My little Angels

Little Joe and Rachael enjoying visiting the Roman Forum We're finally at the end of our little experiment of living in Belgium.  We leave next week and are looking forward to little Joe finally having that chance to meet his cousin Emily for the first time.  It looks like we are also going to have the chance to spend Christmas this year with Rachael's father and his wife Caroline, which will be the baby's first real Christmas with family. As always, he has changed quite a bit since my last post.  He is regularly eating at the table with us on a regular chair rather than in a high chair and has been very engaged with what he wants when eating his dinner.  He also has been doing a great job starting to learn to tell us what he wants when he is frustrated and has learned how to say 'please' using sign language. Little Joe also really loves playing games like hide and seek and just recently started hiding from us to try to scare us.  He also plays peekaboo ...

Little Joe playing with pillow forts with Rachael Little Joe is 19 months old... just about time for me to stop referencing his age in months to other people.  I don't recall hearing anyone saying 'My son is 23 months old.'  It's usually a fraction of a year for a bit and then whole year increments.  I would like to try to keep this blog fresh, though, so I may stick with the monthly convention for now or just convert to the name of the month and year instead.  I'll see how I feel about it over the next few months. Lots of changes going on here in Belgium for us recently.  We are officially moving home on November 5th and have already scheduled our moving arrangements for when we leave.  It is bittersweet in a lot of ways, but for me the one thing with little Joe I will regret is that he is just now finally in toddler day care instead of infant and seems to be really enjoying his new playmates.  Since he's on the low end of his group he seems to ...

Little Joe enjoying Trafalger Square in London Little Joe is now a year and a half old, which seems like an insane concept to me for a lot of reasons.  First, the math in my head says that he has been alive for nearly 5% of my life span; I feel like my life is just flying by and I have already started living vicariously through my son.  Second, it means that he is approaching the age when I have my first memories- I very distinctly remember my 3rd and 4th birthdays- and the thought that the smallest things we do could end up with him as a fond and distant memory for the rest of his life is incredibly humbling and emotional for me. In the last month little Joe has learned to love going outside, especially on the backpack carrier that we bought for me to use with him.  He frequently begs us to take him downstairs to the main level of the house and then will try to open the front door or will point at the backpack for us to take him outside.  Unfortunately most of...

Little Joe enjoying Paris in the summer The last month has been an hot and exhausting month for us and little Joe.  It's been in the 80's and 90's for the last 3 or 4 weeks and without air conditioning it's been pretty tough on all of us, especially at night.  Fortunately for us it also means it's an opportunity to travel a bit more than we have been recently.  We all visited Paris a few weeks ago for Bastille Day and will be going to London this coming weekend to escape another hot few days. I really do regret that Joe is not old enough to remember all of the things that we have been doing since we've been here.  By the time we leave Belgium we'll have visited at least 7 countries and I don't know that he will ever have that opportunity as an adult.  I surely hope he does, though, and will encourage him to travel on his own in the future. Little Joe's been walking all over the place now and it's pretty rare to see him crawl anywhere more...

Baby Joe modeling his outfit before heading out for the day The last month has seen quite a change in our little guy's ability to comprehend the world around him.  He understands quite a lot of what we say and do, even though he isn't necessarily able to communicate back verbally.  For instance, he understands what it means when we say that we're going outside, sitting down for dinner, going to sleep, or changing his diaper (which usually involves him trying to crawl away as fast as possible). He is also able to recognize motorcycles by sight or sound and makes his little hand motion as if he's revving the engine himself.  He seems to be infatuated with motorcycles at the moment and usually wants us to take him over to touch one if we see it parked on the street. He's also doing really well at starting to be self-sufficient; he almost exclusively eats and drinks on his own at mealtime - we just need to put the sippy cup and plate in front of him and he'l...

Little Joe plays with one of his toy fire trucks at our cabin in Normandy, France. Little Joe turned 15 months old over the weekend.  He's come a long way in just the last month, both physically and developmentally.  He has grown at least two inches since he left for Florida in March, which has partially reduced our concerns about possible hormone issues and his short stature for his age, and seems to be eating and sleeping more than he had been even just a few weeks ago. On the development side, he can now stand on his own without any support or assistance from a person or object and can walk (cautiously) across a room if there is nothing in his way.  He generally prefers to be near a box or wall that he can grab onto for assurance but just in the last few days has been walking a lot more and crawling only when he gets tired from walking.  He can also climb stairs on his own, including the steep, twisting staircase in our home. He also has been doing a ...

Baby Joe and 'Uncle Firetruck' Baby Joe is now a little over 14 months old and has had quite the adventure over the last month.  He traveled with Rachael to Florida last month to spend time with Holly and Mike and their new daughter and was supposed to go see Melody for a few days before coming home.  Unfortunately, my mother got into a car accident on April 12th and I had to cut their trip short so they could meet me in New Jersey.  Mom is recovering well and she got to see the baby before we left, albeit for only a few minutes.  He was also able to visit with Rachael's mom in Delaware for lunch one day and made his rounds with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmothers during his time in New Jersey. On his trip we learned that baby Joe loves firetrucks - he got to visit one with Mike at his firehouse and also my friend Pat in New Jersey and he now owns several firetruck toys.  He can also say 'firetruck' in his own way and refers to his Uncle Mike a...

Baby Joe, courtesy of our friend Adriana Baby Joe is now 13 months old and is making great progress with his motor and language skills.  In the last week he has learned how to take a ball and give it back to us and just last night started putting objects in a bag when Rachael asked him to.  He's also a lot more attentive with things like buttons and switches on his toys and knows that pushing certain buttons will activate music or lights on his toys and even anticipates it.  He also dances quite often when music plays from his toys and usually wants Rachael or I to join in the fun.  He has also had his first interaction with chocolate, brie cheese, and a dab of wine and seems to love both - the start of what I'm sure will be the life of a connoisseur of fine foods if he's anything like mom and dad. Baby and Rachael left today to visit his cousin Marissa for the first time and will be there for 3 weeks - I'm very anxious and interested to see what many changes h...

Baby Joe enjoying the Ath Winter Carnival parade Our little Belgian town had a parade to end their winter carnival, which we took the baby out to see before we had cake to celebrate his first birthday with a cake and a Google Hangout with the family.  He enjoyed being outside with the bands going by and was pretty indifferent about his opportunity to get messy with his birthday cake.  He managed to get blue icing all over his face and our laptop but it wasn't the all-out food fight that I had imagined when we planned it. He got a lot of new toys from the family, including his new favorite thing in the world- a little sit and push motorcycle that my mother gave him.  So far he can only go backwards on the thing, but it plays music and he enjoys scooting around the living room and bouncing to the music.  He has also learned to stand on his own and unsupported and has done it for up to about 2 minutes at a time, but still hasn't made the move to start walking just...

Baby Joe enjoyed his dinner so much he decided to wear it Baby Joe turned 11 months old this past weekend and is just about at that magical year mark for us.  He's been getting ever closer to walking on his own; he can stand unsupported for a few seconds at a time and does well walking when we are holding his hands.  I'm hoping that he will at least be taking steps on his own by his first birthday in 4 weeks. He has also been teething again - his molars coming in on the top have caused large hematomas to form on his gums and he's been pretty unhappy about it on most nights recently.  His diet has changed significantly, though... he's eating solid foods a lot more and breastfeeding a lot less and, aside from the teething, has been sleeping more at night.  He really enjoys eating sauteed spinach and avacado, but also really enjoys ground up chicken, broccoli, and mashed potatoes. When I come home from work or he sees me for the first time every day he usually h...

Baby Joe opening his first Christmas present Things have been quite busy in the D'Angelo household the last month and a half.  Baby Joe passed 10 months and celebrated his first Christmas and New Year.  They were rather muted celebrations for what we are used to, due in part to the fact that we had a 10-month-old with us and also because we're still trying to get settled into our new home in Belgium. Baby Joe enjoyed his Christmas and we got lots of toys for him to play with from Rachael's family.  As is typical for kids his age he enjoyed the boxes and wrapping paper significantly more than the gifts themselves.  He's put some good mileage on them since Christmas, though, and has been enjoying his toys quite a bit lately. On the development side, Joe has been progressing pretty quickly lately.  He can full-out crawl anywhere he wants and will stand on his own or by pulling himself up on furniture or boxes.  He still has a problem standing on his ow...