Ahoy Matey & More...

Last weekend we had ridiculous amounts of rain, which prompted Lou to declare Sunday "Pirate Day" at the Schneider House - complete with homemade pirate hats, a pirate ship, a parrot, and a treasure hunt.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the day. 
Here are my pirates aboard their ship - just before setting sail.

And Josie & Lou playing "I Spy" with the pirate "telescope" -

 

  

Josie couldn't be luckier to have such a wonderfully-involved, loving, creative & hilarious daddy. And I'm pretty darn lucky myself!

Speaking of how awesome Louie is...have I mentioned before that he does about 99% of the cooking? Okay, maybe that's not giving myself quite enough credit, but he certainly does more than the average bear. Lots more!   Recently, he's decided to add baking to his repertoire (which surprises even me after the Great Gingerbread Disaster of 2009).  First on the list was the "Chocolate Moose Mud Muffins" from Josie's "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" book that they love reading together.  They were delicious and the three of us had a really good time all baking together. Okay - well - we all had a great time except for the moment when Josie stuck a fistful of unsweetened baking chocolate in her mouth. 

 

Several minutes later, she was still sticking her tongue out and going "bleck, bleck, bleck..."

Here are a few photos of Josie today with her new favorite friend - the giant ladybug from Gina that she knew Josie would love! Gina helps us out with cleaning around here and has grown to be a very special person to us. Here she is teaching the ladybug how to ride her tricycle...
 

And flying on it to Chicago to see Tia, Tio & Lyla (using the antennae to steer)...

  

Here she has put the ladybug down for a nap and is rocking her caterpillar to sleep so he could lay down with the ladybug...
 

And finally. I'll leave you with another cute scene and funny moment from this afternoon. Josie was quietly painting and the lighting was good, so I grabbed my camera.  She gave me this look and said to me very politely "Actually I don't need my picture taken right now, thank you!"  I managed to snap this quick photo before she got too insistent.

Quick Quote

Josie to me, paintbrush in hand...
"Mommy, I'm going to accidentally put paint on my pants."
(Clever one, isn't she?)

I Dig A Rody...

I think everyone needs a Rody...

Quick Quote

Josie to Carissa after loading up her purse and hopping on her trike:
"I'm going to a store...all by myself...it's a toy store...it's called 'Macaroni & Cheese Maxx'...It's got a zoo there too...I'm going to buy a giraffe...I'll buy two elephants, too...I'll buy some hippos, too...Hippos coming right up!"

Quick Quote

So, today we spotted our first "double-bus" that is joined together by that bendy accordion thing so it can turn corners.  Josie was *AMAZED* by it and for whatever reason she skipped the whole way home and then told me she HAD to tell Venus the Cat about it.

Josie to Venus, very excitedly:  "Hey Venus, I saw a bendy bus."
Josie to me after leaning in closely to Venus: "I asked Venus if she has saw a bendy bus and she said Meow-Yes, I have!"

(For the record, "Meow-Yes" is our new favorite catch-phrase. Feel free to use it!)

Celebrating the arts

Well, it's been quite a week so we're very happy that the weekend is here!  We have a clear calendar, so who knows what we'll get ourselves into. I figured I should clear the camera just in case. :)
Here are some photos of Josie enjoying "the arts" this week - a little drama, a little art & a little dance. Enjoy!
Here's Josie after she told Carissa & I she was going to have breakfast with the penguins (which we actually are going to do at the Aquarium in a few weeks).  She walked past us, opened the closet door, put on Lou's hat, grabbed the umbrella and told us she was on her way! Luckily she just crossed the living room and said "I'm here" instead of hitting the elevator button and hopping on the bus.

Here is Josie this afternoon after our art class at the CFEC.  I feel so fortunate that I have each Friday off of work so that I can spend this special time with Josie. She is such a creative little girl and we have so much fun making "masterpieces".  Here is her penguin puppet from today.  I try to follow her lead as much as possible and was very impressed that this guy came out looking like a "real" penguin.  She is so proud of him and has dubbed him "Mr. Crayon" - aptly named since, as she says, "he likes to eat crayons and the orange ones are his favorite."

This is her penguin balloon having a chat with Mr. Crayon.  I could've watched this all day!

Finally, here are Louie & Josie getting down before dinner.  She still regularly requests "Rock Me Mama Like a Wagon Wheel" (Old Crow Medicine Show) that they have been dancing to since she was an infant.  She loves dancing with her daddy. And it always makes me smile!

 

Quick (Adults Only) Quote

So Josie ran up to me this morning, while watching her *favorite* show "WordWorld". And this is what she said:

"Mommy, mommy...D-U-C-K spells DUCK...
F-#-C-K spells...FROG!"

The Fairy Garden Princess Palace

Ladies and Gentleman, Drumroll Please....We have *finally* finished Josie's big girl room! 
Here are some photos from her new room - complete with full-sized bed, lack of changing table, and lots of other big-girl upgrades.  She calls it her "fairy garden princess" room and you will soon see why.

But first - the "before photo" -

That's right; For much longer than we care to admit, Josie was sleeping on a blow-up air mattress on her floor while we decided what was next.  In the end, we decided to go ahead and convert her crib into the full-sized bed and the rest of the plans just sort of followed from there.

And here are the long-awaited "after" photos -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here comes the fairy garden princess herself - who spends quite a bit of times in a tutu and wings these days -

Lou had her laughing about something, which yielded some great super-smiley pics. I love these! And for some reason, she looks so grown-up in them (which I don't love, but what are you gonna do?)

 

 

This is Josie's surprised/excited face, which she perfected at Christmas but still uses when the mood strikes her - 

 

I'll also leave you with a few photos from around the house over the weekend. As I said, this little lady is obsessed with tutus and in this case - tutus and rain boots. The best is that she says, "Check out my fashion" whenever she puts together a little get-up like this one.

Here she is admiring a couple of the "posters" she made that we hung on the wall. Also pictured is her trike that she now zooms around the condo riding. Look closely to see how she has plastered it with stickers.

And finally an action-shot of our little fairy mid-spin.

...Oh yea, still sporting the rain boots.

Quick Quote

Me to Josie: "Let's go little monkey..."

Josie back to Me: "I am not a monkey. I am a kid. I am a people. I am a person."

WHOA!

Loyal readers...you are not in Kansas anymore.  I'm experimenting with a few new looks and features for our blog as a part of my larger "shake things up in 2010" effort.  


For starters - check out our first weekly poll - which is now on the right with all the goodies from the previous layout. And please post your response. (We'd love to see more participation on your end, blog-readers! And I'll explain why in a future post.)

Snow Daze!

Well, we had our first arctic blast of the white stuff and while Josie was thrilled all week long, I spent most of the time praying for spring! We did manage to make it out of the house once last week for Spanish class on Wednesday, but I was like a second grader with a snow day when I saw our Friday class was canceled.  Maybe it's the former teacher in me, but there's nothing quite like a snow day - or in our case - a snow week.  Carissa was still in NY for her XU break so I got to spend my third week without work and with Josie! It was so much fun, and I am *dreading* going back tomorrow.  Yep, it will be like going from zero to sixty in seconds.  I spent this week in pajamas making blanket forts and playing dress-up and will go back to being a grown-up with two jobs again in about 10 hours.  (Did I mention I started back at UC again, facilitating online masters courses?)  Anyway, here's to the kind of snow that makes you spend a week inside (and the pictures to prove it)...
The new ballerina costume...

For reasons I don't feel like I need to explain, we made a "snow cave" and "snow mountain" out of white sheets instead of going outside for the real stuff.  (Which will happen soon, but not when I'm flying solo!) Here's Josie playing "The bear went over the mountain..."

Later that day, Josie gave Pooh a makeover. He was totally decked out - right down to the purse and matching princess high heels.  My favorite part was after a good solid fifteen minutes or so of putting together this ensemble, she added the purse and said to herself, "Good, now he's all set."

...Then she asked me to take his picture with her on top of her "snow mountain". She clearly has this blog thing figured out!

Going in for a smooch...she was quite pleased with her handiwork!

Venus makes herself at home in our "snow cave" (and later leaves us a pretty nasty surprise in there)...

And, I'll leave you with this video which absolutely cracks me up.  We may have a future Oscar-award winning actress on our hands. Check out the drama! Clearly, she *really, really* enjoyed this watermelon! Watermelon is her favorite, and I explained to her weeks ago that you can't find watermelon in the winter. Then Grandma magically produced one and here is the result.  LOL! (This was also just before naptime, which is also pretty obvious!) 

In case you didn't notice...

Over on the left right, I added some new photos to the scrolling slideshow. It used to just be Josie's first year, but I thought it would be fun to add a photo per month. So, the slideshow now includes one photo for every month since Josie was born, ending with December 2009.  Look for new photos each month. Enjoy!

Quick Quote

I actually laughed so hard I was crying at this one (which confused the heck out of Josie because she couldn't understand how I could be happy and crying at the same time)...

So Louie was cutting a day-or-two-past-its-prime mango tonight for Josie's dessert while she was eating her dinner.

I said to Lou: "Are you sure that mango is good?"

And Josie states, authoritatively: "Actually, it's crappy."

Quick Quote

There is no chance I will be able to capture Josie's tone of voice and how hilarious this moment actually was, but picture your best stereotype of a diner waitress when you read this quote from Josie this morning.

Me: Josie, are you ready to go take a shower now?

Josie: "Later honey, maybe on Tuesday."

 

I have no idea where this "honey" business came from, but it is sooo funny.

Lights & Tigers & Goats - Oh My!

We decided we better hit the Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights before 2009 ended and sure are glad we did! It was so much fun, and Josie was really into it this year!  Here are a few photos and videos from the evening, which will always stand out in our memories as a really special night.

Oh - before I get to the Zoo - while Josie was napping, we removed the Christmas tree & decorations.  She came out and almost cried as we explained that Christmas was over. When I told her she got to keep all the presents, she seemed pretty relieved and went about her business. Then we got all bundled up for the zoo and walked to the Westin where we park our car. There were still big wreaths hanging in the lobby and Josie looked at us like we were nuts, shouting "See Mom and Dad, it IS still Christmas!!! Look! See!"  This continued throughout the trip to the Zoo, where we happy to get one last glimpse of holiday cheer before 2009 came to a close.

Josie posing at the top of what she called the "Nutcracker Rhino-saurus" -

Enjoying the lights from the tram -

Yea, so we went to the Children's Zoo section and let Josie get a little too close to a goat that was just her size. And, then it happened...she reached out to pet the goat and it bit the mitten right off of her hand and ran away with it in his mouth.  We were laughing hysterically, Josie was crying, and the goat was munching away! Then, probably because of all the commotion, he spit it out and left the gooey glove in the middle of his pen.  I made Louie crawl in & grab it, because it was the only way to calm down Josie. Luckily, the goat stayed out of his way and everyone survived - including Josie's mitten!  She was still pretty upset (and we were trying really hard to convince her it was hilarious and not scary) so we stuck her glove back on (ewwww) and plopped her down on this camel - which worked! No more tears! And she was distracted enough to forget her glove was wet from goat-slobber.

Further attempts to make Josie smile - 

 

And that's when she realized her mitten was all gooey and threw it on the ground!  But, she kept smiling, which is all that really matters. And she makes a pretty cute turtle.

Big News - these guys didn't scare her this year! She wanted to go up & "high five" all of them! :)

And now on to the best part of the whole night - Josie and the Talking Tigers!!!! I was a little worried they would freak her out, but instead we had to drag her away to let other kids get a turn after a good 15 minutes or so! 

Here are two videos of her with the Talking Tigers.  Oh, to be two again! Enjoy! 

Holly Jolly Josie Videos

I couldn't resist sharing a couple more videos from this holiday season.

This first one is Josie calling her "Grandpa Bop" on the play phone from her new kitchen. My favorite part is how she just walks around going about her business while chatting away - wondering where she learned this?

We were lucky this year to hear Josie's interpretations of many Christmas classics. I happened upon this little scene one day and luckily grabbed my camera mid-Rudolph. Enjoy!