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?:

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…..

MOPS

wow.  can i just say—– WOW.  yesterday was SUCH a good day for jovie!  it amazes me sometimes.

i was chatting with my bff becky & i said “brb.  it’s naptime.  give me 5min” & that statement alone set me back!  a year ago— i would’ve had to say  “brb. it’s naptime.  give me 2 hours”  and i wouldn’t have been joking.

so as much as i hatehatehate that she is growing up so much, there are definite advantages.  & The Mr. likes to point out all the time what a happy baby jovie is.  and how we cannot freakin’ believe that we would ever have uttered that statement about our child.

jovie has always been somewhat of a surprise to us.  we truly had no idea that babies could behave that way.  she came out of the womb unhappy.  and stayed in that place for much longer than was necessary.  so we learned early on to ease her into things.  and test the waters to get her used to things (ie: car rides to the neighborhood salary-drainer Publix*).

i’ve mentioned a few times before that she has surprised us.  she handled the Callaway trip well.  Her first pool experience was really great.  & she did fantastic for Gramma & Grampa when they watched her while we went to the Hawks game.

that was one of very few times that anyone has even babysat jovie while she was awake.  each and every time she’s been awake and left alone, g’ma & g’pa were the ones she was with.  and i think it’s mostly been a quick trip to the grocery store once or twice.

i have been apart from her very little in her 13almost14ohnoway months.  twice for 4.5 hours, a coupla times for 2-3 hours.  that’s it.

so imagine my trepidation when i decided to try & join a program called MOPS.  The Mr. is hoping that its a program that will help me learn how to want to use a mop.  unfortunately for him, MOPS is an acronym for “mothers of pre-schoolers”.  if you haven’t heard of it, it’s a playdate- for mommies.  for 2+ hours while i’m upstairs enjoying a brunch and chatting w/ other ladies, listening to guest-speakers, or doing crafts, the kids are downstairs in a daycare like setting having their own version of playtime & fun.

sounds great! right??

yesterday, they had a registration/open house.  i’ve been a little nervous about it since i found out about it.  b/c i learned that at this open house,  jovie would be dropped off in a classroom.  without me.  with other kids her age.  without dad.  in the hands/eyes of a stranger. who’s not gramma or grampa.  during what should be naptime.  without her crib. 

and before you start tsking me… i’d like to clarify that my nervousness was not about my leaving her.  nor was it really about her leaving me.  i’m not your typical mom.  my boobs don’t ache when i leave her/ hear her cry.  the fact that we haven’t been separated much has more to do with the fact that The Mr. & i aren’t comfortable making someone else deal with her when she starts nutting up.  (thanks to our friends kenny & amy for that fun term)

so my nervousness was about making the workers in the room have to deal with her.  when she’s REALLY upset, it’s hard for us even to settle her down.  nevermind being in a room w/ other babies- who, let’s face it, all glom onto other kids’ emotions.  i did NOT want a volcanic eruption of screams to boil out of that classroom.

right before i was going to leave (did i say it was during naptime, by the way….  oh, and she decided to wake up AN HOUR EARLIER THAN NORMAL yesterday!  so that just meant that naptime should’ve been much earlier) i called The Mr. who was out of town and i seriously considered the fact that it’s not fair to the other kids!   i didn’t want her to be the cause of what could be a crappy day for everyone.

but, still- i knew it was the best situation for her.  unfortunately, in spite of her nap schdule.  but she obviously needs to get away from me.  and be with kids her own age.  and learn to be w/ strangers.

it’s a really cool setup at MOPS. a real big production.  & they have beepers and badges for the mom/kids.  i knew i’d get paged if there was a need.  in any case, i went & decided that if she got to be too bad, we’d just leave.  and try again the next time. 

but (please don’t jinx it please don’t jinx it) she did FANTASTIC.  i put her down to play.  i walked over to her cubby, and she saw me and crawled towards me.  not crying, just loving.  so i grabbed her and kissed her.  and walked her back to the toys.  and i left.  and she didn’t care!

as far as i know, she only cried when someone took a toy away from her.  i went to get her and she just finished eating snack AT A TABLE.  a table!  my baby’s eating at a table!!

and, just WOW.

so we now have something scheduled the 1st & 3rd thursdays of the month.  i hope they all go well.    you know, i’m starting to wonder- if DAD brought her, would she’ve cared then??

*about Publix, The Mr. no longer gripes when he sees all the receipts for that place while we do our budget.  in fact, he is considering getting his paycheck direct-deposited there.  State Taxes, Federal Taxes, 401k, Publix….   there is a category for that, isn’t there?

title: picture that mommy posted so she doesn't get yelled at for not posting a picture even though this isn't at all about MOPS.

bits & pieces

altho’ The Mr. & i likely not going to make it a regular habit, we have all been able to enjoy going to a real restaurant for lunch on 2 occasions.  i would like to think that because we ease jovie into things is the reason why she handled both occasions so very well. 

of course, we have to ease me into it as well…  the first time, i didn’t have any snacks or water for her.  and it would have been a perfect opportunity to forcefeed give her some water while waiting for the waitress or our food. 

the 2nd time i was prepared, and she was a big girl eating her fruit puffs while we had lunch.  both times the waitresses brought us her highchair and then asked if we needed a kids’ menu!?!  i hope that’s just b/c they don’t have kids of their own, and not because people regularly order their not-one-year-olds hamburgers.

i know it doesn’t seem like a big deal to the rest of y’all, but the fact that The Mr. & i have an option for lunch now is like opening up a whole new world to us.  yes, yes…  if you’re my family or Gramma & Grampa, you’re saying “back in my day we didn’t go to restaurants!!!”.  and if you’re not one of those then you’re saying “who cares?  babyx has been going to outback since month1!”

however, if you know us in person, you know that the archives of this blog is quite mild compared to how things really were.  and if you’re not sure why we feel we needed to wait to take jovie out in public, then let me remind you of a few things. 

here she is at Beef O’ Brady’s, her first time ever at a sit-down joint:

i'll have the coaster with a side of straw, please.

by the way- in linking Beef’s site, i never realized it was such a chain!  our 2nd restaurant was at a true local-chain near our house.

both times it rained, which she didn’t mind at all.

other “news” is that daddy’s been having to travel.  unlike holland, tho’, he’s been home on the weekend.  which has been very nice.  luckily she still doesn’t get that he’s gone (sorry, daddy!) because he leaves at the asscrack of dawn very early in the morning.  so by the time she wakes up, she’s moved onto whatever memories a 10mo dreams about. 

she has been regularly feeding herself the aforementioned fruitpuffs.  the other day, it was all she wanted to eat. no amount of mush from a jar was going to placate her.  so the past couple of days, i’ve tried to give her the spoon (which i have done months before with some success) and she looks at it as if it’s this newfangled discovery.  with prunes, oatmeal, whatever all over and notatall in her mouth. 

with her wonderful dexterity comes new food territories…  however, maybe she is my child afterall because this is going to be slow-going.  she makes the cutest dern faces, tho.  this past weekend, we had our first taste of real food.  the smidgiest of watermelon pieces.  which don’t dissolve at all like the fruit puffs (which she honestly is starting to chew on; but i guess all the dissolving really helps).  oh the confusion on her face when we were smacking our mouths up and down trying to convince her to chew her food and not just down it!   seriously, y’all.  smidge!  miniscule.  fit for an ant!

she is constantly enthralled with yiminy & doh.  most of the time, she starts to talk/babble when they come in her sight.  and quite a few times, she watches yimmy as he walks back and forth vying for my attention while i’m feeding her.  she’s actually getting better at petting yiminy a tad more gently.  we have a long way to go here!  

before i began this post, i put her down for her afternoon nap, and she tried to kiss me.  the great thing about babies this small is that we can make up what we want to about what it is she’s actually doing.    but she has done this to both The Mr. & i on quite a few occasions, so we think we may be onto something.  she has no clue how it should be done- which makes it all the cuter when she opens her mouth wide and throws it on our shoulder, nose, haphazard part of the face.

yes, she does this with her toys, too.  but nevermind about that.

big girl

what happened to my baby?

we went to wendy’s today for lunch (dad worked from home) and sat in a ??highchair?? (that’s 2 firsts).  glad the lady came and gave us a toy.  5 seconds earlier she was chewing on a straw & a spoon.

sittin by myself

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!

gramma & grampa

this past weekend, we went to greenville to celebrate the engagement of a longtime friend.  gramma & grampa were not in the least bothered by having jovie come for a visit.

the car ride up there was fantastic.  better than The Mr. & i expected.  definitely NOT like the last time! the ride home was a different story.  ranked inbetween the wonderful of saturday and the hell of xmas time.  but truthfully, that was about how i expected her to be.   but we all survived, and she came right home and took her nap (finally!)

the trip itself was good.  we had some friends come over to visit while we were at g’ma & g’pa’s… and at first, she got a little overwhelmed.  which made us decide to not take her to the party for an introduction that night. 

however, gramma & grampa said she didn’t make a peep once i put her to bed and we had a good time at the party!  i think they’d  rather babysit her while she sleeps

jovie enjoyed hanging out with everyone, once she got used to it.  we had fun outside, she liked exploring all the new places, and she (of course) enjoyed looking at grampa’s fish.  she also got to sit in a different high chair and eat a WHOLE JAR of food.  since i wasn’t going to deal w/ refrigerating, i just gave her until i thought she was done….  and she ate it all up!  apparently i’m not feeding her enough!?!?   that was quite a surprise to me.

here she is…. clearly about to follow in daddy’s (& gramma’s) footsteps:

daddy's girl

and now, this weekend, gramma & grampa are coming here because they can’t get enough of jovie are being extremely generous and letting us go to an atlanta hawks game!  unfortunately, it’s not a night game, though.  and jovie will not be asleep for 4 hours!  (and if you’re paying attention, that will be the longest i’ve been without her- and obviously the longest she’s been without at least one of her parents).

 

do wish them luck!  i’ll have to remember to post how it all went.

assuming we come back…

7 months

oh no! my baby isn’t 6 months old anymore. 

for those of you who know us personally, you know that The Mr. was in Holland for 2 weeks.  Ok, Ok… 13 days.  sorry to exaggerate.

& if you’re paying attention, that means i was alone with jovie.  for a loonnnng time.  but guess what?!?  we’re still ALIVE!

honey’s home now, and she was very pleased to see him (as was i).  it all went better than i thought it might.  but i didn’t dread the trip, so much as wish it wouldn’t be so long.  she had a few ruf patches, but mainly she did well.  of course, it’s much easier at this age.  because -(honey, if you’re reading this, ignore the rest of the sentence)- she didn’t realize he was gone past that first saturday. that first day was a little hard on her.  especially since she woke in the middle of the night & was wondering “what in the world are YOU doing here??”

overall, it all went well.  and i have gramma & grampa to thank for that!  they came the weekend he was gone to give me another shoulder to put her on.  they helped tremendously to break apart what could’ve been a verrrrry long weekend.

of course, 2 weeks is a long time in “baby years”.  so The Mr. unfortunately missed out on some firsts.

her first first happened while he was here.  that was eating a vegetable.

during his time away, she practiced being on all fours, she scooted about 5 feet, and she sat unsupported for about a minute.  (she did that a few times).  we also went to a new park w/ Gramma & Grampa.

also during this time, i began to notice that she’s starting to raise her hands when she sees us … to pick her up, maybe ??

it is funny to note that when The Mr. did come home, he had asked if she’s been rolling over.  i said that she hasn’t done that in like 3 weeks.  no sooner did he ask then about a minute later- BOOM- she rolled over.  guess she just needed some inspiration.

we’ve had a good and busy week for her 7 months (which was monday).  we’ve had a few playdates with a one year old girl, and our friends brought their 7 week old son over on Sunday. 

& this morning, we went to the library for the first time for some fun & games during baby time.  she was great!  nary a peep.  she just sat in my lap and watched the other 30 kids toddling all around her.  i think she enjoyed it.  so if we can get out of the house that early next week, we’ll be sure to do it again.

i’m going to end this here, because now it’s time i give her her first taste of fruit….

merry merry

just an update to let everyone know that we have indeed survived the christmas holiday!  we hope you enjoyed your time with your families and friends.  sorry i missed posting last week.  i actually had a “24″ themed post rolling around in my head; as she turned 24 weeks on the 24th.  but with it being christmas eve—  well we even got too busy to do that.

we had a nice christmas.  jovie’s gramma, grampa, & uncle nate came to visit on xmas eve.  we had xmas here.  The Mr. was fantastic in helping make breakfast & dinner.  on friday, we went to g’ville (to g’ma & g’pa’s) to break up our first trip to columbia to see my family & my bff.  spent the night in our first hotel & back thru g’ville to home on sunday.

truthfully,  she handled things a lot better than expected.  christmas morning she even participated in opening one or two gifts herself.  we spent the day hanging out.  i guess i’ve learned what 2 cokes can do to a baby.  xmas night she didn’t feel good (oops) & was up every 2-3 hours!

so while in g’ville, g’ma & g’pa let us go out to dinner.  she apparently cried like crazy for about 45min.  it was hard calming her down when we came home, but finally after about 15min, she did.  & then slept with no problem. 

the next day we went to columbia to meet a zillion people & have xmas with my family. we knew it would be difficult.  no ability to put her down for a nap and all that jazz…  she did sleep in Daddy’s arms for about a half hour.  since she was being held (and held and held), she did fine with all the people around.  surprisingly, after a long day, she was in a very good mood on the way to the hotel.  i got her to laugh most of the way there.

she did better than we thought she would sleeping in the hotel.  and the drive from cola to g’ville wasn’t too bad.  there she napped & i fed her (then i got to go eat lunch w/ The Mr.’s parents while he stayed home with her).  we even took a 30 min. walk w/ her in the carrier before we left to come back home. 

car rides are not the most fun w/ jovie.  on the way home, i had to sing and entertain her for literally 2 hours. without stopping.  i did the “name game” with her for everybody in our families.  that’s including spouses and her cousins (60people on my side alone)…  that’s a lot of “banana fana”. 

we’re all glad to be home in our own cribs and are even more glad to know that we are not going to be traveling again anytime soon. 

i guess the highlight is that santa brought jovie a baby einstein dvd (we’ll watch later) & an exersaucer.  she’s still deciding if she likes it.