Josie and her friend

Josie with Alex, her playmate. He is five months older, and tends to whack her on the head
every once in a while, but for the most part they get along great. She sees him anywhere from 3-5 times a week, between childcare-swapping during the week and church events. He is into everything, a lot of fun, high-energy... usually you see Josie toddling behind him to serve as accomplice... or to watch him with that look of "what are you doing?" on her face.

Josie with a book, of course. The other day she took a book with her out on a walk and tried to read it while walking (gee, who is that like, Mom?) Latest favorite: Goodnight, Moon. We had to read that last night and this morning several times over.

She went to her Waldorf-inspired playschool Monday. They made bread, and now she looks at our oven and points and grunts. (As if we'll make bread, heh.)

New words: "Eyes" while pointing at dolly's eyes; "ball," "hat," "bear," "cat," "moon." I think she's saying more than this, it just all comes out sounding like "dat," "moo," "dis." And there's many more things she recognizes but doesn't say; she can pick out a pig, for instance. She'll make a great farmer. Seriously, what is with all these baby books about farm animals?

Merry Go Round

Today we first went to eat at our favorite breakfast place, the Bluegrass Grill, where Josie and a little boy her age stared and made faces at each other. And she ate lots of my omelet. Then we walked - slowly, because there were so many grates to play on - to the Discovery Museum, outside of which is a carousel. Josie loved it, and after standing for a while, actually clung to a pole like a big girl! Then we went inside and played. When it got too crowded, we came back to the mall and walked around... Had a great time!

Pretty in Pink

I swore I'd never dress her all in pink.

Ha ha ha. I never thought I'd care if someone said, "You're little boy is so handsome!" -- but I do.

Josie's had the terrible cold that's going around, and of course hates having her nose wiped - you can't tell, but her upper lip is a permanent river these days. Yum.

As I write this, she's hugging my knee and trying to get at the keyboard... gotta go!

Jamming!

Here's Josie and Amy jamming on the dueling pianos... you can see Amy's new bongos, which she got for Christmas.

Actually, Amy is writing this post, so why I am I talking about myself in the 3rd person?

Often the three of us play our various instruments, making beautiful noise!

Polar Bear Redux

When I was a baby, I had a stuffed polar bear named Mr. Oompf...

Katy had no idea about this when she sent Josephine a stuffed polar bear for Christmas! Mr. Oompf #2!

Here's Josie cuddling her new friend.

Four A.M.

This morning, Josephine woke up at 4 a.m.

Yay!

See, Sean and Billy and Jozy and I drove down to Sean's parents to get their dog Charlie, who we're going to watch for a week while they're out of town. Baby Jozy fell asleep on the way down, stayed asleep when put on her little bed, and Sean and I got to spend a much-needed Friday night alone, together.

All was well. Until 4 a.m., when one of the dogs heard another dog and then the other dog started barking and both dogs were barking and I woke up and then J woke up, squealed with delight to see two frantic dogs, and went off running. She looked like Charlie Chaplin, chasing Charlie around and around the coffee table, doing a chicken dance with her elbows, while I tried lamely to chase her down and convince her to consider sleep as an option...

What is it about being 15 months old that you can wake up in the middle of the night and have the energy of fully caffeinated, well-rested adult?

At 6, she fell asleep for half an hour. I did not; I had started coffee already. At 7, I took Josie and the two dogs on a walk, which meant my arms were outstretched in opposite directions (Billy urging forward, Charlie pulling backward) while Josie dove into muddy ditches and ran in whatever direction I did not want to go. See photo above. Dressed in her pink coat and hat, furiously trotting down the road, she looks like the Energizer Bunny... (the drum beating is my head pounding)...

Sean is still sleeping (it's 9 a.m. now), and he deserves it -- he watched Josephine all week, plus staying up and waking up early to get work done. I don't know how he's done it. We do have three babysitter interviews lined up this week, and I have Monday off, so hopefully we'll get into a more manageable routine very, very soon.

Not that this isn't wonderful. Josephine is a delight. Barry Manilow is playing (we danced to "Mandy" earlier); Josie is staring at pictures of herself and her cousins, pointing at faces and saying "Da-da"; Charlie is sleeping next to me; the sun is scraping the morning clouds out of the way. I had maybe four hours of sleep, but I'm ridiculously happy.

Amy
P.S. I discovered Josie has HUGE teeth all through her mouth, and more coming in... I never thought I'd be so proud and interested in dental developments... !

A little wary of the camera...

Dad's Little Helper

Taking pictures with Daddy for an article he wrote...

Bubbles

A fuzzy image of Queen Bubbles taken with my camera phone... this weekend, Josephine had a brilliant time at playgrounds in the unusual January sun. She's a daredevil; she climbs everything you wouldn't think would be climbable. Sunday we went for a walk, and she found some wooden stairs- she went up, she went down. Then up again, then down. Then up again... well, you get the drift. Rain, stairs: everything's miraculous when you're new to the world, because the world is so new to you.

We're childcare-swapping with friends, so she's getting to spend time with other little kids.

Dad bought her brand-new shoes on Friday; they're adorable. Hard to believe she's almost 15 months old.
Amy

Daddy Daycare Reading Time

P.S. I've added an album of some photos in the Kodak gallery - click here to view

Mophead - Prehaircut Girl

I know this is out of order, but I just had to show this picture of her hair.

These are her Christmas pjs. She is swinging her arms, a little idiosyncrasy she's picked up lately, like "ho-hum, here I am, just swinging my arms, waiting for something interesting, do you have anything?"

Chocolate Face

Yes, she found the chocolate cake Daddy was eating, and the next thing we knew, she was doing her own kind of face painting...

This weekend, Josie learned to stay "Stop!" (or rather, "Awp!") to make us stop walking or singing, etc.

When I leave in the mornings, she waves goodbye sweetly and doesn't cry, but turns and starts playing with Daddy.

Now that she is turning into a daredevil - climbing on anything she can, standing on dangerous chairs and stairs - behaving like a cartoon character who can walk off a mountain and keep right on strolling through midair - we have to be extra careful. And when she does ridiculous things, we have to try not to laugh. Because then she does them again.

Back to a normal week

So, we're back to our first normal week after the holidays. Of course, nothing is normal at the moment as we try to figure out the balance between me working and me looking after Josephine. Right now she's eating banana slices while trying to feed Billy some carrots. Billy has so far been very patient with Josie, but now he's beginning to growl a little more. He won't hurt her, though.

We have a playdate today, but I have to call to confirm. I also have to figure out a problem on my site, as well as set up for some interviews tonight. It's going to be very hectic to balance all of this out, but it is worth it.