It's been a while.

My main excuse is that the wireless connection was down; after even Andrew Ferrall couldn't fix it, I bought a new router. I'm back!

JoJo has started pulling herself up from a sitting position to standing, which is fun to watch. She also forgets herself and falls sometimes while reaching for something, which is not fun to watch.

Below are some pics of her standing in the kitchen...

Today JoJo and I went with a friend to Horsetail Falls. We hiked about 5 miles, and boy was she tired by the we were done - she slept the last hour of the hike!


JoJo sat comfortably in the pack. We'd been on a few "training walks" through the neighborhood to get used to it. She cries when she's stuck in the pack on the ground, but once she's on my back, she's fine.

I guess I didn't feed her enough breakfast!

Daddy taking a rest to take off my sweatshirt. She didn't want to be in the pack alone, so I gave held her for a while.

These two pics were taken back in March. I had forgotten I had them on my camera; JoJo doesn't see Nana much, so these are important to me.

(Don't forget to look at the new pics and videos below - even if you do skip my riveting dialogue)

The Great Daycare Debacle (OR I'm Hoping I Only Have to do This Once!)

For the last 3-4 weeks we've been searching for daycare. What can we afford? How far away is practical? Who is "good enough" to watch JoJo? Are we asking the right questions? How do we trust a stranger? What is best for her?

Grandma watches her Mondays and Fridays; Sheryl has Wednesdays free. We needed someone Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The first idea was to have a family friend from Crossroads watch her. Good person, great with kids, reasonable price. Once we figured out the driving time to get JoJo to her house (or worse, to drive her to my mom's so she could pick JoJo up to take her back to Vancouver), it wasn't practical.

Plan B: I put out a Craigslist ad. Got a great response from someone in the Salmon Creek area. Christian. Good price ($20 a day). Sent her my phone number so we could arrange a visit. Silence. 3 days later, "do you still need someone?" "yes, here's my phone number." Silence. Hate mail sent (okay, not quite hate mail, but...).

So I went back to Craigslist. Mom with 2 month old. $25 a day, 10 minute drive. Looks good. Make plans to meet. Next day's e-mail: "I hurt my back, can't watch two kids with a hurt back. Sorry."

Another Craigslist ad. Over 10 responses. Narrow it down to 3. One lives a mile away. Ok, not great. No daycare experience. Christian, has 2 year old boy, overweight kids, just not that exciting. $25 a day. Second lives on the way to work. Daycare experience, seems upbeat, wants $50 a day. Third is a parent from work. No daycare, but recommended as good person by her daughter's teacher. No other kids around during the day - $50 a day. We interviewed the first Monday and had an appointment with the 2nd set for Wednesday. Pray, pray, pray.

On Sunday I mentioned the problem to a Felida family who attends my church. She gives me the phone humber of her daycare. Tuesday interview. Love! Tough phone calls to cancel others (third was e-mailed, not as hard) $23 a day, 3-4 other kids around, Christian, a happy home, and an easy decision. Thank you Mrs. Hull! It means leaving 15 minutes earlier each Tuesday and Thursday, but it is so nice to be done with that process!

This Spring Break is the first time in a long while that I've spent whole days with JoJo alone. I see her every day, but never all day. A part of me wishes I could leave Vancouver for a few days; it's the first Spring Break in 6 years that I haven't visited Phyllis' cabin, but I'm enjoying the time with her here.

JoJo is feeling much better, although her nose is still dripping constantly. She's started to chatter more than just "da da da". She also shows no interest in learning to crawl - she wants to stand up all the time, and is very confident just standing up leaning on a table, couch, etc. Often she doesn't want to be held unless she's standing. She hates being put on the floor in a crawling position, and once she's in one position, she cannot change it, unless of course it's falling to a sitting position when she's "standing."

She is becoming quite the chewer, and she has nibbled on my shoulder often of late. She did try to swallow my cell phone whole, and now the listening piece doesn't have much volume - hopefully it will dry out. She did the same thing to Sheryl's phone.

Usually we take a 2 mile walk in the BabyBjorn, but I've started using the hiking pack instead. She seems to enjoy it, once I get her on my back. She always cries getting into it. I am taking her hiking tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some cute pics to post.


The youngest Girl Scout speaks to an enraptured crowd about world peace and other important topics.

JoJo sitting on Daddy's bed

Here's a pair of recent videos on JoJo.





Coming soon... the great daycare debate...

JoJo has been sick for about a week - running nose, throwing up, scratchy throat - she's been miserable. It hasn't been much fun, but with a lot of TLC and a few different attempts at medicine, she seems to be on her way to becoming her old smiley self. She came home from mom's house today a little sick - she had thrown up again - but was cheery for most of the evening, something I hadn't seen in a while.

We had a busy weekend. We spent Saturday at a basketball game then at Aunt Sue's house; Sunday we stayed home from church but spent the afternoon with Phyllis and Max and JoJo's friend Briyanna. Bri is adorable and crawls faster than any baby I've ever seen.

The pics below were taken my Dorothy. Two were taken at my parent's house; the other s at cousin Matthew's last YMCA basketball game. Uncle Robert and the adorable cousin Hudson are in the pictures with her.

Getting ready for her bath



In her new Easter dress


Not happy about her Easter dress!

Pics, pics, and more pics....

With Grandpa Fred in his office. He gave JoJo a computer keyboard to play with, and she loves to have it on her lap and press the buttons.

Two different "play pens." One is inside the baby / play room; the other, where she is standing while holding the side, is outside. Both are at Grandma's house.


Who needs fancy toys? An old pot and a wooden spoon have been her favorite toys the last few days!


Playing peek-a-boo with Hudson while sitting on Aunt Dorothy's lap.

I wasn't planning on this becoming a once-a-week blog. I need to just break out the camera and get shooting.

The sleeping "fun" has continued. She will sleep a long shift with me, twice this week up to 8 hours, then she'll refuse to go back to sleep without Sheryl. I am coming to love the 9 to midnight cuddle time, where she falls asleep on my chest on the couch or chaise, but my neck is not loving it. Shoulda got a Lazyboy like my sister recommended.

JoJo's obsession of late has been paper. No matter where she sees it - a book, a pic on the fridge - she wants it, and it goes straight to her mouth. She has even chosen paper over her toys of late.

A cute story: When I came home this Wednesday, Cedar propped JoJo by the door in her baby bop with a Valentine card that Cedar had "helped" JoJo make. It was so cute. She was smiling and waving it, and she was so excited to see me, she hadn't even eaten it yet! The card now sits on my desk at work.

JoJo had another busy day Friday with grandma and grandpa. She spent most of the day helping grandma at Crossroads Christian School; it wasn't grandma's day in the lunch room, so they helped at recess and visited with the cousins after school. Grandpa gave her a computer keyboard to play with, and she loves hitting the keys and pulling on the cord. Books and computers. It's enough to make a librarian proud!

Several people have asked lately about JoJo sitting up and getting teeth.

Here it is... drum roll please... official proof that JoJo can sit up on her own:






Also, while she was sucking on my finger today - something I don't normally let her do, but I was trying to calm her down after Zoe disturbed her nap - I felt the top of a tooth in the lower jaw! Fun, fun!

Last bit of news: After a week of sleeping 8 hours through the night, JoJo has decided that the only way she'll go back to sleep when she wakes up is if she gets breast fed, which has made for some interesting nights of late. She starts out with me, but ends up with Sheryl because she will not go back to sleep any other way.

After getting a lot of attention at Cedar's birthday party, JoJo slept all night Saturday night - at least until 5 AM, when she gave her absolutely-positively-must-have-a-bottle-right-now cry. Before I could get her one, Sheryl came rushing in to feed her. She didn't want the crying to wake up the girls who were sleeping in the living room.

Sunday we went to church, then grandmas, then Sue's house. We had a great time hanging out, watching the football game (she slept through most of the game, but I'm working on her for next year). On the drive home, daddy pushed his luck one too many times and finally got caught on E just north of the 205 bridge. Aunt Sue and Uncle Rob came to our rescue, but it didn't help, so they took JoJo to grandma's house while I waited for a tow. I was glad to get her off the freeway, and thankfully she slept through it all! (Turns out the car needed more than the 2 gallons we gave it; after that it was fine!)

One surprising anecdote: I've had nights where JoJo has slept with Sheryl, but not when she's been at grandma's without me. I am getting used to her being in the room, and I grabbed the baby blanket she had slept on the night before and held it while I slept. I called grandma late that night and got a report early in the morning about how she was doing; not that I worried about the care, but I missed her nonetheless.

Also for the first time, she actually preferred me to other people in the room. Often, she'll go to anyone who wants her, no problem, and she will choose Sheryl over me at home, especially when she's hungry, but Sunday with the first time she cried when Sue was holding her and only calmed down when I took her back. She likes me, she really, really likes me!

Next time, more pics, less talk.

I promised myself I wouldn't let this blog go so long between posts, but unfortunately it has.

We've had a few developments of late.

Daddy shaved his beard, which scared JoJo for a few days. If she didn't look at me she was OK because she recognized the voice: but when she looked at me, she would immediately look for Sheryl. I considered growing it back, but after the 5th day she seemed to have gotten used to it, so I didn't.

Johanna has started to sit up by herself. She lasted a minute or two the other day, and even lifted a leg to balance herself once when she was leaning, but complete balance is still a work in progress.

She also has taken to sleeping for longer periods of time, which is nice. I had her for 8 hours last night before she woke up. Funny thing was she did not wake up crying for a bottle like she usually does, she just started chattering good morning talk at 3:45. I tried balancing her in a sitting position on my chest, with a toy on her lap, while I closed my eyes to get more sleep, but it didn't work. After 15 minutes or so she cried for her bottle, then slept until 6. These nighttime experiences are new to me because I went for 3 months without her in the same room; c I do like taking care of her this way, and I seem to be adjusting to the sleep interruptions. Some days its the only time I see her because of work, Bible study, and other activities.

Another fun Hudson story: It's no secret that my nephews like pretend games with guns. Today Hudson led grandma and JoJo through grandma's house, toy gun in hand, while grandma helped JoJo with her gun. Every time Hudson shot another bad guy, complete with sound effects, JoJo would burst out laughing. If you haven't heard her laugh, listen to the video below, it'll make anyone smile. Anyway, grandma says it was so much fun to see, and Hudson, who will turn 3 in May, seems to have a knack for making JoJo happy.

(Before anyone goes off on me about kids and guns, blah blah blah, two things. 1. I DO think it's OK for little boys to play with toy guns. I did, and I haven't shot anyone - yet - and 2. JoJo laughs when Cedar says "mmm, pork burrito" to her, so she has no clue what the game really is; she's just being entertained, so it's OK with me.)

I have some pics of JoJo that I'll upload eventually.

Daddy time

I'm finding that I'm looking for "daddy time" every minute I can. Saturday I had JoJo all day, so we napped, hung around the house, and went to Aunt Sue's house after taking Cedar to a birthday party. It was a good, quiet day.

Sunday I didn't see her until 9:15 at night, so I was happy to take her and sleep with her on the couch, even going past my usual bedtime because I didn't want to wake her up - I eventually went to bed at midnight.

Monday was another limited-time day, but I have a cute story to share. Grandma Helene has a "tuneless lullaby" she uses with the grandkids when they're sleepy. JoJo was wearing down today and started to get cranky in the car. Cousin Hudson got a puckered face, but instead of joining in, he started doing the lullaby. JoJo stopped crying, looked at him, and soon fell asleep! Also, she came back from Grandma's house doing her "bbbbbth" thing, which she did for about 2 hours straight (with occasional laughter and encouragement from us). She hadn't done it at home for a while. Sounds like a good day for baby!

Below are some pics Sheryl took over the weekend:






Auntie Cari came up for the weekend. She said it was to snowboard on Mt. Hood, but she really wanted to see Cedar and JoJo.
Things are slowly getting better between the two babies in the house; Buster lets JoJo "pet" him, and she has to be guided in her "petting" so she doesn't grab. Buster still gets jealous and has snapped at her if she pulls his hair; he barks at Sheryl when she pays attention to JoJo and not to him. I don't like the snapping and barking, and I will kill that animal if he ever bites her.

After a fun weekend at Grandma's house, a visit with Phyllis and Max, and a birthday party for Tom at Shawn's house, we've had a quiet two days. We did have to do a hematocrit Monday; it was ordered a few months ago, and although she is obviously not anemic, the doctor insisted. It was not fun seeing her get stuck (again), but she survived.

Most of the pics below were taken Tuesday during another snow day. It was her first experience in the snow, and she seemed to like it. We'll be home again tomorrow as well.



JoJo likes her Bumblebee toy. We haven't used the accompanying book, but she loves to chew the antennae and nose.

Getting ready to go out into the snow for the first time. She's wearing the snowsuit grandma Helene bought her.


Out in her first snow in Mommy's "hip hammock". She was all smiles and lasted about 1/2 hour.



Just a cute face...

JoJo had her 6 month appointment today. She is officially 16 lbs. 7 oz. and very healthy (75 percentile on both height and weight).

She has started moving around more as well. On her stomach, she almost scooted herself off the chaise the other day (bad daddy!) but I caught her before she fell (good daddy!). She also turned herself over from her back to her stomach.

The final new development is that she eats everything - she tried to devour one of her board books today. Here I was so proud my daughter chose a book over a toy, but it turns out it was just easier to get into her mouth.

This is my first attempt at embedding video in the blog. Sheryl took it a few days ago.

Here are the pics as promised from Sheryl. If I had any pride as a photographer, I'd stop posting pics of JoJo taken by other people. Every really good pic on this site was taken by Sheryl or given to us by someone else. It's a good thing I look good in the photos, though!


Outside grandma's house in CA.

I used this one for my Christmas thank you cards. So cute!

Notice the pink blanket made by Felida's Peggy Phemister. It's made it into a lot of shots!

This is another great shot.