Some random fun

Since our babysitter had an out-of-town soccer game today, I got to spend the day with Josie instead of my laptop! :) We had a really fun day! And here are some photos and videos to prove it. To start, I finally got some video of our bi-lingual daughter who speaks "Canine" in addition to English.


And - speaking of dogs - today was Cincinnati's annual "Dachshund Dash" to kick off OktoberFest. Picture 40 little wiener dogs, complete with foam buns, ketchup, and mustard racing toward a line of adults each waving a squeaky toy or treat in the air. It actually attracted quite a crowd, including one very excited 13 month old. These are the impromptu events that I will miss when we move out of the city - especially since Louie met us for lunch and the big race as well.
Here is Josie getting a closer look. The funny thing was that it took her awhile to even register these as dogs since she's used to much bigger ones, but after reassuring her that these were in fact dogs she was woof-woofing in no time.
And I'll end this post with a regular scene around here that I was able to capture on video to share with you all - the excitement that can only come from one thing - the Sesame Street theme song. (It is a little sweet to think about how many children around the world smile and dance when they hear the same thing.) Enjoy!

Cuddles and more...

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby? Okay, maybe a sleeping Josie cuddling up to her little Steiff bunny. Over the last week she has become absolutely obsessed with anything stuffed in our house. It's funny. She takes things on "rides" on her alligator, hugs and kisses them, and refuses to let them go when it's necessary that she have a free hand. Case in point - lunch time. She woke up from her nap and was ready to eat, but absolutely refused to let go of either one of these toys (that would be the bear the front desk people gave her at the Beverly Wilshire on your left and Cook Monster on the right) -
After several moments of negotiating & temper tantrums, we reached the following compromise:
It's truly amazing that it feels as though she was just a cooing newborn and now she is a full-on toddler, complete with opinions and demands. (Heaven helps us when she's a teenager.)

Speaking of our little lady growing up, I keep forgetting to post her "stats" from her one year doctor's appointment:
Height -31.5 inches (Or 2 feet, 7.5 inches which sounds taller for some reason)
Weight - 22.5 pounds
The big change here is that she used to be 50% in height-for-weight, meaning that she was perfectly proportioned. But now, she is in 95th percentile for height and only in the 60th percentile for weight, so as her doctor put it she is "long and lean." It's so strange because she has lost so much of her baby fat. In the last three months, she grew over two inches but only gained about a pound. (No worries, the doctor said she is perfectly healthy and that this is just the result of her crawling, walking and burning more calories.) It's just unbelievable how much she has changed!

This week in review...

So the big news at the Schneider house is that Josie is now 13 months old, has "gone mobile" and is therefore officially a toddler (didn't we just have a newborn?!). I thought it would be fun to show her progression over the last week. So, here is how it all began. Last weekend she started taking short bursts of steps after pulling up, but with little confidence.

As the week progressed, she took steps for greater and greater distances, but usually only if she had a "catcher" at the end and if she started from one of us or holding on to something. Then, midweek, she just randomly started trying to stand up on her own. (She could stand unsupported before, but only if she was already standing and holding on to something and let go.) I thought this was so cute that she was this persistent. She literally did this for about 30 minutes until she was out of breath and had it mastered. Here are some of her early attempts to stand up from a sitting position and start walking on her own.

Last night was definitely the night she mastered walking. We had a really fun night. We watched the movie "Across the Universe" (all Beatles music) and had a blast watching Josie dance and clap every time a song came on and practice walking around the room during the boring parts. And that brings us to this afternoon. In just one week she has gone for trying to walk to full-on walking! Now, she walks on her own when she's trying to get somewhere (like in the video below) instead of before when she only walked if encouraged. Look at her go!

Here are some other photos from this past week. (This is a good time to apologize for not posting sooner this week, but Carissa was sick so I didn't have a babysitter Thursday or Friday. And no babysitter means that any downtime goes to work and not the blog.) Anyway, back to this past week. As you know from past videos, Josephine loves shoes. Here she is wearing her daddy's work shoes. Too cute! (I should mention she went over and did this herself. We just took the photo.)Since I had some extra free time with Josie this week, we walked down to the awesome park at Sawyer Point. Here is Josie crossing a little bridge at the playground. It was a weird moment for me, because I had this big flashback to crossing the little bridge in the Brownie ceremony when I was little and a big flashforward to Josie doing the same thing one day (should she so choose.)We had a great time at the park - and the big metal tube slide made a perfect drum!Here is Josie playing the big chimes - And peeking out around the corner of the playhouse (this picture cracks me up). Looking back, we had a lot of quality "park time" this past week. Lou's annual lawfirm picnic was yesterday. It was so strange to think back to last year's picnic. Josie was only about 6 weeks old and this year she was busy walking around and socializing with everyone. Here she is with Louie and one of the big flowers from the gardening basket we won as a doorprize. She carried this flower around for about an hour (almost as cute as that frozen bag of peas months ago).
Here is Josie's awesome tshirt that all the kids at the firm got airbrushed for them. (Lou and I were disappointed that we couldn't get one made for ourselves with a Carri + Lou and a big unicorn.)Here's just another random photo from the week - Josie and I reading some books before bedtime. And that brings us to today - lots of loose ends to tie up around the house & the Bengals game. We started the day with high hopes for our Bengals and suited Josie up in her new Bengals gear courtesy of "Grandma Who-Dey". But, by half time we were looking for other entertainment (darn Bengals), luckily Josie was in the mood to entertain us.

Here she is taking some of her favorite toys for a ride on her "clacky gators". As I'm typing this, she has just piled another set of toys on top of it to take them on a ride, too. So cute!

Our little Rockstar!

Special report: Today was Josephine's first music class. We signed up for "Tiny Tunes" at the Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center. It's so cute. The age group is 0-18 months and there are seven little sweeties in the class. Josie is the second-oldest, so it was so cute to see her with the wee ones. The class is mostly just interactive singing and dancing with the babies and their moms/dads. It's already very clear that this class will yield some lasting memories. :)

Josie's sweet new skills

Although she wasn't in the best mood during the taping of this video, she cooperated enough for us to capture some of her newly-acquired skills -



And, although we aren't considering it completely official just yet, Josie is "pretty much" walking. Here are a couple of still photos of the excitement -with a video coming soon. (The one I took and planned to upload has some kind of "internal error" - argh!)
Even cuter than these early steps are the pauses to stand and "dance" - hilarious.
This is more about Carissa's skill than Josie's but it's pretty exciting that Josie's hair is now long enough to do the "Pebbles" look with one ponytail on top.
And almost as good as the ponytail is the aftermath. Checkout of Josie's mohawk!
Okay, promise to get a walking video up soon. Here she comes, so I gotta run.....

Josie's Shutterfly collection has just been updated with the August photos - note her birthday photos and NYC photos are in separate albums - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com Thanks!

In Josie news...

Josie has been walking in small bursts around the house - the record so far came last night with six unprovoked steps. She was holding on to the chair and then turned and walked over to me in the middle of the room - laughing the whole way of course. She also took several steps several times back and forth between Louie & I this evening. So, in typical Josie fashion, she totally knows how to walk but will only do it when she feels like it. (Are you at all surprised?)
Josie has also gotten another tooth (bottom right) and that little bugger (top left) has *finally* broken the skin. So, she is quickly moving from five to seven teeth. There are several more just below the surface, so please say a prayer to the 'teething gods' for us that they don't cause too much late-night strife in the coming weeks.
One other super adorable thing Josie is now doing is saying "Woof, Woof" at the sight of any dog in person, on TV, or in a book. It's really cute. Not sure yet whether or not to actually count this as her first word (beyond Mama & Dada of course) but there is no doubt that this is what she is saying.
If you're wondering why we haven't captured any of these newly acquired skills & tricks on video just yet it's because Josie has become absolutely obsessed with the camera. Anytime I get it out she immediately drops what she is doing & heads straight for it. (Putting it away also led to her first official temper tantrum yesterday - stomping feet and all - which is news I am not happy to report.) Anyway, I will continue to try to capture these elusive moments for you as the week goes on.

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. :)