8 months......continued....

I realized that I left out a bunch of stuff, so I wanted to add them. 

Josie's new talents: (well, some of them she's done for a while)

*says "Mama" and "Mom"-she sometimes is definitely referring to me, other times she just says it when she is sad or wants something. Of course, she will not do it on command or when anyone else is listening.

*Knows the words "Mama," "Dada," "book," "peekaboo"and "ball." She will crawl to her book or ball if you talk about them and they are in her line of sight. She probably knows other words, but these ones are obvious.

*Plays ball with us- We will roll the ball to her and she will swat it back to us. She is capable of picking it up, but instead she tries to roll it just like we do! Every time she rolls it back, we say "good job!" and she gets excited.

*Loves playing peekaboo with her blanket- if I talk about peekaboo when she is holding a blanket, she will get excited, put the blanket up to her face and wait for me to cover her and say "peekaboo" So cute!

* She is (finally) sleeping through the night consistently now. 

My experience with sleep............

Up until 6 months, she was pretty much up every 3-5 hours. From 6-7 months she started to sleep through one or two of her normal wakings. I never really minded that much since she would go back down quickly after I went into nurse her. In fact, I kinda enjoyed our time together in the wee hours snuggling in the darkness. I have found that I have really gotten used to less sleep and don't feel tired that often. Anyway, at around 7 months she started really sleeping longer. It became very obvious when she really was hungary and needed to be fed and when she was just really tired and needed to cry for a minute and go to sleep. Up until 6 months, I don't think the cry it out thing was right for her. Now, sometimes she just needs to cry a little so she can fall asleep. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at deciding when she really needs me and when she is just whining cause she doesn't want to go to bed yet. I am glad she has naturally started sleeping longer without me having to force her to cry for hours on end.

Here is what I have found is the key for sleeping well at night and at naptime:

#1-Good naps during the day

I'm not sure if this works for every child, but I have found that if she has great naps during the day, she sleeps great at night. If she has great sleep at night, she tends to take better naps. On the other hand, if she misses a nap or doesn't sleep enough during the day, it creates this domino effect. She will sleep miserably at night and it will create a new pattern until I force her to get caught up on sleep. So, I pretty much am hard-core about her naps. I make sure she has at least 3 hours worth of naps a day. I also scoff at anyone who tells me "Oh, babies are so flexable. Give her a nap later" or people that think I am a cruel mom for forcing her (seemingly against her will) to take a nap. Trust me. She really is miserable if I don't stick to this. Usually, if she is on this schedule, she will sleep 12-13 hours at night (usually at least 10 hours in a row), take a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the morning, and a 1-2 hour nap in the after noon. 

#2-Make sure she goes to bed early enough

I guess this goes along with making sure she gets enough sleep, but we have found a bedtime that works very well for her. We used to put her down between 8 and 9, and she would not sleep so well, even if it was for the same amount of time combined. Now, we put her down at 7 or 7:30 and she actually sleeps in longer. Go figure.

So, the end result is a very happy, well-rested, easy baby. She goes to bed at around 7:15, sleeps till 5 am. Goes back to sleep after I nurse her until 8. Goes down for a nap at 10 for 2 hours and again at 3 for 1-2 hours and is in bed again at 7:15. Amazing.

* Side note- I really am glad I was patient with her sleep. I know there are many people who say that babies should be sleeping through the night (8+ hours) at 3 or 4 months. I know there are babies that do this, but I think they are rare. I always hear people that are frustrated about there 4 or 5 month old who is still waking up 2 or 3 times a night. They are not alone!! It is totally normal. I realize if you really need sleep or you have more than one child, you may need to force your baby to sleep longer. I really do think it is just fine if you baby doesn't sleep through the night at such a young age. They all eventually do anyway. I really am saying this because I have read so many peoples posts about how they are worried because their 3 month old must be waking up too much because they are not sleeping 8 hours at a time. If your baby doesn't sleep through the night yet, it's ok! Don't let others with their 4-month-old-that-sleeps-12-hours-at-a-time make you doubt your mothering skills. If you are one of those with that 12 hour 4 month old, what a lucky duck you are!!

8 Months!

A few days late, but can you blame me? It's been in the upper 80's and 90's, so we have been outdoors a lot. Have I mentioned how much I love the parks here? We have amazing parks within walking distance so Jos and I take walks almost everyday to a different park. My favorite lately is one along the river. It comes with vast picnic, play, and fishing areas, an olympic size pool complete with huge water slide and kiddie pool, a fantastic splash pad, and great places to walk along the water. At the end of the park, the trail goes off across a bridge to a place called "monkey island" by locals. It's really pretty. In the evenings, they have free movies with popcorn and concerts for families. I am really loving it here! Anyway, the real reason for my post is my sweet little 8 month old!

Josie is still crawling everywhere and loves to stand up any chance she gets. She walks along furniture and even tries standing up by herself sometimes. She has learned how to carefully get down from standing. It looks really cute. She will slowly lower herself to the ground while putting her hand out to steady herself. I think she is about 18 pounds now. That is what my bathroom scale says. Not sure how tall she is, but I do know she has really slowed down. She looks a little thinner now that she is on the move.  Also, still no teeth. I guess all that "teething" was something else! It's ok, I love her gummy smile!

This is how she is dressed most of the time, lately. It's been so hot! Enjoy it while you can, Jos.

Here are some more cute giggles:

Josie LOVES any kind of string, chord, ribbon, etc. She is always sucking ravenously on my jacket strings, hair, or any other kind of tie she can find. Here is her growling while feasting on a blanket string. If you look closely, you can see little curls forming on the bottom part of her hair. So cute! It's kinda long, but the funniest growls are in the middle/end.

Yes, those are icicle lights in the living room. We are not white trash, we just like having them up when we have get togethers. Plus, Jos loves looking at them when they are on. 

Sometimes if I wait too long to put Jos down for a nap, she gets hyper and silly. She has a hard time settling down to sleep. It's funny cause she gets all jerky and cant stay still. Very cute, though.

These last 2 are just for my parents, but if you have time to kill, be my guest. I know they could never get enough of Jos. For the rest of you, it might be too much Josie! 

Josie hiccuping:

American Idol?

For whatever reason, I have now been featured in 2 different news reports where American Idol is mentioned. I certainly don't ever plan on auditioning, but it seems I am an "expert" when it comes to articles about auditions. This story ran yesterday on Fox news:

Note: You can skip over the first part about the 17 year old : )

Fox News Video

Printed Story

A couple of years ago, this story ran which also mentioned "Idol":

Note: If you click on the link that says "Watch slide show of auditions" next to the picture, you can hear me sing in the background!!!

St. Petersburg Times Article

 

The one yesterday was kind of a funny story. I was contacted by the news station and asked if I could do an interview at my house. I said ok and they said they would be over in about an hour. AH!! I hadn't showered, the house was not guest worthy (certainly not news worthy!) and Jos was not even close to taking a nap. I had to try to make my hair look decent (even though it was kinda greasy) and quickly vacuumed, dusted and cleaned. They wanted to do the interview in my music room. Instead, I recommended the dining room. The music room is a mess right now because we moved it around. I gave Jos some juice and sat her in the corner to watch. She loves juice since I rarely let her have it so I thought she would guzzle it down and sit quietly. Nope. Partway through the interview, I see Jos pull up to stand against the bench I'm sitting on and she starts to do her funny growl really loud. We had to stop the interview while I put her down for a nap. I'm kinda bummed cause most of the interview was lost because of her growls so they couldn't put most of it in. I would have loved more exposure since I'm trying to build up a name for myself here. Lesson learned. Always shower and vacuum in case Fox news wants to come over.

Oink, Oink

Jos has always been a great eater. She was great at breastfeeding from the start and could eat in under 10 mins. Now that she is having more solids, she is loving it. She is just as efficient with solids. She gets so excited to eat and will chug down anything we give her. As soon as I give her a spoon full, she is already waiting for another. Sometimes, if I don't feed her fast enough, she'll start grabbing at the spoon to do it herself. She can down a 3.5 oz container in 5 min! Yep, she's my little piggy! 

Josie likes:

Sweet Potatoes

Carrots

Applesauce

Bananas

Pears

Strawberries

Squash

Cereal

Apricots

Anything mom or dad is eating that they let her try

Josie does NOT like green beans!!

Cuteness.

Last week Josie left me wondering what I was in for. She was sleeping terribly and seemed rather discontent as well as clingy most of the time. Apparently, it was just one of those weeks for her. This last week she is back to her happy, fun, adorable self. She rarely whines and has started giving me a little space. She does, however, crawl over often for some snuggles. I'm starting to think that I love and need them even more than she does. She has been such a little angel baby! I love it and I cherish every second I get to spend with her. She has just been full of smiles and giggles lately. What a cutie!

I haven't posted video in a LONG time! I have a ton of cute ones that never got posted. Here are a few from the last little while. Here is a little crawling. She actually crawls faster and smoother than this, but she kept tripping over her shirt.


Josie loves music and wants very badly to learn how his guitar works. Sometimes, she gets a little too close.

She also loves to sing along. Whenever music is playing, she does this weird growl. It's her pretty singing voice I guess. I haven't been able to get much of it on video yet, but you can hear it a little in the videos. 

Josie had been playing and laughing to herself for quite a while when I determined she wasn't going to take a nap. I went in to surprise her. If you stick it out, the very end has some adorable laughs.

She'll be 8 months next week! Can you believe it?

Chicago

I am way behind in posts. Not that it really matters, but I like to keep up on my blog. So, about month ago we went out to Chicago for a drum convention Kevin had. I always love an excuse to stay in a hotel and eat out, so Jos and I came too. We also planned to meet up with some friends, Kelly and Nate, that live out there. Kelly's family has always been close to my family and I think I've pretty much known Nate all my life. It's actually quite nice to know someone from back at home that lives within a couple hours from you. They have a little girl, Lyla, that is about 6 weeks younger than Jos. It was so fun to see them discover each other. Josie looked like a giant next to her. The minute they saw each other, they were both intrigued. Jos inspected, or more like, assaulted her, but Lyla took it quite well. It involved a lot of..........

Staring:

Touching:

Hitting:

Grabbing:

Biting:

Showing off:

And gossiping:

I think overall, they really liked each other! Thanks Kelly and Nate for such a good time!

We also dropped by to see daddy and, of course, Josie was a big hit. Kevin thought it would be cute to put her in a drum case and take a picture. As soon as we put her in there, a ton of people crowded around to see and compliment us on her cute-ness. She was the Ludwig mascot for the day. People are still talking about it to Kevin. 

Just a little rant : )

Ok, I haven't ranted in a long time. This is mostly because I don't ever have much to rant about. I feel like I am pretty easy going and not much really bugs me. There is one thing that while it doesn't really make me mad, it kinda annoys me. Let me know your thoughts.

It's about 80 degrees outside. Very sunny and warm. Naturally, I dress Jos in a cute little sunsuit for our activities which include playing out on the lawn, crawling around the house, and running errands. Today, we went to the grocery store and we in the meat section looking at some chicken when this nice old lady came up and started talking to us. She told me how cute she was and made light conversation about her grandkids. Then, she puts her hand on Jos's arm and says, "Oh, are you cold? Did mommy forget to pack you a sweater?" First of all, this lady was wearing a t-shirt and no sweater and I was in shorts and a t-shirt. Yes, it's a little chilly in the frozen foods section, but I don't pack sweaters just in case we will be near frozen food. I'm sure Jos was fine for the 5 mins we were there. I was more worried about putting her in the steaming hot car afterward. 

Here are my questions:

1. Why do people always suspect babies must be cold?

True, newborns, though able to generate body heat, have a harder time keeping it. But, by around 3 or 4 months babies are able to remain comfortable in the same temperature as anyone else. ( I asked my pediatrician who says that if you're cold or warm, they probably are too. Older babies are about the same as adults.)

2. So what if she was cold? What's the big deal?

Everyone gets cold or warm now and then. It's part of life. I don't get sick every time I 'm a little chilly. I deal with it. I'm sure Jos does the same. Of course it try my best to keep her comfortable. That's why I'm always going in to either re-cover her with blankets or uncover her several times a night. At the store, she was not crying, shivering, and didn't even have goosebumps. I'm sure she dealt with her possible, mild chilliness just fine. 

I've noticed that it's usually old people that worry about this and say something to me. (No offense to my older readers) Not entirely sure why this is. I just remember always getting hassled about this during the winter. People would want me to put her in a snow suit over her already warm clothes just to bring her from the warm house to the warm car because she might get a blast of freezing air for about 10 seconds. Again, I ask you. Even if she gets a cold blast in the face for a few seconds, what's the big deal? She may not like it, but it's not going to hurt her or make her sick. When going the 20 feet to the car, people always harassed me about covering her face. I'm pretty sure she hated being smothered about as much as she hated the cold. If it was actively snowing, of course I would protect her face. I assure all you that fretted about her being warm enough, she was just fine this winter. I am proud to say that we made it through the winter (and spring!) without even a cold or ear infection. I truly appreciate people being concerned and am not at all mad about it. I just try to understand the logic. I rarely if ever look at someone else's kids and worry about their attire. 

One more thing, I also get the same rundown on shoes. "Where are her shoes?" "Did you forget shoes?" "Her feet must be cold!" First of all, no matter the size or shape, up until now, no shoes would ever stay on her for more than 5 mins. Same with socks. I put shoes or socks on her and inevitably within 10 mins. they are either both off and she is sucking on them, or they have gotten lost somewhere. Now, some shoes are starting to fit since her feet are bigger. Before then, I would only put shoes on her at church. So, naturally if she doesn't have shoes, she MUST be cold. Never mind what she is wearing or what the temperature is. I remember walking around barefoot all the time. I'm pretty sure every kid does.

I know this lady meant well and was not trying to be rude. I simply assured her that Jos was fine and told her to have a nice day. I'm not mad at all, just curious as to what all the fuss is about.

So, moral of the story is, moms have enough to worry about without you analyzing their kid's clothing or lack thereof. I don't mean to sound harsh. I feel like I'm a pretty responsible mom. There are many not so responsible moms and much worse things going on with babies today. I think being cold in the frozen foods section is pretty low on the baby abuse scale. Plus, she's my baby. I can do what I want : )

So what do YOU think? Ever feel this way about your kids? Ever feel like the lady in the store about other's kids? Thoughts?

Ok, rant over! Back to my happy self!

Adventures of a 7 1/2 month old............

Josie has become quite a handful lately. She is obsessed with moving, crawling, climbing, standing, touching, and exploring everything. She has learned how to pull up to stand and is now trying this on everything including things that are not so sturdy. This means I have had to rescue her often from what would be a pretty mean spill. Her favorite thing to climb right now is me. She is still in this super clingy stage. If I am in the room, she has to be either on my lap or in my arms and she will climb on me until I pick her up. She loves to cuddle with me which I love too. It does get a little taxing sometimes, though. Sometimes I need to get something done and it's hard to do with her climbing up my pant leg whining for me to hold her or crawling after me wherever I go. I will leave for 30 sec. to go to the bathroom and she will just follow me there. I hope we are always buddies like this, I just would like her to give me a break sometime or become obsessed with daddy for a while. In the meantime, I'm trying to enjoy it because I know someday she will not be so fond of me and I will wish for this time. It really is very cute, though! Also, she is all about drama, drama, drama. I need to post a video sometime. She knows what she wants and is very stubborn. For instance, if she has something dangerous and I take it away from her, she won't just whine for a minute and forget about it. She will SCREAM and cry for 10 mins. at least and will not let me distract her with something else. If I try to give her a safe thing to play with, she will throw it down and continue to fight for the one I took away. She is very particular and lets you know how she feels. She really is a very happy, pleasant baby most of the time. She loves being played with and laughs often. I usually have to just laugh a little when she throws her little tantrums. They are SO dramatic for such a little girl! It is a little hard when we are in public, though. She will start screaming at the top of her lungs because my arms are full and I can't hold her or her toy dropped where she can't get it or whatever. People will ask if she's ok or probably wonder if I just hurt her or something. It really is that loud. Just in case you see this for yourself, rest assured, she's fine. Even though she will go on like this for 30 mins. with her face red and arms flailing, I guarantee if I give her what she wants, she can turn it off in a second and be laughing a minute later. My parents said I was the same way. Oh, joy. Not sure if that is good or bad. Either way, I love her so much! 

This is how I find her most of the time except for she's usually gnawing on the side of the crib. We had to drop the crib since she kept trying to climb out. 

I got a (dirty) mirror out of the closet so she could watch herself play. She seemed rather proud of how she looked standing. 

This kid is bound to be musical. She hears us sing almost as much as we talk. She gets piano "lessons" from me and guitar "lessons" from dad. If she is into sports, that's ok too. We just won't be able to help her with that.

P.S. I still have several blog posts backed up like our Chicago trip last month and a ton of spring pics, so stay tuned!