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Today is Josie’s 2nd birthday. It’s hard to believe that two years have flown by already. This is her 2-year old picture that we took in the same rocking chair she had her monthly and first birthday pictures in.

We had a family party at my parents’ house this afternoon and Josie had a very good time after getting over her initial tears when everyone showed up at once and the noise overwhelmed her. We had a great time visiting with her Godparents, Kathleen and John, and are so glad they were able to come down for the party. All of my family was also there which made for a very full house. One of the big highlights of the day was the fact that she could finally have peanut butter. Her pediatrician wanted us to wait until she was two to hopefully prevent any allergies to it, although we aren’t quite sure that long of a wait was necessary. As usual, she didn’t really want to try something new so we had to sneak it to her. Steve put a dab of it on the oreo she was eating and she took a bite without realizing it. We also gave her a chocolate peanut butter cookie (the new Keebler ones that are like the girl scout cookie “Tagalongs”) which she really enjoyed. Here she is eating the Keebler cookie:

I made her a cake that featured two of her favorite things, Mickey (and his friends) and books. Here is the finished product:

Here she is blowing out the candles on her cake. If you look closely, you can see she managed to blow out the red candle. She needed a little help to get the yellow one.

And here she is enjoying her birthday cake with Daddy:

Happy birthday, Josie! We love you very much!

We worked hard and got Josie’s big girl room all set up for her last week.

She had her first night in the room last Thursday and it’s gone pretty well since. She absolutely loves her kitchen and table/chairs. She’s also really enjoying the access she now has to the bookshelf and all the books it holds. She transitioned easily to the youth bed/converted crib that we borrowed from my sister. We went with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme since she loves Mickey and his friends. For the most part, she goes to sleep when she’s put in bed. Monday night was the first rough night we had. She was up playing until finally falling asleep at 10:30. That was after tucking her in so many times we lost count (over 3 hours). When I went to check on her around 11:30 I found her sleeping with her blanket and friends behind the door.

I’m not sure why she decided to sleep there but she let me put her back in bed with no problems. I found her blanket and friends back behind the door again this morning. Maybe she feels like she has her own private clubhouse over in that corner? In contrast, tonight she got up and played after we tucked her in but when I went in to tuck her in again she went right to sleep. Overall, we’re quite pleased with how easy her transition has been. She really enjoys cooking and having tea parties at her table. We had a nightstand acting as a small table against the wall, holding her baby doll stuff. We had to remove it today after she figured out how to climb on it and get to the shelves and bookshelf near it. The real problem though was the fact that she tumbled off of it twice during her supposed naptime. She was ok but I think it scared her. Unfortunately, it didn’t scare her enough to stop trying.

I started this post last night and was falling asleep while trying to write it so I put off finishing it until today. When I went to check on Josie before bed last night I found her like this:

As you can see, she tucked herself in with Mickey, a book, and the blanket off the rocking chair. There sure seems to be something about sleeping next to the door. She let me get her up and tuck her into her bed without any problems. Usually, if she gets up to play at naptime, she’ll tuck herself back in. This is how I found her yesterday:

Everything else is going well here. We’ve enjoyed some snow showers in the last week but it looks like we may finally be moving into spring. We have our 30 week check-up at the OB on Thursday. And then our big event will be Josie’s second birthday on Sunday. We’re going to have a big family party at my parents house. It’s much better equipped to handle 16 people than our house. Steve and I will have a fun date night on Saturday. We’re going to the Melting Pot for dinner and then to see the Broadway show “Wicked”. He surprised me with those tickets at Christmas. It’s going to be a busy and exciting weekend for us!

We are overdue for an update. While Josie and I were out of town briefly in early January, the real excuse is just being busy. Josie and I had an interesting trip up north last month. My Great Uncle Mike passed away on Dec. 26 and his funeral was on Jan. 7. He was a great man who met my grandpa in naval training and then introduced him to his younger sister, my grandma. My parents, Josie, and I drove up to Bellingham, WA, on Jan. 6 and spent the night so we could be at the funeral on the 7th. The timing was unfortunate. We woke up the next morning to find that the road in front of the hotel was closed due to flooding. We were able to get out and to the church but the rain never stopped. It was a lovely service and we were really glad to be there. We started home afterwards and heard they were going to close I-5 near Chehalis, WA, around midnight. No problem! We should be past there by 8 that evening. Unfortunately, they moved up the closure to 6 PM while we were driving. With how bad traffic had been that day the whole way down, there was no way we would have made it past there before the closure unless we didn’t go to the service. We tried to find an alternate route but of course they were all closed due to flooding and mudslides. Not that we would have tried it at night, but the mountain passes were closed also so we couldn’t even head over the mountains and swing back around and down to Vancouver. So we were stranded. Steve, who had to work so was at home waiting for us, managed to call the Guesthouse Inn in Tumwater (just south of Olympia) and literally booked the last room, a family suite, for us. It worked well for that first night but Josie was sleeping in her play pen next to the bathroom which made sneaking to the bathroom in the middle of the night difficult. Our overnight trip turned into 3 nights. We had to make several trips to the store for supplies while we waited it out. Mom and I were supposed to go to the Neil Diamond concert in Portland on Thursday night but we missed it. What made it more bitter was the fact that they canceled the concert in Sept. when it was originally scheduled for what appeared to be very lame reasons – they supposedly had logistical problems setting up his concert at the Rose Garden even though he’s played there before and they host many concerts every year. Anyway, they finally opened I-5 that Friday around noon and we were on the road by 2 PM. We were thrilled to get home!

My parents left for Cancun, Mexico, a couple days later. They were gone for 3 weeks and boy did Josie miss them! Steve’s parents were able to join them for about 10 days down there and they all had a great time together. Meanwhile, Hotel Abbott played host to Chico, the cockatiel, and Callie, the Maltese. Yes, for those that don’t know, her name really is Callie Fornia. My dad finally got his way and was able to name someone in the family “California”. We had a very busy and noisy household for a while there. Josie really enjoyed having the animals with us and misses them now that they’re gone. Steve and I didn’t enjoy the chirping and extra barking waking Josie up during nap time but otherwise they were fun to have around.

Josie went in for a weight check a couple weeks ago and is now a whopping 21 pounds 2 ounces. That means she gained a whole pound in the last 2 months. We were sure she had gained more than that so I was a little disappointed. But she at least is maintaining her percentile (around the 3rd). I just wish she would be more willing to eat things like meat. She’s getting better about trying new things. The other night she actually took a very small bite of steamed broccoli. She didn’t like it and spit it back out but we considered it a huge accomplishment that she even put it in her mouth. We’ll just keep trying new stuff as she’ll let us. I have a feeling we may be in for a rude awakening when the new baby grows like a typical child. I won’t know what to do when I only get 3 or so months out of clothes instead of 6-9 months.

Speaking of the new baby, we had a checkup at the end of January and everything is looking good. This baby sure likes to kick a lot. Josie did a lot of rolling and swishing, which is a very different feeling. This one seems to be tap dancing much of the time. It’s even woken me up in the middle of the night, which is something Josie never did (before she was born anyway). We are working on Josie’s “big girl” room so we can transition her out of the nursery before the baby is born. I’m not sure who’s going to have a harder time with the transition, her or me. We are going with a “Mickey Mouse” theme again for her room because she is so in love with him and his friends. The nursery is done in “Classic Mickey” so perhaps moving from one Mickey room to another will make it easier. She now easily uses 3-word phrases and is starting some 4-word ones. She seems to gain several new vocabulary words every day. She knows her first name and how old she is and just today starting working on adding her last name. She still loves to read and is very excited any time we get a new book. She’s also getting more into role-playing and is enjoying her baby dolls, weebles, Little People house, cooking, and Mr. Potato Head. She is quite an active and entertaining little girl.

I have taken up crocheting, which seems to fill all my spare time. I’m making a baby afghan that needs to be finished before the baby comes so I’ve really been working hard on it to make sure I get it done. I have just over 1/4 of the squares made (192 squares total) and will have to stitch them together once they’re all made. I’m sure I can get it done, but me being me I’m worried about it so am pushing myself to get as many squares made in a day as I can. Unfortunately, it takes me between 30 and 45 minutes to make one square so it’s a slow process.

Steve had his birthday yesterday. Happy belated birthday, honey! We were able to take advantage of my parents keeping Josie for the night and we went out for a really nice dinner at the Chart House. Their lava cake can’t be beat! Not to mention the macadamia nut sea bass and the tenderloin medallions. As always, the dinner was excellent and it was really nice to get out for a meal without having Miss Crankypants along for the ride. All in all, I think Steve had a nice birthday.

I’m sure there’s more to report on but with my brain being as full of holes as it has been lately, I can’t think of anything else. I’ll do my best to keep things better up to date.

Here are some fun pictures from the last month or so:

Our 2009 girl:

Dressing up and then feeding her bunny:

Taking her babies for a walk:

Making lunch:

In bed with her friends:

Steve’s “Shrek” cake that I made him:

We had our 20 week ultrasound today. Everything looked great! We saw the heart and it looked perfect. We also saw the brain, face, spine, and all those other important body parts. Oh, and, drum roll please, we’re having….. A BABY! Yes, we decided to not find out the gender of the baby so Steve and I looked away whenever the tech was checking down in the pelvic/leg region. My mom watched but said she didn’t see anything that gave her a good idea. So, either she really didn’t see anything or she’s going to be good at denying it for the next few months. It was a lot of fun to watch the baby moving around. It’s approximately 14 ounces right now which is exactly where it should be. While we were looking at it’s face we could see it “chewing”. The tech commented on how it looked like it was chewing gum. It was so exciting! I definitely feel the little one moving around now. Often it’s a swishing feeling but I also get these little pokes and kicks too. We have to get the photos scanned in so when we do we’ll post a couple of them.

Our snow storm finally ended last Friday. We ended up with 12 inches of snow on our patio table and that doesn’t include the occasional melting or blowing that happened over time. The second storm we had on Christmas Eve finally dropped the right kind of snow for us to build a snowman. We’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, “Mim”. (That’s what Josie calls him.)

Unfortunately he didn’t last long. By Christmas morning he was curving terribly to the side. As our neighbor pointed out, he had “snowliosis”. By that evening, he’d lost his head. I think he’d gotten into the egg nog when we weren’t looking. Most of the snow is gone now. We have nothing left in the backyard. We have maybe 2 inches in the front yard in spots and some of the piles are left from Steve’s shoveling. There’s also a thick lane divider in the middle of our street. I’m not sure what Josie’s going to do when she wakes up the first morning and looks outside for snow and there isn’t any. It was a wonderful white Christmas!

Which is why I’m glad I married someone who knows how to deal with it! It’s been a few years but Steve picked up that snow shovel with a lot of expertise. He has a lot of experience with it, after all he grew up in upstate New York. He cleared our walkway and cars in no time. It took a little longer to get the driveway to a point where we could actually get out but he did it a lot faster than I thought possible. As of Monday afternoon, we had 10 inches of snow on the ground. I’m sure a little melted yesterday although it didn’t get warm enough to do much. It’s been snowing all morning again and we’re expecting more tonight and into tomorrow morning before it finally starts to let up. This will truly be a magical Christmas. I always dream of a white Christmas and it looks like this year I’m finally getting one. A special thanks to my wonderful in-laws, Bob and Sandy. I guess your offer of sending me snow every year finally worked!

Here are a couple of new pictures to give you an idea of how much fun we’ve been having. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love snow and that I can’t get enough of it. I’m still enjoying watching it come down!

10 inch measurement:

Our happy shoveler:

A cleared path:

Snow family:

Our house in lights:

Backyard under snow:

We did have snow last year. Enough to take Josie out for the obligatory “first snowfall” pictures. But there really wasn’t enough to play in. This year is a bit different. We’ve had some arctic air over the last week and several snow storms moved in. Of course, we missed the first one last weekend. We barely got a dusting. And Wednesday’s brought just another dusting. But by Thursday we had actually gotten close to half an inch. (I know, that’s still a dusting to some of you.) We took a nice family walk around the neighborhood to visit my folks. Josie absolutely loved walking in the snow. She wouldn’t let us carry her there at all. Some of it did melt so it wasn’t looking like all that much by Thursday evening but by Friday morning we had almost an inch! This was very exciting for us. More snow fell off and on throughout the morning so I took Josie out to play in the front yard around lunch time. She really enjoyed “throwing” snowballs and picking snow up off the ground. I even helped her make her first snow angel. She put up with it until I wanted to take a picture and set her back down. As you can see, she wasn’t so happy at that point.

But don’t worry, the smiles came back as soon as I stood her back up and dusted her off. The good news is, it’s been snowing since last night and we now have around 7 or 8 inches. We took her out again this afternoon in hopes of building a snowman but our expert snowman-maker (Steve) said it was just too powdery to stick together. Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen any other snowmen. We tried to make another snow angel but she was most unhappy with that experience again. The snow angel looked better today though since there was more snow.

We are expecting even more snow over the evening with it supposedly changing to freezing rain sometime tomorrow. Hopefully it will warm up slowly so we can have a “white” Christmas even if it doesn’t actually snow on Christmas Day.

On a sad note, Josie fell down in the house last night and split her lip open. She also must have hit her top left front tooth because it was bleeding at the gum. There was a lot of blood and tears. After sucking on a washcloth with an ice cube in it for a bit the bleeding stopped and so did the crying (from all of us). She has a bruised and fat lip today and is eating more on the right side of her mouth but otherwise seems to be ok. As you can see, she was still all smiles this morning.

And on a very happy note, it’s almost Christmas and we are definitely ready. Josie has been enjoying her advent calendars every day, especially the chocolate one. She has also tried to get into the presents under the tree a couple of times and really enjoys looking (aka pulling on) the ornaments on the tree. She has several favorite Christmas carols, including the Little Drummer boy (“pum pum”) and Deck the Halls (“ya ya”). And she is loving all of the Christmas books I’ve had for years and years. She even made her visit to Santa a few weeks ago. She was a bit shy but she did warm up to him when he brought out his book to read and gave her a candy cane.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Ultrasound photo from 9/23/2008

Josie’s going to be a big sister! Our biggest news of the year is that we are going to have a baby! The newest addition to our family should arrive by May 14, 2009. We are thrilled! Josie is in love with babies and said she’d like to have one live with us. I think she’ll be a great big sister. Everything is going well so far, although the morning sickness is quite a bit worse this time around. I’m 13 weeks along, though, so hopefully the nausea and exhaustion will go away soon. At our first appointment in September, we got to see the baby on the ultrasound and hear and see the heartbeat. It was a healthy 151. We went in for our next check-up on 10/30 and everything looked good. We heard the heartbeat again and it sounded very good. Nice and strong with a good rhythm to it. We’ll have to go back and listen to the tape to figure out the rate. We’ll be checking in again with the doctor just before Thanksgiving. I’m sure you can all imagine how excited we are to be adding to our family. What a blessing this is!