While we don’t see the developmental advancements at the rate of a newborn with Josie, she certainly has been making big strides and surprises us.

She has been memorizing books like crazy. She read The Cat In The Hat to my mother over the phone the other day and she knows most of the words. She will often correct us if we make a mistake. Even though it seems like she isn’t paying attention when I read  to her sometimes, she clearly is listening closely. She’s also been listening to books on cd during quiet time which has given her some more stories to learn; we just checked out a huge pile from the library last week.

Josie has continued to be very kind to her sister in general, although she’s getting a little more reckless with climbing over her or playing nearby, she doesn’t understand the size difference. She does clearly feel bad though when she makes Celia cry.

Physically, she likes to climb things which is rough since we’re mostly indoors right now. I’ve been trying to watch her to understand what is reasonably safe for her to climb and what is beyond her reach because she definitely is getting stronger in this department and deserves a bit more freedom. Still I really don’t want a trip to the ER.

The last three months have been tough as Josie has been getting increasingly frustrated at the world not doing what she wants it to do. Sometimes it’s just physically one thing will not fit someplace, other times she’s just unhappy that she can’t just play all day doing what she wants because other people have needs (like grocery shopping, or diaper changes) or even just her own bodily needs (like going to the bathroom and eating). She’s been digging her heels in and fighting us but we’re starting to find ways  to work together better. For the last week or so she seems to have calmed down a bit and choosing to do things herself by herself. We’ve also settled into more of a routine lately which has helped too I think.

Part of that routine change has been Josie dropping her nap. Instead we now have quiet time where I theoretically get time to do things, that is, if Celia isn’t awake and wanting attention at that same time and Josie actually stays in her room. This has made Jordi and I switch his schedule for leaving for work earlier in the morning so he can make it home for family dinner time, which is now at 6. I think the added time between when Jordi leaves and we need to leave the house for morning activities has made the transition easier on Josie as she gets to process them separately as opposed to being sad that Jordi is gone and then having to do what I say to get going too. We’ve also cut back on the number of activities we do out of the house too, trying to have a few more play dates where people come here.

For playtime Josie loves pretend, she pretends the doctors office, cooking, a hotel, gymnastics classes and I’m sure she’ll be pretending about the cruise we’ll be taking in a few months soon too! We otherwise spend our time reading and doing a few art projects when I can get things pulled together and Celia napping at the right time. Art is usually a short-lived time though, it doesn’t seem to hold her interest all too long. She likes to make collections of little things and use them at money, or stack them up in tall towers, or pretend they are groceries.

ETA (edited to add): She is also now clearly thinking faster than she can speak. Like me. She’s stumbling and stuttering trying to get the right words out as she jumps ahead of herself in her mind.

• Size/weight: 4T, don’t really know the height and weight right now, maybe I can update later
• Favorite food: breastmilk, cheese, pasta, yogurt – fairly wide variety, willing to try most things
• Favorite toy: baby dolls, doctors kit, anything with lots of little pieces that can be pretend things
• Favorite books: Dr Suess and anything by Kevin Henkes
• Favorite activity: Acting out scenarios with herself
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:30; gets up ~6:30am
• New skill: reciting books from memory
• Teeth: 18. 10 on the top and 8 on bottom. Finally some molars!
• Vocalizations: Voracious story teller, non-stop talker and why’er

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 13th, 2011 at 10:56 am by Jen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.