Thursday, September 27, 2007

My Daughter, the Dog

When I picked up Josephine at daycare yesterday, this is what I found:

A dog. Apparently, she wore this all day long - and continued to wear it for the evening, even when we went to the dog park.

At one point, she was running with a pack of dogs. It was quite a sight.

Since starting gym class, where we practice walking on the balance beam and jumping, Josephine's romping at home and abroad has escalated to the point where we have to be extra careful. She tends to crawl up on the coffee table, shout, "Ready? One, three, two!" and fling herself on the couch.

No, we don't "permit" this, exactly.

When Daddy tries to explain broken necks, Jozy looks at him with her angelic face, all attention, and then goes right back for the table.

At the playground, she also found some wooden beams and practiced (with help, thank goodness) walking them. She has great balance! She then ate some gravel.

Her memory constantly amazes us. We were reading a book to her the other day that had a kite in it, and she said "Dad-dad kite!" -- and indeed, she had seen her grandad tubbs with a kite - a month or two before. Wow. These instances abound - things I don't expect her to recall bubble up...
Above, she is posing and saying "cheese." Her daycare provider's three daughters adore her, and braid her hair. I had to cut out a huge chunk of tangle the other night- thankfully, no bald spot. It may be time to visit the dentist soon. She's almost two!! And if you ask her, "how old are you going to be?" she splays her hand and indeed says, "Two!"

I know. It's amazing.


She's not exactly whining and pointing, but something like that. She definitely is exerting her will and gets frustrated when she doesn't get what she wants.

Again, singing the Rolling Stones song doesn't do much.

But it makes us feel a little better...

This morning I heard a hair-raising scream, ran to her bedroom, only to find she was frustrated that her rubber duck would not fit through the front door of her dollhouse. Darn duck.

I have a couple more adorable photos of the dog outfit, but can't seem to get them off my phone. Will post as soon as I can.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Finally, Past the Sickness


We've misplaced the camera, so this 60s-looking snap with my cell is the best I can do to show that our little girl is finally recovered - for several days she was utterly horizontal, listless - so very ill. I will never forget the look of terror on her face as she tried to keep from throwing up, her eyes wide and spilling tears, as she choked "mom-ma - mom-ma" over and over. Heartwrenching.

But she's back now - playing peekaboo with the daddy longlegs in the bathtub, crawling into the bathroom sink to wash her feet, waking us up at 6 am to play "giddyup doodle" on the floating noodle that's for the pool but has gotten more play inside the house... and I'm so glad. We were at church a lot this weekend - Saturday for Covenant Group and Sunday I taught her sunday school class (never again - I was literally dripping with sweat at the end of it). Later she watched some NFL football with us - Daddy's taught her to say "run, run" to the guy with the ball! And she and daddy took a long bike ride Saturday. And a new development - she's learned the word "Again." As in, read that book again, mommy, for the fourth time. Also, when she's pulling me out of bed in the morning, it's "Come on, Mommy! Come on!"

Anyway, I'm just glad we pulled together and made it through what was a very tough week for all of us. Coming up: our vegetarian potluck dinner party, the vegetarian festival, and of course, Josephine's second birthday! No big party this time around - but a little something, especially since Jos's favorite book right now is Curious George's Birthday Surprise - she's obsessed with birthday cakes and blowing out candles (has been for months now). And b/c we had this exchange the other day:
"Bike! Daddy bike! Mommy bike!"
"Yes, there's our bikes. Do you want a bike?"
"Yes."
"Do you want a bike for your birthday?"
"PARTY." (Emphasized with head nod. The head nod is more an order than it is an agreement.)

Oh, okay.