Christmas 2007

Josephine had a great Christmas this year. She's really gotten into the presents. We have still have some presents left for other people and she keeps trying to open them. :) Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Anderson/Carters. Naomi and Josephine were the center of attention. Actually, they were the center of attention the entire week. Christmas morning we opened our gifts to each other here at home then headed over to the Moore's late in the morning. Josephine was funny. She insisted on handing out all the presents. She knew she had to wait for the person to unwrap the gift before she could get another one. She would watch and say "Box!" Then ask to get another present. Christmas night Nathan's family came over to our house to do family gifts. The amount of gifts was a bit overwhelming. At one point, I couldn't see the carpet anywhere, it was all gifts and wrapping paper. Everyone had a good time.


Josephine at Granna's on Christmas Eve. Notice the shirt? : )


Nathan and Josephine wrapped up in the blanket on Christmas morning that I made for him.


Josephine and her tea set. She loves it!!


Josephine was very interested in the woodworking book I got for Papaw.


Christmas night. Josephine laying on the pig sleeping bag Granna got for her.


Josephine and Naomi playing with their new shopping carts.


The clean version of our living room Christmas night.

Getting Ready for Christmas

As is the rest of the country, we are getting ready for Christmas around here. It can be a little tough with Josephine's birthday just a few weeks before Christmas, but we just stay busy. We made gingerbread houses with the Randolph's again this year. It went much better than last year. We learned alot last year. :) Josephine helped decorate our house and decorated some of her own gingerbread men. She's very proud of her work..



Nathan and Josephine talking about the gingerbread man.

We also had to put up the Christmas tree. It turned into an two-night event because of light issues, but Josephine didn't mind. She did a pretty good job putting the ornaments on the tree.


Josephine in front of the Christmas tree when it was all done.


Josephine is helping Nathan with the lights.


Josephine is holding two of the ornaments that Grannie Ratch gave her. They are animal bells.

We also got to meet our new friend Wil, son of Jane and Bryan. (A link for their blog is on the right of the page.) It was good to see our friends and meet a new one!

Josephine, Elizabeth, and Wil. Josephine doesn't understand the "no squinting" part of having your picture taken.

Josephine had her 2-year checkup last week. She weighed 28 pounds and was 34 inches tall. Everything went just fine, no shots! Yea!

2-Year Pictures

We had her picture taken at Portrait Innovations again for her 2-year photo shoot. : ) She did really well considering we had to wait 1 1/2 hours before getting the pictures taken. Josephine was shy, as usual, but warmed up to the photographer pretty quickly. She only lasted about 15 minutes, but we got some good pictures anyway. The white dress in some of the pictures was made by her Aunt Leah. I had people comment on how cute it was during the wait. I wanted more pictures with her in it, but Josephine didn't give me enough time. ; )

Josephine is 2 years old!

Josephine after eating her cupcake.

Josephine's 2nd birthday was last week! She had 2 parties and our living room is covered in new toys. Parties are her favorite things. It's been awhile since I put up a blog, so I'll start with what else we've been up to.

For Thanksgiving, we had breakfast at Grannie and Papaw's then had dinner at Granna's. It was a busy day, but Josephine had a blast -- she loves parties! My aunt and uncle from New Jersey came down for the holiday. Josephine was still asking for Uncle George and Aunt Betty last week. She wanted them to come to her birthday party.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the Fantasy of Trees with Naomi (who spent the night with us), Granna, Grannie, Papaw, Uncle George, Aunt Betty, and the Randolph's. It was quite a crew! The girls enjoyed it, but lost interest in the trees fairly quickly. They had a great kid's play area that we spent alot of time at. And, of course, there was the carousel. Josephine's second favorite thing is a carousel.


Josephine and Naomi in the play area at the Fantasy of Trees.

For Josephine's birthday, we invited the Randolph's and Naomi over for pizza and play time. The kids had such a good time! (The adults too.) Josephine insisted on playing Ring Around the Rosie most of the time. She had a willing crew, which helped.


I love this picture of Drinnen and Josephine!!!


Josephine giving Naomi a hug. She can still be a bit rough with her hugs.

On Saturday we had "The" birthday party. The whole family came. There wasn't a theme, I just had about 20 balloons inflated and put them around the house. Josephine was so excited about that. Josephine had requested an orange and white cake (no, it wasn't Nathan's idea). I managed to make orange icing. I've never experimented with food coloring before. Josephine also chose pink plates and yellow napkins. Hey, it's her party. : ) Josephine has so many new toys now -- and Christmas is 2 weeks away! We gave her a new puzzle and a Thomas the Train set (she loves Thomas!) Grannie and Papaw gave her a Pooh book (she loves Pooh!) and "The old lady that swallowed a fly" book and doll. She was scared of the doll at first because it looks a little scary, but she has warmed up to it since. Granna and Paps got her a baby and all the furniture that could possibly go with it -- stroller, high chair, crib, etc. They also gave her a little kid's Bible. Aunt Leah and Uncle Brian gave her a Little People Farm. Aunt Moug and Naomi gave her a cash register. If I left anything off the list, I'm sorry! Josephine slept for 13 1/2 hours last night. We wore her out at her party! Naomi had fun playing with Josephine's new toys too.

Nathan and I gave this puzzle to Josephine the day before her party. It's still a bit advanced for her, but she'll get it soon.

Josephine and Nathan at her birthday party.




Josephine with her new doll that she has named Sylvia. Not sure why Sylvia, but that's what she chose, so that's what we're calling the doll.


Josephine and Elizabeth at her party.

It's hard to believe it's been two years since Josephine was born. She has grown so fast. On the other hand, I don't really remember life without her. Nathan and I are truly blessed to have such a wonderful daughter. The repetition of the day-to-day needs like feeding, diapers, etc. can wear on us a little, but being able to watch her grow and learn is such an amazing experience. We're amazed every day at what she can do.

Kindermusik is still one of Josephine's favorite things. I completely forgot to take her to class a couple weeks ago. I felt so bad! Luckily, she's not old enough to know or care about that kind of thing. She's singing more and more both with the cds and without. She can also follow directions on the cds too (like hop or clap). My favorite song that she has sung is "You Are my Sunshine". I sing it to her everytime I take her up to go to sleep. I've only heard her sing it once, but it was so sweet. I've even made up a verse that is the same tune and she sang that too. I usually give Josephine a few minutes after she wakes up before I go get her out of her crib. She often talks to herself and I like to listen to it over the monitor. One afternoon last week she took Pooh with her to sleep. When she woke up she started singing "Winnie the Pooh". However, I don't know the words to the song, but I know the basic tune. My version of the song goes "Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, Mama needs to learn the words to the song called Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh". She was singing my version of the song to her Pooh bear when she woke up. It was funny.

Josephine still loves to learn. She gets very excited about seeing the moon in the sky so I got her a book on the sun, moon, and planets. She can visually tell the difference between the moon, sun, and Earth. She knows that we live on the planet Earth. She knows that the sun is made of fire (we aren't going to explain plasma to her) and that the moon is made of rock. She doesn't quite get the concept of the moon revolving around the Earth and the Earth revolving around the sun. There's a page with all the planets on it. She calls Jupiter the "Daddy", Saturn the "Mommy", and Uranus the "Baby". She knows how to bring it down to her level. : )

Nathan and I irritated Josephine with our singing for the first time last night. We were getting in the van and the song "Unskinny Bop" from the 80's came on the radio. Nathan and I started singing it to her. "Stop! Stop!" she yelled at us. We could only laugh.

Now that the birthday has come and gone, we will be getting ready for Christmas soon. Hopefully we'll get the tree up this week. Josephine is getting her pictures taken on Tuesday so I will have some pictures to add later this week.

Singing Songs

Josephine has been going to Kindermusik class for about a month now. She's obsessed!!! We have a CD that has some songs that we sing or hear there and she wants to listen to it all the time! The class has been great for Josephine. She's too shy to do much in the class except play the instruments, but at home during the rest of the week she talks about it non-stop. She will sing with some of the songs, too. I can't get her to sing with any of her other cds. There's a track that has horse sounds (trotting, gallopping, and neighing) that she waits for. She starts wating and asking 2 songs before it. Ring around the rosie is one of her favorites too. She sits down on the floor as hard as she can when "we all fall down" is sung. So funny. If a song comes on that we have heard in class she repeats "Music class! Music class!" until you acknowledge that yes, it was a song we heard in music class.

Josephine is singing more songs even without the cd now. She sings her abcs well. We can even go back and forth with her. Nathan or I will sing "abcd" then she will do the next part, then it will be our turn, etc. She can do that counting to 10 too. Very impressive. : ) She will sing Ring Around the Rosie too.

Josephine the day after Halloween. She wore her cow costume to Kindermusik. I wish I had thought of it on Halloween. She wouldn't wear a costume that night.

Josephine in her bunny ears at Granna's.

Jo and Naomi playing.

Aww. How sweet.

More goofiness.

Funny random story. Josephine loves octopi. We checked a book out of the library about them. In one picture there is a picture of an octopus carrying her eggs in her tentacles. (Josephine can tell you that an octopus has 8 tentacles.) Last night I was looking at an ultrasound picture of a lady I know online who is having twins. I explained to Josephine that people carry their eggs/babies inside their tummies instead of carrying them around like the octopus and that we were looking at a picture of the babies in her tummy. Josephine looked at the picture for a minute, pointed to it, and said "octopus". I don't think she got it. : )

Last week Josephine was obsessed with Cranberry Apple Juice. This week she's on a Pineapple Orange Juice kick. She gets very upset if you try to give her something else. Who knows what it will be next week. It's still quite an ordeal to get her to eat non-pureed vegetables. She'll eat them if it comes from Granna's garden or out of a babyfood jar, though. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get her to eat the solid vegetables? One strange food she loves is banana peppers. She eats them straight out of Granna's garden. She'll eat a banana pepper but not a pea. Arg.

Congrats to Jane who had her son Wil last Sunday!!!!

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.

I Love You

Josephine playing in the bubbles.





I got my first unsolicited "I love you." from Josephine yesterday. We were playing on the couch and she was giving me a hug. : )



Josephine's language has really improved over the past few weeks. She knows her last name now and who else has the same last name. It comes out more like "Andsonder", but I'll count it. She'll say "Josephine" now, too. Next step is to put the two names together. That's quite a mouthful for a toddler.



She's starting to negotiate to get what she wants. She wanted a wipe and I told her no. She said "Just one." I was impressed, but she still didn't get one.

This morning when I was getting her out of her carseat, she had spilled Cheerios on her lap. She looked down and said, "Cheerios everywhere." I had to agree.



She has learned the word "need". She "needs juice", she "needs crackers". Jo used that one with Nathan last night. She hasn't tried it on me yet.

We went to Josephine's first Kindermusik class. There were only a couple other kids in the class, and Josephine really enjoyed it. She participated more than I expected and she had a smile on her face most of the time. She shook the shakers and walked around the room with everyone. Little Gym went well last night after being gone for 3 weeks. Josephine was very excited to be there. She wanted to hang on the bar most of the time.

Josephine's strep is much better. She still have some congestion, but she's back to her old self. She's still sleeping longer hours than she wass before we went on vacation. She's going to sleep at 8pm now instead of 9pm. She's hitting the terrible twos a couple months early I think. Taking her to the grocery store is a hassle now. She refuses to do what I ask her to and stands in the middle of aisle crying. Maybe she'll get over it soon. (Yeah, right. : )

Disney, Part 4

We're finally home from Disney. The past few days have been too hectic to post anything. Josephine has strep throat. : ( She came down with it Tuesday. She woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday with a 104.4 fever. We put her in the tub and gave her meds and her fever came down a bit. We flew home on Wednesday night and I took her to the doctor on Thursday. She's doing a little better now, but is still feeling bad.

Animal Kingdom


The three of us at Animal Kingdom.


Josephine as she sees a giraffe on the safari and the Animal Kingdom.

We went to the Animal Kingdom on Monday. It was a nice park. We took the safari twice. Josephine got to see elephants, zebras, lions, giraffes (and a baby), and alot of other animals I don't know the name of. She enjoyed seeing all of them. It was very bumpy so I didn't get any good pictures of the animals. We also went to the bird show. She sat as still for that as she does for the one at the Knoxville zoo. We made a big mistake at the Animal Kingdom though. We took Josephine to A Bug's Life 3-D movie. She wouldn't wear the glasses (thank goodness), but it was loud, dark, puffs of air, and water squirts. She was scarred for the rest of the trip. Anything that was dark or loud scared her. The petting zoo was probably Josephine's favorite thing at the Animal Kingdom.


The llama at the petting zoo. And Josephine.

Miniature Golf


Miniature golf -- not for toddlers. She liked throwing the ball into the hold or using my putter to push the ball in.

Miniature golf was kind of a disaster with 3 young children. If no one else had been there it would have better, but the kids had a hard time staying with us and letting everyone have a turn. During the 9 holes, each child cried at least once. But everyone smiled more than once, so I guess it was more good than bad. : )

Magic Kingdom, Third Time

We went to the Magic Kingdom for the 3rd time on Tuesday. We didn't go until around 11 because we knew we were going to eat dinner in Cinderella's castle late that night. Josephine wanted to ride the horses (carousel), of course. We rode it about 7 or 8 times throughout the day. We were with the Randolph's most of the day. One of the fun things we all did was ride the race cars. Each adult rode with a child. It started to pour down rain half way through the course. It was fun. We got to ride Space Mountain and there was no wait! Elizabeth rode it twice, we didn't think she would do it. She was just tall enough.

In the late afternoon we thought Josephine was feeling warm so we went to the first aid office in the Magic Kingdom and she had a small fever. They gave her some Ibuprofen and she perked up after that. I thought it was her teeth causing the fever, I didn't know she was coming down with strep throat. The parade of lights scared Josephine so we took the cranky toddler up to Cinderella's castle and walked around. Once the parade was over the Randolph's came up and Emily and Elizabeth found out that we got to go up into the castle and have dinner. They were so excited. Josephine is too little to know or care, she just wanted to eat. It was almost 9 pm, so everyone was pretty tired. We got to watch the fireworks through the windows at dinner. The fireworks freaked Josephine out so Nathan took her out of the room. Dinner was excellent. We were the last people to leave the restaurant and almost the last people to leave the park. It was nice seeing the park so peaceful and quiet.


Winnie the Pooh was one of her favorite things at the Magic Kingdom.


The Randolph's and Josephine getting ready to go up into Cinderella's Castle for the dinner.


Group picture. It was 10pm, we were all tired.


This is what Josephine thought about staying up so late on Tuesday and at the beginning stages of strep throat. It wasn't pretty.

Josephine riding the carousel for the thousandth time.

I don't remember which day this was. I think it was the second time we went to the Magic Kingdom. All three of us rode in the same car while Josephine drove. It was alot of fun.

Home

We came home on Wednesday. Josephine was feeling okay and her fever was responding well to the Ibuprofen. We had to be out of our room by 12pm but our flight didn't leave until 5:30pm. It wasn't worth going to a park and Josephine wasn't up for doing much, so we hung out in the airport for the afternoon. It didn't go as badly as I expected it to. We had the computer with us so Josephine got to watch her Sign Language movie (I didn't bring any others) for a little while. When we were at the gate there were some other small kids that Josephine played with. There was also a huge window that looked out to some planes, which provided some entertainment. The flight went smoothly and Josephine took a nap. It only took a little over an hour fly-time. Papaw, Granna, and Naomi were at the airport when we got back. Josephine was so tired.

Josephine had a 102.5 fever when she woke up Thursday morning so I took her to the doctor that afternoon. Apparently strep is going around in both kids and adults right now, which is strange especially this time of year. Josephine hates the antibiotics so we have to pin her down and force it into her mouth. Luckily she hasn't learned to keep her lips together when she cries. It doesn't take too long to get it in. Hopefully she'll be better tomorrow. She's still pretty crummy today.

Disney World, Part 3

Here are some photos from Epcot yesterday.

One of the worst family pictures ever. The one taken before this is even worse. We were looking into the sun.

Josephine "in" the shark at the Nemo aquarium.

Josephine at the entrance at Epcot.

This morning we went to the Magic Kingdom again, just the 3 of us. Josephine wanted to ride the horses first (the carousel). We rode the carousel, Dumbo, the teacups, race cars, and the train. We also played in Pooh's Yard for awhile -- it had slides and small fountains.

Josephine and Nathan riding Dumbo. It's really hard to get decent pictures of people on Dumbo.

Josephine coming down the slide. I love this picture!!

Josephine looking out Pooh's window.

New words for this week: Disney World, Epcot, Dumbo, Randolph's, Perfect (from a book), and round (merry-go-round). I think there are more, but I can't think of them now. When we're not at an amusement park, Josephine is still enoying reading her books. She loves one of the books we got at the library on planes. She wants to read it all the time. I think we're going to play miniature golf with the Randolph's later this afternoon and maybe go swimming.