Green Thumb

Josie can' get enough of the garden- especially watering. Not necessarily watering the plants and grass, but the dirt, the rocks, the concrete... The watering can is pretty cool, but the hose is way more fun!

Weekend with the Johnson clan

Grandma (Carolyn) was in town this weekend and Josie got a chance to spend a lot of time with her, Auntie Kathryn and Auntie Laura over the weekend. She had so much fun! She also had a few firsts:
-saying "I funny" when everyone is laughing at the dinnertable
-pointing to Kat's belly and saying 'baby"
-singing "Old MacDonald had a farm..." or, at least the "EE-I-EE-I-O" part


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Washing the Car

Sunny weekend- finally!

Last weekend the sun was out with a vengeance and we tried to take full advantage. We went to the zoo with Colin and Andrew and brushed the goats in the Children's Zoo area. Dan set up the tent on the deck, which somehow inspired her to relocate her entire wardrobe inside and try to put on her pants. She now loves to put on her pants by herself- don't go trying to help her out... We also broke out the pool and did a short hike with friends. What a great way to spend a beautiful weekend!

Cardboard box

Auntie Suz made this awesome cardboard box house for Josie when we were in Sacramento, and we got to take it home to play with. Josie and Uli used it to it's full potential that week, until it lost all structural integrity and we had to retire it to the recycling bin.

Happy Birthday Elena!

We celebrated our friend's daughter Elena's 2 year birthday today. She and Josie are just about the same size, and so cute together. Elena was a sport about sharing her toys and balloons. Josie went crazy, trying to hold as many balloons as possible while crawling through a tunnel, riding the rocking horse, and running around the room. She pretty much had to be doing everything at once... as if she might turn into a pumpkin at any moment and lose her chance to play with the blocks or the bubbles, or the chalk, etc.

Friday in Sacramento

Josie and I took advantage of my Friday off and went to visit Gma, Papa and Auntie Suz in Sacramento. We played at the park with Gma until it got too hot, ate lunch back at the house, and explored the backyard. Josie had fun hiding in the big cardboard box Auntie had made into a playhouse. We had a great time!

Garden Bounty

Teaching a 1 1/2 yr old which vegetables are ripe and ready to pick and which need more time is a tricky task. Josie gets a kick out of picking the ripe tomatoes and green beans, but she tends to eat whatever she harvests (or, more accurately chew and spit out). She still sneaks a taste of dirt from time to time... so we're working on the garden etiquette.

Someday, she'll be weeding and watering for her allowance and tending her own little veggie patch.

Yummy tomato!


Last carrots - we have to wait for the next round to mature.

Our Favorite Hangout

Tilden Park is definitely our go-to place to hang out. There is always something new happening at the Little Farm: a baby calf was born just over a week ago (which means live milking demonstrations!), the mama pig just gave birth, and the summer camp kids are around showing animals and cleaning pens, etc.

Here is the calf, only a few days old. So cute!


Josie got to pet the rabbits.


At the nature center nearby, Josie loves climbing on the wooden "kitty" sculpture in the lobby.


We also went to the merry-go-round in the park for the first time recently. Josie wanted to ride it over and over again, and she loved pointing out all the different animal figures. She wanted to get on a different one each time- just too many good choices! Among her favorites were the frog ("srog"), dog, cat ("kitty"), and giraffe (she doesn't attempt to say giraffe yet).

It's an Obsession

Josie is pretty much obsessed with feeding celery to cows. We can't mention the word celery, cow or farm unless we're minutes away from actually going to the Little Farm in Tilden to feed the cows there. Otherwise, she'll bang on the refrigerator yelling, "cow... seh-wee... cow... seh-wee" and cannot be distracted. In the grocery story yesterday, she saw the celery and just had to hold it for the rest of the shopping trip.

She gets a little scared feeding the real cows, but the stuffed animal cows are much less intimidating.