Today Josie spent the day on my lap or being carried around. She nursed and slept her way through the entire day. She spit up on me three times. She just sat there and cried if I put her down. Pretty much she acted the way she did exactly a year ago, but today unfortunately it was because she was sick and had a high fever.

Thankfully it looks like it’s lightening up, she perked up a little and actually ate something solid for dinner, and hopefully will be gone tomorrow, but it was a nice break from chasing her around all day for me. I got way caught up on TV and reading while she slept on my lap.

Josie found something else to stack up, and this way she gets a fluffy audience.

Whenever we can handle the mess, we give Josie utensils to help her learn how to use them. I’ve found that greek yogurt, being very thick and sticky, is a great food to use while practicing with the spoon. It’s also great because it has a ton of fat and protein. In fact, Josie really won’t let me feed her with the spoon so this is the only way she’s getting the food in at all. Sometimes she’ll let me load up the spoon and she’ll put it in her mouth herself. It’s not a food for when we’re in a hurry or I don’t want to do a total wardrobe change!

Last weekend we went to IKEA and picked up a tunnel now that Josie actually crawls. I think the one’s that love the tunnel the most though are the cats. They go crazy for it at night and love to hide and stalk each other through it. When Josie has friends over it’s very popular as well.

The last few days Josie has started to make more sounds that actually seem to be words. She’s also enjoying making funny sounds and movements with her tongue (as seen in the video). This morning she was especially cute when I was getting a little more shut-eye and she took Jordi to my bedroom door, did her ‘i want’ sign, and then actually said ‘mama’ outloud. We have also heard the words: hot, Ezzy, Nina (girl across the street), book, dog, dada. My hearing isn’t as keen with the spanish words probably so I’m guessing she’s working on those too but I’m not picking them up.

Josie has learned how to make it very clear that it is time to leave. She goes to the exit, points, does her ‘i want’ sign, and waves goodbye to the place. There is no convincing her otherwise, she’s ready and that’s it. Alternatively, getting her to leave a place she’s happy with is a trial in persuasiveness. Here’s a video of her getting her point across at Don Pan, our favorite bakery down in Florida.

As previously mentioned, we went to Florida in May for Mother’s Day. We saw lots of relatives, including my grandmother and most of Jordi’s family. We had a lot of fun, even if Josie isn’t a fan of the heat. Playing on the beach and in the water was a blast. Josie loved getting to pet and chase new cats, including a 2 month old kitten, and dogs and didn’t do any lasting damage to the house so far as we saw 🙂

I don’t know why I don’t have any photos from the beach, maybe someone else does?

We are living in a great neighborhood and are really lucky to have such lovely neighbors on all sides of us! There are 4 kids within 4 months of Josie’s age plus a couple of older ones just in the few houses right around us. Next door though are some of Josie’s (and my) favorite playmates. Zach is just a couple of weeks younger than Josie. He thinks Josie is ‘da bomb’ if I interpret his frequent attempts at hugging her and giving her flowers (i.e. grass). Josie tries not to recoil too much when Zach (who out-weighs her by over 5 lbs and isn’t quite as steady on his feet) comes in for a big hug. Josie loves to follow Zach’s older brother Ethan (age 3.5) around and copy him much to Ethan’s frustration. She even copies him when he yells, although the words come out a little differently. We’re just really lucky to have them around and we’re all gonna be pretty sad when Christina (mom) goes back to teaching in the fall.

Some of Josie’s favorite games are her playing in bed because it’s way better than sleeping! Here’s a demo:

And another!