birthday and deer in the road

On my birthday, Jason, Joanna, Big Momma, and I went to Gatlinburg. Big Momma treated us all to a nice lunch and a visit to the Aquarium.

Joanna pointed at all the fishes and ran around the activity area and interacted with most of the displays. If it had a button, she pushed it. If she could climb or step on it, she was on it. She weaved in and out of the crowd with a precision of a skilled race car driver. I was in sheer amazement at her speed. I must have looked silly bent halfway over, trailing behind her with outstretched arms. We were quite the spectacle, I'm sure.

We were all exhausted at the end of the trip. Joanna fell asleep near the end of the tour. We finished close enough to dusk that we decided to delay our departure shortly so we could see the lights. We were all hungry and tired, so the Chic-fil-A drive thru was a beautiful sight. Joanna got a chicken nugget and we all enjoyed dinner without engaging our feet.

We stopped in a souvenir shop for more fun. Joanna hugged a giant bear and Big Momma bought her some tiny moccasins and a shake-rattle thingo. Daddy deposited Joanna on a big pile of stuffed grizzly bears. Joanna was in heaven. One not so funny toy was a sweet, cuddly bear puppet that growled a really mean, authentic growl when a button was pressed. Yikes!

I think this is the best birthday ever in my recollection of birthdays. Well, second only to my first birthday ever, courtesy also of Big Momma. Thanks Big Momma!

On our way home we came close to colliding with a car stopping in the middle of the road to rubberneck at a injured deer and car in the other lane. Goodness gracious. We called Emergency and let them know about the accident.

Gym-going

I've officially joined a gym and I've been going for over two weeks. Yay for me. I get up early and attend an exercise class at and return home before anyone is awake. So far, Joanna has slept soundly through the whole think and never realized my absence. :-) There has been only one day that she woke up right as I would need to leave, and therefore, I did not go. I haven't been to the Monday a.m. class, yet. I'm looking forward to attempting that feat next week.

I decided to join two days after the presidential election. I had to find something new to do besides follow politics with an obsessive frenzy. I realized that I did all I could do there.

I heard part of a news broadcast that said there is a rise in gym memberships before the holidays this year. Usually there is a decline at the end of the year and a peak at the beginning. I guess I'm a part of that increase. Why not start now?

Joanna After Eating Birthday Cake

Joanna's Granny sent this cute photo, taken on Joanna's 1st birthday. Big Mama is holding Joanna.

 

 

Joanna span in circles

This morning, Joanna span in circles as her piano toy played music. Awww!

Songs for Joanna

These are songs I made up for Joanna.

Diaper Time

Diaper time, it's diaper time.
Everybody knows it's diaper time.
Diaper time, it's diaper time.
Joanna knows it's diaper time.


Get Dressed

What do we do when we get up? We get dressed!
What do we do when we get up? We get dressed!
We get dressed! We get dressed!
We get dressed for success!


Cozy in the Bed

Cozy in the bed with Momma.
Cozy in the bed with Baby.
Cozy in the bed with Daddy.
Cozy in the bed til' mornin'.

(or Cozy in the bed all night long.)
(or Cozy in the bed for nap time.)

Cozy in the nest with birdies.
Cozy in a cave with bears.
Cozy in a tree with squirrels.
Cozy in a bed with you and me.

Joanna's 1st Birthday Party

Joanna had her first birthday party, although she slept through part of it!
She went down for her afternoon nap just a few minutes before her guests arrived.
We all visited and ate lunch before the birthday girl woke up and joined us.
She was very happy to see everyone.

For another first, Joanna's new buddy Kadan puckered up and gave her several smooches right when they first met. It was so cute. We were surprised to see that he did it the first time and we asked him to do it again to get a picture. It was hilarious because he just kept giving her little baby sugars.

Here is a video of our singing "Happy Birthday" to Joanna.





Later, we sat down and opened some presents. Of course, Joanna enjoyed playing with the paper and the boxes, but she got pretty excited about some of the toys too!

A special thank-you to everyone who attended and made this first birthday very special!
We are so blessed to have a great extended family and wonderful friends.

Joanna Started Crawling

Joanna started crawling a few crawl-strides at a time around June 18,
2008. On June 21, she broke out in a full crawl on the tile floor of our
vacation apartment. It seemed natural for her and within the week she was
pulling up to standing on things and beginning to cruise. She even crawled
up the whole flight of stairs, with Jason attending to her.