Last week we took Josie to the doc to followup on her ear infection (all clear!) and weighed her. She’s tipping the scales at 24 lbs now, it really just all added on in one chunk last week I swear. And now her diapers are popping open at the velcro when she bends over. I kept thinking she was messing with them, but as I thought about it more, she’s way past the expected weight limit of those diapers since she’s tall and thin. She has finally outgrown them! I put in a new order over the weekend for BumGenius 3.0 Onesize diapers which will grow with her and shrink way down again, cause hopefully Josie learn how to use the potty before too much longer and won’t wear them out. She’s having a lot of success, but it’s a slow process.

Lately I’ve found some time to do some cooking and have picked out some new recipes. Some have been good, some have not. Here’s what’s gone down:

• Chili Cheese Corn Muffin from Rachael Ray. These were edible but that’s about it, they made a regular non-sweet muffin and added chili and corn and Parmesan cheese to it which we’ve decided is just wrong. Plus mayonnaise in muffins? Kinda ick. We’ve been trying to work our way through them, but it’s been rough. Previously Josie and I made corn muffin’s from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook, those were good. Jordi says to next time take those corn muffins and add cheese and chili’s.
• Cake Balls! Yum yum, but somewhat a pain to make. They take a lot of time for cooling, it was helpful that it’s winter because I just stuck the cake out in the snow to cool down. They are delicious, especially keeping them in the freezer. We used chocolate my brother in law just sent us from Brazil which was a nice added touch! Jordi thought they went nicely with a chocolate martini.
• 17 bean soup from Trader Joes. I added in some cheese rind from some old cheese which I keep around for this purpose, adds salt and flavor. It was nice, nothing inspirational. Feels good on a cold winter’s day and very healthy.
• Sweet potato Gnocchi. Sweet potatoes were cheap cheap cheap a few weeks ago and so I had to find a way to make them in into something more interesting than just baked sweet potato. Here comes the gnocchi. I got a lot of help from the toddler set in mashing the potatoes, both Zach and Josie. These took a lot of physical labor to mix it all up, but they were exceedingly tasty and I have several bags of them in my freezer. When made with the accompanying sauce of brown butter with sage (and maple syrup) they were decadent.
• and tonight, Tapioca pudding from non-instant tapioca. Let’s hope it’s good!

Close blog readers might have noticed the improved picture quality of some photos (I’m still clearing some from the old camera though too) and HD-video that showed up. Jordi and I were the lucky recipients of a Nikon D90 camera and a sweet 18-200mm lens for Christmas from our parents. We’ve been having a lot of fun taking tons of pictures and playing around with the camera in general with video and all the different modes. I even signed up for a dinky adult ed class to learn a little bit more about how to take better pictures because there’s lots of room for improvement. If you have any suggestions for online info on how to take better pictures I’d love to read those too.

I’ve been enjoying following Josie on our normal daily adventures and taking pictures. It adds a little more excitement in for me on a mundane neighborhood walk trying to take some interesting shots, making sure she doesn’t do anything dangerous while I’m not entirely paying attention.

Josie got a couple of chances to make cookies this holiday season and with each attempt she got better at lasting longer and longer before destroying the rolled out piece of dough by grabbing it up and squeezing it. It’s hard to explain how that’s ok with playdoh but not with cookie dough, at least when you’re trying to actually get the cookies made. Here is Josie cutting and picking up pieces of gingerbread men cookies in Florida on Christmas day.

Josie loves singing and hearing us sing too. We go every week to the sing-a-long at the local library! In this video, see Josie demonstrating her knowledge of how things go on the bus.

Josie has become a bit of a help in the kitchen, she can wash fruits and vegetables, take grapes off the stem, and measure and pour with a small bit of help (like making sure she actually fills said measuring cup). Here she does a great job rolling out some scallion pancakes. Thanks to Alice for teaching me back at Zeta how to make them!

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.