Life is Wonderful

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.

Decorating the Tree
Sophie is finally old enough where she can help us hang ornaments. She would carefully get them out of the box and put them on the tree. Of course all of the ornaments that she placed were pretty close together, but who cares. She had fun and so did we!

Josie was intrigued by the tree.

Sophie fell in love with this ornament and hugged it for a few minutes before putting it on the tree. So sweet!

Snow Days
One of the perks of teaching for a county school is that we tend to get a decent amount of snow days. Those back country roads can be so dangerous! I love getting the call saying that school is cancelled. We ended up getting three snow days before winter break! It was so wonderful being able to spend the day with my two sweeties. Staying in our pajamas, snuggling on the couch, taking pictures, doing art projects, calling daddy and having fun is so much better than driving in the snow and working all day. These unexpected days off with my littles are such a blessing.

A snow days was the perfect opportunity for taking pictures by the tree.

I saw a picture like this on Pinterest and thought it would be great to include on our Christmas cards. The girls were good sports while I tried to get a decent picture.

This was my favorite picture that I took. Of course Sophie sweetly putting her arm around Josie takes away from her 'naughty' title. (They are still pretty accurate bloomers though.)

Yummy Treats
Sophie was so excited to help out with making Christmas desserts. We made buckeyes, brownies, and decorated a gingerbread house. Sophie's role was supervisor, stirrer, decorator, and taster. My mom bought a small apron for Sophie to wear while helping us bake. She is adorable in it! I love having her as a helper in the kitchen and can't wait to cook and bake more with her.

Festival of Lights
Each year the zoo puts up over two million lights, a, ginormous tree and other decorations for the Festival of Lights. It is so beautiful! We had wanted to go for a few weeks, but the weather never quite cooperated with our schedule. We finally made it there two days before Christmas. It was so cold! We bundled up (Sophie was wearing a skirt and leggings earlier that day and refused to wear anything else. She is quite stubborn and we didn't feel like arguing even more with her.) and made our way to the nocturnal house (one of Sophie's favorite exhibits). Most of the other animals were indoors and with the amount of people who were there we didn't stick around too long. We did a quick lap around and found some indoor activities at the educational center. Sophie was able to write a letter to Santa and put in into the North Pole mailbox. After that we decided to go back home and defrost. The lights were so pretty, but it was just too cold and too crowded to linger.

Playing in the Snow
Sophie couldn't wait to go out and play in the snow. She and Joe went out on the back deck and threw snow around at each other. Then she ate about half of the snow off the deck. Sophie had so much fun and couldn't wait to play in the snow again.
During one of our snow days, while Josie was sleeping, Sophie and I bundled up so that I could shovel the driveway and she could play in the snow. There was a decent sized pile of snow in the grass at the top of the driveway. Sophie, being the awesome free spirit that she is, took off running and jumped right in it! I was so impressed (and maybe a bit jealous that I didn't think of it first). She didn't love the experience though. She was upset that snow went up the sleeves of her jacket and wanted to go straight inside. She hasn't wanted to go play in the snow since then. Hopefully she will change her mind as the winter continues.

Holiday Parties
My mom was watching the girls on my last day of school before winter break began. The three of them stopped by school to join us for our class party. Sophie loved seeing all of my students and they loved playing with her. She loved the attention and the food (pizza and ice cream cake...yum!). Josie wasn't too sure about the crowd of people and wanted to be held by me and my mom the whole time. It was so glad to have them there with me.

Mom once again pulled through for us and watched the girls so that we could go to Joe's work party. Dinner was great and it was wonderful getting to meet so many of the people that he works with.