Fun times

Joselyn has quite the independent spirit! She loves to explore, especially my pantry, which can lead to quite a mess...dumped box of cream of wheat, helping herself to cheerios that, it turns out, are more fun to smash on the floor than to eat, recipe box dumped and rearranged, cooking magazines ripped apart, etc. We go for walks, where she refuses to hold my hand, she wants to RUN in the wind. She has recently gotten her first skinned knee due to her "I can do it" attitude and 14month old wonky run.

She makes us laugh everyday:)
This video is a bit grainy because it was taken with my cell phone. She loves to run up the street, but is afraid of the grass:)

Joselyn 14months old from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Here she is looking at the world in her own special little way.


She still likes to wrestle her monkey, but doesn't give him any warning anymore.

RUN AWAY
Despite the corner full of toys, she tends to prefer a wooden spoon, or roll of paper towel.
Joselyn and Moe. Joselyn LOVES Moe, and Moe is very tolerant of Joselyn... I think she loves her too.

HI!
I am the pied piper of babies, goldfish are my song:)

Joselyn (14months) and Moe from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Joselyn(14 Months) and Moe (again) from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

SMILE!!

This post makes me smile. That's all there is to it.

Joselyn tries to help unload the dishwasher by handing me the silverware, if I'm not fast enough, she puts it on the floor so I can get it when I'm ready. (DISCLAIMER: If you make these next 2 pictures large, you will notice a very sharp knife in the silverware basket. It was placed there by mistake and although was not noticed before she started removing the silverware, it was quickly removed before she noticed it herself(thank you angels for watching over my baby's sweet hands). We cannot be sure who it was for sure, but all parties that could have been responsible for said knife placement were notified and reminded that those knives do not go in the dishwasher. It will not happen again.)


She hates it when I put bows in her hair, or hats on her head, but sunglasses seem to be a hit. Maybe because Daddy wears his all the time. She hands them to me and says "DaDa?" And yes, he has been known to wear her sunglasses, which is always a crowd pleaser.

Untitled from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

She is holding a Valentines day card from Nana in this picture. She is very gentle with it (which is surprising if you have ever seen her with magazine, or a catalog, or any form of paper. She just can't resist the rip!) and she carries it around and "reads" it.

And here she is with her daddy in his fancy uniform, which not only makes me smile, it makes me laugh out loud. Not because its funny, but because it makes me so happy.

She brought him her sing-a-ma-jig and then waited patiently to be picked up.
She pretty much has him wrapped around her little finger, and I think he's OK with that:)

Joselyn is so much fun these days. She loves to run (which looks like a drunken stumble) and loves to laugh, which makes us laugh. She has started talking a lot, even though we have no idea what she is saying and says and signs a few words that we do understand. Her signs include, please, more, all done, eat and dada. Her words include, hi, bye, mama, dada, moe, cat, uh oh(followed by something being thrown on the floor), nana, nigh nigh (night night), ouch(followed by a fall, no matter how big or small) and her new favorite NO. If you ask her what a cow says, she responds MOO and if you ask her what a dog says, she says Woof. And if you ask her where her belly is, she pulls her shirt up, sticks her belly out and pats it.

The weather has been very nice here so we go to the park often. She loves the slide and she loves to dig in the dirt. She even tasted the dirt, much to mommy and daddy's dismay.

I did realize today that I have not taken very many pictures of her recently. I have more videos
than anything. She is on the move constantly and it is hard to get a picture of her that is not blurry.

These pictures and videos are from the past month. And this first bunch of pictures are in backward order. Sorry.

I thought the paper towel roll she was playing with was safe, since it was wrapped in plastic. She was quiet for quite a while, and I was enjoying the quiet so did not disturb her. I learned my lesson.

at least she helps dust the floor
and offers to help pick up



And here she is in motion:) She loves to be chased. In fact, even if you are just going in her general direction, she thinks you are chasing her, so she squeals and takes off. Its pretty funny:)

The chase from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

This is our sweet girl busting a move. I wish I knew what happened to the audio, but every time she spins that barrel, it plays music and the lights blink. Enjoy:)

Just dance! from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Birthday Bash!

OK guys, this is the last of the birthday posts! I had so many pictures of her birthday parties that I could not get them all on here. So you can look at the entire album on snapfish:) A big thank you goes out to Auntie Jamie for capturing so many great shots at the Little Gym!!

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=6111972008/a=50131122_50131122/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Birthday videos

Joselyn's birthday fell on a Tuesday. We started the day pretty normally. But then we baked cupcakes, made frosting and then daddy came home early! We sang happy birthday to our precious child, had our cupcakes then we helped her open a couple of presents. She was very excited about her new ball and activity block...or she was hopped up on her sugar. Either way, she had lots of fun:) And so did we.

Joselyn's first birthday morning from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Joselyn's first birthday cupcake from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Also, I'm still working on getting all of her birthday pictures up! Keep checking back, I hope to have them up soon:)

The Quilt project

I have tried a few times to get this blog post up, but have been having a hard time composing my thoughts. Its amazing to me how time can shift and in one instance, a year seems to take forever. In others, just over night. I feel like I can so vividly remember hearing Joselyn cry for the first time the day she was born. And how, even though I have never wanted to be anything more than I have wanted to be a mother, I still had no idea what I was doing and how hard those first few days were. I remember when she smiled at me for the first time. And when she laughed for the first time. I remember what she was wearing when she crawled for the first time. And what I was doing when I found her standing in her crib. I can remember how I felt when she took her first steps. And now I will remember when she turned 1. Everybody said it would happen fast, but I could not have be less prepared. One thing is for sure, being a mommy, Joselyn's mommy, is better than I could ever have dreamed it would be.

Here is the completed quilt project... watch her grow:)

Last first holiday

Today is Joselyn's last first holiday. Valentine's day!! Its pretty fitting really. Joselyn has brought so much love into this house. We thought we knew what love was, but the love that we feel for our sweet baby is so much greater than anything we could have ever imagined. So happy Valentine's day to you, with love from Jay, Jodi and Joselyn.

cat chasing from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

11 1/2 months old from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.