It's the perfect time of year for a barbecue! Here's Joseph getting to know the Jorgensen's (I grew up with Melanie Tarwater Jorgensen, and now we're in the same ward) youngest. They're just a week apart, actually!

Did I mention that Joseph doesn't like tummy time? The Jorgensen baby loves it, and we were hoping his example would rub off, but apparently it doesn't work that way!

Things are always better for Joseph when he's standing on his own two feet! We'd better head home soon, though—it's already past his bedtime!

Today Joseph is five months old—I can't believe how the time is flying! We love him so much, and we think he's pretty cute, too!

Just showing off this adorable shot of Josephus.

Recently, Joseph has been getting fussier and fussier while sitting with us at dinner, and we suspect he's getting interested in all that stuff we keep putting in our mouths!

Today we couldn't resist any longer—we decided to give him the tiniest bit of the avocado we were having on our tacos (hot sauce was out, naturally)!

Here he is attempting to get that tiny bit of avocado everywhere: on his face, hands, clothes, and so on! Lesson learned: when it's time to really start him on solids, we'll strip him down to the diaper and have the bath ready!

For the rest of the meal, Joseph decided he would stick to his usual fare of place mats and tablecloths!

We decided to give Joseph his first crack at the piano today! He's still not quite sure how touching the keys and hearing the noise are related, but he sure likes touching them anyway. I'm sure it won't be long until we can't get him to stop!

Who needs a fancy baby swing when you've got Daddy?

Our little Josephus is getting funnier and funnier! Here he is having a grand time with Daddy!

As I've mentioned before, Joseph is not particularly fond of laying on his tummy. It's not surprising, then, that he's working hard on learning how to roll over from front to back! He actually has managed it a couple times already, and here he is trying to figure it out again! During Joseph's checkup on Apr 7, the doctor told us he would be rolling over "any time now", and I guess Joseph took that to heart, because he rolled over for the first time that very afternoon! I have to admit I actually didn't see it—I darted out of the room for a second when he was on his tummy, and when I came back he was on his back! I've seen him do it once since, but we still haven't caught it on film!

Happy Easter! What a glorious day to remember Christ's victory over death: the sun was shining, the flowers were blooming, and the birds were singing! We went to Church this morning, of course, and here's a shot of Josephus still wearing his adorable Easter outfit from the Gedlaman grandparents. We did try to keep the drool off, but it was obviously a lost cause!



As long as we're admiring the little sausage, here are a couple close-up shots. Note all that soft, shiny hair growing in, including the little eyebrows!

We ate dinner over at the Whittiers' home with several other families from the Blacksburg Ward. Here's a shot of Mary Lou (our Relief Society President) showing Joseph a funny blow-up sword. He just couldn't get enough it!

Joseph has always liked doing things his own way (e.g. he was a breech baby and arrived two weeks early). This shot shows his preferred method for doing "tummy time" since he can't stand being stretched out with his tummy on the floor! I had started wondering how he would ever learn to crawl, but it turns out lots of "back to sleep" babies walk without crawling first! Considering how much Joseph has always loved being vertical, I wouldn't be surprised if he did things a little differently once again.

There's nothing special to report here—I couldn't resist posting this adorable shot of Josephus all wrapped up after his bath!

Today a fun Easter package arrived from the Gedlaman grandparents, including this funny jangly bunny for Josephus!

It also included a handsome Easter outfit for the little sausage, complete with matching ball cap! Knowing how much Grandma Gedlaman loves Joseph in hats, we weren't too surprised, but couldn't resist catching a shot of him wearing it. What a cutie!

Apparently, birds aren't the only ones attracted to our feeders—this cute little chipmunk comes around regularly now to clean up the mess the birds make!

One of Joseph's favorite things to do lately is to stand up and walk, with help, of course! Here he is walking to Mama with Daddy's help.

Joseph has become a stiff baby! For a while, I've noticed that as babies get older and gain more control over their bodies, they're able to keep their bodies straight no matter what angle they're at. Joseph has obviously reached that stage—just look at that taut little body!

Note also the extremely cute sweatpants. What a happy boy!

We have wrens! Carolina Wrens like the one in this shot have been among our favorite birds since a pair nested in one of our boxes back in Texas. We've seen them around our place here in Blacksburg since moving in, but we hadn't seen them at our feeders until today!

Happy Birthday, Tim! We've been doing a lot of celebrating lately on Tim's behalf, and today was no exception! He opened presents and blew out candles and we both enjoyed some oatmeal cake from Tim's mom's recipe. That's pretty much all we had time for before bed!

Congratulations, Tim! Today he received notice in the mail that he's been awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, this on top of the fabulous news from last week that he passed his qualifying exam—with the second highest score, no less!







We celebrated in our typical nerdy fashion: we had some fun using our tripod to catch some close-up shots of birds at our feeders! Note the suet flying around as that woodpecker eats, and that cardinal has a chip in his beak!

We also had fun admiring Joseph's pleasant personality. He squealed when Daddy made faces at him and giggled (or plead for mercy, perhaps) when Mama tickled him!

Joseph learned to grab his feet today! He still needs someone to give his little rump a boost, but once those feet are within range he snatches them up muy pronto!