My little Angels

Baby Joe after his first encounter with mashed potatoes Little Joe turned seven months last week and he's been making some great progress.  He recently started turning himself around on his stomach to face whichever direction he wants, along with fully pushing himself up with his arms.  It should be any day now when we see him starting to crawl off to get him where he wants to go. He's also started becoming significantly more interested in interacting with the world around him.  For instance, he's started reaching out when he wants to be picked up and wants to pick up and either throw or eat just about everything he sees.  He also has started making speech-like sounds... 'mama', 'baba' and other sounds when he's alone or excited.

Baby Joe visiting with his great-grandmother D'Angelo Little Joe has finally got his bottom two teeth fully in, but not without a lot of pain, drooling, and fussing about it.  He's just starting to explore his new tools and is constantly running his tongue on them, sucking, and biting whatever he can find, which sometimes includes Rachael when she's feeding.  Not the most pleasant experience, it seems.  There look to be several more trying to make their way in soon, and not even Ora-Gel can relieve my poor little son's constant aching gums.  There have been plenty of distractions for us to provide that on occassion let him forget what he's going through; he's been laughing a lot more, exploring new types of food (mostly sweet and soft fruits like peaches, strawberries, and watermelon), getting closer to crawling, and enjoying his bouncy seat that we set up for him in the doorway of the bedroom.  He's even learned to turn the seat when we are behind him...