Life is Wonderful: January 2014

My baby is a year old!

She went to sleep a baby and woke up a toddler!

I took off work today so that I could spend the day with my girl. After some early morning snuggling with both girls, Josie and I dropped Sophie off at Janice's house for the day. After that we stopped at the bakery for a birthday donut. Josie absolutely loved it! We played, napped and then headed off to the doctor's office for Josie's 1 year check-up. She was in a feisty mood and growled at the nurse while she was getting her shots ready. I guess she knew what she was about to do. Besides being upset over shots, the appointment went really well. Josie weighs 17lb 13oz (20%ile) and is 28 1/4 inches long (18%ile). She is healthy and doing great!

Josie is still wearing size 3 diapers and is in 9 months/6-12 months clothes. 12 month clothes are a little too baggy still (her 'one' shirt in the first picture is 12 months) but I know it won't be too long until they fit.

She has 8 teeth now. At the beginning of the month we saw two starting to sprout. The seventh came in on the 15th and the eighth came in on the 20th.

If we forget to put a bib on Josie she will drool all over her shirt. This is just a small amount of drool compared to what it normally looks like.

Don't mind the bubbles at the beginning of the month picture.

This has been a slightly healthier month than last. Josie did have another ear infection (right ear for Josie and double for Sophie), but she handled it much better this time around. The doctor put her on a stronger antibiotic than last month and it worked like a charm. Hopefully they will give that to her each time she has an ear infection. (Random story with the ear infection: When the doctor check Josie's ears she was thrashing around a bit. She cried and cried. When we got home I noticed that her left ear was looking really dark inside. She kept favoring her left side, even though the right side was the one that was infected. My mother-in-law was able to pick out all of the darkness the next day. I am still not sure if the doctor nicked her ear/busted her ear drum while she was thrashing around and that was dried blood, if it was wax that had been in there forever or a mixture of both. She is a pretty waxy eared kid so it probably was a mixture.)

They enjoy sharing illnesses with each other. At least we can combine doctor visits for them.

Josie has gone from mostly army crawling to only hand/knee crawling! She is crawling all over the place and boy is she fast! If you turn around for one second she is gone. She loves crawling after Sophie, which Sophie both loves and hates. She isn't trying to crawl the stairs yet, but I know that will be coming soon.

Crawling through chairs to get to Sophie.

Josie still doesn't want to stand on her own. She will get up on her knees all the time, but that is it. She loves pulling up to a stand when we are holding on her (I count up to three and then she stands - loves when I make a big deal out of it). She doesn't seem to understand how to pull up from knees to feet on her own though. When we stand her up and give her something to hold onto she stands there awkwardly and doesn't move her legs to adjust her position. There is a small part of me that worries that she isn't showing much interest in standing and walking, but I have to remind myself that she is just being cautious and will do it when she is ready. Sophie was a late walker and Josie might be as well, which is just fine.

We say the dinner prayer each night before eating. One night when we started it Josie clasped her hands together. She held it them that way through the whole prayer. Joe and I were amazed. It was such a wonderful thing to witness!

Josie still loves yogurt and purees, but is showing more interest in table food. She wants to feed herself just like the rest of us. So far her favorite thing is mac and cheese. I can't wait to see her try more foods.

As always, one of Josie's favorite things is being with her big sister. Whenever Sophie hugs her or puts her arms around her Josie's face lights up. She always wants to be around Sophie and will follow her all over the place. I love the friendship and love that these two share.

Josie has the sweetest little high pitched voice! Besides mom and dad/dada, Josie has said hi a few times and will say nanananana for 'no.' She loves chattering in her own language and squeals with delight when she is excited. I love hearing her during car rides or when she wakes up from a nap. She is such a happy kid.

Josie likes the cold and snow (and we've had plenty of it this month). That is a winter baby for you. When the back deck is covered in snow, Josie loves to crawl to the door and look out at it. One day I was cleaning the window on the front door and I opened the door so I could get the outside portion. Josie loved the cold air and tried to crawl outside. She even got a handful of snow before I could stop her. We did let her try some snow and she loved it. I'm sure it felt nice on her gums. I can't wait to see her play in the snow when she is a little bit older. I have a feeling she is going to be a snow baby and love winter activities.

The look of longing for the snow.

Our girl is still as sweet as she was from the moment she came into this world. While she is on the move a lot of the time, she still loves to cuddle. I love it when she crawls over to us, gets on knees and holds her hands up so that we will pick her up. It is so sweet! She loves being held and snuggled. Lately one of her favorite things is when I wrap both arms around her and put my cheek on her head. There have been many mornings where I have been running late for work because I spent a few too many minutes snuggling her that way. Totally worth it.

Josie is starting to clap a bunch. When she is really happy she will grin and start clapping. Sometimes she will even clap while she is upset. She has also started saying, 'Nahahahahahahah' as if to say 'No.'

Josie is a couch potato and has been from the start (not something we are proud of). We normally have the tv on for background noise. Sophie has a few show that she loves, but even they don't keep her attention for long. Josie however gets engrossed in shows. We usually put on BabyFirst TV which both girls like. Josie will get the biggest smile when her favorite segments come on. Her love of tv has come in handy when we have to give her medicine. She gets so into what she is watching that she swallows the medicine without any fighting. The same happens when she is crying and we can't calm her down. She will get so excited that she forget she was upset.

This month's pictures did not go well at all. It was a pretty jammed packed day and I didn't get to try to do the pictures until later in the night. Josie wasn't having it. She kept trying to crawl off the chair and refused to lay down in her crib so I could get shots with her and the doll. Then she further showed how she really felt about the photo shoot by crumbling up her month sticker and trying to eat it. Because I am the meanest and most selfish mom (seriously), after she had been asleep for an hour I woke her up, I put her in her 'one' shirt and tried again. Most of the pictures had her crying because she was tired, but I was able to get a few good ones. Those few pictures were not worth making my girl miserable. Definitely a bad mom move.

Sophie was so excited about Josie's birthday presents. Josie really didn't care. She would touch at them, but didn't really try to open them. Sophie kept trying to open the gifts and cried when I wouldn't let her do that (a battle of wills ensued due to those presents. It was a rough day with Sophie. She still isn't used to all of the attention being on Josie.). Josie took some tissue paper out of one present, but that was about it. She was more interested in a toy that she got from the baby sitter earlier. That is okay. Next year I am sure she will be super excited about opening gifts.

Here are some more pictures from this month:

Guster onesie!!

Snuggle time with Daddy

Our first family picture of the new year!

If we aren't watching her closely she will lift the vent off the ground.

Sophie and Josie shared an apple. Josie loved trying to bite into it.

Josie loves Cosmo and is so excited whenever the cat doesn't immediately run away from her.

This picture cracks me up! It looks like she is karate kicking the reflection on the wall.

My aunt and cousin came into town this month. I was so excited that they finally were able to meet Josie and spend time with her. They are very important to me, so I am glad that my little girl could get to know them. (They met Sophie when she was 11 months, too, which I thought was neat.)

SAMs gives free cookies to kids. Josie was so excited that we finally let her have one. She loved it!

Josie is enjoying her activity table even more this month. She crawls over to it, gets on her knees and plays. Her favorite thing to do is to flip the book page back and forth.