Eleven Months!

Joel is eleven months old today! We cannot believe how quickly the past three months have flown by. Joel has gone from baby to toddler overnight and is definitely keeping us on our toes! In celebration, here are eleven things that we especially love about our Joel.

1. Love the way he gets a huge smile every time he sees one of us.

2. Love how he pulls himself up on ANYTHING and cruises furniture. It's so fun to watch!

3. Love that he started crawling on hands and knees a few weeks ago. We thought he might pass that up!

4. Love how he's started to laugh when nothing is funny. Maybe he's trying to make us laugh...it definitely works!

5. Love the cute way he squeezes his eyes shut lately. He started doing it whenever I would smile at him--like he was imitating how my eyes looked. Now he does it at random times, although maybe it's just because he's tired!

6. Love how intently he looks at his food while he's eating. I show him the empty bowl or jar whenever he is finished, and he stares hard and then gives a little chuckle.

7. Love the way he claps his hands!

8. Love how much he loves to be tickled, played with, "thrown" on the couch (carefully of course), and danced with.

9. Love the way he fusses and reaches for me when he's around someone new.

10. Love the way that he notices EVERY sound, person, thing, and toy.

11. Love the way that he brings so much joy to our lives every single day.

Here are some pictures of our cutie on his eleven month birthday doing some of his favorite things: climbing, playing with his music table, and being tickled!