51 Weeks

This week we had yet another trip to the doctor - this time to urgent care, since Josie was whimpering and not using her left arm too well when I picked her up from daycare last Wednesday. They thought she might have fallen a little while before I got there and hurt herself that way, but it turns out she had nursemaid's elbow instead - which involves (according to wikipedia) "the head of radius slipping out from the anular ligament of radius". Basically the ligaments in her left arm/elbow weren't where they're supposed to be, so she couldn't use her arm properly and it was causing her some discomfort. It probably happened from her falling while she was being walked around, since, for babies her age, it's usually caused by being swung around by the arms while playing or by falling while being walked around (since it seems counterintuitive to let go of her when she's falling, but holding on to her ends up jerking her arm instead). Interestingly enough, per wikipedia, there is also "a slight predilection for this injury to occur in girls and in the left arm." Odd. So anyway, the doctor was able to manipulate her arm and got everything in the right place again, Josie was good as new within a few minutes, and we've been spreading the word to be a bit more careful with her arms now.

Last weekend, we packed up Josie and headed off to Alexandria for an engagement party for my brother and his fiancee. Josie chatted non-stop for 30 minutes straight (to the point that Ryan and I were wondering what she had gotten into), and then, while Ryan and I were taking a minute to figure out directions, she apparently suddenly passed out, as this was the scene as soon as we got the directions sorted out:


Josie's big moment at the party was getting to play with a dog for the first time. Suffice it to say, Josie was in love :) The dog did very well with being chased around by Josie most of the night, despite the yelling and poking that Josie lavished on the ever-so-patient Fiona :)

[Not too sure about the dog at first]


[Playing with the dog, and some scooting]

As seen in the end of the last video, Josie is a little scooting machine now. She tried to head off on her own to walk to me a couple of times last week but immediately fell over, so it looks like she's not quite ready for that yet. She has also been pushing her butt in the air when she's laying down, which appears to be how babies get themselves to standing (at least, based on my observations of the baby next door!), so I'm not quite sure what her plan is.... even if she had the stomach muscles to pull herself upright, she doesn't have the balance to keep herself there. But I guess this is all part of learning :) And while Josie hasn't quite figured out how to handle the stairs yet (she pulls herself to standing pretty quickly, but hasn't gone up or down the stairs yet), she has worked out how to "help" with navigating the step-down into our living room:


Josie does all sorts of little tricks now - waving, high fives, nodding her head "yes" (which takes a certain amount of deliberate and serious concentration - so cute!), and turning off and on lights. She also likes to help hold onto stuff while we're grocery shopping - she seems to have a particular affinity for watermelons, to the point that she kept a hand on the watermelon the entire time we were grocery shopping last week, and then immediately placed her hand on it at home too, when Ryan held her up to it. Partially because of this, we recently bought her a (watermelon-sized) ball, which she seems pretty excited about as well :)

[Sometimes I can't handle the cuteness of her little feet]


Since Josie has continued waking up at 6am (which is an hour earlier than she had been), I've been able to get in some reading time with her before we head out to daycare/work. She makes a beeline for her books as soon as I set her down on the floor in her nursery, and she is also starting to hand books to Ryan and I to read to her. She's still stuck on calling everything "dada/daddy" or "mama", except for the occasional "dadey!" (which I still think is "baby"), but I think she was trying to mimic some animal names and sounds the other day, which I'm pretty excited about. I keep forgetting that she should be starting to use more words soon enough, and that I need to start paying more attention to what she's saying to pick out the words. I'm so used to all the chattering just being random sounds/expressions of glee, but I'm looking forward to when they actually start to mean something :)

Miscellaneous cuteness: