What a week it has been!

Gosh, this past week has been strenuous to say the very least. It started off on Sunday the 20th with Daisy, my miniature dachshund, becoming paralyzed in her back legs. So after an emergency trip to the vet, she had to have surgery to remove the ruptured disk from her back. So since then it has been an uphill battle. We took her home that Wednesday only to bring her back 4 times for various reasons, but thankfully now she is doing much much better! She is still not walking but she can stand on her own for a few seconds at a time so that is a huge improvement! Each day we have to take her out to do her exercises to make sure her leg muscles stay strong for when she actually can walk. The doctors say it could be a month or so before she's up and walking, so we've got a long road ahead but she's worth it!

Here's daisy the day we brought her home from surgery.

On a much happier note, Jolie turned 5 months old yesterday! I can hardly believe it. The time has literally flown by. We're back on a more "normal" schedule now too. For a while there she wasn't waking up til late in the morning and going to bed late at night but we seem to have worked through it all and she's doing a lot better with sleeping through the night. She's also teething (or so we think)! Everything goes in her mouth now, fingers, toes, my glasses, hair. Anything she can find she instantly puts them to her mouth. Lately though she's started to fuss at night and the only thing that seems to soothe her is a little dab of baby orajel and then her vibrating gum massager/toothbrush that I got for her for Christmas (hey, what did you expect, I'm a dental hygienist! :] ) Anyhow she actually loves "brushing her teeth" she'll even take the toothbrush from my hand and do it all by herself. It truly is amazing, I even have it on video! I'm hoping those little teeth will sprout through sooner than later because it kills me to hear her cry. Talking has also become one of her favorite things to do. She has this amazingly high pitched screech that I call her teradactyl noise. She's happy when she makes the noises so we just let her carry on. My mom and & were out to dinner earlier this month and she was just screaching away. People started looking at her but you could see she had a huge smile on her face so I didn't want to shush her so we just let her carry on. :) Jolie has also been laughing a lot. Sometimes she makes this laughing/crying noise but she's figuring it all out. Now she can actually make the noises she wants to, when she wants to, so it really is amazing to hear and see her in action. I thought for sure I would want Jolie to stay a "baby" forever. Each day though as she's able to do more and more things it's so rewarding that I almost can't wait to see what she'll do next. She'll raise her arms up when she wants to be picked up. I say she gives hugs and kisses too when you do pick her up, but that could just be me, haha Here are a few pictures to recap the last couple of months!
Eating cereal like a big girl!

Bath time!

Her fancy new bath robe!

Tim, Jolie, & I on Thanksgiving

In her stroller about to have her picture taken with Santa

Grammy & Jolie all bundled up!

Happy New Year!

Praying mom will take this hat off my head!

Our first blog!

Well I've decided to make a blog to keep our family and friends updated on our little family's progress and activities throughout the year! I hope I'll be able to post at least once a week with updates on Jolie! I hope everyone enjoys hearing about how Jolie's growing as much as we love watching her get bigger by the day!



Let's see. Where do I begin? Two days after Christmas, Joe and I took Jolie for her 4 month well check up. We knew she was getting big but we had no idea she'd be 15lbs 1oz and 25 1/2 inches long! Such a long way from her 7.1lb 20inch start she had when she was born! Jolie had to have 4 shots and 1 oral medication that day. After the shock of the first pinch wore off she was in full-on crying mode. Luckily the nurse was super fast and it was all over with and bandaids on within 15seconds. It breaks my heart hearing her cry though. Everyone is right when they say you can tell the difference between the hungry cries and the hurting cries. No parent wants to hear their baby hurting so I was so relieved when Jolie calmed down after a minute or two. After her shots at 2 months I learned a few tricks to help calm her back down and they seemed to work for the most part!
Since that day, Jolie started out on "solid foods". I have been exclusively breastfeeding Jolie so this was a big step! We started out with rice cereal. I think when I have told people she's eating cereal now they get the picture that I'm feeding her cheerios or something but it's really just mush. Anyhow, Jolie really loves her cereal. Her first feeding it seemed like she couldn't get enough! We've since incorporated sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and bananas (not all at once, of course) into her cereal and so far no problems/allergies! I did get a face-full of carrots when she decided to blow bubbles in the middle of her feeding but other than that she has really been doing great.
Each day it seems like she can do more and more things. I am so glad my parents gave us a DVD camcorder for Christmas so we can record all her "firsts", especially since she seems to be doing something new everyday! Jolie has been able to roll over from her tummy to her back for a while now and in the last month she's mastered rolling from her back to her tummy! I think the first time she did it she shocked herself! She had this look on her face like oh my! what just happened?! You can almost hear the wheels turning in her head as she discovers new things or realizes what she's capable of. I'm positive that she's going to be up and moving sooner than later too! She absolutely hates laying down now. As soon as you lay her down she is lifitng up her head doing what looks like mini crunches to try to sit herself up. A couple of times she has actually managed to sit herself straight up in her bouncer seat, which surprised not only herself but us as well!
I truly thank God everyday that He has blessed us with such a healthy, beautiful little girl. Every morning when I wake up I love looking over at her and seeing her smiling face. It truly melts my heart each and every time. Well the snow is starting to fall & I'm going to get out the camcorder and record Jolie's first snowfall! I'll post some more pictures later as soon as I figure this whole blog thing out!