Sweet baby Joseph Judea is six months old today.

6 MONTHS!!

Seriously, if the last six months haven’t flown by for you, they have for me. I mean, really, it seems like just the other day he was born. And now? Now he’s getting all big and teethy.

Joseph is such a sweet, lovable boy. He is eager with a smile and laugh for just about everyone he comes across. And as each day passes, I swear his cheeks get more kissable. Which makes him laugh hysterically, and makes me kiss him even more.

After what seemed like teething forever, Joseph’s bottom two teeth popped through about 3 weeks ago. I took this shot right after the first one came out. I haven’t attempted another picture, because every time I get this close to Joseph’s mouth, he tries eating the camera… or my hand.

Just after getting his two teeth, he started sitting up like a champ. It started off slowly, 20-30 seconds at a time, and has progressed to 10-15 minutes.

But sitting up just isn’t enough for my little man. He’s bound and determined to crawl. Joseph’s started getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. And lately, he’s been waking himself up at night to “rock”. I’ve heard before that kids will “practice” a skill they are trying to learn during the night, but I don’t remember it so much with the girls. But sure enough, Joseph has consistently woken up this week throughout the night, rocking back and forth, grunting trying to move forward.

The rocking almost always leads to this pose I like to call baby planking {and it cracks me up!} ::

I swear, sometimes I think he does it just to make fun of my planking form. But this boy has some strength to him! Typically, he’ll go from sitting, to all fours, to rocking, to plank. Makes me think that actually crawling isn’t too far off…

We just introduced food in the last week. At meal time, we’ve been giving Joseph “bites” of our food. I gave him a small piece of cottage cheese once at lunch, and then some black beans. He doesn’t actually eat any of it – just gums it pretty good and spits it out. Much like we did with Hannah, we plan to skip jarred foods with Joseph and just introduce table foods. It’s a slower process, but it’s proved well for our family before, so hopefully it will again.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on my blog, but having Joseph has been really healing for me. With his entrance into our family, his laid back attitude and the chance to enjoy having a little baby, I’ve been enjoying motherhood a lot more. But, with that, I’ve been seeing areas that need improvement {or more aptly put – less of me and more of Jesus}. Because Joseph could be our last child, I’ve started understanding how much more I need to cherish this time with him. And that has made me realize how much more I need to cherish my time with Julia and Hannah. Sadly, that doesn’t always come easily. I’m learning to enjoy being a mom – not just grin and bare it. Enjoy those moments of complete silliness, instead of seeing it as one more reason to make us late for an appointment. Enjoy those moments of rapid fire questioning, instead of dismissing them immediately. Enjoy those midnight {and 2 am, and 3 am, and again at 4 am} nursing sessions, as times to snuggle just a little bit more.

While life can feel really overwhelming right now, God knew that bringing Joseph into our family would be the final push for me to more fully surrender to Him. And it has been so good for my soul.