Several posts...

Last week in August: JoElle loves to sing a new fave song. Last Sunday she started to sing "I love you, I love you" and I thought she was making up her own song...but I found out she is singing the Barney song from school. Oh you really have to her her sweet voice singing "I love you...." over and over!!!!! She sang it to Nana on the phone, too. She also sings some of the other words, but she mainly repeats this over and over! I love it!!

August 17, 2006 19 months old today!
JoElle used the potty twice today at school all by herself! Her teacher, Ms. Staci, has to put her on the potty by herself while she watches the other kids in the class, so JoElle holds herself up there all by herself on the big potty. Then when she is done, she jumps down and says "I flush" and she loves to flush it.
Yesterday, JoElle told her teacher "potty, potty" and Ms. Staci was talking to a parent, so by the time she was done talking, JoElle told her "pooh pooh" and she couldn't hold it; but she told her teacher BEFORE this time! She is picking it up, but some nights she wears us out because we have to go back and forth to the potty.....
Ms. Staci is impressed that JoElle is using 3 word sentences. In fact, on Sunday, JoElle told me and Tandi " I need a new diaper" She said all five words, it was crazy, but Tandi heard her too, I swear!
JoElle always says "please" now; she is starting to say "thanks" without any prompting at all. She also says "I'm sorry" without prompting, too. Also, she puts her hands together to pray at the table and in bed before we even get a chance to tell her it's time to pray! She is a very sweet girl.
Tonight JoElle pointed and Daddy's belly and said "belly" then she said "nice!" hehe she is silly. She is also saying "yucky" and "yuck", "stinky" "oooweee" for a smelly diaper, "messy" and "mess" and "nasty". I told her "Daddy will be back" when he went outside to turn the water off, so she said "be back, Daddy, be back"
Last night, JoElle was sweeping the living room floor but she came to me and asked me "up?" I told her to first go put up her broom then she can come up with me. So, she walked over to the wall, propped her broom in the corner, and came back to me! Then she sang "The Wheels on the Bus" to herself and fell asleep on me. I taught her a new part, we made up "the Daddies on the bus say I love you...I love you...." so when we got out of the car, she saw Daddy and said "I love you" How sweet

August 11th, 2006 Trip to visit Nana and Aunt Carol
JoElle and I stopped by Aunt Carol's and Nana's house tonight after work and she went swimming with Nana and cousin Emily. At first I just held her over the side of the above-ground pool and she kicked and kicked and laughed heartily. Then, Nana got in with her. At first she reached out to me to hold her and cried "mommy mommy" but then she decided she liked it and she was kicking her little feet trying to swim. This is only her second time this summer to go swimming and the first time, at Uncle Aaron's apartment, she wasn't so thrilled that the water was so cold. After watching Emily float on her back, JoElle decided to try floating on her back too, and she was not afraid to lean back and get her head wet. I was really surprised!
Another little girl named Carly was over and Carly had JoElle cracking up like I have never seen before; it was hilarious. JoElle just keeps going and going; we didn't leave until 10:00 and she was still going strong. Oh yeah, did I mention that she ate half of my steak? She wolfed it down.

August 10, 2006 Potty times
We are having great successes with potty training! Today at school she used the potty; her teacher asks the 2 year olds if they are ready to go potty, and JoElle tells them "ready, ready" and runs into the bathroom.
Then at home, she used it again just as soon as we got home and twice more with Daddy that night. We are putting her in Dora pullups and she is really starting to act like a big girl. Daddy helped out the potty training by helping JoElle take her doll to use the potty, sitting her on the potty and putting her in one of JoElle's pullups. Great idea Daddy!
When I was leaving to go to a meeting to learn about writing opportunities at church, JoElle bawled and bawled; she has never cried this much for me, it was very sweet! I cherish these moments because all too soon she will be grown and I will long for the days she cried for me with those beautiful brown eyes and reached her arms to me to hold her.
It is quite amazing the unconditional love that little ones give to you. I know that we are all born sinners, yet watching her and interacting with her, JoElle is such a reflection of God's love. She loves her Bible, she calls Jesus "daddy" at times and He is, her heavenly Daddy. She loves to pray and sing about Jesus.
August 9, 2006 Happy Birthday Aunt Carol! We love you!

August 8, 2006 - 18 months old
Today JoElle accidentally hit me and she turned to me and told me "sorry" with a sad, inoccent look. She was so sweet! Plus, her sorry sounded like "sowwy" so it was that much cuter! Then she also told me "thank you!" without prompting - she is great at telling us "please" when she wants something and also "help me."
Also tonight Granny taught JoElle how to blow bubbles and to put the little stick into the bubble container to get more soap in order to blow more. She was really excited that she could blow them by herself! She kept saying "Wow!" and chasing them around, trying to eat them!
JoElle also finally jumped OFF the ground! Before she would try to jump and would get really low with her knees bent and bounce up, but she never actually left the floor. So, when Granny came home from work, JoElle jumped up in the air and landed on her bottom. She thought it was hilarious, so she repeated it at least 20 times.
JoElle is starting to tell Daddy "I love you" when he tells her he loves her. It just melts my heart to hear her say this!
Our bedtime routine is very precious to me, after we give everyone who is here hugs and kisses, I carry JoElle to her room, look into her beautiful brown eyes and put her in her bed. At this point, she gets really excited. Then she clasps her hands together and looks at me, waiting to say bedtime prayers. After we pray to God, she pounds on the bed with her hands, like when she it at the table, then she says amen and puts her hands over her hand, kinds like "hooray!" Then we give kisses, I tell her I love her and as I am leaving, I blow more kisses, tell her I love her some more, and sometimes she waves, sometimes she says "Bye bye" really loudly. She watches me shut the door, then she is out cold.
Yesterday for the first time, JoElle got out of her bed and came out of her door without us getting her up. I guess she was wondering what was taking me so long to come get her up (I was running late!) She was standing at her bedroom door, with wild hair, one hand in her hair and one rubbing her eyes, she looked a little confused!
On the mornings when Daddy is already gone before us, we always tell Daddy bye bye anyways - to our bedroom, she thinks he is the room. She gets upset if we don't tell him bye.
Oh yeah also tonight she tried to go swimming in her bathtub. She kicked her little legs out and tried to swim.
She started gymnastics last Saturday; the class is for 18 months to 3 years. JoElle loved to jump on the trampoline and fall down. As soon as her coach said "Let's move to the next rotation" JoElle was marching off in front of everyone, leading the way (but I don't know how she knew where we were going?). She loved the music circle and dancing, of course, she always loves to boogie down. Also, she likes hanging from the bar, she pulls her legs up really high, almost to the bar, all by herself. Her coach was surprised at how strong her stomach is. She likes to do barrel rolls down the mats, and she can almost do a forward roll (i.e. flip) all by herself!

July 31, 2006 18 months
JoElle has become pretty attached to her Elmo doll. She doesn't HAVE to have him, but she likes to have him with her in the car, she asks for him as soon as we get in the car, and she loves to give him big hugs! She also likes to put shoes on him and her other doll and make them walk around the house. She tells them "walk, walk", oh yeah there are two babies in her class part of the day, who are still learning to walk, so she tells them "walk, baby, walk!" Her teacher, Ms. Sharon, tells her to leave them alone, not everyone is walking when they are 11 months old.
She is quite the pro at putting her shoes on (sandals); she loves her sandals and her dress up shoes. She can even put my shoes on really well. She walks around in my sandals all the time. It is amazing how many words JoElle is repeating. This past week, she picked up on "messy" as one of her faveorite words, along with "towel" "napkin" and "medicine" She will remind me to give her medicine by telling me "medicine!" Hehe great kid, huh?
JoElle can name so many things now, she loves the bus at church- she points and shouts bus, then starts motioning bus with her hands from the song "The Wheels on the Bus", speaking of which, the other day we were driving to a friend's house to drop off a meal and she saw a big 18 wheeler, she calls them buses. So she started singing this song by herself, she was doing the baby part- the babies on the bus go "wah wah wah", she is so cute when she does this, she says wah wah wah in a real whiny voice with her hands rubbing her eyes like she is crying, then she sang "all...town" (she couldn't quite remember "through the")
At times we can get her to tell us her name, it sounds so precious coming out of her mouth! She loves to read, she points to letters and says "O" "E" because we spell her name with her all the time!
The potty training is still going pretty well, she tells us potty all the time, sometimes she goes, sometimes not, but she loves toilet paper, I have to ration out the toilet paper with her, one day I walked out of the bathroom to get her clothes and I came back and she had stuffed a ton of toilet paper in there as she sat on the potty. Another time, I turned around to throw her diaper away and she was on our potty without her little potty on top, and she fell in!! It was funny, she didn't cry but for 3 seconds, then she was ok with it.
The other night we were at Tim's bosses house and JoElle actually used the potty over there! I was very proud of her! She got so much attention over there from everybody! She wasn't shy at all, sometimes she starts out a little shy, but it never lasts. She didn't get into anything at their house and she didn't cry at all, even though we stayed until 10:30, way past her bedtime. Tim's boss and her husband kept telling us, she is such a great kid, she doesn't get into trouble! OK so we know THAT is not true, but she really is sweet. She loved wiping her mouth, hands and tongue on their kitchen towel that they had hanging up. She also called her glass glasses, she is really stargting to apply words to new objects.
The other night she was scratching her leg and she told us "itch" One of her favorite colors is blue, she definitely knows what is blue and loves to tell us "boo"
One of her favorite games is still "This little piggy" she loves the "wee wee wee" part because I tickle her up to her chin. If you pause at this last part, she will say "wee wee wee" in her cute little voice and then giggle.
I love the way she shares, she loves to share with everyone, even her dolls. She always gives them blankets, her milk, her water, her shoes, etc. Sometimes she can be selfish, like all of us, but most of the time she is very sharing. She will step back and let other kids play first, then she will play when they get tired of it in a few seconds. Sometimes, when she knows they want something that she has, she will tease them with it and laugh. She can be a little sly. Every once in a while she gets tired of trying to be nice and will say "mine" and sometimes hit if the other kids won't share with her, but then she gets sad because she knows she wasn't supposed to do that. She hates to let anybody down.
I know I say this all the time, but she is such a joy to us and everyone else she meets. We love her so much!

July 13, 2006
Tonight before choir practice, JoElle and I stopped at McDonald's. She sat next to me on the bench like a big girl, swinging her legs, eating fries!I looked at her and was thinking about how I used to have to hold her, make sure she didn't fall, hand her food, but now she does this all on her own, she evens grabs the ketchup from me and dips her fries....
I can't believe how old she is now. She acts so grown up, did you see the pics of her in her dress up shoes with her phone? She looks like a little teenager! She also loves Mommy's shoes. She can put her shoes and my shoes on all by herself.
Oh yeah, on the 4th, she picked up calling me Mommy again instead of Mama, I think this time it's going to stick. She started calling me Mommy back on June 2, then went back to Mama....she has her own mind!
This week at day care, she wrestled a little boy in her class who is twice her size, he didn't know what to do, he started yelling help me!! Her teacher was laughing because JoElle is so little and he is so big, but he couldn't even move! She was playing with him like Daddy plays with her, he "pins" her down and starts counting....
She also finally had enough with one of her friends, Becca, and hit her when Becca wouldn't let her play under the table strapping in the baby seats. This is the first time she has done this, usually she justs walks away and finds something else to do...
My friend Robyn told me that when she was dropping her daughter off at their daycare, and JoElle was sitting on their little kid's couch in her classroom and all the other kids were gathered around her! I think she is already exerting her leadership qualities!
She is also very social, she loves the other kids and teachers. Monday when I picked her up, she didn't want to go home, she started crying because she wanted to stay and play! I thought she was supposed to cry when I leave her and not when I pick her up!!!???
JoElle loves her Elmo doll that knows her name and her little Dora chair, she also loves to ride around on her "bike" (I call it her bike...it's really a trike/ rocking trike). She propels herself around the kitchen, she can't quite reach the pedals yet.
Yesterday, she used the potty at school in the big potty. Is it really time for her to learn to use the potty already? How crazy....

July 1st, 2006
JoElle's favorite words this week are Ana, ice-she loves to eat ice- water, and march--she loves to march around the house.

June 21, 2006
JoElle learned to say "shower" (in reference to water, she was talking about the water sprinkler at day care for use in case of a fire, I'm not sure how she knows water comes out of there??
June 20, 2006
JoElle learned to say "purple" Oh yeah she used her potty again, she was excited too that she used it!
June 19, 2006
JoElle said "Katelyn, Bubba" (friends at school) and something else...can't remember...
Over the weekend she started saying "I want Mama, I want Daddy, I want Ana" very cute!Oh yeah, she loves to say Ana...over and over. Aunt Ana, she was saying your name again tonight!!! On Father's Day, JoElle was loving on her Aunt Ana, she kept leaving me to lay on Aunt Ana; how sweet!