Practicing with Dada:

If you say “Yaaaay,” and clap your hands, Joe will happily do it right back.

This is one of those milestones that he was so late in getting to, I almost forgot to watch for it. We have tried to teach him a few times, but it never stuck.

Then along came Kiki:

Kiki is my friend Julia’s daughter. Joe chased her all over their living room one day last week, and somewhere in there started mimicking her when she clapped. Now it’s his favorite new trick!

Joe and I went on a little shopping trip the other day, and he had the little play area at the mall all to himself!

We left empty-handed, but it was worth the trip just for this:

Some of the most fun you can have with this kid is watching him with his cousins. He thinks they are just the coolest, and they are always so happy to see him!

After the great success of the online hunt for Joe’s favorite food, we are trying to pay it forward.

Here’s the deal: A friend-of-a-friend has a little girl with a rare blood disease that has her in and out of the hospital. On one recent stay, she misplaced one member of a five-piece Yo Gabba Gabba set that she loved.

This is the set:

Toodee (the blue guy, second from left) is the one missing.

In trying to replace him, her mom discovered that the set was a limited-edition Toys R Us product that was only sold last Christmas. So it can be found online — but only at “Collector’s Edition” prices.

So here’s what we need you to do. Check your toy boxes, junk drawers and playrooms for this guy. He’s about 4″ tall and plastic.

If your little ones can do without him, let’s send him on to this little girl. (Even better: If you can part with the whole set, we’ll get that to her in case anyone else goes missing!)

Thanks, y’all — happy hunting!

Update: The perfect Toodee was discovered in a toy box by the daughter of one of my RichmondMommies friends. She graciously gave up her old pal so that he could rejoin his friends and make another girl very happy. Yay for finding him, and yay for generous kids who do the right thing!

Despite an oppressive heat wave (100+ degrees!), Joe is having a great summer so far!

Last week, we went to Alexandria to visit our friends Anita and Kaden. Like Joe, Kaden just turned 2 and is doing things on his own time. It was nice for Joe to be at a playdate with someone his age and not get trampled or left in the dust! I wish we lived closer together.

We couldn’t make a trip to that part of the state without a stop at Ikea — love that place! Among the finds that day was a little green potty chair for Joe. He’s a long way from knowing or caring what it’s for, but seriously. LOOK AT THIS:

On the orders of his ophthalmologist, Joe has started to wear an eye patch so that his eyes will learn to share the work they do. It’s only 90 minutes a day, six days a week (four on the left eye, two on the right). He was a little annoyed by it at first, but is growing to tolerate it pretty well.

The high today was 102 degrees — good weather for sitting in an air-conditioned theater!

Joe and I went with my friend Morgan and her son to this week’s family freebie film: “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

Joe was totally riveted until the last 20-30 minutes, when it got kind of loud and scary. Then we ducked out to the lobby, where he practiced his walking until the movie was over.

Just over two years ago, when I was first in labor with Joe, Patrick and I distracted ourselves from the wait in that same theater, watching “Kung Fu Panda.” Funny how time flies!