Grandma Comes for a Visit

What a week! Josie had a great time with Grandma (Johnson) while she was in town for the past week. We went to the Oakland Zoo, played at the park, visited the animals at the Little Farm, did a little gardening and went to the city. Here are a few highlights (thanks for the pics, Carolyn!):

watching the ducks in the giraffe enclosure


controlling the urge to feed the goats in the children's zoo


excited about the zoo train!


according to Josie, sand is the new black


helping to plant the spring vegetables



woo-hoo!!!


making friends (or stealing toys?) at the baby park near Kathryn's house


all bundled up.

Good Eating Habits

We're making a bigger effort to encourage finger foods with Josie. She doesn't typically like the tiny pieces I cut up for her- she much prefers anything large or long enough that she can grab onto... like baby broccoli!

She also likes to chomp on whole sticks of string cheese, crackers, and bread. Though the amount of food actually ingested is still miniscule at this point. She gobbled up ravioli with chicken and pesto, so I think garlic might be another way to get her eating happily.

She's also starting to get the hang of using a spoon on her own, though we may have to order some adult-size bibs before we begin that phase!

Mom's Group Birthday Party

We hosted a 1-year birthday party for the babies in Lisa's mom's group this weekend. We had 5 babies, all within a few months of each other. Josie was the eldest of the bunch, and was the only one walking confidently around. But she was probably the worst eater of the lot! (We're working on it...). It's amazing to see how much some of the kids have changed in the past year and how their personalities are developing. I'm also impressed by how far we, as parents, have come since the days of counting poops per day and nursing during the night!

Handy-baby

We're enlisting Josie's in an on-going training program on home repair. Here she's instructing Dan on how to fix the leak under our kitchen sink. :)

Saturday Lunch

Papa, Gma, and Auntie Suz came over for lunch today, along with Colin and Lisa's folks. Josie had fun watching Colin run around the house, pushing the alligator cart and pouring pretend tea for everyone.

Josie said a very clear and deliberate "bye-bye" when everyone left to go home.

Helping with Housework

Josie helped us dust the house this morning in preparation for the Ferrier/Doi visit for lunch. We are very pleased to see this new interest and developing skill!

More pics from Christmas in Pinecrest

Cuteness

Weekend Outings

On Saturday, it was cold but we played at the playground at Tilden Park's Little Farm. Josie loves the slide. Here is a photo and video of playing on the slide. Soon she'll be old enough to ride the slide alone.


With cold fingers and sniffly noses, we watched ducks and geese. Josie is a scared of the big cows, but she likes the birds. Josie says: I'm cold, let's go home.

On Sunday, the sun came out and we visited the Bay Area Discovery Museum (http://www.baykidsmuseum.org/), which is in converted army buildings at Fort Baker, just under the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito. What a view! The BADM has outdoor play areas like the Scottsdale Railroad Park that Dan enjoyed as a kid, and children's interactive exhibits in the army buildings. There is also a cafe and picnic area. Josie is not old enough to understand most of the exhibits, but I can tell we'll be back a lot. We went to the museum with our friends Carlos and Emily, and their daughter Elena. Josie and Elena had fun throwing bark chips together.

Happy New Year!

We joined the Hayashi side of the family to welcome the new year. We had great food, including a few traditional Japanese new year foods (yummy mochi!). Josie had fun with her 3rd cousins playing with their toys and pets (cats AND rats!) and weaving her way through the legs of the other mingling adults. My mom's cousin, David, took these great photos of Josie. Thanks, David!