Over the last month or so Josie’s personality has changed a little to include the idea of fear. She has gotten slightly more cautious physically, although she’s still throwing herself all over the playgrounds. But emotionally she has shown real signs of fear, such as at the guy dressed up as a pink monkey at the park trying to sell himself as birthday entertainment. She was a little uncertain around some animals at the zoo (although the flamingo’s were a huge hit this last time). Tonight was the biggest showing, she had asked to read “The Cat In The Hat” as she’s heard it a number of times now. But halfway through, when Thing 1 and Thing 2 appear, she broke down into tears and told us “I don’t like that”. We put the book away and picked out another familiar favorite to end the night, but even as she went to bed, she told me ‘I’m scared’ for the first time I’ve ever hear her admit/verbalize it. She was heartily reassured that everyone is here for her and will keep her safe, including buddy Zach, she verified, and she has now fallen asleep.

From the science museum, obviously!

A couple of weekends ago we just needed to get out of the house and so we went to explore a nearby park called Habitat in Belmont. It was still cold with a little snow on the ground. Josie was decidedly upset with our using the word ‘park’ to describe the place as there was no playground equipment anywhere. We had to drag her around and carry her to go anywhere until we got near the lake where of course she loved to run back and forth on the boardwalk next to the water, nearly falling in. She also liked to stand on and jump off rocks. All the way to the end she continued to ask where the park was.

One of my latest photography class assignments was to take photos from different perspectives to get more interesting photos. I should really share the other photos I took, we’ll get there one day! This is again at the Children’s museum in Boston, one showing most everyone under the exhibit and then one shot from underneath. These were the first things we looked at in the museum and were a big hit.

Last weekend we went to the Children’s museum with our buddies Zach, Ethan and Christina. They had a nifty Curious George exhibit which Josie really enjoyed, especially the slide. They set up this fun statue too to take pictures with!

This weekend has mostly been a wash in a number of ways. It won’t stop raining first of all. Second, I also started in with some food poisoning or stomach bug immediately after leaving Josie’s friend’s Luke’s house on Friday so I’ve been laid up all weekend trying to eat and drink anything. Josie and Jordi and my parents did make it out to Drumlin Farm though on Saturday to eat pancakes, but unfortunately it was rainy and cold.

Josie is very proud these days of anything she can help with. One of her favorites is helping Jordi make his lunch in the morning for work. She often helps by reminding him of what goes in it (cheese, spinach, etc) and then taking the spinach they put in the sandwich and putting it on the floor or her tower. Mio likes spinach, and so does George. But of course, so does Daddy.

A few weeks ago my cousin Will came up for the holiday weekend and Josie got to meet him again for the first time since she was 2 months old. Things have certainly changed since then! We celebrated Will’s birthday a little late by all going out to dinner on Valentine’s day, so maybe not the most romantic, but we certainly weren’t in the minority being people dining with a toddler that evening! (ok so we had dinner at 6, that might change the clientele at Not Your Average Joes)

We also bought ourselves a vacuum cleaner for valentine’s day too (as a pre-agreed upon thing). Nothing says loving like a quickly but effectively cleaned house.

J

Looks like even the very youngest of us can’t resist a light-up floor and techno music!

A couple of weekends ago we went to the science museum. I swear this video shows some of the most fun Josie had, although there was a lot of fun to be had. The whole place was a bit over-stimulating, still, we found this funny. She’s starting to do stairs by herself with us standing below her so she doesn’t topple and break anything.

Whenever Josie see’s a zucchini in the grocery store, or in the fridge she immediately proclaims ‘Zucchini pasta!’. It’s her favorite dish. It’s simple, it gets some veggies into her and it’s yummy and garlic filled. Since I seem to keep screwing up 3/4ths of the new things I try to make, I’ve been sticking to the old favorites lately like this. Here’s how it goes in case you want to make Josie her favorite meal! I think I may have picked it up from Rachael Ray, but I really can’t remember at this point.

Zucchini Pasta

serves 6 (or 4 big big servings)

• 1 lb linguinie
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 large or two small zucchini’s, grated and dried a little with paper towels
• 3 oz parmesan cheese shredded (grated works too but good cheese is really important to this)
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Boil water for pasta and cook according to package. Save 1 cup of the pasta water before draining. In a big (I use non-stick) frying pan, melt butter and olive oil together over medium low heat. Add in zucchini (I add it when I put the pasta in the water for pretty good timing) and garlic. Cook approximately 7 minutes, until cooked and just starting to brown.

Add in the drained pasta and cheese and half a cup of pasta water. Toss to spread everything around to keep cheese clumps from forming. Ideally the cheese will just melt into the sauce. Add more pasta water if the pan is dry, the pasta shouldn’t have a soupy sauce, but shouldn’t be sticking to the pan either. You can cook it off if you add too much. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add generous heaping to your plate and enjoy eating some well hidden vegetables. I’ve also added shredded red peppers in too which adds a slightly different but also yummy flavor and color to the mix.