Visit with Auntie

This past weekend my sister came home for a visit! I was so excited to see her - we hadn't seen her since Katie & Brian's wedding. We also got to see Jonathan, but not for very long. They were in town for a wedding in Des Moines, and we only saw him one morning and one evening. We went to the zoo on Thursday, and it was a gorgeous day. We had fun seeing the new exhibits and Kailee got to feed a giraffe! A fun fact about giraffes: their tongues are black so they don't get sunburned - they eat 22 hours out of the day.

We had fun hanging out and playing with some of Jocelyn's new toys. She had her first fever over the weekend, and today finally got her 3rd tooth! I figured that's what the fever was from, but she was still pretty sad. She did a lot of sleeping! Good thing we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house - they love to hold her when she naps, especially when she's not feeling well.

Sunday was Father's Day, and we didn't even get to see Calvin! He had to go back early for work, and we stayed since we don't get to see Katie very often. It was great to spend the day with Dad though! It was a great weekend, but I'm super tired this week - I guess I need a routine too. Good thing I'm on vacation now for the next 11 days!

This is my favorite animal picture - doesn't it look like she wants to eat that little girl?

Kailee feeding the giraffe a cracker

Grandma and Jocelyn with her cute sun hat

I love being tickled!

I love Aunt Katie and Uncle Jonathan! Move closer to me please - Boston is too far away!

Playing with a new toy from Once Upon a Child - that's a great store! She was getting bored with her toys - she wanted something she could pull up on.

So proud of herself!

Here's Jocelyn dancing to the music on her new toy (with a little help from Katie)

Helping Grandpa open his cards

Eating Grandpa's cards - she LOVES to eat paper!

Sitting in a big girl high chair at Jensen's - our favorite breakfast restaurant

Jocelyn and Auntie

What a good looking group!

Prunes

Jocelyn had prunes for the first and last time yesterday. She should have been wearing a full body diaper this morning. That's all I'm going to say.

7 Months

I think I need to stop saying that I can't believe how big Jocelyn is getting. I'm probably always going to think she's getting too big too fast! Here we are at 7 months. She's really seemed to do a lot this month; she's now a by herself sitter, and does not stop moving for one second! She really wants to crawl, and it constantly moving from sitting to her tummy, back to sitting, to reaching for a toy, to pulling up (almost) in her crib and on the stairs! She can roll from her back to tummy now but mostly does it in her crib when there's not much else to do. As I'm writing this, she started crying (she's been sleeping for over an hour). I went in to peek on her, and she's asleep on her tummy! I know they say once they can roll over on their own it's fine if they sleep on their tummy, but now I probably won't sleep for the next 5 months!

She's eaten all her fruits, and is still not a big fan. What a weirdo! She liked peaches and pears the best, so hopefully we'll get her liking those better. She tried Cheerios, but didn't really know what to do with them. She ate two, but wasn't a big fan. I think she's getting another tooth - at least she better be, as she's had a cold and been a crab for the last week and had another super bad diaper rash. I was really thinking all her teeth would come in pretty easily since the last two did, but maybe top teeth hurt worse (I think that's the order they come in...).


She also now thinks the day starts between 6:00 and 6:30, which is so not the case on my days off. We're going to start working on no night time feedings once this tooth comes in; I would love to sleep for 7 hours in a row! Truly, the lack of good sleep is definitely the hardest part about being a mom (so far anyway). However, she just keeps getting more fun every day, and I love being a mom even more than I thought I would. She loves to play peek-a-boo (especially with Grandpa on Skype) and giggles at anything Kailee does or says! Her smile just makes my whole day!


This was longest photo shoot yet - she doesn't like to sit in one spot very long. I'm sure they'll keep getting worse as the months go on....


So excited!

She kept wanting to grab the camera

She'll be crawling soon...

Here are some other pictures from this month:

I was making dinner, and peeked around the corner to see what she was up to - she had scooted over and pulled herself up! She thinks she's super funny - and she's pretty proud of herself, I think.

Bath time with Mommy!

Trying out the Cheerios...

Passing Time

Kailee plays in a girl's softball league, and they had a game on Thursday. Mom was in town, so she came with us. The girls aren't all that great, so the games tend to get a little long.... Jocelyn does great; she doesn't care if she's playing at home or outside! Here she is having fun with Grandma. Notice how she likes to smile for the camera when she first sees it. :)

Eating

Here's a little video of Jocelyn eating her green beans. She really does like them! We tried fruit on Friday (bananas) and she hated them! I couldn't believe it. Although I don't like bananas either, so maybe that's not too weird. But then we also tried applesauce and she didn't like that either! We'll keep trying other ones; hopefully we'll find some she likes.

Nothing too new

We haven't really been doing too much lately, although our days seem to fly by! We've been spending lots of time outside, enjoying the sun. We don't have any flowers planted yet; hopefully we'll have time this weekend to go and get some. Jocelyn continues to learn new things; she's great at sitting, and can go from sitting to her tummy if there's a toy out of reach she wants bad enough! I fear crawling isn't too far off....

Showing off her teeth and smile

She has discovered tags, and she loves them! I really need to make her a tag blanket. They just fasinate her; she'll sit and stare at them, touch them and chew on them for 15 minutes at a time! She had her book tag and her monkey tag at the same time - she was in heaven!

She also has tried all the veggies! She loves them all, even though it doesn't look like it here. The first bite every time she always makes that face - she probably doesn't know what to expect each time! Mom was here a few weekends ago, and we made our own baby food! We made squash and carrots. It was so easy and fast, and way less expensive than buying the Gerber food. This weekend we'll start fruits, and I'm sure she'll love those as well. So far she's not picky - as long as it's food, she'll eat it!

Helping Grandpa with the spoon

This weekend our good friends Jen, Ryan and Brooklyn stopped by for a visit. Jocelyn liked having a play mate, and she shared her toys very well.

Holding hands - what nice friends!

Maybe I would like to eat her hand or her shirt instead....

6 Months

Today Jocelyn is 6 months old, which is 1/2 a year, which is way too scary! I can't believe how fast the time is going. I was able to get some cute pictures, but she's so squirmy now and is so much stronger that it took quite a few times to get some good ones! Plus since she can sit now, she doesn't want to lay down or even be propped up against anything. And, she had a dress on, which is way too fun to play with and chew on.

It's been a busy month, and I think she learns something new every day! She's about 18 lbs., and outgrowing 6-9 month clothes! I'm getting her 12 & 18 month outfits for summer! She is into everything (within her reach anyway) and will grab anything she can get her hands on. She's really good at sitting; I still probably wouldn't trust her alone without a pillow behind her, but if I'm sitting within arm's reach, she's fine on her own. She's starting to say da-da and ba-ba (not to anyone, just babbling). We're working on ma-ma, but no luck yet. :) She's successfully eaten rice cereal, squash and oatmeal cereal. She really liked the squash, and loves the oatmeal. She's not a big fan of the rice anymore, it's probably too bland now that she's had the others. I was really glad she liked the squash too, until she pooped. It was so gross - I think I used half the container of wipes! I now understand why Mom said her diapers before solids weren't so bad!

We took the bumper pads off her crib, as she starts out sleeping at one end and when she wakes up to eat, she's at the other end! She had her head squished in the corner a few times, so we decided until she's bigger she can't have them on anymore. She can scoot backwards on her tummy, and apparently on her back too (although she only does that in her sleep). Her second bottom tooth came in about 2 weeks after her first, so hopefully she's done with teeth for a little while. The drooling has definitely gotten much better now that they're both in. She thinks Daddy and the dogs are the funniest - she laughs whenever she's sitting close enough to the dogs to touch them. I'm not sure why she thinks that's so funny, but apparently it is! She's just such a happy, laid back baby and brings us so much joy and love!

I'm going to be a stinker and be really squirmy for Mommy...

I LOVE Ellie kisses!

If she doesn't want to be somewhere, she throws herself backwards - she's a strong one!