Joanna these days

I'll get around to posting some pictures later (sorry!), but for now some fun Joanna tidbits:

• She LOVES the Itsy Bitsy Spider song. I may have posted this before, but she actually can do a few more of the hand motions now. She'll put her fingers together like the spider which is how she asks us to please please sing the song. We'll sing, and she gets so excited. She does the spider part and the rain coming down part. It's soooooooo cute. I need to get a video of it.
• I don't think this has changed much, but these are the signs Joanna uses: more, milk, all done/all gone, she's just started to do "diaper," and we're working on "please." Unfortunately, she's usually pretty frustrated when I want her to sign please so it doesn't usually work. She's done it a couple of times for me, though.
• I may miss some here, but these are some of the words she says: diaper (di-pah), bye-bye (duh dye), Daddy, hello (heh-wo), hi, uh-oh (I think this is her very favorite; she says it ALL the time).
• Animal sounds Joanna can make: Quack quack, woof woof, meow (ow). We're also working on sheep, cows, lions, elephants, and horses right now. The woof woof is definitely her favorite; most animals make that sound: squirrels, birds, sheep, cats, and dogs. It's hilarious to watch her look out the window and say "woof woof" when she sees a squirrel.
• She has made only a little progress on walking since the couple of steps. I guess I'm a little impatient even though I know it will come. She likes to grab our fingers and walk a little ways. She looks a little like Frankenstein. She doesn't bend her knees much, and she takes these giant steps. It's very precious.

I guess that's about it for now. I've been playing more in the yard, so I'll post some updated pics whenever I get around to unloading my camera.

More baby girls!

This afternoon our friends from church, Jason and Shari, had a baby girl! Brooke Madison was born at 1:20pm, weighing 8lb 10oz. Shari was 40 1/2 weeks and very ready to be a mommy. We're so excited to meet her soon.

First Step!

14 months old today, and she finally did it. The next "step" on the road to walking has occurred. Yea!! Joanna and I were playing in her room. She was holding a little toy and her cup and playing on her rocking chair (what a muli-tasker). I was sitting on the floor a foot or so away talking on the phone to Matt. I was looking right at Joanna when she let go of the chair and took a step with her right foot toward me. I yelled "She took a step! She took a step!" Then had to repeat, "SHE TOOK A STEP!" I guess I may have startled her a little; she grabbed onto the chair again, then let go and took a step with her right foot again. I watched her like a hawk the rest of the day (with the video camera), but that's all I saw. So she's taken two steps, but not in a row, and with the same foot. I'm so proud of my little Joanna!

Also something else I thought was extremely cute: I was working at the computer and Joanna was headed toward me from the other room, fussing all the way over, when she stopped and got more fussy. I walked over to her and saw that she was trying to catch a carpenter ant who was running away from her. Her little fingers were tracking it, trying to grab it, but it was too fast -- so frustrating! I'm obviously glad she didn't catch it as I'm sure it would have bitten her either on her hand or the inside of her mouth. Yikes! I didn't have shoes on, so I lifted up the corner of the rug and let it crawl under. Then I stepped on it. Ummm... I think it's still there. Nevermind, I just asked Matt, and he already took care of it -- my insect hero!

Joanna had her school picture made a couple of weeks ago. It was a different photographer than the fall pics -- I was very impressed with this lady. The lady in the fall was like, "Okay tiny child, smile. Next!" This girl, Lindsay, was VERY animated with the kiddos and got lots of shots. Last time they picked one out (of the few they took) and that's what we got in our package. This time we get to view them online -- pretty snazzy. I sort of just copied them over here to share -- the quality's not what the prints will be, of course. I'm going to try not to go into debt buying giraffe shoes and pictures of Joanna, but...

She's so pretty! I have my favorite -- you can judge for yourself. Enjoy!

I couldn't help myself.

As in, I literally could not walk out of the store without them. Joanna loves them, too.
I mean, pink giraffe shoes, how perfect! We were in Stride Rite, intending to just look around, because I do want her to have some good shoes as soon as she starts walking (which hasn't happened yet.) We were looking around at the cute little walking shoes, wondering if Joanna's feet were going to be big enough for these monster shoes if she starts walking soon, when I saw them: on the top shelf -- little prewalking shoes. They are size 3, (which I discovered goes along with age 6-9 months on the box! Oh my goodness.) and she has a little room to grow in them. I also fell in love with some little pink walking tennis shoes with flowers and stuff all over them, but I restrained myself, seeing as how she isn't walking yet and we don't know whether she'll walk in one month or six and be a size 3 or a size 47. But I really, honestly, for sure had to have these giraffe shoes for Joanna. So there. I admit it: I'm addicted to baby clothes and shoes, specifically giraffe stuff. Don't get me started on the Baby Gap line right now.

Another picture of Miss Joanna feeding herself cereal/baby food. I love how she's holding the spoon as she scoops up the food with her hand. I guess that's progress. The past few days she has not been interested in letting us feed her. I try to ignore that for breakfast/lunch, but dinner I don't worry about so much because it's immediately followed by BATH. And did she ever need one tonight. I just saw a Brawny commercial where the voice says "If you knew this would happen, but you gave it to them anyway..." and shows two little babies with bowls of baby food on their trays with faces completely covered in food. That was me tonight! I knew it would happen, but I did it anyway. I guess that's why I use Brawny. (Actually, I used the spray nozzle on the sink.)

Now for the new car:
A '98 Ford Escort. Cute, huh?
All of our cars: The green one's name is "Little Green," the van is "V'ger," and the white one's old name was "Betsy." Apparently Matt already had a car named Betsy so he can't call this one Betsy, too. So that name is yet to be determined.

And our first rose of the season. So pretty! I'm excited because there are at least 3 other buds starting at the same time -- I can't wait!

Happy Girl and the "New" Car

Today has been fabulous in the life of Joanna. She woke up a little earlier than she probably should have, but her wonderful Daddy took care of her and fed her breakfast while I slept in! Yea for Matt!! She was a little cranky (more of the same) this morning. I tried to get her to snuggle with me, but finally gave up and put her down for a nap at around 10:00. She was asleep by 10:15 and slept until 11:48!!! She played and played when she got up, then had lunch and played some more. She was like a new woman (or tiny baby girl). We all went over to my grandmother's house this afternoon for an amazing feast in celebration of my cousin Andy's and his girlfriend Christiana's birthdays this week. Yum and yea for birthdays! Joanna was lovely; she was a little jealous of all the attention to her little baby cousin Jade who is only 3 months old and so cute! She was like "um, excuse me, I'm being cute over here, too!" There was definitely plenty of love to go around, for sure. At about 4:30 we headed home with a very tired Joanna. All that sleep this morning and all the activity this afternoon left her without an afternoon nap, uh oh. We went on a little walk down to Uncle Mark's house to pick up Daddy's "new" car! The walk was very refreshing, although Joanna didn't fall asleep, and now we are having dinner. Soon we'll have a bath to rinse off the layers of cereal caked on her face and then it will be off to bed!
Now for some details on the car:
Recently the A/C on our little Tercel quit working, and since it's a '97 with a billion miles on it, we didn't get it fixed. Instead we focused our attention to finding a replacement. We had intented to hunt for a small 4-door car (Corolla or the like) 3 or 4 years old. We haven't had a car payment in forever (I never have) so it was a pretty sad prospect. Well, it turns out that our family just down the street had a Ford Escort sitting in their driveway that was extra. We did some thinking, some pricing, some talking, and some driving, and decided to buy that little car from them. It's older than we were looking to "move up" to, but still newer than the Tercel, and the price was right. So now we are feeling very glad to have a little car for Matt to drive to work in WITH A/C and 4-doors for the Joanna, and still no car payment. We are very lucky folk. Soon I will post pictures of it and our sad little green car we will be saying good bye to.

Cranky

That's the word for Joanna this week: cranky. Don't ask me why; I don't know. I have theories, though, which I'll get to. We had a really great morning; she played so well at play day. We had 7 kiddos here, I think. They all played so well! I was very impressed. For the most part, Joanna just wandered around and played with this and that, as all the kiddos did. She did discover that she can get in the toybox and play very well with all the toys from there. It was really cute. I didn't get my camera out at all -- too much chaos, but I'm sure she'll do it again and I try to get a pic. She also seems to have done very well at MDO yesterday (yea for not being sick and being able to go so Mommy doesn't go crazy and jump off a cliff!); she played with the other kiddos (or near them, anyway) and she took a great nap. So, here come some of my theories for uber-grumpy Joanna:

• She's bored: Perhaps I try to get too many things done (laundry, cleaning, work, email, As the World Turns) during the day and she's tired of not having my full, undivided, entertaining attention.
• She's tired: I have had to put her to bed at 6:45 two nights now due to extreme grumpiness, and last night she slept like 12 1/2 hours
• She doesn't like me anymore: She was fine at MDO and fine at play day with all the other people
• She's frustrated: she can't walk, we don't play outside because she can't walk
• She's hurting: I suppose some big 'ol honkin' teeth could be trying to break thru
• She's sick: She seems fine now, but she's had an off and on runny nose, cough, congestion, fever, etc. since we weaned
• She's thirsty: It seems to me that she hardly drinks anything from her cups, but she doesn't seem dehydrated. I know she misses nursing, although she has mostly stopped asking. Sometimes she'll give me the "milk" sign and try to lift up my shirt. Sorry, girl the dairy is closed.
• She's hungry: Although she eats and eats and eats, maybe she's not getting enough nutrients or something. She doesn't seem malnourished or anything, though.
• She's 1: Maybe it's just developmental to be clingy and grumpy all the time. Her very favorite thing to do is for me to hold her while I'm standing up and doing nothing else. For obvious reasons, I try not to indulge this. I'm trying to get her to enjoy sitting and rocking with me; that's pretty fun for me, and I think it's growing on her.

Due to the extreme crankyness/frustration/grumpiness/boredom/hurting whatever, we often spend our afternoons elsewhere. She really is a much better human being if we're out and about. I'm looking forward to the pool opening up during the week. I think she will like going to the pool some days. It's also free, which is nice.

The Importance of Birthdays, Keys, and Independent Eating

First up, one of Joanna's new things. She can now take Giraffe with her wherever she goes.
I love it!

Now for more 40th celebrations for Matt. We had home group Monday night, and look what was waiting for my sweet husband.
Even a walker to help him get all the way from the door to the living room. We have such thoughtful friends!
Amy's birthday (not 40th!) was in April also, and Kim made them a YUMMY cake. Thank you Kim! And Happy not 40th Birthday Amy!
I saw on Kim's blog a precious picture of Caleb eating his cereal with a spoon (I'm very impressed, by the way). I thought I would share with you Joanna feeding herself cereal. Now, Joanna is a LOT younger (or maybe just a little :)) than Caleb so she's not as cool or experienced about it. She holds the spoon, she dips it into the cereal, but mostly she scoops it up with her hands. She's just finished now. Luckily I have an hour to clean her and the chair up before her friends get here for playday!

And lastly, the importance of keys. Or rather the importance of not leaving them in the car. For the first time in really quite a while, I locked my keys in the van. Luckily, it was under nearly the very best of circumstances. (The best being at home with nowhere to go.) Joanna was reasonably clean, fed, and happy. We were at the church, and my mom was home, with a spare clicker for the van. It could have been so much ickyer. I have a habit (possibly bad) of tossing my keys into the diaper bag before I get out of the car. I had just gotten to the church to pick up Joanna. I grabbed my bag, locked the door, then decided I didn't want to take the whole bag in with me. So I pulled out my church keys so I could finish up my work. I was on the phone, which may have added to my distraction. I put the bag back in the car and went and picked up Joanna. About 30 minutes later, after grabbing Joanna and getting the last of my work done, we arrived at the car, and I realized what had happened. Bummer.

Bluebonnets!

Bluebonnet time is almost over in Houston, but we found a spot close-by to take some pics before they go! If you want to know where we went, I will tell you, but not on the blog. The flowers looked a little dry and wimpy, but I really don't think you can tell from the pics. Especially with super cute Joanna in them! Enjoy!

I thought this was very funny. I layed Joanna down at about 9am this morning for a nap because she was grumpy. I expected her to sleep about 30 minutes and then we'd head to church. Well, she fell asleep about 9:15 and slept until 10:45!!!!! She was sure tuckered, I guess. At about 10:30, I was getting kind of antsy and ready to go, so I peeked in at her, and this is what I saw. At first glance it looks like normal sleeping Joanna. Then I noticed what was under her head. I thought, "I didn't put her to bed with a towel." Then I remembered that I had hooked a towel on the doorknob of her open closet door last night to dry after bath. I guess she had stood up, reached over and grabbed it to use as a pillow for naptime. What a funny little girl.

So much to Blog, so little time...

Okay, so I feel there's a lot to catch up on, so be prepared for a lot of pictures and depending on how much time I have, a lot of writing. First up,

Galveston!

We took soooo many pictures; here is just a small sampling:

Joanna and Daddy on the deck of the house we stayed in.

Mamma and Pop with all their kiddos. Awwwww. From left: Uncle Mark, Mamma, Pop, Uncle Mike, Aunt Mindy, Aunt Missy, Daddy Pretty. This bridge thing took us from the house to the beach without having to crawl through the brushy stuff.
It was cold on Saturday. I did not come prepared for cold.
Brrrr..... Matt's nephew Josh with his son Brendan, 18mos. So cute!
Joanna and Mommy
Joanna and Daddy on Sunday, which was nice and warm. We got Joanna all decked out in her swimsuit and cover-up. Of course, the water was a little chilly for us to actually let her get in :)
Feet in the sand for the first time.
Mommy and Joanna collecting pretty shell pieces. All tuckered out. She actually fell asleep on the short walk back from the beach and stayed asleep for over an hour!
Isn't this swimsuit adorable?! Look closely, what do you see?
There are actually 3 generations in this photo. Matt and his nephew Josh with their kiddos. Brendan and Joanna are first cousins once removed because Joanna and Josh are first cousins.
This was when we were about to head out on Sunday evening. We got Joanna all ready for bed so she could sleep on the way home. Do you see the giraffe PJs? I love how she's looking out the door at Brendan. There was a deck out there with like 87 steep steps, so that's why she wasn't allowed out there. She's too fast and unpredictable, and she doesn't know how to go down stairs yet.

Our next adventure of the week was taking care of Anna while her little sister was born. The girls are a little over 5 months apart, and they play pretty well together. There are of course the occasional disputes of the toddler property law, but mostly they are very sweet. I decided to stroll the girls to the park on Tuesday, which they very much enjoyed. I don't think I heard a peep out of either the whole trip; they loved the walk. We stopped at the gazebo for a photo op -- look how they're holding hands! Such sweet girls! I couldn't really aim the camera here because I was holding on to the children. I was pretty sure Anna could stay on on her own, but I knew Joanna couldn't, and I was also thinking they might just up and push each other off. We also swung (swang? swinged?) for a while which they loved, and I got to work on my arm muscles.
Next up are random pictures of the exciting developments of Joanna's new life as a non-baby-not-yet-toddler.

This is kind of disgusting, but what can you do. I forget what she was eating here, but her mouth is completely jammed full and she's trying to wash it down with milk. She was a mess after this meal.

This was just this weekend. See the tiny toes?!This is at Matt's brother's house, but we have a similar fireplace which is why I'm worried. If you can't tell in the picture, she has climbed UP onto the fireplace (a foot or so step). I'm now looking for ideas on blocking the firebox once she gets up there. We have stuff (pillows, keyboard) on our hearth, and so far it hasn't occured to her to climb up, but I know it won't be long. :(And her she is IN the basket of toys. That's how to play. And now for our most recent big girl change. Here is Joanna after her final ride in the infant seat. She's officially too long for it, but she's still not heavy enough to forward face in a big carseat.
So here she is rear-facing in the convertable seat. Pretty cushy, huh Joanna? She doesn't seem to mind/notice the change.
But later that night: "Just one more ride, mom?"

Joanna's been sick this week. Yuck, but I was expecting it after the weaning :( Poor Joanna. She had a cold last week, then a couple of days of seeming healthy, then on Wednesday she got a fever which she hung on to until Saturday. It was her only symptom, besides the extreme (even for her) crankiness. I took her to the doctor (her first sick visit!) on Thursday and of course he couldn't find anything wrong with her. Her ears looked good (yea!) and the strep test came back negative, so he thought it could just be a little virus. Who knows. We kept her on Tylenol and just babied her as much as we could. We saw a different doctor for the first time; ours was on vacation. Vacation?! While Joanna is sick? I can't believe it! Oh, well. This doctor was very nice, too. Here's the unbelieveable (to me) part: she weighed in at 18lb 1oz! Oh my goodness! That's a gain of almost two pounds in less than a month! She's never gained weight like that -- wow!

Up until last week, Joanna had perfect attendance at school. She has now missed TWO weeks in a row! I'm going crazy! It is too hard to work without MDO! And my house hasn't been vacuumed in FOREVER! I took her up to the church on Thursday because I still had to work, and because it was picture day, which she was NOT going to miss. Unfortunately, she couldn't take a picture with her class, but she got her individual one done. I LOVED the photographer. She was young, high energy, and great with the kids. She also took like a million pictures, so I know we'll get a great one!

Our most recent big event was a really big one. Like 40 kind of big, you know.

Matt's birthday!!

The reason this sign looks like it's being reused is because it is. It was out at the beach for Matt's parents. The funny thing is that Matt's mom and dad are Monte and Joann, but this sign originally said Monte and Jordan. We hung it anyway 'cause we thought it was funny. I made a button for Matt to wear on Friday -- don't you love it? Anybody else see Joanna on that little face?
Friday we partied at Aunt Mindy's house; Saturday we partied at Uncle Mark's house. Here is just ONE of Matt's cakes:
After blowing out the candles. I guess he was glad he had the energy.
Awww.... Doesn't look 40, does he?
I love this. Matt's mom always writes all kinds of birth info on her kids' birthday cards. Matt's Uncle Dick and Aunt Charlotte were also in town this weekend. Joanna and I had never met them.
Just ignore the crying baby. Pretend she's smiling instead. Joanna with Uncle Mark and Aunt Allison.

We've been so busy but had so much fun! Joanna APPEARS to be back to normal health-wise, but we'll see. There are all kinds of illnesses she hasn't had yet.

If you're reading this, don't forget to post a comment and let me know what's going on with you. I LIVE for comments!