And she's off...10 months old!

Jolie's growing in leaps and bounds and her mom and dad are left chasing after her! Here is what she's been up to:
-Wears 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes
-Enjoys bathtime in the sink
-Loves to squirm like crazy during diaper changes and sometimes it's a two person job to change her!
-Crawls and doesn't army crawl anymore!
-Pulls herself up on everything
-Has starting 'walking' with her dinosaur walker (pictured below)
-Claps her hands
-Still just has her two bottom teeth, but with how crabby she's been I think more are on the way
-Drinks 5 bottles a day, but they seem to be getting smaller like 4 ounces
-Started eating less tub/Gerber food and more puffs and other regular food
-Really likes feeding herself...and dropping her food on the floor for Petey
-Drinks water from a sippy cup when she's eating...and throws sippy cup on the floor repeatedly
-Says 'ma ma' and every once in awhile 'da da' (at which point Josh will do absolutley anything she wants!)
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the very special Christmas tree

Jolie was feeling crafty this weekend so she made a few Christmas cards of her own. First we put some green paint on her toesies.

Then she'd stamp her foot!

The finished project!

Well the pictures may be kind of blurry, but it turned out pretty cool! :)

Tube Installation Success!

Jolie had tubes put in her ears early Friday morning and she did GREAT! She's so awesome! She couldn't eat after midnight and we had to be there at 6:15am. She did really well with not eating. Anytime she started to get fussy, she could be easily distracted--unlike some of the other kiddos there! Then you have to meet with several people and sign lots of forms--admission, pre-op nurse, anesthesiologist, ENT, surgical nurse..good grief! I just wanted to get it over with already! I think they took Jolie back around 8am or so and then we went back to get her about 10 minutes later.

Even though she had just finished her last medicine Thursday, the ENT said she already had more fluid in her ears so I'm very glad we decided to get her tubes! She was starting to be a revolving door for antibiotics--not to mention the 'death farts'!

Once we were back with her, Josh told me he was more nervous for this than when she was born!!! Seriously!?!?!? I guess he didn't have to do the whole labor and delivery thing! I think because I'd heard from so many people how easy this was, I wasn't really nervous at all--maybe even excited for Jolie to get some relief!

Jolie did great though and I don't think she has any idea anything even happened! What a champ! Here she is hanging out modeling her lovely hospital bracelet. Look at that smirk--'surgery? no big deal for me!'

Blizzard blows in some grandparents!

Saturday we had our first snow--or rather a blizzard! Although it wasn't super bad in Des Moines, Grandma Lori and Grandpa Jeff were on their way home from Colorado and all the routes to their house were terrible so they decided to stay with us. Jolie did great again with Grandpa Jeff and was very excited to show them how she pulls herself up and many other new tricks!

On Sunday, Grandpa Jeff went back home but Grandma Buechler stayed with Jolie until Wednesday so no school for Jolie! They had lots of fun and even celebrated Grandma Buechler's birthday!

Here was a picture they sent to Josh and I at work! Thank you for playing with Jolie and Happy Birthday Grandma Buechler!

I'm not sure about this...

After Jolie grew out of her tiny tub, she seemed to ease right into the big bathtub until about a month ago when she suddenly decided it was the worst place EVER! I think it stemmed from an incident when she was attempting to grab all of her toys at once and went for one that was way out of her reach and dunked her face in the water. Of course, I was right there, but apparently she remembers it because every bath since then, she's screamed the entire time. And Jolie isn't usually much of a screamer so it's clearly very serious!

For awhile I even ended up jumping in there with her--clothes on and all! While that did seem to calm her down, I knew that this was not really a practical long term solution.

So we tried to downsize again and try the kitchen sink. She was pretty skeptical of us at first but she gave it a try and it was successful! We've tried a couple of times since and have continued to do great! Woo hoo!

Here she is giving us her skeptical face. Once she decided it was okay, she was splashing and moving so much I couldn't get a decent picture with my phone!

ENT Repeat

We had a visit with an ENT today. We actually had one last week and had scheduled surgery for Jolie to get tubes, but then found out he didn't do surgery at the right place for our insurance--argh! So we went to another ENT today who was a lot more thorough. We had to do a hearing test which is hilarious to try to do with a 9 month old! We had to sit in this tiny, sound proof room and then there would be sounds on each side and toy that would light up. She was supposed to respond to the sounds and look at the toy I guess, but of course she was distracted by EVERYTHING else! The woman administering the test Jolie could see through a window in front of us, so she kept smiling and laughing at her. After awhile she said 'well she probably does about as good as any one her age' so, um, I think she passed. This doctor also concluded that tubes would be a great option and could even get us in earlier than the original doctor! Jolie is scheduled for next Friday, December 17--woo hoo!

Merry Christmas Jolie--you get tubes!!! :)

Well baby check?

Jolie had her 9 month check up today. That morning, she had her last dose of the medicine she'd been on for her ear infection from Thanksgiving so all should be good right?

I picked her up from school and they said that she just started running a little fever, just over 100. Weird but we were on our way to the doctor so that will work well, right? Holy buckets!!! By the time we got to the doctor, she was miserable! Jolie looked like she had a sunburn, but it was just her temperature rising! We got up to about 102 while at the doctor (while screaming the entire time!) AND she had a double ear infection! Good grief! So back on another medicine and it's causing what I call 'Death Farts.' She could clear us out of the room if she wasn't so mobile! I'm sure you wanted to know that too, right?

Other than the ears, Jolie was looking good. She's up to 17 lbs, 8 oz and I think 27 inches or so. Josh stayed home with her today and she required lots of cuddles and snuggles, but we think she's on the mend. Those dang ears!

I had this great picture of what Josh dressed her in today but I can't get it uploaded! So this is Jolie helping me get ready the other day--what a big helper!

9 month photos

We did our 9 month photos the other day and as you can see, we started out very shy.


But then...they brought out the mirror!!!


I call this one her 'karate pose' haha!



Thank goodness for that mirror! I don't know why it is every time we go to get her pictures taken, she becomes expression-less so I was excited to finally get some pictures where she was showing her goofy self!

Wild Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving in South Dakota visiting Josh's family. Of course, in planning for a long weekend, we didn't pack enough baby food or the camera! Luckily Josh's cousin Sara is an amazing photographer and caught a few of Jolie (I hope she doesn't mind me stealing them!)

Jolie had lots of fun playing with her second cousins Kaydyn (almost two years), Henry (almost one year) and Bryson (two months). And she even hung out with her Grandpa Buechler and he taught her to play some cards! (this has been an on-going battle with Jolie as she kept being a little stinker whenever her Grandpa Buechler tried to play with her) so this was a HUGE accomplishment!

We got to see her Great Aunt Cindy and Uncle Kevin, and Josh's cousins Travis and Amber, Sara and Austin and Tyrel. We also saw Grandma and Grandpa Buechler, Ali, Great Grandma and Grandpa Buechler and Great Grandma and Grandpa Pedersen--whoa! Jolie did great even though she came down with an ear infection (thank goodness Aunt Cindy was able to check her out and call in a prescription for her--made the rest of the trip much more enjoyable!)








We went to the new Children's Museum in Brookings and IT IS AMAZING! Jolie definitely was not feeling too good when we were there so she wasn't up for trying much, be if you ever get the chance to check it out-we highly recommend it! We are already excited to go back once Jolie gets a little bigger!

So after 14 hours in the car, one puppy chase down in South Dakota, a cracked windshield, one ear infection--we made it home! We were very thankful that we didn't see any snow to interfere with our travel plans and were so happy we got to see everyone!

Thanks for the pictures Sara--you are amazing!
We also met up with Petey again on Sunday and were all 'Reunited and it feels so good!' And yes, I believe I did hear the music playing in the background as we slow motioned ran to each other--haha! He had so much fun playing with Murphy and meeting Nelly in Wood River, but I think the little guy was ready to come home as he's been sleeping since we got him!

9 Months--woo hoo!

Jolie is nine months old! We are so thankful that this little chickie has blessed us so much and become the center of our world!

Here is what Jolie has been up to:
-Tipping the scales at 17 lbs
-Wears 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes and just moved into 6-12 month socks
-Doesn't mind wearing her hair in a little clippie
-Started HATING bath time and screaming the entire time
-Drinks 5 bottles a day
-Eats 5 tubs of baby food a day
-Started experimenting with grown up food
-Is still scooting and army crawling
-Will get into 'crawling' position, but hasn't quite figured out how to crawl
-Can pull and stand herself up
-Is getting quite a bit of dark brown hair that is curly in the back
-Likes hitting flat things like her high chair tray and the hardwood flooring
-Claps her hands
-Says 'Uh Oh' and a little bit of 'Woof' when Petey is around
-Does 'so big' with her arms
-Is ticklish and has the cutest giggles
-Still just has her two bottom teeth
-Really likes reading stories

At school they said she loves trying to do everything the 'big kids' are doing and has to be near the action. She is almost one of the big kids herself now!

I promise we'll have better pictures soon, as we did some 9 month pictures the other day and she actually had fun!

Updates, updates, updates

What a week! My apologies for the lack of posts, but after I give you the run down, I think you'll understand why...or I hope so at least!

Tuesday we went to Dr. Timboe to follow up on Jolie's ear infections. She weighed in at 17 lbs! Woo hoo! Anyway, her infection was cleared up, one still looked a little irritated but Dr. Timboe decided we'd hold off on tubes for now and see how she did. Josh and I were very open and willing to go with tubes but I suppose we can see how things go.

Thursday we took Jolie to her nine month pictures. It was a little early but since she'll be nine months the day after Thanksgiving, that wasn't going to work too well! We decided to go to the studio which we hadn't had very good luck with Jolie in the past, but thought we'd give it another try. She started off pretty slow again and I feared we were headed for a meltdown. Then they laid a mirror down and she went crazy! She loved it and really started having a good time! We'll be sure to post some as soon as we get them!

Friday, we left for Nebraska. We stopped in Omaha to see Josh's college roommate Phil. Jolie was kind enough to sneeze carrots ALL OVER at his house. We got back to Wood River and got to see Grandma and Grandpa, Uncles Michael and Brett and Karen and Hannah Rathke stopped by!

Saturday, Josh got the pleasure of helping my dad move cows. My dad loves taking Josh on adventures! haha! Jolie, my mom and I headed to Kearney and then we all went to Great Grandma and Grandpa's house for supper (which included three different types of meat, hehe) and the Wulf pack joined us to watch the Husker game. Sam, Hayden and Hannah were so cute with Jolie and colored her pictures and played and played with her. Jolie was up on her knees attempting to crawl and Hayden yelled out 'YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU!' It was too cute!

Then the big bummer came--in the middle of the night, Josh and I came down with that horrible 24 hour stomach flu. I'll admit, mine wasn't as horrible I think because I just had it right after Jolie was born (which WAS horrible!) but Josh had it real bad!!! Luckily Grandma and Grandpa and Brett and Michael were able to take care of Jolie while Josh and I laid around in misery.

We had planned to have a breakfast with Grandma DeDe's side of the family but obviously we had to cancel it. No need to spread THAT love! We missed seeing half of my family and we felt horrible! By the afternoon, we decided that we needed to try to get back home. Everyone had been so awesome helping out with Jolie and Petey and Jolie had been such a good girl! We headed out and had to make a few stops for Josh to compose himself, but he wanted to get back to his bed more than anything in the world! We finally made it back and Josh went straight to bed and as soon as Jolie went to bed, I headed there too!

Monday I thought Josh would stay home but he woke up and said 'actually, I feel great today!' So we were back to the grind! Nevermind that we were super tired, our house was a disaster and we are traveling again this weekend--no I'm not stressing AT ALL!!!! Josh and I are still easing back into food but feeling soooooo much better. However, now I'm freaking out that Jolie is going to get it! She has a cough right now and each time she gets to coughing, I'm just terrified she's going to puke all over! Graphic, right?!?!? I stocked up on Pedialite just in case and have been doing a lot of praying and hoping that Jolie (or anyone else) doesn't get the flu!

Since we are going to be gone again this weekend, Petey is having a slumber party at Grandma and Grandpa DeDe's. He always snuggles with me at night so I've been missing him a lot! I tried snuggling with Josh last night, but it just wasn't the same--hehe! The house has been too quiet though without him! We even Skyped last night!

Clearly, I don't have many pictures, but Jolie did get a very cute book called 'Santa Paws' that she LOVES reading! Also notice the pink Halloween pumpkin (thanks Jeff, Cyndi and Colby!) which Jolie has LOVED swinging around and chasing after. So sorry to all those we missed and hopefully we'll get to see you all soon!



Oh yeah--and when we got home from work today, our water was shut off! I called the city and they said they accidentally shut ours off instead of another neighbor that had moved! Luckily they came back and turned it back early this evening, but sometimes you just want to say 'Seriously?!?!?' :)

Surprise Visit

Great Grandpa and Grandma Buechler were on their way back to South Dakota and decided to make an overnight stop in Des Moines to see Jolie. Well maybe it was to catch some sleep, but since this is always about Jolie, we'll just stick with that theme and say that they were stopping to see her. :)

We went to eat at the Machine Shed which gave Jolie a little chance to remember them and warm up to them again. Then we went back to their hotel so Jolie could show off for them. (Hampton Inn should give us commission with how many referrals we send to them!) Jolie had fun playing on the giant bed, ripping up the papers and playing with the remote in their room! Thanks for visiting and hopefully next time she'll have more time to play before bed!

born for shopping

We went to the mall today to get out of the house before the snow arrives. Jolie is a great shopper and loves checking everything out. But we discovered she's also great at getting a good deal! I had an expired coupon card that she was grabbing for and once she got it, she couldn't put it down! Josh was a little nervous seeing how excited she was as he was envisioning a future full of shopping trips, but I think its just a sign that she'll always be on the look out for good deal when she is shopping!

these are a few of my favorite things

We had to get Jolie a larger basket to keep all of her toys in because this little girlie has so many options! Sure it's just a laundry basket, but its pretty blue and she can tip it over and explore all of toys at once and use it for standing up--how useful! So now that she can check out all of her toys, here are some of her favorites:
-the tv remote
-our phones
-Petey's toys
-plastic hangers from her clothes
-making the doorstop go 'boing'
-crumbling paper
-crawling UNDER her bouncer
Seriously?!?! I'm sure glad she has all these toys! :)



Oh Jolie! You're so silly!

We need a high chair-NOW!

We've been feeding Jolie in her Bumbo chair and contemplating getting her a high chair. But with limited space, the Bumbo was super convenient and easy for us. Well Jolie decided to show us that she was ready for one NOW as she squirmed out of her Bumbo Friday evening and gave me a heart attack! Luckily I was literally standing next to her so crisis was averted, but we headed straight to Babies R Us to pick out a high chair to get that little girlie strapped in! Once we got it set up, Jolie was pretty excited to try it out and seems to really like it. She really likes hitting the tray and smearing any food drips all over as well. And her high chair is good up to 60 lbs so she should be good until junior high! :)

Sick daddy--what?!?!

Josh was actually sick today! This pretty much never happens and he even went to the doctor so it much have been serious! He has bronchitis so Jolie stayed home with him on Wednesday and took very good care of him and they even took some long naps together! They were nice enough to send me some pictures throughout the day as well.

Jolie's starting to have this tuft of hair that sticks straight up and quite a few curls in the back.

When she plays with her toys, she likes to have all of them at one time. It's been rather entertaining to watch her try to grab as many as she can but not wanting to let go of any in her hands at the same time. You can just see her little mind working on how to best manage this situation.

Thanks Jolie for taking such good care of daddy and getting him back on the mend!

Fall Back FAIL

Daylight savings time ended this weekend so we attempted to 'fall' back an hour. You know who doesn't get the concept of an extra hour of sleep? Babies! :) After a rather crabby Saturday, she was up bright and early Sunday morning! In fact, we'd even had a nap before church! :) So no pictures from the weekend as she wouldn't let us put her down long enough to grab a camera! That silly Jolie!

Ear infection AGAIN...or continued?

Grr! So Jolie hadn't been eating as much ever since her last ear infection a couple of weeks ago and it just seemed like she was getting stuffier and coughier and yuckier--all technical medical terms there. Monday night we were feeding her peas and she choked on them because she has so much nose drainage! It was scary and Josh had to flip her over and everything! Eeeks!

So Tuesday I just decided she wasn't herself and took her into the doctor. And we have another ear infection. Well, actually they aren't sure if its still the old one or a new one. I must have taken her in right before it got really bad, because that night was not good! Lots of meltdowns so I ended up staying home with her on Wednesday so she could try to get some sleep sitting up. I think she did get more sleep but it's just the saddest thing! You can just hear all the junk in her chest and throat and then she'll just cough and cough. Last night we were laying there and could hear her coughing and Josh said 'uh, this is just torture!' I sat up with her for awhile to get the cough calmed down and then she had a slightly better sleep. So we're trying another antibiotic and reporting back to our doctor in a couple of weeks to come up with a game plan.

Substitution at the house and more swim lessons!

Grandma Buechler left Friday afternoon and then Grandpa Phil, Grandma DeDe and Uncle Brett came to hang out with Jolie. Sheesh-she's popular! :)

Saturday they came to watch Jolie's swim lessons so she had quite the cheering section! Which also means we got lots of pictures! woo hoo Although Jolie wasn't in the greatest of moods, she had her moments of fun. I think this was right as she was starting another ear infection which explains the grumpiness.

Jolie LOVES grabbing her toes while swimming so it makes us look a little ridiculous when were are trying to kick or splash and she's stuck grabbing her toes! :)

Jumping up and down (while holding toes!)

At the end of class we get to play with toys! Jolie attempts to grab as many as she can and chew on them.

I like to chew on duckies!

We had a pretty low key weekend and watched the Huskers beat those stinky Mizzou tigers which was awesome! Then we all waited for Josh to come home! Jolie was so excited to see her daddy (and so was Petey!) and he's just sure she grew so much!

Thanks so much for coming everyone!

Dad's gone...PARTY!

Josh left after work on Wednesday to go hang out with his dad in a cabin in Minnesota. So Grandma Buechler was so sweet and came down to hang out with Jolie and help me keep my sanity! (I was also having a horrible day on Wednesday so I'd just like to give a shout out to Lori for dealing with me and helping me with Jolie!) I can handle Jolie by myself on the weekends confidently, but apparently during the work week is still over my head to tackle on my own! haha!

Jolie and Grandma had so much fun as always! They did some finger painting and playing and even laundry! Sweet! And at my work, a few of the student groups host a Halloween party and they were so nice and came to my work party! Of course, everyone loved her costume and Jolie was so funny at the party. She just stared at all the kids playing the games and took it all in. It was just so sweet how she studied everything.

She helped me with my work

I love my little duckie!

She got a mini pumpkin too!



Showing off her sweet scooting skills for all my co-workers :)

Thank you so much Grandma B for helping me out and bringing Jolie to my work!

Who's 8 months old?

Jolie is! And she's a busy baby!

Here is what she's been up to lately
-Is tipping the scales at 16 1/2 lbs
-Wears 6-9 month and 6-12 month clothes.
-Started eating a lot more flavors of food but appears to not like 'tarty' tastes like apples
-Eats a few puffs each day but still gags on them every once in awhile
-Drinks 5 bottles a day but has started not to finish her bottles since her last ear infection
-Can scoot and army crawl
-Is getting a little better about stranger anxiety and guys
-Wears a size 2-3 diaper and size 3 at night (we're even just about out of the 'Swaddler' diapers and into the 'Cruisers'!)
-Even though she has tons of toys, she loves going after the remote, laptop (but just Josh's because I keep mine picked up! haha!) and any of Petey's toys
(This really confuses Petey because he thinks if she has his toy that she's going to play with him and throw it so he starts freaking out when she gets them!)
-Likes country music and music on Sesame Street and has even started bouncing to it
-Claps her hands-FINALLY! Previously she always kept her hands clinched in a fist
-Has two teeth on the bottom (she sometimes bites herself and then cries!)
-Is starting to get more and more hair and even has a few curls in the back!
-Can jump in her jumper without any padding underneath and really loves it! If you say 'Jump, jump, jump' she does it!
-Is starting to giggle and laugh more but what makes her laugh constantly changes! One day I was making animal noises and it was hilarious, the next day I got nothing!

It's amazing to see how much she's growing and learning every day! You can tell she really 'plays' now and discovers new things. It's just amazing and she's just so much fun!! Plus now Josh and I have a good excuse to watch Sesame Street!

Jolie wanted to say 'hi!' and get the camera!

the very serious painter

Jolie's teacher sent home a bunch of pictures from school and they were so cute! They had some of her painting and it looked like fun so I thought we needed to do some painting at home as well. She is very serious when she paints but seems to have a lot of fun with it. She couldn't wait to get more colors and we now have two beautiful paintings! That was quickly followed by a bath which she also very seriously enjoyed!




I swear she did seem like she was having fun! :)