Life is Wonderful: Josie is 22 Months

Josie's motor skills keep improving each day. She is still wobbly at times, especially when she is tired. Also, she generally still keeps her arms up for balance when walking. It is so wonderful seeing her walking everywhere. She's getting so fast that she's practically running. When she falls down she picks her self right back up again instead of crawling like she used to.

Coming down the stairs is a skill that Josie still struggles with. She doesn't like coming down on her belly because she wants to see where she's going or at least see us. We worked on trying to get her to come down on her butt, however she gets distracted after a step or two. She really just wants to walk down, but that doesn't quite work. She usually just ends up trying to leap into our arms.

Josie is getting really good at climbing. We used to keep a stool by the couch for her to step on to climb up onto the couch, but now she can do it all on her own. She also enjoys climbing in and out of laundry baskets. It's really cute, unless there is laundry in it. She also tries to climb into the bathtub by herself. We always keep a good eye on her while she's around water so this isn't a big deal, but we really have to watch her now.

Josie loves climbing on the couch and relaxing against pillows. She has really upped her 'couch potato' game!

Speaking of Josie's climbing skills, Josie fell out of her crib at the beginning if the month (November 2nd). I heard her stirring in her room after a nap. Then she got quiet again, so I thought she went back to sleep. The next thing I knew I heard a loud thud. I ran up the stairs and found her on the floor crying. She was fine, but I was completely freaked out. Joe lowered her crib right away.

The biggest thing this month that happened was Josie kicking her pacifier habit. She has been more or less playing with it for the past two months, but it still was the easiest way to soothe her when she was upset. We realized it was really just a crutch for us instead of her, so one day we decided to go ahead and collect them all. She was fine without them the whole day as well as during her nap time and at night. She didn't seem upset by them being gone. She did find one hidden somewhere and put it in her mouth, but didn't fuss when we took it away. At the babysitter's house she stole a paci from the younger boy who was there, but I think it was again to play with instead of to soothe her. I'm really impressed that it was so easy to get rid of the pacifier. Sophie still used one until she was 2 1/2. I still find it funny that Josie was more ready to be rid of it then we were ready for her to be rid of it. My baby is growing up!

Josie had a head cold at the end of the month. She was so stopped up and could barely breathe. There was a lot of snoring and drooling from her. One night she woke up and was fussing so I brought her down to the couch to sleep. I slept next to her and I woke up to Sophie the next morning crawling on to the couch to lay down with us. She listened to Josie snoring and told me that Josie sounded like an elephant! Hilarious!

Having a head cold made Thanksgiving pretty crummy for Josie. We went to her first Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Julie's house. Josie was not having it and fussed half of the time. She barely ate anything. The dinner at my parent's house went a little more smoothly. She still didn't eat much though. She did end up feeling better a few days later on my dad's birthday.

We tried getting a picture of the 3 girls together. That didn't go well at all!

While Josie's gross motor skills are improving, speech isn't so much. She still jabbers like she always has and does randomly say a few new words here and there but nothing is used regularly. I'm told that with speech usually there is an explosion of vocabulary after going through speech for a while, so I'm hoping that will be the case for her.

Even though Josie doesn't say much I know she understands us. She will do things that we ask her to such as to dance, find her lovey or get a ball. She does ignore us a lot though, which I think is her choice - more of a selective hearing thing instead of not understanding. She often surprises us with things that she can do that we thought she couldn't. She always keeps us guessing.

We had a snow day this month. I was so excited for the girls to go play out in the snow. We really didn't take Josie out into it last year since she was still young and not walking. It wasn't the wonderful experience I was hoping for though. Getting her packed up into her snow bibs was difficult, especially since they were a little too small. She wanted nothing to do with hats or gloves. When I brought her outside she kept falling over. It was hard for her to move in the snow bibs, plus walking on uneven surfaces, like snow, is difficult. Even when I would try to let her sit in the snow she would fall backwards. Stupid snow bibs! She enjoyed eating the snow just like her big sister. Hopefully our next trip out into the snow will be better.

Josie's new favorite thing to do is grab the cord on the lamp in the living room and pull it so she can turn off the light. Last month she kept trying to do this, but couldn't get it turned off. She is so pleased with herself for being able to do it now.

Here are more pictures from this month: