Dear Jorie,
It seems that the more I have to write about, the less time I can find to write about it. These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Your cousin Sienna was in town and we did a photo shoot. There was the cat getting sick (and ending up needing over night stays at the vet,) and you starting daycare.
Valentines day was right at the beginning of the two weeks, me and your father didn't do much for it, but you did make your dad a valentine. You helped me make a hand and foot print from you and I put a message from you to your father on it and framed it for him. We made one for each of your grandparents too. Everyone loved them! I couldn't believe how big your hand and foot looked! I'll have to do a side by side comparison of your foot print from when you were born, but man your feet look big! I think it means you're going to be tall, which will make me the shortest person in our family.
The photo shoot (which we did the Sunday before last) was a riot. We had you, Wesley, Sienna, and even your Aunt Becky's brother Andy. Oh, and we can't forget your favorite part, there was Cake. The entire shoot came about because Your Aunt and Uncle had done a one year birthday shoot, and had bought a cake for the baby to smash. It turned out the baby was afraid of the cake, so they had a cake that needed smashing. You were more than up to the task baby girl! I think you ate a quarter of that cake before my Mommy guilt over ruled the cuteness of the photo shoot, and I called an end to the cake binging. I'm super excited to see how the pictures turned out.
Unfortunately, the very next day the cat got very very sick. We had to take him to the emergency vet. You love your kitty so much, I'm sure if you knew what was happening you would have been very worried for him. He's much better now, but it took another trip to the regular vet, an over night stay there, and a whole lot of medicine to get him healthy again. I even had to miss work last Wednesday to take him to the vet.
Your Grandma O would have been very angry at me if I had kept you home that day, since it was my parents very last day of taking care of you before you started day care. I let them watch you for the day while I took care of the cat, and got some cleaning done around the house. It is very hard to clean with you around now baby girl, since you've become really mobile, and your so fast now! We really have to watch you all the time now, and since you've gotten really good at pulling yourself up, it's time to start baby proofing!
This week has been a little quieter, with the notable exception that you started daycare this Monday. It's been a rough adjustment for us all, more for me and your father than for you I think. Monday your father felt awful after dropping you off and just leaving you there, and when I picked you up you were just miserable. They had just woken you up to get you changed and ready to go home, and you were not happy about it. Yesterday seemed to go much better, although I think your father still felt bad dropping you off, you were in a good mood when I picked you up. Today dropping you off was awful. It was the first time I dropped you off, and as soon as I handed you off you started to cry. By the time I was walking out of the room you were screaming for me, big long wailing cries that just tore me up. Walking out of that room was one of the hardest things I've done as your mom so far. I felt so guilty leaving you there, even though I know that you most likely calmed down as soon as I was gone, and being there is the best thing for you right now. Hopefully the pick up went better for your father, and the drop offs will get easier as we all get used to this.
This past week we started transitioning you to more solid foods, like cheeri.os and ripped up pancakes. You really enjoy being able to feed yourself, and it's fun to feed you the same thing that we're eating. When we gave you the pancake you ate almost two pancakes! I think the next thing I'm going to do is make you spiral spaghetti. I think you'd really like playing with the pasta, and the new shape will be fun for you.
I'm sure I'm leaving things out, there was so much that happened these past two weeks. Mostly lately, I'm just in Awe of how big you're getting, and how much you can do now. I wish I had more time with you, to enjoy every little thing you learn. My favorite thing right now is to just sit on the floor with you and watch you explore. My "Mommy Guilt" has been in high gear a lot lately. I know we're doing the best we can for you, and you really are happy and healthy, but things are so far from what my ideal would be that it's hard sometimes not to feel like I'm failing you.
I love you so much Jorie Ellen.
Dear Jorie,
It's been an incredible week. This week, you perfected sitting up and pulling yourself up to stand, and started crawling.
We had a really big snow storm on Friday this past week. The yard was covered in lots of snow! Me and your Father thought about taking you out into it, but it was so cold out, we figured we'd wait for the next big snow, which should come this weekend.
Saturday we had your Aunt Becky, Uncle Mike, and Uncle-in-law Andy over for breakfast. Wesley slept through most of it, but you were having a ball showing off your new skills.
On Sunday, your Father and I got busy, and finally put up the shelves we've been meaning to put up in your room. We also mounted the baby monitor camera on the wall, so it has a nice good view of the crib. We lowered the mattress on the crib this weekend too, since you have figured out how to pull yourself up to stand in your crib already! Your father sent me that picture of you standing up in your crib, and I just knew we were in for it from now on! you look so happy to be able to stand up, I can only imagine the trouble you're going to be getting into now!
Now that you're crawling around, me
and your Father can't leave you alone in a room, but you are definitely happier being able to get around yourself. You see that toy and you go get it! It's harder on me and your Father, because we can't leave you alone for a second to run out of the room and get something, but it's easier on us because you amuse yourself most of the time, and don't need us to be entertaining you all the time.
This week we started giving you cut up pieces of Banana and Avocado, instead of mushing them up. You enjoy trying to eat the pieces, and you do a really good job of mushing them up with your hands anyways! You had a great time and Grandma and Grandpa O's mushing the Avocado.
Monday was the 11th, which was your official 8 month birthday. I can't believe you're 8 months old already. It seems like such a big number. And you're growing so fast. I still can't believe that two weeks ago you couldn't sit yourself up, and now you're pulling yourself up and standing whenever you can.
I love you so much.
Dear Jorie,
This week flew by, as most of them tend to do these days. There was the usually running around, and this week was the Super Bowl, AND your Grandma O's Birthday on Monday!
Saturday, Your Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike and Cousin Wesley came over to visit for breakfast. Your Dad make everyone lots of pancakes! You are finally starting to be interested in Wesley, although we can't really let you play with him, since he's still so tiny!
After that we met up with Jaimee and Zetta at Cross.roads for coffee. Zetta spent the whole time wanting to be walked around, while you watched fascinated at what she was doing! You two did play a bit, although it was rough trying to keep you two from just nomming on each other!
We went over to Grandma and
Grandpa O's for the Superbowl. The Girshes (Steve and Grace) were there
as well. There was a lot of yummie food for the adults, home made chili
and jalapeno poppers and corn bread and salad and wings! Don't worry
Baby Girl, you'll get to try some next year. The game was good, although
the commercials (which historically have been why my parents watch the
super bowl) were not very good. An exciting point to remember was that
right after half time, half the lights in the stadium went out, and took
about half an hour to come back on. This meant mostly that the game ran
late and your Mom and Dad didn't get enough sleep before work on
Monday! You didn't seem too impressed with the super bowl, even though we let you watch the big screen at my Parents ( we don't normally let you watch tv. ) You were out cold before half time!
Your big tricks for this week are siting up, which you've gotten very good at. You've sat up in front of everyone now I think, it's so old hat for you! I really think you only see it as a way point to walking, which you've been working on with your Father. Another trick is backwards crawling, which you can do very well. Inevitably when we're hanging out in the living room, you scoot yourself underneath the chair. Even after we've rescued you once or twice, you will still make your way slowly backwards towards that chair, no matter which way you were facing when you started!
You're getting really close to talking I think. You babel all the time now, when you wake up in the morning, when you're in your car seat in the back of the car, when you see the puppy or kitty, basically all the time!
Today you had a booster flu shot, which you did not like at all. You got very upset after the shot, but you calmed right down when I held you close and nursed you a bit. I had the nurse weigh you while we were there, even though they weren't planning on it, you weighed 14 lbs 15.5 oz, but you had just pooped, and were still wearing the diaper, so I think that counted for the 0.5 oz. I forgot to have them measure you though, You have your next appointment on March 19th, so we'll get all your stats then.
I love you so much.
Dear Jorie,
Again, I'm late with your letter this week. I'm sorry, and I really don't have a good reason!
This week, on Wednesday you sat up by yourself for the first time. I was dropping you off at my parents house before work, and you were rolling around in the pack.n.play. Apparently you decided you wanted a toy because you rolled on your side, and pushed yourself up with your left arm. We were all so proud of you! We cheered and you laughed and smiled. You seemed very happy with yourself. You haven't really done it again, but now that we know you can, it's time to drop the crib down lower.
You've mastered the art of rolling, you can move yourself all over the room just by rolling and turning. You're getting closer to crawling, but again, you don't really seem that interested in it, except when we're trying to get you to practice. You get up on your hands and knees and you kinda wiggle back and forth. Sometimes your legs slide backwards and you end up kind of scoot/crawling backwards. The other day you wiggled yourself most of the way under the chair in the living room!
You got to see your cousin Wesley again this week, although I think you are still unimpressed by him. You did kind of grab at him a bit and try to interact with him, although he wasn't very reciprocal. I hope as you both get older you get to be good friends.
Luckily for your tired mom and dad, your sleeping has gone back to normal. You like a consistent bed time between 9:30 and 10:00, and you sleep until 6:30 or later most nights. You wake up occasionally, but only require us to find and replace the binky you can't find. But if we keep you up too late, watch out! You turn into a pumpkin after your bedtime. We stayed too late at your Grandma and Grandpa R's on Tuesday, and you were a completely fussy munchkin for the last half hour or so. Well, lesson learned little one. We won't make that mistake again!
I love you so much Jorie Bear!
Valentines day was right at the beginning of the two weeks, me and your father didn't do much for it, but you did make your dad a valentine. You helped me make a hand and foot print from you and I put a message from you to your father on it and framed it for him. We made one for each of your grandparents too. Everyone loved them! I couldn't believe how big your hand and foot looked! I'll have to do a side by side comparison of your foot print from when you were born, but man your feet look big! I think it means you're going to be tall, which will make me the shortest person in our family. 
The photo shoot (which we did the Sunday before last) was a riot. We had you, Wesley, Sienna, and even your Aunt Becky's brother Andy. Oh, and we can't forget your favorite part, there was Cake. The entire shoot came about because Your Aunt and Uncle had done a one year birthday shoot, and had bought a cake for the baby to smash. It turned out the baby was afraid of the cake, so they had a cake that needed smashing. You were more than up to the task baby girl! I think you ate a quarter of that cake before my Mommy guilt over ruled the cuteness of the photo shoot, and I called an end to the cake binging. I'm super excited to see how the pictures turned out. 
Unfortunately, the very next day the cat got very very sick. We had to take him to the emergency vet. You love your kitty so much, I'm sure if you knew what was happening you would have been very worried for him. He's much better now, but it took another trip to the regular vet, an over night stay there, and a whole lot of medicine to get him healthy again. I even had to miss work last Wednesday to take him to the vet.
This week has been a little quieter, with the notable exception that you started daycare this Monday. It's been a rough adjustment for us all, more for me and your father than for you I think. Monday your father felt awful after dropping you off and just leaving you there, and when I picked you up you were just miserable. They had just woken you up to get you changed and ready to go home, and you were not happy about it. Yesterday seemed to go much better, although I think your father still felt bad dropping you off, you were in a good mood when I picked you up. Today dropping you off was awful. It was the first time I dropped you off, and as soon as I handed you off you started to cry. By the time I was walking out of the room you were screaming for me, big long wailing cries that just tore me up. Walking out of that room was one of the hardest things I've done as your mom so far. I felt so guilty leaving you there, even though I know that you most likely calmed down as soon as I was gone, and being there is the best thing for you right now. Hopefully the pick up went better for your father, and the drop offs will get easier as we all get used to this.
This past week we started transitioning you to more solid foods, like cheeri.os and ripped up pancakes. You really enjoy being able to feed yourself, and it's fun to feed you the same thing that we're eating. When we gave you the pancake you ate almost two pancakes! I think the next thing I'm going to do is make you spiral spaghetti. I think you'd really like playing with the pasta, and the new shape will be fun for you.
