Photos from new camera

We've been having lots of fun with the new camera, and it definitely takes better photos. It also takes photos more quickly so we can capture those fleeting moments on film - like Josephine in her Phish hat looking completely shocked:
And me doing my best impression of "Josie pose" (she definitely has the widest smile you've ever seen):
And Louie going in for a kiss during his nightly dance with Josie (this time it was to her new favorite thing to watch on tv - the Flaming Lips Halloween concert on DVD):
And, as promised, here's a good one of that sweet little face and those darling baby blues. Really, could she be any more precious?
Lots more photos to come of course. Practice your "ahhhhs." :)

Chillin in her crib - or not

I'm not sure what prompted the change (trust me it was nothing we did), but Josie has totally taken to her crib and has put herself on a pretty predictable nap and bedtime schedule. Wait - scratch that - I wrote that first sentence about an hour ago. Since then, I've been battling getting Josie to take her nap. She's totally eye-rubbing exhausted & simply will not give into sleep. So, chalk this up as another example of "once I think I've got it all figured out, what works totally changes." That said, Josie has slept in her crib the whole night for the last two nights. She wakes up a few times, but settles back down pretty easily with her Nuk and a warm, loving hand on her tummy. Last night she went 8 hours between feedings, which was pretty good. The night before it was only 6. We'll see how it goes again tonight. She definitely likes having more room in the crib. She totally stretches her arms and legs out as wide as she can (just like she does in the bed with Louie and I). With that I've gotta go. I thought the swing would work to get her to sleep, but it clearly isn't. Maybe she's still hungry?! Time for nap time trouble-shooting. Wish us luck.

Josie's First Christmas & So Much More

Okay, before I even launch into the full report of Josephine's first Christmas, let me begin by sharing much bigger news. It is about 10pm on Friday night. Lou is playing a spirited round of Wii tennis; I'm finally getting around to updating the blog; and our tiny little girl is sound asleep in her crib!! That's right - our baby girl has moved up to her big girl bed! And it happened totally by accident. Truth is, we've been dreading the move to the crib for lots of reasons. (I'll admit we were mostly dreading it due to the simple fact that we love Josie so much and absolutely adore having her in our room with us. Really, we'll just miss her.) Anyway, we knew the time to switch her to her bed had to come soon if for no other reason than the fact that she has totally outgrown our co-sleeper & we would need to upgrade to a King-sized bed to keep her in there with us. Well, last night at around 8pm we got her into her pajamas, fed her & I put her down into a crib to read her a story. Wouldn't you know - the little darling started getting all droopy eyed and drifted off to sleep! I turned on her new "Sleep Sheep" (thanks Aunt & Uncle M&M) and that was all there was to it. We turned on the monitor and came out to the living room in a complete state of disbelief. She did wake up a few times, but I just walked back and put my hand on her belly and she went right back to sleep. At around 11:30, we decided to go ahead and move her into our room because we didn't have the humidifier or space heater in her room yet. So tonight we decided we're going to go for the whole night. We started our new bedtime routine of getting into pjs, nursing, and reading a story. It worked again! Straight to sleep in less than 5 minutes! We'll see how the rest of the night goes. I promise to issue a full report. Now, on to Christmas! :)

Clearly little miss Josephine is her mother's daughter because she simply loves getting presents! And it's a good thing because she was quite spoiled by everyone this year. (Let me start by sincerely thanking everyone for going to the extra trouble of getting Josie the safer wooden, fabric, and non-toxic toys that we requested. We know it is more time consuming and costly, but we really deeply appreciate the effort.) Here's Josie with one of her new friends that we've named "Squeakers." She hugged him right away. She even tasted this new cuddly to make sure it met her approval. As it turns out, this is her new favorite toy for sure! (Try clicking on the photo to see it larger.)
This Christmas was also the time for starting new family traditions. Here we are looking at the book "Polar Express" that Lou & I bought for Josie. We're going to start reading it together every Christmas Eve.
Obviously the holidays are also about spending time with family. Josie really enjoyed getting to hang out with her Grandparents and Aunt & Uncle. And we really enjoyed having a couple extra pairs of hands to help out. :)
Here is the obligatory family Christmas photo which Josie apparently thought was pretty funny. And here's Lou & I relaxing in the hot tub. Okay, so relaxing is a bit of a stretch. We were too curious about what the baby was doing to totally relax. After all, it was the first night we were there and it always takes a little while to realize that the baby will survive if we're out of the room.

In fact, one of the great things about spending time in Xenia is that there is no shortage of love for Josie to spread around. We feel so fortunate that she has so many people that love and care about her. Even Claire - who was Josie's size not too long ago - loves her "Juicy." Here she is giving Josie her Nuk. Too cute!

Overall it was a wonderful Christmas. It had all the necessary elements - family, friends, food, giving, receiving, reminiscing (did I mention we spent 5 hours on Christmas day watching old home movies?), resting, relaxing, and all things merry and bright. Everyone was right, sharing all of these things with our baby girl definitely made it all even more special.

There are *lots* more photos of Josie's first Christmas on her Shutterfly collection at http://www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com/. They are the combined photos from my mom, sister & me. There are a lot of them, but I of course think they're worth sifting through because there are some real gems that I wasn't able to include here. So if you have some time on your hands, check them out.

I should also probably mention the other exciting news. My Christmas present from Louie was a digital body for my 35mm camera. This means better quality photos for the blog so expect even more of that sweet little face in the new year.

Hope everyone's holidays were as happy as ours.

Our little giggle box! :)

Hooray! Josie finally discovered her feet (there's a reason why this yoga pose is called "happy baby"). She's been batting at them for weeks, but now she's perfected her technique. It's only a matter of days until the wind up in her mouth, so we're trying to keep them squeaky clean.

The things that Josie finds hysterical never cease to amaze us. We'll just say something and she'll burst into laughter. I'm not sure if she found the words "Cute Patootie" hilarious or the fact that I would actually utter those words in the first place (I've never been a fan of the phrase & would probably deny ever saying it if it wasn't captured on film). Anyway, I finally got one of Josie's giggle fits on film, so here it is for your enjoyment. I honestly don't think there is a sweeter sound in the world than the laughter of a child, especially your own. ENJOY!

Two big "firsts"

Ho! Ho! Ho! Here's JOSIE'S FIRST PHOTO WITH SANTA:

She didn't know quite what to think of Mr. Claus, but at least she didn't cry. She was more into the twinkling lights than anything. Plus I think that the oxygen supply to her brain may have been cut off by the tights we squeezed her into. That said, she did a great job & we're happy to have our first of many Santa photos for the scrapbook.

In much more downer news, Josie is now experiencing another "first" - her first cold. Poor little thing, she is sick as can be - complete with fever, stuffy news, watery eyes, and general ickyness. She didn't go to sleep until almost 1am last night. We knew she definitely felt awful when she wouldn't even fall asleep in bed between us. After she finally got to sleep, she slept through the night. I finally just got her down for a nap, but the only thing that would work was swaddling her (glad to have that in my toolbelt). So, hopefully she will feel better soon. A sick little baby is one of the saddest things in the whole world. I'll be sure to give her healing kisses on her forehead from all of you.

Photo Shoot Uploaded

Hello all, I have just uploaded 75 of the 250 photos from Josephine's Three Month Photo Shoot to her Shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com - check them out, ooh & ahh, order an 8 X 10 for your fridge, you get the idea. Enjoy!

Good times

It takes a lot of partying to get this passed out (I love how one leg is out; Look closely to see the Nuk tucked away under her left arm) - The older Josie gets; the more fun we're all having. And all our antics definitely wear her out. Now that she's a sturdy little lady, we can engage in crowd-pleasers like "Daddy's Silly Socks" (Lou was wiggling his toes & singing a little song and she was cracking up) -
Other favorites include, "Daddy Belly Ride" -
And of course "Super Baby" never disappoints -
With all the fun we have with Josie, you'd think we would never leave the house (okay, so we rarely do), but the annual Kohnen & Patton Christmas Party got us out of our "comfy clothes" and into adult attire. (I had to resist the urge to wear a burp cloth on my shoulder. And it just felt too strange to carry a cocktail purse instead of a diaper bag.) So, here we are all gussied up -
Another week has passed & Josie continues to change more every day. It's certainly a busy time of year, but we're trying to enjoy every minute of it. We still don't have a Christmas tree (maybe one day without rain would change that) and of course we aren't finished shopping yet. We do have a whole list of things that we want to get Josie for her first Christmas (again, it's okay to do at least half of the things you swore you would never do as a parent). Really, we're just stuck on the fact that it's mid-December and Josie is already four months old. We even moved the co-sleeper away from our bed today, so Josie will have her first night on the other side of the room (which will probably be worse for us than her as evidenced by the fact that we both cried as we detached it & Josie didn't bat an eye). With that, it's pushing 9pm & the little lady needs nursed down to sleep. She just watched the 49ers score against the Bengals and decided it wasn't worth staying up any later to watch football.

Oh - our Christmas cards went out yesterday. :)

Poor Baby

Josephine's 4 month doctor's appointment did not go so well today. The doctor, through no real fault of his own, wanted to look in her ears & she was simply not in the mood. So, he had to "force" her head from side to side & she did not appreciate it one bit. She let out quite an ear-shattering squeal followed by the longest, loudest crying fit that we have ever seen - great big tears running down her cheeks and all. Unfortunately, she was totally inconsolable, and this was before she even got her vaccinations. After the shot & oral vaccine, she was beyond upset. We couldn't even get her dressed. I pulled my shirt up & nursed her for a while, but she was so upset that she couldn't even calm herself down enough to suck. We ended up just wrapping her in a blanket & taking her out the car. Once we got her in the car, I finished feeding her and singing along with the Elizabeth Mitchell cd seemed to do the trick. We finally got her calmed down enough to get her in the carseat (still not dressed) and she fell asleep about half of the way home. Today has been filled with nice long naps & bouts of big tears. She just feels icky (last night's "up every 2 hours" schedule didn't help either since none of us got good sleep). So, I'm already dreading the next appointment because today was beyond miserable. The doctor really did feel bad, and Louie & I have never felt worse (the look in her eyes definitely said "why are you letting these people hurt me?").

In better news, Josephine is growing like a champ. Her four month stats -
Weight - 16 pounds, 3 ounces (95%)
Height - 26 inches (95%)
She's still perfectly proportioned (the right weight for her height), which is what the doctor says matters more than height and weight alone.
And, although there isn't a scientific test to determine it, we're all convinced she is also the cutest, sweetest, most adorable little girl in the world.

Oh - I should also mention that the doc said "no go" on cereal before 6 months. He had lots of reasons (including the fact that giving rice cereal to babies to make them sleep longer is as outdated as telling people to smoke as a way to lose weight), but the most compelling reason to wait is that babies who get cereal before 6 months have much higher incidences of asthma, diabetes & skin conditions like dermatitis and eczema. So - okay - we'll wait.

Okay - baby girl needs me. Gotta run!

More Photos

HAPPY FOUR MONTHS JOSEPHINE!

Since I don't have any photos from the weekend to share, I thought I'd "leak" a couple more of Josie's holiday photos. We'll have the Christmas cards out by the end of the week & then I'll add the rest of the photos to Shutterfly.

Another full weekend

Today is Tuesday, and I feel like I'm just now back on track after a busy weekend. Friday was the typical "catch-up" night (laundry mostly). We always swear that we're going to watch a movie, but are always too tired. (Ever wonder how Netflix makes money? It's because of people like us. We once had the same movie for over four months.) Saturday we headed to UC's graduation (I had 11 of my online students graduate) & then on to Xenia to celebrate Phillip's birthday and Kevin's birthday. First on the bill was the surprise party for Phillip at Mom & Dad's. We tried to resist the full spread of party food to save room for our "adult dinner" at PF Changs for Kevin's birthday. (Lou was not as successful as I was. He fell prey to a tray of "pigs in a blanket" & barely had room for the yummy Chinese fare.) Dinner was perfect. Good food, great friends, what more could you ask for? To be honest, I asked for one drink too many. (I should've stopped at one, because my tolerance is non-existent.) After dinner and a spirited ride back to Xenia, we picked up a very happy baby Josie (snuggling in her Grandma's arms) and decided to head over to Chrissy & Kevin's for a couple of rounds of Guitar Hero & Rockband. Needless to say, a couple of rounds turned into a couple of hours. Warning: this is where Lou & I turn into bad parents. Long story short, we finally got back to Cincinnati at 2:30am. Yikes! It was a rough night (to say the least) but we learned our lesson. Thank goodness Josie felt like staying in bed until 3pm on Sunday as well, because I was so dehydrated from the alcohol, then pumping & dumping, that I wasn't going anywhere. Now that we've all fully recovered, it was all worth it (but I wouldn't have said that yesterday). Live & learn I suppose. :)

One year ago this week...

This week in Josie history/from my online pregnancy journal that I started last November...

12/5/2006 : We're PREGNANT! This morning we took two more HPTs. I took one and had Lou read it and then took another to confirm it after he went to work (and then took about 20 photos of the results to show him later). Then we had our appt with Dr. Firestein (for my follow-up PAP) at 11am. I told the nurse I thought I was pregnant & she confirmed it within a minute. Scott rushed in to congratulate us again & to ease our worries. We are SO excited. He set my due date to August 10th, 2007. And says I am 4 weeks & 5 days pregnant today! I'm going in for my first ultrasound on the Dec. 19th, because Scott knew it would make us feel better. I am elated!!!!!

Random Thoughts

Even though I'm quickly approaching four months of motherhood, it's painfully clear sometimes that I still have no idea what I'm doing. At least that's how most of this week has felt. My "parental confidence" was so low on Tuesday that I just about skipped my weekly hypno-mamas group, because I was almost embarrassed to admit how much trouble I was having. Thank goodness I sucked it up & went because I found out that every single one of them is also going through the same thing. Lou did an internet search & found it's a documented thing - "four month regression" - when babies sort of revert back to the chaos that was the first couple of weeks of their lives. Call it what you will; it's been quite a challenge - up every couple of hours again at night, refusing to nap during the day, general fussiness, etc. It's just been one heck of week. Add to this the fact that I am desperately trying to get Josie into a routine so that I can start back to work after the holidays, and I'll admit I was ready to trade Josie for four kittens and a plasma tv to Grandma Schneider afterall - what an offer - :) ! In all the madness, I've just tried to remain calm and grateful and remember how lucky we are to have Josie (even wide-awake at 3am Josie) in our lives. Here are some photos from this wacko week.

Venus has decided that the crib is so comfortable that the Boppy must be, too. Here she is completely stretched out in one Josie's favorite spots. (I should also mention that my Boppy cover got recalled due to lead paint on the massive zipper that goes across the whole back of the thing. Unbelievable!)
Here's a photo of our little Penguin. Lou got bored when I was talking to my mom on the phone the other night & decided to play dress-up with Josie by revisiting the Halloween outfit. She was much happier in it this time. Isn't she cute?
And here is what happens when it's going on 4pm & you haven't taken a nap because you just want to party like a rockstar all day. Eventually you can't take it anymore & pass out head first into your toys. Too funny!
Speaking of sleep, Josie just woke up from a much-needed (but short) nap. We went this morning to tour the day care center that is around the corner from our house (one of only two in the city) & that threw off Josie's schedule a little bit. More on the day care thing later. Gotta go rescue the little one from her Pack & Play.

Whoa baby!

Three words - "Four Month Regression"!
This is all I have time for right now, gotta go tend to a very tired baby who refuses to sleep.

More Milestones

Here's the video I mentioned the other day. It's actually pretty boring unless you're Josie. For her, these were pretty dramatic moments. For over 3 months she just laid underneath these things dangling in her face & then one day discovered that she could reach out and touch them. In her excitement, she started throwing her legs over to the side to do what is obviously the beginning of rolling herself from her back to her front. We're amazed at how she's able to get around with this new move. She just goes a couple of inches at a time, but before you know it she has completely moved herself 180 degree (sort of like the hands of a clock). Here's the link to the video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7688476232363136228&hl=en

Also, I added the photos from the end of the month to the Shutterfly collection.

Holiday Cheer

Parents have always said to me that the holidays take on such greater significance when you see them through a child's eyes. Although Josie is still too young to know one day from the next, I'm already sensing that there is a degree of truth to that. Last night we took Josie around the corner to Fountain Square to see the first weekly performance of Santa rappelling off of the Great American Building. She couldn't have cared any less about that, but she thought the fireworks were pretty cool. (The photo above is our little bundle all wrapped up in her stroller with the ice skating rink behind her.) It just made me feel all warm & mushy to have our daughter on the Square amid all the holiday lights, music, etc. So, I have no doubt that going to the tree farm to pick out Josie's first Christmas tree next weekend will be just as special. Typically, I'm already annoyed by all the Christmas kitsch by the second day of December, but it's definitely different this year. To prove that, see the link below. (Thanks to Schmittee for passing this on. It's totally disturbing, but makes me crack up for some unknown reason.)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1132750009

Perhaps it was all of the excitement with the fireworks & daredevil Santa that got Josie's party started last night. Regardless of what started it, the party didn't end until about 7am. Maybe we jinxed ourselves when we celebrated that she went right to bed at 10am (no Nuk, no swaddle, no nothin'), but she woke up at midnight (starving), then again at 1:30 (starving), then again at 3:30 (starving), then again at 5 and stayed up as wide awake as can be until 7am. Her longest stretch was from 7-10am which we very much appreciated, but wouldn't have complained if she slept until at least noon. What a night!!! Oddly enough, she has only taken one 1/2 hour nap today. We don't know what the heck is going on, but hopefully it won't happen again anytime soon. If it's another growth spurt, we may need to go ahead and contact Tyra Banks, because there's a good chance she'll be at least 6 feet tall & ready for the 200th season of "America's Next Top Model" by 2025.

So, it's December. Josie's 4 month birthday is right around the corner. I have an official "back to work" start date of January 7th. It's hard to believe that I carried Josie home wearing a tank top and flip flops & we can't leave the house now without at least 3 layers. Time really does move all too quickly.