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

i know i’ve been kinda lax in posting, but really it’s because jovie is just doing more of the same.  only cuter, of course. 

she’s still talking up a storm.  it’s like almost every day we notice something new about her.  either a new word, a new sign, or a new gesture.  it’s been a crazy month!!

she’s kinda slowed down the walking efforts, and i assume it’s because she’s into the talking efforts more.  although, gramma & grampa were here 2 weekends ago and jovie decided to show off for them.  while i was on the phone in the other room, gramma even caught a picture of her walking w/ her walking toy with only ONE hand!  so i got to see it even if i wasn’t around.  (sorry i don’t have that photo)

she became interested again in that toy on my birthday.  so she’s been doing a little bit of both the past week or so.

but still, her fave thing to do is talk.  and now mimic.  (The Mr. is enjoying getting her to say inappropriate things, such as hiney- much to my prude chagrin).

let’s see…. how bout if i bore you document the things she likes to say & do:

kii = kitty,    baw= ball,    tii= bird,    mama, mommy,   dada, daddy,     up! (and now when she’s done eating that’s what she’ll say),     oh-oh,  bup!= bump,    dee-dee= baby (with sign),     wok=walk,    buh-boo=bubbles,  pup-pup or puppy,      yucky,   and hi!!  which she says a lot.  esp when she signs “phone”.

she signs:   baby, phone, kitty, more, flower, rain, milk, eat (mainly to mimic, not to actually tell us she’s hungry), fish (you should see her pucker!),  thank you, hat, daddy.

but she’ll also say “mao” when asked what a kitty says.   and she’ll growl or try to say “woof” when asked what a pup-pup says [which i have never ever growled to her for puppy.... The Mr. thinks she got that from the real dogs down the street].  

when you say something’s hot, she’ll immediately start blowing.  as well as if you talk about bubbles.    she’s starting to shake her head no (even when she doesn’t mean it!) and she blows kisses and just mimicked the “ssshhhh” sign.

she can do a high five.  & when she sees something sweet or a pic of someone (or kitty) sleeping, she’ll say “awww”  b/c she knows that’s what The Mr. & i say.   speaking of “awww”, she’ll make me do that a lot in the week because she SO knows how to love!  she’ll lay her head on my shoulder (after she says “up”) and she’ll just rub or pat my arm/shoulder.   amazing!

she can do all 4 stanzas of “if you’re happy & you know it”, and now she’s correctly anticipating a song we sing at the library. 

i’ve done a few google searches for this song. i can’t find it.  but we sing it every week…..   and she’s starting to like it.  she’ll kinda start singing what we think sounds like the beginning of the song.  so when we begin singing it, she’ll sign “baby”. ….. before we even get to the first stanza that says “when i was a little baby….”   it caught us by surprise.  all the while she shows us her big grin.

oh, and that grin now has one extra tooth on bottom.  she’s slow goin, but now there’s 7.  who knows when that other match will come in. there’s not even a speck yet!

enough with the words, here’s the fun:

i'm getting into mischief so i'll stay still for a pic.

i love to crawl & stand at the TV.

The Mr. & i are having a ton o’ fun w/ jovie these days.  (and we say over and over what a very different kid we have!)

she’s really wanting to talk.  she babbles all day. nonstop nonsense with LOTS of inflection & hand gestures.  she prob’ly gets that from me.  (The Mr. would agree.  & likely agree that most of what i say is also nonsense).

i spend a lot of my day repeating what she says, telling her she’s right.  trying to make up a conversation to go along w/ the string of nonsense.  but i lack a lot of imagination.  a lot of “uh-huh”s & “oh really!?”s come out of my mouth.  very exciting.

but she really wants to talk.  & sign.  sometimes we watch baby einstein videos before bath.  we have 3 that show different signs, and she is so interested in them these days.  she’s always enjoyed them.  from day one…back in january… for whatever reason, i guess she saw that i signed back, she’ll look at me (or The Mr.) and get our assurance of whatever sign is being portrayed.  you can see in her face just how intent she is on watching us sign the word.

and lately she’s taken it upon herself to sit in our laps for about 5minutes before crawling RIGHT UP to the tv, pulling herself up and gluing herself to it.  constantly looking back at us to make sure …………….of what, exactly??  that we’re signing? <ok> that we think she’s damned cute?  <check>

but now she wiggles her hands a lot when she strings her “sentences” together. lots of pointing.  you know- for emphasis.  because what she’s got to say is pretty important!

the coolest thing is when she gets so excited, and then she’ll say or sign something in context.  i love that.  it’s one thing to say/sign when you see a video for the 50th time, but yesterday we went to the store and she about had a fit to tell me that there was a baby right there.  that’s one of her latest signs.  and it was really neat to me, because she saw him first.  there was no prompting or prodding at all.  so this is a sign that she’s growing up. 

….here she is, not signing or anything, but crawling around talking.  can’t you just see how excited she gets?  no doubt she said something truly wonderful.

"you can't keep me still enough to get a good shot!"

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.

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…)

• 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…..

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.

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.

so, i’m thinkin.  if HE *can earn a million with this look, why can’t SHE??

sadly, i did not take this picture of him... it was on hollywoodgrind.com

surely someone would pay me lots to sit here and be cute, too!

 * many thanks to zac efron for letting me steal his picture unbeknownst to him!

so 13 months came and went on sunday.  i said repeatedly how i needed to post.  to commemorate the number 13 of course.  but as you see, i didn’t.

as i mentioned in a recent post, i’m likely not going to go around and tell everyone that jovie’s 13mos old.  i’ll just say a year.  but still- 13 is kinda special.

here are some random goings-on:

1. just this morning she decided she knew how to crawl down the stairs.  & successfully did 4 of them on her own- i wasn’t even prompting her.  in fact, it’s been over a week since i tried to guide her down the last time.  guess she figured out now that it’s the same as getting down from furniture….
2. which she does ALL. DAY. LONG.  she’ll crawl to the window and stand up. and crawl to the couch and stand up. and crawl to the chair and stand up.  and crawl to the ottoman (aka baby gate) and stand up. 
3. she LOVES music.  when we sing to her, when we play it, when there’s a musical chime like if we reboot or something.  she’ll stop what she’s doing, give a little wiggle & a smile, and be on her merry way.
4. she is starting to cruise ever so slightly.  especially to get to the computer at one end of the couch.  she did better before she knew how to get down from the couch…. but now she knows it’s much quicker to crawl under my legs and stand up again to get to it.
5. yesterday she began to let go w/ one hand while standing up on me and/or the couch.
6. her bangs are ridiculously long.  too bad i can’t keep her cute all day long with a barette….
7. because she’ll eat it.  truly- she ate her barette!  so for the last month, we are probably more diligent than we need to be- but man, that was crazy!  she seriously ate that thing w/o any problem or our knowledge.  she was in the backseat while The Mr. was taking her to the park.  in less than 5 min. he noticed it was gone.  surely she didn’t eat it. not that quickly nor silently.  we tore the car apart several times.  just to be sure.  well, a few days later….. it was confirmed. so now she can’t wear one when she naps or rides in the car.  oy vey!
8. and now i see how easy it is. b/c she swallows a lot of her food whole too!  especially the yummy stuff.  (baby raviolis that i still have to quarter, veggie puffs from gerber that i have to break in half, etc…)  
9. she finally began to suck from the sippy cup spout.  i wish i had any kind of mechanical knowledge so i can invent the sippy cup that lets one or 2 drops out and that’s it.  b/c she’s been sucking it for quite a long time.  but every time i’ve tried the plug, if she wasn’t getting any, she didn’t know to suck.  so when i show her how to do it and start sucking in my cheeks, she just gives me her adorable goofy grin and laughs.  we’re still working on doing this more consistently.
10. recently she has taken to some links that she has.  you can usually find her crawling around with one in each hand.
11. after waiting for about a month for that tooth to finally poke thru, she now has an even set of teeth.  4 up top and 2 on bottom.  complete with spaces. 
12. it’s easy to get her to giggle these days, and i do it often.  it’s so adorable & surprisingly quiet.  i know she can be quite loud.  in her voice, and of course her cries/screams!  (she has never had that cute newborn cry). 
13. yesterday she ate PIZZA for supper!   did y’all hear me??  (unfortunately, it was “light on the sauce”- so i hope next time she’ll also enjoy it).

so now that she’s as old as she is, i just don’t ever think to have the camera poised on her so often.  all i have is video of the pizza.  i didn’t grab my camera. 

but here are a few recent shots of her, her rings, and her mess of hair!