sugar and spice...

She is all girl! She loves purses, shoes and jewelery. This too is a candid picture...she managed to get the purse on over her head some how and just happened to pose perfectly for me. What a doll!

her first BFF...

You can tell from the smiles on both of their faces that they were enjoying each others company very much!

chillin after breakfast...

Just kicked back with a full belly of waffles. I mean really...she has the life!

she is her father's daughter...

If you know Steve, then you know that this is Josephine trying to be just like him. This is not a posed picture...she took the cans out of the bin and did this all on her own. Now we know that she really is watching what we do and mimicking us!

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it has been so long since I last published a post...many a family member has reminded me along the way, but time got the best of me. I am also having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Josephine will be 1 next week! So much has changed in this last year, but I will save those memories for her birthday post!


Here is what has been going on since my last post.
She has 10 teeth now, 4 top and 4 bottom front teeth and 2 back molars that just cut the gums. They all came in so fast that I have been expecting to see more everyday.
Climbing...she was already a master at the stairs (and took her first tumble down them tonight as well) but now she is climbing onto everything she can; small stools, toys, snail rocker, but not quite up to the sofa yet.
Words...this and that, me (although I'm not sure she says it as a word, but more a sound).
She has gotten good at trying to articulate what she wants by pointing to objects, many times accompanied by the word "this" or "that".
Sleeping continues to be the biggest problem we face. Sometimes she goes down easily and sometimes not; sometimes she takes good long naps and sometimes she just doesn't want to go down; some nights she wakes up in the middle of the night and then there are a few nights that we all get a full nights sleep! She continues to wake up early between 445 and 530am. We try to keep her in bed (hers or ours) until 530 or 6am, but I have started to give up hope of ever sleeping in again!
We are finishing up a 6 week swimming lesson this Sunday. She has not learned much as the class is focused on getting babies adjusted to the water and we have had her in the pool since she was 3 months old. But it has been a fun family activity and we hope to build on the skills over time.


I was traveling for work last week in New Orleans and Nana McRae came down with cousin Catherine for the week to help out Steve. Joey fell instantly in love with her cousin and they played together to the exhaustion of both everyday. Work was very busy getting ready for my trip so Gigi and Grammie came down on Monday and Tuesday to help out the week prior. Needless to say she is one spoiled and loved little girl.


I'll make no promises for upcoming posts. August is turning out to be a very busy month with every weekend booked and some weekday activities on the calendar as well - not to mention I still work a full-time job. Sorry to disappoint all the fans, but better to be honest!

Happy Birthday Grammie!

This year you get to spend a weekend with your granddaughter...it is the gift that will keep on giving!

The weekly update

It has been a pretty low key week. We had a lazy weekend last weekend, but did manage to get out to a bbq and to the pool for a few hours. The weather has been hot and humid here and it has been raining almost everyday. So it was nice to get out some over the weekend. A coworker had a bbq at his house Saturday night and we had a ton of fun and stayed a bit later than we should have pushing bedtime until 9pm! Sunday we went to church. Yes you read that correctly. It is something that I have been interested in for awhile and this Sunday we finally found one that I think we will enjoy going to. It is important to me that Joey grow up with some type of "faith".
Monday was a busy day for me, so Gigi came down to entertain Josephine while I got some much needed work done.
We continue to work on sleep. While she is sleeping through the night now, she is still having a hard time going down for the night and naps too. For the past two nights we have done family dinner together at 630 followed by tub at 7 and bed at 730. So far the earlier bedtime has worked out well. I think that we might have been letting her get over tired and that is why she was having a hard time.
This weekend Grammie and Gigi will take Joey for the weekend so that we can celebrate and early father's day. Grammie will come pick her up on Saturday and bring her back on Tuesday. It will be a long time for her to be away and I am kinda sad thinking about it. I always worry that she will get off schedule while she is out there and that means holy terror for me when she gets home (especially since Gigi lets her sleep in her bed with her). Stay tuned for the recap next week!
Videos have been updated on the left hand side. I will be adding some more in a few days so be sure to check back. I caught more of her walking today. Everyday she gets a bit braver and takes on more space. It is amazing to see her grow and change.

So many changes, so little time

I'm sorry for letting almost a month pass between posts. Getting into summer and it is always a busy time of year, not to mention working from home with a 10 month old will keep you pretty busy as well. So much has happened in the weeks between posts, as always I'll do my best to catch you up on all that is new.

Josephine had tubes put in her ears on Thursday, May 21st. The procedure was done at Children's Hospital Outpatient center and it was so quick. We got to the center at 7am and we were on our way back home by 820! She took it like a champ and we started to hear the results right away...as she started talking a whole lot more.

Josephine has also gotten a ton of family love in the past weeks as well. She spent a nice weekend out at Gigi's house visiting with Grammie. And Memorial Day weekend Nana and Grandpa McRae came down to visit. These are not only nice for Josephine, but the give Steve and I some great time to ourselves to do things we used to do like go out to dinner later than 5pm and even see some movies!

We have also been working on sleep training finally. I am happy to say that after about 4-5 days she adapted pretty well. She is now taking 2 naps a day routinely and sleeping through the night. She has given up the night bottle as well.

Here are some of the milestones that we have experienced recently:

• First Steps: Yes! She has taken her first few steps and everyday she gets a little more daring and willing to take a few more.
• Stairs: She has become a pro at climbing the stairs. While we are impressed with her skills this one is a bit a a pain to deal with.
• Clapping: I have yet to catch it on film, but I try everyday...it is so very cute!
• Food: Her new favorite is grilled cheese sandwiches. She loves them so much she eats a whole sandwich! She has also been working on her sippy cup skills.
• Her 7th tooth also came through...4 on top, 3 on the bottom.

Back From Vacation

We have been back for almost a week and I think we have finally settled back into a routine. We had a nice relaxing trip to Florida. We went to Universal Studios as well as Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. We spent the mornings at the park and then returned home after lunch to spend our afternoons hanging out at the pool. I stopped nursing just prior to vacation (actually our last "latch" was while on vacation) so I spent most of those afternoons with a frozen drink in my hands. Joey is a water baby...she loves it. We bought her a nice floater prior to vacation and she got to use it while we were down there, it was the perfect tool to help her learn to walk in the pool - I think that we have some video of this that I will be posting soon.

There were just so many exciting "firsts" while on this trip that I'm sure I'll never remember to recap them all here. Like I mentioned earlier, we did stop nursing on this trip. We made it 9 months and I really feel like I have given her a good start. We also tried to switch her over completely to eating whatever we are...it makes meal time so much easier! She learned to climb stairs while on vacation too. There was a little lip around the edge of the pool and she quickly learned how to climb up to get out...she is so smart it is amazing (even her pediatrician was amazed when we told him). We learned that she is not a big fan of the "characters" around the park when she screamed in horror at the sight of Mickey and Minnie, this is something that we hope she will grow out of!

We had our 9 month Dr. apt on Monday when we returned home. Everything looks great and she continues to be off the charts for length and high on the chart for weight...however she is perfectly proportioned and really starting the lean out. The nurse thought she was in for her 1 year checkup! The only milestone she has yet to reach at this time is holding her own bottle and that is because we have not really forced the issue. Needless to say we have been working all week on it. We have also started to introduce the idea of the sippy cup, I think this might take awhile, but I know that she will get it soon. She has been crawling like crazy and starting to cruise quite a bit more lately. She even took 1 step the other day while holding on to nothing trying to get between two toys. We think that we have about a month before she starts getting really brave, but we went ahead and put the gates up this week anyway! She has started sleeping a bit better now too. We can go several nights without her getting up in the middle of the night (early morning hours). However she does consistantly want to wake in the 5am hour so I have given in and am now started my day unusally early!

We went to see an ENT specialist on Tuesday to address the issue of constant ear infections. We battled a serious infection prior to vacation that was stubborn enough to resist two antibiotics before giving in to a 3-day series of injected antibodies (boy was that fun!). We have been recommended to get her tubes and have gone ahead and scheduled the procedure for next Thursday.

I'm sure that there is a ton more to tell you, but my brain is fried from a very full week. I promise to write again soon.

Peek-A-Boo Belly Laughing

Josephine has started laughing a lot more lately. She doesn't do the belly laughs very often, but it is the cutest sound that I have ever heard. It is infectious and I can't stop laughing when she gets started. We end up laughing at each other and I end up laughing so hard I am crying.

Sick Baby

Let me recap the second half of our week for everyone that has not already heard...After a full day of unstoppable, inconsolable crying on Thursday we ended up taking Josephine to the ER around 930 that night. Finally around 1200am she was diagnosed with more ear infections. She had just finished antibiotics on Monday from her last round of ear infections. She was poked and stuck with needles, she got antibiotic shots along with some blood work and ear drops. This is the short version of the story as 5.5 hours in the ER brought us a ton of adventure. We saw our regular pediatricians on Friday and they gave her another shot and prescribed more oral antibiotics. We will go back on the 28th to make sure that they are gone for good this time. They told us, 1 more infection and she will have to get tubes. At this point, I'm all for it...just to save her the misery.
As of today she is almost 100% back to her normal happy self. We spent the day with some of my family at a cook-out. She got a ton of attention and seemed to enjoy every minute of it.

She did it!

Tonight Josephine crawled! Well it was close enough to count in my book. Everyone was so sure that she was going to go straight to walking and skip this stage (including us). She is already pulling herself up and slowly cruising along furniture, so we still think that she will be an early walker. Doesn't surprise us as she is determined to do everything ahead of schedule.

Happy Easter!

Is this not the cutest Easter Bunny you have ever seen?

Our friend Linda B. gave us this jacket from a friend of hers that had a little girl about a year before Joey. I held onto it until it fit and for the perfect occasion and would you believe the stars aligned on this one. Had Easter been a month later the jacket would not have fit! She has the talk of the church, everyone had to come by and say hi to her...and those of you who know her - know that she loved every minute being the center of attention. We had a nice Easter out at Gigi's house and dinner at Grammie's.

Steve stayed home recovering from his sinus surgery all weekend and I'm sure not having to get up during the night helped his recovery a bit. I think he is feeling much better, but is looking forward to the follow up appointment on Friday when I think that he gets the "green light" to blow his nose. I know it sounds silly, but try being congested and not blowing your nose for 10 days...harder than you think!

Happy Baby!

What a cute picture! This was taken when she was staying with Gigi and Grammie while we were in Florida last month. There are quite a few good pictures from that time...thanks to Gigi who gave them to me on disk (now if I could only get the rest of them).
Josephine has been talking up a storm, it starts when she wakes in the morning and goes all day. Most common is Dada, and lots of other "ah" words...but not Mama. She said it once and repeated it all day and then never again...so glad that I got it on video that day!
No signs of crawling yet and we are still not sure if she ever will. She goes from laying to sitting to pulling herself up to standing and then tries to cruise along. She is not very comfortable cruising unless she has at least one hand on a person...then she is okay to go, both hands holding yours and she is pulling you along - she wants to go for a walk.
Her latest thing is standing up in the crib when she wakes in the middle of the night. She used to lay there and cry a little...now she stands up at the end of the crib closest to the door and cries. Gosh the things they learn and so quickly too!
We are moving into more solid foods too. She is very interesting in picking up food and feeding herself, hands of course. We do just a few purees now and soon will start the proteins. She is a carb lover like her mama...crackers, bread, cereal, pasta.
She is about 90-95% bottle/formula fed now too. I have continued to nurse her morning and night...I say that it is for the health benefits (and it is) but I also selfishly don't want to break the bond with her.
Last week she got yet another cold and dual ear infections again! She is on antibiotics again and was only fussy for a few days and now seems to be coming back to her normal self.
Grammie was down twice this week as I had a work thing on Tuesday and Steve is having sinus surgery today. It is nice to have the extra set of hands around. I think that all mothers should have a wife to help them out...cause playing the role of both can be exhausting at times and add to the mix that I actually work while I am at home too and I really think that I should start collecting an additional salary (will work for massages and jewelery). Anyway, Grammie was quick to get Joey in the middle of the night when she awoke (maybe too quick) but who am I to turn away a few extra minutes of sleep?

Here are some other recent pictures of her:

Sunday's Best...it is the whole outfit that makes it so great!

Surpised!

My new thing is to stand up in my crib and cry for Mama or Dada.

What a big little girl!

Last week, Josephine slept through the night 3 nights in a row. We really thought that maybe it was the start to something good. For almost 8 months now, we have been struggling with trying to get Josephine to sleep through the night. It has been exhausting, to say the least!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To Gigi's house she goes!

After returning to work for 4 days, Steve and I took off on another trip. This time an extended weekend in Disney by ourselves. This was the first time that we left Josephine and it was kinda hard, but it ended up being a nice little break for both of us. We love her so much, but didn't know just how much we needed to recharge our own bateries until we were able to get away. Josephine had a grand time staying with Gigi and spending everyday with her and Grammie.
Meanwhile in Florida, I was running my second 1/2 marathon...the Disney Princess 1/2! Steve played the role of chEARleader and did a mighty fine job of it!
I had to fly straigt to New Orleans from Orlando for work on Monday morning while Steve got to stay and paly at the pool for most of the day before returning home. Nana McRae also flew in on Monday to help Steve during the week while I was away working. Needless to say, Joey was spoiled by both grandmothers for a whole week, I'm not sure what to look forward to on Monday when I am working from home alone with her!

Snow Baby

We had a big snow when we returned home from California and Mexico. It was pretty much the only snow we had this winter. We had a few storms, but never enough to cover the ground completely. I had been waiting and waiting and waiting to introduce Joey to snow and I finally had my chance on Monday, March 2nd. She instinctively stuck out her tongue and started catching snow flakes. I love to watch her experience new things, and I am amazed at how much we are universally alike!

Mama, Dada and other new words!

On Wednesday February 25th Josephine said Mama. In fact it was the only thing she said the whole day! She is absorbing and learning so much, it is amazing to watch. We also learned that she had picked up some sign language in daycare. While in San Diego we thought that she was learning how to wave "hi", but she kept making the hand movement over and over. We started thinking that she might be trying to telling us something and she was. Josephine now signs for "milk" when she wants the bottle. She also signs for milk when she doesn't want the bottle but we are using positive reinforcement to teach her. While we were away last weekend in Disney, she added Dada to her vocabulary too. These words are in addition to "hi" which I am convinced she has been saying since 4 months. And this morning, I'm pretty sure that she said "up" when I laid her down on the bed and she wanted to stand up. She is a fast learner.

International Baby

I know that it has been awhile (ok, a LONG while) since I last posted, but it has been a very busy time for us. We took a nice vacation February 21-28. We went to San Diego to visit our aunts Kim and Kristin on the way to meet up with my company on a Cruise to Mexico. The company I work for turned 10 this year and to celebrate they took everyone on a fabulous cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. The cruise left out of San Diego which gave us the perfect opportunity to squeeze in a visit with the Cali girls. We had a nice trip all around. A great time visiting and catching up with Kim and Kristin, good food and wine! The cruise was nice too, better than we expected. It was nice to meet the entire company and their spouses. We have decided that we would like to take another cruise. We are thinking it will be the Disney line, of course!

Josephine is a great traveler. We bought her a seat for the flights there and back and we were so glad that we did. It really helped to have the extra space as she has become quite a wiggle worm. We did have a little accident on the flight out...Josephine had a blow out about 2 hours into a 5 hour flight. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack an extra outfit in the carry on. So she had to fly the rest of the flight in a t-shirt and diaper! Could have been worse...it could have been a one piece outfit and she would have had to gone naked! Live and learn.