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.