Elmo's so happy to see you . . . .

Last Saturday, we attended a birthday party for one of Josie's daycare friends at cool cafe/coffeshop with a huge playroom. We'd been running around all day and it was past naptime-but Josie did really well. Especially when Elmo showed up. Now-for those of you new here-Josie is a huge Elmo fan. Huge. Elmo. Fan.

Huge.

Yeah-she asks for Elmo at least 10 times a day. A video that is. She usually gets one a day-but when she was sick-we watched probably 5 videos a day. Now she thinks that should be the norm.

Anyway-I digress. So-Elmo comes in and it takes a moment for Josie to realize he's there. The birthday girl is both freaked out and excited at the same time. She keeps screaming and laughing but won't get too close. So-all the adults are encouraging her to see Elmo first-but she won't have it. Meanwhile-Josie, completely mesmerized-inches closer and closer. I'm sure she's thinking-"heck, if you won't sit in Elmo's lap, I will!" Pretty soon she is. It really was priceless.

Josie can die happy now-because I'm not sure anything could ever top this day for her. Sad that life can peak at age 2.

Elmo was at the party for probably over an hour. And Josie was sort of like Dory in Finding Nemo. Every 5 minutes or so-she would realize she was in the presence of Elmo and her glee would start all over. I took video for the first 5 minutes or so and switched to pictures. So-even though they aren't pics of the very first time Josie approached Elmo-they really kinda are.


Josie-realizing again that "OMG! It's Elmo!" while probably messing her pants in all her amazement.



Pure joy!



Hugging Elmo . . .





Playing peek-a-boo . . .





This face pretty much sums it up!

Pics from the playground

More pics at the parade

Chloe



Taylor and Chloe



Josie eating some of the candy they were throwing. The parade was cute-people walking their dogs-a lot of them in costume.



And then-some time on the playground . . .

pet parade

On Saturday-we went to a pet parade with another PLAN family that adopted twins last year. Taylor and Chloe are about 3 months younger than Josie. Natalie (mom) also gave birth last fall to Coby-so she's got an 8 mo old and 20 mo old twins. Hat's off to you, Natalie! The girls are adorable and Coby is a giant baby. He's about the same size as Taylor (the peanut). I realized how tall Josie is when she stood next to the twins. She's grown a bunch in the last couple of months. She's becoming a little girl-no longer a baby.

The girls were pretty wary of each other-but by the end of the morning were bonding over cookies and string cheese. I've turned Chloe into a string cheese convert. I had a hard time getting some good pics of Taylor-she wasn't too sure about me and Josie at first. Chloe was a bit more social-she didn't turn away every time I picked up my camera. But they come to Oregon several times a year-and I predict they will all become good friends. It was great to meet Natalie (or SuperMom as far as I'm concerned!). We're looking forward to more get togethers-hopefully with more PLAN families next time.

Some pics of the day.


Chloe (this is how she spent most of the parade-pointing!)



Josie


A couple of shots with all three girls (pretty hard to get!)




Josie

Cutie pie with her monkey

Bubble? Bubble? Bubble? Bubble????????

Okay-now imagine the word bubble getting higher pitched each time until it becomes barely recognizable and you will understand what I hear several times a day-Josie usually starts this around 6am (or whenever she looks out on the patio) and keeps it up all day. One morning when I went to get her out of her crib-I opened the door and instead of the usual "Hi Baby!"-she said "Bubble?". Sigh. I'm really starting to hate the bubbles-it turns into a fight every time. She dumps them out, gets mad when she can't do it, wants me to do it and then gets mad that I'm doing it and not her. Dumps them out again . . . .

Yeah-I said that . . .

I've decided to start making a list of some of the random things I end up saying during the day. I notice I refer to "we" alot . . . .

#1. Josie-we don't drag the toaster down the hallway!

#2. That's nice, sweetie-but we normally don't kiss the potty.

more to come, I'm sure.

Next stop-Carnegie Hall!

So-we're in the kitchen and Josie's rummaging through one of the kitchen utensil drawers and I turn around and see her pretending to play the violin with a spatula and a skewer(!).

note: Before you call me a bad mommy-I didn't unpack the kitchen when I moved-and was told this particular drawer had nothing dangerous in it . . . obviously, someone helping that day didn't get the memo.

Anyway-I was pretty shocked cuz I couldn't figure out where she came up with that-but I quickly traded her the skewer for a chopstick and ran for the camera.

I called my mom to tell her of our little prodigy-and she reminded me that there is an Elmo video that has a maybe 4 second clip of a little girl playing the violin in it.

I'm still impressed.

The Ponies!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi

Or Happy (lunar) New Year, or Tet . . . whatever you prefer.

I used Tet as an occasion to dress Josie in one of her Ao Dais from Vietnam. She looks fab in orange!

Playing "nap" with Marina

xmas

Well, Josie was definitely spoiled this Christmas! I didn't figure she would really get into the opening of her presents, since most of my nephews and neices had meltdowns on xmas eve at her age. But she actually did really well-maybe because we opened gifts before dinner since the ham wasn't done yet. She didn't appreciate the sleeves on her pretty dress that Papa bought her, but other than that, she was in fine spirits. She had her cousins to play with and lots of attention from the adults. Grandma and Papa got her a princess tenet-and she and Josh had a blast playing in it. And since Josie likes Josh's Duke (stuffed dog) so much-he got her one of her own. We named it Duchess, of course.

After I put Josie to bed, I drove back up to Portland for midnite mass and then back down to Salem afterward. I got to bed about 3:30am and Josie woke up at 6:30am. All I heard was "Whoozzatt?" I assume she meant me since I hadn't been there before . . . So cute. I woke up laughing, which is good since I was so tired.

Christmas Day was full of more presents and lots of family. Just perfect!

Why I will never be a professional photographer . . .

18 months . . .

and so adorable!




Hey Josie-bean! You know, I was a little concerned about how little you were talking, but no more! Every day you seem to have a new word or phrase-of course, sometimes you have your own "spin" on the word-but I figure it still counts. My favorite right now? Whazzat? or Whoozzat? (What's that? or Who's that?). It kills me when you wake up in the morning talking like that. So cute.

However-I haven't seemed to figure out where the volume control is. Poor Papa Joe has to take you outside for most of Mass nowadays, not because you're crying or fussy, but because you're so LOUD and you want to explore the church. I fully expect to look up one day and see you up by the altar and priest pointing at the chalice and saying "Whazzat?"