May 2011

May 2012

Since Joe was 7 months old, he’s been going to the Petersburg branch of Children’s Hospital for weekly therapy appointments. It was a brand-new location for CHoR at the time, so perfect timing!

On one visit a few months ago, a photographer came to get some shots for the foundation that helped make the Petersburg location possible. You can see Joe and his occupational therapist on page 12 of their biennial report.

2009

2010

2011

2012

Joe’s yearbook is out!

Here’s the page dedicated to his Early Childhood Special Education class:

His bus teacher remarked the other day that Joe is so well-liked among teachers and students that, “Now write this down,” she said, “so you remember who said it first. That boy is going to be prom king.”

🙂

New to us, anyway. After our second tow-truck experience with the Accord this year, Patrick stepped up the search for a replacement. So now we have a 2010 Honda Fit! It’s surprisingly roomy inside, and just so much fun to drive.

Here is Joe, kicking the tires at the dealership:

Also new in recent weeks:

1. Joe is a CHATTERBOX. Still no words (that whole “more” thing kind of petered out) but good gracious, does he make a lot of noise. Tonight he gave us a dramatic speech that went something like, “Lovalovalovalova bijibijbijibiji belabelabela.” We clapped in agreement.
2. He seems to be waving hello and goodbye. He does it backwards and sort of upside-down, but he definitely does it when coming and going.
3. He makes very funny faces all of a sudden. Today at lunch he debuted a fishy face that we’ve been hooked on ever since. Video to come.
4. One of his classmates has a nose-picking habit, and Joe finds this hilarious. His teacher said that as soon as it catches his eye, he belly laughs until they can distract him with something else.
5. His walking is getting better all the time, and he climbs stairs like a champ. Slowly and with some help, but like a champ!

EDIT: Here’s the video of today’s fishy face debut:

Joe’s been using his hands a lot more lately, and is particularly drawn to exploring stringy things.

Like Dada’s ear buds:

His occupational therapist pointed out that we could use this to our advantage, in our continuing quest to get Joe to feed himself. Helloooo, spaghetti:

He had a grand time, passing it from hand to hand, stretching it out and flinging it around. He even put it in his mouth a couple of times … but without sauce, it had about the same taste as the ear buds.

So we’ll try it again with sauce … probably outside, where we can hose him off afterward. Stay tuned!

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.)