” night:

This week, his class joined all the older kids for “Picture Day,” having their portraits taken. (I’m told there’s also a yearbook, which is so cute I can’t even think about it for long.) Look for one of the wallet sizes, coming to a mailbox near you!

Last week, Joe got a visit from his Grandma and Grandpa. And his “Crazy Aunt Shelly” came all the way from Oregon to meet him in person for the first time! One of his great-uncles even popped in for a visit from where he was working in North Carolina.

Joe loved all the extra attention, clearly:

He showed off a few of his new shuffly steps, but mostly got a lot of snuggling and laughing in. It is so sweet to see him bonding with his extended family!