Learning by leaps and bounds

I've been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with Josie over the last few weeks due to the holidays. Since Carissa went home to Syracuse for winter break, I had over 3 weeks of time with Josie. It's unbelievable how much she has changed in the last month. Those of you with children probably notice with your own how they make developmental "leaps" - sometimes they're physical, sometimes they're emotional, and in this case, they're cognitive. We've been shocked by the things she has started to do lately.



Here's one that blows our minds - she can identify letters! She points to them on her easel, in books, on blocks, etc. Here she is identifying "A, B, and C" on her magnadoodle.







She's also gotten a very active imagination lately. Her play is much more intentional and planned-out. It's amazing that she amused herself by shaking toys a few months ago, and now she is acting out things from her imagination. Here are some examples from the Museum Center this week.

She put out food bowls for all the puppies, set them by each one, and made eating noises while they dined on imaginary food. Then she gave them baths...

Here she is (the next day, hence a new outfit) pushing her baby around in a stroller... And pushing her baby in a wheelbarrow over to play with her in the sand...

I'll continue to try to capture her "leaps" on film - in the meantime, here are just some more photos from our week.

Josie - who sat like this starting at me for a full 2 or 3 minutes in protest after I bundled her up in all these layers...

Baby J with her "heavy baby" Waldorf doll that we got her for Christmas. It has actually accomplished its intended purpose - comforting her at night so she gets better sleep. Dare I say it, our sleep issues have finally been resolved. She loves cuddling with what she calls "Bay-BEE" and who wouldn't? (It's soft, cuddly, and even filled with lavender.)

Oh - so in big news on the Josie front - I CUT HER HAIR!!! Those of you who are loyal blog followers may have noticed a curious absence of Josie's trademark piggytails in these photos. And, while they are not gone in their entirety, they are on hiatus. You see, only Josie's most trusted confidants knew that all this time the piggy-tails were actually a necessity. Since birth, she has had these really long strips of hair over her ears while being almost bald in the back. We thought, for 17 months, that the back would eventually catch up, so we were afraid to cut the sides. When her hair was down, it looked pretty crazy so we had to put it in piggytails every day to protect her cuteness. :) With her increasing-toddler-squirminess, this was getting harder and harder. So, I cut it into this little bob. No worries, it still goes into piggytails just fine. Here are some photos of her new 'do.

And, last but not least, I'll leave you with some photos of Josie cuddling with Louie. She's going through a "daddy" phase right now. "Dad" is the first word out of her mouth when she wakes up - followed quickly by "oatmeal, oatmeal."

Here's the seat she made for herself when she found Louie lying on the floor - she brought over the monkey and there they all cuddled together.
And this was just about 5 minutes ago as I was starting to update the blog.

To close...

JOSEPHINE MARIE IS NOW 17 MONTHS OLD!!!! (That's almost a year-and-a-half which blows my mind.) My goodness, this means Lyla is 3 months old now?!? Where does the time go?