Nearly a Year and a Half!

Josie is going to be a year and a half at the end of the month. Her personality abounds! She is quite busy through out the day which means that I am also busy. She is my troublemaker. Always into something she shouldn't be. It seems she has a sixth sense about when the bathroom door is left open. I have caught her twice playing in the toilet water... Yuck! {I about died.}

We have to be proactive about where we place things like drinks. She wants so badly to be a big girl and drink out of a cup like everyone else. She doesn't care if it is coffee or not if she can get to it and if there is anything left, she will drink it. {Well, she'll drink whatever makes it into her mouth.}

Josie loves dancing. She is self taught. Any music comes on or if you just sing she will cut loose! She'll even grab your hand and make you dance with her. Her and  Wyatt dance together a lot too.

She is getting harder to photograph. Over half the pictures I take are blurry because she can't hold still. She loves looking at the screen and laughs hysterically when she sees her picture I just took.

We are still doing two naps. She has a day here and there that she just won't go to sleep. She will play and talk to herself. She has an interesting habit of taking the clothes out of the dirty clothes hamper next to her bed. When I get her after she wakes up or when we put Wyatt to bed after she falls asleep at night we have to pull several pieces of clothing out and put them back into the hamper. She has always cried herself to sleep and cried when she woke up. Lately, however, she has been surprising us by just talking herself to sleep. At night if we say, "Josie, time to go na-night." She walks down the hall and into her room. Big difference from just saying the words bedtime she would throw herself back with a "Ehhhh" and find "something" to do to be "busy". It's cute.

She makes funny faces, imitates everyone. She will even point and yell at Wyatt if he makes her mad. {Furrowed brow and everything.} She doesn't take any gruff from anyone or anything. She'll give it right back. Although she is serious a lot of the time, she really does smile and laugh.

Josie will play with all of Wyatt's toys. Hers? Ehhh, who cares about those? I picked up a second Magna Doodle at the Mom 2 Mom sale a month ago, and I am so glad! If Wyatt is playing with his, guess what? Josie has to get hers out and draw too. I can't imagine life with only one! They draw on them all the time!

I can tell already they will be fighting tooth and nail as they get older. The signs are there. Those will not be fun times! She already pulls things close to her if she thinks you are going to take it. Of course she'll add a "Ehhh." As if she is saying, "Mine."

I have seen her a couple times now playing the sad card. I have never seen anything like it before. One day out of the blue I saw her looking down with the saddest look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she would look at me and pout looking like she was about to cry. Then she would walk a little and pout some more, all the while looking completely sad. She would actually stop herself and make herself as sad as she could. Almost as if on purpose. So strange.

Josie hasn't broken the 20 lb. mark yet. She has weighed about the same the last six months. She seems happy at nearly 19 lbs.  She is a little peanut! She is due for a well baby checkup about now. At the last appointment I didn't schedule one in advance. I was thinking we would have sold our house and moved by now, but that hasn't happened yet. Now I am struggling with whether or not to continue her vaccinations. I am completely torn over the issue. I want to do what is best for her. Yet, I don't know what is best. I keep leaning towards not vaccinating, but then I think "What if?" I will continue to pray about it and seek Gods direction.

She is getting two more teeth in on the bottom, they will make a grand total of 12. She knows where her nose, eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet are. Can follow basic instructions like "Please, put the book away," or "Please throw this away." Playing peek-a-boo is a lot of fun too.

So, words she can say? Well, she still has a small vocabulary but says: sock, Wyatt, mama, dada, wow, baby, cup, car, shoe. She tries to say "What's that?" She waves and gives hugs and kisses. She will throw her dirty diaper away and she loves baths! She will not keep a hair tie in, and she looks like Cousin It without one.

She is such a sweet pea, I love her so much! Can't wait to see what's next!

Birthday Girl!

Josie had her 1st Birthday Friday! So hard to believe it's been a year already! I feel like it has just whizzed by. So very different from Wyatt where it seemed I took that all in a little at a time. She has changed so much:

She is now 16 lbs 11 oz, only gained 8 oz since her 9 month check up. And she is 29 inches tall, up five inches from her last check up. She had three vaccinations and did very well. Over all a healthy little girl!

On Friday we let her have a cupcake after dinner. {Her first one ever.}

We went to Aspen Park again together all four of us. We had a wonderful afternoon.

Then on Saturday my parents and brother came over and helped us celebrate! Sorry to say, her cake looks NOTHING like I pictured in my head! If you think that this bad you should see the backside! 

She did not blow out her candle...

She got another birthday cupcake...

She had a death grip on it the whole time she was eating it. Squeezed it in her hands as hard as she could.

Then she got to open her gifts. She did good the first two, then lost interest in the whole process.

She loves her cart, but sadly she is too short to operate it yet!

Happy Birthday, sweet Josie!

Love, 

Mama

Busy Josie

The last couple months has Josie growing leaps and bounds! She is now crawling and pulling herself up onto things. Since her new "developments" I have discovered how different siblings can be and have realized how busy I am going to be.

She is not content for long before she is exploring and getting into anything she can get her hands on. I remember Wyatt at this age being happy sitting in the living room with a basket of toys for the longest time. He never got into ANYTHING! He stayed right where his toys were. Not Josie. She is down the hall. In the bathroom. The kids' bedroom. Plants. Papers. Oh, and in drawers.

When she isn't in drawers, Josie is learning the art of cause and effect.

She doesn't let me get a lot done around the house and I am learning to let go a little. If I didn't I would be frustrated and that isn't how I want to be. She is very attached to me when I am around, but so far has no problems separating if I have to leave. She will literally follow me everywhere I go. When I am doing the dishes, she is glued to my leg.

We took her to her 9 month check up and she is now 16 lbs 3 oz 24 inches long. She had no shots and is doing great. She has definitely leveled out her growing as she is much more active. 

I can't believe we are almost a couple months away from her turning a year old! It doesn't seem possible. I can tell right now she is going to be trouble, no doubt about that, but hopefully I can stay at least one step ahead of her! 

Josie is 3 Months Old!

This was another fast month! Josie is doing wonderfully. She has started to laugh and smile more. As of last Sunday she discovered her voice! It was funny to watch her because you could tell by her facial expression that it surprised her. She is starting to see and follow you as you walk by her. Much more aware of her surroundings.



{3 Months Old!}

She is back to sleeping practically the whole night. She usually goes to bed between 9-10pm and will sleep until 4-5am and then will go back down again. I know what a blessing that is and am so very thankful for sleep! Wyatt was the total opposite and got up every 2-3 hours every night for MONTHS!

The one thing that I worried about before we had Josie was if we had a girl getting clothes for her. Yes, it would be fun to shop, but that is also a huge expense. Silly me to worry! She has more than enough clothes to last her until she is probably a year old and we only had to buy a few ourselves!

Diapers: same story. We have bought only two packs of newborn diapers and that is it! We still have two and a half boxes that haven't been used yet! That has been a huge help since we were planning on using cloth diapers, but she hasn't been able to fit them until now! It has been amazing how God has provided everything we have needed through wonderful friends, family, and Church family!

Today we put her in cloth diapers for the first time! I still have to get the folding and pinning technique down though. I am so scared I am going to pick her! I know it is just a matter of confidence and I will get there.

{Thank goodness for the cover! You can't see
my terrible fastening job!!}

Josie's hair is getting SO long! It is in her eyes and past her shoulders already! It is just a  matter of time and we will be able to pull it back into a pony tail! Looking at Wyatt's photo albums she has much more hair than he did and he had a lot!

{It's a little frizzy after laying on it after her bath...}

{She is wearing the overalls that I had
when I was a baby!}

She is our real life baby doll! She loves to be changed: diaper and clothes. She smiles the whole time. She likes her baths too. She is so good tempered and easy going. It is so hard to believe it has been three whole months already!



Josie is 2 Months Old!

The days seem to be flying by because here we are and our little girl is already two months old. Is there a pause button somewhere??? Josie is doing great and is so good natured! She never cries unless she is hungry or in need of a diaper change. She does scowl a lot, but I have decided that her big brother already annoys her.



{2 Months!}





{The Infamous "Scowl"}



Josie is taking her time growing which is nice. She is just now starting to grow out of her newborn clothes and is no longer in newborn diapers. She has been smiling a lot and starting to coo. There has been a couple times where I am pretty sure she actually laughed!


She loves it outside and isn't a big fan of lying down, she likes to see what's going on. She has been sporadic on her sleeping patterns though. When she first came home she was going 6-6.5 hours each night, then when it got hot it went to 3-4 hours. We are doing better again, but it fluctuates back and forth.




{2 Months!}



Today was Josie's two month appointment. After researching and talking about the vaccinations we decided to go ahead with them on a alternative schedule. We didn't like the idea of how many shots there are at once and the vaccine cocktail she was supposed to get so we opted out of a couple for now. I see both sides of the vaccine debate and I have no idea which is the best way to go. There is equal amounts of information out there and it doesn't make it easy to make a decision.

Talk about heart wrenching though! My poor baby girl looking at me through tears like I had betrayed her. It was tough, but we made it to the other side.




{First time down at the dock}


On a lighter note she weighs 10 lbs. 8 oz. and is 22 3/4 inches long. She has finally met my birth weight! She has good head control and is on target with everything else. The doctor doesn't think she has thrush now just a milk residue since it never got on the inside of her cheeks or roof of her mouth. At the last appointment we thought she had it, but decided to combat it naturally instead of giving her Nyastin. So I have been taking acidophilus and rubbing coconut oil on her tongue to help and it seems to be.

She is a joy to have around! I am loving every minute of it!

Josie is One Month Old!

I have to say this month has just flown by! It doesn't seem possible that our sweet little girl is 4 weeks old today! She is doing great! We had our one month check up yesterday and she is now 7 lbs 8 oz and is 20.5 inches long! She is definitely on the small side with her growth. We had another blood test for her jaundice and it has come down more to 10.4. The pediatrician says it is due to breastfeeding. Not sure how that works, but he said it is within normal levels and should clear up in another month and will not harm her.



{Our little Josie, 1 Month Old}



{Look! She already knows how to count!}



{She looks just like me when I was a baby!}




She is sleeping consistantly between five and six and a half hours at night. She gets a diaper change, nurses, and then goes right back to sleep!  She still has a ton of hair and is still as wild as ever. {She is my little punk rocker!}

She is still way too little for the cloth diapers and I'm not sure when she will fit into them. We have found that Huggies diapers are not a good fit for us. Almost always they are garaunteed to leak everything.

She has broken out in new baby rash. Looks awful, poor girl, but she is still beautiful.  She has thrush too, but we are going to try putting coconut oil on her tongue instead of using a perscription to try to combat it naturally.

The last month I have had it pretty easy with meals thanks to some of the wonderful moms at MOPs. Last Friday was the first meal I had to make for our family in three weeks! I will be forever grateful to them for that! It definitely helped ease us into life with two kids. Less cooking equals less dishes and more time to devote to our kids. It has been great.

Monday night she had her first bottle given by her Papa! I helped out with VBS and pumped a bottle just in case since I would be gone for about two hours. My dad said she took it no problem! I had left him with two different bottles and four different nipples to try just in case and he didn't need them!

Overall she is doing wonderfully! We couldn't be happier with her! God gave us a great gift!

Josie: 1 Week Old

Our little Josie is just over a week old now and is doing great! We went to her first check up yesterday and she is back up to her birth weight of 6lbs 4oz. She is a little jaundice so we were sent over to the lab for blood work and later that evening the doctor called back and told us she wanted us to go back to the lab in two days to be tested again to see if it is going away on its own.

She has been eating great, she never fusses unless she needs something, and she has been sleeping well at night. I only have to get up with her once or twice. She is a such good baby!

Wyatt has been a big help and stepping into his role as 'Big Brother' rather well. He throws away the dirty diapers for us. He loves to hold her hand and give her kisses. Yesterday he said, "She is so cute! I missed her when she was in your belly!" He loves her so much!

Over all things are going great with Josie. I will keep you updated as best I can with any further news as we go!