You, Me and Doggy Makes Three.: 16 months

Josie would like to apologize to all her followers since her mom has been so delinquent in posting her updates. She had good intentions about posting a 15 month update but you all know how that worked out.

However, despite being remiss in posting we're back now! The past 3 (!!!) months have been busy in Josie-world. First, she is totally and completely walking- running now actually. I'm having a hard time remembering her crawling actually. She took her first real steps in the church nursery on Sunday, August 4th, predictably, when Charlie was with her and I was not. He was volunteering in the nursery with her and I was in the service and when I came back he was all excited and (luckily) caught it on video. She saw her friend Ben from playgroup and apparently that was all the motivation she needed. Just a couple weeks ago she learned to climb up steps which is both good and bad. Good because I don't always have to schlep her up them, bad because, well you know, she can climb up them when I'm not looking or otherwise occupied. She can go down 1 step (like the one in our living room) but still hasn't mastered a flight.

She says some words though most don't sound like anything anyone else would recognize, with the exception of dada (which might also mean dog, mom or pop pop- Dad we've been working on it with your old ids from the wallet you gave her) and the occasional mama. It seems she calls everyone she's related too "dada". Just in the last couple weeks she's started showing that she understands directions and will (sometimes) follow them. For example, yesterday I asked her to pick up my sunglasses that were right in front of her and bring them to me because we were going to take Paisley for a walk. She brought them over then turned around, grabbed Paisley's collar and can running back with it without being asked. It's so nice having a little helper!

Josie's devotion to Paisley deserves it's own paragraph. The girl cannot get enough of her dog. LOVES her. Must say (an extended) goodnight to her before bed. Looks for her first thing in the morning. Pets and cuddles with her all the time. Sometimes if I'm making dinner and my hands are gross, Jos will get upset and pull on my pant leg to pick her up. If I don't get to her fast enough, sometimes she'll go find Paisley and curl up with her head on Pais's stomach and suck her thumb. It's so adorable. Paisley is probably less enthusiastic about Josie but she is very good with her and when she's had enough she'll just get up and move. She will come and check on Josie if she hears her start freaking out so obviously there's so attachment both ways.

Other loves include any form of clothing with a hood and hats. Her Halloween costume has a hood and she gets mad when I put it down. Perhaps she likes keeping her head warm because she doesn't have much hair. Another love is her belly button. I know, weird, right? When she gets tired or upset (or sometimes just because!) she'll suck her thumb, pull up her shirt and fiddle with her belly button. I've actually stopped putting her in onesie tops as often because she likes her belly button so much. Though apparently it's not just her belly button, she will routinely look for mine (this happened once at the grocery store and I put the kibosh on that real fast) and once when we were out at a nearby farm, she started trying to touch another little girl's stomach. That episode was a tad embarrassing as I had to pull her away from the little girl and her mother and tell her it's not ok to just touch other people's bellies. Ha!

Pretty standard

She loves loves loves the swings and has recently learned up to walk up steps and go down a short slide by herself. She tolerates the stroller for walks though I feel like my days with that are numbered, much to my dismay. We walk Pais for 1+ mile each day and I like always getting at least some exercise, plus it's nice having Josie contained for a bit. She also likes to dance and her moves are hilarious. It's the best when she's playing, then hears a song and busts out a wiggle like she can't contain it anymore.

This age is a lot of fun...most of the time. She's a bit "in to everything". EVERYTHING. Pais's water bowl, the drawers full of tupperware, the dishwasher, the remote, the freshly folded laundry, the laptop power cord (which I caught her yesterday about to put into her mouth). It makes keeping the house picked up challenging and sometimes (if I'm being honest) I don't bother.

She's in the process of transitioning to one nap a day and let me say, it's a PROCESS. Ugh. She basically needs 2-3 hours of sleep from naps a day but it so far has not appeared as one long afternoon nap. Some days its two naps, although now this is pretty rare and she often gets tired mid-morning, I keep her up closer to 11:30/12 and then she sleeps for a little over an hour. This is not enough for her and I am continually trying to find the time that works best for her to sleep/keep waiting for it to even itself out. From past experience with her naps, she'll eventually fall into the textbook pattern but it takes a while for her to naturally figure it out.

From her 15 month appointment at the beginning of October her stats were:

Weight: 19lbs 8ozs, 5th percentile
Height: 29.2 inches, 7th percentile
Head circumference: 46.2 cm, 50th percentile

So basically, she's small and petite but has the Caldwell giant noggin. She's a decent eater, though she's a pretty staunch vegetarian right now. I don't eat a lot of meat myself so I'm not concerned about her eating meat, it would just be nice if she'd eat some of our food if we're having meat for dinner. This appears to be a phase according to the internet. Which is right about everything, naturally.