Thursday, May 02, 2013

6 years ago today . . . .

I became a Mama.

Yes-it's been exactly a year since my last post.

I certainly hope I don't become a once a year blogger-but what are you going to do?  So-let's recap the year a little.

Josie celebrated her 6th birthday in June and had a great party with a pinata!


She lost her first tooth .. .. .

 She still loves all things animal print.








Josie started first grade and loves her teacher.  While the neighbor girl isn't in her class (bummer!), her best friend from kindergarten is, so all is right with the world.   She likes school, she DOESN'T like homework.  Needless to say-neither do I.  The 45 minutes before dinner are very trying times.  But, she's progressing great in reading and math and needless to say, she excels socially.  :)  She plays My Little Pony with her friends at recess and apparently chases one particular little boy.  She says he likes her, but she doesn't like him.  Hmmmm . . .

We adopted two orange kitties (Katy Perry and Cheeto) in October.   I know she was hoping for a kitty that would constantly be in her lap or sleep with her but she's so boisterous she scares them.  Cheeto is coming around and I suspect as she gets older and more gentle-they'll be buds.  But Katy is very wary . . . .she's the skittish one of the two-very much like Roxie used to be.  Sweet Toby died about two months after we adopted the kittens after a sudden but thankfully brief (and unknown) illness.  That was hard on all of us (especially me!) and antisocial Roxie has become more social and cuddly with Josie (and everyone, really) since.   She misses her brother and after a while, accepted  Katy and Cheeto-burrito.  Though when they're chasing each other and pouncing she gives me the stink-eye ..  ..



Cheeto


Katy





Katy sitting on Cheeto sitting on Toby



Jo and Sweet Toby


Cheeto cuddling with sick Toby not long before he passed.





She dressed up as Dorothy for Halloween and we also went to a party where I was the Wicked Witch of the West.  Later on this year, we dressed up again to go to a Wizard of Oz sing-a-long movie event at the Clinton St Theater which was a blast! 



We had a great Christmas with the family and more ponies were to be had.  The whole Pony obsession doesn't seem to be subsiding .. . . .and she got the desired Dreamlight and Stompeez she'd been begging for (thank you infomercials .. .).

Christmas Tree hunting (no we did not get the tiny tree!)

Our matching animal slippers

Dreamlight from Santa

Still believes!


It was a big year of traveling for us.  In January my parents took the whole family to Kauai.   We had so much fun.  We stayed in an incredible condo with fantastic view.  We did a family tubing trip and spent (of course) a lot of time at the beach and pool.  Josie spent a lot of time with her cousins in the pool and digging holes on the beach.  She's quite the water baby.  I need to do a separate post with pics .. . .  
She spent 99% of her time in a bathing suit.

Hula girl

Then for Spring Break we went to Disney World-our first time there.   That trip also deserves an entire post to itself. 

Sure looks like the happiest place on earth, doesn't it?

Josie and Marina with Ariel

The funniest "Josie" thing this year is her "long eyes".   This child of mine alternates between trying to convince me she needs glasses (she even tried to flunk the school eye exam).  I took her to the eye doctor last year in case I was wrong about her faking, but no, she has perfect vision and the doctor looked her right in the eyes and told her she didn't need glasses and he didn't want to see her again for 3 years.   She wasn't happy so I bought her some fashion eyeglasses at Claire's which lasted about 3 days before she broke them.   Anyway-when she's not faking blindness, she's boasting about her great vision (yes, I know.  This is life with the drama queen.)    She claims she can see the ocean from our house with her "looong eyes" or "looong eyeballs".  (I really should get her on video saying this-it's hilarious the way she says it).   She could see our house from Hawaii.   She can see through walls.  She sometimes extends this superpower to other senses (I can hear that with my looong ears .. .).

Fake glasses



Josie is still taking tap and ballet class and while not particularly proficient, she LOVES to perform!  She also started taking piano lessons and is doing pretty well, as long as I get her to practice which she doesn't care for but likes better than homework.  She recently got to play both hands together briefly and thought that was the coolest thing ever.   I'm looking forward to her first recital.




Josie pretty much lives for the weekends and for playdates and sleepovers.  And streaming Netflix.  :)  She's been moving from one cartoon obsession to the next-Johnny Test, Super Mario Bros (!!), Adventure Time (ugh!), MLP (of course) and the longest running favorite, Scooby Doo which I heartily approve of as long as it's not the ones with Scrappy Doo.    


Grandpa Joe is 92 (or is it 93?  I forget) and he still comes over to watch her on Thursday nights.  They play Candyland, cards, and now Junior Monopoly and then she subjects him to Wii games or Netflix while hogging the popcorn bowl.   She looks forward to him coming over.  Their relationship is really special and quite adorable.

Even though Josie is full of drama she is also incredibly sweet and thoughtful.  She is constantly writing me little love notes and leaving them for me to find.  And if she gets in trouble and gets sent to her room-I know in 10 minutes or so, she'll appear all teary holding a little apology note. 

A little love note she left on the computer.


She's really growing up.   Bittersweet.