8 Months Old!

Josie is full of energy, spunk, and will - she keeps getting more and more incredible. And, she keeps eating more and more of her birthday month stickers.

We can't believe it's been 8 months already! Let's look at what she's been up to:

Josie's 8 Month Stats: size 4 diapers, size 12-18 months in clothing, 25 pounds, 2 teeth, (blue)berry eyes (and they are here to stay!)
Josie's New Foods: eggs (only masked with avocado), oatmeal, yogurt, mac and cheese, and chicken, turkey, and beef (ugh; all only masked with veggies). I lost the vegetarian baby argument, for which I really only gave a C- effort. Let's talk when Josie's a bit older and can make her own choices! I will be victorious!

Her latest nickname is Nosy Josie because she is alllll up in everyone's business. She wants to hold what you're holding, be where you are, and she's *thinking* about eating what you're eating. This may turn into a children's book soon. Stay tuned.

We had a lovely visit with Grampie and Gammie (name changed from Grammie in case anyone is wondering if Josie gained a fifth grandparent). Jonathan sent Gammie and me gorgeous flowers, so I snapped a pic to showcase them and the baby snuggles in the background.

We took full advantage in the first nice day we've had since November and hung out in our favorite park!

Josie loved taking naps on Gammie, and Gammie surely left with significantly stronger biceps.

Our first Easter! Since Josie was simultaneously her basket and the Easter bunny, I think we kind of made up our own Easter. Especially since the basket was full of feather boas. Can you tell we do things a little differently in this house?

Gammie also introduced little Jo an important Krause experience: SOCCER! This video, while it might make you a little nauseous because the cinematographer was also a participant, is hilarious. Josie was giggling up a storm. Sorry, darling, for the no-pants action. I can't remember why you were only in your diaper, but it had to be for a better reason than you mom was lazy.

Other notable Gammie + Grampie visit experiences:

• We swear SWEAR Josie said "baba" for bottle. Jonathan doesn't think there's a true correlation between her babababa and the bottle yet, so I'm not allowed to add it to first word(s) but it totally seems like she requests her milk. A lot. :-)
• Josie got a cell phone! It's this cute little thing and tricked her for about 3 minutes until she realized she was allowed to have it, and then no longer wanted it. Is she my daughter or what?
• Josie tried champagne. Ever inspired by the book Bringing Up Bebe, I believe we fail to properly socialize our children around many topics in America, including drinking. Introduce it early, and adopt a healthy relationship with it, and you're less likely to experience control issues over it in the future. 
  
• Before you notify CPS, OF COURSE I DID NOT GIVE MY EIGHT MONTH OLD CHAMPAGNE. But if I want to, this bottle is a good way to set expectations. Way to go, Auntie Ash and Uncle Adam!
• I'm constantly calling my mother with some story which leaves me in disbelief and I am THRILLED she finally experienced one in person. Josie's becoming increasingly squirmy at restaurants, and the amount of imagination and creativity required to entertain her is more than a single human can possess. My mom was in charge while I was shoveling rice pilaf down my throat at record speeds at dinner one evening. She was dangling her Fly Girl sparkly head band over Josie and letting her grasp it for a moment before yanking it away. This delighted Josie and my mom repeated the trick several times. Finally, Josie took possession of the headband and donned this self-satisfied look on her face as offered it to my mom and then pulled it away when my mom went to take it. Ohhhh this child.

Josie has taken to percussion, and she bangs, she bangs. She is making noise with any object she can fit into her two little mitts, clanking this object with that. The wooden spoon isn't quite a drumstick yet - we still prefer the bongos. In the words of the great Matthew McConaughey, bongo player extraordinaire: "Alright, alright, alright."

As previously mentioned, Josie has two teeth and they are forces with which to reckon. One of Josie's favorite games is biting me and then laughing when I yelp. It is kind of funny. I was having a hard time capturing these chompers on camera, until today when I caught her mid-yawn.

One the my very favorite videos I've ever taken of Jo is her In Living Color audition tape. My mom brought us these ridiculous lovely headbands reminiscent of the days of Fly Girls.

I had to make a video, both showcasing J Yo's new accessory and her new moves. This girl loves to dance! And clap! You can see both below. I am going to add that there's an actual dance move in this video, and I choreographed it not. Are you kidding? I can't move like that!

Speaking of moves, Josie has learned to splash in the bath. I mean S-P-L-A-S-H, like she's trying to coat her bath supervisor and the floor with the lavender-scented suds clinically proven to promote sleep. I have a video of this, but I won't post it because I want my child to talk to me when she's a teenager and finds this blog. I'll just say it's entirely adorable, even if I need to put on new jammies myself. On the topic of sleeping, guess who's doing it? Every member of the Young household, that's WHO! Guess why? Papa bear is back. Thank gooooodness.

To celebrate his return, we took a family field trip to the Liberty Science Center, which is just one short stop on the train behind our apartment building. It kicked off our perfect Sunday, and we had such a great time. While Jonathan and I retained an atom's worth of information, Josie had a blast. The exhibits allowed us to capture one of Josie's new developments: pointing with one finger like E.T.

Here she is channeling E.T. and demonstrating her interest in static versus gravity (static won). Most of the time her E.T. finger winds up my nose - fine motor skills for the win! She also exercises her pointing skills by turning off her nature sounds after a nap. I call it her baby jukebox, and she delights in pressing all the other sounds and songs.

Our perfect Sunday also included princess dress up, pancakes, frozen yogurt, coffee, and lots and lots of giggles.

I'm burying this headline in the bottom of this entry because we don't have a great video of it yet but....WE HAVE AN ASSISTED WALKER. This child went from sitting to scooting only in reverse to standing to assisting walking. Our perfect Sunday actually began with a 7 am learning-to-walk dance party featuring Mariah and Whitney and Josie was just dancing all over the apartment. I vow to get this on camera for the next post. Scout's honor!

I'll leave this mammoth post with the final Sunday development brought to you by my husband, the actor. This morning we met a character with a very similar disposition to the infamous Elf on a Shelf. He doesn't do things around the house per se but he speaks and it's not very nice. In fact, it's downright naughty and it is so, so, so funny.

I wish I could repeat anything he said this morning but our parents read this, so I won't. I'm not sure where he came from or why, because when I asked both of these questions I was told: "I'm not responsible for my imagination." Thanks, Brandeis. Apparently George Carlin has been reincarnated as a 12 inch tall pink, fuzzy unicorn.

Annnnd that's eight months!

Love,
J Cubed