How is Josie Doing

I can't even keep up with all that Josie is up to these days. I will post pics of some of her latest activities, but others have asked how she is, so I will try to give an update. It is almost sad because she is less and less like an infant and more like a toddler. She will be one year old in 10 days!

She talks A LOT. Lately her favorite thing to say is "daa-wooo." She also likes to point at things and say "ooooh!" and act very surprised. (Every morning she is very surpised by the lights on the ceiling and they are fascinating to her.) She says "uh-oh" when she drops something. She waves "bye-bye" and "hello." When she wakes up from her naps, she waves "hello" to her daycare friends when we are walking down the steps.

She loves to stand up and walks along her play tables and toys. She will play for long periods of time by herself, standing on her tables and moving stuff around and talking. Sometimes she whispers and sometimes she becomes very authoritative and emphatic. She is very excited about standing and walking. Sometimes when she's standing up by herself holding onto something stable, she'll start to bounce up and down and dance and say "woo! woo! woo! woo!" It is Adorable! Last week she really became obsessed with walking when holding adults' hands. She wants to do it ALL the time. When you stop and prop her up against something she won't let go of your hands and starts to cry.

She has been very frustrated the past few weeks as she is learning to crawl but can only go backward while in the crawling position. She spends a lot of her days backed into corners and crying in frustration. But she has learned other maneuvers to get around a little bit and now can cover most of the living room by herself. Actually today I think I saw her crawl a few times, for 3 or 4 steps. We'll see how it develops. She prefers to have her feet on the ground, rather than her knees.

She is sleeping all night her in crib, and is wonderful with naps. She puts herself to sleep when you put her in the crib during the day. Lately she's even stayed awake for a little of her naptime and enjoyed jabbering for a bit before nodding off. This is great improvement because for a long time she wouldn't go near the crib without screaming - really screaming and sweating and sometimes throwing up.

She can pick up finger food, but she refuses to put it in her mouth. She will eat crackers by herself, but that's it. She learned from Ainsely to say "mmmm!" after each bite. She has eight teeth and has at least two more coming in. From past experience with the last four that came in, these next two may take a month or more to actually show up. But she is drooling and chewing on everything, and you can see the bud beneath her gums.

Josie loves to play games and laugh and be funny. She is amazing!