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! :)