…and we’re off!

 

the title not only alludes to the video, but to the fact that we have come to a weekend explosion of firsts!

we have several attempts at crawling forward on video from the past week, but friday when dad worked from home was probably the first time she really did it.  with much concentration.  and hilarious bobbles.

each day she has gotten better & better at it.  of course, it makes me  a tad sad!  (and we still need to buy baby gates).  she is now determined to go where she wants to, and doesn’t just wander aimlessly for the “bait”.  usually Flopsy is the end result of said determination.  altho’, can i brag that on saturday, she completely bypassed a toy and went straight for my feet?!?! —did you hear me?  MY feet.   well, ok, ok, daddy was outside but who’s keeping track?

so dad was outside putting up her swing in the only tree we have an option for it.  it turned out great tho.  nice and shady!  and a lot closer than a 25min drive to swing in the blaring sun!!  she LOVED it.

if saturday wasn’t enough fun for us all, The Mr. got busy putting together the bike trailer that grampa bought for jovie when she was just a little bean.  so sunday we enjoyed a few rides around the cul-de-sac and up the road in the neighborhood a few times.  she loved it!  she got to looking for me as i would zoom on my bike next to her (also a gift several bdays back from grampa & gramma…. ).  we’ll be taking the bike to the park soon enough.  i thought she’d need some more time to get used to it.  but we are seeing that this baby of 9 months is not necessarily the same one from 9 weeks.  we tend to do things slowly because of it, and we see it’s not always needed.

just wait…  not too long from now, i’ll post about her other bike- grampa’s purchase shortly after finding out we were pregnant.  it’s a real bike for probably a 2 year old. 

but, wait! there’s more.  sunday we were out shopping & when The Mr. was holding her, she saw me and gave a definite wave.  we’ve been practicing. & we weren’t even in front of the mirror, which usually prompts most of her waves.

also, after the shopping trip, The Mr. & i were enjoying some nostalgic music which prompted us to go home & play “Two Princes” by the SpinDoctors.  apparently, they have a new fan, because jovie started to dance.  where’d that come from??  and then- she clapped!! 

we were having such a party on the couch!

and if all this wasn’t enough- she has taken this weekend to do some things she never really has done before.  like finally make consonant sounds other than “dada”  & mimic dad (of course) for the first time.  he even got her to eat a fruit puff by eating his skittles in front of her!

it’s been an amazing weekend.  i hear that there are periods of time where things just start to take off.  this seems to be the case.  to that, i say:  uh-oh. 

she’s at this very moment getting into the tv cabinet b/c the CD’s are holding much more interest for her than her books, toys, and even Flopsy.

40 weeks & a day

i was acutely aware that this past monday jovie survived out of my belly longer than in it.  i delivered her at 39 weeks, 5days.  (The Mr. would chime in here: “shoulda been 4″)

i’m even more aware that in 12 weeks time, we’ll be at week 52.  what else is 52 weeks long??  oh, that’s right.  A YEAR.  as in:  holy crap! no way!!!

things have been fairly uneventful around here.  daddy worked from home one day last week, so without even batting an eye, we went to lunch at Zaxby’s.  and a few days before that it was Moe’s. 

it’s amazing, isn’t it??  The Mr. & i talked just last night how not long ago, we dreaded taking her out in the car at all.  we went to the park the other day and mentioned how on at least 2 occasions we were forced to drive away w/o even getting out of the car.  this is a park that takes 8 min tops to get to.

now, we drive 25 min so she can enjoy 10 on the swing.

we have taken drives for an hour at a time just to get out of the house.  we went to Callaway Gardens & she dealt pretty well with me not even sitting next to her for a long time.

she even sings/babbles in the car a lot of times.  or sits quietly & plays.  never sleeps, though.  not ever.  (not since the trip from greenville to columbia back at xmas).

it’s nice to be able to get out and about when we want to. 

here’s what she was wearing on said trip to zaxby’s.  it was absolutely adorable… what with her mini-skirt & 80s style legwarmers! 

i love the 80's

why, yes.  those are her 2 teeth down there.  now easily seen in a picture…  what???     seriously- make it stop!

33 years later

here i am with my sister (commenter aunt meggieweggie) at a year and a half.  the azaleas were the best part of the yard at 233 brookshire.

March 1976 

here we are with jovie at 9 months:

 

our azaleas are not as plentiful.  but i think our baby more than makes up for that.  tho’ i’m a tad biased.

9 months

Jovie is 9 months old.  that sounds so big!  yikes.  we went to the doctor today and saw that according to percentiles, she’s shrinking.  she hasn’t gained very much weight or height since they measured her 3 months ago!?!?  she’s definitely in a plateau.  she went from being in the 75-95%iles in height & weight to being in the 45-50%iles.  woah! 

i was astounded.  her pants fit differently and she’s as heavy as ever to me….

as you’ll soon see, though, she’s in the 99%ile for cuteness!

Daddy’s taken this week off since he’s between projects at work.  & we’ve had a very good week so far.  of course this daddy’s girl LOVES this fact.  as is evident that today she cried and cried and cried b/c he left the room so she could finish eating.  ay ay ay!  good thing she doesn’t have a very long memory otherwise i’d worry a lot about him going back to work on monday.

last saturday we enjoyed the spring weather and had her first taste of a playground.  do you know how hard i had to search for a playground that had swings???  that’s something i never expected would be a problem.  that’s how we grew up, right?  but, no!  playgrounds these days are all geared towards climbing and balancing.  luckily we found one with a bucket swing, and you could plainly see she enjoyed herself!

we spent some days inside b/c it was cold & windy.  so dad had the start of his vacation having to hold & appease her all day long.  well, i guess his vacation is my vacation, too.

yesterday we enjoyed the fact the sun came out again & we made a trek to Callaway Gardens, which is about an hour & a half away from us.  the drive there was good.  i sat in the front seat for the first time for a long journey.  she only got fussy a little at the end.  maybe 15 minutes tops.  and it wasn’t anything like some of the other trips we’ve taken.  but having spent an entire afternoon away from naps home, i rode in the back coming home.  which worked out great so i could occupy her by giving her the toys she kept tossing out of her carseat & playing peek-a-boo with her.  not to mention all the singing we did.  glad it calmed her. 

it was a good day trip where we enjoyed lots of things…our first picnic which was by a lake.  too bad there weren’t any ducks to feed:

…a long walk to the butterfly garden, where we were more amused by all the cajillions of people (spring break) than the butterflies fluttering all around. 

…a nice stroll through the horticulture center (ie: pretty flowers):

and, what with all the strolling & the watching of things, we were pretty tuckered out:

she enjoyed 20 minutes of peaceful slumber in the breezy shade in dad’s arms….  right where she was happiest!

Warning: Vomit Inducing Pics Below

Here’s a couple of pics from this past week. I’m probably just looking at these with daddy goggles on, but some of these are so cute they make me puke.

Jovie relaxing on the couch.  On the “cuteness puke scale”, this one probably just gives me the dry heaves. 

Jovie at the park, first time in a playground swing. I’ll let mpotter post about this landmark occasion; I’m just here to post the pics. Look at those pastey white legs though. Maybe if she got a tan she could be in commercials and make me a lot of money.  Cuteness-puke rating:  Makes me throw up in my mouth.

Mommy and Jovie at the pool.  Maybe it’s time to buy some pants that fit.  This one is so cute it did in fact make me puke. 

no big news

there’s nothing big to report, really.  which is a welcome change from last april fool’s day. 

jovie’s just concentrating on growing…. her hair, her teeth, her body.  i am quite interested in what they will tell me she measures at the dr. next week!

there’s really nothing new that she’s doing, just being cute as ever.  right now she’s playing in her exersaucer because normally she’ll end up in it at the end of her day; which doesn’t last very long.  so aha!  we’ve already been to the library and to the park today.  i still have to occupy her for 3 more hours…  let’s play in it earlier.   she’s enjoying herself.

today she seemed to really enjoy library time.  she likes when we sing the songs.  she gets a goofy grin on her face when she hears me sing.  and she loves to be enthralled by all the babies toddling all around her.  but today she actively played with a toy & babbled some.  that toy happened to have a big mirror on it.  which she loves!  so that was a bonus.

the mirror thing is pretty funny.  even if she’s fussing about something, we’ll bring her near the mirror & she’ll anticipate seeing it and then break into a big smile.  even if for just a moment.

some people ask what she’s doing these days.  and ask if she’s crawling.  to which i (happily) report:  no!  she’s still doing the scooting on her all4s backwards, and spinning around on her belly to go places.  she still hasn’t figured out “forward”, though she is showing signs of trying. 

as you can see, though- she can do plenty of damage as it is:

apparently she loves loves loves to topple her basket and have a heyday.  you can see she’s pretty happy with herself.

so as of now, i’m really liking that i can still put her where i want her to be, and expect her to be (relatively) in the same place later.

she loves her belly time.  but she also enjoys sitting up and looking at everything in a new perspective. 

The Mr. & i think it’s funny that she just started to growl when talking.  i swear she sounds exactly like Patty & Selma from the Simpsons! 

we also find it fun to pretend that she’s waving to us.  she likes to watch her hands & wrist flick back and forth.  so one day we decided to call that waving.  we do it around each other constantly…. so maybe one day she’ll pick up on it and do it on purpose.

she does raise her hands to be picked up, though.  usually after naptime.

and she loves to watch what yiminy & doh are doing.  even yiminy is a little scared of her.  i think he knows who’s boss these days. (now that it’s not him!)

oh wait! i forgot- we do have big news.  yesterday The Mr. fed her dinner… and she ATE IT ALL UP (not the news).  he said he couldn’t shovel it in fast enough (not the news).  she ate the whole jar (not the news).  what was it??

carrots with tomatoes!         that’s my girl!