7 months, baby!

At the Highland Games Scottish Festival - Thanksgiving Point

Fun in the sun
Domnisoara Fifi - LOL

Jane is 7 months old. For her anniversary we took the traditional pictures and it was so great that David was actually home and is in some of the pictures. Since a month ago Jane has grown two teeth in the bottom front, sits up by herself for extended periods of time, cries less, has a bedtime, eats almost everything that is easy to chew (mashed potatoes, boiled carrots and rice, fruit in small pieces and Gerber puffs) and is as happy as can be. People always comment on how cute and happy she looks. She loves to dance, go on walks, smile for pictures and play with Sophie the giraffe and with Veronica, her first baby doll. Here are a couple more pictures of our beautiful baby girl.

Stylish Jane

Oh, yeah! Dancing is FUN!

Jane and photo contests

* I entered Jane's pictures in some photo contests and we also participated in a couple 'cutest baby' live contests. So far we didn't win anything. I'm not upset that she didn't win. It was fun participating.  What made me a bit upset was that they didn't think she's cute enough. Well, she is to us and many, many others so, who cares about those judges.... LOL

- On the Parents magazine website

At Red Lobster

Kid of the Year: http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/857012/40
Parents Cover Contest 2011:
http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/862560/46

- Cute baby contest in Salt Lake City

Jane's outfit

- Springville baby photo contest

Category: 6 months
By the Springville Civic Center

Mother's Day

This year I celebrated my first Mother's Day and it was wonderful. It fell on a Sunday and I was lucky that David was home and didn't have to go to work. Even though he rarely gets a day off, he watched Jane most of the day and picked up around the house a bit too. I, on the other hand got to take a looooong shower in the morning, crochet a bit and plant a few things in the little garden by our apartment. The day before David got me a crochet book and we went to Red Lobster and had a wonderful dinner. Thank you honey for a wonderful Mother's Day.

Yummy food

A bit of gardening

My new crochet book

Jane at 6 Months

It's sometimes hard to know what a baby thinks or feels but I think that parents usually figure it out, especially if they spend a lot of time with their baby.
In our case, I love how David, who works 16 hour days still understands Jane and can tell the different types of cries she has. It's mostly three types that are very prominent and easy to understand. The screaming cry that usually shows that she is experiencing some kind of pain or discomfort, the 'strained' cry that shows that she's hungry and the whiney cry that means "I'm sleepy". What I like most though is the fact that Jane tries to communicate with us her thoughts and feelings even though she is very young. I love how she shows excitement by moving her arms and legs or by smiling really big, especially when David comes home from work, or how she tells us that she's upset by scratching or biting us. I don't necessarily love the last one but I think it's cool that she figured out a way to express her feelings. The best in expressing her feelings is when she grabs our face or neck in a big hug way and then kisses us or licks us. I know then that she really loves us.
On a different note, Jane is 6 months now and life with her is getting more and more exciting every day. We watch 'Baby can read' together and she gets excited when the "Itsy bitsy spider" or the "Twinkle, twinkle little star" songs come up. She eats cereal in her milk once or twice a day and fruit/vegetable/meat purees once a day. She sits up even without support for a little bit but still falls over on her side when she gets tired. We go for walks and to the library and she really likes it - she usually falls asleep in her stroller for about 30 minutes.What Jane doesn't like is crowds and noises. Every time we are in a situation where there are many people and a lot of screaming or loud laughing she just cries and is not happy. Hopefully this will pass in time.
We went to WIC on her 6 months anniversary and she weighted 16lbs 15oz and was 26in long. She's in the 75th percentile and is very proportionate. The nutritionist was very happy with the way she's developing and growing. In a week we'll have her 6 months, well-child appointment and she'll get another round of shots. I home the doctor will be happy with her as well. She's got no teeth yet but it looks like she might be teething. After having a growth spurt last week, when she ate all the time, now she just wants to sleep, is not eating much and is pretty whiney and her lower gums feel swollen. I think it will be so cute when she'll have teeth :)
We love you, Jaynitza!

Parties!

In May we had some more partying. We did our nails and Eve was our nails expert, and we also had a ZUMBA workout and sweated all the bad stuff out. Meeting with my dear friends once a month or more often makes me really happy. I'm so thankful to have them close and to be able to hang out and have fun with them!

Beautiful nails and hands

ZUMBA fun

This pretty much sums up the party :)

Happy Easter, spring and haircut

Life in pictures

First time seating in a high chair (Cafe Rio restaurant in Provo)

First time in a shopping cart (Buy Low in Provo)

The day Jane and Mommy were really sick (April 15) - Jane slept all day

Mommy's little bunny (at Joanne's in Orem)

Dying eggs with Mommy

At the Great Cloth Diaper Change in SLC  (we help set a Guinness World Record - 63 little bums changed in Salt Lake and 10000 worldwide)

Cute outfit chosen by Daddy

With the Easter Bunny at the University Mall in Orem.
Jane liked touching her furry face and didn't cry one bit

Bunny ears are fun :)

Christos a inviat!

'My First Easter' outfit - at uncle Daniel's apartment in Provo celebrating Easter and Daniel's graduation - Easter day

Jane excited to open her gift

First time opening a gift by herself!

Cute pyjamas from aunt Terri

Jane rolling over all the way - Easter - 24 April 2011

New haircut - haven't had my hair this short since I was 10 or so :)
I love it and it's so easy to take care of and dry after a shower 

Daddy's little girl - Jane loves her Daddy

With my friend Codruta (at temple Square) - She is 7 months pregnant
I have so many friends who are due in July. So exciting. Can't wait to see all the little babies.

Easter with Momma - Christos a inviat! Adevarat a inviat! Cioc!!! 

Mommy and Daddy sleepy on Easter morning :)

I just turned five months!

Oh my goodness! I can't believe that our little Jane is five months old. She's growing up so fast. I'm excited to see her do 'big kids' things soon but I also enjoy spending every minute of the day with her and seeing her grow.

This month's been pretty good for us and for Jane. We still miss mama Lucy but we're doing ok. We talk with the grandparents and our siblings on Skype every week and they are doing ok as well. We had another party with Eni and Lia at Lia's home and made cute Easter tutus for the girls. Also, Charity, David's sister went into the Missionary Training Center on March 9 to prepare to go on a LDS mission to the California - LA mission, Spanish speaking. She's excited and writes to us every week with updates on how she's doing as a missionary.

Hermana Charity Johansen went into the MTC on March 9th

Jane and I go walking every day and we love the spring warmth and scenery, such as flowers and blooming trees. We decided to take different routes occasionally to explore and see new neighborhoods. It's fun!

Out for a walk in our neighborhood

Jane in her St. Patrick's Day outfit that she wore outside that day

We both enjoy springtime and the nice weather

A month ago I tried giving Jane more solid foods such as oats and vegetable purees but she started having diarrhea so I decided that she might not be ready. Her diarrhea is gone now. I started giving her organic brown rice in her formula and so far she's good; just a little gassy. I'll wait a week and try some puree again. I know that I need to wait a week between introducing a new food and that she needs to get used to the green vegetables first then the fruits and only after all this she can have two things mixed together. We'll see how feeding solids will work out this time... I'm not too eager to have her eat solids but she gets really hungry with just formula so, since the doctor said that it's ok, I'll try solids and see...

Here are the different milestones Jane's accomplished.

She sits up with support and for a few seconds even without support (she supports herself by leaning forward and holding herself up with her arms), she can roll-over from back to front and on her side from her back (almost going all the way to her tummy!), she 'talks' a lot with her toys and with us and sings when I sing to her, she holds her toys and if she drops them she picks them up again, she can put her binky in her mouth by herself, she occasionally sits up by herself in her stroller, laughs when she's excited, looks at us when we call her by name and is very curious about everything.

First time Jane sat up in her stroller

One of the cutest things is to see Jane so happy when David comes home from work or how she looks at me with questioning eyes when she hears something loud. I just love to see her interact with us and develop a personality (sometimes a quite strong personality) :) She knows what she wants and asks for it :) It's so cute when she sees me make her a bottle, how she waits with anticipation but if I take too long she starts screaming and pulls the bottle to her mouth eagerly when I bring it close to her face.

Jane doesn't cry as much when she's on her tummy. She can roll over now! 

No teeth yet and no sign of them either but she still drools a lot and puts everything in her mouth, including her fist or my face :)

Jane sits up with little support for a few seconds

Sleep-wise, we tried co-sleeping in the beginning and it was great when she was a tiny baby, and then we wanted to do it again just recently but it didn't work out anymore. Jane is used to feel the walls of her bassinet in her sleep and would wake up for anything and we were always careful and would wake up whenever she moved.  She's been sleeping in her bassinet for the past couple of months. For her naps, sometimes she wants to be put to sleep on the bed and falls asleep alone but most of the time she requires a bottle. I tried the CIO method once but I just can't have her scream for minutes on end and then wail in her sleep for hours. I'm here for her so I can afford to be her mom and care for her. She goes to bed at night around 1am and asks for a bottle every four to five hours by crying in her sleep. I got her to sleep for about 5 hours just by giving her the binky but she gets really hungry and wakes up early (7am) if I don't feed her. She usually sleeps until 8 or 9am, wakes up, I change her diaper, play a bit and feed her and she falls asleep for another couple of hours, then plays and eats a bit again and falls back to sleep until around 1PM. It's an interesting routine but I don't mind it too much since I need the sleep just as much as she does.

One of Jane's 5 months pictures

Another thing that I like is taking showers with her. She doesn't mind the water running on her face and doesn't cry afterwards like she used to when we gave her baths. Of course that she still takes baths in the sink sometimes but she can sit up now so it's much easier to do then before. Oh, and she loves typing on the keyboard, looking at the pictures in books, listening to music, playing bowling on the Wii in our arms and watching the 'Baby can read' video.

All ready for Easter with her tutu and stuffed animals

Here's a sample of Jane's typing: Ω®rc4zç fhjjjjjjj                  nnnnn                   kk7700  y∫      9n3638hhhn.l5nA8T116YFCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCXdeddl.,t6t6. .7`   (Isn't she smart? :) I don't even know how to make some of those characters. Hahaha)

I'm glad that, even though Jane is becoming more independent, she still loves to cuddle and play with us. We love you Janney, so much!

Four Months Already

Jane is four months old and she just had her well-child appointment. She was so good, even when the nurse gave her the two shots in her legs and one vaccine in her mouth. She didn't even cry for the first shot and the nurse was impressed that she swallowed the vaccine, unlike other babes who just spit it out. Good girl, Jane!
For her stats: Jane is now 14lb 7oz and 24.5in long - big girl
Her doctor was happy with her and congratulated us as parents for doing 'everything right'. Hooray for us!
So, what is Jane doing new this month? Well, lots of cute things! She smiles all the time, looks all around the room to find her mommy and daddy, makes lots of cute noises, sucks on her fist and drools all the time getting her bibs and clothes all wet :) sits in her Bumbo seat all by herself and loves it, reaches for toys that are not in front of her when she lyes on her gym mat, sleeps all night (goes to bed around 10PM and only cries in her sleep a couple of times through the night for some milk and doesn't wake up until 8 or 9AM) eats organic oats cereal with milk and even some yummy green beans after the doctor okey-ed it and she even laughs when something is funny, like looking at mommy's face from above or when mommy and daddy tickle or zerbert her. She is such a happy and alert little girl and we love her A LOT.

Ready to eat!

First time eating organic oats cereal

All messy

My favorite toy-blankey

Reaching for toys 

Only two shots this time!

Plastic bib this time!

First time eating green beans. Pretty tasty!