Recently in Josie Category

At my in-laws house in upstate New York, my mother-in-law has designated one drawer to the grandkids. It's filled with all sorts of stuff to spark their imaginations and keep them out of the real stuff around the rest of the kitchen. It's a low drawer filled with empty spice jars, pie tins, plastic measuring cups, stuffed dinosaurs, jello jiggler molds, popsicle molds, and many containers with tops. The girls know exactly where it is and run to it. Or they can be easily directed to their drawer if they need some distracting.

We adopted the same idea after we moved out of their house and allowed the girls to play in our tupperware drawer. They couldn't break anything and enjoyed stacking the various containers and lids.

Unfortunately, we haven't yet established a drawer full of stuff that we don't care about here in Wellington because none of it is ours. It's much harder to pile a bunch of stuff (even if you don't like it or want to use it) into a drawer if you have to face replacing each piece of it upon leaving. This lack of established drawer hasn't stopped Josie from trying to stake a claim to various cupboards and drawers. I feel bad for her because every where she turns we are saying "That's not your drawer". She's been favoring one cupboard in particular and it's more about the contents than the container. An abandoned phone lives in this cupboard and Josie loves to get on the phone as an excuse to avoid whatever it is you've asked her to do.

Mom - Josie, time to get your coat on.
Josie - Mommy, I talking to somebody.
Mom - Who is it?
Josie - Uncle Atony. Ok well, mommy say mine have to get mine coat on so well, I gotta go now, yuv you bye.

Or
Mom - Josie, time to get your coat on.
Josie - Mommy! I told you! I on the phone!

In addition to the abandoned phone, there are various cables and an empty shelf. So far she hasn't touched the cables but I did catch her laying on the empty shelf "taking a nap" the other day. I guess she is choosing her cupboard her in the house. It's just not the one I would have picked for her.

We've been playing a lot of ball here lately, with the big orange 'Sunkist' beachballs that the girls got from our friends at Miramar Fruit Supply. And by a lot, I mean just about every morning, noon and evening before bed.

Sophie & Josie sit up on the bed in the extra bedroom (we call it Sophie's room even though she hasn't ever slept in there) while I sit on the floor and bounce or toss the ball to them. Sophie's getting pretty good at catching things but Josie can pretty much catch it only if you manage to land the ball into her outstretched hands with the proper angle and amount of spin to keep it from flying off again.

This happened the other day, and as we were all in the room to witness it there was a big eruption of cheers from Brandie, Sophie & myself. Josie was so simultaneously excited and pleased with herself that she stood up on the 1/2" wooden bed-frame, kind of hopped a bit, lost her balance and somehow did a forward flip onto the floor. (I understand that her maternal grandfather is a gymnast: she must have inherited it from him because I couldn't have pulled that off if I wanted to!)

From cheering, we went quickly through our surprise to make sure she was ok (she was) and then compared notes. Why didn't she just fall forward?  What would make her think that bending completely in half would save her? How on earth can one child take every situation and make it 10 times more dangerous than you would expect?

What would you do for a sticker? My kids will do pretty much anything for a sticker. Plus if you display all of the stickers they've earned on a piece of paper with their name on it they go crazy!

Currently we're running three motivational sticker charts here at the house. One for Josie to start using the potty. She's pretty good at letting us know when she has to go #2 but we like to reinforce it with a sticker (most if which were provided by our dear friends Susan from Idea Duck and Amy). We keep the chart taped right on the tile wall next to the potty so that it's instant gratification.

The second chart is for Sophie to start telling us she has to use the bathroom before actually going in her underpants. I know life is exciting and I'm sure she doesn't want to miss a thing. So she waits until the second that she actually starts going to the bathroom to tell us she needs to go. Hence the chart to motivate getting there before actually going. I like to call it the "dry underpants" chart. (ok, I just realized that anyone who doesn't have children will probably be bored to tears by this post. Sorry, Potty is a big portion of our life, like it or not). Her chart is also right next to the potty for instant gratification. She's been progressing through her numbers recently as we have some scrapbooking stickers that I've never used and she can't get enough of the numbers.

The third and final chart is Sophie's sleeping chart. In the past two weeks she's been getting up and coming in our room at all hours of the night for various reasons. "I need my covers on", "I wanted you", "I'm scared". Most of these are valid for a 3.5 year old (other than the covers request. Jake has actually given her instructions on how to pull up her own covers if she is cold.) however, they seemed to becoming more frequent. So we told her for each night she stayed in her bed all night, she'd get a sticker and after 7 stickers she could choose a reward. At first she requested a candy bar as her reward but with a little suggested redirection, she settled on a trip to the Zoo. This chart is right next to her bed and we remind her how many nights she has left before bed each night. She did pretty good at first, three nights straight. Then she got scared, then she got sick. So we are stuck at 6 stickers with that reward square just in reach. I keep hoping she'll sleep right before the weekend so Jake can join us at the Zoo.

So the question stands, what would you be motivated to do if a sticker was involved?

I remember this being a joke amongst other parents but I've been experiencing it first hand the last couple of days.  What I'm talking about is at the end of every sentence you say to Josie, she asks "Why?".  What a curious little girl.  I heard her doing this to Jake yesterday morning and chuckled a bit as he went through various explanations, trying to work out the actual and most basic reasoning for each answer.

Jake: You have to put your shoes on.
Josie: Why?
Jake: Because if you go outside without your shoes on you could get an owie.
Josie: Why?
Jake: There could be something on the ground and you could step on it.
Josie: Why?
Jake: Because it might be sharp and poke your foot.
Josie: Why?
Jake: Just put your shoes on.

She started on me today, and it was all about going to the bathroom.  As I was explaining why we have to eat and then excrete, I wondered what would ever satisfy her questioning without just shutting her down?  Is there an answer she is looking for?  Could I ever come full circle in answering the reasons for things and we'd get back to where we started so she would understand the whole process?  I decided to let it go and time the question/answer session and see if we ever made it to the original point of discussion.  9 minutes later, after Josie using the bathroom, getting cleaned up, a fresh diaper and a snack, she became distracted by something else and stopped asking me.  Not really the result I was looking for but it was interesting to see that she would stay engaged for that long.  I doubt my patience or curiosity will last as long next time.

Ok, this is delayed a bit but I have a great excuse.  :)

So, our littlest peanut is 2.  Someone asked me if it felt like 2 years and I had to be honest and say yes.  Josie is a dear, sweet little girl but she is fiercely independent which makes life interesting.  I've had more near heart attacks in the last year than I have in my entire life.

Here are some things she loves at the moment.
Food:
Apple juice
Cheerios
Triangle Cheese
Rice
Risotto
Beenana
Crackers
Peanut butter
Carrots
Butter Chicken (an Indian dish which makes mom happy because now we can all have Indian Take Away!)
Apple
Kiwi Fruit
Mandarins
Pork
She pretty much eats anything we put in front of her.  We are enjoying eating our meals together as a family and the girls are used to eating what we eat so it's easy.

Things she likes to say:
Sorry mommy, didn't mean to.
Do it mineself.
That not nice.
That a good idea?
Please play in the little house? (she wants to go out to the tree house in the yard)
I yuv you Sophie.
Any request followed with "right now".  It's lovely.
Key Yoda which is actually Kia Ora, the New Zealand greeting.
Party in the car.  This is a request to turn the music up loud, and dance and sing and act silly thanks to our relocation agent, Marilyn.
I'm Josiephine.

She loves singing and her current favorites are "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, "It Ain't Me, Babe" by Johnny Cash, The Pepper Song (actually Jackson) by Johnny Cash, and The Tree Song (actually All I Want Is You) by Barry Lois Polisar from the Juno Soundtrack. 

Her favorite things to do are "push it da button" or push the button on any technological thing that you don't want her to touch. I swear to God this girl understands my computer better than I do.  Often if I can't hear her talking to her sister I'll come in to find that she has climbed up on the coffee table and is opening my laptop with a wicked grin on her face.  Remotes?  She eats em for breakfast.  Power buttons, cell phones, iPhones, Wii IR receptors (Sorry Steve)?  All in a days work.  She loves playing store and cook.  She likes to make me breakfast while in her new playhouse.  Often I get Beenanas, oatmeal, toast and eggs.  She also likes to take orders at her store and her favorite things to sell are water, hot dogs and ice cream.  Following and emulating her sister continues to be her favorite past time.  Anything Sophie does, Josie has to try.   Oh!  and she loves to swim.  We took her to the aquatic center last week and she followed a couple of 5 or 6 year olds around and copied everything they did, including diving under the water.  She wasn't phased by it at all.  She'll lay on her back, stand under a shower, crawl on her hands, put her face under.  She loves every minute of it!

She's been showing a fear (I know, hold the phone) of hairy things, spiders, certain stuffed animals, things that growl (like mom or dad pretending to be a lion).  She asks me to "just be mommy" when that happens and runs into my arms.

The biggest thing that I have to remind myself everyday is that she is only two.  I often forget how young she is.  It's a wonderful age and she is discovering and exploring more each day.  Our little sweet and sour baby!

Josie's language skills have really exploded in the past few weeks, to where she can get through her ABCs and the better part of Ariel's Song ("Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid) on her own (even while sleeping!)

Combine this with her irrepressibly boisterous nature and the result is our almost-two-year-old belting out her ABCs at the top of her lungs as we roam the streets of Wellington, either from her stroller or our shoulders. It's a new take on an old favorite too, because the last line ("Now I know my ABCs,") becomes the start of a new round ("Now I know my A-B-C-D-E-F-G").

We also have our relocation coordinator to thank for our new favorite thing: The Fluffy. It's apparently a cafe standard for the under-5 set here: warm milk topped with foam and cocoa powder in an espresso cup, usually accompanied by a few fancy marshmallows or chocolates. Starbucks I'm sure would take advantage to price this treat around US$5, but here they're usually NZ$0.50 so other than the sugar-guilt you don't have to feel bad. Most of the cafes here have boxes of toys for kids to play with too, so going for fluffies is their new favorite thing.

In our current two-bedroom accommodations the girls have also discovered the joys of falling asleep at the same time in the same room. They're having so much fun at bedtime I'm not sure we'll want to separate them again when we occupy our permanent residence here. We've been lenient so far and haven't had to resort to Uncle John's patented Sugar Bowl TechniqueTM, but I foresee that in our near future (probably when Uncle John comes to visit.)

Since being here, I have noticed that anytime I am in public, I feel like I am smothering my children.  We went to Te Papa, the national museum and I had the girls in the stroller.  As soon as we walked in I noticed that almost none of the kids who were there (many of them younger than Josie) were holding anyone's hand.  They roamed around and stayed near by their caregivers. 

I took the girls up to the Discovery Center area for kids and let them run loose.  My confidence started building slowly as I watched them politely interact with others and not bolt for the nearest exit.  So I decided to let them walk as we found another Discovery Center on the same floor.  Of course they ran off like wild children and I ended up scolding them out of fear.  I felt like anyone within ear shot was looking at me like I was a monster.  One passerby actually mocked me as I was telling Sophie "I don't want to lose you" they said "I don't want to lose you either".  I was furious! 

We had a similar experience at the playground (see the picture of the "Slide of Death").  Sophie wanted to climb up two stories to go down this slide and I said no.  But as I looked around, kids Josie's age were climbing up unassisted to go down this slide.  It freaks me out and makes me question my parenting at the same time.  Am I overprotective?  Should I let them try these things and get hurt? 

There are countless things that I didn't imagine when deciding to become a parent.  Conversations with a three year old have added soooo many things to this list.  Here are some things I never imagined I would hear or say in my life.

Sophie: "I want my own iPhone!" - What??  She's three!
Jacob to Sophie: "Darth Vader doesn't take his light saber on the potty."  This guy knows his Star Wars.
Me to Josie: "If you run, you're going to be in trouble!" - I love running, just not when it's followed by falling and catching yourself with your face.

No, I am not talking about our camera (which still hasn't shown up) but rather the many items everyday that are lost in our house.  Some are small, binkies or maybe a sippy cup.  While others that "we" (and by we I mean Josie) have lost have a heftier price both monetarily and functionally.

Our latest items that have been lost are my car keys.  These were lost over a month ago and I finally gave up hope that they would turn up some day as I sifted through another bin of toys.  So, you can't just replace the key you have to replace the transmitter (which was also lost) and then you have to take the car in to get all of the keys reprogrammed.  $140.  That doesn't include getting my house keys re made or the sentimental value of the little picture keychain I had of Sophie on there.  In addition to the key reprogramming we decided to invest in a key hook that will go by the front door. Hopefully that will keep little hands from playing with them.

Also lost, our Tivo remote.  So, not as much of a big deal but still a total pain.  The unfortunate thing is that Josie likes to throw things in the trash.  So when we couldn't find the remote Jake went dumpster diving to see if the Tivo remote had made it's way into the girls diaper pail.  Yuck!

I'm going to have to come up with a suspension system of some sort in order to get everything of importance out of reach.

Update: The day after getting our new set of keys from our Honda dealer Jake found the missing set in his car.  Ugh.  Then, feeling determined to find the Tivo remote, we did a complete search of the house one room at a time and the remote showed up in the drawer of my desk in our bedroom. 

So the score is Josie: 1, Mom: Crazy

Just a little update post on our two little wonders.

Sophie is now almost completely potty trained during the day. We moved her over to big girl underpants about 4 days ago and so far she has done pretty good. We use pull ups at night and that seems to be working out too. Now we were originally rewarding her with Hershey's kisses when she used the bathroom but I recently took those away and am just rewarding her with a "great job" from mom. So far, the verbal reward actually seems to have more lasting power than the kissies. Unfortunately, Josie also saw that chocolate was being doled out to anyone sitting on the toilet so she has decided to start potty training as well. In theory, this sounds great right?! Get them both potty trained at the same time. I know in the long run it makes sense but currently, I feel like I spend 1/3 of my day in the bathroom. Josie will only go #2 on the toilet and sadly the verbalization of "poo poo" comes out sounding like she is asking for a bottle. So I often run to the kitchen to get her a bottle only to realize that she has just hunkered down for the long storm in her diaper. And as for the reward, the verbal praise just doesn't fly with Josie. As soon as she sits on the toilet her hand flies up toward the counter and she makes a sound that is pretty close to "chocolate!". Once I explain that she actually has to produce something for her reward (or as my brothers boyfriend put it, "make a kiss to get a kiss") she wails. I have some mini M&M's in the kitchen and am debating switching to those for a reward as I won't give her a whole kiss which means I end up eating 3/4 of it. Lord knows I don't need any more chocolate than I already eat.

In addition to using the bathroom now, Josie has also started refusing to leave my side. If Jake is pushing her in the stroller and I drop two feet behind him she starts wailing "Momma! Mommy! Momma!" until I come back into view. Basically any time she gets more than two feet away from me and is with another adult, she will wail. I guess I need to get out of the house alone more often. Hopefully it is just a phase and our new babysitter won't lose it when she comes over for the first time.