Finger painting fun and other artistic pursuits

Recently, Josephine has expressed a lot of interest in different kinds of art activities.  She can’t get enough of coloring with her crayons.  At first, she really just liked seeing how many crayons she could grasp in each hand, which was slightly counterproductive but lately she has grasped that she can make some pretty cool marks on the paper by bearing down and using one crayon at a time.  I must say that her scribbling has gotten pretty good! In September, we gave finger painting a try in order to make two very special birthday cards for both her grandmothers, Granny and Gigi, who were born September 20th and 22nd, respectively.  I set up a little newspaper and paper outside on our front walk, and stripped Jo down to her diaper as I feared that the finger painting would quickly devolve into body painting and other such expressions. (The weather here has been so crazily warm we could still be taking advantage of this finger-painting weather…) As the pictures below indicate, this was indeed the end result, although we did also produce a couple of lovely pieces to put in the mail.

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Beans Breakthrough !

I was ecstatic last week when Josephine decided that she would indeed have another spoonful of the black beans that I offered her. I was wary at first. I have been trying to get her to eat beans for a while (probably since she was 9 or 10 months old) with no luck. She had a particularly strong reaction to lentils, you may remember. So, when she reached for more black beans, I was shocked. It must be the mango, I thought. (I usually make the beans with mango chunks, spiced healthily with ginger, garlic, cumin and lime juice, a recipe from a Moosewood cookbook that I first learned to make in Boston with my friend Rebecca).

Then, a few days later, I thought, what the heck, and I offered her some lentil soup. She ate that up too! Could be we in the clear for legumes? I wonder what changed her mind.

In other news, Josephine’s vocabulary continues to grow. We can now add to the list: ball, all done, Papa, Gigi (with some liberal interpretation here), and down. Maybe I would add cat.  Last Sunday, I asked her if she was hungry and then I said “Oink, oink,” in an attempt to be funny. This kind of stuck for the next few times when I asked her if she was hungry, she continued to oink.  Concrete proof, I suppose, that I must be careful of what I say for it may readily be picked up and repeated.

I’m going to end this post with a photo from a glorious meal of spaghetti and meatballs, one of Jo’s favorite meals.

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A Kernel for your thoughts?

I have been terrible about blogging lately. Let’s just say that we’ve been devoting a lot of energy to schoolwork and various related pursuits.

I did want to share this little morsel of an anecdote. We’ve signed Jo up for some “tot” swim lessons here in Durham. Friends of ours took their son when he was under a year old and he LOVED the water and took to it naturally, like a wee Michael Phelps. I also love swimming and think it’s important for Josephine to get familiar with the water. Thus far, she hasn’t really taken to the pool and I can’t even say that she particularly enjoys the swim class. If I try to decipher her expression, I am usually working with a very serious, slightly furrowed brow, clenched fists and lots of attentive twisting around to watch the other kids around us.

This week, we practiced going under the water (again, *not* her favorite activity, but she doesn’t scream either, which I consider progress). The first time she went all the way under this week, I thought I glimpsed a pretty heinous, bright yellow booger coming out of her nose. I went to wipe it away (as any mom would) and realized that I actually had to extract a corn kernel from her nostril. And, far more alarming, the last time she had corn was on *Tuesday* (this happened on Saturday). How terrible is that?!?

If any medical professionals are reading along, I’d love to know if I should be worried. Or, does anyone else have a similar story to recount? I had thought that her brief pursuit of putting things in her nose and ears was over but apparently I will need to once again be super vigilant at mealtime.

In other news, her vocabulary is expanding at leaps and bounds and it is just so fascinating and exciting to see what she’ll pick up next. She has mastered saying “up”,  she has started making the cutest little “quacks” and “oinks” and she also kind of says “bath” and “hat.” She is obsessed with rocks and whenever she gets a hold of one, she exclaims “Gock!” Sign-wise, she’s added several to her repertoire, including the ones for butterfly, bird, bath, milk, sleep and please (this last one is very hit or miss). And she LOVES to say “hi” and “bye” to people we encounter and to her various admirers with whom we webcam. Hopefully I’ll get a picture up soon. Til then, eat some corn and think of Josephine.

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