Vietnam Adoption Journey

Disneyland Revisited!

2011-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Yes-it's been almost 2 months since our trip-oh well . . .

I was so excited to blow Josie's mind when I told her we were leaving for the airport to go to Disneyland. But she pretty much took it in stride. Which just goes to prove my theory-she likes to squash all my fun. Don't get me wrong-she was happy and excited-just didn't seem to be all that surprised.

I was sooooo correct in not telling her about the trip. Because the next several hours, all i heard was, "How long before we get to Disneyland?" in some form or another. She thought the car ride to the airport took too long. She didn't like waiting to board the airplane. She didn't like waiting for the airplane to take off. She didn't like waiting to land in California. She didn't like waiting for the shuttle. She didn't want to bother going to the hotel. She wanted to go to DISNEYLAND, darn it!

So-she doesn't like to wait. And we were going to Disneyland. In June. Yeah. Fun times.

Josie is not the best traveler-she's so caught up in what's GOING to happen that she can't seem to enjoy the moment she's in. She couldn't enjoy the flight, the anticipation, the Starbucks hot chocolate . . . .because she just wanted to get there.

And when we did get there? Holy cow-she drove me and mom nuts! Whatever ride/atttraction we were waiting in line for-she wanted to be in line for 10 other ones. She didn't seem to understand that we would be there for 5 days, we would get to (mostly) everything. RELAX! We threatened to put her with the hotel babysitting service at one point so we could enjoy ourselves without the whining and complaining.

But finally after about a day and a half-she did relax and get into the groove of the whole thing. Josie and I would hit the early entry while mom enjoyed her coffee and do as much as we could. We'd join mom later for lunch and rides and then head back to the hotel for rest and swimming. The D!sne$land Hotel just opened a new little waterpark (they're still remodeling the other pool) and Josie loved it. Me too-I was following her around until another parent clued me in the the SEVEN lifeguards in the area and told me to sit down and relax! So I did. But she did talk me into going down the waterslide . . . .

We waited so late in the spring to go because the new Little Mermaid ride opened on June 4th and we couldn't miss that! The new Star Tours opened on the same day so it got a little nuts. But we had gotten some special (hard won, I tell you) Fastpasses from the hotel so we didn't have to wait in line for the Little Mermaid. We decided to pass on Star Tours (some people were waiting 4 hrs-crazy!) since Josie had developed an aversion to any ride that was in the dark. The Matterhorn was probably not such a great idea our first day there . . . . . We did get her on Pirates though and she really liked it. But oh boy, get that girl on roller coasters, river rapid rides and the (surprising freaky) ferris wheel and she's a happy camper! She loves the thrill rides! Yay! Unfortunately she was too short for the big roller coaster and the Big Thunder Mountain was closed.

We saw the World of Color (which was, just okay . . .considering the hassle of getting tickets/viewing spot). I probably wouldn't do it again. I hate crowds so something has to be pretty amazing for me to deal with craziness.

We also had a couple of character meals-Goofy's Kitchen and Ariel's Grotto. And some meet-n-greet with characters-the Princess Faire, Tinkerbell, and Rapunzel.

Josie's favorite ride (and I say this because we went on it now fewer than 5 times-once 3 times back to back since there was no line) was the Monster's Inc ride. Why? No clue-it's cute and all but I refused to go on it a 6th time! We also went twice on It's a Small World-twice is my limit on that ride. Funny how I love it the first time and the second time seems HOURS long . . .

The new Little Mermaid ride is cute-you're basically going through scenes from the movie while you sit in your little clamshell. What's funny is the clamshells go through on a conveyor belt and they're pretty quick. They don't stop so you can get on-you have to practically run to catch up and leap onto one. I'm sure the attendents can stop or slow it down. But they didn't. So there were sometimes empty shells because folks couldn't jump in in time.

Some pics . ..

Yeah-that's a quesadilla, kid.

2011-04-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Just asked Josie if she was hungry and she said she was. Went over a few options and when I asked her if she wanted a tortilla with cheese she said, "No! I want a little PIZZA!"

Okey doke-got out the tortillas, cheese, turkey pepperonis and pizza sauce (that's how we roll . . . .). She pulled up a stool cuz she wanted to make it. She pointed at the jar of sauce and said she didn't want that. OK. She pointed at the pepperoni and said she didn't want that. Alrighty then. Then-she said she wanted the other cheese (as in, not the mozzarella I had out). "Which one?" She picked out the bag of shredded Mexican cheese blend.

"So-you want a tortilla with cheese, then!"

"NO! I want a little pizza!"

Yeah, whatever kid. . . . .

I heart faces-wind.

2011-04-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite picture of my niece.

Do they still do the Lillith Fair?

2011-04-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Josie is really into "girl things"-as in certain toys are girl toys and certain ones are "boy toys". I used to often get her the "boy toy" at McDs (stop judging-my girl needs her some fries!)-but I can't get away with that anymore.

Her new thing is music. When we're in the car and I turn on the radio-she'll pipe up from the backseat-is this a girl song or a boy song (as in-is the singer a girl or a boy)? If I tell her it's a boy song, she insists I change the station. Sometimes it's hard to find a song on one of my 5 presets that is a "girl song'. We seem to end up listening to a lot of Taylor Swift . . . .

The pics below were right before we left for the Kindergarten Round-Up (!!!!) at our neighborhood school. She got to sit in a kindergarten class with one of her potential teachers while the parents got all the info in the cafeteria. Then the kids got to take a 15 minute ride around the neighborhood in a big yellow school bus before joining us in the cafeteria for cookies. She had a blast.

I actually started to tear up when I left her in the class . . .what am I going to do on the first day of kindergarten?

Look at her. All legs. This girl-she is killing me.

Picture Post: The one in which I try to secretly take pics of Josie in the snow and end up in a one-sided snowball fight!

2011-03-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

Even more of the World According to Josie . . . .

2011-02-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend Josie came up with a new insult:

1.) Mom, you're a pair of sock! (Hysterical laughter follows) And yes-sock was singular even though she said a pair . . . . And no-I have no idea why this is so funny.

2.) Josie discovered a hole in the crotch of her tights. She became fascinated with said hole. I'm sure you're getting a mental image at the moment. The rest of the evening consisted of me telling her to "leave it alone!!!!". Those tights are going in the garbage . . . .

Biking with Grandpa Joe

2011-02-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

Near the end of last summer my Grandpa decided to buy a bicycle because it was becoming too hard to keep up with her on foot when she was riding. He was a bit wobbly (and still is I suppose!) and completely knocked her down the first time (they were fine), but apparently after this ride (where I finally, thankfully, got some pictures) Grandpa Joe has hung up his helmet. I guess he took a little spill. If he hurt himself, he's not telling. And that's okay-he's 92 years old. He can do whatever he wants!

This is the two of them on the way to the playground.

Family and Kids Festival

2011-02-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun at this a couple of weeks ago-lots of free stuff at the booths, cheap tickets for the petting zoo, bouncy houses and reptile booth. Free performances by gymnasts, children's theater, OMSI, etc. We spent about 4 hrs there and I had to drag the kid away.

Free Face-painting! She's so into unicorns right now . .

She also now LOVES flamingos! Thsi was from a booth that will go to a house in the middle of the night and "Flock them" by putting up a ton of plastic flamingos. And sometimes they are in costume-like for Halloween or Valentine's Day. Pretty funny prank. I entered a raffle for a free "flocking" (boy, that sounds kinda dirty!) but apparently didn't win. I entered lots of raffles and Josie must've spun 20 different prize reels. It was all about the reels!

And it was all about the gymnastics-there were 2 different booths from gyms and they both had mini-gym courses and instructors to assist the kids in their forward/backward rolls, etc. Josie spent a lot of time there. Then after a demonstration-they left up the equipment and invited the kids (and one brave, brave adult) to do the course. Josie went round and round until they tore it down. I may have to try some gymnastics classes for her.

It's not too late if my neighbors still have their Xmas wreaths out right?

2011-02-11T14:19:00.000-08:00

No? Whatever. Bite me.

Sooo . . .Christmas Eve was at my parent's house as usual. Below is my dad without his usual Xmas eve bow on his head. Maybe we hadn't opened presents yet. We open presents with my brothers and their families on Xmas eve. With 7 grandchildren-this gets a bit chaotic.

Passing out presents (this takes forever as there must be hundreds of gifts, I swear!)

Rapunzel!

Thankfully, Christmas Eve into Christmas morning passed without any sickness on Josie's part (unfortunately that can't be said for other family members) and Josie awoke to the anxiously awaited UNICORN PILLOW PET! She'd been asking out one for months (seems everyone at daycare had a pillowpet) and I told her she could ask Santa for one. And boy did she remember. Anyone who saw this kid int the months of November and December learned that she wanted a unicorn pillow pet for Christmas.

Behold-the unicorn pillow pet!

More gift unwrapping. I may have gone a little overboard (though it didn't seem so at the time.) Anything I wanted to get for her from August til December was put away for Christmas and she got a good haul.

Playing with yet another one of those play sets with the itty bitty pieces.

Josie got Grandpa a Dora doll for Christmas. He's supposed to sleep with it. Heehee.

Playing Tea Party with Grandpa Joe (for like, an hour and a half!)

Love this pic!

Josie taking a "nap" with her new Ariel, Belle and Cinderella dolls. Unfortunately, only 2 of the dolls fit in the bed so Ariel had to sleep on the floor.

December recap

2011-02-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah . . .I'm late. I'M SORRY!! Anyway-here's a few photos from Josie's ballet recital, Magic Snow at Pioneer Place, and Pioneer Square (with the xmas tree in the background.

My ballerina!

Josie with her ballet partner-Seal. An unusual pas de deaux to be sure . . .

Waiting for the Magic Snow to start (of course I didn't tell her what we were waiting for). She's really into getting her picture taken now. Nice pose, huh?

"What the . . .?"

Pretty!

She had a blast running around, dancing and catching "snowflakes".

Waiting for the Max at Pioneer Square:

There's an echo in here . . .

2011-01-17T07:47:00.000-08:00

Watching Fantasia (the dancing ostriches, hippos and yes, elephants):

Me: "Those hippos are funny! I love the hippos!"

Josie: "No-those are elephants!"

Me: "No they're not-see no trunks. Look at that mouth-definitely a hippo."

Josie: "No-ELEPHANT!"

Me: "I'm not going to argue with you Josie . . ."

(the elephants enter the picture)

Me: "There are your elephants."

Josie: "See-elephants! I'm RIGHT!"

Me: "Josie-those are elephants. The other ones are hippos."

Josie: "I'm not going to argue with you Mom."

Josie's first dance recital Part 2

2010-12-17T20:47:00.000-08:00

She did much better in this one-though it's a bit disturbing that she unceremoniously dumped her "baby" on the ground. It may not look like a dance routine in the middle-but she actually was doing her "triangles" and arabesques pretty good. Hey-they're only 4! ;)

Josie's First Dance Recital Part 1

2010-12-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

Josie had her first dance recital last weekend. The Christmas one is (apparently) a low-key affair at a church hall and the "big" performance is in a high school auditorium this June.

Josie started the class in September-a pre-ballet and pre-tap class for 4-5 yr olds. She has a great time and just watching the class is fun. The mommy's take turns being the "star lady" in class and putting stickers on their folders when they complete a move correctly.

I've been trying to explain what a recital was I knew she didn't understand. She was excited to go-especially since Grandpa Joe, Grandma and Grandma Baker were coming to see her. She hung out with everyone in the audience before the show started and was super-hyped up backstage when the kids were waiting to go on. But she was overwhelmed when they came out and it was dark with the "stage" lit up. So-she didn't do much of her routine. Except at the end when she was the only one to remember to blow a kiss-which she did in the other direction so it's hard to tell what she was doing. When I went back to help her change for the next routine she told me she was scared. Anyway-here's the video of the first one.

Pieces of Josie . . .

2010-11-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Josie and I are VERY lucky to have a wonderful family that both understands my need for "me time" and WANTS very much to spend time with Josie. So, after church on Sundays we head down to Salem to my brother's house where Josie is doted on by their family (they have 3 kids) and she gets to spend the night. Josie has so much fun at their house-they have pretty much every D*sney toy known to mankind as well as the corresponding movies. All of their kids are in a sport of some kind so she gets to go to their games. Somebody's always baking SOMETHING and there are teenagers popping in and out all the time. And they LOVE her-even the 17 yr old boys. They treat her just like the princess she thinks she is! And of course she idolizes my 12 yr old niece and her friends. My 9 yr old nephew alternates playing really well with her and being annoyed by her, which means they are basically siblings! And it's just generally loud and chaotic and very much unlike home. Which is a nice change for her. Uncle Jeff is a surrogate father and she's definitely got him whipped. If I never get married and give Josie a father-Uncle Jeff will be walking her down the aisle. And I'm sure he wouldn't have it any other way . . .

On Mondays-Josie's Aunt Mimi drops her off at my mom's and it used to be that she would drive up to my house and stay the night and watch her on Tuesday. However, she wasn't getting to see my dad very much and my mom really prefers her own bed and instead of Mom calling me every Monday afternoon to ask if she could spend the night down there for various reasons-we just made that the default.

So-I have the house to myself on Sun and Mon nights. I get home in the eve on Sundays and try to clean up the house or just veg if I'm tired. It's a nice break that I really enjoy. Monday nights are a bit harder-I have plenty to keep my busy but when I wind down for the night it's SO quiet and I find myself missing my girl.

Then I look up and see this and it makes me smile. I just love this gallery canvas wrap photo-I put it up on the mantel for now until i figure out how to arrange everything.

And then I'm getting ready for bed and go to turn off the lamp and almost scream.

Can't see it? Here's a close-up.

Then I go to pull the cord and notice this:

Closer . . .

Wanna know what those are?

Fridge magnets. This one was Ariel of course!

Everywhere I look there's something strange-Buzz Lightyear wedged under the lid of the piano bench. A princess crown on top of the lamp by my bed (she has a thing with lamps). Bracelets and necklaces draped over each bedpost. Generic Silly bandz wrapped around photo frames:

She's everywhere I look and it's very comforting. Boy I love the little stinker!

Halloween

2010-11-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Josie is still obsessed with Ariel and wanted to be Ariel for Halloween. Not a problem since she got the costume for her 3rd birthday! I found the wig in with a box of Halloween stuff in the garage-I don't even remember wearing it. It's horribly cut and very cheap-but it kinda looked cool with the costume. She wore the costume all day-church, lunch, Grandma Baker's house, Jeff and Mimi's house, trick-or-treating with her cousins and then to a harvest party at a church. Full day.

All day she would only wear the wig for a few minutes when we first arrived somewhere and then it would come off (don't blame her really)-but when we went out to TorT I told her she had to keep the wig on to get candy. She didn't even try ONCE to take it off! She was so excited-after every house she would yell, "I got candy Mama!" and show me her bucket. Every.single.house. We (the adults) called it quits after an hour and got some protest-but they got to go to a harvest party after that so it was all good.

I took these pics at church-she would not hold still-he was dancing all over the room.

This is my "Ariel in the water" pic:

Before and afters!

2010-10-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be annoying-but this is the easiest way to show my family and friends these photos! After getting frustrated with my limited Photoshop skills-I decided to purchase some actions from a photographer I admire-her Florabella collection. I'm so happy I did-with just one click I can add 10 layers to a photo! Here's what I've been doing:

Pose 1 before (my editing):

After Florabella Pandora action:

Pose #2 before (my editing):

After FB action (Mademoiselle)

Pose 3 before (my B&W conversion)

After FB Mink action (I can't tell you how much I adore this pic now!):

Pose 4 before (My editing):

After FB action Vintage Wine:

Pose 5 before(my editing):

After FB retro lollipop action:

Pose #6 (original raw image):

After FB vintage wine action:

What a difference, huh? Of course-this is just making my decision for the canvas wrap even more difficult (I'm leaning toward Pose #2 or the B&W Mink Josie now . . .) Either way-I'm ordering a lot of prints!

Wanted: New friend with photo editing skillz!

2010-10-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

So-I bought a Groupon for a great deal on a canvas wrapped photo but I'm having trouble deciding which photo to pick and am being a total hack in Photoshop Elements. There's a couple good ones of Josie-but I'm loving the ones of both Marina and Josie. I could use some input on which photo to have canvas-wrapped at a 16X20 inch size. Anyway-I think I'm leaning towards #2-any thoughts or advice?

1.) Love this-did a soft white-light overlay

2.) Same pic with a warming filter

3.) I was playing with this one-can't seem to get it right . . .

4.) Again-so close but oversharpened? I dunno . . .

5.) Probably not a contender for the canvas-wrap-but it's cute. I really like the antique-y look. Also-somehow I added the frame but don't know how I did it! ;)

6.) B&W

7.) Probably a bit too out of focus and dark-still a cute shot.

8.) Same with this one . . .

9.) Just throwing these in-had fun once I learned how to highlight just the eyes or lips to enhance the color a bit. Filters and overlays are fun!

I can do that . . .

2010-10-11T18:05:00.001-07:00

Josie and I were discussing Halloween costumes the other day. She asked me what I was going to wear for Halloween.

Me: "What do you think I should wear?"

Josie: "A shirt!"

Me: "Good idea. I'm pretty sure everyone would appreciate that!"

Is THAT what she said?

2010-09-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Holy cow-I have to document this before I forget . . .

On our way home from Josie's first dance class (a WHOLE OTHER post-the cute was so overwhelming i need to recover!) we passed the community garden at the middle school nearby.

Josie: "Wow-look at the garden! Did you see it Mama?"

Me: "Yes-that's a big one isn't it?"

Josie: "That's what the girl said."

NO JOKE! Is this a coincidence? Do I have a budding Ellen Degeneres on my hands? I don't go around making the "That's what she said" jokes-so I have no idea where she got it.

But I am soooo proud!

Girly Weekend!

2010-09-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago-Josie and I spent a weekend at the beach with good friends. Natalie is the mom to Taylor and Chloe and Shali is Priya's mom. All three of us used the same adoption agency and ended up following each other's blogs and/or meeting up in Portland for playdates through our agency's yahoo group. Josie and Priya turned 4 in June (same birthday!) and Taylor and Chloe just had their 4th birthday. We all had such a good time. The kids were so good-only a few arguments about toys and whatnot but nothing major.

We arrived on a Friday afternoon and headed to the beach-we were worried it was going to be too cold to play in the water but of course, the kids paid no attention to the temperature of the water and were wading in the creek almost immediately. I dressed Josie in shorts because I KNEW this would happen. I made fun of Nat for dressing T and C in long white sweatpants because it didn't take long for them to be soaked. First, she tried rolling them up. Pretty quick-with the exception of Priya who didn't seem to mind wet pants-the rest of the girls got rid of their pants altogether. And of course, we didn't think we'd need swimsuits that day. Oh well. They had a blast and when we got cold and hungry we decided to head back for a bath and dinner.

The next day was really foggy and cool. We bummed around a bit and then hit the outlet stores for a little shopping. After lunch, the girls watched a movie and Josie promptly fell asleep and didn't wake up. The other girls hit the pool while i stayed and tried to wake Josie up. She must've slept for over 3 hours! The pool was heated (cuz c'mon it IS Oregon here . . .) but by the look on Priya's face in the last pic-it was COLD when you got out! We ended the evening at a local restaurant so we could get our seafood and chowder fix. The other girls went to bed early while super-napper Josie hung out with the grown ups until bedtime.

Sunday the weather was much nicer and we put the girls in suits and snapped a few pics. We headed back to Fogarty beach and did go on the surf side for a bit but the sand was covered in shells and seaweed. We saw a seal, watched the waves and then headed back to the creek where the adults didn't have to panic every time a wave hit the shore. It was beautiful but waves like that take on a different meaning after you have a kid and have to worry about sneaker waves, riptides, and driftwood! Of course, thanks to Shali-now Nat and I have to worry about STAGNANT BACKWATER. Yes-the things we learn from a water engineer . . . .

We had a great weekend and can't wait to do it again! Oh and yes-Nat, Shali and I get a kick out of dressing the girls alike and can you blame us? The CUTE! These children are way too adorable.

Josie and Mina-smizing!

2010-08-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

If you don't know what "smizing" is-well, then you watch a lot less of crap TV than I do!

My SIL and I had a little photoshoot with the girls and I had some fun playing with photoshop with my set of pics. She has a better camera and I'm looking forward to playing with her pics. However-not too shabby with my point-and-shoot! I gotta tell you-I think we're going to have to lock up Marina-she's way too beautiful! Look at those eyes!

Statements that send you running

2010-07-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

Some things you don't like to hear from your 4-year old.

"Josie-what are you doing?"

"Cleaning the toilet!"

Now-if she was a teenager-I'd probably be doing cartwheels at the fact she was cleaning a toilet. At 4-all this gets her is scrubbed down and grilled on exactly what did she mean by cleaning the toilet and WHERE DID YOU PUT YOUR HANDS??!!

Poor kid. I'm already giving her a complex about public bathrooms (when we walk in she says, "I know-don't touch ANYTHING!")-now she'll have one about cleaning bathrooms.

I'm DYING of curiosity . . . unless you're a pervert of course!

2010-07-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

So-according to Feedjit, I have people visting my little blog from all over the world. I would love to know who you are and why you are here if you're so inclined. Unless you are trying to see pics of my child in a diaper to which I say, 'bite me". So please, introduce yourself!

You want me to do what? Yeah, right!

2010-07-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Josie has been taking ice skating lessons for the last couple of months with her buddies-Priya, Taylor and Chloe. The cuteness is quite overwhelming as you can see in a few of the pics I've taken. Josie has fun but wants to always be holding the instructors hand and refuses to sit on the ice. She did the first day but discovered the ice is wet and cold. Hmm . . .go figure. She doesn't really like to touch it. So yeah . . .not really making a lot of headway so far. But she sure looks adorable out there!

Priya and Josie ready for their first lesson!

Using chairs during the first lesson.

Touching the ice-the last time she did this willingly . . .

Teacher Sarah-Josie loves her!

She doesn't however like it when she gets left behind (she's supposed to be "skating" independently)

But when she can hold onto Sarah-her hand, leg, arm, or shirt-she's happy!

Just hanging out . . .

4!

2010-06-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

So-last Saturday we celebrated Josie's 4th birthday with family and friends. We'd had 2 months of nearly constant rain so I was so relieved that it got nice and sunny and warm for the party-since it was outside at a park.

Josie and her birthday Ariel cupcakes (courtesy of the amazing Michelle at My Petite Sweet)

Playing bubbles with Brittany

Lovely day so all the kids ended up in the fountain!

One of the gifts (from my SIL and brother and kids) was a bunch of Tinkerbell dolls and houses and stuff. Ten million itty bitty tiny things that took me 30 minutes to unpack out of the plastic. Look at these pics-I told my SIL that I wasn't sure if she really loved Josie or really hated me! ;) Of course, Marina had to point out that it could be both . . . .

See how tiny those are? There are teacups I have to hold with my fingernails . . . . But it makes sense that they are extra tiny since they belong to fairies!

We had a great day and I drew a little treasure map for the kids and we took them on a little adventure to find pirate booty-but I didn't get any pictures. Trust me-it was hilarious. Keeping 5 three and four year olds on track to follow a map and find "hidden" treasures is like herding cats. They would be looking right at a bright pink bag taped to the underside of a table and STILL not find it. Or we'd run through the fountain and lose a kid. I don't remember Dora having this kind of trouble.

So-Josie's actually birthday is tomorrow and is looking to be a quiet affair with just the two of us-I'm thinking a Red Robin birthday song and sundae is in order!

More of the World According to Josie

2010-04-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

I was thinking it was time to update some of the little things that Josie is doing/saying . . .

1. She really believes in the power of positive thinking and positive speech. I was sick earlier this week and she asked me if I was all better.
"No, honey, I'm still sick."
"No you're not! You're not sick. You're all better."
"Sorry-I'm still sick."
"You're still sick?"
"Yes."
(pause)
"You all better now?"

Repeat every 15 minutes until I agree I'm not sick anymore.

Also-if she's being naughty and I'm getting upset, she'll ask "You happy, Mom?" and I'll tell her "No-I'm not. You're not minding me."

"Yes you are! You're happy!"

Same type of thing at bedtime "It's not bedtime!"

2. Along the same lines, I swear she's going to be a lawyer. This child will argue that the sky is not blue just to argue. Sometimes she argues with me when I'm agreeing with her. No joke.

3. I could use some advice about how to teach children not to lie-because she's dipping her feet into the lake of deceit. She's been potty-trained since September but has still been wearing pull-ups at night at my house. She doesn't wear them at my mom's or my brother's house-but I'm guessing that's because she either sleeps in the same bed or in the same room as them? Go figure. Since I know she can stay dry but is either to lazy or too scared to get up and go to the bathroom when she does need to go I decided to reward her with fun-size M&Ms when she wakes up dry. It was working well, maybe one wet pull-up a week, until one morning (after she'd gotten her M&Ms) I went into her room to get her clothes and i found a wet pull-up on her floor. I called her upstairs and showed her and asked if she changed into a dry pull-up that morning. She told me yes. I could see on her face that she knew it was wrong. Then she started smiling-sorta like she knew she pulled one over on me. That's what makes me nervous. I told her not to lie to me and not to do it again.

Anyway-she tried it again a few days later-I heard rustling over the monitor and I opened her door to a wide-eyed little girl with her hand in the pull-ups. I got a little angry with her this time-which didn't phase her much until she realized she wasn't getting any M&Ms.

She tried it one more time and I took the package of pull-ups out of her room. When this pack is empty-I'm not buying any more and I'm hoping it will help to have her in underwear.

Seriously though-how did you talk to your child about lying?

4. She's always play-acting anymore. Fake crying. Loud conversations between stuffed animals. Often she'll yell "Mom!" and I'm all "What?"

"No-not you! Her mom . . ." Okaaaay . . ..

Or she'll say something strange in the car or while she's sitting right next to me and when I ask her to repeat it she's all "I'm just talking to myself."

I'm just waiting for the invisible friend.

And to finish, here's a couple of pics from Easter.

Sleepover!

2010-04-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

My friends Shula and Patrick came up to Portland for a visit with their two adorable ones-Anh and Tam. Anh's about 6 months older than Josie and Tam's a year younger than she is and they all got along great. While Shula and Patrick attended a dinner-I got to pretend I had 3 kids for the evening. Josie is a very loud kid. Tam is a very loud kid. Anh and I just looked at each other and covered our ears.

Dinner-yes, Josie's in her underwear. She's a pretty classy host.

Watching a movie-Tam's managed to change into Josie's swimsuit. Quite frankly-I'm surprised Josie let her.

Seriously-how beautiful is this kid?

And of course-Anh and his dimples!

I really should throw these things away-but the pics are cute . . .

Dress up!

The next morning we hit the Children's Museum:

And outside there was a real train! Anh was in heaven.

Tet Party

2010-04-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

In Feb-we attended a Tet party for the FCVN (Families with Children from Vietnam) and, as you can see-had a great time.

There's the Fan Dance:

Josie watching herself in the mirror:

Making faces:

The Dragon:

Need to entertain a bunch of kids? Easy-BUBBLE WRAP!

Getting Taylor's face painted was serious business:

Taylor and Chloe and Josie can never figure out how to have fun together:

The BIG play place!

2010-03-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

Josie and I have discovered our FAVORITE indoor play place-Out of this World Pizza and Play in Hillsboro. It's only $4 for Josie for unlimited time there. And there's coffee for me too. It's a big warehouse, basically with bouncy houses, slides and a huge climbing structure with tube slides and other stuff. They also have little bikes on a racetrack, a "shopping area", playhouse, kitchen, soft area for the 2 and under crowd. There are couches and lots of tables and if I get a good table I can see the whole place so I can sit and read or visit with another mom while Josie plays for HOURS. It's great. She checks in with me periodically and usually seems to attract the attention of a girl a couple of years older than her and they'll play together. It's great to see her play so well with other kids. She's not too shy with her peers-she'll go up to them and ask them to play with her.

Here's some pics of a few visits to the BIG PLAYPLACE-as Josie calls it.

Running the cash register:

The 5 and under bouncy "thing":

The racetrack:

Josie waiting in line for the slide. She had a hard time with this-she was often "caught" by the employees trying to cut in line. I had a hard time not laughing at her-she would maneuver herself in the front and when they turned around and noticed her-they'd make her go to the back of the line.

Ah-this waiting thing is REALLY hard!

This cool slide is worth it though.

And here she comes!

Really awesome climbing structure for the big kids (although Josie was all over this thing from Day 1. Kind of a crummy pic though, sorry.

Happy girl! Having a blast!

I wiped the kid out! Mission accomplished!

The next group of pics is from a playdate with Chloe, Taylor and Coby before Christmas. We dressed them all in red T-shirts to make it easier to keep track of all of them.

Josie:

Chloe:

Josie and Chloe:

Josie hamming it up for the camera.

Posing at the end of the slide:

Josie on the climbing wall:

Coby in one of the few moments he wasn't causing his Mom grief.

More ham from Josie:

Taylor putting gas in Chloe's "car". Taylor spent most of her time being the mechanic for the day. She had a line of "cars" waiting for her at one point.

Josie and Chloe in the playhouse:

After Christmas we got to go again and this time have a playdate with Shali and Priya after not getting to see them for over a year! Unfortunately neither girl cooperated for pictures with the exception of Priya on the slide (she couldn't help but smile!) but I did want to document the event.

Better late than never! (Belated Xmas post)

2010-03-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

okay-so the stupid camera breaks right after xmas and it took me awhile to get the pics off the card (it wouldn't power up). I now have an awesome new camera. One of those times when it truly paid to buy a warranty. Of course-I bought the warranty because I figured if the camera broke it would be because of Josie!

Christmas was so long ago-it's hard to recap. Christmas Eve was at my mom's house with my brothers and their families, grandparents . . . . Josie was spoiled appropriately (as were the rest of us) with gifts and had a blast. We went to the children's mass earlier in the afternoon and I tried to undo a little of the Santa stuff and get Josie to understand the true meaning of Christmas. Didn't succeed too well-she's fairly obsessed with Santa. And that's okay for now . . .

At about 9pm I left for midnite mass in Portland. Josie was a little warm so Mom was going to give her some Tylenol before bed. I returned at 2:30am to Mom looking pretty frazzled and a little girl with (according to the ear thing, which is suspect) 106 deg temp. Poor thing. Gave her more Tylenol and almost took her to the emergency room before I had realized I could call the on-call doc. Josie has never been seriously ill with the exception of one time and her fever responded quickly to Tylenol. And it wasn't that high either. Anyway-while I talked to the nurse-her temp started falling and she finally fell into a good sleep around 4am. I finally got to sleep around 6:30 and we got up when Josie woke up at 9am. I took no pictures on Christmas Day-I was barely functioning to get through the morning round of presents and then dinner at my Grandma's.

Oh-and the whole Sleeping Beauty/Ariel saga? Grandma came through and found a little Ariel barbie for cheap and we put that under the tree too with the Sleeping Beauty doll and a bunch of Cars stuff that was all from Santa. She immediately went to the Ariel doll and wasn't interested in the Sleeping Beauty doll until a few hours later when I showed her how to change Sleeping Beauty's dress from pink to blue and back again. Blue! Pink! Blue! Pink! She loves that part of the movie and will walk around randomly yelling "Blue! Pink!"

A few pics while waiting to see Santa (including one her classic "Pirate" faces!):

Christmas Eve:

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

2010-02-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

So-in celebration of Tet-the Vietnamese New Year-I dressed Josie in one of the ao dais Shula picked up for us in Vietnam. I asked her to pose for a few pictures and this is what I got. The whole "Karate Kid" move is her way of being a ballerina. And then we went outside for what in her mind was a shadow-boxing photo shoot or something. Anyway-I got hardly get her to stand still and when I did? Ultimate cheese-face!

A Star is Born . . .

2010-01-15T14:34:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcID_1iVEEo

Okay-not really-but she's still pretty cute! The video is of Josie's preschool performance this week-don't think she got to "practice" much since she hadn't been at school the entire week before the event. But not to worry-we sing 5 Little Monkeys ALL THE TIME! So that one was at least covered . . .

I barely made it to the performance since they ended up starting about 15-20 minutes early. The 2 yr olds were done (and I would've LOVED to see that) and the preschool group (Josie's class) had already sang their first song. Luckily another parent gave me a copy of the video.

The last song (monkeys) really cracked me up because at one point Josie started taking her shirt off (?) and then apparently saw someone with a camera so she started doing her "pirate" smile (one eye closed) and then flashed a cheesy grin. And during the first song she started scratching her bum and I was afraid it was going to get ugly. But it was a brief (Ha! Get it?) moment.

It's a little over 4 minutes, so kinda long. Probably only the grandparents will actually watch it . . .

BTW-my camera (point and shoot) is on the fritz-so it'll be a little while before I post our xmas pics.

The world according to Josie . . .

2009-12-31T09:28:00.001-08:00

I just want to jot down a few things that I don't want to forget:

1. Josie talking to the spoonful of chocolate pudding in her hand. "Don't worry-the mouth is coming!"

2.Whenever she's being goofy I tell her "You're funny!" And she always answers, "Yes, I AM funny" in a very matter-of-fact way.

3. My SIL (Josie's Aunt Mimi) started this one . . .when she stays at their house, she'll ask Josie who's baby she's going to be that night. Now Josie asks us, "Are you MY baby?" Of course we answer yes. Then she says, "EVERYBODY'S my baby!"

4. The way she plays with her stuffed animals or action figures-she play-screams and everyone is always in some sort of peril and needs to be saved from some sort of monster. Lots of cries of "Help!" and "I'll save you!"

5. The way she has suddenly started posing for the camera. As soon as she sees the camera come out, she strikes a pose and a big smile. Candids are getting hard to come by. Oh-and then she has to immediately see every picture I take. "Me see it!"

6. When she plays with the squirty toys in the bathtub. When she squirts water out of them-she makes a face and says, "EWWW! It's pooping!".

7. When she gets really worked up she gets pretty loud and repetitive. I'm very careful not to say "shut up" even though sometimes I want to. But I do tell her to calm down or chill out (I know-I'll hate it when she says that back to me.) Anyway-this morning she kept asking for something as I was getting it for her-so I looked at her and said "Josie, just . . ." "Chill out?" she said. Hilarious.

8. If she doesn't hear me (whether I'm talking to her or not) or doesn't understand what I say she says, "I don't know what you're saying."
I just know I'm forgetting some that I planned to document. Oh well.

Xmas post coming as soon as i figure out what's wrong with my camera. Including the conclusion to Ariel/Sleeping Beauty/Santa saga. ;)

First: Visit Santa. Second: Shop.

2009-12-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving Day-Josie and I watched the Macy's parade and got very excited at the end when Santa showed up. She's so excited and into Christmas this year-and what's even better is she's still confused about it being on one day-the whole month has been Christmas to her. So I don't have to count down the days or anything-I'm sure that will come next year. So-right now-she's telling everyone Merry Christmas, looking at the presents under the tree but not getting that most are for her, etc. It's a nice place to be.

Anyway-back to the parade. I told her we'd visit Santa and she could tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

"What do you want to ask Santa for?"--thinking she won't be able to come up with something and I'd have to help her.

"A Sleeping Beauty doll!" No hesitation.

I was stoked-what an easy request! And in the ads that day was a Sleeping Beauty doll on sale. Cool! (though it meant I HAD to shop that weekend.)

Just in case-I asked repeated the question several times. Every time-Sleeping Beauty. Nice.

Got the doll.

Over the course of the month-we'd talk about Santa and sometimes I'd ask her again what she wanted for Christmas.

"Purple!" huh?

"What should be get for Grandpa Joe?"

"Blue!"

hmmmmmm So-I'd remind her about Sleeping Beauty. "Oh, yeah. Sleeping Beauty."

Finally on the 22nd-I took Josie to see Santa. I met Mom and Josie there and they went to the D*sney store while they waited for me to get there.

We get in (a very long) line and I remind her about asking Santa.

"So-what are you going to ask him for?"

"Ariel!"

Turns out there is actually an Ariel toy that Josie doesn't have-and it was at the D*sney store. A store that I'm NOT going back to. Shopping-DONE!

So-I spend the time in line reminding her that she wants Sleeping Beauty because she has a lot of Ariels. Oh-and what about Mater? You don't have a Mater-maybe you should ask for MATER! (Can you tell what her Santa presents are?)

"Yeah-and I don't have Doc."

"Right-Doc. You should ask for Doc!"

She was so cute-she sat on his knee and smiled-but was so stiff and shy. After the picture-Santa asked her what she wanted. She leaned in close (and so did I cuz I could barely hear her whispering . . .)

"I want Ariel!"

Winter's here . . .

2009-12-04T13:02:00.001-08:00

Josie's been obsessing over winter. "Is it Winter yet?" Yesterday, it was quite cold in the morning so I asked her if she wanted to wear her new winter coat.

"Is it Winter?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure!"

"Gloves too?" At this point I made sure to look closely at her to make sure it was my child. Last year, I had to practically sit on her to put gloves on when it snowed.

So-I found her gloves. (I had to lock myself in the closet to find the box of winter stuff since I had hidden all her xmas presents in there. I'm pretty sure she thought I'd lost my mind.) I found a hat too-but I was sure she wouldn't put it on.

But she did. The hat. The gloves. And the big puffy coat. And she was happy about it. Wow.

She was so cute she let me take some photos while she pranced around like she was on a photo shoot. She was annoyed when I stopped.

This morning it was even colder. "Let's put on your coat and gloves and hat."

"No-I don't like gloves!"

And the hat came off in the car.

That's my girl!

Conversation at the breakfast table

2009-11-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

Josie: "I'm a girl!"

Me: "yep"

Josie: "And you're a girl. Cinderella is a girl. And Papa is a boy."

Me: "MmmHmmm" (We have a version of this conversation every day-so pardon my lack of enthusiasm)

Josie: "Mama? I'm happy. Are you happy?"

Me: "Yes sweetie. I'm very happy."

Josie: "Everyone's happy! Papa's happy, Grandma's happy . . but . .. Cinderella's not happy. She's sad. She's crying. But she'll be happy later."

This will have to do.

2009-11-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

I forgot to get a pic of Josie in her Tinkerbell costume on Halloween-so this will have to suffice for everyone's Halloween fix. A little too big maybe?

We had a great Halloween week-Josie got to wear her costume 3 times for various parties/trick-or-treating. Now she thinks we're supposed to be going to a party every night though. I took her and two of her cousins trick-or-treating together. It was Josie's first time-and she loved it. After the first house she's all "Let's do that AGAIN!" At one point I'm pretty sure I heard her declare that it was "Awesome". I'll start worrying if she starts using words like "Rad" or "Gnarly".

Below-she is showing off her Ariel nightgown-complete with twirling. If you scroll REALLY fast-you might be able to see the twirl.

Worth it? heck yeah . . . .

2009-10-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I spent an hour each way on the Max with a 3 yr old who asked at EVERY stop if we were there yet, stood in lines, paid $12 for lemonade, $9.00 for popcorn, and $18 for a strange-looking Ariel sword? Wand? Whatever. Crammed my not-so-petite self into a seat at the Rose Garden where my very short legs were too long (knees actually touched the back of the seat in front of me. How on earth does someone over 5'2" sit in these things? )

And why did I do this? So I could watch Josie's face when Mickey and Minnie came out at the beginning of D*sney on Ice. And then "DONALD!" " GOOFY!" "LOOK MAMA!" "HI MICKEY!" "HI DONALD!" She waved and clapped and was utterly enthralled. I think she went without blinking for the whole first half of the show.

I'm pretty sure I was her hero at the moment-for bringing Disneyland to her. In case you didn't know-she STILL asks to go to Disneyland again several times a week.

I only have a vague idea of what the first 15-20 minutes of the show was about-Mickey and Minnie had some sort of car trouble and then the cast of CARS came out-"CARS! Mama! CARS!" I've only seen the movie once-so I really only remembered Lightning McQueen's name . . . . . They drove around awhile, talked some, I don't know-I was too busy watching Josie's face and reactions to pay attention. Oh yeah-and taking a MILLION horrible pictures trying to get a good one of her.

Then a bunch of skaters came out with scarves to mimic the sea and the music from the Little Mermaid started. She started out just staring, but as the music went on, she realized what was going to happen and this little smile came on her face and got bigger and bigger as the music swelled and then "SEBASTIAN! MAMA! SEBASTIAN! LOOK!" and then OMG "ARIEL! LOOK MAMA! IT'S ARIEL!" And then she was singing so loudly the people in front of us started turning around and smiling at her. They were very nice because Josie kept smacking the woman in the head with her sword, wand, scepter thing because she wouldn't sit down for the whole show. She sort of leaned on the chair and me for the whole thing.

Does anyone else cry just because their kid is so happy? I'm a sap-I truly am.

The Lion King condensed story didn't make any sense but the skating and music was good. At intermission Josie finally took her eyes off the ice rink long enough to eat some popcorn and share a Kit Kat with me (Lunch of champions!) I would have gotten us real food but didn't want to take out a home equity line of credit for a hot dog or chicken strips. And thankfully Josie didn't need to use the restroom because we were smack dab in the middle of a row and I didn't feel like a repeat performance of "Scuse me, pardon me, oh-was that your head? Sorry if my bum's in your face . . ." just to get in and out and go to the bathroom.

The second half was devoted to Tinkerbell and was pretty good-even had "pixie dust" confetti at the end.

Josie passed out on me before we even hit the tunnel on the Max. She had a wonderful time and so did I. Thanks Grandma!

Hope you wanted to see some pics!

Riding the Max train.

Standing in line at the Rose Garden.

The weird Ariel wand, scepter, sword thingie. It lights up and plays music.

The Pixie Dust

What? It's over? Already? Note: Can you see that the battery cover is missing on the "thing"? Yeah-wish I'd noticed it before we waited forever to get into the procession to climb back up the stairs and then get out in the main area only to discover it missing and the "thing" not working. Back down the stairs, to our seats where we scoured the floor and some guy collecting trash asked us what we were looking for. "Oh-hey, I think I just picked that up." Digs around in the garbage bag and hands me a yogurt?-covered battery cover. EWW! But i found some napkins and cleaned it off . . . .

Waiting for the train home.

Fun weekend

2009-10-12T14:23:00.001-07:00

We had a busy weekend consisting of the Children's Museum and a trip to the pumpkin patch with friends.

Josie was completely freaked out by the alligator at first-she would NOT lie down and put her head on the pillow/tongue . . . But she did finally get into brushing his teeth. The tooth chair was also a hit.

Checking out a tool belt in the Building section.

At Bauman farms- the sun was bright and I couldn't see the picture preview so I tried to guess at getting Taylor in the picture too-but obviously I wasn't successful. She was on one end and Chloe wouldn't still her head through the other end.

The jumping pillow-one of the coolest things ever. That thing is huge. Crummy picture though.

Climbing the hay bales and posing for the camera. . .

Josie's Two New Obsessions . . .

2009-10-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

The computer-she has learned how to use the mouse and play games at the Ses@me Str88t website . .

Her second new thing? Here's the aftermath . . .

Yep-she's very into "cutting paper". Into teeny, tiny pieces. And it's apparently only fun if you let all the pieces fall on the floor.

My aunt found a Daisy Kingdom dress at a yard sale last year and Josie was finally able to fit into it. So this day she was a little Southern Belle-complete with shoulder pads and tulle. She loved the dress and all the attention she got.

A couple of shots of Josie with her Grandpa Joe . . .

The jumper AKA "THANK YOU GRAMMA!"

2009-10-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Funny stuff . . .

2009-10-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm loving 3. Josie is so funny-she's got a great sense of humor and her dramatics make me laugh on a daily basis. And her language is just exploding.

We were at a restaurant the other day and I brought the two of us bowls of clam chowder. She takes a spoonful and proclaims, "It's delicious!" And I'm all, "Yeah, it's yummy!" Doh!

Yeah-I think I can maybe stop with some of the baby words . . . .

The other day I put a jumper on her that her Gramma made and asked her if she liked it. She said yes. I then told her Gramma made it for her.

"Thank you, Gramma!"

"Josie-Gramma can't hear you . ."

"THANK YOU GRAMMA!!!!"

Once I picked myself up off the floor, I suggested that maybe we call Gramma later . . . .

No pics today as I keep forgetting the camera cable at home . . . .

I so want a bubble machine!

2009-09-10T08:55:00.001-07:00

We had a family picnic at my work a week ago-complete with a monkey bouncing house, a monkey pinata (notice a theme, here?) and (Josie's favorite) a BUBBLE machine. She spent at least an hour playing with bubbles, but I did tear her away for the pinata, an egg hunt (who says egg hunts are only for Easter?), a water balloon toss (we lost!), some bouncing, and finally some Looney Tunes and popcorn in the auditorium to wind the evening down. Oh yeah-I did get most of a hot dog down her at some point. And drank a Mirror Pond or two myself. This was after I did a face plant in front of everyone trying to carry 2 plates of food, a juice box, a bottle of beer, and a couple bags of chips since SOMEONE wouldn't carry anything herself. But that's another story . . . .

The monkey pinata
Bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles . . .

Josie's 3 yr portraits

2009-09-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

Beach time and an update . . .

2009-08-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Josie's been growing up so fast this summer-she's now potty-trained (during the last week or so) and has moved up to her big-girl bed. I was worried she wouldn't like the change of the bed and I was not surprised when she flipped out the first nite. Her crib converts into a toddler/daybed just by taking off the front of the crib and replacing it with a bottom piece. She saw the front of the crib in the guestroom (cause that's how far I got . . .) and thought her crib was broken. She threw a lovely tantrum-crying for me to fix it! Once I got her calmed down and in the bed-I think she liked it. Especially when I sat on the bed with her and we sang songs. And it's gone well ever since-luckily she isn't getting in and out of bed. She treats it essentially like her crib. I was afraid she'd fall out since there isn't anything up along the side-but she hasn't yet.

Her bedtime routine consists of a couple of stories in the rocker and then maybe a short one once she's in bed-or we sing songs. Then I turn on the turtle (puts stars on the ceiling), wind up her (mine, actually that she found in my stuff) music box and she's good to go. She often can take up to an hour to fall asleep-but she doesn't cry or try to get out of bed or her room or anything. She apparently just takes a long time to really settle in. Also-if it's the least bit light outside still-she will not fall asleep until it's completely dark. July was a rough month!

She had her 3 yr checkup last week and she's 38 in tall and a whopping 30.5 lbs. Yep-long and lean! She's all legs . . . We got pictures taken last week too-I'll get them up in another post.

I've been keeping a mental list of all the funny and weird things she does:

-she's obsessed with anything Ariel-do you know how many Ariel movies there are? I do. When someone comes up to her and asks her name-she almost always tell them she's Ariel. She has an Ariel swimsuit that gets worn around the house constantly and sometimes to bed.

--speaking of clothing, for Josie the rule is-less is better. She prefers to run around in "just my tummy" (meaning just a pull-up or underwear). And at night she likes to sleep in "just my tummy" or "just my legs" (nightshirt only). When we go outside she likes to go in "just my feet" (barefoot).

-she's started acting out her favorite movies: she likes to pretend to be Littlefoot and will randomly yell "Oh no! A Sharptooth! Run!" and then she screams and runs away from . . . . well, nothing . .. .

-While she watches her movies (that she's seen a million times), she really gets into it: She's all "Oh no! What's gonna happen?" or "Will he be okay?" There is always lots of screaming, empathy for sad characters, and cheering when the day is saved. Or when the Sharptooth falls off a cliff, again.

-she's taken to coming up and hugging me while nuzzling my neck going "mommy, mommy". Unbelievably sweet even though I know she's mimicking a scene from Land Before Time.

-She loves popcorn but really loves to eat unpopped kernels even though I've told her not too over and over again. Drives me nuts.

-When we brush our teeth together she makes me put my head next to hers and put my arm around her just so and we watch ourselves in the mirror while we brush. She's all "Let's do it together!"

-She can totally laugh at herself-last nite she was all upset because she couldn't find a bath toy and she was upset with me because she thought I took it or something. Anyway-I realized it was stuck in the cup she had in her hand and when I pointed it out she totally realized how silly she was being and cracked up. She does stuff like that all the time-she'll be in the middle of a tantrum over something she can't find or do and then completely turn it around and be laughing because she found it or accomplished it.

--DRAMA QUEEN! She loves to be the center of attention but will act shy at the same time. She'll hide behind me but peek around to make sure people are still paying attention to her. She overreacts to things and likes to burst into Ariel songs at random times.

-stubborn, stubborn, stubborn. The phrase "bit off her nose to spite her face" is a perfect description of her temperament.

--she still loves her fruit and veggies. I've never seen a child eat green beans, peas, corn, and edamame the way she does. She also loves spaghetti, mac-n-cheese. and hot dogs so she is a normal kid. She has a salty tooth (for chips and fries) rather than a sweet tooth. Don't get me wrong-she likes M&Ms and ice cream-but she generally stops after several bites.

--she's very tuned into my moods now. She used to not pay any attention when I lost my temper with her-it would just roll off her back. Now she'll come up to me and say "you mad?" and I'll reply yes or no or tell her i'm just frustrated and why . . . . She'll then wait a moment or two. Then "you happy now?". That alone cracks me up and improves whatever mood I'm in.

-She is extremely concerned about me and where I am ever since I was hospitalized in June. She's always asking if I have an owwie, if my owwie is all better now, etc. When she was with me for a blood draw she held my hand and told me that it was okay and she would take care of me. It was sweet and heart-breaking at the same time-she's a baby-she shouldn't be worrying about me. It's going to be awful for her if I end up having surgery to close the hole in my heart since that would require another overnite hospital stay.

Okay-enough with all of that-time for some pics from our afternoon on the beach. She had a blast with Brady digging in the sand, taunting the waves, and flying a kite.

Jo

Balloons and a pinata!

2009-08-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

Fountain playdate

2009-07-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

We got together with Natalie's girls, Taylor and Chloe, and Lydia in Salem on Saturday. It was pretty hot out-so after an hour on the playground we took the girls over to the fountain to play. Only Lydia was the only one to take full advantage of the water (she was the youngest too!) while Josie pretended not to be scared and tried to drag T and C into the fountain. The three of them never really got too wet except at the end Josie did manage to get soaked-probably by accident. A kid probably nailed her with the spray or something!

I did manage to get some pics-Lydia wasn't in too many photos cuz she was too busy sitting in the middle of the fountain trying to swim in a few inches of water. Josie, Chloe,and Taylor danced around the edges the whole time.

Here's Taylor-flirting with disastor!

The four cuties . . .

Cute pics from the last week . . .

2009-07-14T09:54:00.001-07:00

I'm in a crummy mood today and could use a pick-me-up. Cute photos of Josie always work to cheer me up!

Here's a series of me trying to get a shot of the two of us with the "hold camera up, try to guess where to put it so we're both in frame and convince child to look AT THE CAMERA!" method.

I just love this outfit and the hair ribbons . .

Yep-that's my Girl!

A couple shots of swimming. Indulge me in my photo editing fun . . .

3rd Birthday-the one where she's Ariel!

2009-06-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to see Josie the morning of her 3rd birthday-which made me extremely unhappy. Last year we took her out to breakfast and I was looking forward to making the "birthday pancakes" an annual thing. Well-I guess there's her always next year. However-I was released from the hospital in time to take her with Grandma and Papa to Red Robin where she got her french fries, corn dog, sundae, balloon and singing.

She insisted on wearing her Ariel dress (yes-it's a little big and we did cinch it up in the back before we left the house) and crown. Who am I do deny the birthday girl! After the last few days-I probably would have let her go in just a pull-up if she'd asked . . . .

Making music . . .

2009-06-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

These pics were taken not long before my (minor-thank God!) stroke about a week and a half ago. Josie was using all the cups on the table to make a little music. We can thank DragonTales for this idea. Luckily-she was tapping very lightly with the utensils-so she wasn't being annoying to everyone else.

This is what I often see nowadays when I ask her to smile. Also-whenever I ask her to look at me-she says "cheese".

Playing with Papa Joe's hearing aid . . .

I don't remember taking this picture-but I would love to know what she's thinking.

My future mechanic?

2009-06-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

Josie found the face masks and some tools in the garage-pretty soon she was completely absorbed in her "work".

Haircut, Chuck E Cheese and Tired Tot . . . .

2009-06-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

I took Josie to a kid's salon and paid $17 for a 90 sec haircut. Josie was only slightly cooperating. Didn't want a bib. Didn't want to watch Nemo. Didn't want to sit in the taxi.

And when it was over? Took me 20 minutes to get her out of there cuz she wanted to watch Nemo while sitting in the yellow taxi.

It's not obvious she got a haircut here really. I can tell-the big difference is in the back-all nice and even! Yay!

The next day we went to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese for one of Josie's friends from daycare. She loved it. Me? Notsomuch.

The party was during Josie's naptime and she wouldn't take one when we got home. The result? This is what I found when I finished making dinner.

The next day we went to church and Josie went to the childcare room as usual. After church-this is what I found.

That's one tuckered-out little girl. I was hoping to get a good pic of her in her dress and yellow bow in her hair since it looked so cute. Oh well . . . .

BFFs?

2009-06-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

Only time will tell . . . .but it's a pretty good start!

Josie and Chloe took turns "walking" each other.

Chloe often seems extremely amused by Josie. But then, Chloe's a pretty happy kid.

More ledge walking.

The slide.

Okay-I know it sorta looks like Chloe fell down and Josie's laughing at her or something. But that's not really what was going on. In reality-Chloe is cracking up here too. I just didn't get her face.

Woodchips. Fascinating.

Taylor was a bit shy that day-but apparently couldn't resist the lure of the woodchips.

Princess Josie

2009-06-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

A few pics from a couple of weeks ago.

Don't you love it when they "smile" like that?

Mom made Josie a "dancing skirt" (as she calls it). She's modeling her new tiara and earrings here in it. Watch out-cute alert!

Water Play

2009-06-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

It was nice and hot last Friday-so after I picked up Josie from daycare we headed to a local park that has a cool fountain. She had fun-but didn't get all that wet-she was too busy pretending to be Ariel.

Seriously-she was crouched on a rock and singing Part of That World-just like in the movie where she watches Prince Eric from a rock in the ocean. She even stretched out her legs behind her at one point and pushed herself up with her arms. She was killing me . . . .

Uh oh-some kid dared to get on HER rock.

"Leave me alone, mom. I'm singing here . . ."

Time to put on a cover up and hit the playground!

If you have just a little to give . . .

2009-05-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

If you've read my blog at all, you know that I don't do this kind of thing. But this is one of those causes that truly seems doable-both in the amount being asked ($10) and the project itself-building a house for a poverty-striken family in Vietnam. Can you believe $1750 (the fundraiser goal) could build one or possibly two houses? Amazing.

I don't know Heather-but she's trying very hard to raise this money and isn't even halfway there-so her blogging friends are rallying around her . . .namely Laura and Kelly

From Kelly’s Blog:

For the past month or so, I’ve seen a fellow adoptive mom Heather trying to raise $1750 to build a home for a family in need in Vietnam through the group Giving It Back to Kids. Her deadline is the end of this month and she is still not half-way to her goal, yet.

Unless you have been exposed to families in extreme poverty, unless you have seen how many live in third world countries, it is hard to understand the term “shack.” A “shack” here in our country is not a “shack” in my son’s homeland. A shack there is a 5 foot by 5 foot area built out of scrap that could house a family with several kids.

Imagine what we could do if everyone gave $10 to Heather’s project? Even if ten of you do that, and then post this on your blogs, and then ten of your readers do the same, and on and on, we can get her to her goal.
If you have a blog, won’t you help us get the word out? If you have food on your table, won’t you consider contributing $10 or $20 to a family who you will never meet, but whose world will be forever transformed by your generosity?

It may seem that a few people giving a few dollars can never make a difference, but that is just not true. If you put a bucket under a dripping faucet, it may seem like it would never fill, but leave the bucket for a few days and that bucket will overflow with countless “insignificant” drops.

Go to Heather's Blog and CHIP IN!

Me again: So-if you're able-please consider a donation of $10 (or more!). If you win the double-stroller and don't need it-you could always sell it or donate it or something. OK-I'm coming off my soapbox and heading over to Heather's blog to donate my $10. Wanna join me?

Pics of Princess Josie to come soon . . .

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa

I ♥ faces-laughter

2009-05-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Josie and her buddy Priya-they had so much fun that day! This is my entry for this week's contest on I ♥ faces-click on the button to see the other entries.

Those little moments . .

2009-05-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

This morning I had one of those moments . . .the ones where you are so happy and content you almost cry . . .

Josie woke up this morning with tons of energy and was running around in a T-shirt and nothing else (in other words-the ultimate in comfortable for her) and we were playing with a balloon. And she kept coming over and hugging me before smacking me in the face with the balloon. It was good, really good.

I don't know how else to explain it-all you parents know what I mean.

Two Years Ago Today . . .

2009-05-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

You came into my life and changed it forever. You've made me so happy and I hope and wish you are too.

I love you baby girl. Hard to believe how far we've come and how big you've grown since this moment (I've grown in many ways too-some good and some not so good!)

Silly Easter bunny . . .

2009-04-16T12:16:00.001-07:00

This phrase is heard a lot at the house these days-as Josie continues to find eggs in random places. I sing in my church choir and Holy Week is pretty crazy for us-therefore I got a lot of extra babysitting help from Grandma and Great-grandpa Joe.

Since Josie was going to Grandma's on Saturday and staying overnight I decided the Easter bunny would make an early visit. So-Saturday morning Josie woke up to a basket in her crib (yes-she's still in a crib . . . .more on that at another time). She didn't see it right away due to the fact she woke up at 5:30am and it was still dark in her room. Then she hid her eyes when I turned on the light (Bright light! Bright light!). So-finally I asked her,"What's that?" and pointed to it. She thought it was all pretty cool-though she's still finding easter basket grass in her bed (silly Easter bunny!).

I had filled a bunch of plastic eggs with jellybeans and M&Ms and hid them in places I knew she'd stumble upon them. I didn't tell her to look for them-I just let her find them. The first one she found was in a bag of leftover popcorn from the night before. Yes-I let her eat leftover popcorn in the morning . . . .is it much different than Corn Flakes? Anyway-she got sooo excited! Until she tried the jellybeans inside. She spit it out. Thankfully-she gave me enough notice for me to get a napkin. So-she's excited to find the eggs-but really excited when they're the ones with M&Ms in them. Mama gets the jellybeans.

Then-at a chilly (but mostly dry) 9am we joined her daycare buddies at a park for the daycare's Easter Egg hunt. Josie didn't get it at first-she wouldn't hold her own bucket and couldn't understand why she was being asked to clean up the lawn. She was more excited about the Easter bunny-who made her friend cry- and all the balloons. And the playground-which we stayed on until I almost froze to death . . .

Sunday was Easter dinner at my mom and dad's-Josie was ready for the hunt (indoors) this time. She did so well she had to get a second bucket.

So-2 yr olds are like men . . . .

2009-03-29T16:36:00.001-07:00

in the sense that they can never find anything. Seriously-i thought it was just a male thing-you know, you send your nephew into the garage to get something-and he comes back 30 secs later saying "I can't find it." So you go out to the garage and practically trip over said item, as it's so obviously right in plain sight. But with a 2 yr old-you have the added issue of short attention span. Holy cow-Josie can't keep her train of thought for more than 5 seconds apparently. And that may be a generous estimate.

So-yesterday I was going to the bathroom with Josie, as usual, being my audience (seriously, she pulls up her stool and sits down right in front of me). She even cheers me on, "you can do it mama!", "Is it coming?", "Good job, Mama!*clapping*).

Well-yesterday I ran out of toilet paper, but hey-it's not a huge problem, right? Josie's right here-I'll just send her to get some more. Yeah, right.

I asked her to go to the pantry and get some more from the bottom shelf. She's all "Okay-I'll be right back!" And then she runs WAY past the pantry (which is in the hallway right outside the bathroom). So I yell for her and say "The pantry, Josie. Where the food is. The kitty food too. The toilet paper is on the bottom shelf!"

"Okay-I'll be RIGHT back!" She makes it to the pantry and pulls on the door. "Help Mama! I can't do it!"

"Try again!"

"Help Mama!"

Sigh. Plan B.

"Josie-can you get Mama the box of tissues from the living room?"

"Sure-I'll be Right Back!" Pitter-patter. Silence.

"Josie?"

"Huh?"

"Can you bring Mama the tissues?"

"Huh?"

"The box of tissues! In the living room!"

"Living room?"

"Yes! On the table!"

"On the table?"

ARRRRRGGH! "The table! By the couch! Where you put your cup!"

"Oh sure! I'll be right back!" (yeah, right . . . .)

Pitter patter. Silence. Sing-song voice "lalalalalasomethingabout grandma'spicture". Oh-she's talking to the picture of my grandma again.

"Josie?"

"Huh?"

"Bring me the tissues, please!"

"Okay!" She runs into the bathroom, empty-handed.

"I need a kiss! An Ariel kiss!"

I give her a kiss. And then beg her to get me the tissues.

"I'll be right back!" Runs out of the room. Silence.

"Josie?

"Huh?"

"The tissues! "

"Huh?"

Sigh. By this point, I've dripped-dry enough to shuffle to the pantry to get the toilet paper. As I'm doing so, Josie comes over. "Watcha doin?"

A toddler's introduction to puberty . . . .

2009-03-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

I had probably the funniest conversation (if you can call it that) with Josie this morning. She woke up before I was completely ready for work so she hung out with me in the bathroom while I put on makeup, etc. She got to put on some moisturizer and play with the makeup brushes so she was pretty happy.

So I hadn't put on a shirt yet and was just in a bra so this was fascinating to her. So far-she's asked what "those" were before and I tell her Mama's chest or Mama's breasts. Unlike SOME people (Natalie!), I don't want an embarrassing Target moment when she shouts out something about another woman's "boobies". As if she doesn't embarrass me enough with nose-picking, tantrums, eating food off the floor,etc . . . . . .

However, this morning when she asked "What's that?" and I gave my usual answer, she's all "No, that's an Ariel!" (Ariel=Little Mermaid who wears the purple clamshell bra).

She continues:

"That's an Ariel. And that's an Ariel. You have TWO Ariels. I don't have any Ariels." (I wish I had this on video because all of her hand motions were hilarious.)

"No sweetie. You'll get your Ariels when you're older . . . ."

Princesses!

2009-03-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

We were at Disneyland for 5 days-Thurs-Mon. The weekdays were fine, though Friday was fairly busy. Saturday and Sunday kinda sucked in that the lines were ridiculous and it was hard to do anything. Plus it was 80+ degrees and it was way too hot for out Pacific NW blood!

But-we decided to stand in line at the Princess Faire-the new location that they have the princesses located for the "meet and greets". We stood in line for well over an hour and were all pretty cranky by the time we got to the front of the line. Josie is absolutely obsessed with Ariel-so I figured it was worth it. Besides-she had really gotten into seeing the characters by then. She wanted to see "a big Ariel".

When we got to the front though-we discovered that they only have 3 princesses at a time-and Ariel wasn't there. I could've cried. I did not want to have to stand in that line again. So we got to see Snow White, Mulan and Cinderella. The funny thing is-she hasn't ever seen Mulan-but she posed the best with her. Go figure. She went up to each princess and asked, "Where's Ariel?" When she asked Cinderella-Cinderella told her Ariel was swimming. Then, right at that moment-Ariel came up to take Cinderella's place. Praise the Lord! I wouldn't have to do that line again! I was almost happier than Josie-who was so amazed that she kept pointing at Ariel and telling everyone, "That's Ariel!" over and over again.

As annoying as it may be to dress up as those characters-it must be cool to blow little kid's minds like that on a daily basis.

The next day-out of hunger and the desire to get out of the sun-we ate a late lunch at Ariel's Grotto-one of those restaurants where the characters come up to the table and you pay an exorbitant amount to eat in their presence. But look! She got to see Ariel again! And then she ate about 6 goldfish that were on top of her $15 mac and cheese.

The first of many . . . .

2009-03-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

So-I know some of you have been waiting patiently for pictures from our trip to Disneyland and with the exception of flying (see post below) we had a great time. My brother and his family drove down while me, Josie and Grandma flew. We met up in Anaheim and stayed at the same hotel. There were 3 birthdays during the trip-my brother, my niece and my nephew.

Here's Josie with my brother's family. Between my mom and I-we took probably 6 or 7 pictures-and this one was the closest to everyone looking in the same direction. Sigh.

Josie climbing while we waited in the first of a million lines!

Birthday girl Marina.

Josie was pretty much the happiest on this trip when she was being carted around by cousin Brady.

The teacups. Josie's in there somewhere . . .

Getting close to naptime. She took naps in the stroller the first couple of days.

On the first day-the first characters we took her to see was Tinkerbell. I probably should've waited until she'd met a couple others first. She was pretty overwhelmed. The first fairy she saw was Silvermist and she ran up and asked "Where's Tinkerbell?"

She finally gets to see Tinkerbell but won't crack a smile or talk to her or anything.

I heart faces-creative crop

2009-03-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

This was from our recent trip to Disneyland. The photo was originally of my daughter Josie but wasn't any good-she had closed eyes. However-my niece Marina was in the corner and I liked the look on her face so I cropped out a little corner and played with it. Unfortunately, my iPhoto program didn't save the original image so I can't show the pic this one came from. Need to figure that one out!

Click on the I heart faces button to see other entries.

Sure-I'll take her on a airplane again-maybe when she's 20!

2009-03-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Scene: United Flight 666 to San Fran

2 women forcibly hold down toddler while stabbing her with hot pokers. Child screams bloody murder while other passengers wince and mutter to each other. Flight attendants pasted-on smiles started to wane as they ask if they can be of help. "Sure," says evil woman #1. "Why don't you start ripping her toenails out?"

Oh wait-those weren't hot pokers. No toenails were being ripped out. Worse. Evil woman #1 and #2 (otherwise known as Mama and Grandma) were trying to put said toddler in A SEATBELT!!! Oh-the horrors. Call CPS!

Seriously-I thought we were going to get kicked off the plane. We purchased an FAA-approved harness that slipped over the seat to use so we didn't have to bring the carseat. The straps, etc are exactly like a carseat. Just like the one she sits in nearly every single freaking day.

She was fine at first-she LOVES buckles. So she was very interested in the whole thing. For about 2 minutes. Then she wanted to sit in our laps. She summoned the strength of 1000 demons and wriggled out of the harness whilst screaming (oh yeah-she BIT me in there somewhere too!) as we tried to get her back in the harness (which became the most difficult puzzle of straps and buckles all of a sudden.) Oh yeah-and issuing all sorts of whispered threats and pleadings and maybe a few curse words.

In the end-she sobbed and only had the lap belt on. Repeat scenario (minus a couple of decibels and no harness) when we had to turn off the movie to land.

Return trip: I'll see you the hot pokers and toenails and throw in some scalding hot oil thankyouverymuch. It was even worse because we were on a smaller plane so only I was sitting next to her while Grandma, who surely wouldn't treat her in this inhumane way was across the aisle. So-I got to deal with her by myself while she screamed for Grandma to save her. Discarded twisted mess of harness again and just used lapbelt. After takeoff-she slumped doubled-over and passed out (sleeping, I swear!) for the rest of the trip while I recovered from the first catfight i've ever been in.

Oh yeah-we went to Disneyland. Pictures to follow. I need a sedative now just from mentally reliving that trip.

i'm kinda surprised she hadn't ordered a pizza and cracked a beer . . .

2009-02-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

Worst morning ever. Ever.

Today is garbage day-so I let Josie watch Curious George while i took out the garbage and recycling. Roxie (the cat) was hovering near the garage door looking like she was going to make a break for it-so I was yelling at her to back away. My cats have never been outside and since the garage door was open I didn't want to let her in the garage through the inner door.

Josie came running when she heard the commotion so I told her to stand guard and not let the kitty into the garage. I closed the door-but didn't shut it completely while I took the bag of recycling out. Josie whipped open the door to see what I was doing and I saw the cat coming up behind her. So-I yelled at her to shut the door. She stood there staring at me-so I went over and shut it completely and said I'd be right back.

I guess she didn't appreciate that. She kept calling to open the door and I talked to her (loudly) during the 20 seconds it took me to separate the glass from the paper/plastic. When I went back to the door-she had locked it. It's one on those doors with the little knob in the doorknob that you turn to lock and unlock.

I tried not to panic. I was totally locked out of the house. The front door was locked. The sliding glass doors were shut and had those security bars pulled down. Not to mention the gate to the backyard was shut (and effectively locked from the outside) so I coudn't even get to the sliding glass doors.

I kept talking to her-trying to get her to unlock the the door or just plain open the door. But she can't turn the front door or garage door doorknobs yet. I spend about 5 mintues pleading with her to unlock the door. Then I had to rethink the situation.

I figured she could probably lift the security bar (though I've yelled at her many a time to NOT do that) and I was sure I hadn't actually locked the sliding door, figuring the bar pretty much does the trick. The only problem was getting through the back yard gate.

I grabbed an empty kitty litter bucket thinking that if I stepped on it, I'd be able to reach over the gate and open it from the inside. I yell to Josie that I'm going to the back door (she's totally quiet by now) and traipse through the wet grass and mud. I stepped on the bucket and reached over the gate but I was still about 6 inches away from the latch. So I tried to climb over. (Shut up! Stop laughing!) Uh, that didn't work.

So I ran back around to the front and tried again to get Josie to unlock the door. Silence. I pound on the door and yell her name. Nothing. I'm starting to really freak out now. I was picturing her inside crying.

Knowing the patio door is really the best bet I found a long handled rolling paint brush and figure maybe with that I could open the gate. Bingo! I climbed on the bucket and used the plastic brush cover thingie to spring the latch. Yay me!

I run up to the door and what do I see?

Josie. Sans pants and socks. Sitting on the couch with the remote in one hand and her juice cup in the other watching Sid the Science Kid. Completely oblivious to me pounding on the glass door.

I FINALLY get her attention and get her to come over to the door (she kept turning her head to watch her show) and convince her to push the security bar up. I open the door and get in the house and immediately burst into tears. She's all "What's the matter Mama?" So I told her she scared me.

"Sorry Mama. Sorry!" And went back to watching her show.

This independent thing is good right? Nevertheless-I'm hiding a key outside somewhere. It's 9am and my heart is still racing. Is it too early to start drinking?

While I try to chill-here's a couple pics of the little darling from last weekend.

Smoooches!

2009-02-15T19:58:00.000-08:00

I always think it's adorable, of course, when Josie asks for kisses or hugs. I love the way she hugs-she pats your back while she's holding you.

Josie's really been into The Little Mermaid lately-so much so that I'm CONSTANTLY singing Part of This World both in my head and out loud. Normally when I sing, Josie tells me to "Stop Singing!" which hurts my ego a bit. But apparently, the exception to that is Little Mermaid songs. She actually requests them.

The last couple of days Josie runs up to me and asks for a kiss and she then grabs my head and turns it sideways and plants a HUGE sloppy kiss on me. She just came up and did this and it finally dawned on me what she was doing. We just finished watching Little Mermaid and I totally see now that she's recreating the Ariel/Prince Eric kiss at the end.

I'm waffling between cracking up and being slightly disturbed. But mostly cracking up!

I heart faces-Silly

2009-02-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

This is my entry for this week's contest-the theme is Silly. I think this qualifies! Josie's wearing the Mr. Potato Head glasses. Go check out the other entries by clicking here http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/-amazing what you can do when you use more than a point and shoot camera!

Well-at least she's polite . . .

2009-02-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

Grandma: "Josie-it's time for bed."

Josie: "No thank you."

I heart faces-Eyes

2009-02-02T14:37:00.001-08:00

This is my entry for this week's contest on I "Heart" Faces-click on the button below to see other entries. The category for this week is Eyes.

What happens when cats get bored . . . .

2009-01-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

Hey now-you're a rock star . . . .

2009-01-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

I got a video camera for my birthday and am still trying to figure it out. Like the lighting settings-sorry it's so dark. And it keeps trying to refocus. And then there's the issue of me not knowing how to zoom in and out.

Oh yeah-i kept trying to dance along with Josie. My bad.

I also haven't figured out how to edit-so it's a little long.

Boy-I bet you're just DYING to watch it now, aren't you?

Is this a case of "Those who can't, teach"?

2009-01-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

Cold day in Pioneer Square with Papa Joe

2009-01-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

My grandpa turns 90 on Sunday. He's wonderful with Josie. I swear he can keep up with her better than me sometimes!

Serious questions to ponder . . .

2009-01-17T20:21:00.001-08:00

Am I going to give Josie a snake phobia by chasing her with a Playdough snake?

Does anyone else have to bribe their children with green veggies and fruit to get them to eat their mashed potatoes, meat or pasta?

Does anyone else worry their child is going to be smothered by all the stuffed animals they insist on having in their crib/bed?

Why does she keep sleeping in on weekdays making me late for work and then wake up at 5:30 on weekends?

Is it wrong that I let Josie run around the house in a t-shirt and training pants because she's so adorable in them?

For anyone that has seen Tinkerbell more than 5 times-is it weird that I'll ponder what my, Josie's or other family/friend's talent would be?

BTW-Josie (the child that will leave no buckle unbuckled) would totally be a tinker . . .

Yeah-I totally suck as a mom . . .

2009-01-08T11:01:00.001-08:00

I didn't get a single picture at xmas. However-other family members had cameras so hopefully I get get a pic or video up soon. I really want the video of Josie opening up her first couple gifts-she was so excited and adorable.

Really-it's all Mother Nature's fault. By the time xmas rolled around my brain was complete and utter mush. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Four and a half days of being snowbound with a 2 year old.

Now I know it could have been so much worse. Some people lost power, ran out of grocery essentials like milk, bread, juice or alcohol; got stuck at the airport, train station, bus station, etc or completely missed out on traveling to see family. I get that. We were very lucky. On the Friday between snowstorms-I left work a little early to hit Freddie's with the rest of Beaverton to finish my xmas shopping and make sure we had enough groceries. And diet coke. And rum. ;)

However-since we had 14 inches of snow and we really couldn't go outside because neither of us had snowpants-we stayed inside save for one trip to the mailbox on the sled. It was really cold too-pretty uncomfortable just to go get the paper. And in the middle of the 14 inches of snow was a layer of ice from the freezing rain we got at some point. Salem had the reverse issue-mostly ice, some snow and massive power outages. My parents lost power for 4 days (luckily they have a generator).

So-4 days of endless videos/Dragon Tales/coloring/long naps (yeah okay-that was nice!)/more videos/wrapping/whining on the phone to whomever would listen (me) . . . . . You would think i would've gotten lots of projects done, but no. Miss Josie put the kabosh on any of that. She did let me wrap presents though. While I did the xmas presents-she wrapped whatever was lying around-some shoes, books, a cell phone, cat toys.

On Tues nite before xmas my brother rescued us and my grandpa to take us down to Salem since neither of our cars was going to make it very easily-even with chains. It took 4 hours to drive the 50 miles to Salem. I only brought one movie for the portable DVD player-so we kept watching Happy Feet. And since my SIL was making dinner and Josie had just gotten up from her nap-I hadn't fed her. Well-it was after 10 when we finally got there-the poor girl was starving and frustrated since I had her blanket in the back of the truck. She did pretty well though-didn't start melting down til we hit the outskirts of Salem.

Since my parents didn't have much power and therefore-not a lot of heat, no hot water-we stayed over at my brother's house. We had to cook xmas eve dinner at their house and then take it to my mom and dad's for xmas eve with us kids, the grandkids and my grandpa. It was still chilly so I didn't put Josie in her xmas dress-we all dressed warmly. It was nice-we had lights downstairs, the toilets flushed, etc. Just the bare minimum of power used-well-my dad did splurge and put on the outside xmas lights and of course-the tree lights were on.

We ate and opened gifts-Josie loved all her presents. She did really well-just got a little frustrated that we wouldn't let her open her toys right away so she could play with them.

This is the point that I was supposed to jump back in my car and drive to Portland to sing at the Cathedral for Midnite Mass-my favorite part of xmas. However-I had no car. And the roads were still scary. Still-I could have borrowed one of the many SUVs in my fam I'm sure and drove white-knuckled up the freeway. But I couldn't sing. I lost my voice AGAIN! So frustrating. It's better now-but I think I've got something weird going on in my throat and need to get it checked out. I was a bit crabby about all this, but what are you going to do?

The power came on at 8pm-yay! We stayed there that night-no way Grandma and the Papas were going to miss xmas morning with her! I was sleeping on the couch downstairs and since none of the clocks were right-I had no clue what time it was. Josie was sleeping with my mom and I didn't want to miss her seeing her huge Sully and stocking under the tree. So I went upstairs at some point (about 5ish) and watched TV/napped in the living room until I heard her wake up. Then I grabbed the video camera (hold the phone-just realized I DO have some footage from xmas!) and went in to get her up and follow her to the living room. It was kind of anticlimatic-she seemed confused as to what I was telling her (that Santa came . . .) but she did have fun waking up the Papas. Not sure my dad appreciated it too much. Hey-it was almost 7.

The battery on my regular camera was dead-so I didn't get any pics that day. And I hadn't bought a memory card for my new video camera yet-so space on the camera was limited. We finished the day at my grandma/aunt/uncle's house for xmas dinner and more presents . . . . and was ready for bed by 7. ;)

Oh-and it snowed both xmas eve and xmas day-kinda cool when you don't have to worry about going anywhere.

The rest of the vacation was very chill-cards, Wii, food and more food. And endless watching of Tinkerbell!

Well, at least I won't have to have salad for dinner to compensate . . .

2008-12-19T17:20:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I'm going to tell this story. It really makes me look bad in soooo many ways. But after reading Laura's post-I figured I could share too.

So-this week we've been potty-training and Josie's been wearing underwear to daycare. Well-the first day wasn't great-right off the bat she had a BM in her underwear. So-I've got two plastic baggies of clothes from daycare to deal with. I didn't get to them until today. Yeah-you see where this is going, right?

I had gone to the store earlier to buy a sled for the upcoming snow and passed by a Doritos display. Now I love me some Doritos-so I bought some. I went home to kill an hour before picking up Josie and indulged in said Doritos and People's Court.

Before heading out-I decided maybe I should start a load of laundry and was greeted with the plastic bags of grossness on the washing machine. Oh yeah . . .

Open the nasty bag and realized that the undies hadn't been, uh, "scraped" . . .(man i don't know how folks with cloth diapers do it). Anyway-I headed to the bathroom to deal with it and immediately started gagging. Now-I can deal with poopy diapers. Not a huge deal-not fun, but better than PUKE-but to clean off the underwear that's been sitting in a plastic bag is disgusting. Because you get to see it all real close and personal. (OMG-am I really writing about POOP?) I kept gagging until soon-back up came the Doritos. At least I was standing right over the toilet.

so yeah-this potty training thing is going to be dandy.

Today-not a single accident at daycare. But then-she hasn't done the deed yet either. . .

Snowy Day in the PNW

2008-12-19T08:53:00.001-08:00

it was snowing pretty hard the other day-so I picked Josie up early from daycare and we went for a walk in the snow. She was pretty excited. But not about the new hat, gloves, boots and coat. Threats were involved. She really didn't know what to make of the gloves-she kept holding up her hands with her fingers splayed for the longest time.

I can't believe how big she looks in these pictures.

We decided to walk down to the little lakes on our property and see if the ducks were okay. It is so weird to see lakes freeze up in the Willamette Valley/Portland area. Beautiful but weird. The lakes had a coating of ice on them in the morning and then another layer of snow by late morning.

Where's the ducks?

There they are! The poor things came barreling out of the water when they saw us-no doubt hoping we had food. We're not supposed to feed the ducks-it's a natural area-but obviously some people do since the ducks followed us for about 5 minutes hoping . . . .

We were out for about an hour and Josie did great til we headed back up the hill for home. She whimpered and whined the whole way-not even wanting me to pick her up. She was so tired. I wanted to laugh at her-cuz it was really kind of funny-but thought she probably wouldn't appreciate it too much. Hot chicken noodle soup and a nap did the trick.

Thanks sweetie!

2008-12-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

We've had unusual weather for the Pacific NW this week-several days in a row of sub freezing temps and snow. I'm a complete wuss when it comes to driving in the snow. Normally, we get very wet snow that melts within hours. So-the conventional wisdom of us webfeet is to just stay put til it melts.

Well-that was difficult this week. Unless you completely put your life on hold-you gotta figure things out. On Tues I drove into work and had no problems so on Wed-I took Josie to daycare. It started snowing pretty hard so I left early and picked her up (I have an escort, no chains). Anyway-when I got her in her carseat I looked back and said-"So-do you think Mama can do it? Can I get us home safely?" She nodded with her thumb in her mouth.

When I got home I pulled in the garage and said "Yay-we made it!"

Josie piped up from the backseat, "Good job Mama!"

Stalling . . .

2008-12-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

Scene: Mom and I hanging out in the living room after I've put Josie to bed.
Time: 9:15pm

Voice over the baby monitor: "Hey guys? Whatcha doin?"

December wedding . . . .

2008-12-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, the son of my parent's neighbors and also the kid I used to babysit got married to a lovely girl I hadn't met until then . . . Josie did great during the ceremony. My nephew Josh was the ringbearer and Josie seemed to be a little jealous that he was walking next to the flower girl-a little girl she didn't know. "She's too big! She's too big!" she kept saying. Not exactly sure what that meant or what was going on in that little mind of hers . . . but I think she was jealous.

I dressed Josie up all in red with a really cute dress and ribbons in her hair. She hated the ribbons-we had to retie them a million times, trying to keep them out of her face. The dress unfortunately was a little big on her-but still very cute. She looks wonderful in red.

I had the hardest time getting a good picture-the lighting in the place was dim and there were lots of twinkle lights. When I could get a decent picture-she wouldn't smile. Oh well . . . .

Josie and Josh-whenever these two are around each other there is lots of tussling and touching. Josh just can't keep his hands off of her . . .

My niece Marina with Josie.

Josie with Grandma.

My brother Jeff and my SIL Marie.

Jeff and Mina.

More Josie and Grandma (she's going to kill me for this!)

Josie on the dance floor.

Josie and Josh dancing . . . yes I know it looks like they are wrestling . . . .

Playing in leaves

2008-12-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

Sesame Street Live!

2008-12-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

couple of weekends ago-Josie and I went down to Eugene and attended Sesame Street Live with Shula and Anh and Shu's sister.

The kids did great-Anh was mesmerized during the whole thing and didn't appear to move a muscle. Josie fidgeted more-but did really well. She sat on my lap for most of it. The look on her face when the curtain went up and Bert and Ernie came out was priceless!

It was a pretty long show-2 hours with an intermission. The performance was at the Holt Center and we went to the 10:30am show. When we got there we were surprised and amused to see a bar serving beer and wine. But, by the time Bert came out in a white disco pantsuit-I was longing for a beer!

Waiting around before the show . . . .

Shula and Anh

Josie getting excited.

"leave me alone mom-I'm trying to watch Elmo!"

During intermission-they came out with this insane bundle of Elmo balloons. The lighting inside made it difficult to get a picture-but I'm showing it anyway. Josie and I spent intermission watching the Elmo balloons that got away float up to the top of the ceiling.

The aforementioned disco outfit (pic doesn't do it justice. Plus you can't see him dancing.)

The kids with their Elmo balloons (Thanks Tamara!) Luckily-these didn't sing!

For those of you who think I don't post enough pics of Josie . . . .

2008-11-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

Here you go.

They were all so cute, I couldn't help myself. And I didn't even post all of them either. I was a little camera happy that day.

After the playground on Saturday-we met up with Shali and Priya (another little girl adopted from Vietnam.) They were born in the same month. Priya is a little firecracker! They both had a blast running around the rest of Laurelhurst Park.

We told them to "smile" for the camera. This is what we got.

The duck pond

All the LEAVES!

TA DA! (What she is celebrating-I have no idea. She's generally always proud of herself.)

Taking a break . . .

"Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? " Or maybe she's just messing her pants.

Yeah-I'm betting on the pants . . .

"Hey-is your mom driving you nuts with the camera, too?"

Hugs!

TA DA! (Obviously, neither of them seem to have any self-esteem issues!)

Shali and the girls.

There's probably a dog in the vicinity . . .

"Hey-on the count of three-let's make a break for it!"

I love how putting a photo in B&W makes you feel like a professional photographer.

It looks like their own little version of Follow the leader. . . .

WooHoo! A big PILE of leaves!

Playing in the park

2008-11-17T08:37:00.001-08:00

We went to Laurelhurst Park on Saturday-it was a gorgeous fall day-a little chilly, but not bad. I was trying to get a shot of Josie to use for Xmas cards-here's a couple I got before I Josie fell off the teeter-totter. Yeah-I'm a GREAT mom! (She's fine-lots of leaves to break her fall . . .)

I may have to enroll her in Catholic school after seeing her in this blue jumper . . .

2008-11-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

Josie is fascinated with this picture of my grandma-she died several years ago so Josie has never known her (though Grandma Carroll would just LOVE her!). Anyway-whenever she picks up this picture I tell her it's grandma and I think she is confused and thinks it's my mom.

Mom and Dad have been gone on vacation FOREVER (okay-2 1/2 weeks . . . .) and Josie is really missing them. I've been careful to not say their names, but she keeps having fake phone conversations with them.

Yesterday, after I dressed her for church (in what now is my new favorite outfit for her)-she picked up the picture of "Gramma" and kept showing it to me. I think she wants to see grandma. Just a couple more days, sweetie.

Giving Gramma a kiss.

Hey Mom-leave me alone. I found cheerios on the floor.

Yep-that's my girl! (sigh)