Hands and Knees

Our boy is on his hands and knees!!!!

Joaquin has been getting around lately by army crawling or what his brothers call "inchworming". He gets everywhere he wants to and it's definitely time to babyproof the house. He LOVES the bathroom....must be the tilework in there. If he hears the shower, he wants to be in the bathroom. This baby loves the water. He loves hanging out in the boys' room too (there is a lot of action in there) and if there is a cord in the house, he's got it...hence the need for babyproofing.

He's mastered movement for the sake of transportation and it's so exciting for us. We were able to take down the ramp and reconstruct his nursery. He doesn't need the ramp to motivate him to move. Yahoo!

Then, just this week, the week of his one year birthday, he is getting up on HANDS AND KNEES! He hasn't actually creeped this way but it's oh so close. He will get into position and rock a little bit and plop down again. The fact that he is lifting his belly off the ground is terrific.



With his first birthday also came Joaquin's first official illness. He has had two ear infections, two doses of antibiotics and about 3 weeks of interrupted therapy. Poor baby! It seems that the tubes that were placed a few months ago were a blessing and a curse. He can hear now with no problem but now he is predisposed to infections. Bummer. Since he's been sick, he has been sleeping a bit more than usual and has not been eating as much but this hasn't stopped him from continuing to develop. Our goal with the Institutes is for him to move 30 meters a day, and I think we'll be calling them in a week or two to say that the goal has been achieved. We aren't due back until August so we are THRILLED to have to revise his physical goals ahead of schedule.



Every day seems to bring some new development in Joaquin. He is more social than ever, super giggly, has discovered his yelling voice (he's gotta keep up with his brothers somehow!!) and he is reaching out to his favorite people with his arms up in the air.



Here are some photos of Joaquin on his actual birthday trying his first ever vegan carrot cupcake- bought at the local co op since my version of it completely flopped one hour before the party started. We celebrated with our family and a small group of close friends at our local pizza parlor, Luigi's by the Slice, and ordered the "Joaquini Special" (a no cheese, pesto, veggie pizza), and Hector showed a slideshow of our year with Joaquin on the big screen. It was a wonderful night to celebrate a wonderful year.



This last photo is of Joaquin in his PJs right before bed playing with the strings on his balloons. He was a very happy boy.