Josie Updates - It's about time :)

Well, on the last posting I was so proud of myself for updating the blog and now it has been two months again. Oh well, I will try to do better but no promises. It is now month 10 - boy does time fly when you have no idea what you are doing. Josie is crawling now. She started that about 3 weeks ago. We think we liked it better when she couldn't get around. I am sure the cats and Ernie liked it better also. Siam remains a good sport even though she man handles him. She is also working on teeth numbers 9 and 10. No words yet but a lot of "talking". We are working on it so sooner or later we will have something. It is time to move the mattress in the crib down because she can now stand up in the crib. A favorite past time is throwing things out of the crib when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap. She still is waking up in the middle of the night - most often at 3:00 am - and crying. Usually she can be calmed down but not always. I have tried the letting her cry thing and I am here to tell you she does not do what the books say she should. She would cry all night if we let her. Not to mention I can't help thinking that we are doing some psychological damage by not responding to her. I don't want her going to a councelor later in life and having flash backs to being ignored in the middle of the night. All you other mothers are probably thinking all kinds of things you should share with me - go ahead but I will still be going in to her in the middle of the night. Small house and guilt keep me doing it.
Anyway, she has begun eating more "grown up" food. She loves strawberries, bagels, pancakes, sausage, chicken, potatoes, and eggs.
I am working on getting some pictures loaded on here but techinical difficulties are holding that up. In the meantime here are some video clips to keep you up to date. Enjoy!

Here is Josie practicing her growling at dinner with Jay. You gotta love the sweet potatoes on her face.

If we could only teach Siam to feed her and change her diaper we could leave him to keep her occupied and we wouldn't need a babysitter.

Finally, a new post

Finally some new information. Kurt and Joie informed me that I "suck" since it has been 2 months since my last post. Wow, that sounds like confession doesn't it. Anyway, lots is new in the Kirkman family. Jay was in Aspen last week - yes dad we love the joke, "So how as your ass been?" Get it? I have been busy in classrooms modeling lessons for teachers - boy do I miss working with kids. Josie has been learning new things and keeps us laughing. She is now eating powdered donuts, Ritz crackers, cookies, and Cheerios in addition to baby food and rice cereal. She still struggles to pick up the Cheerios and get them in her mouth but Ernie is loving the treats that fall to the floor. When we first put her in the highchair he hung out and waited for goodies to fall - he was remembering when Avari was here and she kept dropping things for him- but since she was only eating baby food nothing was happening. Well, yesterday he heard the sweet sound of falling Cheerios and now he is back to camping out by the chair when she is in it. She has 6 teeth - four on top and two on the bottom- and is using them on mommy a lot. She does not bite me when I am feeding her - thank god - but she bites my shoulder often. She goes to give me a hug and then wham! and boy does it hurt. I say "ouch" loudly and she just smiles at me. HELP if you have ideas of how to get an 8 month old to understand. She has also grown more hair and we are glad for that. Additionally, she is much more mobile. She still does not roll over much but she does scoot herself around in a circle and push herself forward. It seems that daily she is finding a new mobility we did not realize before. A trip to the emergency room was the result of one such new mobile tactic. Jay was with her and she was in the middle of the bed surrounded by pillows and yet she found her way out of the fortress and fell off onto the floor when he had his back turned. Extremely traumatic for Jay - those of you who don't know our bed is about 3 feet off the floor. Needless to say, she is fine. She is starting to mimic speech patterns and take turns with you as if you are having a conversation. On the sleep front, she is sleeping through the night on most nights but still wakes up crying a few times a week. She goes right back to bed if you soothe her for a minute or so. Getting her on a schedule during the day is hard because each day if different with my job but the mornings and evenings are getting more regular.

I have included new pictures and video to bring you up to date. Enjoy! We do.
One night I was eating an apple for dinner and Josie kept grabbing for it. I gave her the core when I was done to see what she would do. As you can see she loved it.

This is her when I took it away.

Things I love:

My alpaca hat from Grandma Joan

Beer - we were at our Gourmet Group dinner and she went for Tim's beer.My Uncle Mike- even though he doesn't like to take pictures with me.

Siam - poor Siam she manhandles him. You would think he would learn after Katherine did the same thing 8 years ago.

My pear hat - thanks Kerri

Movie Mix

So, I love the new video recorder we got, the Flip. I downloaded all the videos to my computer and then I started to play around with the features. There is an option to make movie mixes and boy I could play with that all day. I chose the nostolgic mix and music. Enjoy the mix of Josie in her Christmas dress, it's red, and in her new walker. She loves the walker - thanks mom and dad.

Too Cute Not to Share

Okay, so I took these pictures a while back and they are too cute not to share. Josie loves the animals and is always trying to get her hands on them. Siam loves the attention, Pogo is not always sure since she makes strange noises and quick movements. Ernie is happy to lick her head, hands, and face but not too sure he wants to have her hands on him. At this point she grabs a handful of fur and then pulls. We help her by holding her hand and showing her how to pet. So far the animals are patient with her.

Josie's First Santa Moment and Christmas

Christmas began for us with the town party the week before Christmas. Santa arrived on a fire truck and had presents for all the boys and girls. Josie sat on his lap and did not cry or fuss. Let's hope that continues in years to come. I am planning on this being her yearly Santa experience since it is free, close to home, and there is no line.

Our first Christmas was pretty uneventful. We went to Sheree and Howard Askew's house on Christmas Eve for dinner. Sheree is the person who watches Josie a few times a month when I have meetings. Josie openned her first presents there and we had the following Christmas picture taken. We went to church and then it was home to bed.

Jay was up early on Christmas Day and got a fire going and breakfast started while Josie and I slept in. We celebrated with mimosas and traditional Hauschild Christmas morning breakfast, while at least traditional for all the kids as it seems mom and dad did not follow that tradition this year. Sorry David and Eunha. Anyway, we openned gifts later in the morning - enjoying the idea that we had at least this Christmas to take it easy since Josie had no idea what was going on. In fact, she fell asleep as we started openning them. Thank you to everyone for the gifts. The rest of the day we sat around and relaxed. We had an untraditional meal of enchiladas since neither one of us wanted to go to the energy of a big meal just for the two of us.

As you can see not much happened but we enjoyed being together and having Josie with us this year. I know things will get crazier as the years go on so we were happy to have a relaxing day.

What's New with Josie

Well, it has been a month since my last posting and a lot has happened. As you all know we made our way to Michigan for Josie's baptism. She did great on the plane - either slept or sat quietly. She must have her daddy's flying gene.

Here she is all strapped into her seat and ready to go.

The baptism was fantastic! St. Paul's members did a great job getting things set up and John and Fr. Homeyer provided a beautiful service. Here is one of the many many photos of the day.

We also got to see the cousins and that was a treat. Katherine and Clarissa could not get enough of Josie. They are very good with the little ones by the way. Avari did not quite know what to make of her but she was cute with Josie also.

About 2 weeks ago Josie started to get two bottom teeth. So far she has not been at all fussy. We continue to marvel at how easy going she is. Yes, we know we are lucky.

Not much else is going on here but we will keep you posted if anything happens.

4 Month Update

Well, believe it or not Josie is almost four months old. She went to the doctor yesterday and she was 25 inches long and 13 pounds 12 ounces. Jay and I can't believe she has grown so much. Right now she has a runny nose and watery eyes. We think it is allergies. She looks a mess and sounds awful but she just keeps smiling. She has giggled a few times and she talks a lot. I wonder where she gets that from. Tummy time is not so bad any longer. She gets right up on her arms and holds herself up for a long time. When you put her on your lap she pushes up with her legs and stands for several seconds then she starts to wobble and her legs go out from under her. The doctor said she is quite strong. Everyone continues to say how much she looks like Jay.

She is having a conversation with Siam. She was talking to him and he was meowing back at her. This went on for about 3 minutes.

Sheree, a woman from church has started staying with her a few times a month so I can go to meetings. We are so fortunate to have her coming over. Josie loves her and she is great with Josie. Not to mention that she has done several loads of laundry and quite a bit of ironing for us. Now I just have to figure out how to get her to grocery shop and cook dinner.

Jay carved the first family pumpkin the other night at the town pumpkin carving contest. His pumpkin won the prize for the cutest pumpkin. We put Josie next to a stack of pumpkins to take her picture. She is so cute in the little pumpkin outfit.

Jay, Josie, and the winning pumpkin.

It did not work quite the way I thought it would but we gave it a shot.

She also took her first plane ride last week. I had a meeting in San Diego so we flew down there. She did not make a peep. In fact she slept the entire way down and most of the way back. I can't remember who gave me the tip about giving her a bottle during take off and landing but it works. I think she has her dad's flying gene.