We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with Patrick’s parents in town!

I made my second-ever Thanksgiving dinner (with no reports of food poisoning, YET) and Joe provided endless entertainment. We even got Crazy Aunt Shelly on the phone, and made her promise to come this way some time next year.

Joe absolutely adores his grandparents. When they arrived, he lit up with a face that said, “Hey, I know you guys!” The next morning, when he saw them again, it was like he couldn’t believe his luck. Adorable!

Joe’s Uncle Tony (brother of his Grandpa Mike) enjoys woodworking in his spare time, and has made a really cool “Box of Wonders” for Joe.

It is decorated on all sides (even inside!) with cartoon and storybook characters, and even has his full name on the front. Every time we look at it, we notice something new!

Patrick has already started to fill it with some of the cool things he’s set aside for Joe. Who knows what Joe will fill it with in his lifetime!

Thanks, Uncle Tony!

Now he’s worked up to pulling the napkin off of his head or ours.

Hours of fun!

Twice in the past month, we have been awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of Joe enthusiastically playing and laughing in his crib.

The first time, I thought he was laughing in his sleep. When it continued, I shuffled over to his room to turn on some music and lull him back to sleep. But Patrick checked the video monitor and found that Joe was sitting up, eyes wide open, and just really enjoying his toys.

Same deal last night. At 1 a.m.

It’s adorable, but exhausting!

This afternoon, his grandparents arrive from New York for a Thanksgiving visit. We are hoping to get enough turkey into Joe that he will skip the midnight parties for a while. We’ll see!

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Joe has (finally!) learned to use his hand to move whatever is the way when he wants to see something. This means lots of peekaboo:

And he’s a great big puller-upper, too. Not just on the couch anymore!

Joe is taking his time with all this walking and talking business, but there’s one thing he’s doing way before we expected.

Picking up high-school chicks.

His preschool class is held in the technical center of the local high school, where vocational classes are conducted. Occasionally, his teacher will bring him and his classmates to visit with the early childhood education class. His teacher tells me that the teenage girls in that class actually fuss over who will get to hold “Joe Joe” that day.

Now I know why he comes home smelling of perfume!

Joe is going through a squeaky phase right now. He expresses delight (or just boredom) by hitting notes that would put Mariah Carey to shame.

All you have to do is put something on your head, and voilà:

Grrrr … the dang video won’t embed properly. Click here to see it.

Joe’s friend Kaden came to visit from Maryland on Saturday. Kaden’s mom and I met on an online discussion board for parents of kids with developmental delays, and we’ve been in touch for several months now. Our boys have a lot in common!

Kaden’s parents both came along, and they were kind enough to bring a ton of Joe’s favorite food, which was still hanging out on a grocery shelf somewhere in the greater D.C. area. Now that it’s discontinued, I am pretty sure we have every jar left in the world!

After lunch and a little floor time, we walked down to the playground to try out the slides. Kaden was already an old pro, but I don’t think Joe had ever been on one. He loved it!

In December, we are excited to meet Sammie B and her mama, from the same discussion board. They will be coming to the East Coast from California to see a specialist at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore.

One of these days, we’re going to get as many of these kids together as we can, and have a big conference for Excessive Cuteness Syndrome!

CJ’s Meal Fairies has made amazing progress in the vote for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. You can vote for them once each day (you also get nine more votes for any of the other worthy causes listed).

The Meal Fairies make sure that families of hospitalized children get tasty, nutritious meals (instead of vending-machine garbage) during their hospital stay. The idea comes from our friends Roger and Rachel, parents of CJ and founders of CJSTUF (see the video below for more on that).

Click here to cast your vote, and do it every day!

For extra cool points, vote with your phone by texting 103934 to Pepsi (73774).

Thanks!