Time is getting away from me!

Josie looks less and less like a baby and more and more like the beautiful girl she is destined to be. She's always sweet and loving, including wanting to take care of her dolls -- mimi, as she calls them all -- the same way she's taken care of. It makes diapering, eating and drinking take a lot longer, but it is so heartwarming we just go with it.

Happy Hollow in June

During a recent week off, Josie and I went to Happy Hollow with our friends and neighbors Niko and Kai and their parents Shawn and Nyssa. We rode many rides and fed the goats. Josie was not afraid at all!

The latest news

Josie is starting to say more words, "keys" is a new one lately, and "shoes" and "juice", which sound remarkably similar to one another, are still favorites She is also a master imitator, trying to put on socks and shoes, throwing away her own dirty diapers (yes!!) and putting pants on her head (we'll keep working on that but it sure is funny!). She also helps me wipe up the food she throws on the floor when she's finished with a meal. Little Henry VIII, that one. "I'm finished, wench, away with this food!'' She still loves to read and can point out balls or balloons in any book, anywhere. Ball! Bloon! We are having lots of fun. This weekend we are going to the Oakland Zoo, to check out animals and hang out with our friends Linda and Sophie. Have a great week all!

Josie's Humor

It is so much fun to watch the birth of humor in a little person! Josie now laughs a little mischievous laugh at so many things -- a giant shoe on her foot, a burp (yep, potty humor at 14 months),
taking off her diaper, getting chased by mom, funny noises I make up for the Noisy Bunny book. She leaned in to kiss me recently and burped. Yep, funniest thing in the universe if you ask Josie is to pretend to kiss, and burp instead. It helps if mom laughs uproariously also, which I did. The list of words she knows but doesn't yet say is growing: brush teeth, brush hair, put on shoes, go for a walk, go outside, take a bath, go to the car, listen to the dog. In fact, whenever she hears dogs she joins in --Rrarr rarr. Too bad that's also the sound she makes at cats and birds, but we're working on the distinctions! Too bad, too, that not only am I "mamma'', so are the other two people who take care of her most frequently, her nanny and my friend Brooke. Again, we're working on the distinctions. New photos from her first birthday, the park, and assorted fund moments of late. Hang on, it's a wonderful, bumpy ride!!

Halloween

Josie pulled off a great first Halloween as a penguin, chosen after her favorite book (OK her favorite book to eat and mangle, but we're not quibbling here). The book is Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton and its' a sweet story of friendship and family between a penguin and a hippo. My good friend Brooke gave it to Josie, and she really does get a big smile every time we read it.

We found the costume for $4 at Goodwill and it fit perfectly. She was game for our photo shoot at my friend Rebecca's house, right up until we plopped her down in a little cemetery scene in the neighbor's yard, and a smoke machine started to envelop her in smoke. Then, she wasn't so sure she liked Halloween!

As of this writing, she is 10 months old (wow) and crawling like a pro. Soon she will be walking, so I'm enjoying this brief period in which I can get things done before she finds something spillable, shockable, chokable, breakable, or otherwise unbaby-able to explore. Soon I will just have to glue myself to her or turn the whole house into one of those padded rooms favored in the asylums, to keep her safe! But make no mistake, she has lots of spunk and I laugh with her every day, and continue to be grateful and amazed that she is really mine, lucky me!! I hope you enjoy the photos!

(By the way, Davey Jones sings the book as a fun little song, you can download it at http://www.workman.com/boynton/.) Sample lyrics: Wherever you go, I'll go there too. Here there and everywhere and always with you. I want to be your personal penguin. //Now lots of other penguins seem to do fine, in a universe of nothing but ice. But if I could be yours, and you could be mine, our cozy little world would be twice as nice.

So true, so true.

So I started a blog for Josie

In an effort to keep friends and family informed about the vast and expanding life of Miss Josie Bee, I decided to give in to the trend of the day and start a blog. Our biggest day in many months was yesterday, Oct. 9, when our adoption was officially final, sworn before a judge and nearly a dozen very good friends. It was the second best day of MY life, beaten only by the day I brought Josie home. We all piled into the judge's chambers, surprising her by the size of our entourage, and had two semi-pro photographers making the crowd think a celebrity must be in our midst -- and she was! Josie was an angel the whole time, curious and eager to be among friends and admirers. When the judge declared the adoption in her best interest, Josie promptly flashed her knickers by putting the hem of her dress in her mouth, to the delight of all present. Then the judge invited her to pick out a toy, and she chose a plastic helicopter, which she also promptly put in her mouth. All were charmed and smitten. We have tons of photos and even a videotape of the judge making it official, and if I can figure out how to post video we shall have it here. But until then, we shall have photos and lots of them. Many thanks to all the friends and relatives who have made this such an incredibly joyous experience. We are blessed, truly.