Oh man, Josephine turned two!!

I didn't get a chance to write a two-year birthday post for Josephine (what with the birthing), and we still haven't had her two-year pictures taken (ACK!), so I wanted to be sure to get something down to remember this time.

Remember when Josephine was a newborn and I was all "WAAAHHHHH! MY BABY!!! NEVER GROW! YOU ARE PERFECT AND SQUISHY NOW, AND IF YOU GROW UP YOU WON'T BE A BABY AND I WILL DIE!!!!!!" Remember? Well, imagine my surprise when she got to be two years old and I just ADORE her at this age. She's amazing. She's so spectacular that I rarely ever get misty-eyed and miss her as a little Bean.

She's funny, she's wicked smart, she's absolutely gorgeous. She's my little helper and my biggest fan. She loves dirt, rocks, playing outside, water, books, chewing on ice, puzzles, music, dancing, hugs, and her little sister. She's absolutely fearless, and loves to run, jump, dive, and do many other things that stop my heart.

She's two, to be sure, and she is stubborn, is testing her boundaries, and has had her fair share of meltdowns. She says "No," and will shout "Hey!" if she doesn't like what you are doing. She has a knowing little look in her eye when she does naughty things. She sometimes does things that make me want to cry, like throwing things or screaming right in my face until her face turns red.

But she also does wonderful, amazing, awesome things, all the time, every day. She is fun to be around. She makes me laugh, makes me smile, makes me want to scoop her up and kiss her for hours on end. She is a great little kid. Her father and I look at each other every day and are amazed by something she has said or done and can't believe how old and smart and funny she is, and can't believe how lucky we are that she is ours.

Here are a few little Josie moments I want to remember forever:

Just the other day she pulled up her shirt, looked down, and in a shocked voice, said, "Circle? On my BELLY?!?!" She's known about her belly button for a long time, and she's been able to identify circles for some time now, but it just hit her all of a sudden that there was a circle right there on her belly. 

All of a sudden one day she pointed to her hands and said "Beans!" and for weeks and weeks she would suddenly have imaginary beans in her hand that she wanted to tell us about.

One morning she woke up and told Jeremy she had a tail. When he asked her where her tail was, she turned around and shook her butt. 

She says "Ta Da!" when she thinks she has done something great.

The other morning Jeremy yawned and Josie said "Daddy yawn." Jeremy said "Yeah, daddy didn't get enough sleep last night." Without missing a beat, Josephine said "Coffee, daddy!" (we seriously don't talk about coffee with her or say coffee makes us less tired). Since then, everything is coffee, and she is always pretending to sip coffee.

She gives thumbs up.

She has a bunch of tricks, including doing a somersault! When she is about to do one, she shouts "Josie trick!" and then proceeds to her trick.

When you ask her a question, she will often say "hmmmm" in a very thoughtful way before answering.

Last week when we were over at Jeremy's parents' house, she poured ice on the kitchen floor (she demands a cup of ice as soon as she gets there), then made Jeremy's sister walk on it ("Walk on ice, Kayla!")

She talks about people all the time out of the blue. "Granny! Gramps! Grandma! Grandpa! Luke! Kayla! Lindsey! Bronson!" She'll just look up and shout out their names with a huge smile on her face, like something reminded her of that person. She also talks about people we've just seen for a few days, like she is telling me about her visit with that person.

When you ask her where something is and she needs to look around to find it, every time she looks somewhere, she says "nope!" then moves on to the next place to look.

When the baby cries, she says "It's okay, baby sister!" She rocks her, helps burp her, change her diaper, and tries to help feed her. 

When she wants you to go somewhere with her, she grabs your hand and says "I you me!" which means "Come with me!"

She recently discovered she loves the dark, and she will ask for "Dark" all the time, especially when she is getting her bath at night. She will chant "dark, dark, dark!" until Jeremy turns off the light and closes the door, then she looks at her hands, all weirded out that she can barely see them.

She is crazy about looking at herself in mirrors, and if she tries something new, like playing with a new toy, she shouts "Josie in the mirror!" then runs over to the mirror so she can see herself doing whatever she is doing.

She is still an awesome dancer, and anytime she hears music, she happily exclaims "song!" and dances her heart out. She recently started wiggling her hips back and forth.

She imitates things Jeremy and I do with our bodies (putting hands on our hips, crossing arms, etc.) and recently learned if she does something like that out of the blue, it makes us laugh, so she will run up to me and put her hands on her hips with a huge smile on her face, just waiting for a laugh. 

She comments on which diaper I am putting on her "Blue diaper! Pink diaper!" or requests a specific diaper "Owl diaper!"

We are working on potty training, and she likes to "flush!" and get "clean hands!" even though she doesn't go on the potty yet.

I bought her a special Minnie Mouse shaped bottle of hand soap to use for a reward when she goes on the potty, and she reached up and got it the other day and apparently loves it so much that she wanted to taste it. Yuck.

She repeats everything we say. EVERYTHING. But it is super-cute to hear her adorable little voice say things like "Oh man," "No way," "Oh my," and "Whooo doggy." Who am I kidding? It's awesome to hear her little voice say anything. 

When she falls or bumps into something, she shouts "I okay!" with a smile to let us know she's a tough old bird and is just fine.

When she does something she is proud of, she shouts "I did it!" and raises her fist in the air with a smile.

Well, that got long really fast, but it's only because she is so stinking awesome.

We love you, Josephine the Bean, and we can't wait for all the rest of your birthdays.