Chef Bobcat

Josie got many presents for Christmas this year including books, a set of percussion instruments, stegosaurus slippers with LED eyes, and a kitchen set. Today she dabbled in making cupcakes using the Melissa & Doug cupcake set received from the Fiscus family. Josie liked assembling the cupcakes and decorating them with the dry erase frosting markers all the while hollering "cupcakes!"

Decking out a cupcake in delicious blue marker

Pink frosting, too

Oops! Must be time for Mama to make an apron

Say, Josie, you're getting pretty good!

The refrigerator of her kitchen is visible on the right

Discovering the cupcake liners

Josie loves to get into the diaper wipes, probably because they are forbidden. Today she was granted a wipe to clean the decorative frosting off her cupcakes before putting them away. She proceeded to clean little spots all around the house. Nobody here is complaining!

Cleaning up the cupcakes.

Jungle Bells

Josie's two latest obsessions, the zoo and lights, have combined to form a perfect storm of toddler happiness: Jungle Bells, the annual holiday extravaganza at the San Diego Zoo. The zoo is open late, decked out in lights, and features a menagerie of performances.

Every great band needs someone playing "belly."

Josie is crazy about the lights and must be physically restrained lest she love them to death. She screams "lights!" and "pretty!" when she sees them.

"Lemme at 'em!"

A look of determination

Finally the family found some lights at toddler level where Bobcat could be monitored against light destruction.










Josie wasn't too sure about the Balboa Park train until it started moving. Once she felt the wind in her hair and saw that there were more lights ahead, she was "all aboard."


Josie closed the evening out at Rancho's for some dinner. The guys working there are pretty enamored with her and the way she demands more chips.

"Chips! Dip, dip!"

Drawing

Due to recent episodes of a certain bobcat devouring crayons, JP and Annie have hidden the Crayolas and unearthed some colored pencils. This new medium has rekindled Josie's love of artistic creation.

Looking so mature

Saturday's creation

New words learned last weekend: paper, pen, pencil

The authors of Bobcat's Tracks would be remiss if they didn't inform you that Bobcat has successfully taken a bite out of a colored pencil. Additionally, she is quite fond of pointing to her ear with her pencil tip. So if you think Mama and Daddy can hand the kid some paper and pencil and then veg out in front of some Mork and Mindy, guess again.

Candy Cane Cookies

Annie's grandmother's Candy Cane Cookie recipe one of her family's signature food items. Josie got to try her first last week.


Politely asking for a cookie:



Pointing out the cat Reno and her fur color:



Enjoying her cookie and singing Jingle Bells:



Naming her facial parts:



Naming some more facial parts and emulating Grandpa Bob:




At this point Josie can name the following body parts with what her parents consider reasonable clarity: eyes, hair, nose, mouth, teeth, cheeks, neck, boobs (no longer beebees), belly, "junk", heiny, knee, leg, toes, feet, elbow, arm, and hand. Occasionally she'll say "Bye-bye, junk!" when she gets a new diaper.

She is quick to pick up and remember words to describe food items (waffle, cookie, cake, muffin, mushroom, and beans to name a few) but has a harder time remembering , for example, new animals she sees at the zoo. Priorities! She is truly her Grandpa Bob's granddaughter. Having said that, she is quite adept at remembering book characters to request particular tomes. Her current favorites are: A Plump and Perky Turkey ("turkey!"), Good Night Ocean ("ocean!"), Christmas Mice ("mice!"), How the Grinch Stole Christmas ("Grinch!"... She impressed another mom at Stroller Strides by clearly identifying the Grinch on a poster in Balboa Park), The Bunny Hop ("bunny!"), and Johnny Tractor's New Friend ("tactor").

I Eat Crayons

Josie Bonks Chicago

In what has become quite a tradition, the Joh(a)ns(e/o)n family traveled to Chicago for Thanksgiving to visit some dear friends. The only two pictures Josie's bungling parents got are the following two from the Phoenix airport.

An empty fountain drink container makes a great companion

Entertained for 20 minutes (20 minutes in standard time is equivalent to 3 hours for parents.)

In spite of JP and Annie's ineptitude, there are probably thousands of photos from our three day trip. It's good to have a photographer for a friend.

Lately Josie has been prone to stranger danger at friends' houses, but she immediately took to Luke and Meghan like they were old college buddies. Something like that. At first she mistook their cats, Archie and Edith, for her cats, Duckie and Reno. Although she never quite figured Edith out, Archie became her favorite word of the trip. Every morning Josie woke up and followed (harassed?) Archie repeating his name as if it were the most fun word to say.

So what was her second favorite word of the trip? Bonk. Josie had several collisions with the dining room table, most of them minor, but one of which resulted in a bad ass bruise on her cheek. Meghan instituted the "bonk" sound effect when the collisions occurred in a genius move with two results. First, colliding with the table was no longer traumatic. Second, the bonk became a display of affection. A week later, Josie bonks her parents and beloved toys while saying "bonk!" Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Dr. Meghan Dougherty: Communications Professor, Thanksgiving Cook Extraordinaire, Baby Whisperer.

More pictures of Joh(a)ns(e/o)n Chicago Thanksgiving 2.0 canbe found here.

A Rainy Zoo Day

Lately, The San Diego Zoo is one of Josie's favorite spots. Sometimes Annie and Josie will zip over when afternoon naps are complete and the crowds are dwindling. At peak times the zoo is more of a pain in the butt than anything as tourons box out toddlers to take that perfect photo of a polar bear through glass. With flash.

With the weekend forecast predicting a chilly rainy day, Josie knew the traffic would be light, and so she decked her family out in Gore-Tex and ferried them off to the zoo.

When Annie asks Josie if she wants to go to the zoo, she usually says "zoo" and then "duck!" After all, ducks and flamingos are the first real animals you see after you enter.

OK, Josie, now say "flamingo"

Between Stroller Strides, the playground, Kid City, and the zoo Josie and Annie spend quite a bit of time in Balboa Park. Josie is fascinated by the chiming of the Bell Tower on the quarter of the hour. Sometimes she'll spend the entirety of Stroller Strides signing music, throwing her hands up, and shouting "Go?" While the other mothers are quite amused by Josie's obsession, Annie is, of course, enamored and so delighted to say continually, "The music happens every 15 minutes, Josie. We have to wait another x minutes."

Oh the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells!

In search of otters

"Escape to the sewers!"

When picking out Josie's zoo attire that morning, Daddy selected a studier walking shoe over rubber boots for Josie. Big mistake. Kids don't see a puddle and think, "Well, I don't want to get my socks wet. Plus we're so far from the entrance at this point." Kids think, "Splash! Splash!"

Big fun!

With Mama and Daddy starting to feel a chill and Josie's lower extremities drenched, the family decided to leave the zoo and head out to lunch. Bobcat caught a catnap on the way.


The authors of Bobcat's Tracks realize that only parents and grandparents think these dirty face shots are remotely cute. There's just one.

Dip, dip

One of Annie's restaurant rules is "Stay seated at all times." However, with the table cleared and service at its usual unperky speed at Rancho's, Mama was hungry for some back hugs.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a KISS shirt.

Wonder where Josie learned that facial expression?

Oh snap! Is that a maternity shirt?