Looking Ahead...

Now that we've had Josephine, many people have starting asking if and when we want to have more kids. For the past several weeks, I've been telling most people that it's too soon to know. But, I took a big step today that I think answered the question. I just reserved "fourschneiders.blogspot.com" :)

8 weeks old!

Our little Josephine is officially 8 weeks old. It's amazing that she will hit the two month mark this week. Even more amazing is how much she has grown, changed & learned in these 8 weeks. Come to think of it, it's also pretty amazing how much Louie and I have grown, changed & learned as well.

Josie has hit many little milestones lately. She is bearing weight on her legs, smiling often, beginning to giggle & almost fully controlling her head. She's gotten much more interested in her toys and is very attentive. She even has a favorite book already! All in all, we're excited for the progress but also sad that it's all going by so quickly.

Louie & I also hit a major milestone this week -- we left Josie with my parents for our first date night. We went to dinner at Jean Ro & pulled out all the stops - even champagne & pot de creme. It was delicious and really nice to eat a meal out without the baby in the sling in front of me. The picture on the left shows us just before we went out. (I had an even bigger smile after the glass of champagne!)

On Saturday we headed up to Ault Park for a picnic and some fresh air. The picnic park went well, but the fresh air part did not. Turns out it was almost 90 degrees by noon & there wasn't much shade. We did manage to snap a few family photos before we returned to the comfort of the air conditioned car & headed to DSW. Thanks to my mom's skills on Friday night, Josie finally took a pacifier so the Nuk bought us almost an hour of shoe shopping. The photo above is from the park.

So, all is well. No true success on the bottle just yet, but we're getting there. With that, I gotta run. My little lady has just woken up from her nap & has requested lunch. :)

Favorite Photo Ever!

Here is a picture from our recent trip to Indiana to celebrate my Nana's Birthday. My cousin Evelyn took a lot of photos & used a special computer program to do cool effects like the one above. This is definitely my favorite photo of Josie so far. She's holding onto her great gradmother's hand. She just looks so calm & so peaceful.
(See the rest of Evelyn's photos to the Shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com)

My How She's Grown!

Here's a picture of Josie the day after she was born. This was taken just a few minutes before we were leaving to go home.
Here's a picture of Josie in the SAME outfit a few days ago (7 weeks old). Notice how much shorter the outfit is in her arms & legs. Her face also looks completely different. People always say, "they change so quickly" & they truly do. I swear there are days when she changes from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed. Oh & she's not wearing the cute little hat in the second photo b/c it was too small. She never could fit the booties that matched the outfit. Not with those monster feet. :)

SMILE!

Yesterday was a big moment - Josie had her first big, intentional smile!

She had just woken up from her nap & started making her "I'm awake, so come and get me" noises. I walked over and bent down to pick her up and started talking to her. She smiled the biggest smile & let out a big "coo"! So, I of course smiled right back at her and she did it again! Another huge, toothless grin! We just sat there smiling back and forth at each other & then I started crying (tears of joy of course). That probably confused the heck out of her, but she just kept cooing. It was a really special moment - confirmation that she knows who I am & is happy to see me. I imagine she'll have a big smile for her daddy very soon.

Happy Birthday!

Josie is 7 weeks old!
And Louie is 1612 weeks old!

(HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY LOUIE.)

I've also added some new photos to the Shutterfly collection -

http://josiemarie.shutterfly.com/ Enjoy!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

So, life is definitely different these days. And it's definitely the best kind of different there is.

We just find ourselves in these moments where we look around and realize our lives have completely changed. For example, we now have a "breastmilk shelf" in the refrigerator instead of a beer shelf. Instead of going out for drinking and debauchery with all our friends to celebrate Lou's birthday on Friday, we went out with our beloved "old school" crowd for pizza & Graeter's ice cream. [See photo above.] We spent our Saturday afternoon at the law firm picnic & went to bed exhausted at 8:30. We had hoped Josie was as tired as we were, but we had to wait until 10 for her to go to sleep so that we could. Today, Lou is getting one of his birthday presents from me (his birthday is actually Monday 10/1). When asked what he wanted this year, it was to spend at least 8 hours on the Nintendo Wii so he could finally save Zelda & move on with his life. [The photo above was taken during Hour 3.] If you were out for Lou's 30th last year, then you definitely know the difference between this birthday & the last one. :)

It's just funny how we spent our 20s "dreading" the days when we'd be the ones shaking our fists at the kids making too much noise & promising ourselves that we'd never be the kind to be in bed when it was still light outside. But, we're slowly figuring out that our priorities have completely changed -- and for the better. Sure, we'll never stop enjoying hanging out & partying with our friends. Just count on three people showing up instead of two. :)

Venus & Josie

TWO NEW VIDEOS!

The first video shows our jealous cat Venus. I was filming Josie on her playmat b/c she discovered the joys of sucking on her hand (hopefully a pacifier is next). Venus literally got between me and the camera. Too funny. Click HERE to watch it.

The second video is very quick, but significant. This is the closest Venus has ever gotten to the baby. It was shot a few minutes after the first video. I guess she figured this was her best chance of getting a good sniff since Josie was down on her level. Click HERE to see our courageous kitty.

The Grandpas

Josie is a lucky lady to have 2 grandmas & 2 grandpas. Here are some photos of her 2 grandpas.

There's her silly Grand-daddy-O yawning right along with her & her Grandpa Schneider celebrating his 70th birthday this week. (Speaking of the 70th birthday celebration, many thanks to Grandma Schneider for boxing up her whole dinner to eat at home so she could hold Josie while we ate.)

More Josie Songs

Thanks to Kelly's obsession with babynames.com, we now have quite a few more songs to add to our "Songs about Josephine" list. I think we've got enough to make a CD now. :)

Here are the ones Kelly found -

Good Night, Sweet Josephine - The Yardbirds
Hello Josephine - Fats Domino, Dave Edmunds, The Flamin' Groovies
Them Josephine - Chris Rea
Josephine - Teitur
Josephine - Terrorvision
Josephine - Tori Amos
Josephine Baker - Sailor
Josephine of the Swamps - Grant-Lee Phillips
Ride On Josephine - Bo Diddley, George Thorogood

Josie - Blink 182
Josie - Donovan

This just in...

Josie slept for 7.5 hours last night, 8 hours the night before, and 7 hours the night before that! WOW! Now, as great as that is...she has given up on sleeping during the day. So working on day time naps is the next big goal. One other down side (confirmed by the pediatrician) is that she still eats the same amount every 24 hours, so she has to make up the two night feedings that she is skipping sometime during the day. Maybe that would explain why it seems like she's eating every hour on the hour during daylight. Hmmm...maybe I'm ready to go back to her only sleeping 4 hours at a time. If not, I may have to start getting up in the middle of the night to do everything I would normally do during the day. :)

A Day in the Life...

Introducing... in her online video debuts...

Josephine Marie Schneider...

So, here are the videos to show what we do all day. These basically summarize "A Day in the Life" of Baby Josie (except we spared you all any footage of diaper changes)... Life is Good!

Josie on Playmat (just check out those new baby noises) - click here

Josie's Bath (we love our water baby) - click here

Josie Just Hanging Out (so many new facial expressions) - click here

Josie Holds Up Her Head (getting stronger everyday) - click here

And last but not least...

Josie Sleeps (and wakes up & sleeps again) - click here

ENJOY! :)

Four Generations

This weekend we took Josie to Marion, Indiana. It was a very special trip to celebrate my Nana's 85th birthday & to take the baby to meet her Great Grandmother! Even though my Nana has Alzheimer's and can no longer take care of herself, we were all amazed at the fact that her maternal instincts are still completely intact. She held Josie and sang to her and rocked her. It was so sweet how Josie completely relaxed in her arms and stared up at her. She held on to Nana's finger all day, and Nana seriously must have said something about how the baby had ahold of her at least 100 times throughout the course of the day. Overall, I just can't explain how much it meant to me that Josie got to spend some time with her great grand-nana. :) And, as difficult as it is for Nana to live with the frustrations of a failing mind, it was clear that Josie brought her a lot of joy yesterday.

6 Weeks Old & Lots of Excitement

Josie's 6th week was filled with lots of excitement & we have the pictures to prove it. Check out her Shutterfly collection here. These three photos win the prize for my favorite new facial expressions!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Here's another photo from Kelly's 30th birthday party. Josie was a very good girl. I think socializing must be in her DNA. All joking aside, it went well & our confidence was boosted. I even nursed her twice at the table - once while I was woofing down sushi with my right hand & holding her with my left. :)

Songs about Josephine

So, as little Josie has gone out into the world, people have told us about songs that share her name.

Soon after she was born, my dad reminded us of the Steely Dan song "Josie" - here are the lyrics. Lou particularly likes the first line since I bust out my hooters for Josie every two hours. :)

We're gonna break out the hats and hooters When Josie comes home / We're gonna rev up the motor scooters When Josie comes home to stay / We're gonna park in the street Sleep on the beach and make it / Throw down the jam till the girls say when / Lay down the law and break it When Josie comes home / When Josie comes home So good / She's the pride of the neighborhood / She's the raw flame / The live wire / She prays like a Roman With her eyes on fire / Jo would you love to scrapple/ She'll never say no / Shine up the battle apple / We'll shake 'em all down tonight/ We're gonna mix in the street/ Strike at the stroke of midnight /Dance on the bones till the girls say when /Pick up what's left by daylight When Josie comes home//When Josie comes home So bad / She's the best friend we ever had / She's the raw flame / The live wire / She prays like a Roman With her eyes on fire / When Josie comes home So good /She's the pride of the neighborhood /She's the raw flame The live wire She prays like a Roman With her eyes on fire

On our first trip to Grandma & Grandpa Schneider's house, Bob told me about an old song called "Come Josephine in My Flying Machine." After some research, we found at that it was the Number One song in 1911! (Actually, for all of you Titanic fans - it's the song that Jack sings to Rose when he holds her up on the bow of the boat in the famous "I'm the King of the World" scene and also the song she is singing as he is sinking to his death at the end. Cheery, huh?)
It's actually the cutest song ever & I'm busy trying to teach it to myself so I can sing it to our baby girl. Here are the lyrics:
Oh, say! Let us fly, dear Where, kid? To the sky dear /Oh, you flying machine! / Jump in Miss Josephine /Ship Ahoy!Oh, joy! / What a feeling/ Feels cold, thru the ceiling. /Ho, high!Hoopla, we fly! /To the sky so high/ Come Josephine, in my flying machine/ Going up, she goes! Up she goes! / Balance yourself like a bird on a beam /In the air she goes; there she goes! /Up, up, a little bit higher. / Oh, my! The moon is on fire. / Come, Josephine in my flying machine / Going up, all on, "Goodbye"/One, two, now we're off, dear. / Oh, you, pretty soft, dear. / Whoa! Say! Don't hit the moon./Oh, no, not yet but soon. /You for me,Oh, gee! /You're a fly kid. /Not me, I'm a sky kid. /Gee! I'm up in the air about you.
And, for your listening pleasure...here's a link to the music:
http://www.geocities.com/dferg5493/comejosephineinmyflyingmachine.htm

The third Josie song came from Ryan at Kelly's 30th bday. Lou & I were very impressed that he remembers the 80s "Outfield" song called "Your Love" that starts "Josie's on a vacation far away /Come around and talk it over. / So many things that I wanna say /You know I like my girls a little bit older. /I just wanna use your love tonight / I don't wanna lose your love tonight..."

So, the challenge has been issued. What other Josie/Josephine songs are out there????

Create a google account

FYI - in order to leave comments on the blog, you need to create a google account. Creating a google account is easy, because you just use your normal email address (my google login is my yahoo email address). Anyhoo, to create a google account, you can:
1) click on the link to leave a comment at the bottom of this message & follow the prompts to create an account or...
2) go to www.google.com and click on "sign in" in the upper right hand corner to creat an acccount or...
3) click here to go directly to the form & sign up.

Pediatrician Visit

Today Josie had her official one month pediatrician visit.
The verdict:
Length - 23 inches (95th percentile)
Weight - 12 lbs. 1 oz. (95th percentile)
So, all that breastfeeding appears to be paying off! :)
Her weight-for-height percentile is 50th, so she's perfectly proportioned. The doc says everything great & that she's healthy and thriving. It's great to get good news from the pediatrician.

Thanks goodness for Grandmas!

On Friday, Josie got a visit from her Grandma & Grandpa Johnson and on Saturday we went to visit her Grandma & Grandpa Schneider. I think the combined diaper changes between the two Grandmas was at least a dozen and they each logged several hours of quality cuddle time.
THANK GOODNESS FOR GRANDMAS!

Venturing Out More...

It's hard to believe that it's already mid-September, but I guess we've come a long way in the past five weeks. Considering that we spent the entire first week in our bed just staring at her & getting little else done, I guess it's impressive that we're now getting out of the house pretty regularly. There are many new photos posted on the Shutterfly site - click here to see them. These photos are from Kelly's 30th birthday party and Josie watching her first Bengals game with Dad. The other photo is one passed out baby after a marathon feeding session at Grandma & Grandpa Schneiders house on Saturday. All in all, things are going well. This week coming up is a busy one - my postnatal OBGYN visit, Josie's official one month "well baby" visit, another afternoon with the Hypnohotties, and a trip to Indiana next weekend so Josie can meet her Great-Grandmother.

Oh- one other thing- today I had to go through Josie's dresser and get put away all of the newborn sized clothes. It just doesn't fit anymore. Most of what she's wearing now is 0-3 months & even a couple of 3-6 month things. It was fun to get the new clothes out. :)