Seriously? 6 Months already? Happy half-year birthday Joe!

Tomorrow is Joe's 6 month birthday. I am really finding it hard to believe that he's half way to a year old. I look at him and think about how much he's grown and changed. It's all pretty amazing. I think he's so big but then when I talk to my friends who had babies after me but were born full term, they are so much bigger! Most of my friends babies were the same size as Joe when they were 2 or 3 months old. Joe is just now fitting into his 3 - 6 month clothes. He's almost a full size behind his age. The doctor says he'll catch up over the next 6 months so we'll track that and see.

We took Joe to the mall to have his 6 month pictures taken yesterday (That's where the picture above is from). They turned out so well! He's a pretty happy baby and he thinks Mom, Dad, Alex and Maddie are hysterical so it wasn't hard to get some smiley pictures. Interestingly, he is a vigorous, almost violent smiler (head and arms thrashing about) but he rarely if ever laughs out loud.

For anyone who has ever gone to have pictures taken at JC Penney, Sears, etc....you know that right after the pictures are taken, they load them up on the computer and then start doing their magic...putting them into collages and cutesy pictures and fuzzy borders and all that jazz. Then the pressure is on to hurry up and pick your favorites so they can move on to the next person. So we are all standing there, sorting through the pictures, super-hungry by this point. I keep asking Paul what he thinks and he seems distracted so I turn around and he's looking at his phone. I asked him what he was doing and he says "oh, nothing." Yeah....so he was looking at his Fantasy Football scores leaving me to the stressful picture picking. Nice.

Joe has TWO teeth now and has discovered his love of spitting (see picture as evidence of this). I keep trying to get it on video to post here but he's too sneaky and won't do it when I want him to. I know a video of him spitting sounds more gross than cute, but it really is cute. Maybe that's just the mommy in me talking.

In our house you have to have a nickname. Its just what happens with Paul. For example, Abby (the dog) became "Goat" because she has a beard. Then we got Maizie and she was "Baby Goat" even though she does NOT have a beard, and is in fact bigger than Abby. Then they became Mazola and Goatina. The list goes on. So Joe now, has quite a few nick names. Paul's favorite so far is "Hoho." This would only make sense to you if you watch the Ni Hao, Kai Lan cartoon. Hoho is her little monkey friend. I've included a picture for comparison sake. You all can be the judge.

Here's Hoho....

Here's JoJo....

And here's Yoda. I know, odd that I include Yoda, except that I happen to think he looks a lot like Yoda in this picture, NOT Hoho. Again, you can be the judge.



Joe can't wait to meet his Uncle Joey and take his first vacation in a few weeks. I'm sure we'll have many pictures and stories to share once we are home from that trip.

Love to all!