Thawing out

Yesterday, a warm front moved in, and it got rainy and foggy here in Chicago.














Some rainy-day activities: reading,














and playing with the camera timer.












Finally the rain took a break and we walked to the supermarket.

Cover Girl

Xmas catnip

Zeeb's stocking is hung by the food bowl with care.

















Zombie Zeeb likes her catnip fortune cookie present.

Josie's first Xmas

Josie and Zeeb pose for their annual holiday picture.












I don't know who this Santa guy is, but I do know that I like Christmas!












Josie shows off a one-armed push-up.













Merry Christmas, everybody!

Josie from the block

Cousin Solana sent Josie a nice set of wooden blocks for xmas. Here she is examining them one by one.











Ah, I see...there are letters and numbers and also pictures of animals. Very nice!












In no time she has them figured out and is spelling out her name. Just the shortened version of her name, though...she's only nine months old, after all.










Ta da!

Xmas creations by Benjamin

Benjamin built some color-coordinated garages out of blocks for the cars that we got him. He said it was very hard to get all red blocks for the red car garage, all blue blocks for the blue car garage and all green blocks for the green car garage, but he did it!








Benjamin and I made some sugar cookies this afternoon, too. Here's a shot of his first tray...those are lions and a big star.

Pretty cool holiday cards

One of Jack's coworkers is married to someone who spent most of 2008 in Denver preparing for the Democratic National Convention. He gave us a full set of press passes and pass to the speech in amongst their holiday card.








This is a full pass for all four days to the "Perimeter."











Each day's hall pass had a different color scheme and showed a different Denver scene in the background.










The ticket to the speech is a hologram and shows Obama when you hold it one way...











And the event details when you hold it another way. Not sure how Wally wound up with so many left over passes, but we're thankful that he shared them with us!

Fuzzy pink elf

Look at this fuzzy pink elf that we found! Thanks for sending this snuggly sleeper, Nana!

















Hypnotized fuzzy pink elf.













Fuzzy pink elf on the move!

More Josie fashions

Here Josie shows off her new fleecy vest from Nana and a nice stripe-y outfit from Grandma. This girl has the best wardrobe in town!











Yes, BabyGap, Hanna Andersson, Gerber, OshKosh, etc...this baby model is accepting contracts. Better sign her quick!

First holiday party

Josie attended her first holiday party this evening. She's decked out in a snazzy sweater dress and snowflake tights from Grandma and neat-o Mary Janes from Nana. Josie was the hit of the party tonight which was no wonder since she was being her usual cheerful, smiley self










Ruffle butt!













The Newberry party ends every year with a really nice raffle with lots of prizes. For years, Jack never won anything until his losing streak was broken a few years ago with the winning of a Dave & Buster's $10 gift certificate (Dave & Buster's is an arcade-like place across the street from the Newberry). He also one year won a gift certificate to Bed, Bath and Beyond but he traded it for whiskey. This year, he won some tickets to a live taping of the NPR show Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. I've been before and it's fun, so I'm happy with this prize. Here Josie displays the winning envelope.

There's a rumor in Jack's family that they're related to Ulysses S. Grant (the "S" stands for Simpson). Jack says the rumor is false, but you can see that he and Ulysses have a very similar hairline. This is one of the paintings in the lobby of the Newberry.













A year ago...

Eee-lec-tri-city, Eee-lec-tri-city!*

I posed Josie with this headlamp to send a shout out to her Nana who has been without power for going on a week today...here's hoping that Nana won't have to wander around in a dark, cold house with a flashlight for much longer!

*For those of you who are wondering why the title of this post sounds familiar, it's from the Schoolhouse Rock "Electricity" song.

Pretty in Pink

Josie is happily sporting a pink turtleneck and pink overalls, compliments of Exeter's finest thriftstores and her Nana.











Here's an aerial shot which gives you a glimpse of her fuzzy head.












Josie's preferred sitting method tends towards a sidesaddle position...she's usually leaning left or right.











Here she starts to push off and is almost on the move...not crawling quite yet as that bent leg tends to get in the way.

Zeeb and Josie

Josie squeals with delight whenever she sees Zeeb.
So I tried to get a picture of Josie and Zeeb today, but it was kind of hard.
It was like herding cats and babies, as the old saying goes.

Here, Josie looks devilish and Zeeb looks worried:

Zeeb patiently waits for an end to this nightmare:

Kitty cat skirt & Juniper

Josie has a new toy (an early xmas present from Grandma) called Juniper giraffe which she enjoys quite a bit. Here she takes a break from it while she gnaws on a different toy...as you can see from the pile in the background, she does not want for toys to gnaw on.














Josie n' Juniper














Josie is sporting a $5 kitty cat skirt which I picked up at a craft fair last weekend. Here she does a "turn to the left" modeling pose in it.














You can see the kitty cats in this pic as she relaxes on the floor.

Josie and the gourd series

Josie and the gourd.














Hey, look at this pudgy baby holding a gourd that we found!














Cute baby, messy kitchen.














A little cropping takes care of that.

At the Dinner Table

Since we're cooped up in the apartment due to wintery weather now, I'm making more movies. Maybe I should concentrate all my effort on one big Cecil B. DeMille-style epic that would take all winter long.

Instead, here's another short of Josie.

Baby, it's cold outside!

In the hopes that Josie and I may be able to leave the apartment occasionally this winter, we got her a stroller blanket-thingy that will keep the wind out and, hopefully, keep her warm. It's like a really warm sleeping bag that fits around her stroller straps. She looks pretty cozy, doesn't she?

Xmas sneak peak

Last night we attempted to take some photos that might be holiday-card worthy. Here's a sneak peak at our lil' Josie elf: