Twas the week before Christmas

It's the week before Josephine's second Christmas! I think she'll have more fun this year. Last weekend we took Josephine to the Bethlehem exhibit at Church Street Methodist and she loved it. She got to pet the sheep, chickens, the tree, and donkey. She didn't want to touch the camel. We only stayed for a few minutes, but she enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from the past week.


Josephine posing in her Santa hat. I call her "My Pantsless Wonder" when she takes her pants off and runs around in her diaper.


Josephine in her Christmas pajamas (from Aunt Leah) sitting on the afghan my mom made a few years back.


Josephine discovered the presents under the tree. She really liked the bows.

Stats - 1 yr.

Josephine went to the doctor yesterday for her 1-year checkup. She weighs 18 lbs. 7.5 oz. and is 29 inches long. She's in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for height. I think her head is 18 cm. in circumference. She got four shots : ( She cried when she got them, but hasn't showed any signs of them bothering her since then. The doctor gave her some medicine for her congestion (that kept getting worse) and is doing much better. She was in a great mood this morning despite waking up at 6am. Mom was not in a great mood because Josephine broke her promise that she would not wake up before the sun comes up. At least she slept all night until then.

She can show us where her hair, eyes (sometimes), nose, teeth, tongue, ears, toes, and bellybutton are. She's also walking more and more. Her new favorite drink is Tropicana's sugar-free, non-carbonated, caffeine-free orange soda (is it still a soda if there's no carbonation?). She'll drink 8 oz. in less than 3 minutes.

Nathan and I got a new video camera so we can put the video on the computer. After Christmas I'll try to put a short video on the web of Josephine. That will take some time for me to figure out how it all works so it will have to wait until after Christmas.

Have a good holiday season!

First Birthday!

Josephine's 1st birthday was yesterday! We didn't do anything special since we had her party last Saturday. She was kind of cranky the whole day, so it's a good thing we didn't have big plans. She has a stuffy nose and cough when she lays down to go to sleep. So she's not getting enough sleep and is therefore cranky. (I guess it's the same cold we keep passing back and forth all fall, but without the fever this time.) Josephine and I did go to her Little Gym class which she enjoyed. She was also excited to be in her new, forward-facing car seat. : ) When we got home we watched the home video from her first year with Daddy. It's amazing to see how much a human can grow in a year. Even video from a month ago shows how much she's grown.

Here are some pictures from yesterday. She didn't smile for any of them.


Josephine wanting to get into my lap. Isn't that a pitiful face?


Notice the ear rolling down her cheek. : ( I put Nathan's tie around her neck to try and play, but it didn't work.


Josephine and Nathan watching the "Baby Josephine" movie. (With Cheerios in hand, of course.)

Josephine's 1st Birthday Party!

Josephine isn't officially 1 until Wednesday, but we had her birthday party last Saturday. Her whole family was there: Nathan and me, of course, Grannie, Papaw, Uncle Terry, Granna, Paps, Grandpa, Aunt Moug, and Naomi. We had sandwiches for lunch and cake for dessert. Josephine was so excited about her new toys that she didn't go to sleep until 11 PM that night.
She didn't quite understand how to tear the paper on the presents and got frustrated when she couldn't play with the toy she had just unwrapped. She enjoyed the yellow cake with strawberry icing. She got more icing than cake, though. Here are some pictures from her party.


Josephine standing with her new wagon and a wrapped present.


I had to help Josephine open her presents but we had time to stop for a picture.


Josephine and Naomi sitting in the wagon. They're going to have a good time with this toy.


Josephine had her own cake to play in.


Josephine used her spoon to dig into her cake.


Aunt Moug gave Josephine a pig flashlight that oinks when you turn it on. Josephine was quite sure what to think of it.

_______________________________________

Gingerbread House

We decided to make a gingerbread house with the Randolph's. We had no idea what we were getting into. At the end of this post is the recipe and notes to making the gingerbread and icing. Our houses turned out very different. My first time making gingerbread was a learning experience and we ended up with a "well fortified" house. The gingerbread was way too thick. Hope, after her 4th try, successfully made a very nice, thin, and neat gingerbread house. The decorating pretty much followed in line with the gingerbread. The Randolph's was very neat and attractive and Nathan's and my house was ... well, pretty much a mess. But we are very proud of our mess. : ) We ran out of icing so we still have a little more to do. We all had a good time decorating the houses once we were finally able to do it. Josephine and Drinnen played on the floor (or were held) during the festivities. Elizabeth and Emily did a great job on their houses.


Hope is decorating their house. The Anderson's house is on the right corner of the table.


The Anderson's house is on the left and the Randolph's is on the right.


Elizabeth and Emily stand beside their houses. Hope said that they didn't go to sleep until 11PM because they were so full of sugar. : )

____________________________________

Josephine Update:

• Josephine has added "NaNa" (for Naomi) to her vocabulary. Also, she can sort of say "baa" when you ask her what a sheep says. It's very cute. Still no "mama".
• Josephine's walking still continues to improve. She teeters and totters a little more every day.
• Her third tooth has finally broken through. The other top tooth will probably come through within the week.
• Books are still a big favorite with Josephine. She can identify the difference between the "mama" and the "baby" animal. She can also point out the animals eyes and noses along with the different types of animals.
• Josephine is eating some of her food whole now. She can eat a banana without me having to cut it first. She loves to chew on apples (but it is taken away with much protest from Josephine when she bites a piece off). At the moment she is eating her waffle, very slowly, whole. She'll gag herself every once in awhile, but she does much better than I thought she would.

_____________________________________

Gingerbread House Recipe and Notes

Before you begin -- this is going to take awhile. It will take a few tries before you get it how you want it. Start at least a couple days before you plan to decorate your house to leave room for do-overs. But, on the bright side, the longer it takes to make it, the better your house will smell (unless you burn it).

Ingredients:

Gingerbread--

• 1-1/2 cups of whipping cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tbs baking soda
• 1 tbs ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1-1/3 c molasses (if you're going to eat the gingerbread, get the more expensive molasses)
• 9 c all-purpose flour
• If you accidentally put some vegetable oil in the dough while you're making your daughter's birthday cake at the same time, don't worry, the gingerbread will be fine.

Icing--

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tsp water
• 3 or 4 c. sifted powdered sugar

--I recommend that you make at least 2 batches of the gingerbread (not necessarily at one time) and 3-4 batches of the icing unless you're a master at not wasting ANY gingerbread.--

Tools--

• A HIGH powered mixer. If it's not high powered, only do half of the gingerbread mix at a time. (I burned out the motor in my mixer on this full recipe.) If you make the icing in a food processor because you burned out the motor in your mixer, the lid may stick to the bowl after awhile, trapping what little icing you have left, and possibly resulting in damaging the bowl or top trying to open it. If the lid does get stuck, use hot water to get it unstuck forsaking any icing left in the bowl.
• Pizza cutter. Hope was smart enough to try a pizza cutter to cut out the house. An Exacto-Knife would also work well (I didn't try that.)
• Templates for the house and whatever other objects you want. There are plenty online to print out. It's important that the pieces are a uniform size so they can be glued/iced together.
• Hot glue gun to glue the house together. Most recipes call to use the icing, but it's much easier to use the glue gun as long as you don't eat that part of the house.
• Cardboard or wooden base covered in aluminum foil to put the house on.

Candies --

• any candy is going to be good but here are some suggestions
• Hershey's kisses in Christmas colors
• Reese's cups in Christmas colors
• Skittles
• Hershey bars
• orange slices
• red hots
• peppermints
• bubble gum
• starburst
• pretzel sticks
• gum drops
• cake-decorating icing
• hard candies can be melted in the oven to make stained glass windows

Instructions

1. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whip cream and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside for the moment.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon.
4. Add molasses and cream mixture to the bowl and mix.
5. Add flour one cup at a time to the high-powered mixer.
6. Preheat the over (time below).
7. Now that the dough is ready, lightly flour a pastry board or mat.
8. Put part of the dough (1/4 - 1/2) on the mat and roll out until flat. Remember that the dough puffs up while it bakes and it looks better thin. Roll it to no more than 1/4" thick (closer to 1/8").
9. At this point you could go ahead a cut out the pattern you want (this saves from wasting gingerbread), but it can be tricky. You can also wait until the dough has cooked awhile before cutting the pattern. Remember to not cut the dough bigger than the baking sheet.
10. Another option, if you are able is to roll out the dough on the baking sheet and parchment paper. That can be hard to do, especially if you use a baking sheet with sides and you have a large rolling pin. The flour can burn so get as much off the paper as possible.
11. For 1/8" pieces, bake at 300-degrees for about 1 hour. For 1/4" pieces, bake at 275-degrees for 1 hour 45 minutes.
12. If you did not cut out your pieces previously, after 45+- minutes, take it out of the oven and cut it then. Discard any scraps and make sure the edges of the gingerbread are smooth. Switch rack positions when putting the baking sheets back in.
13. When pieces are finished baking, loosen gently with a spatula and let them cool on the sheet for another 5-10 minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely.
14. Once their cool, either glue your house together or put them in airtight plastic wrap and store up to one month.
15. Icing--needs to be used fairly quickly after making. Cover the icing between making and using the icing. I suggest making several batches of the icing, although you may not want to do it all at one time because when the icing gets hard, you can't use it on the house.
16. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and water until frothy. Blend in sugar on high speed until stiff, 5-10 minutes.
17. Use a mixer, not a food processor to do this. The icing will the cement the lid onto the bowl.
18. Best of luck!

Thanksgiving 2006

Josephine "driving" with Nathan while we were parked in a driveway.

I've been working on this post for a couple weeks now, but never able to finish it. It may sound a bit awkward because it's been done in pieces.

I had Bronchitis over the past coule weeks. Plus, the Friday before Thanksgiving we had to take Josephine to the emergency room because she had a fever of 105 degrees. They did a couple tests then diagnosed her with a virus and sent her home. She was fine the next day. She was very pitiful there for awhile. The doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital were nice and it didn't take as long as I had expected. Josephine was so lethargic, I don't think she remembered anything about the hospital. She perked up about 3 minutes before we left which was a relief.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Josephine's first Thanksgiving was a hit. Grannie and Papaw came over for Thanksgiving breakfast and we had pancakes, biscuits, bacon, etc. Cooking breakfast is much easier than dinner. After some naps we went to the Anderson farm for dinner. Josephine got to spend time with her 2-year-old cousin Ryan that she hadn't met. She also got to play with other cousins Naomi and Blair. She and Blair played the drum together. Josephine loved eating the turkey too.


Josephine and her cousin Blair (8 yrs.) at Thanksgiving.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We (Nathan, me, Grannie, and Papaw) took Josephine to Fantasy of Trees on Friday. She loved it. She's loved lights since birth so we figured this would be a good place to take her. We didn't think about it until we got there that it was kind of mean to take her to see all the lights and not let her touch them. She made it through with no tears, though. Her favorite thing was the carousel. She and Grannie went on it twice. The first time she was really nervous and Grannie held her most of the time, but she wanted back on. We tried to walk around some more, but she kept pointing at the carousel so Grannie took her on it again. Later that evening we went to the lighting of the Christmas tree in Market Square with the Randolph's, but it was so crowded we left. I'm sure we'll go back soon when there are fewer people. The fireworks scared Josephine pretty badly. We didn't know there were going to be fireworks. She hates loud noises.


Elizabeth, Nathan, and Josephine at the Fantasy of Trees.


Josephine and Grannie on the carousel.


Josephine pointing at the polar bear.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday night Nathan and I actually got to go to a movie!!! Josephine stayed with Grannie and Papaw (I had to twist their arms : ). We saw "Deck the Halls" with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito. It was pretty funny. Gets you into the Christmas spirit. Josephine did fine at Grannie and Papaw's, but she didn't have to go to bed before we picked her up either.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday was a big day too. After church and lunch and nap we went to a Lady Vols basketball game. Again, there were fireworks that freaked Josephine out, but by the second half she was enjoying it. Cheerios seemed to be the secret to making her happy. She watched alot of the basketball game. After the game we went to see Jane and Bryan who have finally come home from doing mission work in Kenya! Josephine had never met Jane and Bryan. Even though Josephine was worn out we had a great time. Hopefully we'll be able to see them again next week.


Josephine with "Aunt" Jane.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Josephine's birthday party is on this Saturday! Her birthday isn't until next Wednesday, though. It's just going to be a family get-together. It was getting way too big once I started adding it all up with her friends. I'll put up a new post next week.

Josephine Update:

• Josephine is getting her two top teeth slowly, that will make 4 altogether.
• Josephine now says "dada" and "kitty" in addition to "hi" and "yeah". She might be able to say "baby" (sounds like "geegee"), but we're not sure about that. She said "kitty" for her grandparents a couple weeks ago, but she said it for Nathan and me while we were at the zoo. She saw the white tiger and said "kitty". Very cute.
• Josephine has been obsessed with books the past couple weeks. She has dozens of books (McKay's is wonderful for that) but she has her favorites. She likes "Little Quack", and other books with animals or babies. Josephine wants to read/look at them over and over again.
• Her climbing skills are getting better. She's pulled her book basket off the shelf and used it as a stepping stool. She's also managed to climb onto the top of the automan (ottoman?). She climbs the stairs quicker and quicker.
• Josephine can show you where her toes are. She loves playing with her shoes too. Sometimes she'll put her shoes on our toes.
• Josephine played house with Elizabeth (5 years old) a couple weekends ago. She followed her around everywhere and did pretty much whatever Elizabeth told her to do. They had a blast. Josephine played well with Drinnen (6 mo.) the other night too.
• Josephine is holding her bottle by herself. She spent a few days with my mom while I worked at school before Thanksgiving. Josephine came home holding her bottle. : ) She is also feeding herself cereal with a spoon. She had no trouble getting the spoon to her mouth.
• Nathan and I are going to the gym again, but Josephine cries every time we take her to the child care there. She does fine at the church nursery, but the gym scares her.
• Three weeks ago at the little gym Josephine walked across the balance beam (I held her up) without any help with her feet then did a somersault on the beam (with help, of course). We were very proud. She has a blast there.
• Josephine can show you how old she is. When you ask her she holds up her pointer finger. Another thing Grannnie taught her.

Josephine feeding herself cereal.

Josephine at the Little Gym.

Josephine on the balance beam at the Little Gym.

Josephine reading a book.

Mohawks, Camels, Wizards, and Princesses

It's been a couple weeks since the last post because Blogger wouldn't let me download any pictures onto the blog. This blog will have plenty of pictures for you : ) Josephine has had a busy couple weeks!




I spiked Josephine's hair after her bath. She knows how to brush her hair and ours. Not well, but she gets the concept : ) She'd rather chew on the brush, though.



Grannie, Papaw, and I took Josephine to the zoo again last Sunday. I was able to take my camera this time. This is Josephine in the petting zoo of Kid's Cove. She enjoyed it, but was very distracted by the noisy animals. She also got to pet the sheet, a llama, and a cow.



Josephine riding on Papaw's shoulders. I think we were looking at the river otters here.



Before we left we got to pet the camels again. Josephine loves the camels.



The camel made a sudden move toward Josephine, hence the look on my face. It was really sweet later on when the camel wrapped her neck around Josephine and put its face up to Josephine's face.

Halloween



The Randolph's came to trick-or-treat at our house on Halloween. Drinnen was a wizard. I got that costume for him as a birthday present in May. When it arrived we looked at it and thought he would NEVER be able to fill it out by 6 months. Boy, were we wrong.



Elizabeth and Emily were princesses. And, yes, Drinnen is bigger than Josephine. His legs are slightly shorter, but his torso is longer. He also outweighs her by at least 2 pounds.



I just thought this was a really cute pictures. I don't remember what they were looking at.

Josephine Update:

• Josephine took a few more steps to me last weekend. I had been gone most of the day and when I got home she was so excited to see me, she walked on over! She'll stand by herself pretty often now.
• She climbs the stairs very quickly now. She usually only does it if I'm upstairs and she's downstairs (trying to find me) or when she's trying to get my attention. She also bites things to get my attention too.
• She's had fun at the Little Gym each time. She walked across the balance beam without someone helping her feet (but holding her up, of course) last week. I was very impressed because the week before she couldn't do it. She can also do the wheelbarrow on the balance beam where I hold her torso and she walks with her hands across the beam. It's cute to watch too. She loves her instructor Stephanie too. I noticed that she would get a huge smile on her face when she saw her in the class. Yesterday, Josephine and I went to lunch with Papaw and ran into Stephanie. Josephine started smiling and doing her devilish laugh (I have no other way of describing or imitating it) so I turned around to see what she was looking at. She recognized Stephanie even outside of the gym (but in the same clothes) after only 3 classes with her. Very cute. Josephine is the youngest in the class and the only one not walking. She will crawl up to the other kids and "talk" to them, but they're busy playing and don't talk back. She enjoys watching/playing with the other kids more than the gym equipment I think. I hope it doesn't hurt her feelings when the other kids want to do their own thing instead of have a chat.
• Josephine loves to play in the dishwasher. Not necessarily "in" the dishwasher, but with the things in the dishwasher. I've given up trying to do the dishes when she's in the kitchen. It's not worth it.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is in three weeks? I'll put another post before then. I hope to take my camera to her next Little Gym class. I don't think there are any other big events before Thanksgiving. : )

Zoo

We finally made it to the zoo! We weren't sure if the weather would hold, but we decided to try it. It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon. It was about 60 degrees and really windy. Josephine had a great time. Her favorites were the camels (she could pet them), chimps, African Wild Dogs, red panda, and the river otters. The river otters were so playful they would come "play" with Josephine when we had her next to the glass. They were so fast it was hard for her to see them at first. She caught on after awhile, though. We also went to Kid's Cove and she pet a sheep and some goats. Josephine also enjoyed riding on Nathan's shoulders. We didn't know that we were going to end up at the zoo when we left the house this morning, so I didn't take my camera : ( Next time I'll make sure to take my camera.

We celebrated Papaw's 60th birthday last week. Josephine got him some books that he can read to her. : ) Grannie gave him a generation photo of his three girls. He didn't know that we had gotten them done. I've added that picture below. It was from September, but since it was a surprise I couldn't put it on the blog. : )





Josephine Update:

• Josephine will clap her hands now. She hasn't before because she doesn't like you to touch her hands (it has to be her idea) and it's hard to get her to open her hands all the way.
• Josephine climbed our stairs yesterday. There's a gate at the bottom of the stairs right now : )
• No more steps from Josephine since Wednesday. She's stood by herself a few times, but not walking. We're going to work on it some more tonight.
• She's slept through the night the past two nights! That makes for a happy mom. She hasn't gotten her regular naps this weekend so that may have had something to do with it.

First Steps!

Josephine took her first steps during her gym class last night! She would take 2-4 steps between Nathan and me. We were so proud! Of course, she was pretty wobbly (sp?) getting started, but she managed a couple steps each time. Yea!

Rock Star

Josephine's cheeks droop while she sleeps. It's very cute.



Josephine showing off her fish tank. She loves to bang on the tank and watch the fish swim.



We went to Atlanta two weekends ago to visit Greg and Meredith. Josephine is watching Greg's XBox controller with great interest.



Josephine had a great time with Meredith.

I'll skip an intro and jump into a Josephine Update:

• Josepine will stand by herself for a few seconds if we let go of her without her realizing it. Once she realizes that she's doing it on her own, she falls down. She stood up from a squatting position by herself the other day.
• Josephine really enjoys music now. She'll rock on her hands and knees when music comes on. If she recognizes the music she turns and looks at us with a huge smile. "Circle of the Sun" is her favorite song (a revised version of Sally Roger's song).
• Josephine has started to bite with her two little teeth. She like to bite on clothing (which sometimes included the skin underneath) and on the seem that sticks up on the couches. I say "no bite" so much that she'll start shaking her head whenever I say "bite".'
• We started classes at The Little Gym yesterday. They have a bunch of small gymnastics equipment and they work on motor skills, pretty much, at Josephine's age. Josephine loved it. She was the only one not walking yet, but she could climb on a bunch of stuff. We worked on doing a front roll on a decline. Josephine loved it, but wouldn't tuck her head in. We are going again tonight. Nathan gets to go this time. : ) I want to start her on swim classes soon at the YWCA, but there weren't enough babies signed up this session so we'll have to wait until after Thanksgiving and try again.
• Josephine is still enjoying eating. She took a bottle of apple juice this morning! She's never taken a bottle for me before. I know she's getting to the age where she should use a cup, but she hasn't learned to use a sippy-cup and everything else is too messy. She won't hold the bottle on her own, though. She hasn't figured out to hold it up. Gravity. Such a pain. : )
• Josephine has started showing an interest in stuffed animals and dolls. She'll pick them up, hug them, and rock them. Very cute. I got a small dog (stuff animal, of course) for her yesterday. She loves it. She held it all the way home. She fell asleep on the way home holding its arm. When she woke up in her carrier she looked around, saw Nathan, and held up the dog to show him. : )
• Josephine still has a stuffy nose from the cold she had over 2 weeks ago. It's getting worse right now. I hope she's not getting sick again. She's having a hard time sleeping because she can't breathe well. I have to use the snot-sucker (I think the correct name is a nasal aspirator) in the middle of the night and most of the day. She's seems to be fine other ways, though.
• She's learning to climb stairs. She hasn't gone all the way up the staircase, but if I'm not in the same room with her, she'll come look for me including going up the stairs.

We still haven't made it to the zoo. Something comes up every time. We're going to try again this weekend. We also hope to go to an aquarium this winter either in Gatlinburg or Atlanta.

Crazy Hair

I thought I'd put up a few pictures of Josephine. Her hair is getting really thick and gets a little crazy after her naps. : )





She's eating Cheerios and bananas in this picture. She had already eaten an entire waffle.

Sick Days

Josephine was sick this past weekend. She had/has a stuffy nose and had a pretty high fever. We called the doctor, but didn't make any trips to the office or hospital. Her fever broke for the final time on Monday night. Poor Nathan had to spend a couple nights in the guest room so Josephine could sleep with me (she takes up alot more room in bed than a baby should). I had to give her Tylenol/Advil every 2 hours during the night so it was much easier to keep her with me. Plus, she wouldn't lay down by herself anyway. She's doing fine now except for the stuffy nose that won't go away. Her appetite isn't quite back up to speed yet either.

Josephine stayed with Nathan Monday night while I went to a concert. (It was supposed to be our first real date night since Jo was born, but her fever put a dent into that.) But I did have my first night out by myself since she was born. I went to the concert by myself, but had a great time anyway. I worried about Josephine the whole time though. Go figure. I was clutching my phone the whole time. But she did really well with Nathan. She cried for the first 30 minutes or so, but took a nap on Nathan and was happy the rest of the night until I got home. Then she nursed, rocked, then slept through the night! It was a miracle! She slept through the night last night too. I certainly can't expect it three nights in a row, can I? : )

Here's a short Josephine Update:

• Josephine won't say "hi" anymore, but she says "yeah" all the time (and at the appropriate times). "Hi" and "yeah". What kind of first words are those? : )
• She learned how to open the Cheerio box today. Enough said.
• I've started her on eating meats this week. Mostly the commercial pureed baby food. But she did have some ground turkey yesterday, which she liked. Cooked, of course. : )
• She's been sticking her tongue out all weekend. I think it has something to do with her teeth.

Sorry I don't have any pictures this time, but she's been sick. Actually, all three of us have been sick. We're going to Atlanta this weekend so I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post next week.

Uh, oh. She's in the Cheerios box again . . . .

Parks and Games

The cooler weather has been nice, minus all of the rain that came with it. It was such a nice day last Thursday that we went to the park with Star and Sophia. We fed the ducks and geese for awhile. Josephine's mouth didn't close, she just stared at them. I think she enjoyed it. We walked/strolled down the trails. Josephine got to swing for a little while too. But then came nap time and we had to leave. Here's a picture of Josephine in the swing.



We had a big gang over for the UT football game. I don't remember seeing much of the game because of the six babies/kids in the living room : ) Here's a picture of the 'Lil Gang.



Thaxton (7 wks), Josephine (9 mo), Drinnen (4 mo), Emily (2 yr), Elizabeth (4 yr), and Naomi (4 mo). Notice that Drinnen is the same size as Josephine? Actually, he's bigger.

Here is Drinnen letting Josephine know who's boss!



Josephine Update:

• Josephine is eating mostly finger foods now. However, that means that meals take about 45 minutes or so. Today for lunch she had a whole wheat tortilla (half), green beans (cut into small pieces of course), Cherios, and pears (baby food). She loves baked potatoes and broccoli too. She also had Oatmeal for breakfast a few times.
• We tried the experiment: If we don't stop feeding her, will she quit on her own? The answer is no, she won't stop on her own. I finally cut her off after over an hour of constant eating last night. She slept well, though.
• She is taking things out of boxes and putting them back in. She has a certain toy that makes sounds when something hits the bottom and she finally started taking the blocks in and out. I've been wondering how long it would take her to figure it out.
• She's been sleeping better the past couple nights. She even slept for 10 hours straight last night. It was a miracle. She had been waking up 3-4 times a night, sometimes more. I think that it might be that she was hungry on those nights.
• Did I mention "touchdown" last entry? Josephine will raise both of her hands when we say "touchdown!". Granny taught her that on vacation.
• Josephine loves to watch the fish in the fishtank. She stands there and smiles and beats on the table and tank. She's not old enough to understand that she terrifies the fish when she does that. : )

We're trying to make a trip to the zoo, but it rains each time. Hopefully we'll get to go this week or weekend.

North Myrtle Beach Vacation

Josephine took her third trip to the beach last week! We went with Granny and Papaw (my parents) to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We've been there many times before, although usually earlier in the year. The weather was cooler and less humid. Most days it was
a good temperature for Josephine to get in the water. She loved the beach. She spent a lot more time on it this trip than when we were at Hunting Island. She ate less sand this time too. Josephine had a great time with Granny and Papaw. Although, I'm not sure who had more fun -- Josephine or the Grandparents : )

We didn't do much other than go down to the beach or play in the pool, although it was a bit chilly for the pool. Josephine spent a lot of time walking in the surf. She walked for at least 15 minutes without stopping one day. Of course we had her by the hands, but she was leading the way. She had her "beach face" on. Bottom lip sticking out, eyebrows down, and determined to get where she wanted. Seagulls were a big hit. One time she made it a point to walk in front of where a group of people were sitting and showing off for them. She's so funny.

We would go down to the beach inbetween naps, which usually meant Josephine went to the beach twice a day. We'd have to lather on the sunscreen for the first trip. Sand sticks well to sunscreen. The late afternoon trip was late enough in the day that she could just go in her swim diaper. People kept thinking she was a boy with it on because it was blue. Since we went to the beach twice a day, that meant two baths a day also. No complaints from Josephine! She loves to "splash splash" in the pool, ocean, AND tub.

Josephine learned to raise her hands above her head when we say "touchdown!". It is very cute to watch. She's so proud of herself. Granny worked with her all week so that she could do it for Daddy when she got home.

Josephine discovered Cherios this week. She loves them and gets very excited when she sees them. I gave her a cup with a special top on it so that she could reach in and pull some out, but when you hold it upside down none fall out. She enjoys the cup too. Even with the cup, she makes a huge mess with them. Cherios go everywhere.

She understands the words "ocean", "sit down" and, "hungry" (or any other word referring to eating or food). And of course "touchdown".

A new trick that she also learned is to stick out her tongue. It started with eating Cherios (I'm not sure why), but she'll do it anytime now. So many tricks, so little time.

9 Months Old

OK, so I forgot about her 9-Month pictures. We had a great session at Portrait Innovations. Both Josephine and Naomi did really well (for the most part : ). Trying to get their picutre taken together was a bit of a challenge though. Josephine wanted to tackle Naomi (out of love, of course) or Naomi would cry or Josephine wouldn't smile. We have a couple cute ones, though. I'll let Aunt Moug post the pictures she likes of Naomi on her blog site.