Congrats to Craig! Ouch to Jordi’s leg.

Last year, three days before Josie was born, we went to the Sheep shearing festival at the Gore Place in Waltham. We even taunted Josie via the blog about what she was missing. We’re hoping to go again this year, it’s on April 25th and we’d love to see others there, so drop us a line if you’re going. We’ll likely go earlier in the day and over lunch.

Josie is 11 months old today! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since she was born. It’s so great that it’s getting warm again though and we can go and play outside. She is still fairly hesitant on the playground. She is most comfortable with our home playground and will actually walk around without me. At other playgrounds she requires that we carry her between places to play. Her favorite thing is the swing, she’ll swing for 20 minutes at a time watching the older kids play basketball. She also likes to walk up and slide down the slides. She’ll also chase a ball around the basketball court. Another mom and I noticed that our kids always head right for the concrete to walk on rather than the nice non-head-bashing mulch — we figure that the concrete is much easier for our new walkers to balance on.

Josie continues to love books and asks to be read to very frequently. She still is very excited by books with flaps to lift open and close. She also loves to play with blocks like lego and mega bloks, although putting them together is still a challenge. She mostly loves to knock them down, knock them together, and tear them apart.

She finds sneezing to be hilarious now. I find it very useful for getting her to smile in pictures! She rarely likes to smile at cameras and actually grimaces when she sees one because of all the flashes.

She has learned how to start controlling us and her world. She’ll grab my hands and make me clap or play peekaboo! She also holds my hand while walking up and down the sidewalk. Or tonight she pushed her stroller the length of the mall (remind me why I bother to bring it), hopefully she’ll sleep well!

• Size/weight: size 12 month are getting short and some size 18 months are fitting; 28.75 inches tall and 17 lbs (approx, no actual measurements lately)
• Favorite food: breastmilk, avocado, organic cheerios, zucchini
• Favorite toy: ball, mega bloks
• Favorite book: ‘lift the flap’ animals, baby talk
• Favorite activity: Pushing things, eating
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:00; one short one long nap; gets up 6am (on the good days, 5am on the bad)
• New game: Jump on Papi, a.k.a “CPR” (Jordi plays dead and Josie bangs on his chest, laughing hysterically when Jordi wakes up).
• New skill: demonstrating her listening skills and understanding
• Teeth: 7. Three on the top and 4 on bottom
• Vocalizations: constant ‘talking’ and loud loud yelling, moooooing

Josie has demonstrated a wider variety of words lately that she understands, here is a list as we can figure them out:

• avocado (favorite food)
• banana (common food because mom is lazy)
• book
• ball
• sophie (the giraffe)
• moo (the stuffed animal)
• cat (all cats must be waved at)
• kiss or besito
• hungry/eat
• hug
• all done (as in she is all done eating or I am all done wiping her face)
• clap

She has made no sign that she actually understands the word mama although she says it frequently. I’m surprised she hasn’t made any sign that she understands ‘change your diaper’ either since that’s such a frequent one.

Josie likes the vacuum cleaner for some unknown reason. Or rather she likes ours. My mom took hers out and Josie cried when she turned it on.

She also loves to read. I had to read (the same) book to her no less than seven times last night before bed. I kept putting it back on the shelf when I thought she had finished, and she’d go back to the shelf and pick it up again!

Josie also loves to cuddle with Fred and George. They don’t seem to mind that she lays on them.

I’m behind in the food category, but it just hasn’t been terribly exciting. She’s had a few new things. One fun one though was chickpeas. I introduced it to her in whole form just as a bean to start with. That was a severe disappointment. Then next day I made it into some baby hummus with some cumin, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I gave her a spoon and a cracker to eat it with and it was a big success! It was also one of the biggest messes she’s ever made. There was hummus in her hair, her ears, and the underside of the seat somehow. She enjoyed it again today for lunch.

One story I hadn’t mentioned a while back was when I was grocery shopping with my mom when Josie was probably about 8 months old. My mom gave Josie a full bulb of garlic to hold to entertain her. Josie (ever the eager eater) decided to take a big bite of the raw garlic. I caught her too late and she had already sunk her teeth into it. And then she went back for another bite. So we know she’s not a vampire!

I’ve got a couple of updates for things I don’t want to forget about!

Josie did a little growth spurt on Sunday night I believe because her bathing suit and high chair straps suddenly got much smaller! She’s also lost her small belly and is super-trim again. She’s eating like a fiend as well.

She’s learned some new skills at swimming. She finally started kicking in the pool and she also did a pretty decent job of floating on her back considering it was her first try. She’s always very serious in the water, the teacher can barely get her to smile, but Josie has never asked to get out.

We play a new game now called ‘Where’s the cheerio?’ in which I hide a cheerio under one of my hands and she has to find it. In a book I read they suggest that you have a pattern and the kid will try to figure it out. I started off with Right Left Left, and found she was always guessing the hand in which I previously had the Cheerio. So I started alternating every time. Then she picked up on the pattern and got it 100% right. Today she had a different strategy and always picked my left hand. I also tried to play the game tonight with peas instead of Cheerios. She repeatedly put my hand back over the pea to cover it and lift it again to see if a cheerio might appear. Then she gave up and picked up the pea and handed it back to me.

She also got her 7th tooth on Sunday, bottom left.

She also now is getting the idea of holding hands in order to lead people. It’s just not always clear who is leading who, and she doesn’t always understand that at some points Mommy has to be the leader.

I was hemming and hawing over getting this dress, but today we went into Old Navy and all infant clothes were $5 making this $20 dress nicely affordable. I think it’s the cutest thing ever, and I’m obviously not biased.

Josie is clearly understanding much more than she can speak. She also plays dumb sometimes as well or pretends not to hear. I can ask her ‘where’s sophie?’ and she’ll dig through her toy drawers until she finds her and brings her to me. She will similarly bring me a book if asked and a ball. I tried asking her for my slippers and she stood there looking skeptical despite the fact that she regularly brings me my slippers unrequested.

 

Flamingos and Snow at the Stone Zoo

Ummm…flamingos…and…snow?