Doesn't THIS look familiar

Here's a play-by-play of Josephine's trap in action:

"Hello, Ducky! I'm so surprised to see you!"

"I'm even more excited to be holding you! Thank you, Mom!"

"Now, come here, Ducky-- Let me take a closer look at you..."
"YES! YES! Your face is PERFECT for eating!"

Like I tried to explain before, the thrill over any new face is a merely a guise for her desire to eat it. Here are four other common postures for Josephine lately:

The "someone just came in the room and I must look up and see who" pose.

The "flying angel" pose (or at least that's what my mom always called it when babies did this).

The "face-toe scoot" (her simultaneously preferred and unpreferred mode of transportation, since she quickly decides she DOESN'T like inching around on her face, and then quickly forgets and tries it again and again and again... siiiiigh...)

And, of course, the ever casual "I'm just hanging out talking to my toy" pose.

And that, folks, is going to have to suffice for a while, because a little tab has snapped off my camera memory card, and apparently snapped off in the "locked" position, so I cannot take any more pictures on this card. Unless anyone knows how to remedy this, I'll need to look into getting a new one.

Updating the Update

The decision Tuesday night to stop swaddling Josephine came none too soon because by Friday, she'd figured out Part Two of the rolling thing-- flipping back to front. (I've always worried that she'd accidentally flip onto her front while swaddled and not have her arms free to push her face out of the mattress-- so I'm glad that was averted by giving up the swaddle first).

Anyway, this new ability brought a lot of confusion regarding what to do post-roll... she had some happy moments but also a lot of miserable ones...

So that's how she spent her Friday morning (flipping and screaming-- trying to get used to the whole thing), while I did this:

The little curtain for the top window. Why? Because frankly, the not-swaddling thing isn't going so well, and I was hopeful that blocking out a little extra street light would help (...no, so far it hasn't. But I had the supplies on hand so it wasn't too time consuming of an effort.)

The first night of being not-swaddled, she was GREAT. Not a bit of difference-- we were so relieved! But since then, we're having increased transitional whimpering throughout the night, which eventually leads to either a middle-of-night feeding, or a very early wake-up time (5:30ish), or both. Complicating the issue is the fact that her daytime feedings aren't being exactly stellar due to the teething. After the quick let-down is over, she doesn't like actually sucking; it clearly hurts her mouth, and since her initial hunger pangs have been satiated, she just gives up. When she's truly hungry, she'll take a full feeding (like first thing in the morning). But then the rest of the day I can't get her to do more than what seems like partial feedings, if I were to guess at how much she's getting. So this means the middle-of-the-night crying is hard to ignore because I'm willing to bet she's actually hungry (and when I've fed her, she has indeed taken a full feeding). BUT I do NOT want to be re-instituting a nighttime feeding habit-- I'd RATHER her just take full feedings throughout the day.

So I simply don't know what to do. And like many moms have experienced, trying to develop a logical plan of attack when you've just woken from deep slumber is near impossible, so I just lie there confused, wishing the crying would stop-- and then just go in and feed her. I'm hoping that once these teeth cut, all these troubles will go away... but who knows when that'll be... I still can't feel a thing.

I did finally find a teether she seems interested in (along with every other baby). Sophie the Giraffe. To quickly tout its many fine attributes-- it's very lightweight with thin, squishy limbs so she can hang onto it... all natural rubber with food-grade paint, not made in sweatshops... it squeaks which makes for a nice cry-interrupter... it has a face, which really appeals to her... and I'm sure there are more. But even a good teether doesn't make the teeth come in any faster-- I'd pay mega money for one of those!

Here's Josephine mid-roll, Sophie in the foreground.

By the end of Friday she was much calmer about the whole rolling thing. Now, after fervent practice, she's a rolling machine. Which means, to top off our youngster's newly found abilities, she's achieved record levels of SCREAMING due to appendages getting caught in the crib bars. She's nearly inconsolable after this happens. I'm sure she wonders why we keep feeding her to the crib monster trying to eat her arms and legs.

So that makes for three confused members of the Sims household. On whole, everything is lovely, and we're not complaining about all with which we've been blessed. Only when things are going quite so swimmingly can one blog about relatively trivial obstacles. Suffice it to say that we've all just had moments lately where we're not sure what's going on or what to do about it.

It's a trap!

Yes, this looks like a very squeezable baby. An innocent cuddle bug. DO NOT BE FOOLED! I know that expression she's wearing. That look means, "What an exquisitely munchable jawbone you have, my dear! Come closer, come closer-- so I can admire!"
I guarantee 100% that if you were to succumb to the temptation to jump on the bed and kiss those big plump cheeks, Josephine would promptly open her mouth wide, swing her head around, and eat your face.
Oh, yes, that is PRECISELY what that look means. Man do I know that look. It's just a liiiiiittle too excited.
Please-- consider yourself warned and take caution!

I think she had more fun.

This is what Josephine did today:

This is what I did today:

We've really been needing more shelving in our garage, and for months I've been saving up scavenged lumber for the very purpose of creating more storage. Only now, though, have I actually gotten around to it. (Of course, if I were to upload a picture of the REST of the garage, I'd probably get a few well-deserved comments like, "That's nice, Jenny, but don't stop there...")

"Talent" Update

1) Josephine's "ank-oos" (the "thank you" I had/have been drilling into her and sometimes getting out of her, much to my EXTREME delight) have fallen waaaaay off her agenda (much to my EXTREME disappointment). I still, every now and then, can catch her in a moment of focus and inspiration and get a garbled one out of her. But even then it's usually while she's sucking on her fingers and only giving her vocabulary lessons partial effort. While it does still seem like a clear mimic during those times, on whole, she's been entirely ungrateful lately. I'm blaming it on her mouth hurting-- which is what I blame most of her recent disposition on. She's just not in as good of humor as she used to be. She still smiles and talks a lot, but her laughs have grown sparse. She's a lot less taken with the songs I make up for her. Generally if she's in any one position for more than 5 seconds, she becomes fretful and starts chewing and sucking on her fingers. Nursing seems to irritate her mouth also, so even that isn't a very enjoyable experience. So I guess she just doesn't feel like she owes me many thank yous lately...

2) Rolling. You might remember me reporting her first roll from tummy to back. That was a while ago. There was a large hiatus in her execution of this ability as well, with virtually no interest in practicing. It didn't take too long before I realized that first roll was pure luck. Only NOW (like in the last week) are we showing true signs of UNDERSTANDING how to do this. She actually moves intentionally and achieves her goal with struggle, but achieves it nonetheless. This talent is highly contingent on her feeling energetic, however. If you catch her when she's tired, she flattens out, screaming into the blanket, seemingly preferring death by asphyxiation over exercise. (She is her mother's daughter).

3) The bumbo sitting has improved. She's much sturdier.

4) Grabbing. She's great at grabbing what she wants, including faces, toys, her toes, my dinner plate, things on my desk, hair, necklaces, etc. She frequently grabs something with a ferocious growl and stuffs it in her mouth, not unlike a lion attacking it's prey. And apparently, she doesn't feel safe being carried unless she's clutching a handful of my hair. This was irritating, so I had my hair cut. Now when that slips out of her grasp, she simply takes all five fingers and pinches my neck until she's hanging onto a fold of skin. I keep expecting to find hickeys on my neck from this, but so far, I've been spared.

5) Reaching. In some ways this is just an extension of grabbing, because she's essentially trying to grab that which is too far away to touch. But it is somewhat new, whereas she's been grabbing for a long time. She now clearly opens up her arms and reaches out for someone she wants. Then when you pick her up, she'll hug your neck with one arm, and put her head down on your shoulder while sucking her fingers. This cuddling motion is her method of keeping my heart soft towards her, even during her fussiest times. Lucky for her, it's quite effective.

6) Houdini. She's even breaking out of the Miracle Blanket. Short of industrial Velcro or duct tape, I'm not being able to keep her swaddled overnight. It seems that if she really wants out, she can get out, 90% of the time (a huge factor is how cooperative she's being when I wrap her up). Anyway, once that blanket gets all loose around her, it's not safe, since she could pull it up over her head. So we're next up to bat when it comes to seeing if your kid can sleep through the night without a swaddle...

7) Un-Kisses. I thought she was giving big wide-mouthed baby kisses, but I've since figured out that she finds jaw bones to be incredibly satisfying teething rings. She will chew vigorously on your chin for as long as you let her. Sometimes she misses the jaw bone and just licks your cheek, which is sweet and kiss-like... but I know what's really going on... she's just a lion on the prowl.

8) Last, but not least, we've been trying a new toy: