FINALLY said MAMA

JoElle FINALLY said Mama! I have been waiting for this day since she was born!! After Daddy and I have been trying to coax her to say it, she finally did Nov 19th and then again Nov 20th! It's about time! She has been saying "Dada" forever!

Sick and more teeth, first hospital trip

Our poor baby has her first ear infection and she is wheezing. She either has asthma like mommy or bronchiolitis, which causes wheezing and a runny nose. Either way, she is now on breathing treatments of albuterol. JoElle is taking after mommy; when I was a baby I was constantly sick with runny, stuffy noses, coughing and wheezing just like her. I think Grandma is having flashbacks...
So her first breathing treatment went ok, for the most part she stayed still while I held the little fish mask to her face and Daddy read "Hop on Pop" to her. Of course, she occasionally took the mask off to look at it and watch the vapors wafting up!

We had to take her to Cook's children hospital to find all this out, she was unable to drink her bottles because she was so stuffy, so her pediatrician said to take her to the hospital since it was a Saturday. The ER dr there let us know that at around 4-5 months old, babies get sick because their mother's immunity is no longer covering them, they are having to develop their own immune system.

Last night, she was screaming at 3:00 a.m.; her nose was stuffy and bleeding, she would not stop screaming so I held her until 6:00 so that she could get some sleep, but she still screamed; we both knew there was something more going on, but JoElle couldn't tell us it was her ear :(
At any rate, I think she is now on as many meds as I am! I hope it works; at least she is already much happier. What a refief!

Yesterday, JoElle and I also visited the Little Gym for a intro class. It was lots of fun, even though JoElle wasn't feeling so good, she made friends with some of the other babies; we joined the class. I know that she will really enjoy it!
JoElle's 7th tooth (top, right of her big tooth) popped in last week, Friday Oct. 28th.

Waving

JoElle started waving on November 7th. She loves to wave at everybody, even the cars that go by when we are outside. She does a cute entire-hand-wave-from-the-wrist-wave.
Lately, JoElle has been laughing a ton; she has picked up a new laught that sounds kinda fake, and she will go around laughing at anyone and anything. She tries to throw a little fit when we don't let her do something she wants to do, like eat the carpet, but she gets over it really quick. JoElle cries when Momma leaves the room, but she gets over that quick too!

She also is staying up much later, until 9:00 and sometimes 10:00 p.m. She wants to stay up and play with Mommy and Daddy. JoElle is already sleeping like a toddler, she is taking only one nap, from around 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. and that is it!
JoElle loves to push things around and rearrange the house and her daycare class. She pushed our trashcan around the kitchen the other day and she loves to play in the fridge!

First Halloween

JoElle's first Halloween
JoElle dressed up as an angel and went around in her wagon on our street. She got lots of candy from our neighbors who all thought she is adorable! (Of course we think so too...)
Then we handed out candy and JoElle had a great time with all the kids at out door. After the last group of kids were gone, she stared at the door waiting for more kids to come....
She got into her candy and hand fun chewing on the wrappers. Then Daddy fished a wrapper out of her mouth, the candy was all gone!! Who knows how much chocolate she ate???
JoElle got really hyper after that; she was taking little steps, running away from daddy, giggling hysterically in Mommy's face and laughing at Mommy's socks moving around. JoElle is just so precious!
She had a great time and so did we! We forgot how fun Halloween is!

9 month checkup

JoElle went to the doctor today for her 9 month checkup; she is ALMOST 20 pounds (19 lbs 13 oz) and she is 27 inches long, making her average for height and just above average for weight.

She got a flu shot and her blood taken. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! I thought I was going to cry last night when she picked up her bottle on the floor, stuck it in her mouth, leaned back and just fed herself! She also gave up baby food several weeks ago; she prefers table food!

Wedding

We took JoElle to our friend Thuy's wedding reception tonight. She had a great time, she behaved so well for 4 hours :)
She ate up the Vietnamese food and got her picture taken with the bride!
Everybody kept telling her how beautiful she is and she loved every minute of it!

JoElle's First Steps!

JOELLE TOOK HER FIRST STEPS ALL BY HERSELF! She took her first unassisted step Friday, October 21st, at home with Daddy.

Then on October 27th, she was taking more steps at daycare in the toddler room. They told us she has been taking steps for the past several days up there with them!

JoElle is 9 months old.