February 13th, 2006 JoElle is picking up on so many more words!
She loves to say "bubbles!" while also signing bubbles; JoElle also says "Bible" and "diaper" although diaper sounds more like "biper" to me! JoElle is asking us constantly what "that" is, she can't get enough of the world around her!
She can make a sheep sound, "baah, baah"; bark like a dog "woof woof" quack like a duck "quack quack" and roar like a lion "roar roar" ! It is so cute!!
JoElle is pretty good at saying ball and duck now. She also signs duck, although she has to modify it a little because it entails only two fingers and your thumb, she still uses all her fingers and her thumb.
We have been to three Kindermusik Sign and Sign classes. I think she probably knows light now, too. Oh yeah, she can say "Light" as well. She enjoys the time with Peyton, singing and learning signs.
Two weekends ago, JoElle's granny was holding her at Don Pablos and kissing on her, and JoElle turned to granny and signed "all done" to her! It was too cute! Of course, Granny didn't know what she was saying, so we had to tell her JoElle is saying she is "all done!" This is the first time JoElle has used all done outside of being all done with food or the bath. She is really connecting ideas together.
Last Thursday, Daddy fed JoElle dinner and then she started playing. About 10 minutes later she went to Daddy and signed "Eat" and then a minute later "more" so Daddy got her some more green beans and she was so excited that he understood her!
How fascinating it is to watch and help her to learn and discover the world around her! JoElle is in love with books. She will spend forever reading through books on her own. In the car, her two favorite books right now are the Dora book "Choo Choo" that she can push the buttons to make the train sounds, and a Maisy book "Where are Maisy's Friends?" She lifts the flaps up to find the elephant hiding in the closet, and then she will point to the elephant on her window. If I could make an elephant noise, I am sure she would be doing that too!
I can't believe this, but the lady who fixes the food at JoElle's school gave her CHEESE AGAIN. After all that we went through before I just cannot believe they still do not understand. Please pray for this situation as we are both quite frustrated with these individuals.
January 25, 2006 JoElle learned a new word at school- "diaper"!
According to JoElle's teachers, she said "diaper" today!
Last night sheplayed with Daddy for the longest with her balls; she just kept saying over and over again "Ba, ba BA" She can't quite get the "ll" part, but she sure was yelling it as loudly as she could!
January 23, 2006 JoElle went for her 1 year old check up today,
She got a few more shots, did pretty well, she screamed more this time than ever before, but still got over it quickly. JoElle weighs 20 lb 4 oz and is 29 inches long (75 percentile for heigth and 50 percentile for weight); she gained a half a pound in a little over a week, when we took her to the Dr about a week and a half ago after the milk incident, she only weighed 19 lbs 11 oz. She has been chowing down over the past week.
The funniest thing happened today; JoElle saw her pretty orange dress that she wore at her birthday party, and she took it down, so I put it on her over her pants and shirt. I took it back off a few minutes later (since she was fully dressed underneath!) and she got really upset! So I put it back on her, and she was instantaneously happy again! She is exerting her wishes, it was really cute! Normally we just ignore her little tantrums and they go away just as quickly as they start, but I only took her dress off because I didn't think she would care, but boy did she want to keep it on!
Tonight JoElle grabbed Daddy's hand so that he would walk around the house with her, holding his hand. She just started doing this last week; it is so precious!
Hey great news! We starting giving her Lactaid milk (milk without the lactose in it, for grownups) and she is doing great! NO tummy problems, no messy diapers at all, so I think this is finally a success and she will be off of her lactose-free formula within the week! Now, as far as getting her off a bottle, that is another story! We tried tonight to only give her milk to her in her cup, but she refused to go to sleep, she cried instead, which she never does when she is ready to go to bed, so I gave her milk to her in her bottle, she was happy and after playing a little more, laid down to sleep for daddy. She is weaned off the bottle at daycare, she only drinks her milk from a cup since all the other kids are older and only use cups.
Ok so if JoElle has a sister one day, Tim and I like the name Alexia. We still think the name Jeremiah will be great if we have a boy.
JoElle and I will be starting a baby Sign and Sing Kindermusik class this Saturday with Aunt Ana and cousin Peyton. I have been wanting to go to a Kindermusik class for months now, but they were all in the middle of the week during the day for her age, so FINALLY they have a class on Satrudays for all of us working mommas! I was beginning to think that people think only stay at home moms like to spend this kind of time with their kids! The class will help her to continue learning signs and utilize them; I am really looking forward to it!
January 21st, 2006 JoElle uses 8 spoken words and 4 signed words
She says " Dada, Mama, hi, bye, that, uh-oh, wow", and occasionally " duck" She can ALMOST say "fish" right now it still sounds like "sh"! And she can almost say "ball" She is trying so hard!
JoElle also signs 4 words to us: Milk, eat, more, and all done! It is so cool, she learned the last three all during this week that she turned 1. She also uses these signs at daycare to communicate with her teachers. This morning, she got to spend quality time alone with Daddy, and when he asked her if she wanted to eat, she started to sign the word "eat" to him. Then, when she was almost done with the food she had in her mouth, she signed "more" to Daddy. Then,in the tub, she thought Daddy was signing "milk" to her because he was wringing out a washcloth (the sign for milk looks like you are milking a cow) so she started to get upset, wanting her bottle. So she signed "all done" to him, but Daddy didn't know she knew this sign yet, since we just started introducing it to her last week, so he started waving at her, thinking she was waving at him! JoElle smiled at him, probably thinking he was silly for telling her Hi when she was telling him she was all done!!
Thanks for all the birthday gifts! Some of her favorite presents she received were the two books, both Dora books, she loves them both! She devours books, it is so precious to watch her with books, she loves to be read to, she loves to study the words on the page and the pictures, turn the pages, and point to the items on the pages and ask "that?"
One of her Dora books, given by Jeff, makes sounds and talks when you push buttons, she loves it! Especially when the choo choo train is trying to chug his way up the hill, she starts dancing, she picked up this new dance Friday 1/20/06, she starts bouncing her head and shoulders to the side, it is hilarious! I bet one of her teachers taught her this dance, they love to listen to music at school!
Probably her other fave gift right now is the Doodle Pro that Jeff's brother, Michael, gave her. She cherishes it, loves to carry it around and doodle on the magnetic board. After only showing her how to write on it twice, she is a pro! It is so cute, she will write and draw on it for up to 30 minutes at a time! Then she will show me her accomplishment, I tell her "how pretty!"and she starts cheesing! She is so proud of herself! Great gifts, Gaby! thanks!
Her 3rd molar broke through yesterday, 1/20/06, the top right one. She now has 11 teeth, she is almost done, only 5 more to go until her 2 year old molars come in! This time, she hasn't been very fussy, it was much better than all her other teeth.
Her appetite really picked up this week, she is devouring any and all food she can get her hands on and in addition she wants to drink up to 10 ounces of milk at a time! She is making up for last week when she couldn't eat from daycare giving her milk.
On Thursday, Jan 19th, we were driving down Collins (JoElle gets to face forward now!) and she started waving to a lady in the car next to us!
Highlights of JoElle's First Year
At her 1 year checkup, JoElle weighed 20 lbs. 4 oz and is 29 inches long. Can you believe that she more than doubled in weight in just a year!?!?
JoElle's First Birthday Party~ Sunday, January 15th, 2006 at My Gym JoElle had her first birthday party, what fun it was! Check out some pics.
JoElle's Milestones over the past few months:
Thanksgiving Day- 10 Months, 1 week: JoElle started walking!
JoElle had been taking several step at a time for several weeks prior to this, but on Thanksgiving she took off and walked around the kitchen (although still wobbly, she keeps standing back up when she falls and walks some more!)
JOELLE TOOK HER FIRST STEPS ALL BY HERSELF! (9 months)
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 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!
On Decmber 9, 2005, JoElle made her first sign, she signed "milk" to me! We had been working on learning baby sign language, we started with milk as it is probably still the most important thing for JoElle, even though she loves food, too!
JoElle was fussing and I didn't know what she wanted because she had just had a bottle an hour before, she started signing "milk, milk" but it took a moment to register in my mind that she was communicating with me that she wanted her milk! Then when I was making the bottle, she frantically signed "MILK, MILK, MILK!" over and over telling me, "hurry up, Momma!"
It is so awesome that she can communicate in this way with us! We are now working on "eat" and "more" because JoElle seems to use her sign for "milk" to mean that she wants somethingin front of her or she wants food, so we are teaching her the difference between "milk" and "eating" food!
Dec 27th, Daddy was playing with JoElle while I napped and she did the same with him, he asked her what do you want, baby, what do you need? She paused, thought about it, and signed "milk" to him!
JoElle started saying "duck" on Dec. 12th, 2005 and "Uh-oh" pretty soon after. She also picked up "bye-bye" and "that" (to ask what something is) a while back (sometime in November); she also likes to roar whenver she sees a lion or bear, especially to her toy, Mr. Lion.
JoElle started waving around Nov 7th. She loves to wave at everybody, even the cars that go by when we are outside. Now she has perfected her wave (December) and she waves by touching her fingers to her palm, when she first started to wave, she waved like a queen at everyone!!
At 10 Months....
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!
JoElle was 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! But now she is going to sleep earlier, by 7:00, because she plays hard all day long in the toddler room. They have circle time, they play outside, they sing songs and they learn so much!
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!
JoElle learned how to use her walker, on September 20th; in fact, she turned her toy piano into a walker! She took the seat off and started pushing it to walk around! I can't believe she is so close to walking already. I wanted to cry becaues she is growing up so fast!!
JoElle started to stand up by herself without holding on to anything (7 months); She figured it out on Sunday, September 4th, when she was watching her cousin Peyton standing and walking all over the place. Then she started practicing her new skill all the time! JoElle can also stand up from sitting without holding on to anything, it's pretty impressive!
She loves to giggle and laugh, at pretty much anything really. Some things that make her laugh are: Daddy yawning, Mommy flipping her over, Mommy and Daddy laughing at her, the tv, her toys, riding in the car, Grandma, Peyton, any other kids....just about anything you can imagine makes her grin and giggle. JoElle is such a joyful baby; she is a huge blessing to us and everyone she comes in contact with. I pray for her that her joy will touch others hearts, especially those who do not have a personal relationship with our Saviour, Jesus. I pray that her love for others will bring others to love that Christ wants to show you.
JoElle has been crawling since she was 6 months and 1 week old! On August 3rd she started to actually crawl all over the place! Before that, she could only go a few crawls forward, and before that, many crawls backwards!! JoElle was rocking back and forth on all fours at 4 months, it took her two months to get the confidence and strength, but once she did, she just took off! She crawls and crawls and never looks back!
JoElle aslso started to pulling up to stand in her crib and everywhere else the same day she learned how to crawl. She likes to walk when we hold her hands. She is ready to just go! After a little over a month of this, now she can stand up in a split second, especially when we come in to her room to get her out of her crib, she scrambles up quickly and grins at us through the rails!
January 13th, 2006 JoElle is learning about animals at school
JoElle is learning how to "woof woof" like a puppy, she painted a cow all by herself in class, she is trying to quack like a duck, she likes to say duck, and she painted a yellow duck in class, too! They are also learning about cats and pigs. I think they may have been working on sheep because Friday she was saying "baa,baa" all evening long!
Aunt Ana and I baked and decorated JoElle's birthday cake for her First Birthday Party!! Yikes, I cannot believe she is almost a year old already! She looks like such a big girl now; she stopped looking like a baby several months ago, she looks like a little girl instead! We made her cake three-dimensional, with a caterpillar with different colors, striped, and polka dots. It is very cute!
Check out some pics of her devouring a cupcake while we were decorating her cake!
Thursday January 12th, 2006 More problems with dairy products....
So her new morning teacher in the toddler room is not quite comprehending what it means that JoElle CANNOT HAVE ANY MILK OR MILK PRODUCTS! AHHHH
So Tuesday I went to drop off snacks for her afternoon snack, since she cannot eat yogurt, and she was enjoying meatballs with rice. But then I looked at the rice, lo and behold, it was milky! I pointed this fact out to her teacher, who said, oh really? Then her teacher and a new teacher told me her diapers have been very loose that day. I told them "That's because you keep giving her milk and cheese and she is lactose intolerant" so I thought maybe they would get it FINALLY, but then Wednesday night JoElle threw up at home after refusing to eat dinner. When she won't eat green beans, I know we have a problem!
So, today, I dropped her off, reminded them again about NO MILK/DAIRY and told them she feels really sick AGAIN because of the milk they gave her...but call me if she gets worse.
I decided over break time to go up to the daycare to talk to the director about resolving this issue. She was trying to reach me at work to tell me JoElle was feeling bad, but I was already on my way!
We had a good discussion, then we had a discussion with the cook and the morning teacher, they are going to post it all over the place. Maybe we should put a sign around her neck "NO MILK!!"
All morning long she was trying to play, then she would go lay down on the floor, and her friend Trinity would go lay down next to her and pat her. Then when JoElle would lift up her head, Trinity would put her head back down! These little ones are just so sweet!
I took her up to my job to let my team know I wouldn't be there the rest of the day, everyone had a great time seeing her! She finally gave one other supervisor a smile and giggled at her. She wouldn't let me put her down. All afternoon at home, she wanted me to hold her. In fact this morning, she woke up a little early so I didn't have time to get dressed, and she refused to allow me to put her down so that I could get dressed, I gave her to Daddy, she still wanted me, but then ended up falling asleep on him after only a few minutes, so I knew she was not feeling well at all!
She was crying in so much pain this afternoon and there is no medication to give for it. I massaged her belly, we gave her apple juice, and I put a warm cloth over her belly, oh yeah and mylicon (gas) drops. She finally acted better after several hours and several dirty diapers...
January 9, 2006 1 year from our original due date :) Last time at this year I was miserable and praying for the contractions to actually pick up (they were so mild for an entire month, until they finally induced me on the 17th, her B-day)
January 8th, 2006 Picnic Time! Our first family picnic
Grandma wanted to go on a picnic, so we all met up at the duck pond at Trinity Park in Ft. Worth, Aunt Ana and Uncle Dan brought the fried chicken and a little picnic table for the kids. JoElle almost found a used hypodermic needle, yes that is very scary, but Grandma found it first and Uncle Dan disposed of it...
We had some excitement also because we tried JoElle on soy milk (since she is lactose intolerant and is almost a year old, I was trying to see what else she might be able to drink besides Lactose-Free formula), so that didn't go so well coming out, we had two MAJOR accidents at the duck pond. WOW, it was almost bad as the day we brought her home and she had a huge blowout from all the regular formula that she coulnd't digest... :)
Other than that, it was fun! JoElle enjoyed the ducks, she wanted to get in the water with them, she kept pointing at them saying "Du, du" (I guess she forgot the last sound is K!)
January 5, 2005 Cousin Isaiah's 8th Birthday Celebration
We spent time at Isaiah's house and JoElle played with her cousins. Check out the pics of JoElle, Elena, and Isaiah. JoElle gave Isaiah a book called "Critter Giggles" for his birthday, so he was telling us little ainmal jokes all night! She enjoyed the birthday cake, too!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Several Posts...
January 5th- My First Molar
JoElle's first molar broke through, finally! It has been working it's way out for the past month, but now she has her ninth tooth, the top left molar. The other three are budding, they will be out soon, too.
JoElle visited her cousin, Isaiah, today on his 8th birthday. She had fun playing with him and his sister, Elena's toys. JoElle really enjoyed the cake; she gave Isaiah a book of jokes called Critter Giggles, so he amused us with animal jokes all night!
January 2, 2006 JoElle had her first "accident" at home....
JoElle was walking around outside with me, Tandi, and Uncle Aaron, she got WAY too excited and she fell face first onto the driveway; she scraped up her nose and bumped her forehead. She didn't cry that long, I held her, comforted her, and cleaned her up. Then I gave her a blanket, she got happy. It looks a bit nasty, Daddy was a little upset with me, but I told him she's gonna fall....so he is ok with it now.
Tandi spent the night, JoElle just loved and loved on her. It was adorable! She really loves Tandi! She didn't even want mommy or daddy...!
We got a seat for our bikes for JoElle to ride with us, and a helmet of course! She loved it! While we were riding around, Tim told me that JoElle was looking at his bike curiously, and the JoElle said "bike!" It was really funny!!
Needless to say, she went to bed a little early tonight; I also tried to substitute her bottle of milk for a cup with a straw, but she wasn't having that! She is trying to SAY milk as she signs milk. Earlier today, we were cheering her on for setting her cup down on the table and not throwing it down. She thrives on the positive reinforcement. But then she threw her cup on the ground, looked at each on of us, saw our faces and her face scrunched up, she started bawling!!!! She knew she shouldn't have done it!
January 1, 2006 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Cousin Peyton got to spend the night with us for the first time on New Year's Eve! We had a lot of fun (both were down by 7:30, we can do this two kid thing someday... :)
In the morning, I got up at 8:00 to go see if they were both awake and sure enough, I can see Peyton standing in his playpen/bed waiting for me, blanket in hand, paci in his mouth! But he didn't make a peep! Then I peeked in at JoElle and she heard the door, so she started to look around, I closed it real quickly so that Peyton and I could go make her bottle. So, I gave Peyton a bottle with apple juice and water and changed JoElle, then I put her down on a quilt on the floor with him and changed his diaper! It worked really well.
I put both of them in a chair at JoElle's new little Nemo table, and they both sat so sweetly and ate waffles. Peyton ate at least 6 mini-waffles AND a fruit cup!! JoElle ate her normal amount, around 3-4, no fruit of course, she is a veggie girl, but Peyton loves fruit! Every once in a while she will eat fruit when she sees him eating it! He still won't eat veggies (I tried to put a pea in his mouth the night before, but he refused!) It was SO CUTE to see them sitting there like big kids, eating away!! Tim sang some VeggieTale songs to them and they thought it was hilarous, they were grooving back and forth to the music while they ate!
Then we took both of them to church, they got to be in the same class for Sunday School. Peyton had really wide open eyes when we rode the shuttle to church from the parking lot. He was taking it all in! he did great there for his first time!
Again, they sat so nicely at their table and ate lunch! Peyton and JoElle chowed down on some leftover flautas from On The Border, some green beans (JoElle only of course), bread, and I made them some mini-eggrolls (I made up the inside, lots of ginger and garlic!) They tore them up! They were kicking each other's feet under the table and JoElle giggled as she thought it was funny!!
Dec 28, 2005 JoElle makes me laugh so much! We were in the bathroom and she likes to pull the toilet paper off the roll, but this time she walked up to it, pointed and shook her head "no, no" over and over with a serious look on her face! It was so cute!
One of her teachers, Ms. Stacy, asked me last week if JoElle is testing us at home. I asked her "What do you mean?" and she told me JoElle will start to cry and scream right as Ms. Stacy is making her bottle or is about to give her snack or lunch, then Ms. Stacy will tell her "JoElle, you have to be patient, your food is coming" and JoElle will look at her with a knowing look, she will stop and think, oh I am not at home, I am at school and I can't get everything right away!! She is comprehending so much that everyone says these days!
Also, JoElle threw all her cheese puffs on the ground, then she started fussing, so Ms. Stacy made her look at the mess she made and told her that when she does this she has nothing left to eat. JoElle just listening and got a sad look on her face. Then, Ms. Stacy told her that she would give her some of her snacks, but she had to eat them, and JoElle did eat them!
We are working on this, JoElle learning not to throw her food on the ground. She thinks it is funny or she will throw it down and say "Uh-oh"
Daddy told her to stop throwing her food on the ground at dinner time and he used his Daddy tone, JoElle's face scrunched up and she started bawling! She doesn't want to disappoint Daddy!
December 27, 2005
I took an extra day off so we got to relax and play today. JoElle figure out how to climb onto her little Finding Nemo chair all by herself, she was so proud of herself! She also got down by herself, too. Grandma came over and we went to the park, we had fun on the slides and swing. We also at at Don Pablos, JoElle ate some chips with a little bit of salsa :)
I fell asleep on the couch around 5:00, so JoElle learned how to play football on Daddy's playstation. JoElle ran 20 yards all by herself. She likes to imitate everything Daddy does. Then JoElle played with Daddy in her play kitchen, then she got into our kitchen and threw around some stainless steel measuring cups and kept laughing about it. Then JoElle tried to climb up into the kitchen table all by herself, but of course she fell over because the chair is a little bit too high! JoElle also went over to the front door and started banging on it and waving bye-bye. Thn she went over to her sandals and started staring at them like "OK pt the on so that we can go outside!" Daddy couldn't figure out what she needed later because she kept crying, so he asked her "what do you want" What do you need?" She paused, thought about it, then she told him (in sign language) "Milk!" We are really loving this sign language!
Every once in a while I would feel a little cold hand on my foot. Daddy says she was blowing me kisses but got a lttle upset that I wouldn't blow any kisses back (I was still sleeping).
Yesterday, our friends Natalie and Anthony brought their daughter Trinity over, she is 3 months younger than JoElle. JoElle was unhappy before they got to our house, but as soon as they showed up, she was all smiles and giggles! Her and Trinity had fun together.
Later, after Trinity went home, we rented March of the Penguins for JoElle and we sat around and ate popcorn. JoElle loved the popcorn! She sat on my lap and would stick her hand in the bowl and stuff 4 or 5 pieces in her mouth at a time! We couldn't help but laugh!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS GROWING UP SO FAST! She is so mature now!!! It goes by way too quickly...
Christmas Day 2005
Wow what a busy day! We started the morning with presents, we helped JoElle open her presents, she got a play kitchen from Santa and we gave her a ton of plastic food. Tim gave me a much desired Day Spa Package, yay!! I gave Tim several study Bibles since his old one fell apart.
We went to church, the nursery was pretty empty. When I picked JoElle up, the lady holding her asked me "Do I have to give her back now!?"
JoElle got a short nap, then Granny and Grandad came bearing gifts. JoElle got a little doll that giggles like her, a train and a little bitty wagon she can pull her toys around in. Then Grandad took her on a wagon ride with his cap on her, she had a ball, she loves being outside, especially in her wagon.
Then we spent the afternoon and evening with Granmda, Aunt Ana, Uncle Dan, Cousin Peyton and Uncle Aaron at cousin Peyton's house. It was crazy with all the wrapping paper and toys! JoElle got a Strawberry Shortcake CD player, a jack in the box, some really cute clothes from Aunt Ana, diapers!!, that little ball hopper that you push around, and a cute homemade blanket from Great Aunt Mary.
JoElle and Peyton were so overwhelmed from all the excitment! They both devoured some of Grandma's chocolate chip cookies and then went to bed early at 7:00 p.m.
Christmas Eve 2005
We had a wonderful holiday! On Christmas Eve we visited Santa at Santaland in Arlington at Lincoln Square. We both expected her to bawl when we handed her to Santa, but she didn't! What a brave girl! I had Tim hand her to Santa, that worked well. Also, before she went up there, she sat on Daddy's lap and pointed at Santa, so she kinda got used to the idea of kids sitting on Santa's lap.
Then Uncle Aaron went with us to our candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. JoElle did great!! She wore her little Santa outfit, Uncle Aaron kept telling me, everyone keeps saying how cute she is...she was blowing kisses to me during service and the people behind us were commenting "Oh how cute, did you see that?" then the lady behind us started waving at JoElle and JoElle giggled at her, it was really cute.
She did great through the whole service, watched Pastor give his sermon and enjoyed the singing. When pastor said "Jesus died and rose from the dead" JoElle started clapping really excitedly!
Afterwards we ate at I-Hop since everything else was closed, JoElle did great there too (it has become rather difficult to go out to eat because she wants to be mobile). For the first time we bought her her own plate to eat, she had sausage rolled up in pancakes. Halfway though dinner she started grinning and giggling, I looked around and the lady next to us was waving at her, and JoElle loved it!
When we got home, JoElle gave Daddy a fVeggietales family devotional and we gave JoElle a Veggietale DVD, some music CD's and a silver spoon (of course she loved the spoon the best!)
Dec. 16, 2005
JoElle had a Christmas party at school on Friday at 2:00 (she moved up to the toddler room right after Thanksgiving); I went up to have some fun with them. They all ate some yummy sugar cookies that Ms. Carol made, along with some juice (which is a treat for them since they usually only drink water or milk); they sang some cute songs; some of JoElle's friends are several months older and when their teacher, Ms. Stacy asks what they want to sing they say "Row row row" so that they can sing "Row Row Row Your Boat", it's so cute!!
They exchanged Christmas presents and JoElle got a yellow Care Bear from her friend Megan. JoElle played with the bag for about 10 minutes because it had animals on it. Megan played with JoElle Care Bear for her at first because she loves Care Bears, then JoElle finally got interested in the bear.
December 9, 2005 JoElle made her first sign this evening!
I didn't know what she needed and she kept signing to me "Milk, milk" and after a few times I got it! We have been teaching her for several weeks how to sign "milk" in baby sign language (it looks like you are milking a cow), but I didn't really expect her to start using it already! I am so glad she did though because I didn't know what she needed! When I was preparing her milk, she kept signing "milk,milk,milk" over and over telling me, hurry up momma I want my milk!!
November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving Day- 10 Months, 1 week: JoElle started walking! JoElle has been taking several step at a time for the past week weeks, but on Thanksgiving she took off and walked around the kitchen (although still wobbly, she keeps standing back up when she falls and walks some more!)
I can't believe JoElle started walking today! This morning she took several steps, and then several more, and several more, all without falling and all by herself (in the kitchen). Now when she falls down, she gets right back up to walk some more!
She used to get lazy and start crawling when she fell down. She has been taking 8 or so steps at a time for several weeks, but now she is really walking! I have been warned that she will soon be running all over the place!!
We got to spend time with all the grandparents and all the (first) cousins today. See pics of cousin Elena (7 months) and cousin Isaiah. No new pics of cousin Peyton, but we did get to see him along with Uncle Aaron and Aunt Ana.
JoElle is sleeping in these days when I don't have to wake her up early to go to work/school. Yesterday, she fell alseep in the car after shopping at Wal-Mart, it was around 6:00 p.m.; then I transferred her to her bed and she never woke up until the morning, not even to eat dinner! wow was she a tired little girl from learning her new skill of walking!
This week at her school they had a Thanksgiving lunch for the kids an parents; we got to go to it along with my mom. It was fun and the little ones were dressed as pilgrims,how cute! Ms. Carol made great food for all of us, parents included; she cooks great! JoElle loves to eat the breakfast and lunch she cooks each day.
JoElle's first molar broke through, finally! It has been working it's way out for the past month, but now she has her ninth tooth, the top left molar. The other three are budding, they will be out soon, too.
JoElle visited her cousin, Isaiah, today on his 8th birthday. She had fun playing with him and his sister, Elena's toys. JoElle really enjoyed the cake; she gave Isaiah a book of jokes called Critter Giggles, so he amused us with animal jokes all night!
January 2, 2006 JoElle had her first "accident" at home....
JoElle was walking around outside with me, Tandi, and Uncle Aaron, she got WAY too excited and she fell face first onto the driveway; she scraped up her nose and bumped her forehead. She didn't cry that long, I held her, comforted her, and cleaned her up. Then I gave her a blanket, she got happy. It looks a bit nasty, Daddy was a little upset with me, but I told him she's gonna fall....so he is ok with it now.
Tandi spent the night, JoElle just loved and loved on her. It was adorable! She really loves Tandi! She didn't even want mommy or daddy...!
We got a seat for our bikes for JoElle to ride with us, and a helmet of course! She loved it! While we were riding around, Tim told me that JoElle was looking at his bike curiously, and the JoElle said "bike!" It was really funny!!
Needless to say, she went to bed a little early tonight; I also tried to substitute her bottle of milk for a cup with a straw, but she wasn't having that! She is trying to SAY milk as she signs milk. Earlier today, we were cheering her on for setting her cup down on the table and not throwing it down. She thrives on the positive reinforcement. But then she threw her cup on the ground, looked at each on of us, saw our faces and her face scrunched up, she started bawling!!!! She knew she shouldn't have done it!
January 1, 2006 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Cousin Peyton got to spend the night with us for the first time on New Year's Eve! We had a lot of fun (both were down by 7:30, we can do this two kid thing someday... :)
In the morning, I got up at 8:00 to go see if they were both awake and sure enough, I can see Peyton standing in his playpen/bed waiting for me, blanket in hand, paci in his mouth! But he didn't make a peep! Then I peeked in at JoElle and she heard the door, so she started to look around, I closed it real quickly so that Peyton and I could go make her bottle. So, I gave Peyton a bottle with apple juice and water and changed JoElle, then I put her down on a quilt on the floor with him and changed his diaper! It worked really well.
I put both of them in a chair at JoElle's new little Nemo table, and they both sat so sweetly and ate waffles. Peyton ate at least 6 mini-waffles AND a fruit cup!! JoElle ate her normal amount, around 3-4, no fruit of course, she is a veggie girl, but Peyton loves fruit! Every once in a while she will eat fruit when she sees him eating it! He still won't eat veggies (I tried to put a pea in his mouth the night before, but he refused!) It was SO CUTE to see them sitting there like big kids, eating away!! Tim sang some VeggieTale songs to them and they thought it was hilarous, they were grooving back and forth to the music while they ate!
Then we took both of them to church, they got to be in the same class for Sunday School. Peyton had really wide open eyes when we rode the shuttle to church from the parking lot. He was taking it all in! he did great there for his first time!
Again, they sat so nicely at their table and ate lunch! Peyton and JoElle chowed down on some leftover flautas from On The Border, some green beans (JoElle only of course), bread, and I made them some mini-eggrolls (I made up the inside, lots of ginger and garlic!) They tore them up! They were kicking each other's feet under the table and JoElle giggled as she thought it was funny!!
Dec 28, 2005 JoElle makes me laugh so much! We were in the bathroom and she likes to pull the toilet paper off the roll, but this time she walked up to it, pointed and shook her head "no, no" over and over with a serious look on her face! It was so cute!
One of her teachers, Ms. Stacy, asked me last week if JoElle is testing us at home. I asked her "What do you mean?" and she told me JoElle will start to cry and scream right as Ms. Stacy is making her bottle or is about to give her snack or lunch, then Ms. Stacy will tell her "JoElle, you have to be patient, your food is coming" and JoElle will look at her with a knowing look, she will stop and think, oh I am not at home, I am at school and I can't get everything right away!! She is comprehending so much that everyone says these days!
Also, JoElle threw all her cheese puffs on the ground, then she started fussing, so Ms. Stacy made her look at the mess she made and told her that when she does this she has nothing left to eat. JoElle just listening and got a sad look on her face. Then, Ms. Stacy told her that she would give her some of her snacks, but she had to eat them, and JoElle did eat them!
We are working on this, JoElle learning not to throw her food on the ground. She thinks it is funny or she will throw it down and say "Uh-oh"
Daddy told her to stop throwing her food on the ground at dinner time and he used his Daddy tone, JoElle's face scrunched up and she started bawling! She doesn't want to disappoint Daddy!
December 27, 2005
I took an extra day off so we got to relax and play today. JoElle figure out how to climb onto her little Finding Nemo chair all by herself, she was so proud of herself! She also got down by herself, too. Grandma came over and we went to the park, we had fun on the slides and swing. We also at at Don Pablos, JoElle ate some chips with a little bit of salsa :)
I fell asleep on the couch around 5:00, so JoElle learned how to play football on Daddy's playstation. JoElle ran 20 yards all by herself. She likes to imitate everything Daddy does. Then JoElle played with Daddy in her play kitchen, then she got into our kitchen and threw around some stainless steel measuring cups and kept laughing about it. Then JoElle tried to climb up into the kitchen table all by herself, but of course she fell over because the chair is a little bit too high! JoElle also went over to the front door and started banging on it and waving bye-bye. Thn she went over to her sandals and started staring at them like "OK pt the on so that we can go outside!" Daddy couldn't figure out what she needed later because she kept crying, so he asked her "what do you want" What do you need?" She paused, thought about it, then she told him (in sign language) "Milk!" We are really loving this sign language!
Every once in a while I would feel a little cold hand on my foot. Daddy says she was blowing me kisses but got a lttle upset that I wouldn't blow any kisses back (I was still sleeping).
Yesterday, our friends Natalie and Anthony brought their daughter Trinity over, she is 3 months younger than JoElle. JoElle was unhappy before they got to our house, but as soon as they showed up, she was all smiles and giggles! Her and Trinity had fun together.
Later, after Trinity went home, we rented March of the Penguins for JoElle and we sat around and ate popcorn. JoElle loved the popcorn! She sat on my lap and would stick her hand in the bowl and stuff 4 or 5 pieces in her mouth at a time! We couldn't help but laugh!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS GROWING UP SO FAST! She is so mature now!!! It goes by way too quickly...
Christmas Day 2005
Wow what a busy day! We started the morning with presents, we helped JoElle open her presents, she got a play kitchen from Santa and we gave her a ton of plastic food. Tim gave me a much desired Day Spa Package, yay!! I gave Tim several study Bibles since his old one fell apart.
We went to church, the nursery was pretty empty. When I picked JoElle up, the lady holding her asked me "Do I have to give her back now!?"
JoElle got a short nap, then Granny and Grandad came bearing gifts. JoElle got a little doll that giggles like her, a train and a little bitty wagon she can pull her toys around in. Then Grandad took her on a wagon ride with his cap on her, she had a ball, she loves being outside, especially in her wagon.
Then we spent the afternoon and evening with Granmda, Aunt Ana, Uncle Dan, Cousin Peyton and Uncle Aaron at cousin Peyton's house. It was crazy with all the wrapping paper and toys! JoElle got a Strawberry Shortcake CD player, a jack in the box, some really cute clothes from Aunt Ana, diapers!!, that little ball hopper that you push around, and a cute homemade blanket from Great Aunt Mary.
JoElle and Peyton were so overwhelmed from all the excitment! They both devoured some of Grandma's chocolate chip cookies and then went to bed early at 7:00 p.m.
Christmas Eve 2005
We had a wonderful holiday! On Christmas Eve we visited Santa at Santaland in Arlington at Lincoln Square. We both expected her to bawl when we handed her to Santa, but she didn't! What a brave girl! I had Tim hand her to Santa, that worked well. Also, before she went up there, she sat on Daddy's lap and pointed at Santa, so she kinda got used to the idea of kids sitting on Santa's lap.
Then Uncle Aaron went with us to our candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. JoElle did great!! She wore her little Santa outfit, Uncle Aaron kept telling me, everyone keeps saying how cute she is...she was blowing kisses to me during service and the people behind us were commenting "Oh how cute, did you see that?" then the lady behind us started waving at JoElle and JoElle giggled at her, it was really cute.
She did great through the whole service, watched Pastor give his sermon and enjoyed the singing. When pastor said "Jesus died and rose from the dead" JoElle started clapping really excitedly!
Afterwards we ate at I-Hop since everything else was closed, JoElle did great there too (it has become rather difficult to go out to eat because she wants to be mobile). For the first time we bought her her own plate to eat, she had sausage rolled up in pancakes. Halfway though dinner she started grinning and giggling, I looked around and the lady next to us was waving at her, and JoElle loved it!
When we got home, JoElle gave Daddy a fVeggietales family devotional and we gave JoElle a Veggietale DVD, some music CD's and a silver spoon (of course she loved the spoon the best!)
Dec. 16, 2005
JoElle had a Christmas party at school on Friday at 2:00 (she moved up to the toddler room right after Thanksgiving); I went up to have some fun with them. They all ate some yummy sugar cookies that Ms. Carol made, along with some juice (which is a treat for them since they usually only drink water or milk); they sang some cute songs; some of JoElle's friends are several months older and when their teacher, Ms. Stacy asks what they want to sing they say "Row row row" so that they can sing "Row Row Row Your Boat", it's so cute!!
They exchanged Christmas presents and JoElle got a yellow Care Bear from her friend Megan. JoElle played with the bag for about 10 minutes because it had animals on it. Megan played with JoElle Care Bear for her at first because she loves Care Bears, then JoElle finally got interested in the bear.
December 9, 2005 JoElle made her first sign this evening!
I didn't know what she needed and she kept signing to me "Milk, milk" and after a few times I got it! We have been teaching her for several weeks how to sign "milk" in baby sign language (it looks like you are milking a cow), but I didn't really expect her to start using it already! I am so glad she did though because I didn't know what she needed! When I was preparing her milk, she kept signing "milk,milk,milk" over and over telling me, hurry up momma I want my milk!!
November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving Day- 10 Months, 1 week: JoElle started walking! JoElle has been taking several step at a time for the past week weeks, but on Thanksgiving she took off and walked around the kitchen (although still wobbly, she keeps standing back up when she falls and walks some more!)
I can't believe JoElle started walking today! This morning she took several steps, and then several more, and several more, all without falling and all by herself (in the kitchen). Now when she falls down, she gets right back up to walk some more!
She used to get lazy and start crawling when she fell down. She has been taking 8 or so steps at a time for several weeks, but now she is really walking! I have been warned that she will soon be running all over the place!!
We got to spend time with all the grandparents and all the (first) cousins today. See pics of cousin Elena (7 months) and cousin Isaiah. No new pics of cousin Peyton, but we did get to see him along with Uncle Aaron and Aunt Ana.
JoElle is sleeping in these days when I don't have to wake her up early to go to work/school. Yesterday, she fell alseep in the car after shopping at Wal-Mart, it was around 6:00 p.m.; then I transferred her to her bed and she never woke up until the morning, not even to eat dinner! wow was she a tired little girl from learning her new skill of walking!
This week at her school they had a Thanksgiving lunch for the kids an parents; we got to go to it along with my mom. It was fun and the little ones were dressed as pilgrims,how cute! Ms. Carol made great food for all of us, parents included; she cooks great! JoElle loves to eat the breakfast and lunch she cooks each day.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
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!
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
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.
Monday, November 7, 2005
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!
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!
Monday, October 31, 2005
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!
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!
Friday, October 28, 2005
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!
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!
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