Joyce

Joyce has been making leaps and bounds in human development. She is pretty close to walking unassisted (she teeters like a cute smiling zombie between John and I, her arms out in front of her tottering to the side at times). She has a huge vocabulary (mama, dada, ball, dog, no, hi - usually with her hand to her ear as if she were holding a cell phone). She can shake her head 'yes' and 'no.' And most importantly she can read to herself. Sometimes if I'm reading to her, she pulls the book away from me and proceeds to tell me her version of the story, pointing and jabbing at the pictures, all the while shaking her head for emphasis.

With Joyce now in our lives, the worst thing about living far away from family is that you don't get to see the everyday fun little things about Joyce right now. So I thought I'd give you a pictorial overview of the past few weeks.

Joyce really took to some mittens we bought when we were in Washington. She loves to wear them around the house. Here she is doing a maintenance check on my bike before I ride to school.

We had a friend from our ward over for dinner; she really likes Joyce and tells her over and over again "Hi baby girl, hi baby girl." I wish I could visually show you the way our friend draws out the 'girl' and punctuates the 'baby.'

Sometimes our friend tells stories that make Joyce a little skeptical.

I know I've posted pictures of Joyce's favorite hobby aside from reading - pulling books off the shelf. John said she took it to all new heights recently when she cleared the shelf in record time.

It's so satisfying to have a world of words lying at your feet.

In this picture, it is clear that Joyce is a little sick (observe the snot crusted nose, the open mouth, the sickly complexion) but I had to post it. She's reading her favorite book: Johnsons Go to Greece while I make her some breakfast. If I suggest reading another, she swats my hand and tells me "no no no." Thanks Uncle Stephen.