Today, Joe met his great-grandfather! Grandy (who is 98 years old) is my mother’s stepfather. He’s also a WW2 vet, which qualified him for a trip to D.C. with the Honor Flight. It was really nice to see him take in the sights, especially the WW2 memorial.

Today was also Joe’s first time meeting “Aint Naincy” (my mother’s sister), who came up from Florida for the occasion.

Here is Joe on the D.C. Metro:

Here is Grandy, surprised to find us waiting for him when he gets off the bus:

Joe, clapping for the veterans:

And here he is relaxing in the stroller while Patrick hears another cool Grandy story:

Patrick got much better pictures of the day, and those will be uploaded soon!

You know, no big whoop.

Joe’s teachers were excited to report last week that he seems completely enthralled with Irish music. They were doing St. Paddy’s-related art projects and stories last week, and they put on some traditional Irish music for fun. He would hear it start from across the room, break into a big smile, and start bouncing gleefully to it.

Around this same time, he seemed to develop a new mischievous streak.

He digs through our change jar, smears his greasy hands all over our bedroom mirror, and tries to topple every plant in the dining room.

He crawls into the bathroom when I’m showering, and flings the shower curtain around until he and the whole room are both soaked.

He also gets the screen door halfway open, and would no doubt be headed down the sidewalk if the squeak of the door didn’t give him away.

We are so proud of this little troublemaker!

Without a whole lot of room to maneuver here when it’s cold out, Joe has been using his gait trainer exclusively at school. But one day last week, it came home with him — the teacher said he wasn’t using it much there anymore.

I put him in it on the sidewalk, like old times, and he shrugged it off. He seems now to prefer slow, independent steps to quick, assisted ones.

Now he’s started shrugging me off when I hold his hand. Here he is in the waiting room at the therapy center. Places to go!

(P.S. I’ve watched this video at least a dozen times since shooting it a few hours ago. I just can’t believe how far he’s come.)