Thanks for your patience everyone. It's been a busy week since I had Monday off. There are three new posts below. And I'll add the photos from our Memorial Day hike in Yellow Springs over the weekend. Enjoy!

Memorial Day Weekend

What's not to love about long weekends? Our Memorial Day was perfect! We joined my sister & Michael at my parents' house on Friday night and got to spend the whole weekend together! It was SO nice just to get to hang out together AND to get the extra help with Josie. (We even got to sleep in!!!)
Here are some of the highlights of our weekend. Starting with Josie's absolute favorite thing - her new swing from Granddaddy that he installed on their newly-remodeled deck (that's one talented Grandaddy you've got there Josie). The "Supercruiser" was definitely a huge hit - as you'll see in the next few photos!
She loved it!

And once she learned how to hang on, she could swing even higher. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
You wouldn't think it could get any better for Josie, until Grandma busted out the baby pool. Josie was in heaven. Check her out!

And, after some splashing around, it was time for warming up in the sunshine. I couldn't resist a quick photo of that precious little tushy.
On to the annual Roundtree bash featuring our very own concert by Granddaddy & the Dwellers. That's Granddaddy on the keys, Kevin on the bass, Pat on the drums, and Bill (is a Jedi) on Aretha his beautiful new guitar.

Scratch that - it's Josephine on the drums. We figured she loves banging on the pots & pans with wooden spoons at home so she was bound to love a real drumset. And we were SOOO right. Looks like we've got a little drummer girl on our hands.
Seriously - both hands at once? Two different drums even? And the cymbals?! This kid is a rockstar in the making.
The party at Chrissy & Kevin's house was great! We got to see longtime friends, spend time with family, eat lots of yummy food, etc. And Josie definitely enjoyed being in the middle of all of the action.
Sunday was another exciting day. After all the fun, Josie was definitely in major need of a bath. Here she is in Grandma's kitchen sink. Does it get any cuter than this??

Then we were off to Debbie & Phillip's house for another cookout. Here's Josie being entertained by her favorite Xenia friends - Kalie and Claire. It's so strange because I totally remember when Claire was Josie's age! Time flies!
Josie got to spend lots of time with Aunt Manda and her growing tummy (check out www.threeaustins.blogspot.com)
All in all, it was a perfect holiday weekend!! Oh - before I go - two more random photos to share because they make me laugh.

The first is Josie's latest funny habit. We removed the bar across her stroller because it was kind of pointless, but there are these little holes where it used to connect. Now whenever she gets in her stroller, she finds the holes, sticks her fingers in them, and rides around like that all day. Too funny!

And lastly, I just had to share Josie's "what ya talkin' about Willis" face. I have no idea what she was looking at, but it's clear that she didn't like it whatever it was.

Motorin'

I thought you all might enjoy this quick video of Josie zooming around in Claire's walker. Her new favorite thing is chasing around the cat, Carissa, and us. Pretty funny stuff. And, I also think this video is hilarious, because she has now mastered waving without being waved to. If you just say "Hi Josie," she stops what she's doing and waves. It was cracking me up in the walker because she couldn't wave and walk at the same time. Enjoy!

Ahh...Mobility

Josephine is definitely enjoying her newly-discovered sense of mobility. And, while we're of course happy for her, our lives have definitely changed. For example, I was sending a quick text message to a friend today and looked down for about 10 seconds. When I looked up, Josie had made her way under my desk and went straight for the wireless router. My goodness! I had to snap one quick photo on my way over there to save the computer. (And I had to take photographic evidence to prove to Louie that we can no longer live in denial about the need to babyproof.) So, if that first photo was "Exhibit A" then this is definitely "Exhibit B." Now that she is crawling more efficiently (I'll get another video soon) - she has a whole new world of shiny, lit-up knobs and buttons to explore.
Enter "Exhibit C" - after pulling some things off of the shelves, she decided it was time to have her way with the cable and desperately wanted to remove it from the wall. (Oh No!)
So, long story short - Josie wants to crawl everywhere & it's finally time to do something about it. Now that she also has fallen in love with Claire's walker, she wants to walk everywhere. The only problem there is that she can't walk on her own yet, but *really* wants to. This means hours of breaking our backs leading a walking Josie around the house with her holding our index finger. She's definitely ON THE MOVE and there's no looking back now! (Help.)

I just added the full set of Josephine's 9 month photo shoot to her Shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com
Now you can place your orders. :)

Um...Make that five

After two toppies popped out the other day, the left center tooth on the top made its appearance over the long weekend. And, her sixth tooth is just below the surface. Cutting four teeth at once has made for some less-than-appealing behavior such as biting her mama, drooling like crazy, and grinding her teeth like a little machine. Poor baby - she is obviously in a ton of pain. Add to this the fact that Sophie the Giraffe (her favorite teether) is M.I.A. and things are not the best for little Josie. I guess the up-side of this is that although she's in agony right now, it will be awhile before another round of teething.

And then there were four (teeth, not Schneiders)

Josie officially has top teeth - two to be exact. The top two "right" poked through this morning and you can see the top two "left" teeth moving down. That means she'll have six little chompers in no time. Crazy!

G.I. Josie

Well, it isn't a prefect crawl, but it's something. The good (or bad) news is that she's now mobile. Check out her "Army Crawl" in this video:

Right now she only crawls if she really wants something, so we knew the phone would do it. Since this "first crawl" on Sunday night, she's discovered the joys of hiding under the bathroom mat, playing "human Swiffer" on the floor, sticking her fingers into the dirt of a potted plant, and repeatedly making her move toward the cat. Life at Chez Schneider is definitely changing quickly as Monday has already been declared "Babyproofing Day." Wish us luck!

(P.S. I just watched this video again & I'm amazed at how much better she has gotten with crawling in just two days. We're definitely in trouble if she keeps improving at this rate.)

I decided a good old fashion "this is what we did this weekend" post was in order. So, here it goes. This is Josie on Friday night - totally sacked out after a long week. Remember how I told you all about "crib gymnastics" - well this is the end result of it: Now, on to the rest of the weekend. Here is little miss Josephine enjoying a delicious meal of pureed beets. (Note: she is naked and sitting on a towel, so what could possibly go wrong? Or so we thought.)
It was about this time that she decided to stick both fists in her mouth. Soon after that she decided to stick her hands in her eye and this is what happened next:
WHAT A MESS!!! Needless to say, we snapped a few photos, headed straight to the bathtub, and promptly threw away the remaining bag of frozen beets. (What were we thinking??!)

On Saturday we finally made it out the Carrie (Schmitt) Harrison's house in Wyoming for a perfect afternoon in the 'burbs. By the end of the day, Louie & I were totally craving our very own porch swing and herb garden. It was SOOO nice to spend the day with Carrie, Skylar, and Blane. Here's Sky playing with Josie.
And the three of our little cuties hanging out in the backyard.
And while Carrie made a delicious dinner, I was entertained by this impromptu concert. (That's Louie on the piano in the background.)

Carrie (who is "Schmittee" to many of you) was such an important part of my life at Miami and I'm unbelievably grateful that she's back in my life now. It's hilarious to think about how much our lives have changed since those days Above Bagel & Deli. It makes me so happy to know that she will always be a part of the story of Josie's life, since I truly believe her support as our doula during Josie's birth was crucial to making it through without medication or medical intervention. I look forward to many more years of watching each other's kids grow. :)

Soul Shakedown Party

We spend a lot of time dancing, singing, and making "music" around our house. I couldn't resist sharing Louie and Josie's "soul shakedown party" the other night. Watch her little feet when she bounces up in the air. Hilarious!

Josie Learns To Wave!!

Oh my goodness - Josie has learned to wave! This morning I was working on the computer & Carissa brought Josie out after her nap. I said "Hi Josie" and waved to her, and this is what happened next! (Excuse the poor video quality, but I had to act quickly before the moment passed.)

And - much to my surprise - this wasn't a total fluke because we've exchanged several waves back & forth since this happened this morning. Wow!

<------- Check out the new slideshow!

Josie's 9 month photos arrived today, and we think photographer friend Sherry Wilson did a fantastic job!!! Check out the cool slideshow of some of our favorite photos at the left & these "sneak previews" below. And don't worry, I'll let you all know when they're available in her Shutterfly collection & I'll be placing my order for wallet-sized photos to share soon. Until then, here's your adorable baby fix:

9 month milestones

First things first...

Happy Nine Months Old Baby Josie!

Happy First Mother's Day Mama Carri!

And now, onto the "9 month milestone" update. It sounds so cliche to say, but it really is totally unbelievable to us that Josephine is already nine months old. But, when we think about the differences between Josie today and Josie on August 11th, it is astonishing that she has learned so much in just nine short months. I think back to that first day when all she really did was sleep and nurse, and now all she wants to do is talk, sing, move, and play!

As of late, she has started many new things. Here are some of the highlights:

• Eating - Although she still loves her pureed fruits & veggies, she has now moved on to feeding herself finger foods. Her new absolute favorite is squares of tofu - which she picks up and fills her mouth full of before swallowing. She's also started to eat a lot of things off of our plates just to get a feel for them and really loved Grandma's biscuits and scrambled eggs this morning. We've also started to introduce her to more complex flavors like vanilla in her pears and cinnamon in her apples. She's a great eater and is now up to three meals plus an afternoon snack each day. Getting her to nurse during the day is a bit like wrestling a greased pig, but she still enjoys a nice, snuggly breastfed meal in the quiet of the dark night.
• Drinking - She's quite proficient with her sippy cup now and loves to drink water, pear juice, and white grape juice. (We have to keep her on juice to keep things moving if you know what I mean.) She also (finally) takes a bottle without protest now. We always laugh because she totally prefers that you hold it for her, but if you just sit it in her lap she will eventually just pick it up and do it herself.
• Moving - Our little bouncer has rediscovered the "jumperoo" but not treats it more like a marathon now than a sprint. She used to jump like crazy for these short bursts & then take those little breaks, but now she gets into this steady rhythm and just goes for like 20-30 minutes at a time. It's hilarious. All the jumping must really be paying off, because she has very strong little legs that she uses to pull up on everything. She's very close to being able to stand on her own and already does so when she has something to hold onto like the couch, chair, your leg, etc. We really won't be the least bit surprised if she skips crawling altogether and goes straight to walking, although she's getting pretty close to being a full-scale crawler. She's pretty good at going backwards and sideways, but hasn't mastered moving forward just yet. In fact, when she wants something in front of her that's out of her reach, she flips herself onto her back, arches her back and inches like a worm across the floor toward it, then flips back over to play with it. Hey - it works for her - and she definitely gets points for creativity. And, speaking of moving, sleep has definitely gotten interesting because she regularly performs "crib gymnastics" by flipping herself all over the place instead of sleeping. We think she's getting up to practice crawling and pulling herself up in the middle of the night. Just in the last couple of days, she's gotten used to the idea of just sleeping on her belly, so we're hoping the late night gymnastics will come to a stop soon.
• Talking - We've got quite the little babbler on our hands. And when she's not babbling, she's letting out her "rockstar yell" that rivals the work of any 80s hairband. I mean she can really squeal and let's it rip when she gets really excited about something. The coolest thing is that we can mimic her & she'll match us. So, if we do a really high-pitch yell, then she'll repeat with a high-pitch yell, then if we make a low tone, she'll make a low tone. It's so funny to have a "conversation" with her like this. And, although we won't count them as first words until she uses them in the right context, she babbles words like mama and dadda when she's busy chatting away. Oh and she also "sings" which is pretty hysterical. Her best performances are when she's trying to put herself to sleep and when she first wakes up in the morning.
• Signing - I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog before, but we've been doing sign language with Josie since she was about 6 months old. The signs we use regularly are milk, eat, drink, cat, mama, and daddy. And I'm excited to report that she definitely understands at least three of them - milk, eat, and cat (that shows you were Louie & I rank on her list, huh?). We know she recognizes these signs because of her responses to them. For example, if I sign "milk" she will dive toward my chest with her mouth wide open, when I sign "cat" she will look for the cat, etc. Now that she is learning these signs we will start to introduce even more of them. It's very cool to be able to communicate with Josie at such a young age.
• Just being Josie - There's no doubt that the best thing about Josie is that her personality is really developing. She constantly smiling and laughs all the time, even when just sitting alone and playing. She's very curious and detail-oriented, and she loves to intently "study" things to learn more about them and how they work. We even had to go buy her "big girl" toys that she could actively manipulate because she was getting bored with things that she just sat and shook. Right now she's way into these wooden balls that she rolls across the floor and knocks together, these buckets that she likes to "fill, then spill" with her toys, "touch and feel" books, etc. It's just amazing that she is developing so quickly. She just soaks in so much from the world around her and is slowly but surely starting to mimic what she sees. Another example of this that just started last week is the fact that she now gives "kisses" when you pick her up. (You'll know if you've just been kissed if you realize you have a puddle of baby drool on your cheek, since she's got the "I stick my mouth on their face" part down but not the "I use my lips and not my whole mouth" part.)

There is NO way that I would wish for Josie's little life to fly by any faster, but it's just so cool to watch her grow up in front of our eyes. Today, on this, my first mother's day, I am just eternally grateful for every cell of Josephine. She is perfect in every way and I am just so fortunate to be her mother. With that, it's not yet 9:30 and I'm going to turn in early tonight. Good night.

And, just to tempt you... Josie's 9 month photo shoot taken last week by a pro at Ault Park are coming soon! :)

Another week flies by

Over the weekend, our little girl will hit the 9 month mark. To mark the event, I'm planning on a full update of Josie's recent developmental milestones. But, just to kick things off, I thought I'd share some of the new "leaps" she's made just this week.
For starters, Josie has started to play "with intention" - she has begun to do things on purpose to get a reaction out of us. For example, here she is deeply involved in a game of "peekaboo" with Carissa. She kept putting the bucket over her head and then peeking out the side of it and smiling/giggling while we yelled "peekaboo" and "there's Josie."
Needless to say, this game went on for some time, but we just played along for awhile before I got the camera out. Next time I'll try to get a video.
Last weekend we went to Grandma & Grandpa Schneider's house for a visit. Since Josie is into everything now, we thought she might enjoy a ride on Grandpa's new classic bike. I think we're in trouble, b/c she really enjoyed "riding" it. Check out our little Biker Babe:

And, who says tractors are just for boys?! While we were hanging out in Grandpa's garage, I thought Josie might enjoy sitting in the big tractor seat - little did I know she's be ready to take it for a drive. Look at her trying to turn that big wheel!
In other news, Josie is starting to eat more "grown-up" food. We moved her to Stage 3 jars for dinner (but she's still eating homemade baby food for breakfast & lunch) and we started an afternoon snack. Here she is at the zoo having her first round with yogurt. In typical Josie fashion, her face clearly says it all. (Actually, once she got used to it, she really liked it. This is the first cold thing she's ever eaten, so I think that freaked her out a bit.)
Yogurt is now a favorite & she *loves* it with fresh strawberries and/or pears. And, she's also feeding herself finger foods now. Her favorite thing in the world is the "Baby Mum-Mum" Cracker broken up into little pieces. Apparently they're a hit with babies across the tri-state because Whole Foods can't keep them on the shelves. Lucky for us, Amazon never lets us down & we are now the proud owners of 12 boxes of Mum-Mums (or enough to last us through Josie's adolescence.)
More on Josie's progress & growth over the weekend, but for now I'll leave you with a video that demonstrates how curious she is. (Oh - sidebar - we had her photos taken at Ault Park on Tuesday night & the poor photographer had the hardest time getting her to look into the camera because all she wanted to do was to carefully study the grass, flowers, rocks, leaves, etc.)

Anyway, you've heard me say it before - Josie cracks us up! And, this is the perfect example. I left the phone on the ground after sitting and playing with her, then returned to work on my computer. I heard the phone buttons being pushed, and I look over to find Josie making her first call (and we think she was calling Grandma & Granddaddy that she hasn't seen in awhile). Here she is making her first (of I'm sure many) phone calls. Enjoy!

Last San Fran Post

Okay, I promise that after this post, I will start living in the present & realize that I'm back in Ohio and no longer in California. But, I wanted to let you all know that the full SF album is now up in Josie's Shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com and to also share this "bonus video." Actually when I uploaded the "dipping tiny feet in the surf" video below, I posted the wrong one - not that the one I posted isn't good, but this is the one I was referencing when I mentioned the sundrenched moment frozen in time. So, without further ado, here it is:

Okay - back to reality.

Zen Moments

The week since we've been home has been pretty hectic, so I apologize for not getting these videos up sooner. Not much to report from this week back in Cincy, so we're still reliving the SanFran trip. Here are two beach videos that I thought I'd share. For those of you familiar with The Daily Show, I think these could easily be introduced with Jon Stewart's well-known phrase "Here it is...Your Moment of Zen." It's just something about that glistening sunshine that really does perfectly freeze this sweet moment in time.

And this video of Josie playing in the sand is similarly tranquil. You've probably heard me say it before, but we just adore those moments when Josie is clearly learning something new about the world. This was definitely the case with the sand - she was in awe of it. See for yourself:

And, last but not least, here is Josie's first carousel ride. Several people have commented lately on just how expressive Josie is. The looks on her face always speak volumes. We're pretty sure we know what she was thinking during this first ride; what do you think?

Okay, gotta get to work during J's naptime. (Which, for the record, she's passed out in nothing but a diaper. I tried for about an hour to get her down for her 2nd nap, but she kept resisting. I finally gave up and stripped her down to change her clothes so we could go on a walk, and once she was naked she completely passed out. Hmmm - maybe we'll try "bedtime in the buff" tonight.)

Josie's April Album has been uploaded to her Shutterfly collection at www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com The SanFran photos will go into a separate Shutterfly album that I will create this weekend. Enjoy!