We took the official Christmas pictures this week, and I can say it's the only reason I went to the mall on "Black Friday"! Otherwise, I would have been home sleeping in. Well, not exactly. Seems that JoJo didn't get the memo about days off and doesn't realize that if Daddy doesn't have to work that day, he doesn't have to get out of bed at 6 am to read to her and try to feed her breakfast (whether she eats it is a hit or miss proposition). Wanna see our pics? Ask me, and I'll tell you the password and where they are posted.

But, except for the day I snuck out to play ball at 8 am, I was up at 6 every day of my "break" reading to JoJo. Her favorite book has changed. It is no longer If I Were a Moose, which I have practically memorized. In fact, she seems to be out of her Eric Carle phase as well. She only listens to select pages from those books - the final page of Brown Bear and the long food page of Hungry Caterpillar. Otherwise, she skips through him pretty quickly. She currently enjoys Elemenopeo, When Mama Comes Home Tonight, Where the Wild Things Are, War and Peace and Dr. Seuss's Foot Book (all of which get read at least 5 times a day!). The foot book confused her at first because she is convinced that feet, socks, and shoes, are all called "shoes," but I think she's coming around. She has taken to playing with her toes while I read the book, so maybe there's a connection being made there.

She is also getting to that talking stage where she repeats words. She has said "cupcake" (in Hungry Caterpillar), "turkey," "chair," "stars" (when she sees them in a book), "dream" (last page of Elemenopeo), "green", and actually said "nana" for banana, while pointing at the fruit bowl.

She tries to say "drink" (dink) and says "dingding" for any meat. "Ice" is still "dice," even though she says it 20 times a day and we correct her each time.

She is getting better at sleeping through the night and actually has spent a few nights in her crib all night, which is very nice for mommy and daddy!

I think she is also becoming more aware of when she is included in things or not. She had a hard time on Sunday when Sheryl, Cedar and I played Monopoly with Zoe. Although we gave her toys, food, bottles, etc. she seemed to realize she was missing out on the action, and she kept trying to get involved any way she could - which usually resulted in her chewing on a game piece, us taking it away and her crying again.

JoJo with sunglasses.

Two new videos:


Mommy brought out the keyboard, showed JoJo how to play, and the legend is born!


JoJo playing keyboard with her feet.

Yesterday was a best of times, worst of times day.

It started off with a cute little episode at Jeanie's house. When JoJo and I arrived, Ashley was at the top of the stairs. Ashley doesn't talk much, but she has waved at us before. When JoJo sees her, she crawls from Jeanie's arms and heads up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs turn right, and JoJo stops. Jeanie goes and gets her and brings her back down. Ashley is still watching. JoJo tries again. She gets the the halfway mark and stops again. She looks at us, then up at Ashley. And here's the cute part: Ashley is standing there, beckoning her to come up the stairs, and JoJo smiles and heads up to her. When she gets to the top step she stops because she still doesn't know what to do when there's not another step to hold on to, so Jeanie rescues her again. She smiles at Ashley when she finally reaches the top. JoJo has her first friend.

And here's the worst... Ever since JoJo started wanting to stand on the dining room chairs, I have had this fear of her falling off. She doesn't watch the edge well, and although she's getting good at sitting down and sliding off, if someone is next to her, she just reaches over and expects to be caught. And therein lies the scare. She was facing the table, pen in hand, doodling on a piece of paper and I took my eyes off of her to look at my computer, to see if it was my turn on a chess game I was playing. Out of the corner of my eye I see her reaching toward me, and I grab at her, but I miss, and she goes SPLAT! face down on the ground. What's worse is that she doesn't cry - she just lies there. I reach for her, and she finally starts crying. Then she stops again, and I yell for Sheryl to come over, because I am fearing the worst, and I feel more horrible than I've ever felt in my life. She finally starts crying again after 5-6 seconds, and Sheryl takes her. I sit at the table, numb, cursing myself for being so stupid, scared that she is really hurt. The rest of the night, I check her face for bruises, look up baby concussion info on the net, and worry, worry, worry.

JoJo goes to sleep at 9 and wakes up at 11:30, crying. Sheryl takes her and I go back to sleep; at 1:30, Sheryl hands her to me, and says that she hasn't had any sleep, and goes back to the couch. I sit up and hold her and pat her back, and try to calm her down until about 2:30 am. While holding her, I go online and call in sick. I have been coughing, losing my voice, and compounded with no sleep and JoJo's cough, there is no way I am facing 80 kindergartners and 3 other classes!

Now at the end of the next day, I can say JoJo is OK - no sign that she has fallen at all. I almost feel better, but it was really nice to hang out and relax with JoJo. My voice didn't get much rest because she insisted I read If I Were a Moose and her Eric Carle books over and over again. Her favorite new word is "rea," which means, "I have a book in my hand, and I don't care what you're doing, we're reading it right now." And, in this case, she gets what she wants, because I love reading!

JoJo loves standing on chairs and on the couch.

Mommy encouraged her to bother Cedar while she was reading - something JoJo is very good at.

Another sunglasses shot.

Cool jacket with pointy hood

Halloween outfit... our Sheriff JoJo with Mommy in a witch outfit.

Sheriff JoJo loves to stand up on her rocker chair. She's getting pretty good at climbing on it.

The sheriff with Daddy the cowboy.

Posing with a pumpkin lantern at Jan's house, where we started our trick-or-treating.

For Halloween we went to the Felida neighborhood and walked around with a girl scout troop. It was fun seeing kids from my school there, and of course, everyone thought JoJo was adorable (they are SO observant).

JoJo tried walking around a little bit, but all of the people confused her. She ended up falling asleep about halfway through, and Mommy and I had to take turns carrying her back to the car.

Another fun thing has been seeing JoJo's reaction as daddy goes to the chiropractor. She's fine until the doctor walks into the room. She knows he is going to push on daddy's back, and she gets scared. She doesn't understand that it's OK; he and I both try to console her, but it's so cute...