Finally Taking a Breath

This could be the longest we've gone without a post. More has happened in the past three weeks in Joseph's little life than ever. I'll give you a quick rundown. It all started with some really swollen gums a few weeks ago. In the subsequent couple of weeks, four top teeth joined his two little bottom ones. Mr. Cranky Pants would make an appearance a few times a day, keeping us on our toes (i.e. DON'T take anything away from him...if it won't send him to the emergency room, let him have it!) In the middle of the teething fiasco came his first ear infection, a mild one, but still requiring us to funnel pink goo down his throat twice a day. Along about the time of the ear infection, he started holding his own bottles. I was home with him after work one afternoon and was busy doing something. He started getting the iwantmilk look and I just handed him the bottle, kind of an experiment to see what he would do with it, and walked back in the kitchen. Lo and behold, I came in to check on him and the little booger had sucked down the whole thing. We haven't looked back since. It makes the mornings easier because we can just hand him his bottle in his crib and he's occupied for the time being. The most life-changing milestone for us all is that JOSEPH IS ON THE MOVE! Yes, he's crawling. Not quite on his knees. He slithers like a snake/army man where he needs to go and, let me tell you, he gets there. The problem is that the child is into everything. Literally, everything. If we put him in a room full of 100 objects, one of which being something he shouldn't have, that's the thing he's going for. His favorite thing to do is drag stuff out of boxes/bags. We got so tired from having to CONSTANTLY corral him that we basically caged in our whole den and moved anything remotely dangerous out. Our couch is in jail. I've posted a picture of J and his "cell mates." It's unbelievable - even with all of our efforts in removing things he can detrimentally get into, he will find something. The other night, when all other efforts failed him, he started dragging dust bunnies out from under the couch and eating them. And he hunts for bugs on the floor. This morning when I dropped him off at daycare, I sat him on the floor in front of a big shelf full of toys and started unpacking his things. I watched him take a long, uninterested gander at the toy shelf before he flung himself onto his belly and wildly army crawled toward the nearest highchair, which the then proceeded to try to pull down on himself. He's also just started to pull himself up to stand, which will occupy him for long periods of time.