38 Weeks

First off, some super exciting news (for me, at least): I finally got my hair cut! It just took the better part of a year to get myself motivated enough to take care of it. I then came home and asked Ryan to take some pictures of me with Josie as photographic evidence that my hair sometimes doesn't look like an unbrushed mess ;)

[Josie was excited too]

Speaking of hair, Josie's continues to be amusing. As it gets longer, it's getting wavier (and more prone to questionable hairstyles).

[It turns out it's long enough to get in her eyes now, when it's wet down]


Josie has had a newfound appreciation of Sophie (her giraffe teether) this week, likely because she found in it a new tool for making noise (for those times that her shrieking just doesn't cut it). Now that she's figured out she doesn't need to chew on it to make it squeak, she's been markedly more abusive towards it: bending its neck, hitting things with it, and hitting things on it too.

[I also like this video since it shows her little feet working away at the beginning]

[Another example of her goofy hair]

[Also, I'm pretty sure at this point that her eyes are going to stay blue]

One development that Ryan and I have found very sweet is that Josie is seemingly more into contact for the fun of it now, rather than necessity. We used to hold her a lot if she were fussy, and except if she was in her carrier for a walk, she would typically push away once she was fine again. Now she seems to enjoy cuddling for the sake of cuddling, and I've found it especially heart-melting when she leans her head against my shoulder and snuggles in against me. She's started to hold her arms out now to be picked up, and is clinging to us more when we hold her:

[I had taken this picture because of the way Josie was clinging onto Ryan's shirt, but it ended up being a cute picture in general anyway :)]

Ryan has taken it upon himself to work with Josie on her crawling ("It's time," he stated), so we've seen some improvement this week, with her lifting her chest higher off the ground and making movements like she's going to push off with her feet... just not at the same time. She can spin in a circle and move backwards a bit though, so we went ahead and started child-proofing the house anyway :) Josie has been doing far better with the perhaps less important "new tricks", as we've termed them: she has now started pulling burp cloths from our heads (instead of just her own) in games of peek-a-boo; she has started to wave; she handed something to Ryan when he asked for it (although this was possibly a fluke); she claps her feet together; and she makes a new sound that I'm having troubles describing, so I'll just include video instead:

[The new sound is at the beginning - the rest is just her impression of a theremin ;)]

[An early, not very successful (or enthusiastic) attempt at clapping her feet together]

Miscellaneous cuteness:

[Poor thing fell asleep on the way home from daycare, and slept through me getting her out of the carseat and into the house, where she continued her nap on the living room floor]

[I suspect that someday the V-sit reach will not come as easily for her]

[Getting steady enough on her feet to be able to shake her head and bounce up and down while standing]

[Just because baby sneezes are so cute :)]