Three months ago in the beginning of summer:

Now, a lot less baby-faced:

Now on Wednesdays I not only have Josie, but I also take care of her best friend Zach while his mom works. Zach is two weeks younger and about 6 pounds heavier and they have a blast together. It’s going really well to have him around and we both like having a day just full of fun because there’s no way I can manage to do any chores with two one year olds around. Here’s a lunch video of them sharing, if only they could skip out on sharing those germs!

We finally got some summer-like weather here yesterday and I took Josie over to the local spray park and playground for some good clean fun and a picnic. I highly recommend it as it’s easy to park, lots of room and the water is super shallow so it’s easy for the toddlers.

You can get an idea how high they go from the this picture of our friend Chrissie and Nolan who joined us.

Last week while Jordi was out of town we went to the zoo with some of our favorite neighbors. While chasing three very fast and mobile kids around the zoo prevented the camera from coming out at the actual zoo, the ride home was a great nap inducer and we got all three of them to pass out in the back seat on the way home. We traded turns sitting in the car with them and getting actual stuff done in our house!

While the Stone zoo isn’t exactly a shining example of modern zoo’s, if you do go, make sure to catch the birds in flight show (11am, 1, 3). It’s a lot of fun and Zach and Josie really loved the birds flying so close. It was really easy for them to see the animals, as opposed to the jaguar and such sleeping way back in their exhibits not moving.

We are living in a great neighborhood and are really lucky to have such lovely neighbors on all sides of us! There are 4 kids within 4 months of Josie’s age plus a couple of older ones just in the few houses right around us. Next door though are some of Josie’s (and my) favorite playmates. Zach is just a couple of weeks younger than Josie. He thinks Josie is ‘da bomb’ if I interpret his frequent attempts at hugging her and giving her flowers (i.e. grass). Josie tries not to recoil too much when Zach (who out-weighs her by over 5 lbs and isn’t quite as steady on his feet) comes in for a big hug. Josie loves to follow Zach’s older brother Ethan (age 3.5) around and copy him much to Ethan’s frustration. She even copies him when he yells, although the words come out a little differently. We’re just really lucky to have them around and we’re all gonna be pretty sad when Christina (mom) goes back to teaching in the fall.

Congrats to Craig! Ouch to Jordi’s leg.

No this isn’t about making a jam for your baby, or making jam out of a baby. Instead, earlier this month we went to a fun birthday party for our friend Xander. He loves playing the drums like his dad and so at his party we put together a whole baby rock band. As you can see from the video they are wildly popular and successful since their pictures were taken almost constantly (note the flashes). Let’s hope the band all stays together.

This afternoon we took Josie to a funky small-child event called Baby Loves Disco. It’s basically a party for small kids and babies in a real night club on a Sunday afternoon with DJs and real drinks for the parents. It was pretty overwhelming for small children but it seems like everyone had a good time. We went with a real big group of CMU alumni and their kids, and Craig and Alyssa who came to watch the rest of us make fools of ourselves so far as I can tell. Josie wanted to chase the lights around the dance floor but they moved much too fast for her. She also loves her new egg maraca that we picked up there. I also got my eyebrows waxed and Jordi got a massage (they have people peddling free samples of their wares at the party). It was pretty dark on the dance floor so we don’t have many good pictures. It really wore Josie out though which was great.

Last weekend we also went into town to the feast of Saint Anthony in the north end. It is a big street fair with music and tons of vendors and is an excuse for the normal restaurants to jack up their prices even higher. Our friends Craig and Alyssa live down there and they graciously hosted us for the afternoon as we popped in and out of the heat and crowds. We walked around and found probably the only non-Italian food (although I don’t suppose fried dough is Italian either) and ate cachapas and plantains. Later we had yummy aronchini (rice balls with spinach and cheese) and canollis.

It was also out first attempt at a stroller-less outing. We had one baby carrier, and one diaper bag, and we did it all on the subway and bus by handing her and the bag back and forth and using the carrier. It was very successful actually and I did not envy those people trying to push strollers through the mobbed streets of the north end. It almost felt like before we had Josie because we weren’t lugging huge amounts of paraphernalia with us!

Our friends Wing and Jen came to visit in early July when Josie was just over 3 months old. He’s got one major camera and took these gorgeous photos!