the olden days

if you’ve read this blog at all, you’d probably get that i’m super nostalgic.  (especially since it seems i mention it in MANY of my posts).

and you may have gathered that i’m sad that jovie keeps doing that thing that babies do.  what’s that??  oh, um- growing.

if you’ve followed for a bit, you see that we’ve had some pretty good surprises when jovie decides to not freak out at certain new things.  (some examples:  eating baby food at first,  going to MOPS & the pool the first time).  so, i guess now that we have a happy toddler (!?!) and she’s been proving herself recently, The Mr. & i have made the dire mistake of just letting her experience something new without us prodding, practicing, and feeling apprehensive so we can be on our guard.

instead, we let our guard down.  cuz you know, (as we say over and over to each other) we finally have the kinda baby we thought we’d have way back then.

enter:  bubbles.  more specifically of the bath-sort.  as in a bubble bath.

oooohhhhh so those often longed-for olden days are back!  there’s the jovie we remember.  the one who detests bathtime to the point of screaming bloodymurder that even being downstairs with the tv on you can’t hear the tv.  those bathtimes.  the ones where, when she was a baby, would end up being messier than before b/c after you hoist her out of the bathtub (which she detested), she’d scream so violently that she’d poop all over the towel that, thank god, The Mr. (and not me) would be holding.

aaaaahhhhh the olden days.

so we have our baby back.

b/c we totally didn’t even think that a bubble bath would make her flip her freaking lid.  she LOVES bubbles, and it’s her favorite part of both library time & music class.  and “buh-boo” is one of her words. 

but even the very few bubbles we put in her low-filled bathtub was way too much, and she freaked out before she could even give it a chance.  FUH-REAKED out!

so i took the soap and erased* them & that wasn’t good enough.  so i drained the tub.  and that wasn’t good enough.  that was saturday.  sunday’s & monday’s baths (sans bubbles, no doubt) haven’t gone well, either.  oh please let this be a passing phase.  b/c bedtime around here used to be quite nice!

but, you know…. she more than makes up for it:

i love this walking gig

*am i the only one who knows how to erase bubbles with soap??  i remember being a kid and hating the washing part and saved till the water was borderline freezing b/c all the fun would disappear.

eventful tidbits

thanks for staying tuned…

so last week:

• sunday we had our first fast food experience.  which didn’t go too well.  who’da thunk that a plain hamburger & french fries could be so detrimental!  (well, anyone who realizes she’s my  kid might’ve thunk it).  she was fine when everything was cut into little manageable bits.  but give her a fry??  she bit off a couple of pieces and then shoved the rest in her mouth (of course!)  that’s not fun, apparently.  oh, and ketchup??  no thanks! not having it!!
• monday we were invited by a friend to go to the aquarium.  this isn’t something The Mr. & i had planned on doing anytime soon, since she’s so little.  and we certainly aren’t going to pay $50 to do so!  but since it was free (thank you, free passes!), we decided that The Mr. would have to miss out on this “first”.                 

[which, by the way, i'm very glad to not have had to pay anything... i wouldn't've gotten my money's worth for sure.  there's a total of 4 things i remembered when i went about 4 years ago.  and 3 of the 4 things were closed!   no penguins, otters, or jellyfish.  the other thing to remember were the whales- and sadly there are only 3 now instead of the 5 from way back]

[largest aquarium in the world.....   psshaw]

• tuesday i was giving her a bath and when i filled up her squirty bath toy and told her about the bubbles it was making, she began to say what i’m assuming is her word for “bubble”.  which pretty much took me by surprise.  all she’s been saying is “da-da” or “dah-dee”, and “kii” (kitty).  no “mama” over here.  but now, we’ve got “buh-boo”… which also sounds a lot like her version of pup-pup.         do you guys hear me?  we now have words!?!
• which is nothing compared to the HUGS i got from jovie while i was holding her on tuesday.  all day that day, she just really grabbed onto me. i even told her out loud what a fantastic hugger she is!
• wednesday we went back to music class b/c we were going to miss it on saturday.  she had fun and started to warm up.  we were there waaaay early, so i had to walk around and show her tons o’ stuff to keep us occupied.  one thing i showed her were the bushes of flowers outside.  so i showed her the sign for “flower” and went on our merry way.  almost at the end of music class, she saw the large window, bolted out of my lap to crawl over there…  she saw some (unflowered) bushes and began to excitedly sign “flower”.   i didn’t have the heart to tell her she was wrong.   (ha!) 
• after her nap on wednesday it was raining, so we had to go get the mail and use an umbrella.  and as soon as i opened the door, she saw the rain coming down and signed “rain”.   ???  i haven’t shown her that in well over a week!
• on friday, we went to greenville to see gramma & grampa.  we were preparing ourselves for this trip and the fussiness that would likely arise like they did 2 months ago.  but this time, we knew to stop at the mall of GA and blow off some steam in the playground area….      um, sssshhhhh….  don’t tell anyone.  keep this between us, but….     she was *good*!      The Mr. & i have been waiting a year for a car trip like this one.
• which was good, b/c once we got there, that’s when she kinda lost it.  she was pretty cranky!  even grampa’s fish were not the consolation we had wanted.  (guess she’s so over fish, now that she’s been to the largest aquarium in the world!)
• saturday we left jovie for the longest time ever b/c gramma & grampa got us clemson tickets!  (THANKS AGAIN!!)  needless to say that from her behavior on friday (and even early sat) made us a little nervous.  but i also knew that “outta sight/outta mind” is a phrase that must have come from observing babies….  i assumed that once she got over the jolt of having g’ma & g’pa get her from her nap that morning that she’d be fine.  and they said she was. 

unfortunately, it was a rainy day.  and incidentally, while we were planning on being home around 6, we actually came home at 4pm… b/c the clemson/boston college game got lightening-delayed…. TWICE!  they literally evacuated the stadium (apparently twice), and it took us a half an hour to leave our seat and go down the stairs!  so we left & eventually clemson won.  (WOO-HOO). 

• we got home & jovie was so relieved to see us, she proved that by being cranky some more!  (they said she did well. really!).  we watched some baby einstein where she showed off her favorite word (“kii”). and she then decided to copy us when we talked about grampa’s fish.  she did the sign for that, too!

so that brings her signs up to:   more, eat (just started that on sunday), flower, rain, & fish.

• the ride home was equally as good!  (sssssshhhhhhh)   and then a little after we got settled at home, we took her temperature b/c wow was she hot!  & there you have it… another unexplained, non-symptomatic fever.  that lasted thru yesterday.

so thanks for lasting this whole long post….  pretty busy times!   it’s amazing how busy you sound when you write all the details down.   

(sorry. no pics… can you believe it?  what kind of mom am i?  the pics we have of the aquarium are mainly of the fish. or of the back of jovie’s head…)

our week in bullets

• jovie had a fever last weekend.  it lasted about 5 days. with the exception of the occasional runny nose, or sneeze — she was symptom-free.   at the recommendation of the children’s tylenol bottle, we made an appt. with the dr.  & her blood test came back that there was nothing wrong with her. (no virus, bacteria, whatever….).   
• so we stopped taking her temperature.
• on monday (labor day) Dad took Jovie to the park since she A. has been couped up at home all weekend, and B. decided to not nap.  —i mean, come on!  dad’s home!—  i didn’t go with them.
• when they came home, he told me that i missed a pre-milestone of her holding onto him and walking about 20 feet barefoot in the grass!   up to this point, when we’d try to hold her, she thinks we’re helping her get down, so she sits and crawls.
• they immediately showed off their skills!
• 
• The Mr. likes to say “she’s walking”. 
• she’s not walking.                                   YET!
• on saturday we went to her first music class!  that’s a class where we pay a lot of money to have her watch the other kids and the lady with the guitar.
• she loved it.
• it’s every saturday… so i know very soon she’ll get into it.  she LOVES music!  i bet in a coupla more times, she’ll show off her signature wiggle dance.
• (we’re missing this saturday b/c WE GET TO GO SEE GRAMMA & GRAMPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!  so we’ll go this week to make it up)

last week was uneventfully eventful.  it’s currently Tuesday, and we’ve already had a decent start to this week.   stay tuned…..

rare occurences

Halley’s Comet:     can be seen once every 75-76 years.

a blue moon:  which is typically a full moon that doesn’t happen according to the monthly pattern.  (an extra one)

the likelihood of me eating pizza:   hasn’t happened in almost 35yrs.

and THIS:

truly.  let’s see—  

• she has slept in the car & then the carseat when she came home from the hospital. (3 days old)   
• she slept in her carseat-stroller when we went to the park the first time (1mo old), and again one other time. 
• she almost slept in the car the one time we went to the park & was fussy so we left & drove around [and around and around].  
• after screaming for a little bit, she slept on the way to & from Stone Mountain (4mos). 
• she slept for about 45min. on the way to greenville for thanksgiving (4mos). 
• she slept for 15min on the way to greenville after christmas.  
• she did sleep on the way to columbia from greenville on that trip.  about 30 minutes (5 1/2 mos).

and that is IT.  those are all the times sleeping has occured when not in a place designated for sleep.

until yesterday.  we came home from MOPS a little later than the last week, and alluvasudden i realized she was quiet.  which is normal.  but i look behind and what i saw was NOT normal.  she slept 10min in the car.  luckily, i was able to put her down for a real nap later in the afternoon as well.

i didn’t wanna take her out of her carseat….  we never get to see her sweetly sleeping anymore.  not since she became a lighter sleeper than the early days.  how many times has she even woken up when we walked up or down the stairs????  luckily, she’s not like that anymore, but still— we just don’t chance going in to check on her like we used to, much to The Mr.’s chagrin.