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.