Good News!

In about two weeks, I will be a part-time employee and a most-time stay at home mommy! They've hired someone who will start Aug. 1st doing the youth stuff and work for Rev. Evans. I really like the person who will replace me -- she's so nice, and has been involved the church in different aspects for a while. I will continue doing the bulletin and screen programs for Sunday morning. I'll work a couple of mornings at the church and some from home. I'm very excited! So now I'm in the process of getting things organized in my office, making notes for the new person, making it through every day, prepping for the end of the summer youth stuff coming up quickly, convincing Joanna it's okay to takes naps, making it through each day, clearing out my office, getting my home computer ready to handle new programs, and making it through each day.

In other good news, those of you who keep up with my mother ("Gran's Adventures," see right), know that she's headed back to base out of the Houston airport. Yea!! We will get to see her more often, and I know she's excited to be able to use her car and use her free time as she likes.

I'm not sure this is good news, necessarily... I guess for the days when she wants to eat steak... Joanna's working really hard on a tooth. I think I can sort of feel where it's going to come in.

Joanna sitting in a toddler-sized chair at a friend's house. She loved being propped up and looking around at the goings-on.

I think it's so cool how God can make such a beautiful flower on a rose plant in my yard, a plant I don't feed or water or do anything nice for.

Gran, Texas Children's, and other stuff

We have been so lucky this week to have Gran with us for a few days. My mom flew in Tuesday night and will leave Saturday morning. She kept Joanna all day on Wednesday so I could get a bunch of work done -- thank you Mommy! It is definitely nice to have a 3 adults to 1 baby ratio from time to time. Life is simpler that way.

This morning Joanna had to get an EKG and a chest x-ray down at Texas Children's Hospital. I took the day off and Gran went with us. It was really a good experience. TCH is an amazing hospital; hopefully Joanna will be done with it soon, though! This morning she just had those tests run; we'll go back later this month for the eval/work up for her little heart murmur. We left plenty early to get down there today, which is good because with traffic and getting a little confused (not lost), we made it with only about 5 minutes to spare. The lady at the infomation desk gave Joanna a Beanie Baby, which she loves! It's pink with a heart on it -- how perfect. We got in for the EKG in no time, and Joanna did very well! The tech stuck these blue sticky things with tabs on them to Joanna's chest, then she attached cables to the tabs which connected her to the machine. I think the tech wanted her to be a little more still than she was, but Hello, she's 4 1/2 months old! The hardest part was when she took the sticky things off her chest (it hurt!). It seemed similar to ripping a dozen band-aids off your chest -- ow! Then we walked over to another building to have the chest x-ray done. On our way, we stopped at the chapel which I had heard was very nice -- it was. As you sit there (and um, nurse) the ceiling changes to represent each part of the day. Night, sun rise, day, sunset, night again. It was very cool. The chest x-ray was also easy. Everyone at Texas Children's is so nice! Mom and I wore lead apron thingies and Joanna had one over her bottom-half (to protect her ovaries!). We held her down while the tech shot two x-rays, and that was it.

Joanna and the EKG machine

Gran and Joanna after the chest x-ray.

I'll leave you with some recent pictures of our sweet girl:

All wrapped up after a bath -- my sweet papoose.

The bib says "Diva"... that's about right.

More in the life of Joanna

This week has been pretty great. In the pursuit of a happy, healthy Joanna (and Mommy), I took most of the week off to concentrate on putting Joanna down for naps in her crib. While we're nowhere near an actual schedule (maybe we never will be!), Joanna is doing great and definitely sleeps better on her own than on someone. She still cat-naps (30 minutes or so) and has to cry a bit before she'll fall asleep, but she's doing really well. I've tried to stick close to home this week, but of course we were out and about a little bit. Joanna will nap in the car, but never for long so I like to be home around "nap-time," even though it's not always predictable. Little miss Fussy Pants has started fussing more in the car, but I think it's out of boredom more than anything else. She LOVES it when someone's riding back there with her, but of course that's unusual. Anyone want a part-time job riding around in the backseat of my car? Just kidding. We picked up some more colorful little toys that hang on the carseat so we can switch those out -- give her some variety of creatures to talk to. So far, the yellow circle with arms, legs, and a face is a big hit. Go figure.

Joanna has been on quite a feeding-frenzy today, wanting to nurse forever at each feeding. I guess it could be a fluke, or maybe she's hit a growth spurt. We're pretty sure she's also teething. She has many signs: drooling, chewing like crazy, but I can't feel any teeth yet. Time will tell, I guess.

My mom is headed to Houston this week. She has four days in a row off. Yea Gran! Together, we're going to take Joanna down to Texas Children's for an EKG and chest x-ray on Friday. Her actual work-up/eval. isn't until July 25th, but I'm sure this will be quite an experience in itself. I'm so excited to spend time with my mom!

On our only full day of work this past week. Joanna's stroller doesn't fit in the paper closet so she had to watch me make bulletin copies from the hallway.

"Yes? May I help you? I'm talking to this lamb right now."

Joanna with my cousin Josh from Illinois. He spent his vacation doing things like painting, grouting, drywall, etc. at my grandmother's house.

"I'm cute, and I know it."

The above picture is Joanna at 1 month old and below is me at 4 or 6 weeks old. Think we're related?

New Places to Sit and Time with Family

So these days Joanna is very into rolling over back to front. Unfortunately she then gets stuck and must be rescued. Even more unfortunately, she tries this rolling over thing in her bouncer while she's buckled in (I have no picture of this -- you'll need to use your imagination). This means is no longer very fun for Joanna to sit in her bouncer much. We have discovered that sitting in the high chair is pretty fun, though. (It has a 5-point harness, so no rolling over!) "I'm not eating food here yet, but I have a great view of my feet!

Here's Joanna in the Bumbo chair in the nursery at church. She loved it! She could relax and watch everything going on around her without having to hold herself up or worry about rolling over and not being able to roll back.

On Sunday, we went to my Aunt Kalli's house across town for a memorial service for my Great Aunt Bettianne who passed away last month. It was a sad reason to get together, but it was wonderful to see a lot of family, most of whom hadn't met Joanna.I have always been very blessed to have a very close extended family. My mom grew up with her cousins. I grew up with my second cousins. The little boy in the picture above is Keelan, Joanna's third cousin. Keelan just loved Joanna -- he is such a sweet 3 year old! He called her his baby sister. So cute!

Joanna getting a loving hug from Keelan. Also, Mikey, Joanna's other third cousin, and their mom, Kara, my second cousin -- got that? We simplify in my family by calling everybody older Aunt or Uncle so-and-so, and everybody the same age our cousins.

My Wonderful Aunt Gail held Joanna while I ate, even though she was crying and crying (just tired, nothing to do with Aunt Gail!).

At the end of it all, Joanna was pooped. We got her to bed a little late, and she sure was ready -- not a peep out of her before she fell asleep!

It was a very short visit to cram in time with everybody, especially with such a fussy Joanna! I look forward to spending more time with everyone. I really enjoyed getting to visit a little with my cousins (Joanna's 2nd cousins once removed!) from across the pond and everybody from the Dallas area. Everybody's growing up so fast! We have to get together more often...

Not much here to report

Posing with Mommy then Daddy for 4 month pictures in the backyard.

Sitting with Daddy in church -- so attentive to the sermon.

So I'm posting this on Wednesday morning, a mere 5 days after that top picture of Joanna and me was taken, and we're both already wearing the same outfits again... at the same time. I really need to start some kind of system where I rotate the clothes I just wore to the back of the closet or something instead of wearing the same 4 outfits over and over again. Of course that would probably involve some ironing...

So Petite

Today Joanna is 4 months old, and we had our well-baby visit to the doctor this morning. Here are her stats: She is 10 pounds, 7 ounces, 23 inches long, and her head circumference is 16.25 inches. Some may say she's scrawny (Gran!), but the doctor's term exactly is "petite," which I like better. Her height, weight, and head circumference are all headed up the graphy thing like they should, and her height and weight are proportunal to each other, so she looks great. He was also impressed with our little rolling girl and her head control. He said she's a little ahead in those areas (of course!) probably because she's so petite (not so much girth to maneuver, I guess!). So in the well-baby area of the appointment things look great. Here's the not so great part: we get to enjoy a visit to the cardiology department of Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Harper heard a heart murmur (a little squirt, he called it) that he hadn't heard in Joanna before, and he would like her to have a complete cardio work-up at TX Children's. Okay. Basically we shouldn't worry. She's doing too good for there to be something really wrong -- we would see it if she was having some kind of heart failure or something, so the work-up will really be to find out why there's a murmur. Could be a little hole or something. We're working on getting an appointment scheduled; hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. For now, keep us in your prayers. I know everything is fine, but of course we're likely to be anxious until we find out what's going on in that little heart.

4 months old and ready to visit the doctor

On the exam table, chatting with Daddy

Lately, I'm completely obsessed with these cute feet!

"Stay at home" Mommy

Word around here travels like wild fire, so this won't be news to some of you. Matt and I have decided that it's time for me to be a stay at home Mommy. While bringing Joanna to work with me has been an incredible opportunity, those days are coming to an end. This week I "turned in my resignation" as it were, but have agreed to stay on as long as is necessary to find a replacement. (As if anyone can replace Joanna and me!) So keep that search in your prayers as well as our soon to be single-income family. I am thrilled about soon being able to devote more time to my family. I know it's going to be no cake-walk, but I know Joanna will benefit from being at home and getting a routine established there. Of course now I'll have less excuses for my dust-bunnies and grimey bathrooms!