Whoohoo! Young Joey got the A-OK from the doctor today: the Spreitzhose (Spread Pants) are gone for good! Yep, the bend-back-the-paperclip treatment has been successful. Joey's hips (which, for those not keeping score at home, were not quite perfectly formed during his cramped-up 9-month stay within Hotel Regina) are now in good shape. The photo above shows Joey celebrating his newfound nonbionic freedom-filled existence by playing with his toes, the first time time he's been able to do this in his entire (admittedly short) life.
We, of course, anticipate that his new freedom will probably lead to easier Joey mobility in the rolling-over/crawling style, and therefore will cause us all sorts of difficulties keeping track of the safety of the youngster. I guess every silver lining has a cloud...
Joey's vocabulary is also growing. As noted earlier, his first word was "aa", a word of Hawaiian origin describing a particular type of lava flow. Regina claims that his second word was "Azerbaijan," but since that isn't playable on a Scrabble board, I have chosen to disregard it. This week, Joey has mastered the language of the humpback whale - "aaaeeeeuuuuuhhhh" [during inhale, not exhale] - and so we can be sure that the Earth will be safe from aliens who come visiting looking for whales (which may have gone extinct) and inadvertently might proceed to destroy the atmosphere. I think it's also safe to say that it will be good for our social lives when "Star Trek Movie Week" on RTL-2 is over.
I'll try to get some audio up here for next week's babylog.