New York, New York

WHAT A WEEKEND! Let's just dive right in - because when it comes to NYC - that's the only way to do it. So, our hotel was 30+ stories, 3000+ rooms and right in the middle of Times Square. (This is where Lou's legal conference was held.) That's the hotel on the left (the entrance is under the Kodak sign). Yikes!We were definitely in the thick of it - here's the view out of our window. Wow!While Josie would've been perfectly content spending hours looking out the window (more on that later), we had to get out to see the city. After meeting up with Molly - one of our favorite people in the whole wide world (It was SO great to see you Mol & Josie loves her I love NYC tshirt) - we had a yummy lunch in Bryant Park & headed to the the NY public library. Here we are in front of the lions.
We tried to get some Juniors cheesecake, but after being ignored for 20 minutes, we decided to pose for a sleeping Josie photo then bail on the idea.Off through Times Square... Louie was in the conference all day, so Josie and I headed out to explore the city. I think this is my favorite photo from the whole weekend - I love how she's just looking up smiling at all the bright lights of the big city. I'm honestly surprised that she didn't have a big kink in her neck after spending so many hours looking up like this. Okay - the next several emails are going to start "Here we are at..."

Here we are at the M&M store (yes, that's a big red M&M elevator). Josie got a really cute onesie that will show up in a future post I am sure.
Here we are back in Times Square -

And here's Elmo in Times Square (although no photo with Josie because we weren't about to pay this guy) -
Another "Josie loves Times Square" photo - And in front of the half-price tix Broadway line- And in front of the pond at Central Park -
And in front of the carriages (which she LOVED) at Central Park -

More at Central Park (thank goodness for the self-timer) -

And Josie & Daddy at Central Park -
And this one cracks me up because it looks like one of those fake "Olan Mills" backdrops but it's the real thing - :)
And - in our quest for the perfect first birthday gift - we had to hit up FAO Schwartz and while Josie was too small (and we were too big) - it was really cool to see the giant piano from the movie "Big!" (Cue "Heart and Soul")

In FAO, they had this life-sized "ugly doll" & we chased it down to get a photo with Josie but she flipped out! Apparently giant monsters are scary to babies - Duh!
And, look what we found, a preview of later in the week -
So, as if a day of shopping & Central Park weren't enough, we thought we'd keep the ball rolling with an afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA was awesome! Here we are at the beginning of our trip in front of a Picasso -

And being silly -
And here is Josie at the end of the MoMA trip which was actually less than an hour after that first photo. She had a complete and total meltdown in the middle of the Salvador Dali exhibit and we were "those people" with the screaming baby throwing cheerios all over the museum (no food allowed btw). The only thing that would make her happy was the cellphone. Here she is making a call. (She said something about how she was going to call Grandma & Granddaddy with the hopes that they would come pick her up so her mom & dad could see the rest of the museum.) By the way, we asked them if we could get back in on Sunday since we were there for so little time on Saturday, but they didn't oblige. Maybe next time... And - here we are in the back of at cab - where I'm holding on to her for dear life.
Oh - and I took Josie to her first protest - "Free Tibet" at Bryant Park. This is just before the rain & the cops shut it down.
And here we all are at Rockefeller Center where we ate breakfast Sunday morning (while Josie slept)-

And Josie with Altas -
And in front of Trump Tower -
Okay, enough of the touristy sites... (Although I'll be honest and say we didn't necessarily seek these out. We were just kind of walking around the city and going "oh look, there's...")

One of the best things about NYC is the food & one of the best things about having a one-year old is that you eat at 5pm so there is never a wait for a table and you don't need reservations. We realized just how uncool we are when we actually had to wait for this restaurant to open because they didn't start serving dinner until 5:30 and we tried to get in at 5. But, once we were there (Topaz - this tiny, adorable little Thai place), they were very good to us & very accommodating to Josie. Here she is looking a bit skeptical about her sticky rice "volcano" that they brought her.

Delis by day and restaurants by night - we took a cab down to the West Village to meet Molly on Friday night and found the perfect open-air Italian spot.
Josie enjoyed her brick-oven pizza and pumpkin ravioli and we all enjoyed hanging out with Molly (did I mention how much we adore her?) Then, as an added bonus, they unrolled this big movie screen to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Very cool indeed!
On Saturday night, we escaped Midtown again in order to continue our quest for the perfect first birthday present & found "Kidding Around" in Chelsea/Greenwich Village which was voted NYC's best toy store. I saw it in a magazine & we headed there as soon as we could. We landed the perfect gift (which Josie will open tonight) and then headed off on foot for dinner. Then, there it was, like a tiny oasis in the bustling city - Gustorganics - a 100% Organic restaurant, complete with outdoor seating. PERFECTO!
After a weekend of eating "questionably" we were thrilled that at least one meal would be safe. It was delicious and Josephine ate a big girl meal of mushroom risotto & baked chicken. YUM!

And, to top it off, the restaurant was right next to Pinkberry - which made for the perfect dessert. And, as if the evening couldn't get any better, we got to meet "Sha Sha" the iguana who hangs out around NYC in her sweet pink buggy. (Only in NY right?) And, I'm not gonna lie, a couple of great meals aside, this photo typifies most of Josie's meals - anything that would fit in the "snack trap" - she definitely had about all the cheerios, goldfish, raisins, and peas she could handle.
And while I'll say that Josephine enjoyed the sight-seeing and fine-dining, her absolute favorite activity was staring out our window down to Times Square below. She literally spent hours looking out at all the lights, cars, and people and saying "Na, Na, Na" (and we have no idea what that means). I'll admit; this totally made me nervous. But, it made her SO happy.

She is a total daredevil. We couldn't believe how she was hanging out here 21 stories above the city street like it was nothin'.
She's totally fearless.

Here's a video of her "living on the edge" -

I'm hoping that she got her fix of Times Square and that it didn't captivate her so much that she'll want to move to NY when she's 18. :)

After what was a pretty hectic weekend in the city, we were actually ready to end our weekend "vacation" and head home. We called the same car service that brought us in (because only car services have car seats) and much to our surprise, they showed up to get us in a big black limo! It was hilarious. People were posing with it to get their photos taken & probably thought someone important was going to get into it, and then here we come with our baby and stroller and all our luggage. Too funny! So, I'm of course thinking - this is hysterical. Josie had a limo for her first birthday. I couldn't wait to snap photos & take some video, but she totally freaked out. I'm not sure if it was the fact that it was so dark in there (very tinted windows) or that it was just so different than anything else she's seen, or because she was totally beat and wanted to get home too, but she freaked out! So, ironically, we had to get the car service in the first place so that she would have a carseat, but she was screaming at the top of her lungs, so I had to take her out to nurse her. So, here's Josie "enjoying" her first limo ride.

And here's Louie trying to do the same...
So, goodbye to NYC. It was about 2pm & were would be home by dinner time - or so we thought...
We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and quickly realized that the terminal was jam-packed. It didn't take long to figure out that flights were being delayed and cancelled left and right. Looong story short, our flight was delayed, then cancelled, then un-cancelled, then delayed and ugh - it was pretty brutal. Luckily, Josie spent the first hour asleep in her stroller.
And then we spent the next four hours camped out right here trying our best to keep Josie entertained. She actually did incredibly well, and I'm happy to report that Louie & I managed to keep calm as well (although there were definitely a couple of moments of panic).
Josie did very well on the flight home (that is - she slept like a rock from take-off to landing) and we were home and in bed by midnight. I was SO afraid that Josie was going to turn one at Laguardia Airport - and luckily had her "birthday crown" in tow just in case. (Special thanks to Aunt Manda for helping out calling hotels & getting online for us when we were stuck.) Oh - I should also mention - Josie randomly stood up and took about 2 steps right there in the middle of the airport. Still not sure if this was a total fluke of if she'll be sprinting by the end of the week...

Happy to be home and a busy (exciting) week ahead.

Oh - one funny thing - we were in Central Park and people are crazy and this guy (who did not have a good body) thought he was an olympic ice skater or something & decided to do a performance on roller blades! He had his ipod & was totally going to town. I felt bad just blatantly filming him (but shouldn't because everyone else was) so I posed Josie in front of him & got as much as I could. So, this is a video of Josie in her stroller and a video of one of the funniest things we'd seen in a while. Enjoy!

New York state of mind....

Early tomorrow morning your "Three Schneiders" will head to NYC where Louie will attend a conference, Carri will do too much shopping, Josie will get to meet our dear friend Molly & we will all celebrate Josie's approaching first birthday. I promise there will be lots to report when we return. Stay tuned...

"Happy Talky Talking Happy Talk..."

First of all, the title of this post is a "shout out" to Grandma Phyllis who introduced us to the joys of "South Pacific" and also an attempt to get this song stuck in Louie's head like it always does...

BIG NEWS: JOSEPHINE HAS OFFICIALLY BROKEN THE COMMUNICATION BARRIER...and she has a lot to say!

Here's are videos of her saying both "dada" and "mama". She can also say "hi" and gets pretty close to "baby."




And in other communication news -SHE IS SIGNING LIKE CRAZY!

She now knows the signs for:
MILK
MORE
DRINK
ALL-DONE

She also has lots of new tricks - like her own "CHOO-CHOO" sign and pointing to her head when you say "head". And, she can also point out "cats" and "babies" in books.

One other thing she is doing that is not so cute is climbing and hanging - so much in fact that her new nickname is "Baby Sherpa". Seriously, it is unbelievable how strong she is! This morning we caught her hanging from the side of her pack & play with BOTH feet half way up the side trying to scale the thing like a sheer cliff. I would try to get a photo or video of this, bit I'm too busy trying to prevent her from cracking her skull. Seriously, I don't know where she gets this fearlessness, but it's a little frightening to say the least. (Oh & did I mention I had to remove the crib bumper from her crib because she was using that to stand out to try to escape?!)

Moving on...
So, if you know much about me, you know I have a bit of an obsession with Amazon.com. This obsession has led to a pretty common occurrence involving large boxes around the house awaiting their trip to the recycling room. While she ignored them for months, she's now taken to turning them into her first "forts." Here she is checking out the ceiling of her first box-house. (I can't wait until she's old enough to decorate the interior together.)
After putting several of her toys inside the box with her, she said something about missing her Aunt Manda & Uncle Mike, and then closed herself up inside the box and asked me for a stamp...
In other funny Josie news, we gave her her first apple and boy-oh-boy is she a fan! In addition to the yummy taste, she really likes being in control & I know the cold apples also feel great on all those new teeth coming in. If you're ever feeling particularly brave, try to eat an apple (or banana or peach or really any kind of fruit) in front of her without offering her a bite & then watch out because you might lose a finger.
This is totally random but I was getting into the elevator the other day and saw this "scene" and had one of those moments of clarity when I was like "wow - my life has changed" and then I smiled, snapped a photo & thanked my lucky stars for Josephine. Okay, that's all the news that is fit to report this week. LOTS to come in the coming weeks so visit often. :)

Josephine's Shutterfly Collection has just been updated with all of the photos from July. It was a busy month so there is ALOT in the Shutterfly collection that didn't make it to the blog. Check it out at www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com !

Another week in paradise...

Let me start with your daily dose of cute Josie photos - courtesy of her personal stylist - um, I mean nanny.
I can always trust that Josie will return from her morning nap looking adorable and ready to take on the day! (Thanks Carissa.)Okay - now on to our week - and back to the praises of living in the city. This week's reason: the free public wading pool on the riverfront. Seriously, we take places like this for granted, but we are truly fortunate to have this just a couple of blocks from the house. Technically it's the Concourse Fountain at Sawyer Point - but stick a couple of lifeguard with whistles on the edges and voila - free pool! (It's actually been a "pool" for decades, but I still have to believe that it was a fountain first & they got tired of trying to keep people away so finally just gave in.) The beauty of this "world's largest baby pool" is that it's only 9 inches deep all the way around. And since it's a fountain by design, there are big waterfalls all along the back wall and several other cool splashy bits. Here we are posing after our pooltime fun.
Josie was BEAT because she spent about an hour doing this -
Baby Water Aerobics! You know how hard it is to walk through water? Well, this little one had the time of her life doing big laps all around the pool. I'm SO glad she loves the water! Now that we've discovered this little gem, we will definitely have to make it down to the Fountain-Pool again soon!

Okay, I couldn't leave you without a new blog post all week and then not cap it off with a couple of videos.

I think the first one is pretty funny because it's "so Josie." After spending a small fortune at Babies R Us the other day (come on - I hadn't been there since Josie was one month old), I found these cool "snack trap" cups that bill themselves as perfect for kids because they can eat a snack on their own without spilling. I was so excited that I opened it in the car (we had a long drive from KY to Kenwood ahead) and filled it full of cheerios. I couldn't wait to see if it really was the miracle product I hoped. And, for about 30 seconds, it was. Josie got one or two cheerios out at a time & smiled ear to ear. And then this happened - clever little thing isn't she?

And - I thought you'd like to "kick it old school" with us for a trip down memory lane. Josie hasn't "jumperoo'd" in a while, but we decided to raise it to the highest level and give it a whirl. We figured she'd be sort of over it by now - boy were we wrong. ENJOY!

Won't you ride in my little red wagon...

Josie loves her "little red wagon" and thankfully we have enough floorspace that she can ride around in it all afternoon without having to worry about sunscreen. This video absolutely cracks me up - 1) because it's like a "condo safari" as she points to things of interest and 2) she does this little "happy dance" at the end that I guarantee you will watch more than once. ENJOY!


Here are a few more wagon photos, because I couldn't resist. Something about her "pumpkin" shirt and the Radio Flyer is very "fall festival" but I love it... (Can't you just smell the apple cider?)And leave it to Josie to kick it up a notch. Just when we thought watching her ride around the house was as funny as it could get, she decided to completely lay back and relax...
Do you think she's comfortable?
And today added her sippy cup to the mix...
So, I'm sure there are many more wagon photos to come over the years. We've yet to take her outside in it, but that promises to be quite an adventure. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a few photos of her looking adorable around the house...
Check out the great tshirt I scored at Walgreens of all places -
Is there any chance I will ever be able to say "no" to those big blue eyes?
Okay, gotta get back to work but there's lots more to come tomorrow. Have a great week everybody!

Happy First Birthday Hypnobabies!

Last weekend, the Spring 2007 Hypnobirthing Graduating Class (also known as my weekly "mama group") got together to celebrate all of our babies turning one! I know you guys hear me talking about these folks a lot so across the top are Krista/Ben/Milo, Angela/Pat/Andrew, Louie/Me/Josie & the bottom row is Chris/Liz/Maya and John/Alison/Ryan. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it, so there are some very important people missing out of the photo but we're going to try again soon to get everyone together.
The party was great! We reserved the new Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center - which was ideal. Here's our perfect cake:
We even had a gift exchange where the babies got to go to the center of the room and pick their own gifts. This was kind of a cool moment because Josie was opening her very first birthday present. She *loves* her new wooden elephant pull toy and pop-up book (thanks Milo)! And - the babies even had their very own cupcakes. Although, I'm surprised to report that Josie wasn't that into it. We got a quick photo but then she went on to playing. We'll try again at her first birthday party.
You all know Josie loves being around other babies and children, so she spent most of the evening looking in wonder at her surroundings. Here she is looking up at some balloons. (She SO has her daddy's eyes!)And, I must say, even though the party had lots to offer - these chairs were Josie's favorite. She spent the better part of the evening pushing these things around the center.
See what I mean?
She & Milo even played "bumper cars" for quite awhile. It was too cute. And no one even got hurt.And of course I had to capture this on video. This just further proves that babies don't need toys - they're able to turn anything into a good time. Go Josie Go!

Overall, the party was great. It was a little bittersweet for me knowing that the first year is drawing to a close. It's so strange that we were all chasing toddlers around the room and talking about weaning when it wasn't long ago that we were sitting at the Blue Manatee with tiny swaddled little munchkins learning from each other about breastfeeding. I feel so blessed to have such a strong circle of support & I can't say enough about how much these women mean to me. Plus - it's really cool that Josie is growing up alongside so many fun little friends.

More fun around the house

You've heard it before, but I'll say it again. Josie keeps us smiling. Here are a few things to illustrate that. For example, what's not to love about the new hair style that Carissa created? I had no idea that J's hair was long enough for little piggy tails, but was even more surprised that she tolerated getting them in as well as she did. (Another bit of evidence that Carissa has a gift. For a very long time, she was the only one who could trim Josie's nails. And to this day she is the only one who can say, "lay down Josie" and have Josie just go to sleep on her shoulder.) Check out these little piggies. Something about it makes her look like such a big girl (wait - she is such a big girl):
And, I had to share a couple of funny moments. This one, in particular, cracks me up. I guess it also impresses me because for a long time, Josephine just played with shoes. But, something clicked yesterday and she thought "Oh, these go on feet...Let me try."

This went on for quite awhile, so I had to get a video. I actually had a longer one where she successfully gets the flipflop on one foot & then proudly and with sheer determination, goes for the second, but it's too large to upload. You get the idea with this one...
Here's another one to make you smile. Persistence is definitely Josie's strong suit. I am not exaggerating when I say she did this about 100 times. I finally decided to film it. But, as you can see at the end, she was getting so winded that I had to force her to take a break. We'll call this video "The (little) bear went over the mountain (again and again and again)."

I'll end with two little bits of fun news:

1) Louie & I wanted to get Josie a "Radio Flyer" wagon for her first birthday and actually ended up finding a totally old school "Town and Country"- completely wooden with the rubber wheels and all from this 90 year old woman who listed it on Craigslist for $50! (She was so cute! She told us that she had no idea how to use the internet or a digital camera, but that she asked God to teach her how to use them & he showed her the way. I love that Josie's "little red wagon" comes with such a sweet story - other than we went down to Walmart and bought one).

2) Louie & I decided to "play hooky" yesterday and go to the 12:30 Red's game. It was a beautiful day, we saw a couple of home runs & Dunn hit a Grand Slam. The Reds won by a mile, and the funniest thing was that Louie & I were on the jumbotron "kiss cam." SOO funny! When we got home, some people from our building called and said they were so excited because they never had seen anyone they knew on the big screen. Thank goodness Louie's office knew where he was, because he definitely would've been busted! You can see the photo they took of us as we entered at this link: Reds FanFoto.

A weekend with friends

On Friday night, we got to spend another perfect evening with the Schmiit-Harrison family. After singing the praises of city living in a recent post, let me add the suburbs definitely have something to add to the summer - like front porch swings, slip-and-slides in the backyard, a shaded walk to the market to pick up some eggs, bike riding, stopping to play fetch with a neighborhood dog, chicken on the grill, homemade pesto from the herb garden (with a borrowed food processor from the kindly senior citizen next door who sells plants and flowers from his yard), and so forth. Here are Skylar, Josie & I on the swing. And here is Josie being entertained by Sky. Josie adores her! :) She was also quite impressed by Blane's stunts on the couch.
Thanks so much to Carrie & Bob for a delicious summertime meal. Josie loved the strawberries and chicken. But, her favorite of all was her first ear of corn. (Thanks to Ciara as well for recommending this as a potential favorite.) Could she be any happier?
She was having so much fun with it that I thought a video was definitely in order. Enjoy!