Today’s a two for one shot! We’ve had some snowy day with poor light and busy mornings with no great pictures, so I combined two assignments into one. Bromance is supposed to show who they love, other than you, that they want to spend time with. Daddy definitely qualifies. In addition, I’m supposed to capture what they say, and that only takes one letter to show what Josie says a lot, Y. That’s what she’s hugging in her hand.

Sorry for the crummy lighting from 3 different sources and colors. I’m hoping to finish up tomorrow with a good one.

This photo was supposed to be about what they do for you to make you happy. Josie, being 2, doesn’t do much for me explicitly as she believes the world revolves around her as is developmentally appropriate. But one of the things she gives me in my life that makes me happy is watching her discover how the world works and learning new things. Lately she’s returned to her fascination with puzzles, especially while she’s by herself during quiet time. She has a few two sided puzzles and she has learned that if she puts it together on one side, if she carefully takes it apart and flips it over piece by piece she can put it back together very quickly to see the other puzzle, and again and again. She’s very quick with puzzles these days. She had lost interest for a couple of months but now they seem to be back in full swing. Here she is putting together a pets puzzle. She quickly objected to the photos, so she would not look at me.

Yesterday afternoon I stepped outside of my comfort zone and helped Josie plant some seeds in some dirt, on our dining room table. It’s too cold to go outside, but it’s time to get these seeds started so we can have some plants come summer. We planted zucchini, basil and impatiens. Josie is very excited for the zucchini pasta and pesto to be forthcoming from these plants. Let’s hope they grow. I am not known for my green thumb. Nor am I one to like a mess, this was a challenge for me to make it work. Josie did a good job listening mostly and not spreading the dirt around too much. Mio only made about three trips walking through the dirt that was inevitably on the floor. Next time I am going to presoak the dirt so it’s all wet instead of having to mix it up in these tiny containers.

I really do prefer my dirt outside. We were supposed to do this with friends but I’m glad we got a trial run without anyone there first. The other thing I’d change is get more plants with bigger seeds for the kids. The zucchini was great, huge seeds to push into the dirt. The other two were TINY and basically were just sprinkled on top, I did some and who knows where the one’s Josie added ended up. We’ll see what grows!

Now that Celia can sit up independently for short bits of time, we’ve hooked on the old clamp on high chair so she can sit with us at the table. She loves to be able to see what we’re doing and be included and we’re only getting minor protests so far that she isn’t getting any food. We try to keep books or utensils in front of her so she’s got something to grab and hold onto. She can sit now for about 4 or 5 minutes before she topples when she’s well rested. Great for some independent play while I do something with Josie nearby!

What’s cuter than one baby? Two babies! This is my friend Charlotte’s baby boy Alden, Josie’s friend Lucy’s baby brother.

They had a nice meet and greet at the playdate this morning. They love to look and talk to one another and Alden can roll well enough to get right up to her. Problem is their lack of hand control, they pretty much just grab each other and cry.

Today’s photo was supposed to show where you met or fell in love with your person. I wasn’t headed back to the hospital for just a photo so instead I had Josie put on the hospital baby blanket that those who birth at Mt. Auburn in Cambridge will recognize I’m sure. I continued to have some more cooperation issues with getting some photos, she either didn’t want to smile or wanted to just about be touching the lens. Here Josie is wearing the blanket like a cape, pretending to be a baby crawling on the floor.

This was an odd assignment, go find a facebook photo of your loved one. Josie isn’t on facebook other than through Jordi’s login, so I went through our old blog until I found a photo that I just wanted to share. This photo just grabbed me as how babyish Josie looked, and how much she’s changed in just the last year, this is November 2009, age 1.8.

I’m considering trying to do some cooking with coconut oil after reading some of the health benefits. Anyone already doing this and willing to chat?

Josie has one bathing suit that is a pair of board shorts, she’s got a rash guard shirt to go with it. When we went to the cape a few weeks ago she just did not want to wear the shirt, she wanted to be like the boys. I tried to get her to wear it, but instead of making a big fight I figured that plenty of boys these days have long hair and no one would really give it a second look on a two year old. How do you explain that girls wear shirts because her top half of course looks just like a boy at this age, without bringing shame or discomfort with her body? She understands the physical differences of boys and girls, but I hate to throw the societal rules on already. So she had fun, although I think she was wishing for that shirt later when she got cold! She already asks for privacy in the bathroom, I’m sure she’ll pick up on this later.

Somehow I got a string of really weird photos of Josie today with strange expressions. Instead of trashing them, I thought I’d share since they’re not photographically bad, just very unlike Josie. Guess it was a bad hair day. I think I may see some of this attitude coming back in her teenage years.

Josie has started directing her own photo shoots, she wanted  the above picture with Rody the horse.

I swear I had her permission for these photos, she was just tired I think.

I took her to a bounce house today, that got a lot of smiles. But no pictures, because I was bouncing too.