2010 Milestone

There are so many of them that Josephine accomplished this year, way to many to even count. But the best one just happened 10 minutes ago!
We started 2010 like many 1 and 1/2 year olds...in diapers. She showed an early interest in potty training so we let her lead the way. Early in the year we made the transition to pull-ups and then underpants. By May and the opening of the pool, we were pretty much potty trained. We were amazed to have a daughter under 2 that was so advanced, and many other parents were jealous. By June we gave up the only remaining "training" pants...the swim diapers! She did all her training at once so we never had to do separate day and night potty training. She made it so easy for us, she is such an amazingly bright little girl.
When she started school in the fall she was the only child in her class to be potty trained much to her teacher's amazement and delight (she actually did a dance for us she was so excited).
And just now when I went upstairs to check on her (I heard lots of noise while it was supposed to be nap time) I was greeted with my daughter sitting on the big toilet - no potty seat, all by herself! She had done it...gotten up, pulled down her own pants, moved the stool over, got up and did her business! YEAH!!!
I called for Steve and we both screamed in delight and showered her with praise! Such a good note to end the year on!

Disney Trip (41 photos), by Kristen McRae

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A Big Adventure...

In the car on the way to school today Joey told me she was going on an adventure. She was going to fly to the moon! I just love the imagination that they have at this age.
Yesterday afternoon we got to play at the park with our newest friend Erica. We met Erica and her wonderful family at the pool over the summer and have been developing a deeper friendship over the last few months. They are both wonderful little girls and right now both only children (although Erica is going to be blessed with a baby sister in March). They play together so well and are really quite good at sharing for their age. But being that they both are only children right now, they have fantastic imaginations and pretend to be and play with all kinds of things. It is so cute to see the things that they can come up with!

The Burger House

Some of you reading this might have not think this is a funny story, but Steve and I thought it was cute, so I wanted to share it. Josephine was not quite 1 the first time she tasted a McDonald's cheeseburger and she liked them the first bite! We end up getting a Happy Meal about once a month, and 95% of the time we get it with milk, and 50% of the time with the apple slices and not fries and never the caramel dipping sauce. We are trying to teach her healthy choices.
Yesterday we were driving home from New York where we had been visiting Steve's family for Thanksgiving. About 1pm she says that she is hungry and would like a burger. I think it is funny that she knows that "burgers" are what you eat when you are on the road. So we pass exit after exit with no sign of the golden arches and she says she is hungry and I say that I am trying to find someplace to stop. About 20 minutes later we get off on exit and there it is, McDonalds! Steve pulls in and she says, "there it is Mommy, the burger house, I found it for you."
It was really cute.

Everyone poops!

It is one of those truths of nature, everyone does it! The thing is as you grow up you just don't talk about it. But kids, they don't care. Joey tells me good job when I get off the potty, cause that is what I say to her. I appreciate the kind words! Today as she was playing with her little people doll house, she put the "Dad" on the potty to poop and then said it was the "Mommy's" turn! I just reminder her to make sure they washed their hands when they are done!

"All by myself"

These words echo through the house now-a-days. Multiple times a day, about all different types of activities...Joey takes great pride in doing things all by herself. She is growing up so fast and when I start to realize it, it can suck the wind right out of me.
This morning I took her to school and she told me that she didn't want me to walk her to her classroom. I hung up her coat,  took care of her lunch and she told me goodbye, that she was going to her room. I told her I would wait in the hall to make sure that she got there okay (the whole 20 feet away that it is) . She told me to go and walked into the room. I was sad...so I stood there for a moment trying to make myself happy that she is well-adjusted, that she loves school, that she is independent and that she is confident, but truly despite all of that I was sad. Then she came back to the door, peeked around and said "see you later". Then I was happy, happy for all those reasons and because she is caring too!
Moments like this that I feel like we might be doing a god job raising this human.

Best moment of my day...so far

Josephine was sick last night, not sure what it was, but pretty sure it was food related. She told us at dinner that her tummy hurt, but it wasn't until after tub when we were putting her to bed that she started vomiting. And it continued until after midnight. I ended up sleeping the the guest bed with her as we introduced her to the "bucket" last night.
Anyway all of that was last night and I wouldn't call any of those moments highlights!
So this morning she wakes up and is feeling 100% better, so I decide to take her to school. Yes I feel guilty, but she was so herself, that I think whatever it was is gone. So onto the best part...I dropped her off and walked her into the classroom and she goes straight to the teacher to show her purse off. I quickly talk to the teacher and head for the door as this particular teacher doesn't like parents to linger long. At the door I turn around and paused to look at her and she was already looking at me and started blowing me a kiss! I just love that little girl. I hate leaving her in the morning without a kiss and she must have known what I needed. It melted my heart and made my day!

Busted Lip

On Sunday night 10/3/10 Josephine fell and bit through her lip. She is fine, but it did give me a really big scare.

We had a great day on Sunday, lots of running around and playing outside in the nice fall weather. Everything was great until (insert dramatic music...dum, dum, dum)...it was time to go to bed. We had completed all of the nightly rituals and had just finished brushing teeth when she stepped back off of the stool and slipped and hit her chin on the bathroom sink counter. At first I thought it was just an "ouchie" but then I saw the blood. Then I saw the big teeth marks on the fleshy part of her bottom lip. Steve helped me clean it up and that is when I noticed the cut on the outside too!
I thought that we should go straight to the ER, but Steve was more level headed. I called Auntie Trimble who is my go-to for anything medical and she was also a calming force. Finally spoke to two nurses and made the call to stay home. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly and she only cried for about 4 minutes so we took our cues from Joey. We made it through the night with popsicles in mommy & daddy's bed, ice water and a special movie to fall asleep to. By the morning it looked 90% better. I am always amazed the healing power little kids have.
This picture above was taken the next afternoon and it doesn't look so bad, of course...it looked worse in "real life" and any boo-boo on my baby seems awful to me!

Don't cry over spilt milk...

Last night I was busy trying to make dinner in a hurry so that we could eat together before I darted off to the gym. Joey was under foot and wanted some milk so gave her a small amount in a sippy cup without the inner part. Now that she is 2 I have been giving her regular cups, but I knew that she was going to walk around with the milk so I thought the sippy cup was that better bet. She took it to the sofa, got up, sat down and promptly turned it over and and spilled it on herself and the sofa. When she told me I scream "Ugh" and came running from the kitchen with the towel. Steve sensing my rising frustration came into the room and asked Josephine "what happened?" To which she replied, "I spilled my milk, Mommy screamed." Well cut my heart out. I got down and apologized and told her that a little bit of spilled milk was nothing to get upset about...wow, lesson learned (the hard way).

Two Years Old!

I know that I owe you much more detail about what has been going on in our lives (all the way back to November 2009) but at last those posts will have to wait another day.
Today we celebrate! Two years ago the inspiration for this blog and my personal ray of sunshine was born. She has grown so much in the last year, physically and developmentally. She talks non stop now, and most of the time articulately. She knows her colors, most of her numbers (but only counts up to 3) and is working hard on learning the alphabet. She also takes every opportunity she can to practice her jumping skills, she is not quite up to two feet off the ground at the same time...but I can tell she will get there before the end of summer. She likes to run and has shown a lot of interest in both golf and t-ball. She loves Elmo, Nemo, Mickey Mouse, baby dolls, the pool, dancing, chocolate, pasta, hot dogs and french fries. She demonstrates her independence daily, but is a good listener and helps mommy and daddy with chores regularly. Her giggles light up our world and she is a true joy to be around.
As much as I love seeing her grow and learn, part of me aches as she gets older and farther from being my baby. My heart is overflowing with love for her. I am truly blessed that God brought us together and I was chosen to be her Mommy. I love you Joey!

Back when I left you....

I will go back to about the time that I left you and try to bring you up to speed in the next several posts. During that time our home computer died and unfortunately none of our photos have been moved over to our new machine. Until then, I will sprinkle a few pictures in the posts as well as try to get video taken back then edited and posted. Living without a home computer made life a little difficult for several months...but I think living between three machines (old, new and my laptop) is more difficult!

September - Steve and I got to take a mini-vacation just the two of us when we traveled out to San Diego for our good friend Kristin's wedding. Kristin is one of the elite eight, a member of the BP. It was a beautiful occasion and such a fun time. We got to sleep in, stay up late, drink lots and hang out with the best of friends. We even got to eat at Cafe 222, which we had seen features on the Food Network about 6 weeks prior to our trip. If you know me, you know that I always work a dining plan into my vacations!

Meanwhile, Joey was off having her own getaway and Gigi's house. I'm not sure what they did, but I know that she gets spoiled rotten by her and Grammie every time she goes out there to stay. I usually don't get any pictures from those trips, but this time I got lots. It was the end of summer and Gigi had left her pool up a bit past labor day, so there was a lot of swimming going on!

October - The whole family took a weekend getaway to Boston to see Nana and Grandpa McRae, Aunt Bronnie and cousins Catherine, Mathew and Casey. An interesting coincidence put us in the area at the same time that Grammie was in town to celebrate the baptism of my cousin's new daughter Tess, so we also got to see my Uncle Rob, Aunt Diana and family. It turned out to be a great trip. It also snowed while we were there, enough to cover the deck...snow before Halloween, that is why I don't live in Boston!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Josephine dressed up as a pumpkin and I must say, the cutest li'l pumpkin I've ever seen! I had tried for a few weeks to get her to try on a costume, but she was not having any of it...I had pretty much resigned myself that Halloween might not happen for us this year. But then school had a party where all the kids dressed up and they managed to get her to put on a cheer leading outfit. Well I guess all she needed was to see other kids doing it to know that I wasn't crazy! We took trick-or-treating on the road to Gigi's house as she lives in a much nicer neighborhood and there are more houses to visit. She took to her costume well and it only took her about three houses to get the hang of putting her hand out, accepting the candy and placing it in her pumpkin bucket. At one point she looked so grown up that I lost it and started crying. At which point Steve told me to stay on the sidewalk cause I was embarrassing them. The best part was when we got back to Gigi's house and she thought that nobody was looking, she took handfuls of candy out of the "giveaway" caldron and loaded her pumpkin bucket up! We would keep dumping it back into the caldron and she thought is was so much fun to take it out, what a great night! Already thinking ahead to next year's costume...Gigi is pulling for her favorite - Dorthy and Steve would like to see a little Princess Leia, but I just don't know yet.

I'm Back...

I could offer a thousand appolgies for taking the last 6 months off, but I'm sure you would just rather that I pick up blogging and never leave you hanging again. Well, no promises...but I sure will try to update weekly (deja vus - I think I have said that before). The truth is that there is a ton going on, and not a lot going on all at the same time. Our lives have gotten very busy and that seems in direct correlation to the more active Josephine gets. But for the most part it is just everyday life and you have not missed a whole lot.
We have vacationed and had holidays and more first moments. Over the next few weeks I will try to reach into the far depths of my memory and recount some of the more noteworthy adventures and times we have had since that last post so long ago. Don't give up on me just yet!