October 2007

Naomi and Josephine at the playground.

Josephine climbing the yellow thing. She did it all by herself. I only needed to help her down.

Thaxton and Josephine at Boo at the Zoo. Thaxton loves to drive and Josephine wasn't too crazy about having her personal space invaded. She finally gave up and let Thaxton ride in the car the rest of the night and she sat in his stroller.

Josephine continues to talk more and more everyday. She can repeat anything you say. It's funny to hear her repeat "Holy Snikees!" or "Mike Wazowski!". "Rhinoceros" and "hippopotamus" are still my favorites. Did I mention in a previous post that she knows her last name? She also knows our first names. She's so smart. : )

Counting is one of her favorite things to do. Sometimes she can count 1-10 and other times she skips most of the numbers (although they're always in the right order). She tries to hold up the right number of fingers for each number, but that can be tricky. She has 1, 2, 5, and 10 down. One thing that she knows that amazes me is the difference between number and letters. She'll see words and say "a, b, c's" and see numbers and say "numbers". I was wearing a shirt that had NYC on it yesterday. She pointed to it and said "abc's" then pulled at my shirt and said "turn page". I thought that was funny. When she's saying "and" it comes out sounding like "e" and a firm nod with raised eyebrows usually accompanies the word. For example, if you say "you're going to your grandparent's house" she would usually replay "and mommy" or "and daddy" or whoever else she thinks will be there.

Josephine used to love to brush her teeth. Now she hates it. Does anyone know how hard it is to force a toothbrush in a toddlers mouth and brush her teeth??? Just one more fight during the day. She fights me over most things now. Changing her diaper and clothes usually causes one or both of us physical pain. To brush her hair we have a routine of running in circles around the house (me chasing her with the brush). I can actually do a better job brushing her hair while she's running than when I try to hold her down to do it. We don't use doggie ears very often anymore (small ponytails on the top/side of her head), we're sticking with barrettes. Sometimes it's a fight to get her in her carseat. She's getting so strong that it's getting harder and harder to force her in. She's not as consistent with the carseat as she is everything else. Probably because she loves to go places. She gets excited about anyplace we go.

One sweet thing Josephine has been doing is putting her hands gently on my cheeks. She'll lay on top of me, lean in, and put her hands on my face. It's so sweet. She'll gently pat my arm or let sometimes too. She pats her own legs too. My grandmother used to do that all the time. Could the habit have skipped 2 generations?

We celebrated Papaw's birthday last week. He came and picked Josephine up after her nap and took her to the park. She loves playgrounds. Nathan and I went over for dinner. Josephine enjoyed her time with Papaw.

Josephine is obsessed with Winnie the Pooh. She never cared (or even knew) about it until Disney World. She loved the ride. Now she'll find Pooh everywhere. She knows all the character's names, too. She has hand-me-down pajamas with Pooh and Piglet on them. She asks to wear it every night.

Granna's new baby chicks.

Jonah the cat, Jo the kid, and the egg basket.

We went to Granna's this morning to look at the new chicks at the farm. Josephine was very excited. She got to feed them, but not touch them. She actually pet a horse today. Lately she's been crying when the horses come near her. One of the horses is particularly mellow and friendly so she's good to pet. Josephine wouldn't sit on her, though.

Last night Josephine and I went to Elizabeth's 6th birthday party. Josephine had a blast. We went on a hayride, Josephine played on their slide and swings, and she had a cupcake with yellow icing. She decided that she was ready to go home when she fell down a few feet off a ladder. It wasn't a bad fall, but we left after that. She was worn out.

Nathan was watching the first episode of Star Wars the other day. Josephine got so excited about it, she knocked over her cup of juice. (She's been waving her arms when she gets excited lately.) Jar Jar was her favorite. Nathan changed the channel when a fight scene came on and Josephine cried.

Josephine and I (ok, mostly me) carved some pumpkins this week. Josephine wasn't too excited about cleaning out the pumpkin at first, but on the 2nd one she was more willing. Although, she didn't understand why we didn't put the guts back into the pumpkin. She "helped" carve one of the pumpkins. She held the end of the knife while I cut the pumpkin. She gets very excited when she looks at the pumpkins in the driveway. I haven't taken any pictures yet, I plan on carving some more. Plus, it's hard to operate a camera when you're up to your elbows in pumpkin gunk.