Little things that make me smile

Now that Carissa is back from her winter break, it was time for me to get back to work this week. There aren't many photos because this was a very busy week of "catch-up". I did manage to get a couple of things this weekend, because I didn't want to totally leave you all hanging. :)

Here's one of Josie "reading" in her car seat. Josie loves looking at all the pictures & it's such a huge book that usually when we look in the backseat all you can see is the book with tiny little legs sticking out. Thank goodness books keep her occupied in the car, because there will likely be lots of trips back and forth to Chicago in her future. These next two are more for Louie & I than anything. As Josie grows older, I don't want us to forget even the most seemingly-mundane moments. In this case, it's Josie & her oatmeal. She loves the stuff - more than anything. And, as you can see below, she really shovels it in and manages to eat two full adult portions for breakfast (and usually fruit as well). "Oatmeal" is seriously one of the first words out of her mouth when she wakes up in the morning. It is not unusual to hear "Mom...Dad...Up...Oatmeal" on the baby monitor at 6am. Then she stands and calls out "oat-mee-ow, oat-mee-ow" over & over for the 10 or so minutes it takes to cook it. We even have to spell it instead of saying the word or she will insist that we make her a pot. So, here's to Josie and her oatmeal...Here's a quick video that serves two purposes. As I was talking to my mom today on the phone, Josie taught herself how to scream - loudly. She thought it was hilarious. She would take a big breath & just let it rip. Mom & I were cracking up because she just kept repeating the big scream, cracking up, catching her breath, then doing it again. She was quite proud of herself. So I went for the video camera and (of course) only managed to capture one last squeal before she decided to end the screaming game. But - this short little video captured something else that Josie is doing now that I think is really cute. Whenever she wants something that she doesn't know the word for, she calls it "this." My guess is that it's the result of me asking her "Tell me what you want. Is it this? This? This? etc" as I point to or hold up objects trying to determine what she wants/needs.