February 3rd, 2007 A new question...
JoElle started asking us "What is that for?" about various items in our house and out and about.
Sometimes, it is hard to answer her questions........this parenting thing is getting harder and harder!!! But it is still fun! (frustrating at times, but fun nonetheless)
January 17, 2007 JoElle is Two Years Old!!
Happy Birthday, JoElle!
She loved it that we both stayed home with her for her birthday, AND we had a wonderful suprise; it snowed!!! JoElle loved playing in the snow. She especially loved eating it off Daddy's car, what can a little snow hurt? We all ate it as kids!
We didn't get to visit the Dallas World Aquarium like I had planned due to the inclement weather, but we still had fun. We ate at a little breakfast place in Arlington and Grandad stopped in to eat with us. JoElle loved it! She loves the waitresses there, she says hi to them all the time we are eating, and of course she says hi to the other customers the whole time, too!
We gave her one of her presents, a Little People School set. She loves it! She lines the Little People up to get on the slide, then she said "I'm standing in line, too!" and she stood up behind them, then said "I'm too big!" She had us cracking up, as always.
That night, we sang Happy Birthday, she blew out her candles without any prompting, she sang right along with us, she loved her cupcakes and opening her presents. Granny was there with us, JoElle loved having her come over.
January 12th, 2007 Lately, JoElle liks to open and close doors. She is finally tall enough to reach the doorknob to open the doors.
This has resulted in her opening her bedroom door early in the morning and coming into our room. She will just stand in front of me (our bed is too high for her to climb in by herself)and wait for me to wake up and see her! Usually Tim has to tell me "JoElle is standing there..." because I am a heavy sleeper...
She very patiently waits for me to see her, then I put her in the bed. She normally kicks Daddy until she drives him nuts, sometimes she scoots him off the bed. After a little while, we put her back in her bed and she stays there for a while.
January 9, 2007 First Visit to the Library
JoElle and I visited the library by her school and she got a library card. She was so excited to be there surrounding by all those books!
She picked out several Maisy books (she loves Maisy!) and two Little Brown Bear books that she found. We read through them a few times and then checked them out. I told her she could read them to Daddy when we got home. Later that night, she remembered and wanted to read them with Daddy!
We also painted, what fun! I gave her a paintbrush and some canvases; she loves painting. JoElle loves art, she expresses so much joy when she is painting or coloring. She loves to giggle as she paints. She learned that she could drop paint onto the canvas if she gets a lot on her brush and shakes it. JoElle was painting "squiggly lines". I didn't know how she knew this, but Tim and her color squiggly lines in the tub, I found out!
She can also draw a straight line, a circle and an oval if you ask her too. Oh yeah, also a big circle and a little circle. She know little and big quite well from reading "It's Not Easy Being Big" with Big Bird and Elmo (it's not easy being little, either!).
January 5, 2007 Happy Birthday Cousin Isaiah (9 years old today)
We wish you a Happy Birthday.
It breaks my heart that we are not invited to celebrate with him.
I really don't know if I or we did something to insult or hurt Billy and Carrie, but we are never included on birthday or holiday plans. I really don't understand; maybe there is nothing to understand.
All I can really do is pray over the situation, that we will be at peace with this. I am sad for Isaiah and Elena because they will never have a relationship with us or with their ONLY cousin. JoElle is their only 1st cousin. I am also sad for JoElle because when she gets older, she will be wondering why they never come around, why they never invite us over, why we don't spend special days with them, why they never come to her school activities. It's ultimately up to both Billy and Carrie to decide they want to involve us and be involved with our lives, you know?
I asked JoElle if she wants them to come to her birthday party and she told me "Yes!" so I hope they come. Carrie didn't bring Elena to JoElle's 1st birthday party, so who knows?
Please pray over this broken relationship.
Week of January 1st, 2007
JoElle has been off and on in the 2 year old classroom this week. We were going to wait until the week of her birthday, but Ms. Judy (daycare director) decided to start the transition. So, she has some adjusting to do, but it's not bad. Just a little crying, a little bit of longing for her old teacher and old friends. JoElle loves Ms. Stacy so much!
She likes to say by to her friends before we leave, she tells them "bye friends!" then she has to tell her old classmates goodbye, too. The first day in her new class she got to play with Play-Do and when Ms. Stacy came in there with her old classmates, JoElle came to her and told her "turtle!" since she made one out of Play-Do.
We also started working out at the YMCA, JoElle knows when we drive up it is the "Y" and she can play with Thomas, since they have a Thomas train set. She cries when I drop her off, but only for a brief moment, what a rough week!
The other day, JoElle was standing up on our bed and she told us "Careful, don't hurt yourself!" hehe, it is too funny when she repeats stuff we tell her all the time. Sometimes I don't even realize what I tell her until I hear her saying it!
December 30, 2006
I am amazed at the sentences JoElle is now constructing, she was using sentence before, but they are more complex now. I can't even think of many examples, but JoElle has great articulation, too. Oh yeah, last night told me "I'm tired!" so that I could say "I'm tired, too!"
Usually I am the one who says, "I'm tired" then she responds with "I'm tired, too!" She will do this with just about anything, but mainly when I say things, not anybody else!
Whenever she has a messy diaper, she says "What did you eat today?" because we ask her that all the time, since she is always being given stuff that makes her tummy hurt!!
I'll try to remember to pay attention to some of them :)
Also, JoElle loves to take her medication; she nows takes her medication out of the cup that comes with the kids medicine. She is so good with it, she takes the cups and drinks it herself. She is pretty much off a sippy cup now. We still give her one in the morning since she is drowsy and clumsy that early, but the rest of the day I just give her cups. Pretty soon she will be in her new room (2 year old room) and they don't use sippy cups at all. She is ready for it!
Dec 29, 2006
I was terrified today as I was leaving my house to pick up JoElle from school, the tornado sirens were sounding, so I rushed back inside to find out that a possible tornado was within a mile from our house, but the terrifying thing was that it was heading north to 30, right by JoElle's daycare. I attempted to rush to pick her up, but of course visibility was horrible from the rain. I prayed for God's protection over her. When I got to her school, they were all huddled in the bathrooms! JoElle thought it was exciting that they were all in there!
We stopped by to try to open JoElle's savings account at Wamu with my friend Leigh Anne, but their power was out! We played inside the branch for a while. This was JoElle's first time to meet Leigh Anne! So she was shy at first. But Leigh Anne gave her a lollipop and she soon started talking. She was telling us "It's dark in here!" but she loved running around in the dark branch! When we were leaving, Leigh Anne told us, "Bye girls!" and as soon as the door closed JoElle shouted back "BYE GIRLS!!" Too cute!
Then we stopped by Aunt Tandi's house; Shannon and Jonathon were also there. JoElle was a little apprehensive at first, but soon her and Jonathon were playing together. He is huge compared to her!! He turned 4 yesterday. They were cute together, she loved giggling at him. Tandi's friend Fred dropped in and brought them those little poppers that we play with on the 4th of July, so they had fun popping those outside the door. They both kept saying "My turn!" and "I got it!"
December 25, 2006
Wow, I think we are all relieved that this Holiday season is wrapped up... What a busy week!
One of my best memories of this Christmas is JoElle singing "Happy Birthday Jesus" just about anywhere, anytime. Like in the middle of the hustle and bustle at Wal-Mart two days before Christmas, as she sees a Christmas tree, as she sees a manger, or when we get home and she sees the green cupcakes left over from her Christmas party at school!
This year, JoElle also loved singing carols. She will bust out with "Jingle Bells", "Rudolph", or "Noel" - but she thinks they are singing her name!! It's precious to hear her sing it!!
JoElle and Peyton had a great time this year unwrapping presents. This year, we got together on Christmas Eve since Aunt Ana was on call on Christmas. The two of them kept saying, next present...every once in a while, they would stop and ask us to open the box.
JoElle especially liked her Little People Farm and Dollhouse. Peyton liked it, too, he played with her. He probably liked his Little People Car Garage and his huge dump truck the best.
Aunt Ana, Peyton, Madison, Uncle Aaron, and Nana came with us to our candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. JoElle was so excited they were at our church with her! She kept telling Peyton hi during the service and he would tell her "NO!" so she kept telling him hi over and over, just to get under his skin :)
We tried to visit Santa at Santa Land by my job. We waited an hour, JoElle colored and watched the other kids go up and talk to Santa, but when it was her turn, she cried! She told us she didn't want to sit on his lap...so we didn't make her. When we left, we asked her why not and she told us because she was "coloring", 'tis true, we shouldn't have let her color all the way up until it was time to sit on Santa's lap! She also didn't want Santa to come to our house....
JoElle got a ton of stuff this year, way more than last year! I haven't bought her many toys this year, she needed to stock up! She loves her different ways to color: she has a Fisher Price Desk to color at that helps her with letters, numbers and shapes, then converts to a piano, also she has a dry erase board and chalkboard, a MagnaDoodle lookalike, and of course plenty of crayons, coloring books and blank paper!
She loves her baby stuff: Santa brought her a stroller, highchair and baby bed for her Baby Alive doll that Nana gave her. As soon as JoElle opened her Baby Alive doll, she exclaimed "Another Dora!!" because the baby is "hispanic" I guess that is what everyone tells me the baby dolls with brown hair, brown eyes, and brown skin are. To me, they look kinds like JoElle with straight hair! She does resemble Dora! JoElle took all this into her room with her new Dora bed from Granny and Grandad, which she loves! She also has sheets and a comforter to match now from them. Nana got her a Dora lamp, too.
JoElle got lots of dress up items, Nana bought her a collection of dress up shoes, which she loves and a cute pink Flapper dress. Aunt Tandi bought her a tiara, necklaces, earrings, shoes, and some other cute dress up items!! Also, Nana gave her a backback full of makeup, which she loves and has already used. Oh yeah, not to mention Backpack from Dora and a purse full of candy necklaces (courtesy of Granny).
We still need to explore her Dora book with the movie projector and the Elephun game that spits out butterflies, which you catch (sounds like fun!!) We gave her a few scratch and sniff books and Peyton's Grandma gave her the 10 Ladybugs book.
She probably got some more stuff...I just don't remember right now!!!
Oh yeah, another fun thing today: JoElle counted Daddy's fingers, correctly!!! From 1 all the way to 5 by herself! I am so proud of her!
Dec. 9th, 2006
We ate at Campo Verde today. We took Peyton and JoElle there last year. There are thousands of Christmas lights and a train above all the tables. It's fun and helps get you in the holiday spirit!
We took our family pictures tonigh at J.C. Penney's. The photographer did a great job. JoElle did a great job, she smiled a lot and was cute for the lady. I can't wait to get our pics back, if you are reading this and don't get your card until after Christmas, I am sorry..... :) BUT they are coming!
We also went to the dress rehearsal of Fielder Road's Christmas Around the World, our church's Christmas celebration/play/choir concert. It was lots of fun. JoElle loved it! She was dancing to the music and singing to Feliz Navidad. I think she is learning this song at school. They are having a Christmas program this week and she is in it. JoElle liked the giraffes during the African part of the show. Then....when it got quiet, JoElle was extremely loud; she got a ton of laughs, the choir was sitting behind us (we are both in the choir) and they love JoElle. She was cheering for the songs before anybody else had time to start clapping!
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Several posts...
Nov. 30, 2006
We had ice today! It sleeted from about 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. When I picked JoElle up from school at around 12:00, there was some ice on my car and she told me "I want to touch" so we played with it for a bit before going home.
After a LONG nap (I love how great she sleeps!) we got bundled up in her coat and played outside with the sleet on the ground. She liked it but told me how cold it was. What a great experience for her! Especially since we don't get much ice or snow here....... or even rain for that matter. I think we can count on our hands how many times it has rained since she was born :)
Thanksgiving 2006
We spent Thanksgiving Day with family; for lunch we visited Aunt Ana and Uncle Dan. JoElle ate a ton of food! She liked the turkey and ham and she ate the cranberry sauce when I called it jelly! Peyton didn't really want to eat, but he did want some of Nana's chocolate pudding. Madison slept and slept until it was almost time to leave. She is very sweet and has a peaceful demeanor! JoElle and Peyton played with "snow." Aunt Ana had this powder that you added water to and it made snow! They both liked it. We were pretending it was snowing.
That evening we visited Granny and Grandad for Thanksgiving dinner. JoElle enjoyed the Cajun turkey and the green beans. She couldn't eat any of the other food, it all had lactose in it. She had fun playing and showing off for them. Even after we got home, she was too excited to sleep!
The next day, we put up our Christmas tree after Daddy got home from work. JoElle loved it! We also put up Christmas lights outside. JoElle helped with that, too. While we were driving, she kept pointing and saying "Christmas lights!" and she was asking for more. She loves the lights and Santa's everywhere. The next day (Saturday) when we woke up, she had to check to make sure that the Christmas tree and the stockings are still up!
On Saturday, JoElle and I slept in until noon, then we took a bath in my big tub. She loves to take baths in there. Her favorite thing right now is to color in the tub with her bathtub crayons.
November 19th, 2006
JoElle has been telling me "My teeth hurt" and "I need medicine on my teeth"
Can you believe her two year old molars STILL have not broken through? They have been trying to come in since her 18 month checkup......
The great thing is that she can tell me what hurts.
Nov. 18th, 2006
We went to the Shriner's circus in Ft. Worth, it was JoElle's first circus! She enjoyed it! Her fave part were the elephants. She kept asking for "more ephelants"
Then we ate at Galligaskin's (subway sandwiches) where JoElle licked all the peanut butter and jelly off her sandwich before eating the bread......
When we got home, Aunt Ana, Uncle Dan, Peyton and Madison were ate our house! JoElle wanted to hold Madison again and got upset that it was time for her to go to bed. Later, when Tim and I were out, JoElle and Peyton were squabbling over who would get to take the baby out of the swing. Peyton is becoming protective over his baby!
Nov. 17, 2006
We ate out with Granny and Grandad at Bobby V's. JoElle liked munching on my salad; she kept dipping her croutons in my French dressing. Around bedtime (8:45 p.m.), she got really sleepy and quiet, she laid down with her head on the booth for a few minutes, I thought she was going to fall asleep!
But then....she springs up and is more hyper than ever! She kept waving at Tim's cousin, Reba and her husband Robby. Then she would hide behind me and say "Where's JoElle?" "Here I am!" too cute, I love the way she mimics my intonations.
She also gave me hugs around my neck and Daddy got hugs too! She was teasing Granny because Granny wanted to hug her....
Nov. 16th, 2006
Nana, Daddy and I enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch provided by JoElle's school, as always, Ms. Carol cooked a great meal!
When I picked her up, I asked her "Who ate lunch with you today?" I told her "Mommy and Daddy." then she told me "Nana" and I replied "Yes, Nana ate lunch with you."
Then.....she told me "Grandpa!" How sweet! My dad was there with us, too!
I never say Nana with Grandpa since they were divorced when he passed away, so it touched my heart for her to tell me this! It is amazing how many times I could tell she was seeing my dad or someone else that has gone before us. Now she has the words to tell me who she is seeing!
Sometimes she will pick up a picture of me, my sister and our dad, and she will lovingly say "Grandpa....!" How comforting it is to me that our family members in heaven still make an impression on our little ones here! Thank you Dad for looking out for me and your granddaughter. I know you are chuckling at all the funny things she does. Does she remind you of me when I was little?
Nov. 15th, 2006
JoElle is asking to wear panties lately, so we let her. About 30 minutes later, I hear "Uh oh" and find JoElle peeing in her panties, she is looking down thinking "oops!" Then we tried to make a big deal that she had an accident in her panties, again she wanted to wear them (she loves Dora on her panties!) and then she had another accident 30 minutes or so later....
Oh well, at least she wants to get out of pull ups!
November 10, 2006
JoElle couldn't keep her milk down in the morning, so I asked her "Does your tummy hurt?"
She told me, "My tummy hurts!" so I asked her, "Why does your tummy hurt?" and she answered, "Need coffee!"
So ever since then she has been telling me she is drinking coffee or she needs coffee. That day at school she also was pretending to make coffee with a tea pot while saying "I'm making coffee!"
Nov 9, 2006 For the first time, JoElle got out of her bed and came out of her room to find us! Up until today, she would always sleep until the last possible minute!
It was so cute seeing her pitter patter down the hallway to our room and into our bathroom looking for me!
Nov 10, 2006 JoElle had an upset tummy in the morning, she told me "My tummy hurts" so I asked her why? And she told me "Need coffee!" and then as school she was walking around with a play teapot saying "I'm making coffee!"
She doesn't actually drink coffee, but she knows I drink it everyday!
October 28, 2006
Did I ever say how much JoElle amazes me? She is constructing her sentences really well now. Tonight, in the bath tub, JoElle put a washcloth on her stomach, looked at me, and told me "The towel is on my tummy!" Plain as day, every word enunciated perfectly.
We had ice today! It sleeted from about 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. When I picked JoElle up from school at around 12:00, there was some ice on my car and she told me "I want to touch" so we played with it for a bit before going home.
After a LONG nap (I love how great she sleeps!) we got bundled up in her coat and played outside with the sleet on the ground. She liked it but told me how cold it was. What a great experience for her! Especially since we don't get much ice or snow here....... or even rain for that matter. I think we can count on our hands how many times it has rained since she was born :)
Thanksgiving 2006
We spent Thanksgiving Day with family; for lunch we visited Aunt Ana and Uncle Dan. JoElle ate a ton of food! She liked the turkey and ham and she ate the cranberry sauce when I called it jelly! Peyton didn't really want to eat, but he did want some of Nana's chocolate pudding. Madison slept and slept until it was almost time to leave. She is very sweet and has a peaceful demeanor! JoElle and Peyton played with "snow." Aunt Ana had this powder that you added water to and it made snow! They both liked it. We were pretending it was snowing.
That evening we visited Granny and Grandad for Thanksgiving dinner. JoElle enjoyed the Cajun turkey and the green beans. She couldn't eat any of the other food, it all had lactose in it. She had fun playing and showing off for them. Even after we got home, she was too excited to sleep!
The next day, we put up our Christmas tree after Daddy got home from work. JoElle loved it! We also put up Christmas lights outside. JoElle helped with that, too. While we were driving, she kept pointing and saying "Christmas lights!" and she was asking for more. She loves the lights and Santa's everywhere. The next day (Saturday) when we woke up, she had to check to make sure that the Christmas tree and the stockings are still up!
On Saturday, JoElle and I slept in until noon, then we took a bath in my big tub. She loves to take baths in there. Her favorite thing right now is to color in the tub with her bathtub crayons.
November 19th, 2006
JoElle has been telling me "My teeth hurt" and "I need medicine on my teeth"
Can you believe her two year old molars STILL have not broken through? They have been trying to come in since her 18 month checkup......
The great thing is that she can tell me what hurts.
Nov. 18th, 2006
We went to the Shriner's circus in Ft. Worth, it was JoElle's first circus! She enjoyed it! Her fave part were the elephants. She kept asking for "more ephelants"
Then we ate at Galligaskin's (subway sandwiches) where JoElle licked all the peanut butter and jelly off her sandwich before eating the bread......
When we got home, Aunt Ana, Uncle Dan, Peyton and Madison were ate our house! JoElle wanted to hold Madison again and got upset that it was time for her to go to bed. Later, when Tim and I were out, JoElle and Peyton were squabbling over who would get to take the baby out of the swing. Peyton is becoming protective over his baby!
Nov. 17, 2006
We ate out with Granny and Grandad at Bobby V's. JoElle liked munching on my salad; she kept dipping her croutons in my French dressing. Around bedtime (8:45 p.m.), she got really sleepy and quiet, she laid down with her head on the booth for a few minutes, I thought she was going to fall asleep!
But then....she springs up and is more hyper than ever! She kept waving at Tim's cousin, Reba and her husband Robby. Then she would hide behind me and say "Where's JoElle?" "Here I am!" too cute, I love the way she mimics my intonations.
She also gave me hugs around my neck and Daddy got hugs too! She was teasing Granny because Granny wanted to hug her....
Nov. 16th, 2006
Nana, Daddy and I enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch provided by JoElle's school, as always, Ms. Carol cooked a great meal!
When I picked her up, I asked her "Who ate lunch with you today?" I told her "Mommy and Daddy." then she told me "Nana" and I replied "Yes, Nana ate lunch with you."
Then.....she told me "Grandpa!" How sweet! My dad was there with us, too!
I never say Nana with Grandpa since they were divorced when he passed away, so it touched my heart for her to tell me this! It is amazing how many times I could tell she was seeing my dad or someone else that has gone before us. Now she has the words to tell me who she is seeing!
Sometimes she will pick up a picture of me, my sister and our dad, and she will lovingly say "Grandpa....!" How comforting it is to me that our family members in heaven still make an impression on our little ones here! Thank you Dad for looking out for me and your granddaughter. I know you are chuckling at all the funny things she does. Does she remind you of me when I was little?
Nov. 15th, 2006
JoElle is asking to wear panties lately, so we let her. About 30 minutes later, I hear "Uh oh" and find JoElle peeing in her panties, she is looking down thinking "oops!" Then we tried to make a big deal that she had an accident in her panties, again she wanted to wear them (she loves Dora on her panties!) and then she had another accident 30 minutes or so later....
Oh well, at least she wants to get out of pull ups!
November 10, 2006
JoElle couldn't keep her milk down in the morning, so I asked her "Does your tummy hurt?"
She told me, "My tummy hurts!" so I asked her, "Why does your tummy hurt?" and she answered, "Need coffee!"
So ever since then she has been telling me she is drinking coffee or she needs coffee. That day at school she also was pretending to make coffee with a tea pot while saying "I'm making coffee!"
Nov 9, 2006 For the first time, JoElle got out of her bed and came out of her room to find us! Up until today, she would always sleep until the last possible minute!
It was so cute seeing her pitter patter down the hallway to our room and into our bathroom looking for me!
Nov 10, 2006 JoElle had an upset tummy in the morning, she told me "My tummy hurts" so I asked her why? And she told me "Need coffee!" and then as school she was walking around with a play teapot saying "I'm making coffee!"
She doesn't actually drink coffee, but she knows I drink it everyday!
October 28, 2006
Did I ever say how much JoElle amazes me? She is constructing her sentences really well now. Tonight, in the bath tub, JoElle put a washcloth on her stomach, looked at me, and told me "The towel is on my tummy!" Plain as day, every word enunciated perfectly.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Several posts...
October 28, 2006
What fun we had today at our Sunday School's Pumpkin Party! JoElle bounced in the bounce house for little ones, she got a butterfly painted on her face, she devoured a hot dog, we got our picture take as a family, hunted for Halloween candy in the park across the street, she made a new friend, and a little baby dressed up as a pink angel. JoElle laughed at her, sat down with her, gently touched her costume and handed her candy. She was very excited to play with the baby! We can't wait to meet little Madison, JoElle's soon to be born cousin! She will be arriving shortly, on November 9, 2006!
Tuesday October 24, 2006
Tonight at dinner, JoElle prayed out loud for us, in fact it was very loud! I guess she thinks God is deaf :)
How precious it is to hear her pray. She loves to pray for everybody, Tandi you have been getting LOTS of prayers lately from JoElle at night before she goes to bed!
JoElle likes to give hugs. She loves to hang from neck in the morning when I wake her up and she also will plant a kiss on me because Daddy always hugs and then kisses her. She is such a sweet child. I am so blessed to have her!
Sunday October 22, 2006
Fall Festival at a Methodist Church not far from the house-
After eating at Ton's Mongolian Grill (JoElle loves the eggdrop soup there, she can eat it with a spoon like a pro by herself!) we stopped in at the Fall Festival going on down the street at St. Andrews United Methodist Church.
Almost as soon as we got there, JoElle was pointing at the bouncing apparatus saying "I want to bounce," so of course we bought her tickets to bounce, this one wasn't actually a bounce "house" as it was flat with dinosaurs, trees and a bridge, with no roof. She had fun while the choir sang outside on stage. Then her and Daddy shared a watermelon snowcone, even though it was a little cool outside that day!
She also loved the dogs everyone had; she kept saying "I want to touch"
Did I mention how great her speech is now? She speaks very clearly most of the time and uses 3 to 6 word sentences consistently.
We are working on names, she is learning her full name- It is very cute when she says Alexandria! She is learning my name, Daddy's name, Nana's, Granny's, Grandad, Grandpa (my dad) and all her cousins and aunts and uncles's names.
In fact, when we got home that next day, JoElle starting calling out "Tim, Tim!" I was cracking up so hard when I realized that this is what I say when I get home!
She also is learning how to use I, me, you, your's, etc. in sentences. Daddy and JoElle were opening up a play bottle and he was telling her I opened it, so then she would say "I opened it" and "You opened it" and the "I closed it" and "You closed it".
JoElle also cracks me up when she walks around saying "Where are you (fill in the blank)?" with her hands in the air,then she answers, "Right there!"
Oh yeah, at dinner she wanted something, so she pointed at it and said "I want that!"
She also likes to drop things so that she can say " I dropped it" and then "I'm going to pick it up"
After Aunt Ana's baby shower, JoElle was taking out Baby Madison's clothes, holding them up and saying "Cute!" then she was say "Madison's" She is going to love her new cousin!!
Her manners are coming along great! When she burps, she says "excuse me" most of the time, she is starting to say "thank you" quite a bit without prompting, she says "sorry" when she hurts something/someone. She was telling her doll "I'm sorry" tonight because she accidentally hit her on the head! Then she kissed her head. Oh yeah, she loves to help with putting the dishes up from the dishwasher and she dropped the fork and told the fork "Sorry!" JoElle definitely knows how to use please!! She says please all the time.I am very proud of her!
October 12, 2006
At school, JoElle was carrying her baby around saying "the baby farted"!I don't know where she picked up this word because we say "toot" instead of fart.
Also, there are scarecrows all over due to Halloween, she calls them monsters and she has her class calling them monsters, I finally figured out how she knows what a monster is; her potty Elmo pick at the end says "I'm a BIG monster now!" She can also say scarecrow, too. She loves pumpkins; everytime we see one in the car or walking somewhere she points them all out.
JoElle had her first open hous at school. The entire time the other kids were singing for us, she was with all her teacheres instead of me and Tim! She loves them so much, it is very sweet and they love it!
October 1, 2006
We rode the Tarantula train from the Stockyards in Ft. Worth to 8th Street and back again! We went with cousin Peyton, Uncle Dan, Aunt Ana (baby Madison!) and Uncle Aaron.
The kids loved it! They were both so excited. They pointed at everything and told us what everything was. JoElle told us this one area was stinky - it was really stinky, she must have Daddy's nose. They LOVED when the steam engine went "CHOO CHOO" real loud, they both joined in! They have so much fun together; it's great watching them.
Aftwerwards we walked around the Stockyards a bit and they held hands until Peyton decided he was done holding hands. JoElle got upset that he didn't want to hold her hand anymore, so instead she ran to Uncle Aaron to hold his hand!
We at at Risky's BBQ and Daddy tore up a bunch of ribs while JoElle gulped down a ton of fries!
September 3rd, 2006 New Sunday School Class
We moved up in Sunday School at Church, now I am in a new class with some new friends and some old friends, new teachers, and a former teacher, too. My teachers sent me a postcard last week... I loved opening my own mail!
This is what is says,
"Dear Joelle,
Welcome to our class at Fielder Road Baptist church!
We look forward to teaching you about Jesus' love. Our 1st lesson will be about how important the BIBLE is: It is our "How-to" book for living each day.
We'll see you Sunday.
Mrs. Wilson, Ms. Debbie, Ms. Jana and Brittany"
How special for my teachers to send a special note before even meeting me! This is only one of the reasons why my Mommy and Daddy love Fielder Road's Childrens' ministry.
Daddy checked in on me before he left church (after service) to go to a football game with Uncle Aaron. When he peeked in on me, I was sitting in a big rocking chair (for the teachers) rocking back and forth watching the other kids.
Some of my new friends seem a bit younger than me.Mommy and Daddy say that I act older than 1 1/2 years old. I love to be with slightly younger children so that I can help take care of them.I will be a great a big sister be one day! But for now, I love being the center of attention at home!
August 30th- We are still working on potty training, she is going quite well at school, but at times falls off at home because she is too busy playing or we don't listen well enough to her saying she needs to go. The other day, I decided to try her in training pants, which are thick, padded panties. After she used the potty, I asked her to look me in the eyes so I could talk to her. I explained that she gets to wear panties because she is a big girl and that we don't go tee tee or pooh pooh in the panties, we do that in the potty. I repeated this a few times, but she was looking at me as if thinking "Ok Mommy, I'll try to remember that, but it sure is a lot to remember!"
Not more than 10 minutes go by and she has poo pooed in them...oh my, this is messy to clean up, you can't just throw it away like a diaper or pull up...! So we went through the explanation again, the whole time she is saying "sticky" "messy" and "nasty" with respect to the mess that was made on her, the potty and in her panties.
Another 30 minutes go by......she has one foot in her red bowl, the other foot in another red bowl in the living room, she walks with these bowls on her feet to locate the third red bowl, when she pauses, and then pees directly into the third bowl! She barely got a single drop outside the bowl!
I told her "You had an accident" with my hands up gesturing and shrugging. She did the same gesture and said "accident!" So after cleaning her up (and putting her back into a pull up!) she ran back into the living room and exclaimed, with her hands up and shoulders shrugged "Accident!" She was reading a story at school about a boy that is learning to use the potty and he has several accidents, so this word was just introduced to her and she was excited to really learn what it means. I hope she doesn't LIKE to have accidents!!
We'll continue on our potty training journey.....
August 30th~ Tonight while we were saying bedtime prayers, I prayed for our day, then I left it open for her to finish, I prayed, "Thank you Jesus for...." and JoElle offered "Daddy," then "Thank you Jesus for...." "Mommy!" and then I prayed, "Thank you Jesus for..." and JoElle excitedly prayed "JoElle!!" I love it when she says her name, it sound so cute!!!
These past two nights, she has been kneeling with me at her bed and clasping her hands together. Do you know how beautiful this is to witness? It makes my heart smile and overflow with love and joy!
August 29th~ Tonight while we were saying bedtime prayers, we prayed for Aunt Ana and her baby (she's pregnant), then JoElle chimed in "D" for Uncle Dan, so we prayed a blessing for him. Then she chimed in "Peyton" so we also prayed a blessing for cousin Peyton. I am so proud of her kind spirit; she is already reflecting God's love, she thinks of others even at such a young age!
August 28th~ Tonight while we were saying bedtime prayers, JoElle told me to pray for Daddy and pray for Mommy. Her thoughtfulness and sweet innocence really touched my heart!
What fun we had today at our Sunday School's Pumpkin Party! JoElle bounced in the bounce house for little ones, she got a butterfly painted on her face, she devoured a hot dog, we got our picture take as a family, hunted for Halloween candy in the park across the street, she made a new friend, and a little baby dressed up as a pink angel. JoElle laughed at her, sat down with her, gently touched her costume and handed her candy. She was very excited to play with the baby! We can't wait to meet little Madison, JoElle's soon to be born cousin! She will be arriving shortly, on November 9, 2006!
Tuesday October 24, 2006
Tonight at dinner, JoElle prayed out loud for us, in fact it was very loud! I guess she thinks God is deaf :)
How precious it is to hear her pray. She loves to pray for everybody, Tandi you have been getting LOTS of prayers lately from JoElle at night before she goes to bed!
JoElle likes to give hugs. She loves to hang from neck in the morning when I wake her up and she also will plant a kiss on me because Daddy always hugs and then kisses her. She is such a sweet child. I am so blessed to have her!
Sunday October 22, 2006
Fall Festival at a Methodist Church not far from the house-
After eating at Ton's Mongolian Grill (JoElle loves the eggdrop soup there, she can eat it with a spoon like a pro by herself!) we stopped in at the Fall Festival going on down the street at St. Andrews United Methodist Church.
Almost as soon as we got there, JoElle was pointing at the bouncing apparatus saying "I want to bounce," so of course we bought her tickets to bounce, this one wasn't actually a bounce "house" as it was flat with dinosaurs, trees and a bridge, with no roof. She had fun while the choir sang outside on stage. Then her and Daddy shared a watermelon snowcone, even though it was a little cool outside that day!
She also loved the dogs everyone had; she kept saying "I want to touch"
Did I mention how great her speech is now? She speaks very clearly most of the time and uses 3 to 6 word sentences consistently.
We are working on names, she is learning her full name- It is very cute when she says Alexandria! She is learning my name, Daddy's name, Nana's, Granny's, Grandad, Grandpa (my dad) and all her cousins and aunts and uncles's names.
In fact, when we got home that next day, JoElle starting calling out "Tim, Tim!" I was cracking up so hard when I realized that this is what I say when I get home!
She also is learning how to use I, me, you, your's, etc. in sentences. Daddy and JoElle were opening up a play bottle and he was telling her I opened it, so then she would say "I opened it" and "You opened it" and the "I closed it" and "You closed it".
JoElle also cracks me up when she walks around saying "Where are you (fill in the blank)?" with her hands in the air,then she answers, "Right there!"
Oh yeah, at dinner she wanted something, so she pointed at it and said "I want that!"
She also likes to drop things so that she can say " I dropped it" and then "I'm going to pick it up"
After Aunt Ana's baby shower, JoElle was taking out Baby Madison's clothes, holding them up and saying "Cute!" then she was say "Madison's" She is going to love her new cousin!!
Her manners are coming along great! When she burps, she says "excuse me" most of the time, she is starting to say "thank you" quite a bit without prompting, she says "sorry" when she hurts something/someone. She was telling her doll "I'm sorry" tonight because she accidentally hit her on the head! Then she kissed her head. Oh yeah, she loves to help with putting the dishes up from the dishwasher and she dropped the fork and told the fork "Sorry!" JoElle definitely knows how to use please!! She says please all the time.I am very proud of her!
October 12, 2006
At school, JoElle was carrying her baby around saying "the baby farted"!I don't know where she picked up this word because we say "toot" instead of fart.
Also, there are scarecrows all over due to Halloween, she calls them monsters and she has her class calling them monsters, I finally figured out how she knows what a monster is; her potty Elmo pick at the end says "I'm a BIG monster now!" She can also say scarecrow, too. She loves pumpkins; everytime we see one in the car or walking somewhere she points them all out.
JoElle had her first open hous at school. The entire time the other kids were singing for us, she was with all her teacheres instead of me and Tim! She loves them so much, it is very sweet and they love it!
October 1, 2006
We rode the Tarantula train from the Stockyards in Ft. Worth to 8th Street and back again! We went with cousin Peyton, Uncle Dan, Aunt Ana (baby Madison!) and Uncle Aaron.
The kids loved it! They were both so excited. They pointed at everything and told us what everything was. JoElle told us this one area was stinky - it was really stinky, she must have Daddy's nose. They LOVED when the steam engine went "CHOO CHOO" real loud, they both joined in! They have so much fun together; it's great watching them.
Aftwerwards we walked around the Stockyards a bit and they held hands until Peyton decided he was done holding hands. JoElle got upset that he didn't want to hold her hand anymore, so instead she ran to Uncle Aaron to hold his hand!
We at at Risky's BBQ and Daddy tore up a bunch of ribs while JoElle gulped down a ton of fries!
September 3rd, 2006 New Sunday School Class
We moved up in Sunday School at Church, now I am in a new class with some new friends and some old friends, new teachers, and a former teacher, too. My teachers sent me a postcard last week... I loved opening my own mail!
This is what is says,
"Dear Joelle,
Welcome to our class at Fielder Road Baptist church!
We look forward to teaching you about Jesus' love. Our 1st lesson will be about how important the BIBLE is: It is our "How-to" book for living each day.
We'll see you Sunday.
Mrs. Wilson, Ms. Debbie, Ms. Jana and Brittany"
How special for my teachers to send a special note before even meeting me! This is only one of the reasons why my Mommy and Daddy love Fielder Road's Childrens' ministry.
Daddy checked in on me before he left church (after service) to go to a football game with Uncle Aaron. When he peeked in on me, I was sitting in a big rocking chair (for the teachers) rocking back and forth watching the other kids.
Some of my new friends seem a bit younger than me.Mommy and Daddy say that I act older than 1 1/2 years old. I love to be with slightly younger children so that I can help take care of them.I will be a great a big sister be one day! But for now, I love being the center of attention at home!
August 30th- We are still working on potty training, she is going quite well at school, but at times falls off at home because she is too busy playing or we don't listen well enough to her saying she needs to go. The other day, I decided to try her in training pants, which are thick, padded panties. After she used the potty, I asked her to look me in the eyes so I could talk to her. I explained that she gets to wear panties because she is a big girl and that we don't go tee tee or pooh pooh in the panties, we do that in the potty. I repeated this a few times, but she was looking at me as if thinking "Ok Mommy, I'll try to remember that, but it sure is a lot to remember!"
Not more than 10 minutes go by and she has poo pooed in them...oh my, this is messy to clean up, you can't just throw it away like a diaper or pull up...! So we went through the explanation again, the whole time she is saying "sticky" "messy" and "nasty" with respect to the mess that was made on her, the potty and in her panties.
Another 30 minutes go by......she has one foot in her red bowl, the other foot in another red bowl in the living room, she walks with these bowls on her feet to locate the third red bowl, when she pauses, and then pees directly into the third bowl! She barely got a single drop outside the bowl!
I told her "You had an accident" with my hands up gesturing and shrugging. She did the same gesture and said "accident!" So after cleaning her up (and putting her back into a pull up!) she ran back into the living room and exclaimed, with her hands up and shoulders shrugged "Accident!" She was reading a story at school about a boy that is learning to use the potty and he has several accidents, so this word was just introduced to her and she was excited to really learn what it means. I hope she doesn't LIKE to have accidents!!
We'll continue on our potty training journey.....
August 30th~ Tonight while we were saying bedtime prayers, I prayed for our day, then I left it open for her to finish, I prayed, "Thank you Jesus for...." and JoElle offered "Daddy," then "Thank you Jesus for...." "Mommy!" and then I prayed, "Thank you Jesus for..." and JoElle excitedly prayed "JoElle!!" I love it when she says her name, it sound so cute!!!
These past two nights, she has been kneeling with me at her bed and clasping her hands together. Do you know how beautiful this is to witness? It makes my heart smile and overflow with love and joy!
August 29th~ Tonight while we were saying bedtime prayers, we prayed for Aunt Ana and her baby (she's pregnant), then JoElle chimed in "D" for Uncle Dan, so we prayed a blessing for him. Then she chimed in "Peyton" so we also prayed a blessing for cousin Peyton. I am so proud of her kind spirit; she is already reflecting God's love, she thinks of others even at such a young age!
August 28th~ Tonight while we were saying bedtime prayers, JoElle told me to pray for Daddy and pray for Mommy. Her thoughtfulness and sweet innocence really touched my heart!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Several posts...
Last week in August: JoElle loves to sing a new fave song. Last Sunday she started to sing "I love you, I love you" and I thought she was making up her own song...but I found out she is singing the Barney song from school. Oh you really have to her her sweet voice singing "I love you...." over and over!!!!! She sang it to Nana on the phone, too. She also sings some of the other words, but she mainly repeats this over and over! I love it!!
August 17, 2006 19 months old today!
JoElle used the potty twice today at school all by herself! Her teacher, Ms. Staci, has to put her on the potty by herself while she watches the other kids in the class, so JoElle holds herself up there all by herself on the big potty. Then when she is done, she jumps down and says "I flush" and she loves to flush it.
Yesterday, JoElle told her teacher "potty, potty" and Ms. Staci was talking to a parent, so by the time she was done talking, JoElle told her "pooh pooh" and she couldn't hold it; but she told her teacher BEFORE this time! She is picking it up, but some nights she wears us out because we have to go back and forth to the potty.....
Ms. Staci is impressed that JoElle is using 3 word sentences. In fact, on Sunday, JoElle told me and Tandi " I need a new diaper" She said all five words, it was crazy, but Tandi heard her too, I swear!
JoElle always says "please" now; she is starting to say "thanks" without any prompting at all. She also says "I'm sorry" without prompting, too. Also, she puts her hands together to pray at the table and in bed before we even get a chance to tell her it's time to pray! She is a very sweet girl.
Tonight JoElle pointed and Daddy's belly and said "belly" then she said "nice!" hehe she is silly. She is also saying "yucky" and "yuck", "stinky" "oooweee" for a smelly diaper, "messy" and "mess" and "nasty". I told her "Daddy will be back" when he went outside to turn the water off, so she said "be back, Daddy, be back"
Last night, JoElle was sweeping the living room floor but she came to me and asked me "up?" I told her to first go put up her broom then she can come up with me. So, she walked over to the wall, propped her broom in the corner, and came back to me! Then she sang "The Wheels on the Bus" to herself and fell asleep on me. I taught her a new part, we made up "the Daddies on the bus say I love you...I love you...." so when we got out of the car, she saw Daddy and said "I love you" How sweet
August 11th, 2006 Trip to visit Nana and Aunt Carol
JoElle and I stopped by Aunt Carol's and Nana's house tonight after work and she went swimming with Nana and cousin Emily. At first I just held her over the side of the above-ground pool and she kicked and kicked and laughed heartily. Then, Nana got in with her. At first she reached out to me to hold her and cried "mommy mommy" but then she decided she liked it and she was kicking her little feet trying to swim. This is only her second time this summer to go swimming and the first time, at Uncle Aaron's apartment, she wasn't so thrilled that the water was so cold. After watching Emily float on her back, JoElle decided to try floating on her back too, and she was not afraid to lean back and get her head wet. I was really surprised!
Another little girl named Carly was over and Carly had JoElle cracking up like I have never seen before; it was hilarious. JoElle just keeps going and going; we didn't leave until 10:00 and she was still going strong. Oh yeah, did I mention that she ate half of my steak? She wolfed it down.
August 10, 2006 Potty times
We are having great successes with potty training! Today at school she used the potty; her teacher asks the 2 year olds if they are ready to go potty, and JoElle tells them "ready, ready" and runs into the bathroom.
Then at home, she used it again just as soon as we got home and twice more with Daddy that night. We are putting her in Dora pullups and she is really starting to act like a big girl. Daddy helped out the potty training by helping JoElle take her doll to use the potty, sitting her on the potty and putting her in one of JoElle's pullups. Great idea Daddy!
When I was leaving to go to a meeting to learn about writing opportunities at church, JoElle bawled and bawled; she has never cried this much for me, it was very sweet! I cherish these moments because all too soon she will be grown and I will long for the days she cried for me with those beautiful brown eyes and reached her arms to me to hold her.
It is quite amazing the unconditional love that little ones give to you. I know that we are all born sinners, yet watching her and interacting with her, JoElle is such a reflection of God's love. She loves her Bible, she calls Jesus "daddy" at times and He is, her heavenly Daddy. She loves to pray and sing about Jesus.
August 9, 2006 Happy Birthday Aunt Carol! We love you!
August 8, 2006 - 18 months old
Today JoElle accidentally hit me and she turned to me and told me "sorry" with a sad, inoccent look. She was so sweet! Plus, her sorry sounded like "sowwy" so it was that much cuter! Then she also told me "thank you!" without prompting - she is great at telling us "please" when she wants something and also "help me."
Also tonight Granny taught JoElle how to blow bubbles and to put the little stick into the bubble container to get more soap in order to blow more. She was really excited that she could blow them by herself! She kept saying "Wow!" and chasing them around, trying to eat them!
JoElle also finally jumped OFF the ground! Before she would try to jump and would get really low with her knees bent and bounce up, but she never actually left the floor. So, when Granny came home from work, JoElle jumped up in the air and landed on her bottom. She thought it was hilarious, so she repeated it at least 20 times.
JoElle is starting to tell Daddy "I love you" when he tells her he loves her. It just melts my heart to hear her say this!
Our bedtime routine is very precious to me, after we give everyone who is here hugs and kisses, I carry JoElle to her room, look into her beautiful brown eyes and put her in her bed. At this point, she gets really excited. Then she clasps her hands together and looks at me, waiting to say bedtime prayers. After we pray to God, she pounds on the bed with her hands, like when she it at the table, then she says amen and puts her hands over her hand, kinds like "hooray!" Then we give kisses, I tell her I love her and as I am leaving, I blow more kisses, tell her I love her some more, and sometimes she waves, sometimes she says "Bye bye" really loudly. She watches me shut the door, then she is out cold.
Yesterday for the first time, JoElle got out of her bed and came out of her door without us getting her up. I guess she was wondering what was taking me so long to come get her up (I was running late!) She was standing at her bedroom door, with wild hair, one hand in her hair and one rubbing her eyes, she looked a little confused!
On the mornings when Daddy is already gone before us, we always tell Daddy bye bye anyways - to our bedroom, she thinks he is the room. She gets upset if we don't tell him bye.
Oh yeah also tonight she tried to go swimming in her bathtub. She kicked her little legs out and tried to swim.
She started gymnastics last Saturday; the class is for 18 months to 3 years. JoElle loved to jump on the trampoline and fall down. As soon as her coach said "Let's move to the next rotation" JoElle was marching off in front of everyone, leading the way (but I don't know how she knew where we were going?). She loved the music circle and dancing, of course, she always loves to boogie down. Also, she likes hanging from the bar, she pulls her legs up really high, almost to the bar, all by herself. Her coach was surprised at how strong her stomach is. She likes to do barrel rolls down the mats, and she can almost do a forward roll (i.e. flip) all by herself!
July 31, 2006 18 months
JoElle has become pretty attached to her Elmo doll. She doesn't HAVE to have him, but she likes to have him with her in the car, she asks for him as soon as we get in the car, and she loves to give him big hugs! She also likes to put shoes on him and her other doll and make them walk around the house. She tells them "walk, walk", oh yeah there are two babies in her class part of the day, who are still learning to walk, so she tells them "walk, baby, walk!" Her teacher, Ms. Sharon, tells her to leave them alone, not everyone is walking when they are 11 months old.
She is quite the pro at putting her shoes on (sandals); she loves her sandals and her dress up shoes. She can even put my shoes on really well. She walks around in my sandals all the time. It is amazing how many words JoElle is repeating. This past week, she picked up on "messy" as one of her faveorite words, along with "towel" "napkin" and "medicine" She will remind me to give her medicine by telling me "medicine!" Hehe great kid, huh?
JoElle can name so many things now, she loves the bus at church- she points and shouts bus, then starts motioning bus with her hands from the song "The Wheels on the Bus", speaking of which, the other day we were driving to a friend's house to drop off a meal and she saw a big 18 wheeler, she calls them buses. So she started singing this song by herself, she was doing the baby part- the babies on the bus go "wah wah wah", she is so cute when she does this, she says wah wah wah in a real whiny voice with her hands rubbing her eyes like she is crying, then she sang "all...town" (she couldn't quite remember "through the")
At times we can get her to tell us her name, it sounds so precious coming out of her mouth! She loves to read, she points to letters and says "O" "E" because we spell her name with her all the time!
The potty training is still going pretty well, she tells us potty all the time, sometimes she goes, sometimes not, but she loves toilet paper, I have to ration out the toilet paper with her, one day I walked out of the bathroom to get her clothes and I came back and she had stuffed a ton of toilet paper in there as she sat on the potty. Another time, I turned around to throw her diaper away and she was on our potty without her little potty on top, and she fell in!! It was funny, she didn't cry but for 3 seconds, then she was ok with it.
The other night we were at Tim's bosses house and JoElle actually used the potty over there! I was very proud of her! She got so much attention over there from everybody! She wasn't shy at all, sometimes she starts out a little shy, but it never lasts. She didn't get into anything at their house and she didn't cry at all, even though we stayed until 10:30, way past her bedtime. Tim's boss and her husband kept telling us, she is such a great kid, she doesn't get into trouble! OK so we know THAT is not true, but she really is sweet. She loved wiping her mouth, hands and tongue on their kitchen towel that they had hanging up. She also called her glass glasses, she is really stargting to apply words to new objects.
The other night she was scratching her leg and she told us "itch" One of her favorite colors is blue, she definitely knows what is blue and loves to tell us "boo"
One of her favorite games is still "This little piggy" she loves the "wee wee wee" part because I tickle her up to her chin. If you pause at this last part, she will say "wee wee wee" in her cute little voice and then giggle.
I love the way she shares, she loves to share with everyone, even her dolls. She always gives them blankets, her milk, her water, her shoes, etc. Sometimes she can be selfish, like all of us, but most of the time she is very sharing. She will step back and let other kids play first, then she will play when they get tired of it in a few seconds. Sometimes, when she knows they want something that she has, she will tease them with it and laugh. She can be a little sly. Every once in a while she gets tired of trying to be nice and will say "mine" and sometimes hit if the other kids won't share with her, but then she gets sad because she knows she wasn't supposed to do that. She hates to let anybody down.
I know I say this all the time, but she is such a joy to us and everyone else she meets. We love her so much!
July 13, 2006
Tonight before choir practice, JoElle and I stopped at McDonald's. She sat next to me on the bench like a big girl, swinging her legs, eating fries!I looked at her and was thinking about how I used to have to hold her, make sure she didn't fall, hand her food, but now she does this all on her own, she evens grabs the ketchup from me and dips her fries....
I can't believe how old she is now. She acts so grown up, did you see the pics of her in her dress up shoes with her phone? She looks like a little teenager! She also loves Mommy's shoes. She can put her shoes and my shoes on all by herself.
Oh yeah, on the 4th, she picked up calling me Mommy again instead of Mama, I think this time it's going to stick. She started calling me Mommy back on June 2, then went back to Mama....she has her own mind!
This week at day care, she wrestled a little boy in her class who is twice her size, he didn't know what to do, he started yelling help me!! Her teacher was laughing because JoElle is so little and he is so big, but he couldn't even move! She was playing with him like Daddy plays with her, he "pins" her down and starts counting....
She also finally had enough with one of her friends, Becca, and hit her when Becca wouldn't let her play under the table strapping in the baby seats. This is the first time she has done this, usually she justs walks away and finds something else to do...
My friend Robyn told me that when she was dropping her daughter off at their daycare, and JoElle was sitting on their little kid's couch in her classroom and all the other kids were gathered around her! I think she is already exerting her leadership qualities!
She is also very social, she loves the other kids and teachers. Monday when I picked her up, she didn't want to go home, she started crying because she wanted to stay and play! I thought she was supposed to cry when I leave her and not when I pick her up!!!???
JoElle loves her Elmo doll that knows her name and her little Dora chair, she also loves to ride around on her "bike" (I call it her bike...it's really a trike/ rocking trike). She propels herself around the kitchen, she can't quite reach the pedals yet.
Yesterday, she used the potty at school in the big potty. Is it really time for her to learn to use the potty already? How crazy....
July 1st, 2006
JoElle's favorite words this week are Ana, ice-she loves to eat ice- water, and march--she loves to march around the house.
June 21, 2006
JoElle learned to say "shower" (in reference to water, she was talking about the water sprinkler at day care for use in case of a fire, I'm not sure how she knows water comes out of there??
June 20, 2006
JoElle learned to say "purple" Oh yeah she used her potty again, she was excited too that she used it!
June 19, 2006
JoElle said "Katelyn, Bubba" (friends at school) and something else...can't remember...
Over the weekend she started saying "I want Mama, I want Daddy, I want Ana" very cute!Oh yeah, she loves to say Ana...over and over. Aunt Ana, she was saying your name again tonight!!! On Father's Day, JoElle was loving on her Aunt Ana, she kept leaving me to lay on Aunt Ana; how sweet!
August 17, 2006 19 months old today!
JoElle used the potty twice today at school all by herself! Her teacher, Ms. Staci, has to put her on the potty by herself while she watches the other kids in the class, so JoElle holds herself up there all by herself on the big potty. Then when she is done, she jumps down and says "I flush" and she loves to flush it.
Yesterday, JoElle told her teacher "potty, potty" and Ms. Staci was talking to a parent, so by the time she was done talking, JoElle told her "pooh pooh" and she couldn't hold it; but she told her teacher BEFORE this time! She is picking it up, but some nights she wears us out because we have to go back and forth to the potty.....
Ms. Staci is impressed that JoElle is using 3 word sentences. In fact, on Sunday, JoElle told me and Tandi " I need a new diaper" She said all five words, it was crazy, but Tandi heard her too, I swear!
JoElle always says "please" now; she is starting to say "thanks" without any prompting at all. She also says "I'm sorry" without prompting, too. Also, she puts her hands together to pray at the table and in bed before we even get a chance to tell her it's time to pray! She is a very sweet girl.
Tonight JoElle pointed and Daddy's belly and said "belly" then she said "nice!" hehe she is silly. She is also saying "yucky" and "yuck", "stinky" "oooweee" for a smelly diaper, "messy" and "mess" and "nasty". I told her "Daddy will be back" when he went outside to turn the water off, so she said "be back, Daddy, be back"
Last night, JoElle was sweeping the living room floor but she came to me and asked me "up?" I told her to first go put up her broom then she can come up with me. So, she walked over to the wall, propped her broom in the corner, and came back to me! Then she sang "The Wheels on the Bus" to herself and fell asleep on me. I taught her a new part, we made up "the Daddies on the bus say I love you...I love you...." so when we got out of the car, she saw Daddy and said "I love you" How sweet
August 11th, 2006 Trip to visit Nana and Aunt Carol
JoElle and I stopped by Aunt Carol's and Nana's house tonight after work and she went swimming with Nana and cousin Emily. At first I just held her over the side of the above-ground pool and she kicked and kicked and laughed heartily. Then, Nana got in with her. At first she reached out to me to hold her and cried "mommy mommy" but then she decided she liked it and she was kicking her little feet trying to swim. This is only her second time this summer to go swimming and the first time, at Uncle Aaron's apartment, she wasn't so thrilled that the water was so cold. After watching Emily float on her back, JoElle decided to try floating on her back too, and she was not afraid to lean back and get her head wet. I was really surprised!
Another little girl named Carly was over and Carly had JoElle cracking up like I have never seen before; it was hilarious. JoElle just keeps going and going; we didn't leave until 10:00 and she was still going strong. Oh yeah, did I mention that she ate half of my steak? She wolfed it down.
August 10, 2006 Potty times
We are having great successes with potty training! Today at school she used the potty; her teacher asks the 2 year olds if they are ready to go potty, and JoElle tells them "ready, ready" and runs into the bathroom.
Then at home, she used it again just as soon as we got home and twice more with Daddy that night. We are putting her in Dora pullups and she is really starting to act like a big girl. Daddy helped out the potty training by helping JoElle take her doll to use the potty, sitting her on the potty and putting her in one of JoElle's pullups. Great idea Daddy!
When I was leaving to go to a meeting to learn about writing opportunities at church, JoElle bawled and bawled; she has never cried this much for me, it was very sweet! I cherish these moments because all too soon she will be grown and I will long for the days she cried for me with those beautiful brown eyes and reached her arms to me to hold her.
It is quite amazing the unconditional love that little ones give to you. I know that we are all born sinners, yet watching her and interacting with her, JoElle is such a reflection of God's love. She loves her Bible, she calls Jesus "daddy" at times and He is, her heavenly Daddy. She loves to pray and sing about Jesus.
August 9, 2006 Happy Birthday Aunt Carol! We love you!
August 8, 2006 - 18 months old
Today JoElle accidentally hit me and she turned to me and told me "sorry" with a sad, inoccent look. She was so sweet! Plus, her sorry sounded like "sowwy" so it was that much cuter! Then she also told me "thank you!" without prompting - she is great at telling us "please" when she wants something and also "help me."
Also tonight Granny taught JoElle how to blow bubbles and to put the little stick into the bubble container to get more soap in order to blow more. She was really excited that she could blow them by herself! She kept saying "Wow!" and chasing them around, trying to eat them!
JoElle also finally jumped OFF the ground! Before she would try to jump and would get really low with her knees bent and bounce up, but she never actually left the floor. So, when Granny came home from work, JoElle jumped up in the air and landed on her bottom. She thought it was hilarious, so she repeated it at least 20 times.
JoElle is starting to tell Daddy "I love you" when he tells her he loves her. It just melts my heart to hear her say this!
Our bedtime routine is very precious to me, after we give everyone who is here hugs and kisses, I carry JoElle to her room, look into her beautiful brown eyes and put her in her bed. At this point, she gets really excited. Then she clasps her hands together and looks at me, waiting to say bedtime prayers. After we pray to God, she pounds on the bed with her hands, like when she it at the table, then she says amen and puts her hands over her hand, kinds like "hooray!" Then we give kisses, I tell her I love her and as I am leaving, I blow more kisses, tell her I love her some more, and sometimes she waves, sometimes she says "Bye bye" really loudly. She watches me shut the door, then she is out cold.
Yesterday for the first time, JoElle got out of her bed and came out of her door without us getting her up. I guess she was wondering what was taking me so long to come get her up (I was running late!) She was standing at her bedroom door, with wild hair, one hand in her hair and one rubbing her eyes, she looked a little confused!
On the mornings when Daddy is already gone before us, we always tell Daddy bye bye anyways - to our bedroom, she thinks he is the room. She gets upset if we don't tell him bye.
Oh yeah also tonight she tried to go swimming in her bathtub. She kicked her little legs out and tried to swim.
She started gymnastics last Saturday; the class is for 18 months to 3 years. JoElle loved to jump on the trampoline and fall down. As soon as her coach said "Let's move to the next rotation" JoElle was marching off in front of everyone, leading the way (but I don't know how she knew where we were going?). She loved the music circle and dancing, of course, she always loves to boogie down. Also, she likes hanging from the bar, she pulls her legs up really high, almost to the bar, all by herself. Her coach was surprised at how strong her stomach is. She likes to do barrel rolls down the mats, and she can almost do a forward roll (i.e. flip) all by herself!
July 31, 2006 18 months
JoElle has become pretty attached to her Elmo doll. She doesn't HAVE to have him, but she likes to have him with her in the car, she asks for him as soon as we get in the car, and she loves to give him big hugs! She also likes to put shoes on him and her other doll and make them walk around the house. She tells them "walk, walk", oh yeah there are two babies in her class part of the day, who are still learning to walk, so she tells them "walk, baby, walk!" Her teacher, Ms. Sharon, tells her to leave them alone, not everyone is walking when they are 11 months old.
She is quite the pro at putting her shoes on (sandals); she loves her sandals and her dress up shoes. She can even put my shoes on really well. She walks around in my sandals all the time. It is amazing how many words JoElle is repeating. This past week, she picked up on "messy" as one of her faveorite words, along with "towel" "napkin" and "medicine" She will remind me to give her medicine by telling me "medicine!" Hehe great kid, huh?
JoElle can name so many things now, she loves the bus at church- she points and shouts bus, then starts motioning bus with her hands from the song "The Wheels on the Bus", speaking of which, the other day we were driving to a friend's house to drop off a meal and she saw a big 18 wheeler, she calls them buses. So she started singing this song by herself, she was doing the baby part- the babies on the bus go "wah wah wah", she is so cute when she does this, she says wah wah wah in a real whiny voice with her hands rubbing her eyes like she is crying, then she sang "all...town" (she couldn't quite remember "through the")
At times we can get her to tell us her name, it sounds so precious coming out of her mouth! She loves to read, she points to letters and says "O" "E" because we spell her name with her all the time!
The potty training is still going pretty well, she tells us potty all the time, sometimes she goes, sometimes not, but she loves toilet paper, I have to ration out the toilet paper with her, one day I walked out of the bathroom to get her clothes and I came back and she had stuffed a ton of toilet paper in there as she sat on the potty. Another time, I turned around to throw her diaper away and she was on our potty without her little potty on top, and she fell in!! It was funny, she didn't cry but for 3 seconds, then she was ok with it.
The other night we were at Tim's bosses house and JoElle actually used the potty over there! I was very proud of her! She got so much attention over there from everybody! She wasn't shy at all, sometimes she starts out a little shy, but it never lasts. She didn't get into anything at their house and she didn't cry at all, even though we stayed until 10:30, way past her bedtime. Tim's boss and her husband kept telling us, she is such a great kid, she doesn't get into trouble! OK so we know THAT is not true, but she really is sweet. She loved wiping her mouth, hands and tongue on their kitchen towel that they had hanging up. She also called her glass glasses, she is really stargting to apply words to new objects.
The other night she was scratching her leg and she told us "itch" One of her favorite colors is blue, she definitely knows what is blue and loves to tell us "boo"
One of her favorite games is still "This little piggy" she loves the "wee wee wee" part because I tickle her up to her chin. If you pause at this last part, she will say "wee wee wee" in her cute little voice and then giggle.
I love the way she shares, she loves to share with everyone, even her dolls. She always gives them blankets, her milk, her water, her shoes, etc. Sometimes she can be selfish, like all of us, but most of the time she is very sharing. She will step back and let other kids play first, then she will play when they get tired of it in a few seconds. Sometimes, when she knows they want something that she has, she will tease them with it and laugh. She can be a little sly. Every once in a while she gets tired of trying to be nice and will say "mine" and sometimes hit if the other kids won't share with her, but then she gets sad because she knows she wasn't supposed to do that. She hates to let anybody down.
I know I say this all the time, but she is such a joy to us and everyone else she meets. We love her so much!
July 13, 2006
Tonight before choir practice, JoElle and I stopped at McDonald's. She sat next to me on the bench like a big girl, swinging her legs, eating fries!I looked at her and was thinking about how I used to have to hold her, make sure she didn't fall, hand her food, but now she does this all on her own, she evens grabs the ketchup from me and dips her fries....
I can't believe how old she is now. She acts so grown up, did you see the pics of her in her dress up shoes with her phone? She looks like a little teenager! She also loves Mommy's shoes. She can put her shoes and my shoes on all by herself.
Oh yeah, on the 4th, she picked up calling me Mommy again instead of Mama, I think this time it's going to stick. She started calling me Mommy back on June 2, then went back to Mama....she has her own mind!
This week at day care, she wrestled a little boy in her class who is twice her size, he didn't know what to do, he started yelling help me!! Her teacher was laughing because JoElle is so little and he is so big, but he couldn't even move! She was playing with him like Daddy plays with her, he "pins" her down and starts counting....
She also finally had enough with one of her friends, Becca, and hit her when Becca wouldn't let her play under the table strapping in the baby seats. This is the first time she has done this, usually she justs walks away and finds something else to do...
My friend Robyn told me that when she was dropping her daughter off at their daycare, and JoElle was sitting on their little kid's couch in her classroom and all the other kids were gathered around her! I think she is already exerting her leadership qualities!
She is also very social, she loves the other kids and teachers. Monday when I picked her up, she didn't want to go home, she started crying because she wanted to stay and play! I thought she was supposed to cry when I leave her and not when I pick her up!!!???
JoElle loves her Elmo doll that knows her name and her little Dora chair, she also loves to ride around on her "bike" (I call it her bike...it's really a trike/ rocking trike). She propels herself around the kitchen, she can't quite reach the pedals yet.
Yesterday, she used the potty at school in the big potty. Is it really time for her to learn to use the potty already? How crazy....
July 1st, 2006
JoElle's favorite words this week are Ana, ice-she loves to eat ice- water, and march--she loves to march around the house.
June 21, 2006
JoElle learned to say "shower" (in reference to water, she was talking about the water sprinkler at day care for use in case of a fire, I'm not sure how she knows water comes out of there??
June 20, 2006
JoElle learned to say "purple" Oh yeah she used her potty again, she was excited too that she used it!
June 19, 2006
JoElle said "Katelyn, Bubba" (friends at school) and something else...can't remember...
Over the weekend she started saying "I want Mama, I want Daddy, I want Ana" very cute!Oh yeah, she loves to say Ana...over and over. Aunt Ana, she was saying your name again tonight!!! On Father's Day, JoElle was loving on her Aunt Ana, she kept leaving me to lay on Aunt Ana; how sweet!
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Several posts...
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!!
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!!
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!
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