2 years

*oops, forgot that I had this saved and hadn't published it yet...*

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Josephine, Jojo, Joey,

Several days ago you had your second birthday. Turning two was pretty fun for you, you practiced holding up two fingers for weeks leading up to the day and you answer "2" to any question where an amount is appropriate.

How old are you? TWO!

How much is it going to snow today? TWO!

Do you want some more rice? TWO!

You are finally old enough to understand how to open up presents and even fake excitement when it's just socks. Actually you are probably genuinely excited to get socks. Your birthday this year was a car theme. I didn't plan on that ahead of time but every time we'd walk through the toy aisles you'd loose your mind trying to reach for all the cars and trucks. I told your aunts and your Nana that if they weren't sure which gifts to give you for your birthday and which to save for Christmas that they should give any car or truck gift on your birthday. Then you saw a few minutes of the Cars movie on TV one day and proceeded to loose your mind all over again for the next week asking to watch it again but we didn't own it and it wasn't on TV anymore. So you got the Cars movie, and a million different kinds of cars and trucks as well as other nice non-car things for your birthday. I even molded candy into shapes of cars on pretzel sticks for you. Blue candy, your favorite color.

I made a dump cake for your birthday, with mixed berries. Last year I made a berry pie but didn't let you have any because you were in a white dress, this year you just plain didn't like the cake. Sorry.

Christmas, two(!) days later was just as fantastic for you. I'm really really impressed at how well you did during your three day party. Opening presents, saying thank you, and you didn't have a melt down at all which is awesome since you melt into the floor pretty regularly these days.

Sorry but it's true baby, you are like the wicked witch and sometimes when I talk to you my words are like water. I tell you it's bed time and the next thing I know I'm standing in a puddle, and it's screaming at me. You cannot have as much chocolate as you can hold in your lap, you may have one piece. Boom, splash, screaming puddle.

This year was pretty awesome.

You are getting good at posing for pictures. (duck face)

You perfected the somersault.

You have become a much better eater, trying more things, eating more at meal times, and using a fork like a pro. (Scrambled eggs in an ice cube tray?)

We took lots of walks this summer. You were finally brave enough to sit in the swings and then absolutely refused to get back out. You were nearly passed on from exhaustion and heat but if I stopped pushing you all of your energy would come back and your head would spin and other kids at the playground would suddenly burst into flames. You like the swings.

We were outside a lot this year but nothing is as fun for you as playing in the snow.

I even built a sledding hill in the back yard for you. You LOVE it. Is loving snow something all kids do?

You finally met a big chunk of your extended family this year and refused to acknowledge any of them. For the last year and a half you have ignored all strangers by clinging to me as tight as you can and then looking off into the distance like What? I don't see anyone? Do you hear someone? Oh let's look at this blade of grass for a minute.

You also danced your butt off this year. I don't have a suitable video of you dancing to share here but you have to believe me, you are a dancing maniac. Every commercial with a catchy jingle must be re-wound ten times (thank goodness for DVR's) and you regularly ask for us to put on a music channel and dance with you. Your dance moves are incomparable. They are probably my most favorite memory of your second year, your fancy dance moves.

Finally, you decided you'd like to use the potty this year. Mostly. I had just bought a huge supply of flushable diaper liners and ordered a travel potty that I was going to give you for your birthday but before it even arrived you were wearing undies all day and sitting on the big potty. You refused to sit on the potty with the small seat adapter thingy once it came...whatever. You still have accidents when I forget that you are still just two years old and I have to ask you to sit on the potty a few times a day. You have so much fun playing that there is no time to stop and pee.

Your favorite food is Papa's dirty rice and Costco's rotisserie chicken. Your favorite color is blue; I have to prove to you that your clothes have blue on them or you won't get dressed. You sing Yo Gabba Gabba songs all day. Someone taught you to say shut-up and you say that more than any other word, though I don't think you know what you are saying really. Your aunt Sarah tries to teach you a bad habit every day ( when asked what you are doing you answer "nothing", on Sarah's prompting you tell me I am crazy or stinky, and if I'm not carefully watching, your aunt will tell you to go ahead and wipe your hands on your shirt...)

Mostly though, you have been the most powerful motivation for me to work hard and be a better person. You have made me laugh so hard I cried on many occasions and love so hard that I cried on even more.

Well, I'm most likely bring Josephine to the wedding with me, mostly because everyone here refuses to change a diaper properly...it's ridiculous.



A great thing about being a parent: your kid is "the best" at something at some point. Maybe she was late to walk, or he was slow to roll over and maybe your child is behind in a million things that all the books say she should be doing, but there is at least one thing at one time that makes all the other mothers look on with envy.

Josephine is currently gifted in song. She is taking her sweet ass time talking, but sing a song once and she will remember the tune a week later and hum it to you on request. I've mentioned before how she will find a beat anywhere and move to it (the beeping of the security alarm at the store), but I'm really impressed with her singing.

Before she ever even made a noise other than a burp out of that pretty mouth I had decided that I was going to decorate her room in a musical theme...I'm prophetic, duh.



I can't go anywhere without someone commenting on Josephine's hair- It's so beautiful! I've even been asked a few times if her hair is naturally curly...really? You think I curl a baby's hair?

Her father is black, that's where the curl comes from. Funny thing, the top and sides of her hair is soft and smooth, while the back of her head is coarse and usually snarly...like the top is from me and the back is from him.

I've tried everything to get the back of her head a little less snarly and frizzy. Mostly I've been successful at making it look greasy. The winner is the conditioner I bought for myself because it matches my shampoo: Samy Pure. She has soft curls for most of the day when I use it, it's magical.
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I have classes on two different campuses this semester. One is five minutes down the street, the other is 20min into the next town. Through road construction. It's a little bit of a hassel, but my classes are going to be really great I can tell.

11 months

elf
Originally uploaded by wi77ow

Dear Josephine, dear dear Miss Josephine,
I am so tired.
The end.

Ok, no, I can write more, but seriously baby, Mama is tired.

When a woman is pregnant her body does some amazing things to prepare for her baby’s arrival. It stretches in ways you wouldn’t believe, it nourishes and protects the growing baby, and it prepares to produce milk when the baby arrives. There is one other little know miracle that the mother’s body performs while gestating though, her brain starts melting. It’s true, a part of the mother’s brain turns into a puddle that sloshes around for a while before leaking out of the tear ducts the next time she watches a commercial with a happy ending. It’s the part that remembers the difficult and horrible times of labor and also parenthood.

If a mother’s brain could remember how painful labor is she would never have more children, but a few weeks or months postpartum and she is looking back at labor like it was a stubbed toe. If a mother could recall every exhausting 2am, 3am, 3:30am, 4am…waking, and every tantrum at the grocery, and every hours long crying session then I think there would be a babies category on EBay.

This brain melting is so very important though, for survival and for sanity. Luckily the part of the brain that remembers the good times swells to fill the space of the puddle. I know that I’ve wanted nothing more than for you to please sleep one more hour, but when we get ready to go to bed the next night I’m not dreading waking up seven times, I’m looking forward to the morning when you’ll pull my face to yours and give me kisses to wake me up. That’s your new thing, kissing, you kiss everyone and everything. Even right now you are sitting on my lap as I type this and you are leaning back every few seconds to give me a kiss. I like this new game. A lot. It might not be the best idea to put your mouth on everything during cold season, but it’s awfully cute. You kiss the dog, your toys, even papa’s scruffy face, and when there’s nothing right near by you sometimes stop in your tracks, bend down, and kiss the carpet. I will really miss this when you stop.

When we get ready to run errands in town I’m not worried that you’ll throw another tantrum when I don’t let you run free and clean off the shelves at Target (even though you probably will). Instead, I smile thinking about how you love to sing as loud as you can while sitting in the cart and everyone in the store stops to tell me what a wonderful baby I have. They don’t even know how wonderful you really are.

There have been days when I would have given my right arm if I could get a babysitter for one hour. I just want to spend a little uninterrupted time organizing computer files or picking up our room without you following behind undoing everything I set straight. One day I got my “wish” and even got to keep my arm. Grandma watched you while I went to see the new James Bond movie. I spent most of the movie thinking about you and absolutely not relaxing. You may be exhausting but you are also so delightful and I miss you every moment you aren’t around.
You are quite rambunctious now. I have spent time with babies before and usually the boys are wilder than the girls. You break that stereotype, shatter it, you are only getting bandages and icepacks for Christmas. You really like to spin until you fall over, which is pretty funny to watch. Sometimes you don’t even bother to spin, you just belly flop right where you are standing. Then other times you try to run as fast as you can through the living room and crash into the couch or a pillow on the floor. You are really good on your feet but you still manage to trip every once in a while and knock your head on the coffee table.

You LOVE dancing to any and every beat. There are the obvious times to dance like when you push the buttons on one of your noisy toys or when mama is watching that Beyonce video again, and the less obvious, like the beat of the security alarm at the mall, which you’ve rocked out to in the shopping cart many times.

You can’t stay still for very long, nor do you even want to. You even walk around when you have a book open and are “reading” the page with the cat and dog on it over and over.
But it’s at night when you really show off your inability to slow down. Even in your sleep you keep going and going. I’ve witnessed you laugh and smile in your sleep for months now, but recently you’ve also lifted your head to give the air a kiss before lying back down. It was precious, as was the time you reached out one hand very deliberately, pinch two fingers together and bring them to your mouth. You were dreaming about having a snack and you gave a big smile “eating” your treat. It’s terribly cute how you dream, but oh how I wish you would just sleep through the night. Like I said before, I’m so veryzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…