... And baby makes four (ok five if you count the dog)

Yes, if you haven't heard, here is our latest news:

 

Due June 20th!

Making Up For Lost Time

We have been off our game for a while now... sorry for that! Here is an update on our (and by "our," obviously I mean "Josie's") activities lately...

First, we had Halloween. Danny sat outside and gave the kiddies (loose translation: teenagers with a "costume" consisting of a 99 cent mask and a huge pillowcase for candy) treats while Josie and I stayed inside and partied.

Then came Thanksgiving. We went to Danny's Aunt Judy's where Josie decided she was only happy in the front living room with one or the other of her parents holding her at all times. But she looked cute!

 

Christmas is fast approaching so I tried my hand at making real decorated sugar cookies. Not bad for a first try. I miss the little silver balls though that would crack your teeth open and give you mercury poisoning.

 

In anticipation of winter, Josie has been practicing some new tricks, like sporting winter wear:

 

Following up on who's in the running for the AFC East playoffs:

Practicing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 3 in D Minor:

Finding new things to drink:

Ok, we don't let her drink Coke (unless it's caffeine free), but she is trying out a new liquid delivery device:

She's not that successful at the sippy cup yet, but she is getting good at the whole sitting independently thing!

She has also been spending some quality time with her puppy:

And her Daddy:

And she has found that during naps (and only during naps) she is a side sleeper!

So as you can see, though we might not have been that great at sharing lately, we have been decent at documenting! We promise in the New Year to be better at posting on this blog, so that all three of you can keep up with our exciting, thrill a minute lives!!!

The One Where They Carved Pumpkins

Halloween pumpkin carving:

 

The end results:

 

 

 

 

And then afterward I used the pumpkin to make these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins!

 

(Ok, I actually bought a can of pumpkin from Target. Sue me.)

GiGi's Visit!!

A couple weeks ago, GiGi came to visit me Danny Josie here in Boston. We all had a great time hanging out and having fun, especially Josie who got LOTS of extra attention from her GiGi! She also got to be roomies with her! Thankfully, my mom isn't bothered by small people who wake up in the middle of the night practicing their consonant sounds or scratching the mattress. In the daytime, they had a lot of fun playing together:

 

 

We also took a trip to Bass Pro Shops for something to do on a rainy Saturday. We sat in a furniture display and pretended we lived there:

 

The next day we headed to New Hampshire for try #2 at Applecrest Farms. This time we fared much better, due to some strategic bottle feeding placement and much less wind. Josie was actually in a pretty great mood, and looking cute in her hand me down sweater from cousins Molly and Mary Kate:

 

 

GiGi also taught Josie a new face:

 

Which she does several dozen times a day!

 

With the exception of a trip-ending knee injury (feel better, Mom!) it was a fun visit... hopefully Mom had fun, too!

It's My Half Birthday!

Josie's very first half birthday is today! She celebrated by going to the office (aka the Exersaucer), where she completed lots of tasks, like honking the bus horn, playing the jump song, and gazing at herself in the mirror:

 

She also played on the floor with Stevie and mom, sang some new songs, and read a couple books. She also took two naps, the second of which was big girl style (2+ hours long). She ate a dinner of rice cereal and pears, topped off with a few ounces of liquid gold (formula... the price of which roughly equates gold ounce for ounce). She ended the evening with a story, prayers, and an special lullaby song she had never heard before. She was asleep in about 4 minutes. At which time her mother had a cupcake and vanilla ice cream to honor her daughter's half birthday.

Ah, Autumn... with a five month old.

This past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard. The plan was:

1) eat some yummy grill food

2) pick some apples for delicious, yet-to-be-decided-on recipes

3) choose a perfect, round, orange pumpkin

4) listen to some free bluegrass

5) possibly buy some apple butter (even though it's pricey, but we only go once a year or less)

6) window shop in their Americana themed country store

7) eat some just-made cider doughnuts

8) more bluegrass

9) more doughnuts

10) ok one last doughnut

What actually happened was this:

1) we parked far away

2) went to the bathroom in a Don's John

3) Danny waited in a ridiculously long line for a hot dog and a hamburger while Josie and I entertained ourselves by looking at all the different dogs that people had

4) Danny and I ate, Josie refused to eat

5) listened to two bluegrass songs

6) Josie refused to eat again

7) tried to find a quiet place for her to eat and quickly realized this was pointless

8) Josie refused to eat again and began screaming

9)  walked back to the truck to feed her

10) she got sleepy, and we realized we had to leave so she could nap.

Even with my perfect plan going so awry, we managed to get a few cute shots:

 

 

As mad as I was at her, the kid is still frickin' cute. Brat.

Babies Don't Keep

I will admit it; I am not the best housekeeper. I used to be much better, and I totally assumed now that I am home with Josie that I would become even better. Not so. Don't get the wrong idea, our house isn't filthy or anything, but it could be cleaner. I often worry Danny will come home and wonder what I did all day (though he has never once said anything like that). The fact is, when she's asleep I try to get things done... showering and getting myself ready, dishes, making the bed, checking email, folding laundry, planning the grocery trip, etc. Then when she's awake, if she doesn't need anything (like a bottle, a clean diaper, a new outfit, a bath, her nails cut, etc.) then I want to spend time with her. She is more and more interactive all the time, and I really want to witness all the stuff she does every day rather than sit her in the bouncy seat with a toy and go in the other room to mop the floors. I think about this a lot and struggle with what I want to do (play with Josie) and what I need to do (dust). Then last night I came across this poem:

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peek-a-boo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo,

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

"I can eat stuff!"

Now that Josie is able to accurately grab things and move them from hand to hand -- to mouth -- we have to be a bit more careful about what we give her. No more plastic grocery bags, things Stevie regularly has in her mouth, or full beer bottles. It is worth it to see her playing more interactively with stuff though... she particularly loves her stuffed dragonfly with the crinkly wings (which we inaccurately refer to as "the bee") and her linking rings:

 

 

 

She's doing great eating her rice cereal, too. She started out by obsessively watching us eat and drink (she still does that). So we were making a big deal out of it, taking a bite and saying "mmmmmmm" and she wouldn't smile or react at all, she just kept obsessively watching us. So we figured she was ready to try solid food. Well, "solid" might be a stretch -- her cereal looks and smells like wallpaper paste -- but you know what I mean. So we tried it and she loved it. We doubled the amount within three days and she gobbles it all up! Unless we take too long feeding her, then she gets bored and wants out of her seat and kicks her feet and cries and tries to hit the spoon out of your hand. It's a delicate balance of feeding her as fast as humanly possible without choking her and while keeping her as clean as is reasonable to expect. Needless to say, dinner is a two-bib event!

Squirmbles

This was Danny's nickname for Josie from the get-go, due to her excessive squirming both in and out of the womb. Nothing really has changed; Josie continues to squirmble her way through life:

 

 

That last one was a spin off of the original (below)... this is how I found her when we woke up one morning. She started out in the center of the crib the night before... and also started out 90 degrees to the right.

 

But nothing beats the time she started out in her usual position and woke up EXACTLY 180 degrees from it... feet where her head goes, head where her feet go, exactly in the center of the crib. I actually didn't take a picture because I assumed Danny had just taken her out to change her diaper and then put her back in upside down. Another day, another adventure!

Look What I Can Do!

Josie is so good at sitting up, we decided that she was ready to make Stevie her own personal horse.

Wow... an actual productive weekend!

So we had a long overdue yard sale this weekend. We tend to not be pack rats, so we didn't have all that much stuff to sell, but we had a few things. Two tables worth...

... with some overflow into the yard.

We did pretty good... got about $188! It was a LOT of work though. You forget how much work the last one was, so you plan a new one. But we need the extra money, and we sure don't need all that stuff!

I also baked. I know, I'm not supposed to bake, because I am bad at it. Also I am on a diet. But, I was in the mood to bake and I *think* it turned out ok. I haven't tasted it yet. It's pretty anyway, if you like homemade looking things:

Fall is a good enough reason to bake a cake right?