Staceytown: 44 Weeks

This week was my first Mother's Day where there was no confusion about whether I "counted" as a mom or should mark the occasion, since with previous years, I was either pregnant, trying to get pregnant or dealing with losses.... or, going further back, trying to figure out if I even wanted kids - and how things have changed! Now, nearly every day I look at Josie and think some variation of "Josie is the best thing ever." I'm so happy to be able to add "mom" to my list of appellations, and Josie has been a great introduction to motherhood :)

So, onto the Mother's Day festivities... Josie celebrated Mother's Day by wearing shoes for the first time, although she wasn't too sure about them at first:

We went out to brunch with Ryan's family, and enjoyed some good food (although I'm still kicking myself for missing out on the banana butter that was supposed to go on the already-delicious Bananas Foster french toast). Josie showed just the slightest hint of fussiness while we were eating, and Ryan's family was on top of the situation - she had a choice of being held and/or entertained by six different people in addition to her usual two, and I think she was quite happy with her options :)

She also had watermelon, raspberries, and blackberries for the first time... and then promptly rubbed them into her hair, so I'm not sure if that's a win or not.

That last picture shows one of her new moves from this week. As she's eating, she's starting to fling her head back - the better to laugh with? I'm not sure, but when she first did that this week, it was right after I tried to give her a Brussels sprout leaf. She threw her head back and laughed at it, and then I laughed at the absurdity of it (a baby throwing her head back to do a proper belly laugh? Are Brussels sprouts really that funny?), which prompted another round of laughing between the two of us :) Also funny to her this week: umbrellas, poking her in the belly with my foot, her baby doll "kissing" her on her tummy, sneezes (just her own), and me blowing my nose, stretching, or yawning. I also sing her a song that is almost guaranteed to get her to laugh... I recorded it to post here, but while I'm getting used to my speaking voice on the various videos, it turns out I'm not there yet with my singing voice ;) So instead I will describe it: the lyrics consist entirely of her name, repeated, over and over, with the last "Joooo-SEE" ending on a high-pitched note. Each time, she does a tiny little giggle (really, just enough to keep me going), and then I do it again on repeat just to get that little giggle out of her.

So we're trying to teach Josie how to give kisses and high-fives now, and she's making some progress for both. She will occasionally hit our hands, but without a whole lot of power behind it so far. And for kisses, she's starting to kiss her baby doll, but hasn't quite worked out what to do with herself when receiving kisses.... so she usually opts for open-mouthed laughing (which is her default, I'm realizing, as she does this while walking/falling too). She also has found a whole new level of loudness, and has really improved upon her pterodactyl impression, with lots of screeching peppered with the occasional scream.