november updates

we hope everyone had a very enjoyable thanksgiving!  our trip to gramma & grampa’s house was the best yet!

The Mr. took the week off, and he did awesomely with how little work he did.  i’m sure today he paid for it though, but he made the most out of a week home. 

and jovie LOVED having him home.  of course, i did too.  because i probably only changed about 7% of the diapers!  and fed her about 35% of the meals.  plus, he started his vacation (which is my vacation too!) out perfectly by making us breakfast.  twice.

some things of note:

we bought jovie’s first pair of shoes.  i don’t think many people wait 16.5 months before doing that.  so i don’t think many kids’ first pair of shoes are a size 5!  wow.

we waited so long for a few reasons. 

1- she’s still not walking.  &  2- i dreaded how the fitting would go.

i thought it may go something like this:

not a fan of these shoes

but about 10 minutes later:

these shoes are pretty cool!

i can walk outside now.

so they are fine.  and there’s hardly any fussing when we put them on now.

The Mr. got to come with us to library time on wednesday.  there were about 10 kids total.  but it was good, b/c that let jovie come out of her shell a little, and she actually got out of my lap to choose some books on her own.

after library time, we headed to greenville.  and since the trip 2 weeks ago wasn’t a disaster, we had high hopes.

and she performed as expected in the car.  unfortunately, she only napped about an hour-  (but sleeping in the car at all is still so very new to us!)- so bedtime was a little cranky.  other than that, she handled everything so well.

grampa didn’t even scare her this time!

we were there until early saturday morning.  we took many walks in the neighborhood, and down to the park to swing & slide.  The Mr. & i even got to go for a run together while jovie played with gramma & grampa.

thanksgiving was a fun day.  she even was so tuckered out with being there & all the new!fun!places! to explore  that she took 2 naps even though she woke up close to 9am.

happy thanksgiving!

you’d think i would have a pic of jovie eating her first thanksgiving dinner.  but i was too busy shoveling in the stuffing & veggies as fast as my arms could go.  she ate turkey & mashed potatoes, too.  but they weren’t as favorite for her.  oh, and not a real fan of pumpkin pie. 

you’d also think i had a picture of her with her grandparents on thanksgiving.  but, no. 

i do, however, have a pic of her perusing the sales for black friday*:

planning the shopping day very carefully

but i guess we can settle for a day-after-thanksgiving pose with them instead:

it was really enjoyable.  jovie adjusted to everything easily, and talked up a storm & showed her personality.

crazy to think 2 thanksgivings ago, she was just a bean & we were just sharing the exciting news to family! 

my how time flies….

*we don’t actually participate in the friday shopping.

**i apologize for the formatting of this post.  i’m sure my buddy tom could tell me how to correct it—  i’ve played around with all the settings i can (html included) and it’s all running together.   very sorry.

through the eyes of jovie

alternate title:   “The Mr. gave jovie his phone while at the park on Saturday”

a view from my stroller

ah, a budding photographer!

at least she didn’t call India.

change o’ plans

this past weekend, we had a change of plans.  what was supposed to be a nice relaxing fun day/night hiking at waterfalls & staying at a bed-n-breakfast for The Mr. & me turned into a weekend at gramma & grampa’s house with an afternoon spent at an apple orchard.

The Mr. has been traveling these past 6 weeks.  with the exception of weekends, he doesn’t get to see jovie.  and that will continue for the rest of the year- save for the vacation time he’ll “take”. 

so it wasn’t really a good time, or the best choice for us to go away in the middle of this.  although last week, she was normal & fine with Daddy being gone, the week before that she started to notice.  and  let me assure you that it’s just plain awful to go into her room when she wakes up and realizes her dad isn’t there.  i hear her playing happily.  i open the door and 1 of 2 things would happen:

1. she begins to cry immediately. 
2. she hears the door open, squeals “dada!”, sees me & cries.

even the other weekend, i went to get her.  and although he was home, she still began to cry/sob/make me “chase” her around her crib.  until i said some magic words:   “do you wanna go see Daddy?”.   BOY she was fine THEN!

so we decided that now wasn’t the optimal time to leave her overnight for the first time in the care of gramma & grampa (who, just a month ago was scary to her) in their strange (not her) house.  because although we realize that’s just going to be plain awful no matter when it happens…. and she’ll definitely let them know it!….  couple that with the fact that this is the little time The Mr. gets to spend with her, throw in the other fact that she has not consistently been very fun in the car for a trip [his only time with her], and- well- we decided we should wait (even longer) for our (much needed) mini-vacation.  

but it all turned out ok. because gramma suggesting the apple orchard made our wrestling with the decision a little better.  The Mr. was excited at that prospect, because he said he’s been wanting to start a fall tradition.

and next year we know she’ll have fun.  this year, all the apples were picked (just as well.  not like she’d know what was going on anyway)

proof- there's the apples

& we just enjoyed the scenery

and fresh baked donuts. (mmmm).  we took a hayride (minus the hay??)

and we saw some animals.

"pup-pup"

although the car ride both to & from greenville were (dare i say) good, the ride to/from the orchard [about an hour each] wasn’t the best.  she was tired. and she felt as though she had to entertain gramma & me since we were in the backseat.   that = crabby!

it was a good weekend overall, though.  and it was fantastic seeing my bff & her fantastic baby, too.  and The Mr. & i did get to act like a childless couple when we went to dinner & also ran together sat & sun mornings.  …we haven’t run together in probably 3 years!

not exactly the picturesque fall foilaged waterfalls we had intended on, but there’s always next year.  (right, gramma & grampa??)

speaking of next year….  how much fun will it be to look back at THIS?:

sweeter 16

from 16 weeks to 16 months, a retrospective of then & now:

my days then

my days now

 

 

halloween 09

warning:  overload of pics coming!

since jovie’s pretty young, we planned on having a very low-key halloween.  because it was saturday, music class was that day, so we were to wear our costume to that.  our big halloween plan was to just be in costume all day long.  yippee.  she goes to bed pretty early, and doesn’t eat candy, so we weren’t going trick-or-treating anyway.

good thing.

friday night we thought jovie got out of her crib, packed her things and moved out, but brought a newborn as a decoy.  ok. so, it wasn’t quite like newborn status, but it has been a long time since we had to get up with her 5 times!  (tho, thankfully b/c of her early bedtime, that’s not as bad as it sounds.  she slept solidly from 1-6:30am)

so we pretty much knew/assumed she wasn’t feeling well (tho no fever nor stuffy nose at all, except for what happens when you cry all nite).  of course when we saw her in the light of day on saturday and saw the red nose, watery, glassy eyes, and felt her hot skin…..   ooohhhh

so our one halloween plan changed and we stayed in our halloween pj’s much of the day.  after having a newborn-ish baby again—- no sleeping, being held, crabby, miserable— we did throw some jeans on her and brave the sprinkles of rain to take her for some coffee.  (us, not her).  we needed a change in scenery!

what with the rain and everything, that pretty much delayed the start of halloween in our neighborhood.  i don’t think anyone came over until right about 8pm!  just as The Mr. got the brilliant idea that since little girl was fussy/not feeling well/didn’t sleep at all…..let’s not have the doorbell ring all night.  so we just set our candy out with a threatening note. 

and she did, indeed, sleep through the kids who rang the doorbell anyway and shouted excitedly remarking on our scary halloween fun.

apparently she needed that sleep, because she was about back to normal yesterday.   so if you’re keeping track that brings her sick count to:  2.  (plus a 5day unexplained, unobtrusive fever).

luckily, we got to use her “costume” last week when we went to our friends’ halloween party. 

without further ado:  (plenty o’ pictures for you, aunt barb!)

i'm feeling fine on oct 30th. happy 15th anniversary, mommy & daddy!

inspecting pumpkin guts

can i look any more pathetic? i'm exactly where i want to be! eating a snack on daddy's lap

i don't LOOK sick!

i'm fearless!

i'll make a scary face. or, i'll just try to get down, either way.

really, dad. not scary. i'm containing my laughter.

and- the “costume”:

scary skeleton

scary skeletons need time to play, too.

makin our way in the costume parade