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).