Another week in paradise...

Let me start with your daily dose of cute Josie photos - courtesy of her personal stylist - um, I mean nanny.
I can always trust that Josie will return from her morning nap looking adorable and ready to take on the day! (Thanks Carissa.)Okay - now on to our week - and back to the praises of living in the city. This week's reason: the free public wading pool on the riverfront. Seriously, we take places like this for granted, but we are truly fortunate to have this just a couple of blocks from the house. Technically it's the Concourse Fountain at Sawyer Point - but stick a couple of lifeguard with whistles on the edges and voila - free pool! (It's actually been a "pool" for decades, but I still have to believe that it was a fountain first & they got tired of trying to keep people away so finally just gave in.) The beauty of this "world's largest baby pool" is that it's only 9 inches deep all the way around. And since it's a fountain by design, there are big waterfalls all along the back wall and several other cool splashy bits. Here we are posing after our pooltime fun.
Josie was BEAT because she spent about an hour doing this -
Baby Water Aerobics! You know how hard it is to walk through water? Well, this little one had the time of her life doing big laps all around the pool. I'm SO glad she loves the water! Now that we've discovered this little gem, we will definitely have to make it down to the Fountain-Pool again soon!

Okay, I couldn't leave you without a new blog post all week and then not cap it off with a couple of videos.

I think the first one is pretty funny because it's "so Josie." After spending a small fortune at Babies R Us the other day (come on - I hadn't been there since Josie was one month old), I found these cool "snack trap" cups that bill themselves as perfect for kids because they can eat a snack on their own without spilling. I was so excited that I opened it in the car (we had a long drive from KY to Kenwood ahead) and filled it full of cheerios. I couldn't wait to see if it really was the miracle product I hoped. And, for about 30 seconds, it was. Josie got one or two cheerios out at a time & smiled ear to ear. And then this happened - clever little thing isn't she?

And - I thought you'd like to "kick it old school" with us for a trip down memory lane. Josie hasn't "jumperoo'd" in a while, but we decided to raise it to the highest level and give it a whirl. We figured she'd be sort of over it by now - boy were we wrong. ENJOY!

Won't you ride in my little red wagon...

Josie loves her "little red wagon" and thankfully we have enough floorspace that she can ride around in it all afternoon without having to worry about sunscreen. This video absolutely cracks me up - 1) because it's like a "condo safari" as she points to things of interest and 2) she does this little "happy dance" at the end that I guarantee you will watch more than once. ENJOY!


Here are a few more wagon photos, because I couldn't resist. Something about her "pumpkin" shirt and the Radio Flyer is very "fall festival" but I love it... (Can't you just smell the apple cider?)And leave it to Josie to kick it up a notch. Just when we thought watching her ride around the house was as funny as it could get, she decided to completely lay back and relax...
Do you think she's comfortable?
And today added her sippy cup to the mix...
So, I'm sure there are many more wagon photos to come over the years. We've yet to take her outside in it, but that promises to be quite an adventure. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a few photos of her looking adorable around the house...
Check out the great tshirt I scored at Walgreens of all places -
Is there any chance I will ever be able to say "no" to those big blue eyes?
Okay, gotta get back to work but there's lots more to come tomorrow. Have a great week everybody!

Happy First Birthday Hypnobabies!

Last weekend, the Spring 2007 Hypnobirthing Graduating Class (also known as my weekly "mama group") got together to celebrate all of our babies turning one! I know you guys hear me talking about these folks a lot so across the top are Krista/Ben/Milo, Angela/Pat/Andrew, Louie/Me/Josie & the bottom row is Chris/Liz/Maya and John/Alison/Ryan. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it, so there are some very important people missing out of the photo but we're going to try again soon to get everyone together.
The party was great! We reserved the new Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center - which was ideal. Here's our perfect cake:
We even had a gift exchange where the babies got to go to the center of the room and pick their own gifts. This was kind of a cool moment because Josie was opening her very first birthday present. She *loves* her new wooden elephant pull toy and pop-up book (thanks Milo)! And - the babies even had their very own cupcakes. Although, I'm surprised to report that Josie wasn't that into it. We got a quick photo but then she went on to playing. We'll try again at her first birthday party.
You all know Josie loves being around other babies and children, so she spent most of the evening looking in wonder at her surroundings. Here she is looking up at some balloons. (She SO has her daddy's eyes!)And, I must say, even though the party had lots to offer - these chairs were Josie's favorite. She spent the better part of the evening pushing these things around the center.
See what I mean?
She & Milo even played "bumper cars" for quite awhile. It was too cute. And no one even got hurt.And of course I had to capture this on video. This just further proves that babies don't need toys - they're able to turn anything into a good time. Go Josie Go!

Overall, the party was great. It was a little bittersweet for me knowing that the first year is drawing to a close. It's so strange that we were all chasing toddlers around the room and talking about weaning when it wasn't long ago that we were sitting at the Blue Manatee with tiny swaddled little munchkins learning from each other about breastfeeding. I feel so blessed to have such a strong circle of support & I can't say enough about how much these women mean to me. Plus - it's really cool that Josie is growing up alongside so many fun little friends.

More fun around the house

You've heard it before, but I'll say it again. Josie keeps us smiling. Here are a few things to illustrate that. For example, what's not to love about the new hair style that Carissa created? I had no idea that J's hair was long enough for little piggy tails, but was even more surprised that she tolerated getting them in as well as she did. (Another bit of evidence that Carissa has a gift. For a very long time, she was the only one who could trim Josie's nails. And to this day she is the only one who can say, "lay down Josie" and have Josie just go to sleep on her shoulder.) Check out these little piggies. Something about it makes her look like such a big girl (wait - she is such a big girl):
And, I had to share a couple of funny moments. This one, in particular, cracks me up. I guess it also impresses me because for a long time, Josephine just played with shoes. But, something clicked yesterday and she thought "Oh, these go on feet...Let me try."

This went on for quite awhile, so I had to get a video. I actually had a longer one where she successfully gets the flipflop on one foot & then proudly and with sheer determination, goes for the second, but it's too large to upload. You get the idea with this one...
Here's another one to make you smile. Persistence is definitely Josie's strong suit. I am not exaggerating when I say she did this about 100 times. I finally decided to film it. But, as you can see at the end, she was getting so winded that I had to force her to take a break. We'll call this video "The (little) bear went over the mountain (again and again and again)."

I'll end with two little bits of fun news:

1) Louie & I wanted to get Josie a "Radio Flyer" wagon for her first birthday and actually ended up finding a totally old school "Town and Country"- completely wooden with the rubber wheels and all from this 90 year old woman who listed it on Craigslist for $50! (She was so cute! She told us that she had no idea how to use the internet or a digital camera, but that she asked God to teach her how to use them & he showed her the way. I love that Josie's "little red wagon" comes with such a sweet story - other than we went down to Walmart and bought one).

2) Louie & I decided to "play hooky" yesterday and go to the 12:30 Red's game. It was a beautiful day, we saw a couple of home runs & Dunn hit a Grand Slam. The Reds won by a mile, and the funniest thing was that Louie & I were on the jumbotron "kiss cam." SOO funny! When we got home, some people from our building called and said they were so excited because they never had seen anyone they knew on the big screen. Thank goodness Louie's office knew where he was, because he definitely would've been busted! You can see the photo they took of us as we entered at this link: Reds FanFoto.

A weekend with friends

On Friday night, we got to spend another perfect evening with the Schmiit-Harrison family. After singing the praises of city living in a recent post, let me add the suburbs definitely have something to add to the summer - like front porch swings, slip-and-slides in the backyard, a shaded walk to the market to pick up some eggs, bike riding, stopping to play fetch with a neighborhood dog, chicken on the grill, homemade pesto from the herb garden (with a borrowed food processor from the kindly senior citizen next door who sells plants and flowers from his yard), and so forth. Here are Skylar, Josie & I on the swing. And here is Josie being entertained by Sky. Josie adores her! :) She was also quite impressed by Blane's stunts on the couch.
Thanks so much to Carrie & Bob for a delicious summertime meal. Josie loved the strawberries and chicken. But, her favorite of all was her first ear of corn. (Thanks to Ciara as well for recommending this as a potential favorite.) Could she be any happier?
She was having so much fun with it that I thought a video was definitely in order. Enjoy!

Ode to Louie...

...Because he spins her around to Hepcat's "Dance with me baby" until she rubs her little eyes. Then, without missing a beat, he continues dancing her through the kitchen, down the hall, and into her bedroom until she is asleep on his shoulder & placed gently to bed for what has already been an hour long nap...

An afternoon of exploration

I consider myself VERY fortunate that I have been able to strike such a good balance between working and mothering. Sure this means that we have to make some sacrifices financially, but only working part time allows me to get to spend every afternoon with Josephine. Each day at 3pm, Carissa leaves & it's playtime for Josie and I. Since it's been brutally hot & humid this past week, we've spent more time indoors that I prefer, but these lazy afternoons in the air conditioning have yielded some surprising results. Josie has gotten increasingly curious about her environment & actually figured out a few new things as I just sat and encouraged her to explore. As I've said before, it's just so amazing to watch her little brain work as she learns new things. Here are a few photos from our afternoon playtimes this week. Before I get into the "learning" photos - here are just a couple of cute ones: This is her "I'm getting some more teeth Mama" pose:We'll call this series "Oh - you're taking my picture? I think I'd like to taste that camera": "I'm almost there, just another inch or two and I can take a big bite..."
"I'm licking my lips just thinking about getting that leather strap in my mouth...":
Actually, sticking her tongue out seems to be the new thing. It may have something to do with all the new teeth coming in or perhaps all the new sounds she is making lately.
So, one of the lessons this week was learning that she can "walk the walker." It just occurred to her one afternoon that it was just as fun to push around the house as it was to ride. She walked this thing all over the condo. Here she is pausing to read the warning label when she got stuck by the elevator. I've actually never read the warning label myself, but I'm pretty sure there's something there about not letting your 11 month old push the thing around at warp speed across bamboo floors, but what can I say? We live on the edge.

See, Josie has taken her safety into her own hands. She designed her own "crash helmet" out of a Rubbermaid container.
Okay, on to what we call "Naked Dinner." After the famed incident with the beets, we learned our lesson. Some meals require nothing but a diaper. One of them - blueberries. So, the other night we stripped her down with the intent of a first course of blueberries followed by a pasta dinner (also a huge mess). But, she got so into the blueberries that she never made it to the pasta. I'm not kidding, save a few at the bottom, she ate the whole container! Here she is just getting started:
And here she is approaching the end. There were lots and lots of photos in between these two, so I think her expression is equal parts "OMG, I'm going to burst if I eat one more berry" and "What's the big deal lady? I'm just eating. Put down the stinkin' camera!"
Here are some of the photos of Josie learning new things. The big leap this week involved spatial understanding. She mastered the concepts of Under, Over, In, and Out. Here she is putting things under the chair and then returning to get them. She would go back and forth between "hiding" things under the sofa, ottoman, and chair and then go back to retrieve them (always so proud when she found them again). And here is a video of her new favorite game in the entire world. We call it "In & Out" but "Fill & Spill" would be just as appropriate. I'm not kidding, if I kept track of the cumulative time each day that she spent putting things in and out of either this container or one of her buckets, it would definitely be measured in hours not minutes.

Okay, that's all for now. I have a bunch more photos on my other camera from a VERY fun & exciting event from Saturday. (How's that for a teaser?) I will try to get those up mid-week.

A weekend in the "Second City"

First, a photo from Chicago in November...Over the weekend, we went to Chicago for what will be the last visit before they become "Three Austins" instead of Two. My how things change in just 8 months... As you can see in the photo above, things were quite different in November. The Austins had an office instead of a nursery, Manda wore jeans without elastic, and Josephine was just an adorable (albeit drooling) little meatball.

Fast forward to July... Josie did great on the car trip to Chi-town (thanks to trusty friend Elizabeth Mitchell & our White Noise CD), but when we arrived (about 10pm) she was ready to party! Here she is "winding down" with Aunt Manda in the chair from heaven (more on that later) - Here she is saying "Hey Auntie-M, Hop-on-Pop is the craziest story I've ever heard!"
And here she is finally giving in to the gentle rocking motion of the chair from heaven (which we will be purchasing a replica of in the very near future) -
After a bit of a crazy night, the three of us slept in, then we had a delicious homecooked breakfast (Thanks Michael) and Josie spent the better part of the day cruising around Chez Austin in her walker, munching happily on whatever we put in the tray. Her grandma would be very proud to know that the only time she really stopped was when a football highlights reel set to "The Nutcracker" played on the flatscreen. She was absolutely mesmerized!

After getting ourselves in gear, we all headed out in the Murano for some fun baby shopping at some cute boutiques (in I think Bucktown or maybe Wicker Park) and then hung out in this great park where Josie enjoyed the swings and watching the other kids:

And loved walking around like a big girl:
The next day was more of the same - good times hanging out day-dreaming about Baby Austin & chatting about how quickly Josie has grown. Here is Josie in her favorite naptime pose with one of Baby A's new toys:

And here she is at Silver Cloud (where we also got to catch up with Phil & Palak) occupying herself with the TV over Manda's shoulder instead of posing for the camera.
After another busy day capped off with some delicious gelato (and you'll just have to trust me that Josie made the funniest face she has ever made in her life when she tasted it), it was time to head home. Here is Josie passed out in her carseat. It's a little blurry because I took it in the mirror. Consider this the evidence that a good time was had by all:
Thanks Manda & Michael for being such great hosts! We can't wait to spend lots more family time together & can't wait to watch you push Baby Austin on the swing one day soon....

(Note: Check out www.threeaustins.blogspot.com for the post Manda will have up soon with some more photos of the weekend.)

There she goes

As you know, I've been trying to get a video uploaded of Josephine pushing her Alligator Toy for weeks now. I've had so much trouble, so I finally just shot this one quickly a few minutes ago so you could get the idea. Enjoy!

HOORAY...JOSEPHINE IS 11 MONTHS OLD TODAY!

Summer in the City

Living downtown, we spend a lot of time on Fountain Square. There's always something going on - rather that be live music, the farmer's market, a game being broadcast on the Jumbotron, etc. We usually walk over there a couple of nights each week. Josie has loved watching the fountain since she was a wee little one & the other night was one of those moments when I realized just how much she has grown. She used to just sit in her stroller and stare at the water. Now, she laughs at the pigeons, points at the horses pulling the carriages, claps her hands to the music, and insists on being walked around and splashing in the water. This is one of those videos that might not mean as much to all of you as it means to me. But, from my view, it will always represent our first summer in the city with Josephine. Enjoy!

A different kind of anniversary

As I mentioned before, Sunday was our 7 year wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we had Carissa come on Saturday night so we could go out to dinner at our favorite restaurant (Riverside Korean in Covington). We made reservations for 7:30, had Carissa come at 6 so we could get all gussied up, and headed out for a night on the town. The plan was to have a nice, long dinner at Riverside then head to our favorite neighborhood bar (JeanRo) for a nightcap and some tasty Pot de Creme. Long story short, we were finished with our dinner by 8:15. We had a sitter until 11, so we had lots of extra time on our hands. We headed to the car, sat there for several minutes & couldn't think of a single thing to do. Louie looked at me and said "what do people do for fun?" We tried a few things (called re: movies, etc) but nothing was going to work out. And it was too early to head to JeanRo. So, we drove around for awhile feeling really lame & then decided to go to Newport on the Levee to watch the sunset over downtown. Once there, we thought - hey - let's go to "GameWorks", play some Skeeball, and listen to some oldschool rap (yes, they played BellBivDevoe). Once we got there & bought our game card, we rounded the corner and the first thing was a wall of "claw machines" and the first several were filled with Elmos. We set a limit of four tries and decided to go for it. It was hilarious. We were SO excited when, on the third try, Elmo sat teetering over the edge of the shoot. Then, on the fourth try, with expert precision, Louie lifted up Elmo & dropped him down the hole. I had to share the quick video below because it really is funny how excited we got. Here is Louie with the prize. And the video -

So, pretty funny that we were getting a "night out" and we spent the majority of it talking about and winning prizes for Josephine. It was definitely a different kind of anniversary, and one to remember. :)

Two Quick Updates

1) Josie just learned to sit down from a standing position. This sounds obvious, but it's a big deal because until yesterday she would get "stuck" standing (i.e. in her crib in the middle of the night). Now that she knows how to sit down, she's standing over by the couch pulling up, then plopping down on her bottom & cracking up over and over again. So funny!

2) Josie has started to "sign back" and use her favorite sign that we've taught her - the sign for "milk." Now that she's officially communicating using sign language, we'll start to teach her more. :)

More from the holiday weekend...

As promised, here is the rest of the report on the holiday weekend in addition to the actual 4th of July stuff in the post below.
So, we spent Friday & Saturday at Grandma & Granddaddy's house - not just for the sparklers performance and general quality time with the fam, but also for a quick trip to see Aunt Manda & Uncle Mike up the road. Since the weather was nasty, we got to hang out all day in our pajamas and teach Josephine some new tricks. And - after only a couple of days practice - here is Josie with her latest crowdpleaser - "SOOOOO BIG!"
And here she is showing Bella that she is "SOOOO BIG!"
And here she is showing us her "SOOO BIG AND SCARY" face....
I promise to get a "SO BIG" video uploaded soon. If I'm lucky she'll also do her patented trifecta that she invented herself which starts with a clap, moves into "SO BIG", and ends with her hands waving "BYE-BYE" from the "SO BIG" pose. Too funny!

I thought I'd include these next photos for two reasons. First, in case an older version of Josephine ever tries to tell us she doesn't like peas, I want to have pictoral evidence that she used to eat them like candy. Secondly, I think this series of photos is funny because it clearly shows a beginning, middle, and end.
Beginning: Grandma hands Josie her own plate of peas -
Middle - Josie happily eats the peas from her plate -
End - Josie sits in a puddle of peas & prefers eating the ones straight off the floor in favor of the ones on the towel or the plate. (Yummy.)
And while we're dining with Josie - I thought you might enjoy these two photos of Josie sharing her watermelon with a furry friend...
She's been feeding me for awhile now & apparently that translated to feeding Bella. They totally had a little plan worked out where Josie dropped scraps of chicken breast and potatoes on the floor or right into Bella's mouth. (And the next day when we were home she tried to feed a very uninterested Venus a handful of Cheerios.)
Here are a couple of photos from my mom's camera that I had to share. First is Josie in the Bengal's hat (Who Dey!) and just look at all those teeth!

And the funniest thing - my mom & dad brought up a photo of me when I was about Josephine's age. Here she is posing next to "me"...
And checking "me" out.
There really is quite a resemblance. We'll have to find a photo of "Baby Louie" to introduce her to soon.

Okay - that's all for now. I hope you all had a Happy Fourth! :)