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...