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!

Josie's Latest Obsessions

Well, it's Thanksgiving Eve and tomorrow we are up bright and early to head to Marion, Indiana for the annual Johnson-side-of-the-family-feast. Among other things, tomorrow will be the very first time that Josephine meets her new baby cousin Lyla so I know there will be a lot of photos to come out of that occasion. It made sense to empty my camera before hand. Here are some random photos from the past few days. :)

If you haven't been around Josie lately, she is "all girl" now. It's funny because I was talking to fellow hypnomama Angela at our playgroup this week and she was telling me about how Andrew is suddenly "all boy" and into trucks, trains, balls, etc. I swear, before having Baby J I was definitely more on the "nurture" than "nature" side of the argument and totally believed all that girl/boy stuff was due more to society than biology (ha - chalk this up as just one more thing I've been wrong about). Anyway, Josie still loves her wooden train and does point to every truck excitedly on the street downtown but we can now add "playing dress-up" to the girl column, right under her obsession with shoes and all things sparkly.

I snapped this photo from the desk in my makeshift "office" in the corner of my living room where I work as Josie & Carissa play everyday (hey, it works for us). They were playing dress-up and this was the result. Carissa dubbed her "Ninja Ballerina Fairy" although I could just as easily call this photo either "The Reason I Work from Home" or "The Reason We Love Carissa"!
Here's Josie another day in her fairy wings and pajamas. When grown-ups talk about the carefree and capricious nature of children, I think this is exactly what they mean. How much better would our days go if we woke up every morning and snapped on fairy wings while we drank our morning coffee? The rainbow legwarmers make an appearance again this season... I thought I'd share another of Josie's latest obsessions with you all as well - bread! She can't get enough of it. I'm not sure how this even started actually. All I know is that she now walks over to the pantry, opens the door, grabs the loaf of bread, and throws it at our feet. We hand her a piece, she smiles ear-to-ear, and then she eats the whole darn thing - crust and all - saying "yum" "yum" the whole way through.

Okay - stay tuned for more pictures later this weekend of what promises to be a very special holiday! :)

Aloha and Mahalo

In the interest of finally getting these pictures posted, here are some of the "greatest hits" with a whole lot more to be posted soon in her Shutterfly collection (I'll let you know when they're there).

We'll call this one "The Reason Why 9 Hours on a Plane Wasn't So Bad Afterall" although it could just as easily be called "The Reason 'Yetti' Was One of Josie's First Words":

This is the reason we went to Hawaii - the marriage of our good friend Dave (old school Miami crowd) to the beautiful Krista. We could not be more excited for them. Congratulations Mrs. and Mr. Matto! And thanks so much for inviting us to share this special occasion with you.

And I had to include this photo of Krista doing the special Traditional Hawaii Wedding Hula dance for Matto that she had learned as a surprise because it was one of the most beautiful, touching things I've ever seen and stands out as a highlight of the whole week.

Here are Louie & I at the reception:

Although the Matto nuptials were the reason we went to Hawaii, we were able to extend the trip to get some Hawaiian vacation time as well. This is Waikiki beach from the hotel where we stayed.There were lots of great beach moments. Man I love the ocean. Josie was just short of old enough to really enjoy it, but it was good practice for all the family beach vacations to come. Here we are at Kailua Beach. Josie and Louie playing in the Waikiki surf...

Josie and I "hanging loose" in Waikiki... Building sandcastles with our rented beach toys from "Baby's Away"... Playing Airplane with Granddaddy...

Posing with Daddy... Hanging out in the sand...

Playing with her little friend Stella from Thailand... Building sandcastles at sunset...

Hanging out on the hotel's beach with the whole crew (minus mama who took this paparazzi-style from the hotel balcony while I was sick)...Louie snorkeling at Waikiki (also shot from the balcony)... Hanauma Bay - a highlight of the trip - amazingly beautiful, perfect day at the beach! BIG thanks to Grandma who spent the better part of this day sitting on a park bench under a palm tree while Josie slept on a towel for at least two hours (more on that later) and the rest of us snorkeled for hours...

Louie actually relaxing... Josie chasing wild chickens at Hanauma Bay (just before the rooster got really mad at her)...And while we spent lots of time on the beach, we also had some fun just clowning around in our room...There's so much to see on Oahu as well and the smallest things amuse Josie. Here she is having the time of her life at a koy pond in the International Marketplace. This was almost called "Josie Goes Swimming with the Koy"....Here is Josie chilling with Daddy at one of the overlooks (the day that the sandfork was her best friend)...This is one of my favorite photos from the whole week - the three of them holding hands walking back from the blowhole. There was definitely some good ole' fashioned bonding going on this week. You'll have to excuse me for not posting any photos of our day driving up to the North Shore and all the way around the island. We unfortunately spent the majority of the 3-4 hour trip trying to convince Josie that we'd all be much better off if she would just sleep like we had planned. Fortunately she was match more content to sleep in the hotel beds than she was in the car.

As you can see from this next series, being a 15 month old tourist can really be exhausting. Here is Josie passed out at Hanauma Bay... And although it's probably pretty hard to see on the blog, I thought it was pretty hilarious when I realized she was laying next to a sign that said "Danger: Falling Rocks" :)

Sleeping peacefully under Granddaddy's Beatles sweatshirt...Sleeping with Grandma's cell phone (hey, whatever works)... Josie didn't spend the whole time sleeping - here she is playing in Grandma & Granddaddy's room with the super-cute hairstyle courtesy of one very talented Grandma...

Before I go, I thought I'd share some of the fun random photos from the week - starting with this great one of my parents. THANK YOU SO MUCH for coming with us on our first Hawaiian family adventure. You were unbelievably helpful & Josie had so much fun with both of you. Really, thanks for everything. We are so blessed!!

I had to share a couple of the photos of the sunflower field we stumbled across on our drive. Unreal...

These were taller than us and just went on as far as you could see...

Here's a cool storm on the horizon... Last but not least, some holiday-fun from Hawaii. As the week went on, more and more holiday decorations kept popping up. They were even building a Christmas tree made out of sand in the lobby when we left. This was the first thing we saw along the roadside and it totally cracked us up. Gotta love the Christmas trees in the same yard as the palm trees...

And this really says it all - Josie in front of the hotel Christmas tree in her sundress. :)

There are actually some more photos I still need to post - including the ones from our morning swimming with the sharks and the Schneider family photoshoot courtesy of Granddaddy. Look for those later this week. :)