Potty Trained

Last week Jolee decided that underwear were cool and diapers were awful. She has been successfully using the toilet for 8 days now and it is wonderful! She loves her panties and wants to put them on herself (inside out, backwards, oh well at least they are on). She talks constantly about the potty and is very proud to tell everyone she meets that she uses the "poo poo potty." I rarely have to remind her to go now, she is pretty good about telling us when she needs to go. I just make her go before we get in the car. I can't even explain how excited I am that she is potty trained. It is so wonderful!!! She even can take naps and stay dry as long as she goes right before she naps. The only time she wears a diaper is overnight. I am not even going to try to get her overnight trained for a while. Hip hip horray for Jolee!

Doing Swell

We are all doing great. Randy went on the father and sons campout trip this past weekend and had a great time, he said the only thing that would make it better would be if he had his own son to take with him. Maybe this baby will be a boy and they will be able to go together in a few years. Boy or girl, I just want a healthy baby. Only 3 more months to go and I my belly is swelling up already. I tried to give a sister at church a hug today and it was pretty funny to see, everyone around us got a good giggle because we were unable to reach each other around our pregnant bellies. Jolee now thinks that there are babies inside of every stomach and will say "hi baby" and pat just about any belly, including her own belly. We have a bunch of books on a new sibling that we have been reading to her. I doubt she really understands, but I am hoping it will help to prep her for her new sibling in August. I only have 3 more night shifts, then I will be switching over to day shift for a while (not sure how long). I am excited to sleep on a normal schedule soon. This switching back and forth while pregnant and being a mommy to a toddler is a bit taxing. Somedays I just sit around and read books with Jolee and do about nothing around the house. Which means that other days I get to clean clean clean. Oh, I hated having Randy gone overnight while he was camping. Now I know how he feels, with every creak of the house sounding threatening. I woke up in the middle of the night and had the hardest time falling asleep. I am so glad that he is home, although neither of us slept much last night as Jolee's molars are getting closer and closer to breaking through meaning no sleep. Still going crazy without having a fence. Most of our projects are on hold until we can get a fence up, so our spare room is still a bit packed with random boxes. I still haven't found everything we need, so I end up just doing without so random things, like the web cam. (sorry Mom I still haven't found it, but I know it is somewhere.) Jolee's potty training is starting to go a bit better. She has fallen in love with panties and hates having to put a diaper or pull ups on. I also started to reward dryness more than using the potty, so she is a bit quicker to get to the bathroom. One jelly bean if she uses the toilet and had a little accident in the panties and three jelly beans if she uses the toilet and is dry. She really doesn't like getting just one jelly bean, so we went almost the entire day without any accidents. She actually went to church in panties and was accident free (horray!). She didn't have any accidents until she got home and she only had one because she was playing a little too much and put it off too long. I make her clean up her messes ("no, mommy do it" is her usual comment) so I think that is helping to encourage her to be accident free. I feel like I think about potty time all the time. I would love her to be completely potty trained soon so that we can be diaper free for a least a few months before baby is born. I am so excited to meet our little cygnet and have just a little bit bigger of a family.

Growing up too fast

Jolee quickly proceeded from a few steps to eight or nine steps to full out walking. Yes, that is right, our little baby decided that now is the time to walk. She walks all around the house and she is SO cute. She is very proud of herself and loves to talk and laugh while walking to ensure that everyone is looking and ready to cheer her on. She will still crawl every once and a while, but she is mostly walking. It is so hard to believe that she is almost a year old. Where did the time go?

Almost a year

Wow the time has really flown by. I can't believe my little baby has so quickly changed into a toddler. Here are a bunch of pictures I have been meaning to post.

Daddy and Jolee reading a book

First time touching snow, so cold

Petting a chick (she wanted to squeeze it)

Being a cowgirl, yeehaw

First time in snow fall (in Preston, ID)

Playing with cousin

Playing with cousins

At Daddy's high school locker (if you have seen Napoleon Dynamite this should be familiar)

So tired

Getting rowdy with Aunt Emily

Trying to steal Mommy's necklace

In her toddler bed

Tried to get a picture with the hat on and failed

Being silly

Munchies

Fell down and scraped her chin :(

Stole and demolished crackers, mmm

Lots of naps (and lots of growing)

Playing with balls

With Great Aunt Grandma (GrammE's aunt)

Petting goats at the Pima County Fair

Watch out sheep, here comes Jolee

So sweet

First time eating licorice

Playing with a turtle shell at the Tucson zoo

Jolee fell down in the tub and bashed open her eye, OUCH!

Yawn

Celebrating birthday early while family was in town for Daddy's graduation

Jolee doesn't like cake, but she loves frosting

Playing with toilet paper (Ellsworth family tradition for the first birthday)

Playing with GrammE

Jolee with her new Elmo. She loves to dance when Elmo sings. It is hilarious.

Party time in PJs

Heading to church on Mother's day. Jolee is so cute!

Being cute in my dress from Auntie Meg

Jolee will take 3 steps on her own, but she will walk all over while holding hands

Jolee fed herself breakfast this morning. Messy eater :)

Words number 3 and 4

Jolee is so enamored with the dogs! It is a blast to watch her crawl (at lightening speed) to the sliding door to go and "talk" to the dogs. She has started to say two additional words to "Momma" and "Dada," she now says "hi" and "doggy." She stands at the door and bangs on it while yelling "hi doggy." She loves getting to go outside and pet the dogs. Her only desire is to sneak out and play while Mommy is going in or outside. I made a deal with her, when she is walking, then she can go outside and walk around, until then she only gets to go outside while being held. Xyla and Chonkiri are so good with her. They let her pet/pat/smack/etc. them and they just sit there. Such good doggies!

"I see you."

"I wish I could get those doggies!"

"I wonder how to get this door open?"

"DOGGIE!" Jolee petting Xyla

"TWO doggies!"

"Come here doggy"

"Too close."

"I got your lip"

"Got ya again."

Pulling Up

Another first. Jolee has now pulled herself up to standing three or four times by reaching up and grabbing onto the couch. She does this more when I am sitting on the couch. I am so amazed at how quickly my little girl is growing up.

My talking little girl!

About a week or so ago Jolee said her first word... Mama! I am so proud of her. She was babbling with Randy and keep saying "mmm" "mmmm" and then Randy said "momma" and so Jolee clenched her little fists made a very serious face and said "mmm" "mmaa" "mama." Since then she now says mama all the time, but mostly when she gets angry and wants me to pick her up right this second. I love it :) It is definately because of me that "mama" was her first word. I replaced all of the words to the songs I sing to her with "mom." For example, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Start" is "Mom-mom, Mom-mom, Mommy Mom." We are now changing the songs over to "dad" so that Randy can enjoy her calling for him too. His favorite thing about her saying "mom" is that I am more than willing to take her when she is cranky because she is "calling me."

A Month of Pictures

Wow, half a month has gone by since I have updated, where does the time go? Jolee had her 4 month check up on Monday. She is 25.5 inches long and 15lbs. I am amazed at how quickly she grows. It seems only yesterday that she was born. She has been teething and she got 3 shots during her check up so she has been really cranky. She is finally starting to feel better today (hurray). I have not slept much because I have been so busy with helping her feel better. She is definitely worth it. Well here are the pictures and updates...

Jolee loves to play here, she will bat at the toys at her hands and kick the ball at her feet. It is so fun to watch!

I gave her this toy phone/rattle and she instantly turned it sideways and started chewing. She actually had it in her mouth with her hands down, but once I got the camera out, she reached up to try to grab it out of her mouth so I wouldn't get evidence of her cuteness. She was clearly too slow.

Jolee in her jumper. She looks like she is doing some kickboxing in this picture.

Jolee had her first picnic at the park.

She still hasn't decided what all the fuss was about.

After the picnic we went for a walk around the park. Here she is by the lake, this lake is from a natural warm spring, I think it is the only one in Tucson. Our own little oasis in the desert.

Randy loved this park of the walk because the mesquite trees grew over the path and made a tunnel. It kinda made us forget that we were in the middle of the city.

Randy had a good time too. What a great view of the mountains.

By the end of the walk, Jolee was fast asleep, too much excitement for one time.

She woke up in a great mood as we were leaving. (Another pic of me wearing my new glasses).

Mommy helped Jolee play hide and seek with Daddy. He had a hard time finding her until she started cooing.

I love this smile of hers. She looks so cute, but so mischievous.

Working on chewing her fingers.

Too cute.

More jumper pictures. Randy had accidentally put the jumper chain up to high and so he stacked the books up so Jolee could jump. I laughed and laughed when I came out of the bedroom to see this.

Jolee liked watching me laugh. I guess I was pretty entertaining to her too.

Mid bounce

Snoozing after too much time playing.

We finally finished a package for my brother, Russell, in Russia. Here is Jolee inspecting it for shipping.

"I think this corner is secure, just let me check real quick."

"It tastes like it is sealed properly."

Bright blue beautiful eyes! Mommy and Daddy are smitten with just one look.

Jolee also loves to play with her hands. Hey, they are toys that go anywhere.

More time in the jumper. Jolee spends a few hours every day jumping. It is definitely one of her favorite things to do.

Pretty in blue too!

I love this grin!

This is what Jolee wore to go with Daddy to priesthood session of General Conference (see lds.org for information about General Conference). She is a heart stealer!

"Mirror mirror in my hand, who is the fairest baby in the land." "You better say Jolee or I am going to lick you."

"Well, I will lick you anyways just because I can!"