Josie is 12 Months

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.

 

Josie loves her new activity center that we bought her for her birthday. (Little Tykes Activity Garden)

  

 

We FaceTimed Joe on Josie's birthday. She was so excited to see him!

Happy birthday sweet, silly girl!

Josie is 11 Months

Josie is just a month away from turning 1! How did that happen?! My sweet little baby is growing up so fast!

Josie weighs 17.5 pounds and is wearing the same clothing and diaper sizes as last month. I'm not sure how long she is, but I know she is growing since pants keep getting shorter on her. Her hair is growing longer and thicker, though still not long enough to do anything with.

This month has been an unhealthy one for Josie. She had a goopy eye and an ear infection around the middle of the month. It kicked her butt! She was so sad looking - wanting to be held most of the time, really fussy and sleepy. She had a fever the night before I took her to the doctor's office and it just wiped her out. She ended up having an ear infection. (Sophie had a double ear infection, which was surprising since she didn't act like anything was wrong at all.) After taking her antibiotics (10 days of amoxicillin)  she seemed to be doing better. Christmas night (a few days after she finished her antibiotics) she started coughing though. It was a barking cough and made her sound hoarse. She sounded rough the next morning, but it stopped for the most part during the day. That night it came back stronger. She sounded awful! I took her to the doctor the next day and found out that she had the croup. After more medicine (3 days of steroids this time) and a humidifier at night, she started sounding better. She still has a cough, but it doesn't sound like a bark this time. I am hoping that next month is a much healthier one for her!

You can see the redness of her right eye here. 

Look at that little pout!

All she wanted to do was snuggle. I am all about the snuggling, I just wish that it was under happier circumstances. 

Due to being sick off and on throughout the month, there were a few days where Josie wouldn't eat anything. She still drank her bottle, at least, but not as much as normal. The way she refused food reminded me so much of Sophie when she was younger; it was a little unnerving. When she was healthy she ate fine. She even has a new favorite food - yogurt! She inhales it! Seriously, we can't scoop it into her mouth fast enough.

Josie sprouted 2 more teeth this month which means she has a total of 6. At the beginning of the month her right lateral incisor came in. The left lateral incisor followed about a week later. She loves showing off her teeth and bites at anything she can. You have to be careful with your fingers and hands around her or you will be in a lot of pain!

Teethers (among other things) and ice in mesh pouches have helped so much with Josie's teething pain this month. 

Our little crawler is all over the place! She is even crawling on her hands and knees now. She is still faster when she army crawls, and will often drop to her stomach after crawling on her knees. She loves exploring and chasing toys. Her favorite thing to crawl to are any of the springy door stoppers we have in the house. She loves hearing them make the 'boing' sound when she pulls on it. Her love of crawling has made it horrible to change her diaper because she wants to get up and crawl away.

Josie finally starting to get interested in standing. She will stand up a little when we hold her hands. It doesn't last long though. She usually starts bouncing and then collapses to her knees. If we stand her up at her activity table or to the ottoman she will stand for a minute before trying to move and falling over. She is starting to pull up to her knees on her activity table and on the fridge, but isn't pulling up to a stand yet. At least she is making progress with standing. Hopefully she will be standing and cruising next month, but it is okay if she isn't. She will do things on her own time.

When the girls first got sick I took off school so that I could take them to the doctor. We had a few hours to kill at home while we waited for their appointment, so we played in the living room. Josie was happily playing when she fell over and bonked her head on the cabinet door. She cried, so I picked her up and took her over to the couch so that I could comfort her. As I was holding her I noticed blood all over the leg of her jammies. When I looked more closely I found blood all over her jammies and across her face. I freaked out, searching for the source of the blood. Her head was fine, her face was fine (besides the smear of blood), and her leg was fine. Finally I looked at her finger and saw blood pouring out of it. When I cleaned off her finger I saw that there was just a small cut there. It kept bleeding though and she kept tearing off all of the band aids I was putting on there. I even tried to put mittens on her so she wouldn't get to her band aid. She just pulled those off and bit the band aid off. I had to change her outfit multiple times before we went to the doctor's office. Sophie was really concerned about the whole situation. When it first happened she wouldn't come sit by me and Josie. She just stood a few feet away with tears in her eyes asking me to "get Josie's bleed off" (meaning her bloody clothes). On the car ride to the doctor's I had to pull over because Sophie was freaking out over Josie ripping her band aid off. "Stop it, Josie! Stop! Oh noooo! Her band aid in her mouth, Mommy! Get it!" Poor kid was a bit traumatized. I still can't figure out what happened. The only thing I can figure is that she bit herself. Either she was biting her finger and accidentally ripped into it when she fell over or she was biting and pulling at some fabric (which she loves doing now - especially her sleeves) and accidentally bit her finger which then caused her to fall. Regardless of the cause I am just glad that Josie didn't seem too bothered by it.

Just some of the blood on her jammies. This is what I saw first though which scared me to death!

All that blood from one little finger wound. 

Josie had her first Christmas this month. Sophie, being the good big sister that she is, opened all of her presents for her. (Josie was more interested in the wrapping paper and bows anyway, so it was a win-win for both of them.) Every gift Sophie unwrapped for her went straight into Josie's mouth for approval.

One of the only gifts that Sophie let Josie open alone.

Sophie and Josie are the best of friends. Each month I see the love they have for each other grow. It is so wonderful watching them together. Sophie is always giving Josie hugs and kisses and loves making her laugh. Josie is always looking for Sophie and is happiest when Sophie is right next to her. No one can make Josie laugh quite like Sophie. They are so darn sweet together! I am so blessed being their mom.

I still can't believe that Josie is already 11 months old. It feels like we were just bringing her home from the hospital. Time flies!

Here are some more memories from this past month:

 

My mom watched the girls so we could go to Joe's work party. This is how we found them all when we got home. 

This was Josie the night of Joe's family's Christmas dinner. She felt so horrible from the croup and spent most of the night crying, which is very uncharacteristic of her. This is one of the only moments that she was calm and I'm pretty sure she burst into tears a minute later.

Josie loves sticking out her jaw to show off her lower teeth.

They love being close to each other. 

I took the girls to the store one day while Joe was at work. Sophie was so excited, but Josie (who was sick) was miserable. She looked like this most of the time and fell asleep on the way home. I felt like a mean mom for dragging her out. Poor kiddo.

She loves the hula hoop! I wonder if she thinks she is super strong when she lifts it over her head. She sure looks like that in this picture.

Sick girl

Even a goopy eye couldn't wipe away her smile. 

"Seriously, mom...enough with the pictures."

Joe's sister and her family watched the girls for us one day. We forgot a pacifier for Josie. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep without it, but she snuggled up with Uncle Kent and took a nap. 

Stealing Santa's cookie

Nap time with Pawpaw Bill

Being sick means lots of snuggling.