Playing with toys

Josie loves her worm.








Here's a new toy that has a spinning head.








Another new toy that makes her smile.








Zeeb checks out the blue beret.








Happy baby.

Going for a walk

Josie is ready to go for a walk.








Take your time...I'll just gnaw on my hand here.








Let's go already!

More Josie and Noah

Josie visited her friend Noah the other day. She's still not quite sure what's going on when we lay them next to each other. Here Noah is making his little Noah noises at her.







Noah is a happy little guy here. Josie, not so much.








Try as we might, we really couldn't get them to look at each other. Here they steadfastly stare at the camera.

Tripp Trapp for Breakkies, Lunch and Din Din

We're getting ready to start Josie on solid foods. This morning we did a quick "test sit" in her new high chair (called a Tripp Trapp).

Josie is still leaning a bit since she's not quite able to sit up on her own, but once we get the straps figured out and adjusted properly, she should be fully secured in an upright position.






Here's a full-length view of the chair. You can adjust everything on it and the baby bar is removable. See how she has a nice footrest for a no-dangle effect? Eventually it can be used as a "regular" chair when she's a toddler and beyond.








It pulls right up to the table so that Josie can eat with us (once she starts eating, that is). So far, so good. We'll see what happens when we add food to the equation.

Yes we can! (but we didn't)

Josie and I took the train to Springfield, IL yesterday with the intention of partaking in history by being among the crowd gathered to hear Obama officially introduce his running mate. Unfortunately, I underestimated both the temperature (near 90 and humid) and the size of the crowd and overestimated the availability of shade in Springfield and my own ability to cart around a baby and her bag of stuff through said humidity and crowd. When I realized that the line to get into the Old State Capital was blocks and blocks long even two hours before the gates were set to open and that it would be at least two hours after that until Obama and Biden would speak, I erred on the side of safety and sanity and called the day's adventure off and headed back to the train station to get an earlier train home. Here's a picture of her waiting in the Springfield station.

It was still a fun day, though. We met a lot of Obama supporters and Josie was a super-good train traveler. There was plenty of excitement at the train station, too, what with the motorcade passing through and stopping all train travel for a short time. Josie loved walking around in the Baby Bjorn (thanks, Nan!) and enjoyed taking the bus home from downtown. She was glad to see her Daddy after being gone all day and then slept like a log after her first train ride/failed political outing.

Guess what?

Giraffe butt!

Josie and I waited out a brief rain storm today while we were out and about in Bucktown. She was happy and dry while she gnawed and licked her little giraffe toy. Here she shows some surprise that I'm taking her picture...While we were out, I think at least ten people commented on how big her eyes are. You can see why here.

You're beautiful, baby!

Hey, thanks for the script! I'll have my people call your people. Love ya! Ciao!

Avert your eyes...

...if you tend to have adverse reactions to cuteness:

(this is a shot left over from the crazy-lady-in-the-park set of a few days ago)

First date

Josie's pal Noah came over for a visit today and they hung out on the zoo mat. At first, they did their best not to look at each other.






Josie is wondering if I'll be photo-documenting all of her dates.









Check out Noah's sly move here as he slowly eases his hand over towards Josie while still pretending that his thoughts are elsewhere.









Young love.

Walking on flat, solid surfaces is for schmucks

Our daughter is going to learn to walk the hard way.











She's a natural. Once she masters walking on the bouncy ball, we'll teach her how to juggle simultaneously.











Piece of cake!

Some Thursday pix

Oh, hey, girlfriend. What's up?








Excuse me?








You lookin' at me? (Alternately titled "I'm ready for my close up")







Just kidding! C'mon, let the good times drool!

Josie hearts her hands

Josie has recently discovered her hands and now constantly has at least part, if not almost all, of one or both of them in her mouth. Or, as in the picture above, she spends her time intently staring at them. Apparently this is a developmental milestone for babies about her age (almost five months!).
This shot was kind of cute, if a little grainy, so I thought I'd post it anyway even though it's not the most illustrative of the hand-gnawing.

Josie hearts librarians

Well, I hope so! Thanks, Penny, for the ego-boosting onesie : )

Sunday morning scenes

Josie's favorite song right now goes something like this: Josie's feet have got ten toes. Josie can touch her toes to her nose.







Oh, hi...I'm glad you could join me. I'm just doing some tummy time on Daddy.







I like tummy time on Daddy.








Mmmm...delicious new toy. Nom, nom, nom.









So delicious it makes me drool...(click the pic to enlarge it if you care to see the string of drool hanging off of Josie).

Smith Park sun hat shots

Josie and I met up with Jack in Smith Park yesterday after he got out of work. She's sporting her sun hat and her batik onesie. She also has on a pair of orange and black baby socks. We should have taken a full body shot so you could see the crazy-lady effect. She's a pretty cute crazy lady, though, as you can see from these shots:

Tornado (warning)!

It was going so well...two naps in the crib today (one for two hours!) and a nice bedtime routine ending with Josie fast asleep by 7:30pm.

And then the Emergency Broadcast System kicked in:

A tornado warning.
For Cook County, IL.
For Humboldt Park, no less.

The storm was moving directly towards us at 50 miles an hour and the warning was in effect until 8:15pm. We were warned to move away from windows and to get down to ground level. We briefly weighed our options...sleeping baby, approaching tornado. Sigh. We woke Josie up and hunkered down in our stairwell with a neighbor until the worst of the storm had passed. Turns out we didn't get hit with a full tornado, but it's now over three hours later and it's still thundering away with loads of lightening.

And no, Josie didn't go back to sleep very easily, although once she was asleep she stayed asleep even through the super loud rounds of thunder and audible lightening strikes. This shot shows her in front of the weather report looking alarmed (we took this after returning from the stairwell).

Now she can add tornado to her growing list of "nature's fury" she has experienced, which already includes one earthquake.

A few more NH pix

Here are a few shots taken with Nana's camera:


Happy family shot.








Happy before a bath.






Lounging around in the morning...look at that arm pudge!








Josie's head often doesn't quite fit into the frame. And the cheeks just barely made it this time!






Josie in her Queen Victoria collared thrift store onesie...one of many outfits courtesy of Nana.

Vacationland and the Granite State

Josie is a great traveler. She hardly made a peep on either flight nor while we carted her around the Seacoast area. We took her to York Beach and Kittery, Maine and to Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Stratham, NH. Here's a shot of her in Logan Airport after arriving. Unfortunately we didn't have time to show her the sights of Beantown. She also slept like a log at Nana's house...maybe it was all that traveling?

Scenes from Hampton Beach

Josie standing on the wall at the north end of Hampton Beach.








Daddy is done swimming like a seal.








One last cute beach shot.