Jo Makes Her Mama Tear Up

The highlight of my day - of my week, even - was this afternoon when, upon handing her the totally cool bag I found at the Salvation Army Thrift (my Saturday guilty pleasure) - it's got a picture of a 40's -type woman with sparkly dogs, very retro - I heard her murmuring something.

"Day doo, dank doo," she said, in her robot-guttural voice (she's got several voices, one is the daddy-imitation sound, one's the singing noise, one's the screech)...

"What? What are you saying?"

"Day doo, dank doo," she repeated.

Oh. It dawned on me. My daughter is saying, "Thank you."

I don't know why it made me tear up, but it did. She knows and regularly uses "please" ("peas!" in her pretty voice with head cocked to the side) but I haven't tried to teach her "thank you" because it seemed too complicated and hard to say. To think that she's a) heard me/us say it enough that she's picked it up is amazing enough, but also, b) to think that I've done something for my girl that makes her say thank you... well, it just moved me.

Mind you, I hadn't had a truly decent cup of coffee at that point.

This picture was taken last night at Fridays After Five (weekly free music concert downtown, lots of kids, tons of people). I tried but couldn't get a picture with both her and the thing she was taken with - a guy doing a juggling act with three sticks. She stared in the above posture for quite a while, with her usual observant intensity. Then she just plopped herself down to watch (mind you, this is in the middle of a wide-open area where people are romping).

Yucky highlight from the week: the tick that showed up on her head. ACK. I am not a fan of ticks. I gave her to Sean. Am I terrible? I didn't know what to do. He did something with nail polish. The tick went splat. I since soaked her in bug repellant. The nail polish got left on the floor and the next day I found Josie sampling some, painting her tongue. ACK!

Another highlight of the week: Josie and I got to watch the cat across the street suckling her four itsy bitsy kittens. And they named one after Josie!

Both Sean and Josie are currently asleep. It's HOT. I mowed the lawn today. Sean laughed at me because of my irregular mowing style. I've never mowed a lawn before, so I just kind of zigged and zagged in circles. Apparently, people usually go in lines. (This is usually his job, but allergies and a cold had him practically snorkeling through the air, wheezing and ill.)

Afterward, Josie and I each got a broom and swept the back porch and sidewalk. She was quite diligent in her efforts. (Picture to come.)

Oh yes. We got a church bulletin from my mom with a photo on the front of Josie "waiting." She was enthralled with this, and said "pig." That is, she looked at the photo and recognized/remembered that it was taken while she was watching the guinea pig at the children's museum. Pretty good memory!

Hope it didn't get destroyed by the nail polish.

"I did it!" Josephine Says

The weekend report.

1) She's a climber, folks. She's climbing windows. She's climbing the toilet to the sink. She climbed ME at a restaurant the other night (at left).

And she's a talker. Yesterday at the park, she climbed up some metal rungs onto a play structure all by herself - and proudly exclaimed, "I did it!" She did it! Then two little girls, 4 and 7, showed up and played with Josie on the monkey bars and slide - trying to be a big girl, Josie did her hanging from the bar act, so strong and proud. Then she ran through the buttercup fields in her little green jumper, so adorable. Then we went to the grocery store and yay! the cart with the little car attached to the front was available, so we had a blast shopping (and I almost ran into everything and everybody).

2) Shapes: Examining a purple and yellow peony the other day, Josie pointed and said, "star!" I looked: and Yep, she was right - the yellow part was shaped like a star. (Wow.)

3) Entranced: Got to witness a mama cat nursing her four tiny little kittens (our neighbor is fostering them for the summer).

4) Colors: "Show me something blue, Josie." And she did!

5) This morning, holding her hand as she carefully held the rail and descended the steps from our porch, after giving me the pink hippo and the duck book and the lunchbag to hold until she got to the bottom, I just welled up with love and delight.

Amy

Dedication Lunch

After church last Sunday, we all went to lunch at the Indian buffet. It was marvelous - four families, six kids (not pictured here - Nila, who fell asleep). The dedication service was lovely. Each child received a red rose and a blessing of water.

Josie looked adorable in her dress, though the skirt was quite long and caused her to trip a bit when running around (which she is about to do in this photo).

Strutting Her Stuff

She loves to try on shoes.

Today was her friend's Audrey's first birthday... quite fun.

As I write this, I'm exhausted. Nap time today was maybe 20 minutes. MY naptime, that is...

It's a lovely spring day!

19 Months Update

Photo: Josephine worked very hard brushing my hair last night, and if I turned around she said "No!" and made me turn back around. Is this motherhood, really? Getting my hair brushed? Bliss!! (Clever girl, yes?) "Brush! Brush!"

We had a lovely evening. We planted flowers in our "garden." (The first time I've ever bought annuals. I usually buy perennials, because I can't stand the idea of getting flowers I know will die at the end of the summer. After all that work. It's like an exercise in futility - I don't get it! But I figured if Josie destroys the petunias, it wouldn't be such a loss. So - ok.) Neighbors Ellie and her college-age daughter Claire came over with a trowel to help us dig - and to laugh at me - I really have no idea what I'm doing - and sat with us while I dug and Josie plucked the flowers I was trying to plant. Then we turned on the hose and she watered (flooded) the yard. We drew on the sidewalk with chalk, took a long walk with Billy, ate dinner while reading books, chased Ellie's cat, bathed, read books again, and "night night." Oh yes - we also played dress-up with the dog - Josie put the cowboy hat on him and tried to get him to wear shoes (he was not amused - but I was!).

Speech: I can't decide what her first sentence was -- but she is saying sentences! And two-syllable words! She can say: "Bye-bye, bubbles!" "Bye, bye, Daddy!" "Bus go vroom!" "Mo(re) Boo(b)!" "Mo(re) Boo(k)!" When Josie turned 18 months old, I counted (yes, I counted) that she knew at least 37 words. I've now lost count, as she learns a new one every day. New ones include toothbrush, sun, apple, eat, splash, happy, hippo, nice, ice, hot, cold...

Daycare: She loves daycare (and so do we!)... am sooo grateful for that.

Cute things: Dancing: Spinning around and kicking "kick! kick!"
Patting me on the back
Blowing kisses when we say goodbye
Making her dolls and stuffed animals kiss
Talking to the monkey puppet
Imitating my yoga stretches
Pretending to play piano on steps or on pictures of pianos and singing "la la la"
Grinning-grimacing when you say "smile"

There's more, of course... but gotta go!

Happy Mother's Day

Four generations together - it was quite something. Josephine bloomed in the light of all that love.

During their week-long stay, the crew went to church, to the mall, to Monticello, the children's museum, to lunch with Sean's parents, and more. See the slideshow of the visit here.

It's mother's day today, and as I post these photos and recall the visit, I feel overwhelmed by the blessing of all my mothers - my mother in law, Phyllis, who has treated me with such kindness and generosity, and who makes me laugh; my grandmother, Harriet, the toughest, wittiest, wryest 87-year-old there is; my stepmother, Cynthia, who has been there for me and taught me about grace; and of course, my mother-mother, Helen
, of whom I am so proud for so many reasons, a woman who keeps challenging herself and learning and growing and thinking, who never stops loving the world with open arms. I love you, Mom! I love you, all my mothers! And of course, I am a mother, now, too, which has truly made my heart full to overflowing. A little girl called me "Josie's mom" yesterday - I've never been called that before. Wow. I'm somebody's mother. Wow. This is a very happy day of mothers.

Easter Photos

Sorry to be so late with this... Easter photos!