Dear Josephine...(an update on your life)

a few things i want you to know about yourself when you were two..you can recite the pledge of allegiance and sing all the words to "grand old flag." in fact, whenever you hear anyone say "heart", you tell us all to put our hands over our hearts. you've undoubtedly learned this at school. you can also sing all the words to both verses of "you are my sunshine." i can't begin to count how many times we've sung that song together.....................so, about june...so much happens in a month!
early in june, we had our first annual neighborhood block party. you had a blast running with all your new friends and eating popsicles. you met your new best friends on the block, brooke and abby. they're 9 and you think they're the cat's meow. (so does your mom, cause they come over and play with you sometimes and i get a little house cleaning done!) we've discovered IHOP, you and I, and i don't mean the pancake place. It's called the International House of Prayer and it's a place where people sing and pray together all day and all night long. tonight we went for awhile and you joined the other kids in a little section they've created for dancing to worship music. you danced your heart out and i have a feeling you'll want to go back...we also went to homer's coffee shop "pickin' on the patio" where they play bluegrass and gospel music and have an open mic outdoors on monday nights. you enjoyed it and even requested a few songs. they had you come to the mic to sing "twinkle twinkle" and afterward you wanted "itsy bitsy spider!!!" so we sang them together. ..this month we visited des moines, iowa to see your great grandparents, great aunt and uncle sue and doug. i think ggma marge and ggpa oliver really enjoyed having us. you always make them smile. ggpa oliver even went to the zoo. according to the rest of the family, this was a miracle as he doesn't like to get out much. we all loved watching you run around and get so excited about the animals. speaking of zoos, we took you and your cousin charlize ( you call her char char) to the omaha zoo last week. it was a great family vacation. you girls got to swim in the hotel pool and we all shared a room. we spent the next day at the zoo and then drove to marysville that night for a fly-in and memorial dedication at the airport for one of my old classmates who died when we were younger. there were lots of people there and you sat in cousin chris grauer's helicopter. we saw skydivers too and ate free hotdogs. then that night, we went to hanover, ks for one of the greatest fireworks displays any of us had ever seen (even your daddy!) you weren't sure what to think about the bright lights and loud booms so you snuggled up to daddy and just peeked out every once in awhile. afterward, though, you decided you'd liked them. you and charli loved swimming in the pool that grammi had waiting at their house for you. (at one point you went all the way under water accidentally. but you were a brave girl the next day and got back in!) grammi and papa weren't home, but jenn, alan and charli, your daddy, you and i took over the house and had a lot of fun together. you continue to love hanging out with our little neighbor, david, and you two are always looking for each other when we're outside. he got a swing set which you LOVE to play on. you can see it from our porch and you remind me often. you know that you're going to be 2 on julyyyyy fourth (that's how you say it). you also know that's the day we say "bye bye to sassy." your mom had the brilliant idea to have you let you of your pacifiers that day. not really looking forward to it. we've told you they're going to live at another house like the kitties did. in a nutshell, josephine, you are an absolute joy.