Last weekend, for our (6th) anniversary I planned a weekend away for us on Cape Cod. On Friday afternoon I picked Jordi up from work and surprised him with a whole packed up car and a weekend full of plans. We stayed at the Cape Codder Resort which was fine as far as a hotel goes, but its main attraction is that it has an indoor wave pool, huge hot tub, and 2 indoor water slides. We love to play in the water so this was a major plus for us as it’s still cold here up in New England! We had a nice time exploring Hyannis but mostly just taking the weekend nice and slow and not having to cook or clean for ourselves.

Josie loved the pool. When we showed it to her the first night we arrived she had an absolute fit when we tried to leave. By the end of the weekend she was practically running into the water.

We also went to the Zooquarium. It is pretty small but a decent starter zoo. They have mostly animals that are very accessible to small children (i.e. pig, cow, goat, sheep, chickens, raccoons) but you do get the feed a bunch of them. I fed them, we let Josie keep her fingers for sure through her first birthday.

Here’s some fun Josie photos:

Josie is 11 months old today! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since she was born. It’s so great that it’s getting warm again though and we can go and play outside. She is still fairly hesitant on the playground. She is most comfortable with our home playground and will actually walk around without me. At other playgrounds she requires that we carry her between places to play. Her favorite thing is the swing, she’ll swing for 20 minutes at a time watching the older kids play basketball. She also likes to walk up and slide down the slides. She’ll also chase a ball around the basketball court. Another mom and I noticed that our kids always head right for the concrete to walk on rather than the nice non-head-bashing mulch — we figure that the concrete is much easier for our new walkers to balance on.

Josie continues to love books and asks to be read to very frequently. She still is very excited by books with flaps to lift open and close. She also loves to play with blocks like lego and mega bloks, although putting them together is still a challenge. She mostly loves to knock them down, knock them together, and tear them apart.

She finds sneezing to be hilarious now. I find it very useful for getting her to smile in pictures! She rarely likes to smile at cameras and actually grimaces when she sees one because of all the flashes.

She has learned how to start controlling us and her world. She’ll grab my hands and make me clap or play peekaboo! She also holds my hand while walking up and down the sidewalk. Or tonight she pushed her stroller the length of the mall (remind me why I bother to bring it), hopefully she’ll sleep well!

• Size/weight: size 12 month are getting short and some size 18 months are fitting; 28.75 inches tall and 17 lbs (approx, no actual measurements lately)
• Favorite food: breastmilk, avocado, organic cheerios, zucchini
• Favorite toy: ball, mega bloks
• Favorite book: ‘lift the flap’ animals, baby talk
• Favorite activity: Pushing things, eating
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:00; one short one long nap; gets up 6am (on the good days, 5am on the bad)
• New game: Jump on Papi, a.k.a “CPR” (Jordi plays dead and Josie bangs on his chest, laughing hysterically when Jordi wakes up).
• New skill: demonstrating her listening skills and understanding
• Teeth: 7. Three on the top and 4 on bottom
• Vocalizations: constant ‘talking’ and loud loud yelling, moooooing

Josie likes the vacuum cleaner for some unknown reason. Or rather she likes ours. My mom took hers out and Josie cried when she turned it on.

She also loves to read. I had to read (the same) book to her no less than seven times last night before bed. I kept putting it back on the shelf when I thought she had finished, and she’d go back to the shelf and pick it up again!

Josie also loves to cuddle with Fred and George. They don’t seem to mind that she lays on them.

I’m behind in the food category, but it just hasn’t been terribly exciting. She’s had a few new things. One fun one though was chickpeas. I introduced it to her in whole form just as a bean to start with. That was a severe disappointment. Then next day I made it into some baby hummus with some cumin, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I gave her a spoon and a cracker to eat it with and it was a big success! It was also one of the biggest messes she’s ever made. There was hummus in her hair, her ears, and the underside of the seat somehow. She enjoyed it again today for lunch.

One story I hadn’t mentioned a while back was when I was grocery shopping with my mom when Josie was probably about 8 months old. My mom gave Josie a full bulb of garlic to hold to entertain her. Josie (ever the eager eater) decided to take a big bite of the raw garlic. I caught her too late and she had already sunk her teeth into it. And then she went back for another bite. So we know she’s not a vampire!

I’ve got a couple of updates for things I don’t want to forget about!

Josie did a little growth spurt on Sunday night I believe because her bathing suit and high chair straps suddenly got much smaller! She’s also lost her small belly and is super-trim again. She’s eating like a fiend as well.

She’s learned some new skills at swimming. She finally started kicking in the pool and she also did a pretty decent job of floating on her back considering it was her first try. She’s always very serious in the water, the teacher can barely get her to smile, but Josie has never asked to get out.

We play a new game now called ‘Where’s the cheerio?’ in which I hide a cheerio under one of my hands and she has to find it. In a book I read they suggest that you have a pattern and the kid will try to figure it out. I started off with Right Left Left, and found she was always guessing the hand in which I previously had the Cheerio. So I started alternating every time. Then she picked up on the pattern and got it 100% right. Today she had a different strategy and always picked my left hand. I also tried to play the game tonight with peas instead of Cheerios. She repeatedly put my hand back over the pea to cover it and lift it again to see if a cheerio might appear. Then she gave up and picked up the pea and handed it back to me.

She also got her 7th tooth on Sunday, bottom left.

She also now is getting the idea of holding hands in order to lead people. It’s just not always clear who is leading who, and she doesn’t always understand that at some points Mommy has to be the leader.

I was hemming and hawing over getting this dress, but today we went into Old Navy and all infant clothes were $5 making this $20 dress nicely affordable. I think it’s the cutest thing ever, and I’m obviously not biased.

Josie is clearly understanding much more than she can speak. She also plays dumb sometimes as well or pretends not to hear. I can ask her ‘where’s sophie?’ and she’ll dig through her toy drawers until she finds her and brings her to me. She will similarly bring me a book if asked and a ball. I tried asking her for my slippers and she stood there looking skeptical despite the fact that she regularly brings me my slippers unrequested.

Quite honestly, we don’t need to go to the zoo to show Josie some lazy sleeping cats. But we went and had fun looking at the various animals. She managed not to fall asleep right before we saw the coolest animals which was her normal habit last year at zoos.

Her favorite was definitely the black bears. She went right up to the glass and kissed the bear through the glass and then followed it back and forth as it walked. The bear had done some fun rubbing in the mud and on the glass so the picture isn’t the best.

Josie has a new fascination with putting things ‘in’ other things and taking them out. See a short example of the fun with broccoli and her water cup.

A week or two ago Josie tried grapes and somehow she is compelled to try them again and again with always the same reaction.