Time to Play and Milestones

This is Jolee's newest form of entertainment. She just has a ball being able to swat and kick the toys. Jolee also learned that she has a voice and that she can make her voice very loud. She loves to spend the day yelling, then she will look at me and laugh as if to say "I did that! Aren't you so proud of me!" It is just too cute, except when we need her to be quiet (in comes the pacifier aka silencer).

Jolee is such a morning person. Her favorite time of the day is when she first wakes up. She usually spends her first 1/2 hour awake laughing and laughing. Her grin makes my day! It is amazing how much I love being a mommy. Talk about the world's best job ever! For you mommies out there that get to be full time at home moms, count your blessings!

School is going well for Randy, he had his first day as a substitute teacher yesterday, which was very fun for him because he got to sub at the preschool he used to observe. Jolee and I went over for lunch and so that Randy could show off Jolee. I love watching him interact with Jolee. She just adores her daddy and will give him the biggest grins.

Jolee reacts so differently to Randy and to me. To her daddy, she is all smiles and only wants to be held and refuses to be set down. To her mommy, she talks and talks and talks and enjoys being able to play with her toys and is okay with being laid down as long as she can see her mommy. It is so fun to watch her grow and to learn.

She now rolls from her back to her tummy, but she prefers to roll to her side. She has been acting like she is teething lately (not so fun). She chews on anything she can get in her mouth, usually her fingers/hands and she is drooling up a storm. She was so cranky the other day and nothing would make her calm down. All of my usual tricks were failing, so pulled out one of my parents' tricks for me when I would scream and scream. We went on a walk, at least when we are outside, her yells didn't echo off of the walls. Once outside, she started to calm down; after walking about 100 yards, she stopped crying; after about a half mile, she was fast asleep, finally!

Jolee is now sleeping through the night almost regularly. Occasionally she will wake up at 3am to eat and for a diaper change, but she usually will sleep 8+ hours straight. She is such a great little girl.

We are still cloth diapering and I love it! We haven't bought disposable diapers since the middle of July. Talk about a serious money saver! The diapers that we use are so much like disposables and are so easy to use. No pinning or folding. They go on exactly like disposables. We use baby wash cloths for wipes (same habits with cloth diapers and with disposables, it is too easy to stick the wipe in the diaper and disposable wipes going through the laundry would be bad). We just wet the wash cloths with water and stick them in the wipe warmer and tada all done. Between te disposables and our special butt cream, Jolee hasn't had even the slightest hint of a rash since July. (To make the best ever butt cream, mix vaseline [barrier] with some maalox [neutralizes acid poops] and just enough lanolin to make to two mix together [this is the magic ingredient, don't know why it works so well, but it does] and stir like crazy and your done; this is the mix that worked when nothing else did when Jolee had the worst open horrible rash ever).

Our little table dancer

We laughed and laughed

A few weeks ago we travelled to Ajo to visit Jeremy and Trish Olsen. Their oldest daughter, Brekke, loved holding Jolee.

The problem didn't arise until it was time for her to give Jolee back so Jolee could eat. This is what happened when she couldn't hold Jolee anymore.

Brekke is just too cute and too funny! She didn't like being caught having a melt down, so she hid.

Jolee Bablings

Mommy showing how tiny my hand is.

I am doing some tummy time, not my favorite thing, but Mommy and Daddy say that it is important.

Look, I can do magic, I made my bottom lip disappear.

Now it is back again.

Daddy and I play and laugh. Daddy makes lots of funny faces. I love my daddy.

Mommy showed me a video of when I was newborn, I sure have grown.

I am working on a tape for both of my uncles that are on missions. I am super excited to get to see my Uncle Clint in only 1 1/2 months!

Mommy made me try on my Halloween costume, I wasn't to happy about it so this is the closest thing to a smile I would give her.

Mommy was too slow at getting me lunch, so I told her to hurry. She saw that I had a tear in my eye and instead of feedin me instantly, she took a picture. Ph well, I will forgive her, she got me a new toy today. I now have a little kick and crawl gym, after my nap, I am going to play in it! Talk to you later when I wake up.

Tarantula

Last night Randy and I were watching a movie, it was getting late, so Randy went to let the dog in while Jolee and I were playing on the couch. Randy opens the door, I hear a yell, turn and see something black run across our dining room, and Randy flew to the kitchen while yelling "It ran over my foot!" I start to panic thinking that a mouse is in the house (eek mice), but then Randy says "TARANTULA." (Little bit of a background: Randy is terrified of spiders. About a year ago, while we were walking through the aviary at the Desert Museum, Randy accidentally stepped on a tarantula's leg and it tries to attack his shoe to get him off of it's leg. Scared Randy stiff. Ever since then, Randy has been worried about tarantulas.) So back to the story. Instead of freaking out, I am much more calm, tarantulas I can handle (Lindy should be proud of me). I get Randy to calm down and take Jolee into the bedroom, while I go out to the shed, get a glove and a glass jar and gently coax the adorable tarantula into the jar. The glove was because Randy would not be thrilled if I were to touch a giant spider with bear hands. It was a really awesome tarantula (bit of background: my babysitter growing up had tarantulas and if we were good, she would take us over and let us hold her tarantula). If Randy would have let me, I probably would have a pet tarantula today, but I like Randy to like me, so we took it out to the wash and let it go. The poor thing was probably chased by the dog and was hiding between the security door and the sliding door, when Randy opened the door, it tried to escape the dog, only to run into a human. I am glad that it was easy to catch, or we probably wouldn't have gotten any sleep because Randy would have been up all night looking for it.

Jolee holding her first bug. (she is definitely her mommy's little girl)
Randy wishing I would just take the tarantula out already.

Me with my cute tarantula, oh and I got glasses, now I can see real good. Ha.

Portraits

So far we have gone in to have portraits done 3 times in the last month and a half. I know we are a bit obsessive, but she is growing so fast and is just so cute!

Pictures of the Pretty Princess

Jolee loves using the Boppy to sit up and watch us, occasionally she will get too tired and this is what happens.


We drove out to Ajo, AZ to visit our friends Jeremy and Trish and their little girls. Brekke wanted to hold Jolee the entire time. Look for an upcoming video about what happened when Jolee needed to eat and Brekke couldn't hold her anymore.

Brekke is going to love when her new sister comes and she can hold a baby every day :)

We pulled out some of Jolee's toys for her to play with since she is starting to become more interested in what is around her. Here she is being introduced to snuggle bunny.

Even the cutest of babies has some off times

The one eyed pirate look :)

Jolee loves to look at her toy duck while lying in bed. She will talk to it and kicks her legs so that it will swing and then she talks to it some more.

Jolee is starting to enjoy her walks more and more. Here she is telling Daddy how much she is looking forward to her walk.

We still have to use blankets to keep her propped up in her stroller.

Our walk took us by the Pena home, so we stopped to say hi. Jolee gets to go and play with the Penas every week (they are her babysitter while Mommy sleeps during the day for her night shifts). Jolee loves to laugh with the girls.

Randy has started his last semester of classes. Next semester is just student teaching and then her graduates in May! Here is Randy during a morning farewell before he heads off to class.

Some of Jolee's new PJs. This picture kinda makes it look like pink prison stripes :)