Josie had a fun time playing with Bubie. They had tea and played a little on the floor, here’s some videos and photos!

Josie ran over to the door to race and Bubie followed,

Then Josie came closer for a photo,

Then the silliness begins,

Josie likes to be upside down. Perhaps attempting to display a forward roll.

abort abort, somersault failed. Run away!

We went to visit my grandmother at her new independent living facility. Her view isn’t quite what it was while living on the beach, but it’s still very sweet. It looks like a nice place with a lot of life to it. We even went to see the aviary and hopped a ride on a golf cart. Josie pretended to drive off the back.

At Christmas this year in Miami we went to see the revamped Parrot Jungle, now Jungle Island. I had been as a kid and I remember I burned through probably two rolls of film taking pictures of these amazing birds doing tricks. Without thinking, I promised Josie that a bird would ride a bike on a high wire, not knowing of course if they still did this trick. Luckily though I was not made a liar and at the bird show they indeed had a parrot riding a bike on a high wire. The show was great and we saw the world’s only trained Cassowary. Josie was snacking during the show and to our embarrassment right while this huge bird is doing it’s tricks (swallowing whole apples and small babies), she dropped her snack trap down onto the stage with this huge bird that kills more people than alligators in New Zealand. Thankfully the trainer picked it back up for us and didn’t kick us out.

Josie really loves animals and so anything zoo-like is just fabulous to her. Later on we went to the tiger show which Josie loudly narrated for us. ”CAT CAT’ ‘MILK’ ‘BOTTLE’. They were feeding the tigers on the stage with bottles of milk. She thought that was great so when we saw the opportunity to be milked of our money feed goats from a bottle that was a must do event (4 times). The goats didn’t get milk though, they got kool-aid.

Josie also loved the bounce house they had at the park. The only problem is of course is that she is tiny compared to the rest of the kids. We tried to wait until it was more empty and send her in then, but then tons of bigger kids would show up once she was inside. She held her own though and didn’t seem to realize the potential danger while we bit our tongues from the ground and encouraged her on the path out.

It was a great day, not too hot, lots of animals, Josie was not bit by a bird. I call it a success.

Here’s what happens when you’ve got a short toddler putting the toys on the advent calendar hanging slightly too high. Not to mention it’s nowhere near the 25th when this was taken.

This Thanksgiving we celebrated with my dad’s sister and family.

We even did an early Christmas present exchange so we could see people open their gifts! Here’s Josie playing with her airplane. Maybe she shouldn’t be a pilot.

We had a nice calm visit even if the drive down there was a little rough. Josie doesn’t sleep like she did last year anymore and so we had to have a 3 ring circus to entertain her through all the driving. We also saw our cousin Sue and Jeff and their daughter Erin, and Josie’s favorite, their dog Zeke. Josie was awestruck by Zeke, he’s huge, over 100 lbs. She thought he was great, but Josie is so short that she got bowled over once when she went running and Zeke went after her.

One of Josie’s favorite aspects of the holidays has been delivering gifts. Here she is, again lifting heavy objects, with Zeke in the background too.

On the way home we left later and stayed overnight in a hotel just into Connecticut. It had the warmest pool I think I’ve ever been in, just shy of being a gigantic hot tub. Josie loved it and we ignored bedtime to get in two swims on our quick trip. Her favorite game is jumping into the pool and watching us all pretend to drown ourselves.

This photo was taken after she was asked to pick up the tool box behind her and she tried and tried before declaring it ‘heby’. She is amazingly determined to pick up heavy things, she even dragged an entire bag of groceries from the front porch to the kitchen for me. I didn’t ask her to, she just did it, she’s quite the helper.

She wouldn’t listen to us suggesting that she keep her mouth shut, so a few twigs went in there too, but she had a blast. Good thing grandma and grandpa’s yard is big enough to actually collect enough leaves to make a pile.

Josie has found her love of finger paints. Actually I’ve been so slow in blog posting she’s actually moved on to another new love, but finger paints are still good. She can make 3 paintings in 10 minutes, here’s a photo of her first painting in her home-made smock made from dad’s backwards shirt. Shortly after the picture, most of her face was blue, she really likes blue. It’s a great activity to add to the mix now that it’s cold outside.

Just a nice photo from the pre-Thanksgiving Miami trip.

It’s been a rough few weeks, Josie and I have both been sick. Really rather sick, stayed home and didn’t leave the house for 5 days sick. Sick before Christmas, sick after Christmas. Both of us on antibiotics, running through teabags like crazy. But now we’re doing better and so here come more (and better) pictures!