Videos of Josephine

Here are some videos of Josephine as promised! Yesterday we were at gymnastics and I found out they have a summer preschool program. I had already signed her up for the preschool program starting this fall. The summer program is 10 weeks long and she will go for 2 1/2 hrs every Friday starting June 6! I think she is going to have a blast! She will be learning letters and numbers, doing a craft, and having play time in the gym. And the possibilities for what Mommy might do with those 2 1/2 hours are endless!

Towards the end of the video she is doing her sign for "no thank you" (holding out her hand). I think she wanted Josh to stop doing something. She is always so pleased with herself when she uses "no thank you."

If you can't tell from the video, this is a really BIG slide! I was impressed that she could climb to the top by herself...and maybe more impressed that she was willing to actually go down! Those slides are fast!

Lillian is 6 months!

Lillian was 6 months old last week! I cannot believe it!! A lot has happened in the 6 months since she was born! It is so neat to see her developing into her own person but it's hard not to compare her to Josephine! I definitely see a lot of differences in them! Lillian seems to be a little busier than Josephine was....I know, that's hard to believe! She loves to be on the ground rolling from here to there, she can roll all the way aross a room in a matter of minutes. She loves to stand in the jumper and is starting to slowly turn in it to play with the different toys on each side. And when Momma holds her...better use two hands or she might just wiggle right out!! Some tidbits about Lillian: -no height/weight measurements for you. She's off her well baby checks by 1 month so we'll get measurements next month. She is wearing size 6-9 mos now. She is tall! -no teeth yet! I think the bottom two should be here soon though! -getting better at sitting (can't sit herself up yet though) -making the "ffff" sound -likes to blow raspberries -everything goes in the mouth, she's getting really good with her grasp -likes to be tossed in the air or flown in the air -loves Josephine -takes a bath with her big sister now and loves to SPLASH! -generally takes two naps a day in the pack'n play. Lately she's been crying when I lay her down, sometimes it's just for a minute and then she's back asleep but sometimes she wakes up and we have to start over. This is a pretty new development. I'm trying to be patient because I'm not sure if it's her teeth hurting or if it's related to developmental milestones but I hope it resolves soon! -still sleeping with us most of the night. Slowly working on getting her sleeping in her own bed at night. -loves to smile and grab at Daddy....from Mommy's arms:)

She is so fair compared to Josephine! Complexion, eyes, and hair are just like her Daddy! Even her hairline is the same as his!

Saving Money!

As some of you may know I've been clipping coupons for the past month and have been able to save a decent chunk of change! I headed to Walgreen's today after planning out my purchases with the coupons I had and here are my results. If you click on the photos you can view the larger version where the items and receipts are easier to see. But to sum it up, I got everything on the table (plus a gallon of milk that was in the fridge, it's listed on the receipt on the right) for a total of $22.18. I saved $70.39 on this purchase!! I actually might have saved another $1.50 because the toilet paper was on sale for $1 off but I forgot to show the cashier the coupon and I had a 50 cent coupon for the milk but left it at home..bummer! Check out the receipt on the right!! I got all that stuff for $1.32!!! And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Walgreen's the coupon above the receipts is called a register reward. They print when you purchase certain items and they are like cash...you can use them on your next purchase at Walgreen's! I love it!!

Josephine 23 months

Josephine is 23 months old today. I always intend to include all the new things she's doing but it's SO hard to remember all of them! So here is a laundry list of things that come to mind!

-she is saying or at least trying new words everyday. Two new words today were snow (we had snow this morning) and box.
-other words she started saying recently: no-ooo (lol), uh-huh, boobie (that's where Lillian's milk comes from), poopie, pee pee, mommy (instead of ma ma), daddy (instead of da da), granny, ball, thanks, blue
-she is putting two words together
-loves to do the hand gestures to "Wheels on the Bus" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and several songs from Barney
-is much more adventurous with her climbing. She can climb up the big chairs at our dining room table. She does forward rolls of our ottoman. Getting closer and closer to being able to climb out of her crib. She can hang off the parallel bar at gymnastics.
-still eats a good variety of foods. She is especially fond of condiments. If Daddy is putting it on his food then Josephine wants some too--she's even eaten Frank's Red Hot!
-she is really kind to Lillian. She loves to hold her. She is always so happy to see her in the morning and if I come to get Josephine without Lillian Jo says "baby night night." Josephine is usually first to hear Lillian cry when Lil wakes up from a nap. Jo will put her hand to her ear and say "baby" and runs to get her.
-she likes to talk on the phone, whether for real or pretend.
-she has started to "nurse" her babydoll, and Barney doll, and Elmo doll. I think it's kind of cute!
-she is pretty much down to one nap a day now but there are still some days where she'll doze off for a little while in the morning. I've been trying to limit our weekly outings to gymnastics and one other playdate plus grocery day. We still sneak in shorter outings, whether to play with Andrew (our backyard neighbor) or a quick trip to a store. I think she was getting over tired when I planned playdates or outings every day. She's still sleeping 12-13 hours at night.
-she knows the colors blue, red, green, yellow, and orange.
-she knows the letters A, B, and C
-she is officially enrolled in pre-school for one day a week starting this fall. The place we go to for gymnastics offers a pre-school for ages 2 and up. She will go one day a week for an hour and a half. She will get to do a craft and get time to play in the gym. I think Mommy will have time to get groceries with just one kiddo again...it's the little things:)
-she is on the road to being potty trained again. At home she wears big girl panties except for naps and bedtime. When we go out I put her in a pull up. I still bring her potty and she generally goes in it before we leave the house, when we get where we're going, and when we get back in the car but after a few trips where we had accidents and I'm trying to get her changed and handle Lillian in a public restroom I decided we'll just use a pull up for now. At home, she rarely has an accident, pulls her own panties down, and even empties her own potty. I'm really proud of her!

I know this is a long post but since we're so far away from EVERYONE I wanted to try to give a good idea of what Josephine's doing these days. I do have some videos to put on but had trouble uploading today so will try again soon.

This picture pretty much sums her up. She is just plain fun!

What could be better?

Rice Box

This box can literally keep Josephine occupied for an hour...of course then Mom gets to spend just as much time cleaning up...but sometimes it's SO worth it:) I got the idea from my SIL, Cristina, who made a sensory table out of her kiddo's water table. Then my sis, Elizabeth, made her own version out of a tote. I like the tote version so I can just put a lid on it and stick it on the closet. Josephine practices pouring the rice from one cup to another. Her favorite game is when Daddy buries a pig in the rice and she has to dig around and look for it. As you can tell from the pics a few grains occasionally spill on the floor;)
These pics are of her first day playing in the rice box. We had gone to get groceries and rice. On the way home from the grocery store I usually stop by McDonald's and get her a happy meal. It must have been a long grocery trip because she was asleep in her carseat before we even made it through the drive thru! So after her nap the rice box was waiting for her and so was her Happy Meal.

She was really excited to see strawberries in her bowl. She hadn't had any fresh

ones for a while.

Lillian likes the rice box too. She is able to practice sitting on her own and she likes to feel the rice in her hands and between her toes. She is still working on pouring:)

This is Lillian in 3-6 mos size. Those are supposed to be pants...not capris!

Licking the frosting!

Here are a few pictures of Josephine licking her first egg beater. Don't worry, it's just chocolate frosting! I made a yummy two layer chocolate cake and homemade out of a package frosting (hey, I had to add milk and beat it). Josephine had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get all the frosting off the beaters. I sure do like chocolate Josephine!

Trip to Science Center

A few weekends ago we took a family trip into Des Moines to visit the Science Center. We were able to use our Lubbock Science Spectrum membership to get in free-BONUS! They have a small area for younger kids which Josephine enjoyed looking around in. However, I think she enjoyed some of the exhibits in the big kids area better. They have a ball wall with tubes and fans so you can drop a ball in one slot and watch it shoot around through the tubes. Of course, I did not get a picture of it:( Admittedly, I did not capture as much of the fun we had there as I would have liked.

This was a pretend tree stump you could crawl in and pretend to be, well, an animal that lives in a tree stump. Lillian is a snake and Josephine is a raccoon, I think.

Lillian decided to put on a show for us.

Can you tell which one is my wonderful husband?

How about now?

How Josh felt as we tried to go through the Da Vinci exhibit.

Both girls crashed on the way home and instead of having a relaxing lunch in one of the delicious downtown restaurants Josh drove us home, dropped us off, and then went to grab burgers at a pretty yummy burger place here in town. Happy Anniversary to us!

Pig Tails

Josephine's hair is long enough now to wear two pig tails on either side of her head. She looks really cute with her hair this way. I'd love to try a braid in her hair but that will take a lot of patience, on both our parts!

Just thought I'd toss this one in here for fun.

So Much Fun!

We had a painting party one evening and Josephine had a great time! I think next time I might put an old sheet down and move the party to the floor. We did manage to not get paint on anything this time though! We had quite a few masterpieces! Don't miss out on the video at the bottom of her saying some of her words!

She's coloring the Valentine's Day Card Great Grandma Lola sent her. It was a hit!

Videos of Lillian

Here are a few fun videos of Lillian. She is the happiest baby. I thank God for an "easy" one this time! I was really trying to capture her laughing on several of these videos. None of them do her laughing justice though. It's so funny to me how much she acutally laughs. She really likes to hear different sounds I can make with my voice. Enjoy the videos!

Felt Banana

Feeling inspired by my SIL, Cristina, I tried my hand at making felt food. I've only done a banana so far but it was a lot of fun. I'm also planning to do a cuttable carrot, fried eggs, bacon, and a sandwich with fixins. It's fun to be able to make such cute play food for her kitchen!

Lillian is 5 months!

Lillian was 5 months old last week! I finally got her in for her well baby checkup--we missed her actual 4 month appt due to moving and getting settled. Our new pediatrician said she looks great! I was really surprised to see that she is surpassing Josephine at that age in the height and weight categories!! Lillian weighed 14 lbs 5 oz and was 26 inches long, which puts her in the 50th and 75th percentiles respectively. Yay Lillian! Our pediatrician also commented on how tall Josephine was. Her measurements weren't taken--she's due for a 2 year checkup in April. But maybe she's been growing taller during all her naps. She would still take 2 naps most days if I let her!

Lillian is:
rolling both ways and scooching around on the floor
grabbing both feet and sucking on her toes---ewww---well they are pretty cute toes:)
still trying to sit up on her own--not quite there yet though
able to maintain a sitting position for a few seconds
nursing every 4-5 hours during the day and once at night (on average)
not taking a paci! I purposely avoided it this time around.
very interested in what goes on around her
a bookworm--she really likes to be read to--as long as she can see the pages!
still nursing exclusively. It's hard to believe she might start solids soon!
ADORABLE!!

When Lillian and I go get her in the morning Josephine always waves at Lillian and says "Hi Baby." It's so cute!

Look at all those rolls! It's hard to get a diaper around those rolls sometimes!

She is so much fun!