JoElle's 6 month checkup

JoElle went to for her 6 month checkup yesterday. She has grown so much! She now weighs 17 lbs 3 oz (bigger than 75% of baby girls her age) and she is tall too, 27 inches long (bigger than 90% of baby girls her age). Yeah for JoElle, maybe she won't take after Mommy and Daddy after all!

Unfortunately, she did get allergies from Mommy and Daddy. She is now on Clarinex for her allergies and she also has eczema, we kept switching soaps b/c right around the time she got pink eye and a bad sinus infection, she started breaking out really bad on her back when she got her bath, esp from the shampoo. So now the Dr. told us to use a special soap and lotion, no more good smelling baby products for her! She gets her skin issues from Mommy, I couldn?t use perfume or anything like that until recently either.

Also, her dr. told us she is eating WAY too much formula a day (around 40-45 ounces a day); babies should only be consuming between 24-32 ounces daily. She is even eating baby food twice a day and still eating this much formula! Her Dr. said to offer her less milk and then she will eat more food.

JoElle has learned to clap, she loves patty cake and peek-a-boo. She also loves to blow raspberries again! Last week she was saying dada all the time, especially when Daddy was nearby! This week she would rather blow raspberries.

Today she was singing like crazy with me to praise and worship songs on the way to school. JoElle is SO close to crawling (and has been so very close for a month now) but instead of going forward, she extends her legs all the way when she is on all fours and sticks her boodie in the air! It looks so funny. Then she sits back and claps for herself. She is so proud of the way she can sit by herself. Last week she perfected getting into a sitting position from her tummy, so now she is a pro.

In the mornings, if she is already awake, I often find her sitting up in front of her aquarium, playing with it. She turns it on and plays around. She also likes to play with her plush turtle we bought for her before she was born from Sea World and her polar bear that Kim and Amy Stepp gave her. JoElle loves to hug the bear.

As soon as my home computer is fixed, I will post pics!! Both our computers aren?t working, so I am posting this from work!

Sitting alone, first tooth

( 5 months old) I can't believe how much JoElle has learned within the past week! She can sit all by herself, even without anything propping her up. I am amazed; she just learned this yesterday, but has been practicing for a while.

Her first tooth started to cut last week, it is showing and is so cute! Now her second one is popping up; she stopped sucking on her hands (which used to be her favorite thing to do) She must have chomped down on her finger once or twice...!

JoElle is SO close to crawling. She can crawl backwards and scoot while she is on her back; but she gets so frustrated that she is not going forward!! She is reaching for EVERYTHING, drooling on everything, and putting everything in her mouth.

She got pink eye last Friday, and now she has a cough again from a litlle boy in her class. JoElle weighs in at 15 pounds now; perfectly average. We visited our old church, First Baptist Euless, on Sunday since she couldn't go to the nursery at our own church (Fielder Rd Baptist). She had fun and it was great for her to see everyone again; it has been about two months since we were there last, the week after we dedicated her.
SO....any day now she will be crawling............

Separation anxiety kicks in...

JoElle started this over the weekend( 5 months), if Tim or I walk out of the room, she will cry until we come back, even with others in the room. She doesn't always do this, but she realizes now that if she cries or yells we will come back and get her!

She is starting to understand the concept of object permanance; I put her toy away today when we were at the credit union, and she looked over my lap and onto the floor where I had put it because she knew just because she doesn't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there...we are going to be in real big trouble soon I'm afraid! She is catching on quick....

Happy 1st Birthday Peyton

Cousin Peyton had his first birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese today it was lots of fun!! Peyton and JoElle both loved the disco lights and the people singing happy birthday and dancing! Peyton got a bunch of great toys; JoElle will have lots of fun over the coming months playing with Peyton and all his great toys! Aunt Ana, Uncle Dan and Peyton are moving closer (they are 1 1/2 hours away right now) to Keller; so it will be great to go visit them at their house once they move in July.

Ana graduated from her residency on Saturday; she is finally done with ALL her education. We are excited for her and very proud of all of her hard work and stamina. I don't know how she does it! She is truly amazing and a mom on top of it all! While we went to celebrate with her, Dan, Aaron, and my mom, Tandi babysat for us.

Tandi said within 5 minutes of our leaving, JoElle was awake and ready to play! So she played for two and half hours before finally conking out for the night! JoElle loves Tandi, before we left Tandi was talking to her and smiling at her and JoElle was loving it and grinning back!
At the church nursery today, JoElle's teacher told me when we picked her up "JoElle sure does like toys, she has been playing this whole time. She loves banging on this toy that makes noises when you bang on it!" Boy don't we know how much she loves toys! She has many different toys and she plays with each and every one. JoElle learns a lot from all the older kids in her daycare class; right now she is the only baby in her class. the rest are toddlers from 12 months to 16 months, and she watches them and imitates them and then they also play with her.