When my sister and I were little, my mother took us to ballet lessons, thinking of what beautiful, graceful creatures we would be. Much to her dismay, she wound up with a house full of stinky soccer cleats, dirt-encrusted softball socks, and clothing covered in sweat and grass stains. We seemed to have other plans, although my sister did enjoy wearing dresses, through kindergarten at least, and I wore exclusively purple (definitely a girl color!) for a full year.

It seems that sometimes children have different ideas about who they are going to be, and what they are going to do with their time here on earth, than their parents.


For example, our sweet Josie:

Josie likes her pink sunglasses. (see right)

Josie loves looking in the mirror and smiling, because she is quite fond of that adorable girl in the mirror.

Josie likes sitting atop her winnie-the-pooh choo choo train and smiling and waving in the full length closet mirror - preferably wearing her pink sunglasses.

Josie's wave is not the regular back and forth waive - it is a unique wrist rotation, devoid of any arm movement whatsoever, that caused the shop girl at the Sephora store to comment "Omigosh, how cuuuute! Look at those big blue eyes! And she's got the pageant waive down!"

I fear we might be in trouble.

See what I mean about teddy bears?

The Josie Journal

Josie Journal: I know, it's kind of a dopey name.

But this whole "blogging" thing is also kind of dopey, if you ask me. It seems terribly self-involved and absorbed - as though anyone is interested enough in me that they would be eager (or willing!) to engage in one-sided communication with me. A phone conversation with me is one-sided enough, as many of you can attest to. But whatever the general interest level is in reading what I have to say, it has become clear that Miss Josie is quite the hot topic for some folks. And some of those people live far away and don't get to see my Josie every day to see for themselves what she is getting up to. And Josie is not quite up to writing her own blog - yet. Ergo the Josie Journal.

So, for the first post I will tell you these things about that charming and delightful girl of mine (ours!), who learns exciting (to us, at least) things every day. In recent days she has learned the following:

1. That if you are feeling teetery when you walk, if you stop and stand still for a minute, you might just keep your balance;

2. Teddy bears make significantly more comfortable and better smelling pillows than do wrapped up diapers left on the top of the diaper pail, which happens to be within arm's reach of the crib;

3. That if you walk up to your mother while she is sitting in a chair, hold a book out and put your hands on her knees, she will probably hoist you up and read you Opposites with Oswald, That's Not My Puppy, or some other juicy tome as many times as you'd like; and

4. That if you put your arms around someone, they will have the urge to squeeze you and you can squeeze them back and it feels nice.