18 Months

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 the time we are unable to take the time to go outside with our work and school schedules at the moment but it's great to know that is something he enjoys doing.

He has also learned to climb on our dining room chairs on his own, which of course makes us both proud and extremely nervous that he might hurt himself doing so without us around.  We're keeping a closer eye on him and hopefully he learns to get down safely before he falls off and hurts his head.  He also really loves for us to chase him around the house and will frequently walk up to us and say 'rawwrrr' and start to run away while looking over his should in the hopes that we will be chasing him.