A little about Josie . . .

I've been so concerned about making sure I get new pics and video up of Josie, I really haven't told you much about her.

She's covered in mosquito or some type of bug bites and skin rashes. They don't seem to bother her-she isn't itchy or anything that I can tell. We've been greasing her up in Aquaphor and putting a medicated cream on the bad ones. Looks like they are getting better. This is really common in children from the orphanges, and Josie was in the orphanage the whole time. We haven't gone there yet-I'm hearing it's not great. They said Josie was not thriving there. We're not sure what she weighs-we think about 14 pounds. She's got long legs though in comparison. We've got her in 9 mo clothing-though some 6 mo onesies also fit fine. Her legs completely stretch out the 9 mo sleepers-but they have plenty of room around. She's already eating quite a bit-I think she'll put on quite a bit of weight before we even bring her home.

She's started crawling yesterday-not sure she even realized what she was doing. She wasn't getting around too much the first day-but now if we put something she wants out of her reach-she'll start crawling to it. Her legs are not all that strong-but she's trying to pull herself up. She can stand and hold onto the couch pretty good-but I can't really let go of her for too long. She can pick things up pretty good with her hands. I'm not real good at knowing where children should be developmentally, but I'd guess she's a couple months behind. But -I bet she's going to catch up really quick. If not-they recommend early intervention right away. She has a peds appointment right away after we get home-and I'm sure we'll go over all that.

She has really taken to both Mom and me. She constantly checks to make sure she knows where we are. She's begun reaching for us to be picked up-and of course you've seen her smile. And laugh. She's really very happy and content. The only issue we've had is with sleeping. We can't get her to nap for very long-and at nite she wakes up after a couple of hours and it takes hours to get her back asleep. She doesn't really cry much during all of this-she's obviously tired, but she wants to play and be held. Held while standing/walking/swaying to be precise. She loves to be held and touched. So-thank God mom's here-we're tag-teaming at nite so we can get some sleep.

Crazy weather today-it's like a monsoon out there. I was going to go shopping for a stroller and more baby toys, but I'm going to hold off for a bit.