More from the photo shoot

Here are another few shots that didn't make the cut, but are super cute nonetheless. These are mostly funny face pictures.

These next three are from when she was singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." She had gotten sad about something, so my mom started singing that song for her. Joanna's hand motions include putting her hands on either side of her face for the part that goes: "How I wonder what you are."

This one looks like she's trying to tune us out.

I think this one is precious, just a little weird with the hands up on her head.
Tune in soon for more photos that you will not see in print.

1st Photo Shoot

Believe it or not, we've never taken Joanna to have pictures made. I think it's more of a lazy thing than anything else, but lately I was really wanting to. For a few weeks I've been thinking about going, but first Joanna fell and scraped her face, then she ran into the door and bruised her forehead, then she was sick... Finally today, she was basically blemish-free and quite well. We've had a very crazy couple of days (which I'll get to), but we were determined to go have some pictures made. I was very pleased with the experience. I definitely spent more than I wanted to, but like I told Matt, if you average it out over Joanna's whole life, it's a very reasonable amount of money per month for professional pics. We got a boat-load of pictures, probably more than I know what to do with. I'm going to hold some of the bigger ones back for Christmas, but we'll pass out the little wallets whenever we see ya. We got a CD of all the images they took (75!), and I've decided not to post any of the ones we chose to buy. You'll have to wait and see those in print. For today, I've chosen an assortment of images featuring what I like to call "A Joanna Look." The quality isn't super great so I'll describe to you what I think she's thinking/feeling in each picture.

"Hmmmm.... what is all this about?"

"Seriously?"

I'm not sure, but the tongue is out and the arms are reaching -- it's a good thought. A smirk, I think. "You lookin' at me?"
I can't remember what she wanted more of: the ball, the stuffed animals, the camera... something.
"I'm done now."
"Huh?"

Now on to the crazyness of the past couple of days. Wednesday night Matt came home after Bible study to a house several degrees warmer than when he left -- unusual. We were pretty sure that the A/C wasn't blowing cold air, just coolish air. Well, within an half hour or so, it was back to blowing cold air, and the house cooled off. I was willing to believe we had imagined it, but we also thought the A/C may have just had a little hiccup. The next day (yesterday) I told my mom what had happened so she could be on the lookout for anything strange while she watched Joanna. Well, she called me while I was up at the church to tell me she had turned off the A/C because the ceiling was leaking in the living room. Great. Interestingly, the leak was through a beam in the ceiling, so we don't have a water spot on the sheet rock. The earliest a technician could get out was today between 1-5pm. So last night Matt, Joanna, and I stayed with Mamma and Pop in the cool air. The A/C guy is at the house now, hopefully he will be able to fix whatever it is with no problem! I don't want to go all weekend without my cold air!

***Update: The A/C is fixed and working hard! It's now down from 84 to a cool 81. Whoo hoo! I know night will bring our usual comfort. It already feels a lot better in here with the air circulating. I think it smells better, too.

On an unrelated note:

I've started feeling the baby move around. It started a few weeks ago with tiny flutterings and bumps, but over the past couple of days (s)he has really stepped it up. I don't think the movements are quite strong enough to feel on the outside, so Matt has to wait a little longer. Last night my wonderful husband was rubbing my sore lower back and the little guy/gal was going wild! I can remember Joanna fetus doing that, too. They just love when I get my back rubbed!

Words and Sounds

I've been thinking recently about the words and sounds Joanna can say and sign. I have no idea whether she's "on track," or not, and I really don't care. She's able to communicate what she needs and wants, and she seems to understand us pretty well. Except for that little word, "no." It's a troublesome one, for sure. I find it possible that her spoken language is a little behind her peers, but she signs a lot, so I think that may be part of the difference. I'm sure we'll talk about it at her 18 month doctor's appt, and see what the pediatrician has to say, if anything. I'm sure he'll agree that she's perfect!

Words/phrases she can speak (in pretty much the order they popped into my head):

eye

outside

hi

hello

uh oh

bye

bye bye

What's that?

ball

Momma

Daddy

shoes (I'm a little skeptical about this one, but Matt's sure)

diaper (this one is always accompanied by the sign, but I'm pretty sure she's saying "di pah")

Words she can sign:

milk

more

all done/ all gone

please

thank you

help

water

diaper

clean up/wash hands

hungry/food

Animal sounds:

Sheep -- bah

Cow -- moo

Dog -- woof woof

Cat -- ow

Elephant -- can't spell it, but it has a hand motion too, for the trunk

Duck -- quack

We're working on others, but these are the ones she has down.

Other sounds, technically words (Onomatopoeia) that she uses:

Mmmmm (obviously when when we let her have chocolate cake)

Ahh (the sound you make after you take a sip of something) She uses this word for glasses, bottles, and cans of drinks. She also says it after she takes a sip of something.

Edouard

I know a lot of people in our area were adversely affected by the tropical storm with power outages, flooding, and such, but it was pretty much all good for us. The worst part for me was my trouble sleeping last night, and that was only sort of because of the storm. I wasn't consciously worried about the storm, but my sub-conscious wouldn't let me sleep. Every time I woke up to go to the bathroom (which was a lot), I layed there thinking about things I could be doing to prepare for a worst-case contingency. So finally about 2:15 I got up and putzed around the kitchen, had a snack, and got some computer stuff done. After thoroughly waking up my husband, I headed back to bed an hour or so later and was finally able to fall asleep. I've made it through the day, but I am beat! Anyway, the day was really good overall. The storm gave us lots of much needed rain; my yard is finally mostly green again. Yea! The clouds and rain also kept the heat away, and we were able to keep the temp down in the house. Double yea! Fortunately we kept power all day -- thank you little house! I opened up the back door to the storm door and all the window blinds; Joanna and I had fun watching the rain. She wanted to go out there and enjoy it in the flesh, but her mean 'ol momma wouldn't let her. So Joanna stayed inside ALL DAY, poor thing. Luckily she got to hang out with Gran for a while, though. My mom watched Joanna while I headed up to staff meeting this afternoon. The church office was closed this morning, but everybody worked this afternoon so we had staff meeting at 2:00. Should've been my naptime, but I do enjoy staff meeting.

I must say, I really do like stormy days, especially when they're pretty gentle and helpful, like this one.

I think tomorrow morning we're heading up to the church. Joanna NEEDS some time with other people and other toys in the nursery. We've been pretty much one on one the last week and a half. I love that child, but man she's cranky when she's sick! I've had my sweet little girl back the last couple of days, though. I really missed her. So while Joanna's playing in the nursery, I'm going to try and get some work done, or maybe I'll just stare off into space and take a mental nap. I'm open.

Reading

I've spent much of the last, oh, 27 hours reading Stephanie Meyer's new book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. I won't post anything about the story (I'm not that mean!), just that I loved it, of course, and that I'm I little sad I read it so fast. I really couldn't help it though. I had to force myself to stop reading it last night and to leave it in the car for church this morning. I'm just like that with new books. I can't savor them. I binge, I guess. The good thing is that I'll read it again someday and get more out of it the second time around. I think I'm going to start listening to the audio of the first one and start enjoying the series over again; I just need excuses to be in the car. :)

Raindrops on Roses

I decided that I needed to post about some of the good things happening this week, since my recent posts have been pretty grumbly.

• My mom was home Monday and Tuesday, so we got to hang out with her. She watched Joanna Monday night for home group so Matt and I both got to go.
• I got to go to staff meeting on Tuesday (without Joanna), and it was one of the long, chatty kinds, which are my favorites.
• Joanna and I have gone out to eat lunch 3 times this week (because we're so lonely), and those were really fun times.
• We've been to the new Super Target twice, and I think we may have found our new high chair (more on that, later).
• Joanna slept 1 1/2 hours for nap yesterday. Yea!!
• We have gotten 2 or 3 invites to go swimming with friends. Sure, we couldn't go, but it's really nice to get invited.

But now, an totally unrelated sad note. I recently learned that starting next March, our doctor's office will no longer be accepting our insurance. This is really really sad news.

If Joanna only sleeps for 30 minutes this nap, I have 4 minutes to go lay down. Hopefully it'll be more like 40... or 110.

Joanna is still sick. In fact, I think on top of her "nonspecific virus" from earlier in the week, she now has a cold. It may just be allergies, I guess, but she's pretty congested this morning. Poor girl! And we're out of tylenol. Luckily we have NOTHING to do, so we'll pop by the drugstore today.
I caught this cute video of Joanna sitting and reading to herself the other day. I've got some other video of her doing super cute things, but it's on the big camera and I have to borrow my mom's computer to upload. Maybe it'll happen...

For now: