The Ricklefsens

Hello there...whew...seems like forever since I wrote last...  Well, as you can imagine we've been keeping pretty busy and a lot has happened so please forgive the randomness of this post (run on sentences, etc)...lol.  Baby Joel has started creeping (almost crawling!) in the last week or so and is cutting his very first tooth!  Sadly tho, the poor little guy has had a few colds (he has been on the go go and around lots of people, including the neighbors' little girls who I am now taking care of during the day), but he is such a trooper and I know getting sick will only make him stronger..  I (finally) had a formal portrait sitting done when he was 6.5 months old.  The pics came out GREAT, here is a link to them:   https://viewimages.jcpportraits.com/sharealbum/sharealbumlist?rndId=1281292725&uId=467620   He now weighs almost 20 pounds and is eating three solid meals a day!  We are so proud of our little angel.  I recently took a trip to New Jersey and Boston and was gone from him for a whole week...that was really hard...not looking forward to leaving him again in a few months for our anniversary cruise :(  Anyway, I finally finished his nursery a few months ago and it looks really good...  Also, Joel is starting to imitate sounds and he just loves to zerburt (blow on ur skin), he's such a little comedian (so smart!)...officially his first word was 'Da Da', although he wasn't associating it with his daddy...but now he is saying "Ma Ma" and looks right at me...my heart melts!  :)  He has now been swimming several times and absolutely loves the water! Here are some recent pics:


                                                        Our future World Cup kicker :)

                                                               His first Father's Day


                                                                       His room


                        Joel and his Pa Pa Ricklefsen July 4th..no they didn't plan to match...lol!



                                                     Joel and his daddy clownin around :)


                                                            Playing in his exersaucer!


                                                                          Yummy!


                                                     His very first pool/swimming experience!


                                                                           No hands!



                                                Being silly wearing Daddy's necklace :-P