Adventures in Eating

For the last week, Jolie’s been doing great eating rice cereal. Not only does she love the eating like a big girl, but she wants to do it all herself! We really have to watch what we’re doing because she’s so quick to grab the spoon, the bowl or anything else within her reach—and some things we didn’t even think were in her reach!

I read awhile ago a suggestion that said you may have to try feeding your baby in a darker, quiet room so they didn’t get distracted and I thought ‘that sounds ridiculous!’ But I get it now! Between squirming in the seat, grabbing for everything in her vicinity and staring off at anything that moves, these feedings can take some time! And usually by the end she’s just blowing bubbles into her spoon and splattering cereal everywhere. It’s exhausting and getting messier and messier each time. After her meal, we have to wipe down Jolie, change her clothes, wipe down the counter, wipe down her chair and wipe down ourselves. We’re only making about 3 oz of cereal so you wouldn’t think it could be so messy—but we are continually amazed by the amount of mess created!

Stay tuned as we add other foods with more colors and new stains!


Who's messy? Me?


Yummy in my tummy!


I can do it!


Dad, you're too slow! I'll just do it myself.

Petey gets a haircut...finally!

Petey has a ‘spa day’ about every 8 weeks where he goes to the groomer and gets his hair cut, a paw-dicure, teeth and ears cleaned--the works. I wrote down the wrong day last time and we missed his last appointment (oopsies!) and his groomer is harder to get in to than my hair stylist! So Petey was long overdue for a haircut and hadn’t had one for about 4 months! This was definitely the longest we’d ever had Petey’s hair. Our neighbors were starting to wonder if it was the same dog (he’s pretty popular in our neighborhood)! We thought we’d do a little before and after picture.



After...ahh, much better!

Jolie's 5 Months Old

Jolie is 5 months old today and she decided to amaze us once again! After a long battle, we got a different crib (it’s a long story) and it was finally delivered last week and Josh got it put back together. Until this point, we’ve still been using the Pack’n’Play every night in our room.

Last night Josh got her room all set up and we tried it out and she did GREAT! Although it was a little sad not to have her close to me, I suppose it had to happen some time. While I was pouting about Jolie moving to her own room, she decided to make her dad pout too!


Josh went to see her over lunch at school and she was on the floor playing with her friends. Josh picked her up, but she just wanted back down to play with her friends! So after it was obvious that Jolie wasn’t interested in playing with her dad, he went to back to work and pouted. Her teacher said she was doing great and holding her own with the ‘bigger kids.’ Before this she was very content just watching from a distance, but all of sudden she was ready to play and talk to her friends!

Check out her cool Taggie Blanket that Great Grandma Pedersen and Grandma Buechler made for her. It has Huskers on one side and puppies on the other and she loves it!

She was still in an AMAZING mood when Josh picked her up and brought her home so that made Josh and I feel better! Even though we clearly aren’t as cool as her friends, she was still excited to see us! Jolie was just so fun all night. She even ate cereal and ATE it and didn’t act like we were torturing her!

Here’s what Jolie’s up to at the 5 month mark:
Still in 0-3 and 3-6 month clothes
Weighs about 13 lbs
Rolls very easily and quickly now
LOVES her toes and playing with her feet
Smiles SO BIG but hasn’t quite figured out the giggling thing
Likes sitting up and being on her tummy
Enjoys watching Petey and trying to grab him, but she’s just a little too slow
Takes about 6 bottles a day
Naps about three times a day and then sleeps through the night—thank goodness!


We’ll have to see how the cereal thing goes, but she rocked it tonight! Own room, her own friends, and her own food! Dang Jolie—don’t grow up too fast!

Pedersen Party!!

What a weekend! Friday evening we left for Graettinger for a surprise birthday party for Great Grandpa Petersen. He turned 75 years young and all of the grandkids came to see him! There are 6 grandkids and everyone is spreading out and expanding so it was wonderful that everyone was able to make it. We didn’t arrive until late Friday night so we got the party started Saturday morning.
The weekend included getting to hang out with Kaydyn (19 months) and Henry (7 months). Kaydyn was so busy all weekend and is very excited to meet her new brother Bryson who is due in September. Amber and Travis must be in excellent shape to keep up with her. Just watching her was exhausting! :)



Henry and Jolie seemed to be on opposite schedules so we had a hard time getting them together. And once we did, Jolie scared Henry and then Henry scared Jolie! They were pretty funny and I got a little video of them checking each other out, but I’m having some technical difficulties. Sara is an amazing photographer and took pictures all weekend and is going to send us some soon and we’re so excited! We did a shot with the whole family and a few of Jolie as well. I can’t wait to see them!

I think Jolie’s medicine is working because she has been in a wonderful mood! However this medicine has been causing some wicked, terrible smelling diapers--like I almost gagged over a few them! And she’s had a LOT of them too! But if it makes the little chickadee all better, then we’ll suffer through the stink! She really enjoyed showing Uncle Matt how big she can fart! Even Matt was impressed AND speechless!

Jolie LOVED laying with Great Grandma Pedersen on the porch and just hung out in this position for quite awhile.




Thank you so much to everyone for a great weekend! And I’ll post some more (and much more amazing) pictures from Sara as soon as I can!

My First Medicine

We’ve still been battling this fever and then Jolie started getting a yucky sounding bad cough. Josh had Thursday off and after ANOTHER night of not sleeping much (wearing down her mom and dad) we decided it was time to see our good friend Dr. Timboe.

And the results are in…an ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. Yikes! So we are on to our very first prescription—amoxicillin. Josh and I were excited to see that delicious pink bubblegum medicine we hadn’t seen since we were little. How exciting! Jolie thought it was okay, not nearly as excited about as we were. Dr. Timboe said no school for Jolie on Friday, so Josh is going to stay home again tomorrow. He said he could get used to this stay-at-home dad stuff! Let’s hope that yummy medicine kicks in soon!

What? I'm sick! I can't believe it!

She's been taking lots of naps since she hasn't been able to get a good nights sleep--even napping during diaper changes.

Even though she's sick, Jolie managed to give us a little smile while working on her laptop.

Famous Feet

I'm not sure if many know this but I work recruiting podiatrists (foot and ankle doctors). The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) is creating a new website and marketing campaign and decided to do their photo shoot in Des Moines. This was a huge deal for us at work so I got to help a little with that.

They brought in a whole bunch of people like wardrobe, makeup, pedicurist and a photographer who has done ads for Nike with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Brian Urlacher and now...Jolie Buechler!!!

They needed some baby feet for this shoot and what do you know? We have a baby! So we met at a park Wednesday morning for Jolie's shoot with a few other people. One of the girls was late so they needed another pair of feet, so I stepped in too! (Get it? Stepped in! hahahaha) I got a little mini-pedicure at the park and then had to foot model I guess you'd call it. Jolie laid in the grass and they did some pictures of her feet.

So someday soon you may see our feet in the internet and in print. We're practically famous! :) I didn't get any pictures but if I come across any, I'll post them as long as they don't look terrible or anything. Jolie did great and was very popular of course!

Testing Grandma Buechler's Skills

Grandma Buechler came to stay with Jolie on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday-woo hoo! And I'm starting to notice a trend of Jolie testing out her Grandma's nursing skills whenever she visits. This time it was the Mystery of the Random Fevers. Grandma was a life saver and slept with Jolie in the chair one night which was very much appreciated! She also has a blocked tear duct that Grandma showed us how to treat.

So after much debate, we are waiting it out and seeing how it goes since she doesn't have any other consistent symptoms. We're just going with that default answer of 'teething.' Although I am hard at work on a machine that you plug your baby into and it will diagnose them--like they do with new vehicles! It will make us a fortune, so if you'd like to be an investor, we are taking donations now. :) It's even moved ahead of my teleportation project that I've been working on to make traveling to see our families instantaneous instead of these long drives.

Even though these fevers keep coming and going, Jolie's been in a pretty good mood. Thank goodness because I would feel bad if Grandma drove all this way and she was a crabby paddy the whole time! Grandma, Jolie and Petey got to go on some walks and Grandma and Josh got to check out the Valley Junction Farmer's Market.

The weekend was low key and included playing outside with the neighbors and snuggling with mom and dad (the best thing ever!) Josh worked on Sunday, so I got to be a baby hog and have Jolie all to myself! I was hoping for a quick trip to the mall, but that darn wandering fever came back so I decided we better stay put.

Thank you again to Grandma Buechler for staying with Jolie and rocking her all night. Here's a text they sent while mom and dad were at work. It's an 'action shot' of her in the swing so it's a little blurry. :)

And I promise, I'm not always a psycho mom! Well I don't think so anyway. :)

See--look at that smile! She must feel okay, right???

Hitting the books

Jolie got a farm book at the Farmer's Market from her Grandma Dee Dee last Thursday and she has not been able to put it down! I think she is taking more and more after her Dad and turning into a book nerd!!! :)

She wakes up with it in the morning...


She reads each page very carefully...


She reads between the lines...


She can even multi-task while reading...


and ROLLS OVER while reading! This is very advanced--like 7th grade level I'm pretty sure.


Then Petey--the cleaning crew--comes through for any spit up. Gross Petey! (Although he does a better job getting stains out than any stain treatment--AMAZING!)

Running around town

Tuesday, Jolie got Grandma Dee Dee all to her herself so she celebrated in her favorite way--SPA DAY! Jolie got her nails done (trimmed), took a long bath, had a baby lotion massage and tried out some new clothes. She also kept Grandma busy changing clothes with lots and lots of spit up. After such a big weekend, Jolie kind of needs a day to unwind and get used to not being held the entire time, so having a relaxing day was just what she needed. We checked out Homemakers Furniture, Babies R Us and Target when Mommy got home and she loved looking at everything, but was still a little tired of that darn car seat.

Wednesday, Grandma took Jolie and Petey for a walk and introduced Grandma to all their neighbor friends. Then Jolie helped Grandma, Mommy and Daddy all pick out new shoes. She has very good taste and is just a great shopper. We went to Mama Lacona's for some yummy Italian where she met a new little friend at the table next to us. The food was good, but the service was soooooo slow!!!

Grandma's friends from Nebraska came on Thursday evening and we took them to the Valley Junction Farmer's Market. There is so much to see there and where else can you get tacos, a jar of salsa, a fun little farm book, and hear some live music?



Afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory and took a little stroll by the water.


We didn't get home until late Thursday night so we all went straight to bed. Friday, Jolie went back to school and had a great day. Mom and Dad are hoping for a nice, slow weekend at home.

In the growing category, Jolie moved up to size 2 diapers and is grabbing at everything! She is also rolling over and over and over and is getting pretty darn efficient at it too. She also loves when you say 'BOO!' to her and enjoys laughing.

Be Quiet for America!

Jolie has had one busy week! After school on Thursday, July 1, we left for Nebraska. Jolie did great in the car...if only the same could be said about Petey! Petey was not content the whole ride back and was a squirmy wormy! We stopped in Omaha to see Uncle Matt and Arah's new place and then continued on to Grandma and Grandpa Dee Dee's house in Wood River. We didn't get in until midnight and then Jolie was wide awake! Luckily Grandma and Grandpa couldn't wait to get their hands on her and were able to get her to bed.

On Friday, mom's friend Judy and the some of the Rathke's came over. Jenna came all the way from LA to finally meet Jolie so they had some catching up to do! Then we went to Kearney and hung out at the Wulf's house. Doug was nice enough to show us around and Josh even got to ride in the Life Flight helicopter! I almost did too, but at the last minute I freaked out and decided to watch from the ground. Thank you again for taking us around Doug!

See Josh in there? hehe


Is 6 different types of meat too many for lunch? Not at Great Grandma and Grandpa Dibbern's! We ate lunch there on Saturday with Great Uncles RD and Mark and the Wulf pack. As usual it was sooooo good and the Wulf cubs were very entertaining. Great cousins Hayden and Hannah just love Jolie so much and Hayden has even been practicing to babysit one day! Nana came over and Jolie impressed her with all of her new tricks!

Jolie started the 4th of July celebrating the best way she knows how--with a nap! Grandpa helped too!


Josh had to work on Monday, so after waiting a very long time for Jolie to wake up so he could tell her 'bye,' he and Petey headed back to Iowa. In the evening we went to Karen and Dennis' lake house to continue the festivities. Jolie decided she didn't care too much for fireworks though (they are way too loud and scary!)and the mosquitoes were out in full force so we hung out in the sun room and in the house. By the time the big fireworks started, Jolie had enough and was in full out melt down mode!

It was at this time we realized we hadn't gotten any good pictures of her in her special 4th of July outfit. I did take a couple earlier, but we may have to restage this shoot. :) Here she is with her Uncle Brett who is becoming quite the baby entertainer! Look at him handle that burp rag!



Monday, Jolie and I headed back to Iowa with Grandma Dee Dee who is staying with Jolie this week. We stopped at Uncle Brett's house in Lincoln and Jolie did great in the car again which is much appreciated by her mommy!