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!