Whatta weekend!

Labor Day weekend is always a big deal in Xenia. Both my sister and I always come back to town and we get to spend some extended time with family and old friends. We've definitely had some memorable Labor Day weekends in the past. But, I can say with certainty that no Labor Day weekend has topped all of the excitement of this one. The formula was simple --> one very pregnant little sister + one very pregnant best friend + that same little sister turning 30 + one daddy-o turning 60 + debbie's birthday as well = lots of celebrating to do!!! Amanda's shower went really well. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and Debbie & Phillip's deck provided the perfect place to enjoy the family, friends, and baby-anticipating fun. I was so fortunate to have the help of so many people in planning the big day & cannot thank mom, Debbie, Ava & Julie enough for everything they did to help.
I'll let you all head to www.threeaustins.blogspot.com for the full report and photos from the shower (if not up now, I'm sure it will be soon) but I had to share just a few photos from this weekend of Josie getting up close and personal with "Baby A."

Food for Thought

Mealtime is always fun around the Schneider house, but nothing tops this morning. Check out the video that Louie took of Josie this morning as she was eating her scrambled eggs - apparently she was still tired...

And enjoying her new favorite meal - Cottage Cheese (she is truly a Johnson now). Technically, this is salmon, pears, and cottage cheese all mixed together. Yum?

Happy Birthday Aunt Amanda!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you - Happy Birthday Aunt Amanda, Happy Birthday to you! :)

(Is it even possible that my little sister is 30?!?!)

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...

Birthday Wrap-up

If you haven't gotten enough of Josie's first birthday just yet (I think we will continue to celebrate it the rest of the month), you can check out the 300+ photos in the new album of her Shutterfly collection at www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com ! ENJOY!

A visit from Grandma

With Carissa in training camp gearing up for Xavier's soccer season over the last two weeks, we were left scrambling for childcare. It ended up working out with two fill-ins (Carissa's friend Mary who has filled in before & British Nanny Helen who works for Lou's boss) but my mom also volunteered to come down and help. And, it's no surprise, Josie & Grandma had a great time together.

But first - I just had to share this quick photo taken from the window of the KnowledgeWorks conference room where I had a meeting on Wednesday. Ha - that's our condo building right there on the left - the orange one. I told you all I worked close to the office. How's that for a short commute?

Josie was in top form while my mom was here. Her personality was shining brightly and she kept us both laughing all day. The funniest moment by far was when Josie was awake in the bed playing between Louie and I on Thursday morning. My mom came to get her so that Louie and I could sleep in a little longer. As soon as she saw Grandma coming, she quickly laid down and pretended to be asleep. We all cracked up! That Josie!

Once she did finally get out of bed, Grandma gave her her first braids. Ooooh - pretty!
And I still don't know how she did it...
After some walking and some shopping (thanks Grandma for the cute new outfit and onesies) and lunch with Mama, we headed back to the house where Josie cracked us up again! That little stinker used her new orange chair to climb up on the ottoman and then the couch. And when she got to the couch, she spread her arms and legs out wide like "ahhhh...." We of course cracked up. Here she is climbing back down so she can do the whole thing again.And here are Grandma and Josie on the couch together - and Mama from behind the lens with one hand on the camera and one handing preventing Josie from face-planting onto the floor. I'm telling you - that little girl of ours is totally fearless!

Thanks Mom for volunteering to help out. And thanks also to Grandma Phyllis who was going to help out last week before we found Helen. We are truly blessed to have so much support!

Garden Fresh Fun

Behold - Grandma Schneider's fresh, delicious tomato - Josie had never seen such a thing of beauty and wondered "Can I eat it?"
After several inquisitive pokes with fingers from both hands, she goes in for a bite -
That which held so much promise proved to be a better toy than treat, and a good time was had by all!

More from Josie's First

There is a lot to report from this past week so expect lots of exciting news coming soon, but first I had to share a few more photos from Josephine's First that came from her Granddaddy's camera.


And another big birthday kiss for Granddaddy who celebrates the big 6-0 today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDDADDY!!!

Josephine's First Birthday Bash!

Josephine's birthday party was Saturday at the Coffee Emporium downtown on Central Parkway. We had about 50 people come in & out and it was truly the perfect afternoon with friends and family! The day started with lots of preparation. We had everything ready. First, the perfect cupcakes - with a very special one just for Josie -

Next, Josie's "birthday book" for everyone to share a special memory or wish for Josie's future (PLEASE...if you are reading this & did not get to sign the book...if you are out of town or otherwise...please mail a note that we can glue into her birthday book - 18 E. 4th St. #501 Cincinnati, OH 45202. Thanks!)
Then, we made a bulletin board with one photo from each month of Josie's life (which I will get added as a slideshow to the blog soon) -
We had the perfect space with big balloons -

And lots of food -
But, we were only missing one little thing - JOSIE!!!

Poor little thing was late getting her nap & we didn't dare wake her up, so Louie actually stayed at home until she woke up and we began the party without her. When she showed up, she was ready to party! She even had a little party outfit. Check her out...After hanging out with all her friends and family and going on lots of wagon rides, pushing her alligators around the coffee house, and playing with her cousins (and perfect babysitters) from Kokomo (thanks for everything Kinley & Arielle)...

...it was time to sing "happy birthday" and have some cake! Here is Josie showing off her new trick that we practiced for the party. How old is Josie???

This stunt made everyone clap, so of course she clapped too!
Then came the candle -
She loved the candle -

And loved that a room full of people was singing to her -
Then it was time to dig in to the cake and to pose for more photos -
I wonder if Louie knows that we captured him sneaking a bite of Josie's cupcake?
Here's the family photo. Hey M&M - before you now it we'll have a picture just like this with "Baby A" in the middle! And while we're on the topic of "Baby A" - just look at that beautiful belly grow - Then it was time to open presents. And, I'm not kidding, it looked like Christmas morning. Josie really appreciated everyone's generosity and she loves her new toys, books, and clothes!!! She had lots of help opening gifts (thank goodness)!
Then a wagon ride for Louie courtesy of cousins Morgan & Katrina.
And then we got kicked out of the coffee house because we had gone 45 minutes over our time. (Oops.)

Maybe it was the sheer volume of sugar that we all consumed, but we were still ready to party once we got home & we had the awesome Melissa & Doug "Band in a Box" from Aunt and Uncle M&M so in the words of Maurice Sendak - "Let the wild rumpus start!"

After the jam session that any good Phish-head could appreciate, we started winding down and Josie spent some more quality time in the awesome P'Kolino chair from Grandma & Granddaddy. She made it to bed about 9pm and then totally crashed. What a day!!!
And, I'll leave you with this photo from Sunday morning - although it could easily be from any morning or afternoon this week because we simply cannot get her out of this chair. Here she is hanging out with her new friend Molli the Bunny. I can assure you there are many more chair photos to come because she is just too funny sitting in it. What a big girl!
For more photos from Josie's first birthday, visit Aunt Manda's Blog at http://www.threeaustins.blogspot.com/ ! I'll also let you all know when the full set is posted to her Shutterfly collection. :)