Quick! Throw them a life preserver! Somehow, Josie’s toys always end up outside the crib when she wakes up.
They are usually in a pile under the side rail. We thought one of her babies was the instigator since, when she was put in the wash, they didn’t jump out right away. But they started it up again before she came back to the crib, so we’re not sure who starts it. Lumpy, the baby heffalump from Winnie-the-Pooh, has even made it into the dirty clothes basket at the head of the crib. I had to search all over the room, thinking he had flown really far, before I found him buried (with a towel over his head) in the basket. The good news is, all of Josie’s friends get hugs on their way back into the crib.
That Josie! She really is “Miss-Chievous”! 
Can you find her in this picture?
She’s very good at hiding. One of her favorite games is Peek-A-Boo and she learned that she can use her hands to cover up her head and she “disappears”. The funny thing is, she usually covers her ears or puts her hands on top of her head. Occasionally she covers her eyes but I think she likes to watch us as we look for her. 
In case you couldn’t find her, here she is!
So I’ve been waiting and waiting for that one lovely word from Josie: “Mama”. I think I’ve been pretty patient since she said “Dada” and her version of “Dodger” (our dog) a couple of months ago. She periodically adds a new word so I just keep waiting and talking to her about “Mama”. As I was putting her in her jammies tonight I was tickling her and she was hugging and kissing my elbow, which she’s recently discovered she likes to do. I looked at her and asked “Can you say mama?” She looked right at me and very clearly said “MAMA”!! Oh boy was I excited! She got a lot of hugs and kisses and tickles. Then I asked her to say it again and she just grinned at me. So, she didn’t do it again, but she did it the one time and it was so clear that I have to conclude she is enjoying teasing me.
It’s true. It’s in there. We just didn’t know it. I decided to check on Josie’s teeth this evening and see if she was any closer to getting new ones. For those that don’t remember, she has six teeth, four on the top and two on the bottom. Her top four teeth all broke through, one after the other, around New Year’s. It’s been pretty quiet since. So I stuck my finger in her mouth to feel around and didn’t really feel anything coming through yet. But my finger slipped farther back than I intended and wouldn’t you know it? She has a small molar coming in on the bottom left. That was a shock! I figured it was still too early for molars, especially since she still hasn’t gotten her other 2 bottom incisors yet. That does explain why she’s had a few moments of grumpiness recently. We’ve also noticed the drool had increased again slightly. No where near what it was when the front teeth came in, but still more than normal. She actually has been in a very good mood considering what was going on in her mouth.
I guess it’s official…my Little Bit is turning into a toddler. Of course, she’s not toddling yet. But she’s getting close to that also.
Today was Helene’s second Mother’s Day and she really enjoyed it. (Or I’m hoping she did. If she didn’t she never let on. )
We went to dinner with her parents at McCormick and Schmick’s, a seafood restaurant in downtown Portland, and had a nice meal. Judy, Helene’s mom, unfortunately became ill shortly after we got to the restaurant and wasn’t able to enjoy the meal. But I think the rest of us ate enough to make up for her not being able to eat.
Here are some pictures that we took in our front yard of Mommy and Josie.
Josie loves kisses and mommy loves giving Josie kisses. They really are a matched set.
Aww, can you say cute couple?
One of the things that Josie likes is hanging upside down. You can have her in your arms and she suddenly lean back so she can look at everything upside down. Today was no exception. Just look at those blue eyes!
Josie loves to swing. Grammy and Pappaw have a swing hanging from the ceiling in their greenhouse which she just loves and will spend endless amounts of time in when she’s over there. Since we’ve had some nice weather recently (finally!) I decided it was time to clean up the baby swing we have for our yard and get it hung from our big maple tree. It was pretty grungy since it’s been sitting under the eaves for the last 6 years but it cleaned up nicely. I hooked it up and put Josie in it and boy did she love it.
Now she crawls over to the sliding glass doors and looks out at the swing longingly. When I went over to her she stood up so I would pick her up which put her closer to the door handle. She grabbed the handle and tried to open the door while glancing back at the swing and saying “please”. I get the feeling she wanted to go swing. It was too cold though so we’ll have to wait for the next few days when it’s supposed to start getting warmer.
And just for fun, here is a glamor shot I took of her on the same day. Boy does she know how to pose!
I still have a little trouble believing it but I actually talked Steve into working on the garden this weekend. We have a corner area that is pretty much the only area that gets a lot of sun. I have been wanting to get it cleaned up for quite a while so I could put some new plants in but we both knew it was going to be a huge amount of work since we had let the weeds and grass go nuts there. It was starting to choke the roses and I was worried about the lilac tree we planted last year for Josie. We didn’t think about taking a before picture, which is really too bad because the transformation is dramatic, but you can ask anyone who saw it before…it was a mess! So, we started with shoveling off the top layer of soil, weeds, and grass. This took all of our available time on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday. Then we transplanted a rhododendron from my parents house. Next we put down some fresh soil to try to even things out. After we put down weed cloth we finished by putting fresh bark down. It looks amazing! What do you think?
And here is a picture of the top of Josie’s lilac all budded up:
I think it looks pretty nice!
It’s been a long, and sometimes difficult, 5 years but she made it! For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, my mother, Judy, was diagnosed with Stage IIIC Ovarian Cancer (OC) 5 years ago in April. Today marks 5 years since she had the tumor removed and started treatment. This is really something to celebrate! She is in the very lucky 35% of women with OC who make it to the 5 year mark. Our prayers were definitely answered!
Josie and I took her out for tea to celebrate. Here is mom wearing celebratory golden Minnie ears. They are the Disneyland 50th anniversary ears and yes, I can’t believe I got her to wear them either!
We had a very nice time and, as always, Josie was the center of attention. We had “high tea” which starts with a couple scoops of sorbet. Grammy was nice enough to share with Josie. She gave a good, full-body shiver when the coldness hit her.
Here is Grammy reading the card we gave her that said “We are so glad you’re a Tigger instead of an Eeyore!”
Finally, here is Grammy letting Josie help her open her celebration present.
We gave her a copy of the book, “The Last Lecture”, by Randy Pausch. That’s where the Tigger/Eeyore comment came from. It’s a very good book and if you have a chance to read it you really should. I truly think mom’s positive attitude all through the last 5 years (her “Tiggertude”, if you will) helped her to make it to this point. Congratulations, mom!
My mom and I took the first two Wilton cake decorating classes last fall. My goal was to be able to make a nice birthday cake for Josie’s first birthday. If you look at the post about her 1st birthday part you’ll see her enjoying her cake. But I didn’t put up a picture of the cake before she got a hold of it. While I technically made the whole thing myself, my mom did help me with some of the borders (that’s a lot of pearls!) and with figuring out where to place the flowers and figures. Thanks mom! Here is what the cake looked like put all together:
And here is what the separate tiers looked like:
And finally, my niece, Molly, had her First Communion this last Sunday. My mom and I made a special cake for her party. We tried something new and made a “stained glass cross” on top. We had a lot of fun and think it turned out pretty well.
