Octagon

Today Sophie had dance class. As I was packing up the diaper bag for Josie (who was going to hang out with Grandma Z while Sophie and I danced) I heard Sophie talking to Josie. I wasn't paying attention that closely, but it sounded like she had one of Josie's toys and was describing it to her.

"What shape is this? A square! What shape is this? A star! What shape is this? An octagon! Good job!"

I chuckled to myself because we often play the 'what shape/color/etc is this' game with Sophie. I didn't think much of it though since I was preoccupied. I figured she was just rambling and calling out random shapes. Later on as the girls nap I was cleaning up and noticed the toy that Sophie was showing to Josie. There was a square, a star, and an...octagon!

I have never really paid much attention to the shapes on this toy so I didn't realize that there was an octagon on there. I assumed the red shape was a circle. (Like I said I never really paid attention to the toy. It is obvious when you look at it that it isn't a circle.) I was so impressed that Sophie was able to identify the shape as an octagon. She knows what square looks like and she knows what a star looks like (among other shapes), but I had no idea that she knew what the other one was. I was sure that someone must have told her what the shapes were. I called around to a couple people to see if they had pointed out to her what the shape was on the toy. No one fessed up to it though. If someone did point it out to her then I owe them a big thank you! If no one told her what it was and she identified it on her own then I have one flippin' smart kid! (Either way I still think she is pretty darn intelligent.)

A Mini Vacation

When found out that I was pregnant with Josie I figured that we wouldn't go on vacation anytime soon. I knew that it would be hard going anywhere with a very young baby, not to mention all of the stuff we would have to bring with us to care for her. Once Joe started his new job taking a family vacation became even less of an option. In a way that was a relief to me since I was pretty much scared to take a vacation with two young kids. I was doing fine with that decision until a couple weeks ago. I really just wanted to get out of town and enjoy my summer break with my girls. My sister and her family were going to Coldwater again this year (we've gone up there with them and my mom the past two years) and she had asked before if we wanted to go. I wanted to but I knew I couldn't make a drive on my own with both kids (Joe would not be available to go due to his new job). My mom wasn't interested at first. On July 4th when we were at my moms house celebrating the holiday, Debra  was talking about them leaving for vacation the next day. I got sad and really longed to go with them. My mom had a change of heart and said that she would go with us for a few days. Whooo hoooo!

Let me just say that riding in the car with two young kids is not fun at all. Josie was good for the most part. She usually falls right asleep as soon as she gets in the car and will stay asleep for a while. Of course our drive was a 4 1/2 to 5 hour ride (with one stop on the way) so she didn't stay asleep the whole time. When she would wake up she would play for little while, babbling happily before getting really cranky. It definitely had me flustered. Sophie had me even more flustered. She took a small nap when we started the ride but when she woke up she did not want to be in the car. She has always been a bad traveler so this didn't surprise me much. Still it is difficult when you have a kid constantly whining and saying that she wants to get out while thrashing around. ACK! I'm sure that my mom wondered why she volunteered to go with us multiple times. When we finally made it to the cottage in Coldwater we were all ready to get out of the car. I'm not sure who was more excited.

The cottage where we stayed. 

We basically only stayed for two days. We arrived Sunday evening, stayed all day Monday, and left on Tuesday afternoon. That is a pretty short amount of time for that long of a drive. The weather was pretty gross mess the time that we were there. There were rainstorms on the way to and from the lake and it was overcast most of the time that we were there. The mosquitoes were awful, too! It was all worth it though to see Sophie having such a great time with her cousin and for us all to be together as a family. I especially loved being able to share Coldwater Lake with Josie (Sophie has been the past two years). It was always my favorite place when I was little and for both my girls to be able to experience it means the world to me. Monday night as I was putting Sophie to sleep I told her that I love her. She replied, "Thank you for taking me on cation." My heart melted. 

Josie's first time in the lake.

Not so sure about this whole lake business...

Sophie's first steps in the lake this year. 

Breakfast outside by the lake!

Entertaining themselves on iPads - my how the times have changed!

Getting brave!

King Queen of the Mountain

Taking a short walk in the front carrier.

Best friends

Sophie was going crazy over the chicken noodle soup at Clay's!

Sophie vs Bench

The bench won...

My poor girl tried climbing up on a bench and Grandma and Grandpa S's house and slipped, busting her lip open! I wasn't there, but Joe said that it bled a ton. She cried when it happened, but hasn't seemed bothered by it since then. The first two days her lip looked rough. The third day her faced looked pretty bruised. The fourth day things were almost back to normal-just a little bruising and the lip was mostly healed.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

 Day 4

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!