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!