Some of JoElle's other favorite words are "milk- she finally started saying it instead of signing it- flower, water, (Aunt) Ana, Tandi, Jesus, Amen, socks, shoes, teeth, up, down, hello, mine, book, please, eat, more, bath, trash, rocks, and hot.
She said "Grandad" on July 16th and several weeks before she started saying "Nanny or Nene" for Granny and she also puts her hand to her ear like she is talking on the phone because she talks to Granny on the phone a lot!
Back in the beginning of June/end of May she started saying some of these words: flippers, scissors, mow, color, potty, Wal-Mart, Pampers, and no (she finally picked up on no, but hasn't used it since (May 30th). She said (Uncle) Aaron (June 6th).
The weekend of June 3rd, Nana took JoElle outside while Daddy was mowing, and JoElle pointed at Daddy and said "Daddy mow!"
She also likes to ask "What is that?" and when you tell her, she tries so hard to repeat you!
June 7, 2006 JoElle said a new word today at school: "Pampers!"
Ms. Stacy told me that JoElle saw another baby's wipes with the word "Pampers" on it, and so she pointed at it and said "Pampers!"
I don't know how she knows this stuff??? We don't even USE Pampers, we use Huggies!
At VBS tonight, JoElle learned a song that says "Jesus loves me,me, me" and she pointed to herself and said "me, me me!" She enjoys singing and dancing. JoElle knows we always say prayers before eating, too. She loves to say "Amen!" and throw her hands up in the air.
June 6, 2006 JoElle has so much energy! We have been at VBS this week- I am leading a first grade group and JoElle is participating in her own preschool VBS. When I picked her up, she was running around the room, giggling and screaming in delight!
Can you believe that they told me "JoElle is very outgoing!" No, not JoElle????!???!! Hehe.
JoElle is really growing up, I know it's inevitable, but she looks so much like a big kid now, her language is exploding, she feels remorse when she does something she shouldn't have...
Yesterday, I was trying to give her some more to eat and she told me "No more!" I had to laugh.
Today was school picture day, beach scene, I can't wait to see how they come out!
JoElle last weighed in at 22 lbs on May 30th (16 months), then a month later she was almost 23 lbs. I can't even believe how many words she was saying at 16 months old! She loves to talk and learn new words. I have lost track of how many words she says, it was over 50 spoken words sometime in May, she had a language explosion in May.
By the end of July, she was starting to puts words together to make sentences, especially "I want milk and I want water."
The week of July 11th, her favorite word is march. She loves to march around the house. She knows how to put her hands behind her back and march in a line! It is cute....
May 30, 2006
JoElle says over 50 words clearly at home, at school she has even more in her vocab, but they forget to tell me!! We can't keep up with this girl, she loves talking!
Words she started saying at 16 months: (Aunt) Ana, Tandi, no, mine, flower, water, bath, scissors, potty, teeth, socks, shoes, down, book, more, bath, trash, color, airplane, Jesus, Amen.
Every day she learns a new word or two or more...she has had a language explosion this past month.
Some of her previous words from the past several months are: baby, row row, night night, bubbles, Dada and Mama, hi, bye, that, uh-oh, wow, ball, duck, quack quack, roar, Bible, diaper, light, eye and eyes, mouth, hug, bear, blue, red, yellow, knock knock, up, what, is, car, Nana forGrandma and nana for banana, and bop (for pop), mouth, milk, moon.
JoElle points to her teeth and says "teeth" and points to her mouth and says "mouth." She can almost say bird, still sounds like "bir" She is still trying to say "fish" She almost has this one! JoElle finally mastered "Up" for us to pick her up.
On Saturday, March 18, 2006 JoElle was pointing at her clock in her room and she turned to me and asked me "What is this?" I couldn't believe it! She is trying to put words together into sentences and she is good at repeating what people tell her to say.
JoElle also signs over 15 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, bath, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, monkey, and drink! She is also putting two spoken or two signed words together. She says "Hi Dada" and signs "more (to) eat" and "all done eat(ing)" It is so cool, she learned her first sign "milk" when she was 9 months old, then she learned three signs all during the week that she turned 1.
We quit learing new signs since she is talking so much, but she still uses the ones that she knows.
May 26, 2006 JoElle is learning how to use her potty
I got her a potty today and she was so excited to sit on it, that she actually used it! She was so suprised, she looked at me like "what was that?"
Then she wanted to go potty every few minutes. Every time shes uses the restroom in her diaper she tells us, so I figured it was time for her to start learning...I know she is still fairly young, but she is interested.
May 18th, 2006 JoElle is sleeping in her big girl bed now!
We switched her crib to a toddler bed because she kept wanting to climb into her crib and I was tired of lifting her! She got so excited that she can climb in and out on her own!
But since she doesn't have a rail, I put our couch cushion next to her bed in case she rolls out...sure enough, she rolls out almost every night and lays on her blankets on the floor! She looks so comfy too on the floor! I guess eventually she will learn not to roll out. So far, in almost two weeks, she went two nights without rolling out !!!
May 6, 2006 Mayfest time!
We went to Mayfest at Trinity Park in Ft. Worth today with Uncle Aaron. When we got there it rained on us, but Daddy and JoElle shot hoops in the rain anyways! We saw our friends Trinity with her mom, Natalie, and her dad, Anthony; they were on their way out as we were coming in. Trinity is several months younger than JoElle, but she is much bigger than JoElle! She kept wanting to touch JoElle, very sweet!
It brought back memories from when we were kids and our parents took us to Mayfest, we would build stuff with the nails and wood they have in the kids area, race big wheels, make impressions of our hands, play in the sand, make sand art, eat funnel cakes and sausage...
JoElle made impressions of her hands in plaster for us, she liked the feel of it between her fingers and wanted to do it again. Uncle Aaron helped me with it; he held it in the sun so it could dry because it was still a little rainy. JoElle got her name written for her in Taiwenese; she got a butterfly painted on her face (it got smeared several minutes later by her hand!), we made a bird feeder out of peanut butter and bird seend, then Daddy let JoElle watch some kids doing gymnastics while my brother and I made Happy Sacks (balloons with sand) for my employees on my team--we all kinda get stressed out at times ya know?
I bought a funnel cake becuase JoElle was asking for milk (she was probably just hungry and the first thing that came to her mind was milk); she devoured it and had powdered sugar all over her face, hands and clothes. She especially liked to eat the sugar....
We watched a duck race, that was fun! We watched some kids dancing on stage; JoElle was bobbing her head a bit, then waving and saying hi to some guy standing next to us; he thought it was cute and turned to his wife to show her JoElle was saying hi to him!
At home, JoElle was letting Uncle Aaron hold her like a baby; so she started saying "baby!" in reference to herself. This is the first time she has ever called herself a baby :) Did I mention how much she loves for him to tickle her??? She laughs hysterically...
May 2, 2006
JoElle helped me mix up some pumpkin bread; this was the first time she has been able to help me cook. We had lots of fun. She was very interested in mixing up the gooey mixture, she held the spoon and I helped her mix. Then I let her eat off the spoon, which she really enjoyed, checked out the pics of her eating the batter!!
April 23, 2006 Happy Birthday Cousin Elena!
Cousin Elena turned 1 year old today, Happy First Birthday! We celebrated her birthday with her this evening, we ate cake, played with her balloons, then played with her new toys! Lots of fun.
This afternoon we discovered that JoElle knows the sounds of a ton of animals (all that time spent watching World Animals and Neighborhood Animal Baby Einstein DVDs...!)
I asked her "What sound does a dog make?" and she said "woof woof." She also can tell you the sounds of a cat, elephant, lion, bear, tiger, giraffe (don't ask, it's on the video!), cow, duck and probably some more, I can't remember.
One of her fave things to do now is to put her babies to bed, she loves to cover them up with blankets, give them their play bottle, pat them on the back, tell them "night night", then kiss them. It is the sweetest thing, she is in training to be a big sister one day (key word is ONE day, not yet!)
JoElle got to take a bath with me today in the big tub, she had a great time splashing around, catching bubbles, and trying to swim.
Physically, JoElle learned how to walk backwards last week. She loves to walk backwards now, it's pretty funny! She can ALMOST jump; when you tell her to jump, she squats down really low and then springs up (without actually getting off the floor!).
Her top canine teeth are about to break through..then we will be done with all her teeth until her 2 year old molars come in!
JoElle will give kisses now, when I tell her to give Daddy or me kisses she will come give you a big kiss.
She is still really attached to me and loves to say Mama all the time, in fact she called my brother "Mama" yesterday ! JoElle loves Uncle Aaron so much.
I am excited, we have a new cousin on the way.......more about that later! We think JoElle will have another girl cousin!!
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Friday, April 7, 2006
Several posts...
15 Months Old
JoElle loves to talk! She talks and sings all the time, sometimes yells so we can hear her....she talks as if she is talking in sentences, but most of the words don't make sense...but now she is up to over 30 spoken words: Dada, Mama (her favorite one right now), hi, bye, that, uh-oh, wow, ball, duck, bubbles, quack quack, roar, baah for a sheep, Bible, diaper (ok she stopped saying this, now it's a Bible again!), light, eye and eyes, hug, bear, night night, blue, red, knock knock, what, is, row, Nana for Grandma, baby, and bop (really she is trying to say pop for the jack in the box!)
JoElle points to her teeth and sayd "tee" and points to her mouth and says "mou." She can almost say bird, still sounds like "bir" She is still trying to say "fish" and "shoe" they both still sound like "sh"! JoElle is trying to say "Up" for us to pick her up (it used to sound like uh, now it's "puh"!" JoElle likes to say bear,without the r....but hey close enough right? She is close to saying "more" when she signs more, especially because in the car I can't see her signing more when she wants more teddy grahams, so she has started to say "mu mu" and for milk she says "mil." Is it hard for kids to learn the last sounds in words or something?
JoElle also still signs, over 15 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, monkey, drink, Mama, Daddy, and bath.
April 7, 2006 This weekend we took JoElle to an Easter egg hunt at a church by us. It was cute watching her pick up the eggs and put them into her little bunny basket. Then we took her to the park (Uncle Aaron was with us). JoElle actually enjoyed the slides for the first time (probably only because Uncle Aaron was helping her slide). Then we took a walk through the trees, and when we got back to the park my friend Robyn and her daughter Kamryn were at the park! How crazy, we didn't know the other was there, but Kamryn loved that we were there! I helped JoElle swing a little in a big kid swing, but when I asked my brother to take a pic of her, she decided to jump down...
On Sunday we went to an Easter egg hunt at TCU (where Uncle Aaron and Aunt Ana went to college) but it was over right after it started, in about two minutes because the parents didn't let the little kids hunt the eggs, the adults scrambled to pick up the eggs for the kids, how boring :(
So we went to Ridgmar mall after, JoElle played a little on their playground, but she was tired. We tried doing Easter bunny pics with cousin Peyton, but the lady took too long to take the pics, she wanted them to both smile, so JoElle started crying and reaching for me....Oh well like Grandma said, I cried in all my pics until I was about 4!!
~~~April 14, 2006~~~
JoElle said "baby"today while we were watching her favorite baby Einstein viedo. She can't get enough of the animals of these three DVD's; she just sits in front of the t.v., captivated. As soon as we get home from school/work, she turns the t.v. and the DVD player on. I am close to teaching her how to puch the button for DVD input and to push the play button. Just another week and I bet she will be doing all the steps by herself!...see stories for more of what we've up to lately.
We've all been very busy lately with work. Tim is liking his "new" job at Wachovia (he's been working there for about 2 months I think); I am crazy busy at work still managing two teams, I can't wait to get back to just managing my team!
This week we have all been suffering from allregies/asthma. JoElle and I visited Tandi after work Tuesday; JoElle had a ton of fun playing with Tandi. I have never seen her crack up as much as she did when they were playing! JoElle was petting Tandi's kitty, and the kitty was sleepy, so JoElle put her head down on the floor next to the kitty and said "night night" It was precious!
Unfortunately, the next day I was so sick (I'm allergic to kitties) that I couldn't even go to work or take JoElle to daycare so that I could rest. Soooo...I gave her a cup of milk in the morning, but her back to bed and she slept in until 10:00.. then I dozed in the living room with her favorite DVD on continuous play. Every once in a while I would wake up to JoElle standing on my head to reach the box of Klennix; she loves to pull Kleenix out of the box an either tear them up or pretend touse them. After several hours of this, JoElle had almost every single toy in the living room next to me, including all our shoes! (Did I mention she LOVES shoes?)
I think she knew I didn't feel good, she was so well behaved; then she took a nap from 1-4 so I could sleep, too. When I woke up and checked on her, she was sitting in her crib, she gave me a huge grin and jumped up so that I could get her.
March 28, 2006
Dear JoElle,
I love you so much! It is amazing how much love I have for you; you bring such joy to my heart. I love your smile and the way your eyes light up when you grin at us! In the car, you love to talk, giggle, and do anything to get my attention! Today in the car you were hiding under your blanket and giggling hysterically and you couldn't help but talk and give your hiding place away!
I love how you sit on our laps when you want to watch a movie or read a book and how you climb all over us, hug us, give us kisses, and I love it when you run and jump into my arms!
JoElle, the way you approach the world is fascinating; you love to encounter new things and explore old things over and over and over. You are always testing the world to see what it is all about; every day is a new adventure but you still look to us for reassurance and love.
One of the best things about you is your wonderful attitude and beautiful smile! You're giggling warms my heart, too. You love to be silly and loud all at the same time. It's funny how you like to turn around and make yourself dizzy. I can't imagine our lives without you! Every day is new, interesting and special.
I love the way you say "Mama;" it is so precious! The last week you have been saying "Mama" a lot and you want me to pick you up and hold you all the time (but then want right back down again!)
You are growing up too fast, but then I love your independant and willful spirit! You know what you want and you let it be known! I can't wait to see you develop into a beautiful young woman, but I am cherishing every moment of your toddler days!
Love,
Mama
March 24, 2006 JoElle is such a doll :)
This evening we were sitting on the couch watching basketball, Daddy points to the t.v. and says "basketball" and JoElle then puts to the t.v. and "baball" hehe it was so cute.
We were singing some of her favorite songs and I was done with a song, so she signed "more more" to me. Then she started saying "row row" and moving her arms like she was rowing a boat (they love to sing this in her daycare class). I started to sing the song "10 in the Bed" and the little one said "roll over, roll over" and when I sang "roll over" so did JoElle (it sounded a bit like "row row").
I was asking her where her body parts are, she showed me her eyes, nose, teeth, head, belly, toes and mouth (and at the same time she showed Daddy his and Mama hers!) Then I asked her duck, she signed duck, bird, airplane, monkey, light, and I taugh her Daddy and Mommy. It only took two times before she signed both to us!
Then JoElle was rocking back in forth like a crazy girl while I was holding her, grinning and giggling, then I stopped and she told me "more more"! I put her on the floor and told her to go turn around and make herself dizzy.....and she actually did it !! It was too funny. I didn't realize she would understand this!
I know she is our daughter, BUT she really is a smart little girl :)
March 20, 2006 JoElle is 14 Months Old! She is talking up a storm and making sense while doing so! She loves to watch the Baby Einstein animal videos. Yesterday she watched the "Neighborhood Animals" video 4 times! She is learning so much from them and she loves to dance with the hand puppets, speaking of talking here is what she has been saying lately:
JoElle says 25 words clearly: Dada, Mama, hi, bye, that, uh-oh, wow, ball, duck, bubbles, quack quack, roar, baah for a sheep, Bible, diaper, light, eye and eyes, hug, bear, night night, and blue, knock knock, what, is
JoElle is still trying to say "fish" and "shoe" right now they both still sound like "sh"! JoElle is trying to say "Up" for us to pick her up (it just sounds like uh!" She is saying "nana" but I am not sure what she is trying to say? JoElle can almost say "row row" when we sing "Row row row your boat"
On Saturday, March 18, 2006 JoElle was pointing at her clock in her room and she turned to me and asked me "What is this?" I couldn't believe it! She is putting words together into sentences and she is good at repeating what people tell her to say.
JoElle also signs 14 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, and drink! She is also putting two spoken and two signed words together. She says "Hi Dada" and signs "more (to) eat" and "all done eat(ing)" It is so cool, she learned three signs all during this week that she turned 1. The others (besides milk) she is learning from our Kindermusik Sign and Sing class.
March 18, 2006 NO MORE BOTTLE!!
Did I mention that JoElle has been off of her bottle for an entire week? She quit using her bottle at school when she moved up to the toddler room in November, but at home she would still ask for it and we had tried several times unsuccessfully to get her off.
This time it worked! She is such a big girl now. She is a little fussy at night, but she doesn't quite know what is missing!
We had a busy day today. We ate with Tandi at Denny's; JoElle enjoyed all the attention she gets from everyone calling her a little princess. One lady asked me if I or Tandi was the mother :) hehe that's a first! We turned her water blue with some package they give to kids, it was pretty cool. JoElle played in the syrup and jelly, threw her crayons, and giggled like crazy at Tandi.
Then we went to our Kindermusick Sign and Sing class. Cousin Peyton was signing up a storm! He was signing happy, bath, light and fan! He really blossomed since last Saturday! He is also a very good cleaner and helper. It is very cute. In fact, last Saturday JoElle was at Peyton's house and I was told by Uncle Aaron that Peyton was running after some toys before JoElle could get to them so that he could hand them to her! They also played in the bathtub together, then Peyton got upset with JoElle because he thought she was getting back in and Mama made him get out, so he hit her on her back (I hear he got in trouble by Mama!).
Back to today, then we shopped for cousin Emily at Kid to Kid for some costumes for her to dress up in. JoElle and Peyton ran around the store picking out toys they liked. Then we went to Emily's 5th birthday party at Glenview Baptist church. They have a three story tall tree for the kids to climb in and slide down, it was really great for the kids, they both enjoyed it! Then Peyton and JoElle took balloons from each other (neither got upset though) and devoured an entire piece of cake each (JoElle's was sans icing due to the lactose!)
Then at 7:00 we took JoElle to Tim's friends' wedding at a Methodist church here in Arlington. Everyone was talking about how cute she is, she had on a frilly pink dress that Granny just got her that day. It was very cute. She did great the entire time (the wedding was super short !) but would not go to Granny. E very time Granny took her from Mama, she dove back in my arms!
When Grandma picked JoElle up from the wedding, JoElle sayed "nana" to her, so I am wondering if Nana means Grandma? Who knows!! She was excited to see Grandma, she didn't even pay any more attention to Mama and Daddy or the fact that we were leaving her, she couldn't care less when she is with my mom! Grandma has the magic touch with both JoElle and Peyton.
Later at the reception (JoElle went home with Grandma, it was past her bedtime!) One of Tim's friends named Casey told Tim he just had a son, who is 2 months old, and he wants his son to hook up with JoElle because she is beautiful! I told him my friend Gaby already has her son, Jeff, married off to JoElle!
March 8, 2006 JoElle is jabbering away and running all over the place!
She loves to talk and sing. Tonight at church, while we were in choir practice, she was talking up a storm in her class and making them laugh. Her teachers told me she is normally reserved in there with them, she finally decided to show them her true (loud) self!
It's crazy how fast she walks now! Her legs have straightened out quite a bit (she is still bow-legged like Mama); my best friend Tandi was laughing last Saturday because she says JoElle walks just like me!
She can climb up on the couch, turn the t.v. off and on, open the DVD player.......still likes to rearrange our furniture. JoElle plays with her play kitchen every day after school. She loves to bring food and items to everyone now. Last Saturday in our Kindermusick class, she kept sitting in her Aunt Ana's lap. It was cute!! She loves her cousin Peyton, she really looks up to him and follow him all around.
What else? Oh yeah, when we go eat Mexican food, JoElle insists on dipping her chips in salsa. Last time she ate half a bowl all by herself! She loves to eat rice. She is pickier about her food at home now, but at school she eats mostly anything. Some days at school she will only eat applesauce, I am just happy she eats fruit now! She likes fish, but not really other meats (except meat with spaghetti!). She feeds herself so well with spoons and forks; she is not nearly as messy as she used to be when she eats!
Twice last week she stayed up until 10:00 p.m, then crashed in the middle of the floor! Grandma told me just a few days before this would happen soon, how wise she is!
JoElle has been somewhat fussy the last week, the last part of her bottom molars is cutting through, three corners are already in, but the last corner isn't....she only has 4 more teeth left until her 2 year molars come in...
February 19, 2006 JoElle started saying "eye" today when pointing at her doll's eye. She loves to sing the "Itsy bitsy spider", she starts putting her fingers together to make the spider. JoElle loves "If You're Happy and You Know It"; as soon as she hears it she starts clapping and she loves to stomp, too!
She also started saying "light" this past week. Last night, we ate at Applebee's with Uncle Aaron; JoElle was realy antsy at first until the food came out. Then she was happy. She ate some of Uncle Aaron's steak with steak sauce and loved it. She kept putting to the walls saying "ball" because they had a football and basketball on the walls. Then she would point at a light on the ceiling and say "light". Smart girl! She is pretty good at signing light too. She is calling everything "bubbles"; it's her fave word right now. Tonight when she was watching the Olympics with me, she saw a car commercial and she signed "car"to me! This was her first time to sign car back to me.
Now, every book is a "Bible" since she learned how to say "Bible" !
Her favorite room right now is the laundry room, she loves to play in there. JoElle also loves to play peek-a-boo when she is in there and we are in the kitchen.
Her favorite books are Maisy books that have flaps so that she can lift the flaps to find animals underneath. In the car, she loves to find the Elephant, then point to the elephant on her window shade. She also loves this book we gave her for Valentine's day, it has a heart the lights up and plays music. She always dances when the music starts to play!
March 2006
JoElle still signs over 15 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, monkey, and drink! She is also putting two spoken or two signed words together. She says "Hi Dada" and signs "more (to) eat" and "all done eat(ing)" It is so cool, she learned her first sign "milk" when she was 9 months old, then she learned three signs all during the week that she turned 1.
We quit learing new signs since she is talking so much, but she still uses the ones that she knows.
JoElle loves to talk! She talks and sings all the time, sometimes yells so we can hear her....she talks as if she is talking in sentences, but most of the words don't make sense...but now she is up to over 30 spoken words: Dada, Mama (her favorite one right now), hi, bye, that, uh-oh, wow, ball, duck, bubbles, quack quack, roar, baah for a sheep, Bible, diaper (ok she stopped saying this, now it's a Bible again!), light, eye and eyes, hug, bear, night night, blue, red, knock knock, what, is, row, Nana for Grandma, baby, and bop (really she is trying to say pop for the jack in the box!)
JoElle points to her teeth and sayd "tee" and points to her mouth and says "mou." She can almost say bird, still sounds like "bir" She is still trying to say "fish" and "shoe" they both still sound like "sh"! JoElle is trying to say "Up" for us to pick her up (it used to sound like uh, now it's "puh"!" JoElle likes to say bear,without the r....but hey close enough right? She is close to saying "more" when she signs more, especially because in the car I can't see her signing more when she wants more teddy grahams, so she has started to say "mu mu" and for milk she says "mil." Is it hard for kids to learn the last sounds in words or something?
JoElle also still signs, over 15 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, monkey, drink, Mama, Daddy, and bath.
April 7, 2006 This weekend we took JoElle to an Easter egg hunt at a church by us. It was cute watching her pick up the eggs and put them into her little bunny basket. Then we took her to the park (Uncle Aaron was with us). JoElle actually enjoyed the slides for the first time (probably only because Uncle Aaron was helping her slide). Then we took a walk through the trees, and when we got back to the park my friend Robyn and her daughter Kamryn were at the park! How crazy, we didn't know the other was there, but Kamryn loved that we were there! I helped JoElle swing a little in a big kid swing, but when I asked my brother to take a pic of her, she decided to jump down...
On Sunday we went to an Easter egg hunt at TCU (where Uncle Aaron and Aunt Ana went to college) but it was over right after it started, in about two minutes because the parents didn't let the little kids hunt the eggs, the adults scrambled to pick up the eggs for the kids, how boring :(
So we went to Ridgmar mall after, JoElle played a little on their playground, but she was tired. We tried doing Easter bunny pics with cousin Peyton, but the lady took too long to take the pics, she wanted them to both smile, so JoElle started crying and reaching for me....Oh well like Grandma said, I cried in all my pics until I was about 4!!
~~~April 14, 2006~~~
JoElle said "baby"today while we were watching her favorite baby Einstein viedo. She can't get enough of the animals of these three DVD's; she just sits in front of the t.v., captivated. As soon as we get home from school/work, she turns the t.v. and the DVD player on. I am close to teaching her how to puch the button for DVD input and to push the play button. Just another week and I bet she will be doing all the steps by herself!...see stories for more of what we've up to lately.
We've all been very busy lately with work. Tim is liking his "new" job at Wachovia (he's been working there for about 2 months I think); I am crazy busy at work still managing two teams, I can't wait to get back to just managing my team!
This week we have all been suffering from allregies/asthma. JoElle and I visited Tandi after work Tuesday; JoElle had a ton of fun playing with Tandi. I have never seen her crack up as much as she did when they were playing! JoElle was petting Tandi's kitty, and the kitty was sleepy, so JoElle put her head down on the floor next to the kitty and said "night night" It was precious!
Unfortunately, the next day I was so sick (I'm allergic to kitties) that I couldn't even go to work or take JoElle to daycare so that I could rest. Soooo...I gave her a cup of milk in the morning, but her back to bed and she slept in until 10:00.. then I dozed in the living room with her favorite DVD on continuous play. Every once in a while I would wake up to JoElle standing on my head to reach the box of Klennix; she loves to pull Kleenix out of the box an either tear them up or pretend touse them. After several hours of this, JoElle had almost every single toy in the living room next to me, including all our shoes! (Did I mention she LOVES shoes?)
I think she knew I didn't feel good, she was so well behaved; then she took a nap from 1-4 so I could sleep, too. When I woke up and checked on her, she was sitting in her crib, she gave me a huge grin and jumped up so that I could get her.
March 28, 2006
Dear JoElle,
I love you so much! It is amazing how much love I have for you; you bring such joy to my heart. I love your smile and the way your eyes light up when you grin at us! In the car, you love to talk, giggle, and do anything to get my attention! Today in the car you were hiding under your blanket and giggling hysterically and you couldn't help but talk and give your hiding place away!
I love how you sit on our laps when you want to watch a movie or read a book and how you climb all over us, hug us, give us kisses, and I love it when you run and jump into my arms!
JoElle, the way you approach the world is fascinating; you love to encounter new things and explore old things over and over and over. You are always testing the world to see what it is all about; every day is a new adventure but you still look to us for reassurance and love.
One of the best things about you is your wonderful attitude and beautiful smile! You're giggling warms my heart, too. You love to be silly and loud all at the same time. It's funny how you like to turn around and make yourself dizzy. I can't imagine our lives without you! Every day is new, interesting and special.
I love the way you say "Mama;" it is so precious! The last week you have been saying "Mama" a lot and you want me to pick you up and hold you all the time (but then want right back down again!)
You are growing up too fast, but then I love your independant and willful spirit! You know what you want and you let it be known! I can't wait to see you develop into a beautiful young woman, but I am cherishing every moment of your toddler days!
Love,
Mama
March 24, 2006 JoElle is such a doll :)
This evening we were sitting on the couch watching basketball, Daddy points to the t.v. and says "basketball" and JoElle then puts to the t.v. and "baball" hehe it was so cute.
We were singing some of her favorite songs and I was done with a song, so she signed "more more" to me. Then she started saying "row row" and moving her arms like she was rowing a boat (they love to sing this in her daycare class). I started to sing the song "10 in the Bed" and the little one said "roll over, roll over" and when I sang "roll over" so did JoElle (it sounded a bit like "row row").
I was asking her where her body parts are, she showed me her eyes, nose, teeth, head, belly, toes and mouth (and at the same time she showed Daddy his and Mama hers!) Then I asked her duck, she signed duck, bird, airplane, monkey, light, and I taugh her Daddy and Mommy. It only took two times before she signed both to us!
Then JoElle was rocking back in forth like a crazy girl while I was holding her, grinning and giggling, then I stopped and she told me "more more"! I put her on the floor and told her to go turn around and make herself dizzy.....and she actually did it !! It was too funny. I didn't realize she would understand this!
I know she is our daughter, BUT she really is a smart little girl :)
March 20, 2006 JoElle is 14 Months Old! She is talking up a storm and making sense while doing so! She loves to watch the Baby Einstein animal videos. Yesterday she watched the "Neighborhood Animals" video 4 times! She is learning so much from them and she loves to dance with the hand puppets, speaking of talking here is what she has been saying lately:
JoElle says 25 words clearly: Dada, Mama, hi, bye, that, uh-oh, wow, ball, duck, bubbles, quack quack, roar, baah for a sheep, Bible, diaper, light, eye and eyes, hug, bear, night night, and blue, knock knock, what, is
JoElle is still trying to say "fish" and "shoe" right now they both still sound like "sh"! JoElle is trying to say "Up" for us to pick her up (it just sounds like uh!" She is saying "nana" but I am not sure what she is trying to say? JoElle can almost say "row row" when we sing "Row row row your boat"
On Saturday, March 18, 2006 JoElle was pointing at her clock in her room and she turned to me and asked me "What is this?" I couldn't believe it! She is putting words together into sentences and she is good at repeating what people tell her to say.
JoElle also signs 14 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, and drink! She is also putting two spoken and two signed words together. She says "Hi Dada" and signs "more (to) eat" and "all done eat(ing)" It is so cool, she learned three signs all during this week that she turned 1. The others (besides milk) she is learning from our Kindermusik Sign and Sing class.
March 18, 2006 NO MORE BOTTLE!!
Did I mention that JoElle has been off of her bottle for an entire week? She quit using her bottle at school when she moved up to the toddler room in November, but at home she would still ask for it and we had tried several times unsuccessfully to get her off.
This time it worked! She is such a big girl now. She is a little fussy at night, but she doesn't quite know what is missing!
We had a busy day today. We ate with Tandi at Denny's; JoElle enjoyed all the attention she gets from everyone calling her a little princess. One lady asked me if I or Tandi was the mother :) hehe that's a first! We turned her water blue with some package they give to kids, it was pretty cool. JoElle played in the syrup and jelly, threw her crayons, and giggled like crazy at Tandi.
Then we went to our Kindermusick Sign and Sing class. Cousin Peyton was signing up a storm! He was signing happy, bath, light and fan! He really blossomed since last Saturday! He is also a very good cleaner and helper. It is very cute. In fact, last Saturday JoElle was at Peyton's house and I was told by Uncle Aaron that Peyton was running after some toys before JoElle could get to them so that he could hand them to her! They also played in the bathtub together, then Peyton got upset with JoElle because he thought she was getting back in and Mama made him get out, so he hit her on her back (I hear he got in trouble by Mama!).
Back to today, then we shopped for cousin Emily at Kid to Kid for some costumes for her to dress up in. JoElle and Peyton ran around the store picking out toys they liked. Then we went to Emily's 5th birthday party at Glenview Baptist church. They have a three story tall tree for the kids to climb in and slide down, it was really great for the kids, they both enjoyed it! Then Peyton and JoElle took balloons from each other (neither got upset though) and devoured an entire piece of cake each (JoElle's was sans icing due to the lactose!)
Then at 7:00 we took JoElle to Tim's friends' wedding at a Methodist church here in Arlington. Everyone was talking about how cute she is, she had on a frilly pink dress that Granny just got her that day. It was very cute. She did great the entire time (the wedding was super short !) but would not go to Granny. E very time Granny took her from Mama, she dove back in my arms!
When Grandma picked JoElle up from the wedding, JoElle sayed "nana" to her, so I am wondering if Nana means Grandma? Who knows!! She was excited to see Grandma, she didn't even pay any more attention to Mama and Daddy or the fact that we were leaving her, she couldn't care less when she is with my mom! Grandma has the magic touch with both JoElle and Peyton.
Later at the reception (JoElle went home with Grandma, it was past her bedtime!) One of Tim's friends named Casey told Tim he just had a son, who is 2 months old, and he wants his son to hook up with JoElle because she is beautiful! I told him my friend Gaby already has her son, Jeff, married off to JoElle!
March 8, 2006 JoElle is jabbering away and running all over the place!
She loves to talk and sing. Tonight at church, while we were in choir practice, she was talking up a storm in her class and making them laugh. Her teachers told me she is normally reserved in there with them, she finally decided to show them her true (loud) self!
It's crazy how fast she walks now! Her legs have straightened out quite a bit (she is still bow-legged like Mama); my best friend Tandi was laughing last Saturday because she says JoElle walks just like me!
She can climb up on the couch, turn the t.v. off and on, open the DVD player.......still likes to rearrange our furniture. JoElle plays with her play kitchen every day after school. She loves to bring food and items to everyone now. Last Saturday in our Kindermusick class, she kept sitting in her Aunt Ana's lap. It was cute!! She loves her cousin Peyton, she really looks up to him and follow him all around.
What else? Oh yeah, when we go eat Mexican food, JoElle insists on dipping her chips in salsa. Last time she ate half a bowl all by herself! She loves to eat rice. She is pickier about her food at home now, but at school she eats mostly anything. Some days at school she will only eat applesauce, I am just happy she eats fruit now! She likes fish, but not really other meats (except meat with spaghetti!). She feeds herself so well with spoons and forks; she is not nearly as messy as she used to be when she eats!
Twice last week she stayed up until 10:00 p.m, then crashed in the middle of the floor! Grandma told me just a few days before this would happen soon, how wise she is!
JoElle has been somewhat fussy the last week, the last part of her bottom molars is cutting through, three corners are already in, but the last corner isn't....she only has 4 more teeth left until her 2 year molars come in...
February 19, 2006 JoElle started saying "eye" today when pointing at her doll's eye. She loves to sing the "Itsy bitsy spider", she starts putting her fingers together to make the spider. JoElle loves "If You're Happy and You Know It"; as soon as she hears it she starts clapping and she loves to stomp, too!
She also started saying "light" this past week. Last night, we ate at Applebee's with Uncle Aaron; JoElle was realy antsy at first until the food came out. Then she was happy. She ate some of Uncle Aaron's steak with steak sauce and loved it. She kept putting to the walls saying "ball" because they had a football and basketball on the walls. Then she would point at a light on the ceiling and say "light". Smart girl! She is pretty good at signing light too. She is calling everything "bubbles"; it's her fave word right now. Tonight when she was watching the Olympics with me, she saw a car commercial and she signed "car"to me! This was her first time to sign car back to me.
Now, every book is a "Bible" since she learned how to say "Bible" !
Her favorite room right now is the laundry room, she loves to play in there. JoElle also loves to play peek-a-boo when she is in there and we are in the kitchen.
Her favorite books are Maisy books that have flaps so that she can lift the flaps to find animals underneath. In the car, she loves to find the Elephant, then point to the elephant on her window shade. She also loves this book we gave her for Valentine's day, it has a heart the lights up and plays music. She always dances when the music starts to play!
March 2006
JoElle still signs over 15 words to us: milk, eat, more, all done, hello, bubbles, car, light, bird, duck, happy, night night, airplane, monkey, and drink! She is also putting two spoken or two signed words together. She says "Hi Dada" and signs "more (to) eat" and "all done eat(ing)" It is so cool, she learned her first sign "milk" when she was 9 months old, then she learned three signs all during the week that she turned 1.
We quit learing new signs since she is talking so much, but she still uses the ones that she knows.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Several posts...
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!
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!
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!
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