Josie is 5 Months Old

Miss Josie Wosie is five months old! That is five months of wonderful!

- According to our scale, Josie weighs 13lb 14oz. While we don't know how long she is, we know that she is growing length-wise due to her jammies becoming too small. She wears 0-3 month and 3 month clothes still, but we are starting to transition into 3-6 month clothes (especially those jammies). She also wears size 2 diapers now.

- Josie is really starting to sleep at night! She will lay down around 7:30 or 8:00 each night, waking up once to eat. She usually will sleep for about six hours in between those feeds. It is so nice to get a nice stretch of rest, for both of us and her.

- Josie is averaging about 4 1/2 ounces of formula at a time. Once she even had 6 1/2 ounces! She still spits up, but it isn't as bad as it once was. She usually eats about 1/4 cup of cereal once a day, too. I am so glad that this kid likes eating!

- We have a rolling machine on our hands! Josie just rolls and rolls and rolls! One day I watched her roll 6 feet away in a matter of seconds. After she was finished rolling she propped herself up on her arms and smiled. Silly girl! Besides rolling a few feet away from her original location, she will also change directions. If I turn around to do help Sophie with something, or to grab something from another room for a minute while Josie is on the floor, I will always find her in a new place. We really need to be careful about Josie's safety now, watching to make sure she can't pull anything down on her or get tangled up by cords or blankets. If I have her in the hallway upstairs I always lock the gate at the top of the stairs just in case she makes her way over there. Sophie makes the safety thing a little bit harder since she is always leaving toys and items all over the floor.
- Speaking of moving all over, Josie is in those beginning stages of crawling. She does the 'Superman' (arms and legs off the floor while she is on her belly), gets her knees under her body (she isn't pushing up though), and is even scooting/inching forward on the ground. 
- Josie is loving her Jumperoo this month. She likes being able to sit up and see everything that is going on. She is also able to touch the ground now, so she is starting to bounce a little. She also loves when Sophie  comes over and plays with her. She is starting to play with the attached toys, too.

- Josie loves her big sister! Whenever Sophie goes over to her, Josie will get the biggest smile on her face! Even when I think that Sophie is being a little rough with Josie (pulling her arms, opening up her hand, etc), Josie smiles and giggles. Sophie loves Josie, too, and constantly covers her in kisses and gives her big hugs. I am so glad that these two have each other.

- Josie had a lot of firsts this month. Her firsts included: getting in the pool (she liked it); being pushed in a swing outside (loved it!); met her great grandma Z (she gave her big smiles) as well as a few of mommy's aunts and cousins that she had not previously met; she went to her first funeral (for great grandpa Z); she sucked on an ice cube with the mesh holder (She seemed pretty happy with it. It really soothed her gums-we think she is teething); she ate carrots (wasn't too sure about it at first, but ended up loving it. She ate the whole container!).

First reactions to carrots.

 - Josie participated in a diaper study. Basically we had to use some diapers for two weeks and record information about them. Can't going to any other specifics due to the confidentiality of the study. We earned some money and had free diapers for two weeks so that was pretty sweet.
- My girl's hair is starting to really grow! I love the fuzz on top of her head.

- Josie and I had a scary experience a few weeks ago. We were walking down the stairs so that we could go to church. I had her on my shoulder, holding her with one arm, and I was holding into the railing. I must have slipped on my pant leg because the next thing I knew I was falling on the stairs. I immediately had a vision of Josie leaving my arms and stumbling down to the hard tile at the bottom of the stairs. I grabbed Josie's  shirt and squeezed her to my body as I tried to grip the railing to stop myself from falling. Josie lurched around a little bit, but never left my arms. I was bruised, scraped, and tore skin off of my finger, but thankfully nothing happened to Josie.   I am so thankful that Josie was alright. I would take any hurt and pain as long as it meant that my kids would be safe. What a scary experience!

- Josie is grabbing things and holding them so well this month! She is still working on the coordination of it all, but there is a drastic improvement from last month. Now she is holding and grabbing at things both deliberately and with more precision. She will hold objects up to her face so she can get a good look at them. Then the items go straight into her mouth for proper inspection! Her favorite things to grab are her feet and toes. She can't put them into her mouth yet, but I know she will soon enough.

Josie loves grabbing her toes.

- Josie is really starting to get frustrated with laying down all of the time. She constantly tries to sit up by doing these little mini crunches. She gets so mad! Because of this, I've been trying to get her to sit up on her own. She generally just leans forward on her arms and looks like a sphinx. It doesn't last long, but it is a start!

Here are some more pictures from this month (I had to create a few collages because there were so many pictures that I like!):

Sophie loves to help out with Josie.

Josie loves kisses from Grandma Z....

....but apparently doesn't love kisses from boys! 

We always put Josie in her highchair when we eat dinner  so that we can all be together. It must be boring watching us eat. She has fallen asleep there multiple times. 

The many smiles of Josie.

One day Josie was sleeping on her Boppy. I noticed Sophie was looking tired, but she refused to go upstairs to sleep. I jokingly told her to go sleep on the Boopy with Josie. Sophie went straight over to where Josie was, curled up next to her and fell right asleep. So sweet.

Excited to be at the zoo!

Right after I snapped this picture I put my camera down. She kept getting closer to the edge of the chair so I wanted to be able to catch her if she fell. Sure enough she did a perfect front flip off the chair, landing in my arms. She laughed!

It was so difficult trying to get her to stay still so that I could take her picture. She kept rolling right over onto her stomach.

Always grabbing those toes! 

34 Months

My small fry is 34 months old today! I can't believe that she is going to be 3 years old in just 2 short months. Where has the time gone?!

Grandpa Z bought the girls a bubble blower. She loves it and wants to play with it each day. 

Grandma Z bought Sophie some princess attire. She has loved walking around in her shoes and tiara (or "my Cinderella!" as she calls it). 

Enjoying the baby pool on a hot day.

Sophie still likes throwing sand out of the sandbox best (check out the grass behind her).

Getting cleaned up after helping Daddy in the yard. 

One of Kaci's birthday presents was a trampoline. Sophie LOVED it!

One of Sophie's favorite things to do each day is to get out Mommy's 'princess shoes' and walk around in them.The day of this picture, Sophie walked down the stairs in the shoes (scary!) and proudly strutted into the living room to show them off to us. She is better at walking in them than me! 

Coloring with sidewalk chalk is still an activity that Sophie adores.

Sophie likes to help clean. Whenever I have out sanitizing wipes to clean, Sophie wants to help. I give her a wet paper towel and she will clean off chairs and the floor. I hope she is always likes cleaning!

One disgusting habit of Sophie's is that she likes to suck on her hair. We often tell her that we are going to have Aunt Sara chop all her hair off if she doesn't stop, but she just laughs and us and sucks on the hair some more.

Miss Sassy Pants

Sophie loves playing with Josie while she is in her Jumperoo.

One night I walked into Sophie's room to kiss her goodnight and found her asleep like this!

Speaking of sleep, for three days in a row Sophie wanted to sleep in her pop-up cube/tent.

I am loving Sophie's hair in ponytails. The hair never stays up for long though, regardless of how much hairspray I use.

Sophie loves her sister more and more each day. She always wants to dress similar to her (or exactly alike) and just to be around her. It is really sweet watching Sophie grow into such a caring, protective, helpful and loving person.

She still fits into her old car seat (minus her legs).

She loves dressing up. 

My cousin, Camryn, went to the zoo with us. As always, Sophie had a blast!

Sophie loves wearing sunglasses. We have around 8 of them, and Sophie loves to choose a new one each day. She likes putting them on top of her head, too, just like her momma. 

We went to Wild Wednesday with the Colliver family at one of the local  parks. They had miniature horses, a donkey and a goat. Sophie liked it okay, but her favorite thing while there was sitting in my lap. I loved that, too!

After Wild Wednesday was over, we went to my school so that all the kids could play on the preschool playground. The kids had a blast (well, Josie slept in her car seat in the shade the whole time. That was probably fun for her.) 

Sophie is starting to get brave by putting her arms in the air while on slides. 

She really loved this playground. We're going to have to go here more often.

Enjoying some Nutella in the morning.

Sophie loves having her fingernails and toenails painted.

Going out to eat with Sophie isn't always enjoyable for us. Like most 2 year olds, she can't keep still so she is standing in her seat and walking around on the floor. She doesn't like eating, either, so the prospect of food doesn't get her to stop moving. I'm thankful though that other guests generally find her more charming than annoying. 

Sophie likes playing in the dirt and mulch. It grosses me out a little, but she is just being a kid so I generally let her be. 

Now that Sophie's legs are longer she can really use this toy. I need to search for a tricycle where she can reach the pedals.

Sophie loves singing happy birthday. We heard "Happy birthday, dear Kaci" at least 50 times this month. 

The kids enjoying a movie together while the adults hung out - love it!

My silly girls

Sophie loves when we get the paint out for her to play with.

I don't care if she drinks her Pediasure from a bottle as long as she is drinking it. (She refuses to drink it out of a cup.)

These two have such similar personalities. I am constantly saying, "That reminds me of Molly when she was little."

Sophie was able to spend time with all of her cousins this month. She loves all of her cousins and each night she includes 'all my cousins' in her bedtime prayers. 

First pool day of the summer.

Trying out the life vest with floaties attached. 

She likes it!