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Happy Easter!
March 23, 2008
Hope everyone had a great Easter - we sure did.
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Back from the Snow
March 12, 2008
Last Thursday we flew to Crested Butte Colorado for a 4 day visit with family friends and skiing. It is exhausting traveling with a toddler, especially one that likes to explore everything, climb over seats, and make a racket.
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It's Official: Joella Walks!
February 26, 2008
Timeline:
*February 14, 2008: Joella takes 2 shuffling steps
*February 19, 2008: Joella takes 4 steps on two occasions
*February 22, 2008: Joella practices walking all day
*February 23-24, 2008: Joella practices walking all w/end
*February 25, 2008: Joella takes 12 steps at school
She now walks more than she crawls and although she's still wobbly on her feet she's getting rather good at it. Seems she wanted to be just like Mama and start walking at 13 months. I'll try to get some video footage to post.
What a big girl!
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Day at the Zoo & More
February 20, 2008
Posted are some pictures from this past weekend, including our day at the Santa Barbara Zoo with Omi & Auntie Camille who drove up from San Francisco for the weekend.
Shout out to Bianca Mei who turns 1 today. Happy Birthday Bianca! |
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Updates to the Site...Finally
February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's everyone - I updated the site just for you. There are new photos in the 11-12mo and the 12-13 mo albums, new videos, and a new first ;)
Enjoy!
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Joella's First Year Montage
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A Year in Review
January 24, 2008
In the past year Joella has grown almost 11 inches and gained almost 17.5 pounds. She has gone from a tiny baby to an active toddler, with such a cute and bubbly personality she infects everyone around her with her charm.
At 1 year old Joella:
*stands for 5-10 seconds on her own
*crawls like a champion
*walks if someone holds her hand
*has almost 4 teeth (fangs on the top, ha ha)
*sleeps through the night
*laughs like an adult
*sings & dances with music
*loves to eat everything in sight (you better be willing to share with her around)
*continues to enjoy breastmilk
*loves to read books (flips through them at record speed)
*loves to play instruments and make noise
We're looking forward to celebrating this milestone birthday with all our family & friends this weekend. Until then, here is a sweet photo of Joella & her girlfriends Bianca & Ellie at Miss Ellie's 1st birthday party last weekend (Mamas are Ann Marie & Robin).
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Joella Turns 1 Today!
January 23, 2008
Today is Joella's first birthday! She woke up to a surprise birthday present - a toddler sized jungle gym with slide & ball pit that we put together for her last night. She had so much fun playing with her cousin Gray's that we found a similar one for her. After playing for half an hour we got ourselves ready for school/work. Photos to come soon.
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One Step Closer to Walking
Joella can stand up on her own now for up to 10 seconds. She finds it easiest to do from a sitting position (either a chair or a step). She gets super excited when she stands and starts clapping for herself.
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Happy New Year 2008!
Back to reality after a nice long vacation from work and a busy first Christmas with Joella :)
Happy 2008 to you all!
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6 Days until Christmas
We are counting down the days to Christmas - only 4 days until Daddy's birthday & Christmas with Omi (12/23), 5 days until Christmas Eve dinner at Nana & Papi's, and 6 days until Christmas!
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First Class Photo
Penguin C 2007-2008
Click photo to enlarge. Not one of the kids looks happy about being forced into this photo. Too funny if you ask me :)
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New Developments
December 10, 2007
Joella is now doing the following things:
*waving at people to say hi & bye
*clapping (especially when you sing "if you're happy and you know it...")
*dancing
*cruising along furniture
*standing up and holding on with one hand
*walking when you hold her hands
*walking while pushing a box or push toy
*singing
*laughing when you laugh
*saying "duh" for dog, "dada", "mama", "booh" for book
*talking gibberish
*yelling to get your attention instead of crying
*eating exclusively finger foods (& breastmilk) - no more jars of food
*signing "milk" and "all done"
*understanding what it means to be "gentle"
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Children's Holiday Party Fun
December 6, 2007
I meant to post on this earlier, but only just got to downloading the photos. This past weekend Amgen had their annual Children's Holiday Party. We went and met up with Joella's friend Bianca Mei and her Mama & Papa. There was a lot of decorations, children friendly food (we ate tater tots and french toast sticks for lunch), a field of snow (shipped in specially), cookie decorating, and a Santa and friends story time stage. We got a photo with Santa & Mrs. Claus :) See the photo album for more fun pictures from the event.
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No Such Luck
December 5, 2007
Last night she woke up 3 times.
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Big News
November 4, 2007
For the first time since Joella was born almost 10 1/2 months ago she slept through the entire night without getting me up. She went to sleep somewhere around 7pm and didn't wake up until after 7am! Now I'm hoping this is the beginning of a new phase of sleeping and not just a fluke - I'll keep you posted.
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Hooray for Thanksgiving
This week is a short week of work, so hooray for Thanksgiving! I haven't updated this website in a while because Joella has been sick with a pretty bad cold for a week and a half and I just haven't felt up to it, or had any new pictures to post. I do have a few now though, so here's wishing everyone here in the US a Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh, I never posted about Joella's 9 month appointment, but her stats are in the growth chart section. She has gotten taller and is still on par with her weight. Her head has also caught up to her height, and caught up in a short time period so we have a follow-up with Dr. Saul to make sure everything is okay at the end of this month. He's certain it is, but just wants to do another measurement at 10 months to see how everything looks.
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Happy Halloween!
Joella wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and show off her fantastic costume (home made by a lady selling on eBay). |
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Greetings from Oz
October 21, 2007
We've officially been in Australia for a week, and have another week to go. We've attended a wedding and an elopement reception, been for hikes on the lighthouse trail, swam in the ocean, seen humpback whales twice, and eaten delicious food including breakfasts of toast with avacado and macadamia nut butter (Joella's new favorite). The weather is gorgeous and we're having a lovely time visiting with old friends. I have a bunch of cute photos to post, so check out the 8-9 month album.
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Ride-em Cowgirl
October 9, 2007
Just three more days until Joella and I jet set off to Australia with Omi. We leave Friday night at almost midnight out of LAX and lose Saturday altogether, arriving on Sunday morning in Australia. The flight is around 14 hours, so wish us luck. I will try to post while there so you can hear all about our adventures. This past weekend we had a nice family weekend together. Here is a cute picture of Joella riding Daddy. She loves to ride on her rocking horse, on the little car at daycare, and on Daddy's back. We're hoping (well I am at least) that she'll like to ride horses when she gets older. I better start saving for that expensive hobby.
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I'm a Big Girl now!
October 5, 2007
For the past week or so Joella started to eat at the big kid table at daycare. Once babies are able to sit up on their own and show the ability to handle it, they get to eat at a short table in a short chair. I had been watching all the other kids (all between 12mo-16mo) eat at the table for months now, thinking how cute it was that they sat there like big kids eating their finger foods calmly. No children trying to get out of their seats or steal food from the kid next to them. It's all very civilized. No high chairs with binding straps necessary here!
Here is a photo of Joella eating at the table, there's a couple more in the month 9 album.
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8 Months Old
September 23, 2007
Joella is 8 months old - can you believe how quickly the time passes. She must have heard that most babies begin to crawl between 7 and 10 months because right at 7 months she decided to try it out. Within 2 weeks she was an expert crawler. Now at 8 months she does the following:
*sits up on her own
*gets herself into a sitting position
*crawls everywhere and anywhere
*pulls herself up onto her knees to play the drum
*almost pulls herself to standing
*wears size 4 diapers (almost needs size 5)
*weighs over 24 pounds
*smacks her lips together
*understands some baby signs (food, more, all done)
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Joella the Musical Prodigy
September 20, 2007
All parents want to think their children are talented, and we aren't sure what exactly Joella is going to grow up to be passionate about, but at this moment she LOVES music. She had a favorite little drum at school that I bought for her to have at home too - she loves it! See the video of her playing her drum. She also loves it when Daddy plays the guitar to her and Mama sings.
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Passport Photos...for what, you ask???
September 12, 2007
Joella and I are going to Australia next month with my mum! It's pretty last minute, but I have a good friend getting married, and another celebrating a recent elopement. When I told my mum about wanting to go, she offered to take us (she wanted to go for her 50th birthday present to herself anyway). So we'll be departing on October 12th and returning the 29th. Yippee! Bryan is jealous that he can't go, but he's committed to his friend's wedding down in Puerto Vallarta during that time (so he'll have his own fun). It's going to be a long flight, but so worth it to see my friends and introduce Joella to some special people in our lives.
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Then & Now
August 25, 2007
Almost 5 months to the day found Robin & Baby Elisabeth, Ann Marie & Baby Bianca, and me & Joella reunited at my house. We took a new photo of the six of us and Robin edited it to show us all then and now. It's amazing how much the babies have changed in 5 months. Remember Bianca was only 1 month old and the other two were only 2 months old back then.
Click the photo to see it bigger.
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This is the way we kick our legs at the YMCA
August 18, 2007
Joella started swim lessons at the YMCA this weekend, and since this is something Daddy wants to do with her, Mama and Omi went along to watch. There were only 3 babies in the class and Bryan was the only Daddy - he felt silly singing songs, but Joella LOVED it. I realized long ago that there is no being embarrased once you have a child; being silly and entertaining them takes priority over looking cool in front of strangers. Check out the video posted, it's too cute.
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I Heart Daycare
Joella really likes going to daycare which is wonderful for us. In the morning I bring her in and feed her and she doesn't nurse very well since she hears all the other babies playing and wants badly to play too. I then sit down with her on the mat and play for a little while. She has a fond liking for this drum that they have at daycare (I have to get one for home). She sits up (with my support) and bangs her two little hands on the drum making loud noise - so exciting. She loves to watch the other babies play and crawl and walk around.
Here is a photo of her on the mat. I'll also add some photos of the daycare to the month 7 album so you can see what it looks like.
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Joella's Half Birthday
July 23, 2007
Today was Joella's half birthday - she is 6 months old already, we can hardly believe it. Joella can now do the following:
Roll over in both directions
Turn her body while on her belly 360 degrees
Lift her whole upper body up using her arms
Stick her big toe in her mouth and suck on it
Squeal in delight and laugh/giggle
Say constanants - mamananababapapa noises
Sleep through the night
Eat like a champion (especially avacado)
Sit unassisted for a few seconds (she's almost there)
She's such a sweet baby and now that she's in daycare she's learning from all the bigger babies. Before we know it she'll be crawling, then learning how to walk.
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First Day of Daycare!
July 18, 2007
Today Joella started daycare at Camp Amgen. I dropped her off and fed her one last time around 8am and and 9am the teacher already called to ask about giving her her cereal early (I could hear her crying in the background - so sad). She then took a very short 30min nap. At 11am I went in to feed her to find her happily sitting in one of the teacher's laps while they sang to the kids. Then at 1pm I got another call where I could hear her crying in the background. She had had another 30min nap. She got a bottle of milk and I went back in at 3pm to feed her and snuggle her again. For Joella it will take some time getting used to the surroundings and the new faces. So far is seems that she likes to watch all the other babies play. She is the youngest in the room so all the other babies are crawling or walking already.
Check out photos from Havasu in the month 6 album.
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Heading to Havasu
May 3, 2007
Tomorrow morning really early we're heading to Lake Havasu in Arizona for a week-long vacation with Bryan's family. It's apparently 110 degrees there during the day (too hot for me!), but the evenings are absolutely gorgeous. Bryan's family house there has a great pool and backyard overlooking the lake. It should be a fun trip and we're crossing our fingers that Joella does well on the 5+ hour drive there and back.
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Omi turned 50!
Happy Birthday Sammi :)
This past Sunday we celebrated the 50th birthday of my mum Sammi/Omi. We had a afternoon pool party/potluck lunch at some friends house and it was a lovely time. My three girlfriends came into town from San Francisco for the weekend too, so it made for a wonderful weekend for Joella and me. Thanks again for coming girls! |
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Happy Father's Day!
June 17, 2007
Sunday was Bryan's day and we spent it in Santa Barbara. We had brunch with my family (here from Germany) at the most gorgeous property/mansion. After brunch we wandered State Street, shopped around, and then had a beer (that's what dads do in Germany on Father's Day). Bryan had a great day with his little munchkin. |
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Afternoon at the Beach
June 7, 2007
We went to the beach yesterday for a team building afternoon with my group at work and Joella loved the sand between her toes and the crashing waves. Here is a photo of us at Paradise Cove in Malibu. |
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Sorry it's been so long
I have slacked on keeping this site updated, but have lots of new things to post - see the videos, photos, and journal.
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Happy Mother's Day
This past Sunday I experienced my very first mother's day as a mama! Bryan, Joella and I drove to Santa Barbara to have a lovely brunch with my mum at our friends Rita & Montino's house. |
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New Developments in the Life of Joella
Our little sweetie is learning to do new things every day. In the videos section you'll find two: one of Joella rolling over, and another of her talking away. So cute. I also did a photo shoot of Joella in her favorite state - nakedness.
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And a Happy Easter it was
Bryan, Joella, and I had a lovely Easter breakfast with Nana and Papi and went to church for the Easter service. In the afternoon we headed over to the Stark's house for a wonderful dinner and a really fun time. See photos section for lots of cute pictures of Joella on Easter. Here is the happy family :)
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New Video & Photos
Joella at 10 weeks
Joella found herself staring at a little baby that seemed to look a lot like her when she was at the hair salon with me recently. She laughed (sort of a cackle - see video) and smiled for a good amount of time. Posted is some video that Bryan took and a series of cute photos (see mirror album).
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Marching for Peace
March 17, 2007
On Saturday Joella participated in her first Peace March/Rally through the streets of Santa Barbara. She was snuggled up in her Bjorn and slept the whole time even though there was a lot of noise - drummers and chanters and people with mega phones. She was totally peaceful.
Photo: Omi Sammi with Joella in the Bjorn. |
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Milestones of Growth
Joella at 4 weeks
Joella is 4 weeks old today (Feb 20) and on Sunday we weighed her and she was already 10lbs. That means she gained 2.5lbs in only 4 weeks. Every day she is becoming more alert and aware and she actually focuses on your face now and is very close to smiling purposefully. We love her to bits. Next week we go to the pediatrician again so we'll update the height and weight section with true numbers (but I wouldn't be surprised if she was close to 11lbs). Here's a photo of Joella lifting her head up high on her tummy time mat.
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Photos of our Sweetie
We have finally calmed down on the photo taking - we took over 100 in Joella's first week of life. I started a new album for her first month of life, starting at 8 days old.
We hope you are enjoying getting to know our little sweetie from a distance.
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Baby Joella has arrived
Joella Lorelei Denove arrived on January 23 at 3:53 am, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz, 19 3/4 inches long.
Mom, Dad and baby are well - let the journey continue.....
Photos are available in the Baby Joella photo album!
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63 days .
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