Josie is 23 months!

Josie is 23 months today and just one month away from her 2nd birthday! Our baby is quickly growing into quite a little lady! Josie has grown so much since my last update. Here's a summary:

VOCABULARY
Josie's vocab continues to expand. She is now speaking in 5 + word sentences and is daily figuring out how to put words together. I have learned very quickly what phrases and words that I use most often, b/c these are the ones we hear from Josie! For example, I didn't realize that I often say, "How about..." when picking out a book to read to Josie until I saw her one day standing in front of her book shelf saying, "How about..."!!! She also uses such phrases as "in a minute," "much better," and "very good" (I love when she says that one in reference to a meal I've made!). She currently is very interested in using the word "yesterday," which is her way of referring to any past event (whether it happened last week, yesterday, or a couple of hours ago). In the same way, she uses the phrase "a couple of days" to refer to any future event. For example, when we left the house the other day, Josie called out to her daddy (who was not joining us), "Bye-bye Daddy...see you later, Daddy...a couple of days, Daddy!". She also has enjoyed using vocabulary to direct the people around her, using such phrases as, "move it, mama", "get it, mama," and her favorite (especially when it is time to sleep), "Josie go downstairs, mama". She also enjoys using adjectives, such as calling different things "cute," "little," "tiny," "big," "huge," "soft," etc. For example, yesterday on the phone to her Nana, she said that Nana was a "little, tiny, Nana". And many of her stuffed animals are labeled "cute".

MEMORY
The 2-year old's memory is amazing. I observed Josie "reading" a Dick and Jane book this week. She "read" several phrases from several different pages completely correct - all from memory! She also has memorized the titles of her books, such as "Puppy, puppy, please" and "My Baby, My Little One". A couple of weeks ago, Daddy took Josie to her Kindermusik class because I had to work. Daddy didn't quite know where the class was and got turned around a bit...until Josie pointed out the building to him! She also has really enjoyed counting and has now counted up to 13 and has memorized the names of the numbers up to 19. She enjoys saying that she has "three mamas" and "seventeen daddies". (it amazes me that she has just picked up the concept of plurals and will say "one ducky, two duckies").

CUTE STUFF
Josie still enjoys sucking on her two fingers and for extra comfort still either rubs her left ear or her belly button! Her favorite night-time ritual is running down the hall to our bedroom and shouting, "Where'd Josie go?" and then popping out the door full speed back to her room into my arms. Topping her favorite food list are crackers, bean soup (which she has requested as her 2nd birthday meal along with bread), biscuits with apple butter or strawberry rhubarb jam, crust (pizza or pie), apple sauce, pasta, and any type of cereal (her current favorite is Total, b/c that is what Granddaddy eats). She still loves all things Pooh and now also enjoys Curious George. She loves reading books, flipping through magazines, watching movies, going on walks outside, is obsessed with climbing up and down stairs, still enjoys any type of push or pull toys, and loves to "drive" (she frequently asks to sit up front in the car so that "Josie drive"). Her favorite outings are to the Discovery Museum, the library, and the grocery store (when she can push the cart). She enjoys it when her Daddy makes a fire in the fireplace and says, "stoke it, Daddy" when the fire is dying down!