Nine months of Joseph and it only gets better every day. Our little man is curious and bright and happy, and we are so fortunate to watch him grow and learn.

Joseph’s red sports car — great for munching on.

Joseph is a super happy baby. He gets so excited he’ll make a funny face and shriek!

Not crawling yet, but he’s rolling all over the place. And look — those are four pearly whites inside that big grin.

Joseph saw his first snowfall this weekend! We bagged our daily walk to stay warm and cozy inside.

Love those eyelashes. And with cheeks like those, you bet he gets lots of smooches.

Thanks to my super understanding project manager, I’ve switched to weekend photo editing shifts. A huge, huge blessing, because it means Chris can take care of Joseph while I’m working. No more booking babysitters, no more sad Joseph desperate for Mommy’s lap. And best of all, Joseph gets to spend the weekend with the two people who love him most.

My guys had a good ol’ time while I was glued to my laptop. Here, Joseph’s checking out this fun new toy: the curtains.

Joseph loves prunes. Lucky thing, because we take regularity very, very seriously in this household.

It won’t be long before Joseph is too big for Surfboard Daddy. At our last weigh-in around Christmas, Joseph was 22 pounds. He’s 8 months old, and we’re heading into the 18-month size clothes already. I’m building up some Michelle Obama arms lugging this kid around.

The single best thing that happened to us in 2011:

We are looking forward to walking, talking and more adventures in 2012!

Joseph is fascinated by older kids. He loves watching them tear around and play and talk. Today we were treated to a visit from 1-year-old Anna and her family.

Joseph was good about sharing his toys, and Anna wasn’t shy about taking things out of Joseph’s hands! She really, really wanted to touch Joseph’s face, and if there was something blocking his face, well, she was going to remove that obstacle.

Our little man can’t wait to catch up to the big folks!

Joseph is really good at holding his head up now, but hasn’t quite figured out the mechanics of rolling over. For a little while longer, he’ll be staying put where I leave him.

He gets those long toes from Daddy.

Daddy has a knack for teasing the giggles out of Joseph.

That 17 lbs, 9 oz. of love. We got a weight check and a clean bill of health at Joseph’s 4-month well-child check-up. This kid is growing and eating like a champ — he looks like he might have put away a few chocolate old-fashioneds. Ankle rolls, wrist rolls and thigh rolls — we love smooching them all.

A hat knit by the very talented Heather, celebrating the year of the bunny.

Chris’ McGrath aunts and uncles get together every three years for a great big family reunion. Lucky for us, this year was a reunion year, and even better, the reunion was held within driving distance, at Port Townsend. We spent the last week of July at Fort Worden where Joseph got to meet his cousins, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles, and best of all, his 87-year-old Great-Grandmother McGrath who flew all the way over from New York.

This lucky little boy got extra smooches and love all week long. His outfit is from his stylish Aunt Maura, and the soft snuggly blanket was handmade by Aunt Ellen.

We stayed in the old officers’ quartes, circa 1904.

Joseph is a natural morning person — all smiles when he wakes up! So we are learning to become morning people too.

Getting better at tummy time, though it’s still pretty frustrating.

Little fingers wrapped around dad’s. Those baby fingernails grow fast! I’m obsessed with keeping them filed, because it kills me to see little scratches on Joseph’s face.

Like his folks, Joseph is a huge booknerd. He loves colorful baby board books — and being a fella with literary taste, he loves when we read him Shel Silverstein too.