I took Joella into the bathtub this morning for the first time since she lost her umbilical stump yesterday.  She loved the feeling of the warm water on her body, especially when I let her body float in the water.  She spent a few hours after that sleeping so the bath did her good :)

Today Joella smiled at me on purpose.  She had been half smiling over the weekend as she slept, but today she looked at me and grinned.  Later she did the same for Bryan.

Today while at the pediatrician Joella shed her first tear while crying.  Her tear ducts are now mature it seems and she will start to have tears.

She has been smiling for a while now, but she let out a little laugh for the first time.  She also squeals in delight too (especially when you make silly faces at her).

Joella while smiling and laughing also now let's out little noises and coos, her way of talking to us.  Before now she only grunted and cried.

Joella rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time.  She's been making it from her back to her side for some time now but never all the way over (see video).

Joella is a big baby for her age, and she nurses a lot of times during the day.  The pediatrician said she's fine to wait until after 6 months to start food, but if she nurses more than 6 times a day we could start with rice cereal.  We now feed her a small bowl of rice cereal mixed with breast milk at night.  She LOVES it and it helps her sleep better too.

Joella loves the water!  This past weekend she went in the pool three times and couldn't get enough of it.  She even got dunked all the way under  by her daddy who can't wait to teach her to swim.

I woke up at 6am this morning with a feeling of shock...had I not heard my baby cry, was I a bad mama?  No, she had just slept through the night.  Usually she is up 2 times a night, lately around 12:30-1am and around 3-3:30am.  At the second wake up I bring her into bed with me.  Last night she slept all night in her crib!  I got her at 6:15am cause my boobs were so full and hurt (and I wanted a cuddle before I got up for work), but even then she sleepy-nursed and slept all the way until 7:30am.  Let's hope this trend continues :)

Tonight after her bath, Joella was playing on the floor in her room.  Bryan was on one side of her and I was sitting in my rocker on the other side of the room.  There were also fun stacking cup toys scattered on the ground.  Joella turned not one full rotation, but two rotations of 360 degrees pivoting on her belly.  She used both her arms and legs to do this and it blew us away.  She has also started rocking on her hands and knees, so crawling is not far off!

Joella got thrush in her mouth and needs to be given medicine for the first time in her little life.  She likes the taste of it very much (cherry/mint), so it's not too painful seeing her having to take medicine.

Ta-da, Joella can now sit on her own for quite a while.  She does end up getting distracted at some point and tipping over (see video).

Yep, she finally made the move from bouncing on her hands and knees to actually moving her whole body forward on her hands and knees.  It's not all that graceful yet, but she made it 3 feet towards the tv remote and also crawled towards Kenji.  Time to baby proof the house!

At daycare Joella pulled herself into a sitting position for the first time.  Now they can start to sit her on her bottom when they put her down to play.  She also gets to sit in the little wooden chairs at the little table in daycare to eat (before she had to sit on someone's lap as they don't have high chairs there).

We stopped by Nana & Papi's house on the way to Bryan's volleyball game and Joella crawled over to the couch, pulled herself up to her knees (which she has been doing for a couple of weeks) and then all the way up to her feet!  She now pulls herself up to standing on almost everything.

We figured Joella would be a late teether, with her Daddy not getting his until 10 months, and Mama not having her first until 8 months.  Well here she is, a week past being 8 months old and her first little tooth has broken through the gums.  It's her bottom left tooth, and so far she hasn't been drooling, no crying, no fever, and no other symptoms.  I hope all of her teething experiences go this smoothly.

This weekend Joella starting clapping.  She was so pleased with herself that every time she would spontaneously clap she would look around at us with a huge grin on her face.