The fair we went to the other day included free admission to the Children’s Museum, which Joe had not visited since he was barely able to sit. He’s able to enjoy so much more of that place now!

The sandbox …

The play kitchen (watch your hand there, buddy!) …

Big beads!

And his absolute favorite, a wall full of cool patterns to look at and feel …

For an extra dose of cute, here he is in the pretend classroom, where a couple of older children eagerly wrote lessons on the chalkboard for him:

If you blinked, you might have missed it, but Joe was on tonight’s NBC 12 broadcast here in Richmond!

A friend of ours helps to organize this annual event, which they were promoting on the news, and asked if Joe and I would talk a little bit about our experience with it. We’ve gone every year since Joe was a baby, and we love it.

So a woman from NBC came and interviewed us both one day last week, but (much to my relief) all they used tonight was Joe footage. (There was a second clip after this one, where they mentioned his name and everything, but I didn’t hit the right button to record it. D’oh!)

This is second nature to most kids, but for Joe it’s a big step!

He has figured out how to hold and maneuver his little Nuk brush, so that he can chew on it for a good long time with no help. This can lead to all kinds of great things, like 1) not chewing on his fingers or sleeves as much, and 2) eventually feeding himself. Oh, happy day!

In the video, you can also clearly see his nystagmus causing “wobbly eyes” a few seconds in, when he looks up toward the upper-right corner of the frame. (It’s always more noticeable when he’s worn out — we had just come from a birthday party, and he went down for a two-hour nap right after this!)

Joe is getting a little closer to walking every day!

Here he is practicing a bit:

And now with one hand:

I’m predicting his first wobbly unassisted steps before his next birthday. But you know Joe likes to keep us guessing!

2009

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2011

Yes, I know it’s March. But I forgot to do this little roundup for February, so I’m doing it now. I’ll do March soon!

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2011

Joe gets so excited when we put his favorite video on. We had to get video of him watching it.

Joe is still a terrible eater, but he’s starting to have some fun with food. Especially Froot Loops!

He won’t eat them, of course, but he has a ball slapping them around on his tray. And Lola happily munches on whatever falls overboard.

We might be the only parents in America who are completely charmed and thrilled to find our child splashing in the toilet or digging in the dog bowl.

It’s just so nice to see him exploring his world!

Joe would spend all day doing this if he could: