Ho, Ho, Ho

A late Happy Chrismahanukwanzakkah to you and yours from the "Three Schneiders". And, my goodness, it's 2009 too now isn't it? Happy New Year everyone!

So, to recap our holidays, here we go! The season started with a visit to the other Schneiders on the morning of Christmas Eve (Lou's brother Robert, his wife Michelle, and cousins Morgan and Katrina) where Josephine thoroughly enjoyed her first up-close-and-personal experience with a real Christmas tree. Ours was fun and all, but only topped out at 10 inches, so this was much more spectacular. Here are the big girls showing Josie all the ornaments. She was very impressed.
And I even managed to score a photo of the three of them all actually looking at the camera and smiling, thanks to some good big cousin-work on Morgan's part. :)

After opening the first Christmas presents for 2008, Josie went on a pony ride. (Sidenote: we actually bought this for the girls ages ago, well before Josie, so it was very strange to see her riding it.) Thanks very much to the Schneider family for the cool new music table and jack-in-the-box. They are both a big hit in these parts! :)

We then made the annual holiday trek to Xenia, where we spent a quiet Christmas Eve night at the Johnsons for what would be the first of several days with Grandma & Granddaddy, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Michael, and Baby Lyla. After some last minute wrapping, we hit the sack and woke up Christmas morning to lots of surprises from Santa!

After some breakfast, Josie got started and really enjoyed opening her gifts and some of everyone else's. She was definitely into it this year, and I cannot even imagine what it will be like next year when Lyla is a toddler and Josie is (wow) 2 years old. Here's Josie opening her tea set from Grandma & Granddaddy (more photos of our first tea party in a later post).

And here she is opening her super cool shiny red baby grand mini-piano from her "Tia & Tio" (that's Aunt and Uncle in Spanish because Aunt Amanda and Uncle Michael is just too darn hard to say). The piano is awesome and we're already having a blast with it. In fact, Louie mastered "Three Blind Mice" just moments ago. (Thanks M&M!)Besides the great new table and chairs from G&G, Josie got her first tricycle!!! Her Kettler Blossom was an instant hit as you can see from these photos of her first ride. (Thanks G&G!)

Oh, I should mention that these are only photos from the first half of Christmas morning. Unwrapping all these gifts wore Josie out so we actually had to stop midway through and let her take a nap before launching into phase two. I didn't get any photos of the second half, but I'll try to take some pictures of her with those things - namely her new doll - and get them posted soon.

Now, for the rest of these photos, I'm not going to try to pretend like I remember which day is which. Since we were lucky enough just to have a few days of relaxing and spending time together, we spent the majority of the week just hanging out - which was wonderful. Here are some highlights.

Josie holding Lyla in the bouncy seat - "Tio" feeding Josie Sunchips -

Josie playing dress-up with Grandma's Who Dey scarf -

"Tia" and Josie enjoying the new jack-in-the-box -

Manda & I doing baby exercise with our girls together - In fact, let me say here that one of the highlights of Christmas this year was definitely watching my little sister be a mom. I always new she'd be a wonderful mother, but it's something different to see her in action. She's a total natural, and Lyla is truly blessed to have two such loving and devoted parents. Here are Manda & Lyla having "tummy time" -

This next one cracks me up! We'll call it "I"ve Got My Eye on You Bella" -

Followed by "Man, I Just Turned My Back for One Second..." Here are all of the girls - Claire, Josie, Claire & Lyla (and to think it only took about 30 shots to get one good one) -

Josie in her new chair - Granddaddy-o and all his girls - Grandma and her girls - The three of us cuddling on the floor watching "Mama Mia" (which is way better on stage than on film) - And now we spring forward to back home in Cincinnati. After what was probably the best Christmas we've ever had (thanks so much mom & dad, manda & michael), we headed home to totally rearrange Josie's playland, put away some outgrown toys, and settle in for another week together. Here are some photos from the days since we've been home -

Starting with Josie sporting some of her new duds, including her new Uggs that her Daddy totally spoiled her with - Oh and this is one of Josie's new favorites. We'll call this her "Ewww face" and I see it about 50 times a day. Her new thing is going around and pointing to things on the ground (like cat hair, or dust bunnies, or lint, or whatever) and saying "Ewww" until I come and get it. This was actually a teeny tiny piece of paper that she braved picking up herself, but I still got the "Ewww" and had to promptly remove it and throw it away. Too funny. Here's Josie enjoying her new Magnadoodle, which she loves when Louie & I aren't busy playing with it -

And playing with her letters and numbers on her new easel -

And hanging out in her new chair, that she can now get into all by herself -

And coloring with crayons in each hand, because it's just more fun that way -

And taking off her pajamas, which has happened a few times now that she's conquered the zipper -

And sitting on Venus now that she's conquered the cat - There are lots more photos to share from this holiday season which I hope to get posted soon here as well as on Josie's Shutterfly collection. Stay tuned & Happy Holidays to you all!

Bonus Footage

Yep, I know I said that last one would be it until after Christmas, but I captured this gem yesterday that I just had to share just in case you were all wondering what happens to your Christmas cards when they arrive at our house...and in case you want to see the Cat Police in action (gotta love this classic toddler behavior - that's right, our sweet little Josie now says "No" to every other word by about 10 to 1). Enjoy! [Sidebar: Laurie - that's the photo of you and the kids that she obsesses over at the end of the video.]

In other holiday news - we officially feel like parents after staying up past midnight last night wrapping and assembling presents. We have the sneaking suspicion that Josie is going to have plenty under the tree in Xenia between Santa, Grandma & Granddaddy, and the Three Austins - so we thought we'd do "mock Christmas" here tomorrow morning and now we're all set. Here is Louie assembling Josie's new easel so we don't have to keep taping paper to the floor. This picture is of her easel as it sits in the common room of the building so our little explorer won't discovery it before the big day. Just in case anyone stumbles upon it between now & then, we wanted to make sure people knew it was spoken for. ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This past week has been a busy one, topped off with Josie randomly vomiting mangoes all over herself and her carseat on Friday and then coming down with the runniest nose in history on Saturday and today. Oh and she has four teeth coming in - all of her canines (most of her molars are all of the way in now) - including one tooth that we think might be an "extra." Anyway, needless to say, she's not been feeling herself, so we tried to stick close to home this weekend (and had to reschedule with the Haddens again - boo). Anyway, here are some highlights from this week. Likely the next post won't be until after Christmas, unless we can convince Josie to actually sit on Santa's lap next door at Macy's, in which case I'll be sure to get that one posted ASAP.

Here are Josie and Carissa (who she now calls "Sissa") just before Carissa headed off for her Winter break until (gasp!) January 12th (wow, we're going to miss her). I'll be honest, I had to take this photo so I'd have it to show Josie when she needed a "Sissa-fix" and I'm not kidding, I already resorted to that at least once. You've all heard me say it before and I'll say it again and again, I cannot even tell you how much we all love Carissa and there is absolutely no way we could survive without her. Those of you with little ones know the value of good childcare. I mean, Josie spends 25 hours a week one-on-one with Carissa and so many of the things Josie does are things that she's learned from her. At the risk of getting totally mushy, Carissa has totally helped raise our daughter and how do you thank a person enough for that?
In fact, here is one of the many tricks Carissa has taught Josie to do. Check out this super cheesy smile when you tell her to "show me your teeth." She definitely can give her Uncle Michael a run for his money with this big grin! (Get ready to pose for that one over Christmas Michael.) And, maybe I should explain this photo a bit more in case it's not obvious. This is in fact Josie wearing her bee costume over her pajamas coloring a piece of packaging paper taped to the floor one morning at about 7:30am - because heck, why not?In other Josie high-fashion moments, here she is sporting her "nothing but a onesie and my sweet acorn slippers, holding mama's lip gloss with a deathgrip" look.

And here she is all bundled up for a trip into the arctic tundra that is Cincinnati at the moment! (I didn't know this at the time I took the photo, but this was actually just minutes before something major happened. For 16 months, I've walked out the front door of the condo and carried Josie around the corner to our parking garage. She points to buses and cars and people with one hand and holds on tightly to me with the other. But, not this day. On this day, as soon as we got outside, she wiggled down by body and onto her own two little feet and insisted on walking herself all the way around the corner and to the garage. Sure, it took us 10 minutes instead of 2, but it was one of those "frozen moments" when I realized how big of a girl she is and how far we've come, her little hand wrapped tightly around my pointer finger and smiling like she had never been so proud.)

In other exciting news, here is Josie getting her very first Christmas present of 2008 from our friend Kelly! Not only did this awesome new Taggies Christmas book get a big "WOW" out of Josie, but Kelly's awesome new engagement ring got a big "WOW" out of all of us. CONGRATULATIONS KELLY AND NICK!! Now hurry up and get married so you can make babies for Josie to play with! :)

I'll leave you with some funny moments from this week. This first one is of our budding blues musician who is hilarious on the harmonica. The kazoo and recorder are pretty great too, so I'll try to get those on film soon as well. Enjoy!

This one makes me laugh due to her awesome winking skills (no joke, she loves looking in the mirror and winking at herself) and because of the sheer happiness that this wooden spoon provides. You'll see what I mean when she picks it up... Enjoy!

Photos!

Last weekend, we had our friend-of-a-friend photog Sherry Wilson (http://www.sherrywilsonphotography.com/) come over to take Josephine's winter/one year photos. We opted just to go for candid photos of Josie in her natural environment rather than the posed type. Sherry is great and takes beautiful photos. (If any of you locals are interested in her contact info, let me know - she's wonderful and very reasonably priced!!!!) Here's a preview...

I tend to agree with Gandhi.

Gandhi once said..."Imitation is the sincerest flattery" which is why I'm trying to take a deep breath right now and smile instead of freaking out. Ha - see for yourself - right down to the title of the most recent blog post, "things I've learned so far" section, etc. http://fourlashombs.blogspot.com/ (This is a girl I went to high school with & I saw her "new website" listed on her facebook page.) Really it's pretty hilarous if you ask me, although I'll admit it makes me a little sad, too.

12/17/08- I've just heard from a good friend that the blog in question has been removed. I've also just discovered that said blog author has removed me from her friend list on Facebook which is perplexing, but understood. All the best to her and her beautiful children.

As promised, here's a video from the other day. Bummer that the one I took of her winking is too large to upload, but I'll try to capture that hilarious new skill on video again later today. In the meantime, here's a video of Josie who recently rediscovered the joys of Mrs. Beasley. We got her a Waldorf baby for Christmas and this confirms that she's ready for her first real doll. :)

Pretty funny, too that she drags her around by her hair. I hope this isn't a preview of the way she might treat any future brothers or sisters (no, I'm not pregnant).

Some updates

Well, Josephine is now a 16-month-old, which is just crazy! I can't even tell you where this last month went. As I was updating the Josie's shutterfly collection with all the November photos, http://www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com/ I noticed there were some recent photos to share and some updates on her development these days as well...

First, Josie has turned into a total chatterbox! We just had her 15 month check-up, so we decided to keep track of her newfound vocabulary for "HotDoc". When we actually started keeping track, she was up to over 30 words in one day!!! Even though she does say "Day-Do" for "Thank you" and "Peeez" for "Please", I'm not really counting them as real words unless a stranger knew what she was saying. Some of our favorite Josie words these days are: up, bus, hat, uh-oh, oh-no, wow, home, off/on, help, all done, ball, doll, bear, boots, socks, heart, snow, rain, hat, bath, and more. She also says her body parts when pointing to them now, including knee (which was actually one of her first words), elbow, nose, eyes, and head. She also says names, including Lyla, Andrew, Aoife, and of course Elmo. Really, it's just crazy that she is totally communicating now, including very passionate "No's" to herself when she is doing something she's not supposed to (like going for a bite of cat food) and equally passionate "No's" to us when we suggest say, naptime for example.

Speaking of her 15 month appt, she continues to grow taller and taller. She's now up to 32 inches (that's an inch and a half since September) and she's weighing in at just over 23 pounds (just under a pound gained since September). This puts her in the 92nd percentile for height, 50th percentile for weight, and 25th percentile in weight-for-height. As the doctor puts it, she's "tall and thin but definitely not underweight". Everything looks great and we feel incredibly blessed to have such a happy & healthy little girl!

Here are some photos from the past week or so. I took some great videos today that I will get posted over the weekend, so be sure to check back. :)

This is from our playgroup last week. This is Josie and her little friend Aoife playing at Andrew's house. This was a crazy moment for me because I realized the kids are now playing together! As my mom put it, for a long time our hypnomama group used to get together so the mamas could "play" with each other, and now it's totally about the babies. (Sidenote: we mamas actually left the babies with their daddies last night and had a delicious dinner at Wild Ginger. We stayed well beyond our meal's end just chatting and having fun. I've said it before and I'll say it again; I don't know what I'd do without them!)

Oh, here's another funny moment from the playgroup last week. Ciara got out some yogurt for Aoife and Andrew & Josie immediately wanted to share. This led to Ciara getting three different colored spoons from Ang and feeding the three of them like a mama bird. Hilarious! Here's a very bundled-up Josie heading out in her Cincinnati-December-best. :)

And a photo of Josie very intently watching Lyla videos on http://www.threeaustins.blogspot.com/, I'm not kidding - she actually figured out how to restart the videos and watch them over and over again. I took a video of her doing it, but it's too large to upload here (bummer) so the photo will just have to do.

And here's a photo of what was supposed to be Josie's very first blanket-fort. Turns out, it was Venus' very first blanket-fort, although we did manage to color a few pictures under there before Venus totally freaked out! And, last but not least, a photo of Louie & Josie reading a book before bed the other night. I love moments like these. Josie just loves her daddy so much. I had to laugh when I saw this photo, too. I didn't notice this until I saw the photo, but Lou & Josie are sitting in the same position as the monkey & penguin over their shoulders. :)

First Snow 08

This weekend brought our first official "snow days" of 08. We unfortunately had to reschedule plans with the Hadden family due to a surprise snow (at least it was a surprise to us). So, we decided to stick around the condo and play all weekend. On Saturday, we spent the better part of the day in our pjs. We decorated the house for Christmas and drew a big holiday mural. Josie spent a lot of time "decorating" it with her now-trademark dots of every color. (She also wore her fairy wings for the special occasion.) On Saturday evening, we walked over the Square to watch Santa and his reindeer rappel down the side of a building and launch a pretty spectacular fireworks display. Here's Josie enjoying her second set of winter fireworks.
And our friends Ang & Pat- their son Andrew (aka "Andoo" to Josie) and Ang's little sister Lilly...
And our friends Ciara, Gareth & Aoife (aka "Fafa" according to Josie)...It has been ages since we had friends over past dark, so it was great to have them.

On Sunday, the big event was Josie's winter pictures. Yes, we majorly procrastinated! These are actually her one year/winter/Christmas photos, so I'm hoping they turned out well. We decided just to do the "photoshoot" here at the house where Josie is comfortable just being herself. Before the photos, we decided to get her all wound-up playing. Here's the evidence of a good, solid 30 minutes of three giggling Schneiders...

(One little monkey jumping on the bed...)
Don't you just love the pigtails flying through the air?

Last but not least - moms, click here for a chance to win an Ergo Baby carrier. Hooray!
http://www.alongfortheride.biz/Win-a-Free-Organic-Embroidered-Ergo-Baby-Carrier-s/49.htm

Gobble, Gobble

This photo perfectly captures what the holidays are all about - family, friends, and (although you can't see our full bellies) food! This year we traveled to Marion, IN for one-heckuva Thanksgiving dinner that was nothing short of an absolute feast. Big thanks to Douglas & Brent who have missed their callings as event planners and to Patti & Earl for welcoming us into their beautiful home. It was really nice to spend the day with them and with Evelyn, Justin, their three gorgeous daughters and my Aunt Pat. Here are some more photos from the day that highlight the fun time with family...

Clearly, there just weren't enough hours in the day for everyone to get their cuddle time in with little-bundle-of-joy Baby Lyla!

Suffice it to say that we are more ready for #2 than we ever have been, BUT we're not ready yet. :)This was a pretty special moment for Mom & Dad Johnson - sitting across the room from Manda & I as we sat with Josie and Lyla. They both got all teary-eyed seeing "their daughters with their daugthers". This was the first time that we'd all been together and it was a pretty incredible moment.

Now - back to the food. Did I mention it was delicious? So you know how you feel after too much turkey... I think this face captures it pretty well? (Look closely to see the mac & cheese all over her cheeks.) This little lady was stuffed!
But, she learned a very important lesson on Thursday afternoon...no matter how full you are, there's always room for dessert. (Thanks Earl!)
Here are some photos we took in Earl & Patti's lovely yard. We were hoping for something Christmas-card-worthy but my 35mm was majorly acting up so the photos wound-up being very over-exposed. (Sidenote: we checked our warranty on Friday & found out that Monday was the last day of the warranty, ran down to FedEx to ship it back to Canon, and long story short - voila - a fixed camera arrived today. Hooray!) So, nothing worthy of the Christmas card, but definitely a few worthy of the blog.

So, Thanksgiving was a success and it was only Thursday!!

Now, onto the rest of the weekend's festivities. We set aside Friday for the Schneider-side of the family and had a very tasty Indian dinner in the early evening. It was one of those nights where everything just fell into place perfectly. We beat the crowd at Akash, had a delicious meal, then finished up just in time to walk past the annual tree lighting on Fountain Square on our way home. We got to the square just in time for the big reveal that Nick Lachey was the one in the Santa suit. Here is Josephine all bundled up in her Cincinnati-winter-best.

And here she is with Grandma & Grandpa Schneider just before the big event!

They lit the 60-footer & then had a big surprise fireworks display. To say that Josie was absolutely captivated would be an understatement. She was utterly and completely in awe of them!

Here's a video... and yes, that's Josie squealing excitedly in the background. :)

On Saturday we headed up to Xenia to see my long-lost PJ before he headed home to FLA, meet baby Makayla, and stop by a party at our friends Bill & Alicia's house. Ladies and gentlemen...meet Makayla - what a doll! Big congrats to Suzie & Kenny!
Here's a photo from the final moments of our Thanksgiving weekend festivities - just before leaving Bill & Alicia's house to head home on Saturday night. Thanks for having us guys! It was great to see you!

Some family links...

Thank goodness I'm not the only one with a blog in the family, because the chances of me getting our Thanksgiving photos posted in the next couple of days are looking pretty grim. So, in the meantime, check out my cousin Evelyn's new blog at: http://www.fiveshorts.blogspot.com/ and my sister's blog at http://www.threeaustins.blogspot.com/ for some turkey day highlights, and I promise to get ours posted soon. :) Also, if you've got some time on your hands and want to go through 300 or so Hawaii photos, I've now added the lot of them to Josie's Shutterfly collection - http://www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com/ Enjoy!