Quiet Book Pages and Kisses

So I mentioned oh, a few months ago, how I decided to make a quiet book for Joseph for our trip to California in early March. I promised I'd take pictures, and then, well, forgot. Until it was time to pull the "book" back out for our trip to Florida. You'll notice I still haven't finished putting the book together, as I need to add the holes for the page rings, but I'm planning on doing that before our next trip in June.

This is Joseph's favorite page so far - the gumballs are attched with velcro, and have a matching circle of color underneath. I actually had to add strings to keep the gumballs attached to the page after too many attempts at throwing the gumballs at neighboring airplane passengers.

 A peek-a-boo page that hold a picture of Joseph

Vegetable garden page. The veggies pull up out of their holes, and are interchangeable.

Penguin finger puppets. The gray parts are supposed to be the land and rocks, and there are two rows of pockets for the puppets to sit in.

Working mailbox. So far, Joseph only has one letter, but daddy is almost finished. I think. The flap on the mailbox closes, and the flag moves too.

This page still needs some work. The idea is that the train wheels and clouds button on and off. I made the wheels before I sewed the page together, and realized I had run out of space. So now I need to remake the wheels. Also the train cars are little pockets for holding extra wheels if necessary.

I also made a tree page, but haven't finished it yet. So there's the short little quiet book, just waiting for more additions and the cover!

Today we hosted a baby playgroup, and the kiddos who attended were actually right around Joseph's age. It's the first time in months that we've had anyone his age over to play, and he did incredibly well! He was in a super good mood all day, and even waved at his new friends as they walked in the door, and had no trouble sharing his toys. While he still doesn't really play "together", there were still many instances where he and another little boy would trade off playing with same toys, driving cars down ramps and sitting in the garden center together. It was so nice outside that I had the doors to the porch open, so they eventually made their way outside to play on the slide climber. I'm so thankful that Joseph was so happy and got along with everyone so well (not that I really had any reason to worry!)

Joseph's latest trick is by far his best (in my opinion). He has figured out how to give real, honest to goodness kisses! He's not always willing to share them, but if I ask nicely (and sign please!) he'll occasionally lean in, grab the back of my neck and plant a big one right on my lips. It is just the cutest thing ever and seriously makes me melt. Even when it turns into a game for him, and decides it's funny to stay "affixed" to my face for much, much longer than necessary. This little man is turning into such a sweetie!