Very Busy Gardener

The weather was very nice this weekend, and Josie got outside to do some gardening. She loved filling these pots with soil she dug from the raised bed, then dumping them out and refilling them. She likes to sit on this terra cotta chimney cap while she digs. Josie has a good command of the backyard now. We're still nervous about her on the stairs and near the edges of our deck with no guardrail, tearing up special plants, eating dirt clods, walking quickly with sharp shovels... I could go on. At the rate she's gaining horticultural skills, she'll be in charge of our fall vegetable plantings. She went through three outfits on the day of these photos.

First Haircut!

It was time to cut Josie's hair. Here is a "before" photo showing her long bangs and rat tail in the back. Josie doesn't like people messing with her hair---it's hard to give her a shampoo without her crying. The haircut was similarly hard for her, but we did it. Today Lisa remarked that Josie looks like a fugitive who gave herself a quick haircut in a Burger King bathroom to change her identity. I think she looks like Audrey Hepburn. Here is the "after" picture of Josie gardening with her new short hair.

Bubbles (Buh-Boh)

Building Up Her Vocabulary

A few words from Josie's repertoire:

"Caw" or "Gaw" = car, bird (crow), cow, cat
"Cawk" (didn't want to spell it the other way) = clock
"Cawk-kah" = cracker
"Mama" = I'm upset
"Dada" = I'm excited
"Baby"
"Bah" = ball, bear, bath
"Buh-boh" = bubble
"Bah-bah" = Bye bye
"Hi"
"Ow-guy" = outside
"Wah wah" = water
"Woo, woo, woo" = dog (i.e. woof, woof)
"sss-dat" = what's that?
"dis" = this
"Woa!"

Things we swear she said, but not yet consistently: diaper, backpack, more, shoe, apple, rock...

I'm sure we're missing many more off the list. It's pretty great how quickly she's starting to pick up words now. Next thing we know, she'll be speaking in future perfect tense!

Cool, a camera!

Josie recognizes the camera now, and it's becoming a challenge to take any photos without her trying to grab it. As charmingly illustrated below:

Laura's Visit

Auntie Laura came up for a visit this past weekend. Josie was beside herself with excitement when she first walked in the door. The highlight of the visit was every the morning, Josie would eagerly walking over to Laura (still sleeping) and waking her up to play. I doubt that was the highlight of Laura's weekend! Other fun times included going to the Little Farm and climbing a big "rock" at the playground, strutting the red cowboy boots as much as possible (she didn't want to take them off), digging in the garden, and learning new words (e.g. "bubbles"!!!).

Josie enjoyed the sunshine on Saturday at the park.


"Is there more snack?"


'I knew there was more snack..."


Posing with the sculpted "rock" she climbed at the playground.


Playing peek-a-boo with the baby under the blanket.

Josie loves to spread out blankets, and she gets very frustrated when the blanket doesn't cooperate. She'll put her baby doll down and then lay her head down to pretend she's sleeping. Adorable!

Having a Snack with "baby"

"I just love hanging out with baby."


"Wait, what are you eating???"


"I don't think you'll like these "O's"... I'll help you eat them so they won't go to waste."

King's Beach at Lake Tahoe

We luckily avoided the closure of I-80 on Friday and went up to King's Beach last Saturday and Sunday. It was cold, but there was sunshine and LOTS of snow! We tagged along with Boppa and Zizi, visiting an old friend from elementary school back in Sacramento.

We walked down to the beach, where Josie had a great time watching the dogs run around in the snow. Not too many places where you can make a snowman right next to a sandy beach.

Peg Leg

Josie accidentally stepped into this empty Kleenex box and we had fun with her tromping around with a box on her foot.

Lego Car

We assembled a mega-size car out of Josie's duplo legos, and she can't get enough of pushing it back and forth through the house. She thinks it's hilarious... in this video she gets distracted by the camera, but otherwise she would just keep going, and going, and going, cracking up the whole time! We'll try to take another video that captures the moment better... but it's hard to hide the camera from her!