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...