The online forum for my local mothers’ group has a feature in which members are invited to share their day in photos. My day is pretty Joe-heavy, so here it is for all his fans …

Like most days, my Tuesday began around 6:30 or 7 with this (I hope he will always wake up this happy):

After a good snuggle, he took to his throne to await breakfast (that’s a Napoleon Dynamite doll he’s whipping around there):

Posing with Dada, who’s about to leave for the day:

A little time to play and then … dressed for school!

Here comes the bus to take him away …

Now my commute down the hall for work …

Here’s an arty shot of what I’m working on to make it seem more interesting:

I’m also printing address labels so we can finally send these.
(I knew I wouldn’t make a Christmas deadline, so we did New Year’s cards instead. Probably should have done Valentine’s cards. Don’t you judge me.)

And now, an additional way to procrastinate …

Noon. Lunch break! (PB&J, Diet Coke and a good magazine)

Time to get Joe from school …

Off to therapy!

With his speech therapist at 2 p.m. …

And his physical therapist at 3 p.m. …

Back home to play (he loves that mirror — what an ego!)

Dada comes home and feeds Joe (I neglected to photograph that part, just imagine it).

I have a meeting tonight, so I’m going to Panera for a solo dinner while I read my notes:

To City Hall for a Citizen Planning Committee meeting:

Back home, where Patrick is cuddled up to my sister-wife:

Ooh, a new Parenthood is on!

A quick check of the little dude:

And lights out, a little later than I meant to.

2009

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2012

We are having a lazy day around here. Patrick and I had our usual New Year’s Eve celebration (PJs, champagne, resolutions and celebrity death predictions) … and managed to stay awake until almost 2 a.m.!

Tomorrow, Joe goes back to school after a very relaxing winter break. Patrick’s folks weren’t able to make it down from New York for Christmas, so we  crashed the party at my parents’ house in North Carolina instead. Joe had a good time with his cousins, who are always so sweet with him.

His big gift this year was an iPad! It’s an awful lot of money to spend on a 3-year-old (I hope he doesn’t expect us to make a habit of that!) but his speech and occupational therapists use one with him and highly recommended us having one at home. I loaded it with the apps they suggested, but what he seems to love most is the camera:

He could stare at himself all day.

Other news in Joe’s world:

1. He dances! We have caught him bouncing and bopping his head to some of his favorite tunes, and he seems especially fond of the “Contemporary Bollywood” station on Pandora. Adorable.
2. He’s eating like a champ! He still make us do all the work, but the variety of stuff he’s consuming has gone way up. Marshmallows are a new favorite.
3. He makes messes! This is not something most parents get excited about, but it’s a huge developmental milestone for Joe. When you leave the living room for a few minutes, you come back to this:

Here’s to a new year full of more fun surprises from this kid. What did we ever do for fun before him?!

We’re doing New Year cards instead. Coming soon!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

(I have really been slacking on the blog lately. Sorry about that — I’ll try to do better!)

2008

2009

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2011

The woman who runs a local parenting blog asked me several months ago if I would write a guest post about special-needs parenting. That’s a pretty broad topic, so I took my sweet time thinking about how I wanted to approach it.

I finally came up with a draft to send her, and within a few days it was up on her site. Within a few hours of that, it had spread all over Facebook and racked up all kinds of lovely comments.

Go check it out!

Joe’s speech-language pathologist has been working with him on communicating a desire for one thing over another. She tried using recordable switches, but he seemed more enthralled with the button itself and the sound it made than whatever toy or reward it got him.

So yesterday, she set out laminated photos of toys he’d seen before: two that he didn’t care about much (a stretchy Elmo and a yellow ball), and one that he adores (a “blue squishy thing” — none of us were sure what to call it!)

After a few tries, he got the message that touching the picture of the toy he wanted would get him the toy itself. Eureka!

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!”