Around "Casita de Josephina"

If you've been to the Schneider condo lately, you may have noticed that it was starting to take on a bit of a "Chuck E. Cheese" feel with toys everywhere! And, once the pile of toys/books/etc in Josie's pack & play started to spill over the top, we realized we had to do something. So, we cleared away some clutter on a couple of our bookshelves, moved my desk to the other side of the room, headed up the road to IKEA for some fun (and cheap) storage solutions & created Josephine's corner of the world. What was once a cluttered mess of computer cords, a laser printer, and a stack of education policy file folders is now this: And I'm happy to report that Josie is now much happier that she has easy access to all of her toys and books and her own little spot to play in - And, she now how her own little reading nook as well, which makes her favorite new chair even more fantastic. I happened open this scene today and cracked up -
That's right, Josie is not our little baby anymore (see - I'm ready to admit it); she is officially a big girl now. I have a lot to report about our big girl. Oddly enough, it seems like she hit that one year mark and then went on a mission to prove she was worthy of it. Here are just a few highlights from Josephine's massive developmental leaps over the last two weeks:

• She can point to her head, nose, eyes, ears, tummy, and feet when you ask her "where is Josie's _____".
• She can stack and unstack wooden rings on the stacking post, nest & stack cups, stack blocks, etc.
• She is obsessed with (and great at) matching lids to the proper containers.
• She learned how to blow into her recorder.
• She has learned some more signs - my favorite of which is "bird."
• She can undo zippers (so watch out if your purse is nearby).
• She can stand on her own without holding on to anything.
• She can walk very easily holding on to just one of my hands.
• She took three steps last night on her own!
• She has proven that she can recognize familiar objects in print and in person. For example, we have a book called "Peek-a-who" and there's a page that says "Peek-a-Choo-Choo" and shows a train. Josie was flipping through the book and we she got to the Train page, she made the "Choo-Choo" sign (like pulling the train whistle). She also makes the "bird" sign when she sees pigeons around the city.
• She constantly babbles, chatters, and "sings" and although we aren't sure exactly what she is saying, Josie is quite sure that she is communicating.
• She dances and claps along to music on the radio and tv.
  

In other exciting Josie news, her carseat now faces the front (here she is looking extremely confused)...

And, we've discovered some fun new things right in our own "backyard". This first one really embarrasses me because I had NO idea that we had a huge children's library - complete with this big aquarium, a zillion books, weekly "storytime" and puppet shows - just two blocks from our condo. We will definitely be spending some quality time at the library now that we've discovered this gem!And, we've discovered (well, rediscovered) Findley Market. Over the past several weekends we've taken Josie up to get fresh and local blueberries, peaches, and pears right here in the heart of downtown. Josie likes all the people and produce but does not like the fact that we have to bring things home to wash them before she can eat them. (She about lost it last week when I put strawberries into a paper bag instead of handing them straight to her.)

Okay, it's 10pm which means bedtime. Goodnight...