Holy Molars! (and More)

First, let me explain that subject line. Just when I almost had myself fooled that Josie was still counted as my "baby," she went and sprouted to great big giant MOLARS! What? There's no looking back now - I've got a KID on my hands (although we will call her "Baby Josie" until she begs us to stop).

Okay, now to catch you up on the past week. First and foremost, I GOT TO SEE BABY LYLA AGAIN! Here are proud mommy Manda, Lyla and I...
My mom spent the week with the "Three Austins" to help them out & my daddy-o graciously offered to swing by Cincy to pick me up so I could ride with him to Chicago to pick up my mom (did you follow that). Anyway, it was a very short trip - right about 24 hours - but well worth it for the view alone - Friday night also went down as my second night away from Josephine since she stayed home with her daddy instead of making the road trip. Just to note: my first night away from her was the night my sister was in labor. It's amazing how much I miss Louie & Josie even when I'm just away for a day.

Back in Cincy Saturday night and a fun week around the house. Here are some fun moments from the week...

Josie getting cozy in a new seat she found (the rice drawer in our pantry)...

Josie striking her best pose in her fun poncho from her Great-Uncle Denny and cousins Sam & Katie in England (and of course her rainbow legwarmers from last year)...

Josie carrying the diaper bag around the house (all morning long)...

And now for some videos!

Here is Josie creating her first masterpiece with the cool crayons that her little friend Maya got her for her first birthday. She had so much fun doing this that we've created more drawings every day since this one...

Here is a video of our big girl Josie feeding herself Oatmeal with a spoon. Of course she got tired of the whole spoon thing about the same time I grabbed the camera, but that just makes it even more funny if you ask me...

And finally, here are some of Josie's favorite animal noises. You'll have to trust me that there is usually a bigger difference between the sounds, but she had a mouthful of oatmeal and I just filmed it "on the fly" because she normally won't do it for the camera at all. Enjoy...

Please read

We would really appreciate if each of you would please take the time to read this blog entry from a parent of a child with a severe peanut allergy like Josephine. It's a bit long, but well worth every word. I feel like it perfectly captures our situation. Thank you.
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2008/10/what-id-like--4.html

A day at the museum

When the temps dip below 50 degrees, options like the zoo and the park quickly slip off the list of possibilities for playtime. So, today I took Josie on her first trip to Cincy's Children's Museum which is less than 2 miles from our condo. We met our friends Krista & Milo and we all had a blast! We headed there for the new interactive Clifford exhibit, but never made it because we had too much fun in the regular Children's Museum. Thankfully we went ahead and bought a family pass & will definitely be making this a regular (if not weekly) part of our rotation.

First things first, here is a video from when we first arrived. We were hanging out in the "ball room" and Josie just kept looking around and saying "Wow!" She was very impressed!

Here are some other highlights from the day...

Driving the tractor:

Hanging out on the farm:
Playing in the sand: Climbing the stairs (again and again and again):

Playing "store":

Pushing a doll around:Picking out the best produce:
Taking a stalk of asparagus for a ride:

And I'll leave you with the best part of our first day at the Museum - the grocery store! It's just so amazing that these little ones are such little "sponges," soaking up the world around them. Josie and Milo did this on their own. We didn't show them what to do. I guess Josie's had enough trips to Whole Foods to know what she's doing. Seriously, How cute are these two together?

Josie Update

Well, I know it's been awhile since the last Josie update. Things have been busy with the latest addition to the family (see http://www.threeaustins.blogspot.com/ for more photos), some big projects at work, and with the decision to put our condo on the market and start looking for a new place to live. (We totally underestimated how much work it is to get a place ready to sell and to find somewhere new.)

But, amid the sea of chaos around here, Josie cracking us up has been the only constant. The new thing this week is "helping" around the house. I'm not kidding. This was totally unprovoked and if you would've asked me before this happen if she'd ever seen me unload laundry, I would've said no. But, apparently she picked this up somewhere.

She literally walked into the laundry room, opened the dryer door, and started pulling her clothes out and putting them into the laundry basket. I watched her do this for about 10 minutes and took three separate videos, but all three of them are too big for the blog so you'll just have to use your imagination. When you're envisioning the whole scenario, be sure to take into account that she also paused to try to dress herself and got really excited about finding socks (probably because of their close relationship with shoes).

The next day, she decided to help Louie load the dishwasher. She loves opening and closing the dishwasher door, so we've learned quickly to keep the knives in the back.

So in addition to doing laundry and dishes, she has also begun making her own homemade applesauce, which we find in piles throughout the house.

Step One: Take the biggest bite of apple humanly possible. Then repeat (but don't swallow the first bite). The repeat (still remembering not to swallow). Then repeat. Once your cheeks are stuffed like chipmunks, move on to Step Two.

Step Two: Walk up to your mom, say "AHHHH" and show her all the crushed up apple chunks in your mouth.
Step Three & Four are unclear, but somehow involve removing the homemade applesauce and smearing it on the furniture.

In other exciting news, we bumped into Sarah Palin the other day on the way to the parking garage. She was in town for a speech and was spending the night at the Westin that backs up to our condo. Here are Josie and I posing in front of the McCain/Palin tour bus, looking a bit skeptical about the whole "Straight Talk Express" thing.

We decided to stick around to see her. Turns out she's more pretty (but just as unqualified) in person.

In other news, we had another wedding this week. Our friends Natalie & Dennis got married and we were there to celebrate the big day which was 14 years in the making! It was a gorgeous evening on the river in Milford. Here are Josie and I being silly. Oddly, out of all the photos I've ever seen of Josie, I think she looks the most like me in this one. One last, "that silly Josie" photo for you before I tackle my overflowing inbox. We were desperately in need of new laundry hampers, but we were fooled by ebay and ended up with two hampers that were much smaller than we anticipated. But, leave it to Josie to turn lemons into lemonade. Here she is watching Thomas the Tank Engine at about 6am on Sunday morning.
Here are some updates on Josie developmentally (now that she is 14 months old)!

• She can now sign about twenty words in the proper context (new ones include cheese, horse, flower, car, frog, and giraffe).
• She now says "hi" at appropriate times (and whenever she sees another baby or child).
• She blows kisses.
• She purposefully gives hugs and kisses (my new favorite - nothing sweeter than when she comes bouncing across the room with her lips puckered and arms open for a big hug).
• When asked, she will tell you what all the following animals say: dog, cat, cow, sheep, horse, monkey.

Oh, and in BIG news - Josie is officially weaned. This is unbelievably bittersweet. Today marks one week since her last mama's milk. I'm very proud that we made it to 14 months and that she led the weaning process, which happened very gradually and at her own pace. Not that any of you all care about the last time Josie breastfed, but this blog serves as our family record as well, so I want to just say that our last time was really special. It was our favorite kind of nursing - during a nap. She was all curled up with me in her tie-dyed onesie and we both drifted off to sleep together one afternoon. I'm glad I had no idea at the time that it would be our last one, because I know I would've laid there crying about how fast she had grown up. But, it was time and we were both ready. Another milestone crossed for little Josephine...

Josie has a new cousin!!!

HOORAY - BABY AUSTIN HAS ARRIVED!!!

On Sunday at 7:28am, Baby GIRL Austin came into the world!

LYLA ANNE AUSTIN
8 lbs. 5 oz.
20 inches

I have never been so proud of my little sister who putting everything she had into birthing her daughter. (Although my favorite moment of Amanda's labor was Lyla's birth, a close second was watching Amanda do her "fantasy football" picks between contractions.)

I'm sure Amanda & Michael's blog will be updated soon with more details but suffice it to say that they are VERY happy to now be home with a happy, healthy, and BEAUTIFUL baby girl. Stay tuned to www.threeaustins.blogspot.com

You can see the beautiful photos taken at the hospital by visiting:
www.bellababyphotography.com
-click on "website"
-click on "client"
-enter password "0556austin"
-get ready to "ooh and ahh"

New England Nuptials

On Thursday, we headed to Rhode Island for a wedding! Lou's best friend Jeremy (who has always been known to us as "Chow" and will be known to you as "Chow" for the remainder of this post) got married to Ashley - one of the sweetest, most generous and kind, and not to mention beautiful girls we've ever met. They were SO kind to open their home to us so we didn't have to get a hotel (can you imagine have a houseful of people leading up to your wedding day) and they were unbelievable hosts. Seriously, we cannot thank them enough for everything - starting with four big beautiful lobsters for dinner when we arrived. (Did I mention Chow is a chef? So we were basically at our own private Bed & Breakfast!) Anyway, here is Josie meeting her dinner, which was unbelievably delicious and totally fun to eat. (And our little foodie officially enjoys lobster.) On Friday morning, we headed to the beach so that Josie could dip her little toes into the Atlantic like she did in the Pacific all those months ago in Cali.

Moments like these - hanging out on the beach in the morning with a light breeze and big sunshine totally make me question why on earth we live in Cincinnati. It was gorgeous and peaceful and perfect.

And, Chow even caught this big bluefish on his second cast out into the water.
Josie was very impressed. I know she would've eaten him, too but since Chow had a wedding and all, he didn't have time for smoking a bluefish, so we tossed it back and watched it swim away instead.

I love Chow. And, Louie does too. He's such a great guy and was also the best man in Lou's wedding. (And, to further prove my point that he's going to be a great husband - he actually called and left me a "Happy Mother's Day" message on my first mother's day. Too sweet!)
Here are some more beach photos, because you can't have enough beach photos. And here is a quick video of our little "Danger Dog" who - like I say in this video - totally "lives on the edge". She is not afraid of anything! And, just seconds after this video ended, she slipped out of Lou's grip and ran straight for the waves. (Hawaii is going to be very interesting indeed.)

Have you ever seen a more beautiful place for a swingset?
Here she is getting a big kiss and a big face full of New England sunshine!
And a swing ride with Mama because I couldn't resist a swingset with an ocean view either. :)
On to the wedding! :)
The rehearsal and dinner were on Friday. Josie spent the entire rehearsal running around the church, across the aisles and climbing the pews. Needless to say, I was a little nervous for the actual wedding after this little performance at the rehearsal. She actually did very well during the real thing, which I'll get to next. (Oh - and BTW - I'm obsessed with stripes, as evidenced by Josie's outfit pictured here.)
The wedding was at this perfect litttle white chapel on the top of a big green hill above the water. As we were pulling up to it, I said to Louie "I hope it's a little white New England church I'm picturing in my head." And it totally was!
The ceremony was so beautiful. Chow's dad performed the service (and became an officiant just for this event) and they wrote their own vows. It was so touching and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Josie was perfect. Although, as I took the camera out to snap this one photo, I heard giggling in the row behind me and then looked over to find Josie helping herself to a banana - peel and all! Totally yucky, but worth the laugh in the end.
After the wedding, we headed to a beachhouse for photos. We tried and tried to get a good photo taken of us all dolled-up in our wedding best, but Josie had other plans, mostly revolving around getting her tights dirty (that a girl) and climbing stairs.

We'll call this photo "The Reason People Live in Rhode Island"... How beautiful!
On to the reception. The food was incredible!!! Josie, although she enjoyed a few bites of the good stuff, had to get started early on a meal of chicken nuggets and tater tots. This video is here for three reasons. 1) She ate so much chicken over the weekend that she mastered the sign for "chicken"; 2) She dances at the end which I'll say more about in a minute; 3) I don't ever want to forget what happened right before I got the camera out which was really cute and funny. [Chow and Ashley danced to Wilco's "California Stars" for their first dance. Josie was sitting eating and kept stopping to pat her head. I couldn't figure out what on earth she was doing - then I realized what song was on - "I'd like to rest my heavy HEAD tonight on a bed of California Stars..." So, chalk this up as evidence that she totally pays attention to whatever is going on in the background. Too funny.] Of course she stopped doing the head thing as I got the camera out, but here it is anyway.

After she ate her dinner and played for awhile in her high chair while we feasted, she got really fussy so we figured it was sadly about time for us to go home. We decided to start saying our goodbyes since a meltdown was imminent. But, a strange thing happened when we neared the dancefloor. She totally hit a second wind and demanded that I put her down. What happened next was one of my favorite Josie moments so far. During the Jackson 5's "ABC", Josie starting dancing and clapping and giggling and didn't let up for the next hour. She literally stood in the middle of a dance floor of partying adults and teenagers and completely "got down". We didn't have our camera with us, and to be honest, were having so much fun that we didn't want to stop to go get it. But, lots of other people took pictures of her & I'll post those when I get them.

Here is a photo of Louie & Josie dancing just before we left...

And here is Josie passed out in the backseat of the car before we even got out of the parking lot!
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Ewing-Chow and thanks so much for everything!

On one final note, here is Josie when we got home on Sunday night. Her special treat for being such a good girl for the weekend was as many blueberries as she wanted. And I am not kidding - she almost ate one full pound of them!!!!! Her stomach was hard as a rock and she was stained purple from head to toe. Clearly she is enjoying herself. :)
On to Hawaii in a few weeks...

First and foremost - HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUIE!!!! I'll admit that we didn't get much celebrating in yesterday, but this weekend in Rhode Island (actually we leave in a couple of hours) will undoubtedly bring lots of good times!

Here is Josie enjoying the "Thomas the Tank Engine" card that she hand-picked for her daddy:

And, I'll leave you with this video of our smart little cookie, who is now quite adept at following directions. Thanks to Carissa who has been working on this with her. :)

Oh, in other Josie news:

• She has just gotten her 8th tooth (which means she is now even with four on the top and four on the bottom).


• She has pretty much weaned herself from nursing and is down to just one mama-milk-meal a day (breakfast).


• She now knows the sign language for "help" & uses it frequently and in the proper context.


• She says "uh-oh" and "hi".


• She is positively obsessed with shoes! (Case in point - the fact that I had to literally pry her little fingers off of a pair of pink sparkly Mary Janes that she helped herself to at Children's Place. At one point she had at least 6 pairs of them in her stroller. I took me no less than a half-hour to distract her enough with other diversions sufficient enough for her to give them up.) Hilarious!

We'll be back Sunday night so I'll be sure to check in early next week! :)