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.

After I survived 6 days without seeing Johanna, she returned from California Thursday night, and it warmed my heart to see her jump up and down in her car seat when she saw me. She likes her daddy!

While she was gone, she picked up a few new "skills": She no longer stands when she is held up, but prefers to jump; she also loves to grab her toes, something she had never done before. She has taken to eating real food; she loves bananas, sweet potatoes and the rest, but I wasn't surprised that the "turkey and turkey broth" was rejected. Meat that looks like gelatinous applesauce is just wrong. Reminds me of the Hormel "potted meat product" you see in the grocery store - who actually eats that stuff?

JoJo and I went to a New Year's Party where we saw our friend Brianna. Brianna is two months older than JoJo, but JoJo is about the same weight. Bri has the cutest head of hair! It was cute to see them reach out to each other.

Anyway, I have some new pics, and Sheryl has some from their CA trip that I'll post when I get them.


Showing off her new skill!

Although she jumps when held, she still hasn't done much in the Johnny Jump Up.

Call me vain - I like the self-portrait with baby pics!


Another there she is in her swing pic.

Another "leaning on daddy's knees" shot. Hopefully I will be able to upload a video of her talking to me, taken at the same time.

A few pics of Buster with JoJo. He tends to avoid her when he's awake, but this was too cute to pass up.

I've been so busy catching up on work, posting pics, etc., I haven't really commented on JoJo all that much. She is as cute and as bald as ever! Besides that, she started laughing this week - she's done it mostly for Cedar and Sheryl. With me, she's too busy discussing 19th Century Russian literature, which many of you know isn't much to laugh about. Sheryl has also taught her to make a farting noise with her lips - a much needed skill in literary criticism.

Seriously though, we did read two of the Bill Martin, Jr. / Eric Carle board books that were given to her by Felida teachers. The first one she kept turning the pages backwards (probably the result of her Hebrew and Arabic training); the second one she'd yell at the pictures then lean forward as if to taste the page.

JoJo made quite a splash when she showed up at Felida today after school. Many of the teachers (and some parents) wanted turns holding her, and they all agreed that she's a precious and happy baby. They also comment that "she knows who her daddy is" because she responds quickly to my voice. It always makes me feel good to hear that!

Still catching up on pics from other people. Here are two from grandma's camera taken around Thanksgiving.


Four generations together (l to r, clockwise): Auntie Sue, Grandma Helene, Great-grandma aka Nana, Baby JoJo, and Auntie Tina.



On Daddy's side of the family, JoJo is the only girl - here she is with her 4 cousins, Chris, Nathan, Matthew, and Hudson.

I finally have the pics from the "Paternity Leave Survival Party" that Felida hosted for me. It's amazing to see how much Johanna has grown in the six weeks since the party. Thank you, Candi Talbott, for the pics.



Quite a stash of diapers! Each grade level gave a different gift, some for Johanna, some for daddy. This pile is 2 grades' worth of diapers!


Johanna posing with (left to right), Ms. Patton; Mrs. Ramberg, the associate principal; and Mrs. Herkert.


Johanna doing her favorite "folding my hands, ain't I cute" pose with Ms. Patton.


PE teacher Mr. Cast may need some of those in a year or two....


The next two pics are ones I took on the 4th. She loves looking into the mirror in the hall (something she must have inherited from dad), and she looked so cute, I decided to shoot a few.