Here's Jo's "friendly" fall costume. I didn't know what First Baptist's daycare was referring to as "friendly" and a Baptist friend of mine told me as long as she didn't go as a witch or a devil, she was fine. Pumpkin, apparently, is friendly. Here's Jo sitting in her costume. We're probably going to put her in some black sweatpants and a long sleeved black shirt that she has. And she won't wear the bib... but, you get the idea. This is just such a funny picture!

This picture reminds me of "fat guy in a little coat." Wonder why?

This was the day of the Georgia Tech game. Jo had on an MSU shirt, but you can't see it because of the bib. She was rooting - hard! Oh well.

She and Daddy did try to listen to the game to make sure they weren't missing anything! I think this is so cute. It looks like she's listening intently, but, really, she's just trying to reach for the mp3 player.

She tries to stand, but falls over most of the time! I think this picture is sweet though.

My birthday's in two and a half weeks. Chip's getting ready for that now. Wonder what he'll get me...

And since my birthday's coming up, we all know Christmas is right around the corner. Seems like we're frantically making plans. We have over 8 weeks. If I can teach the Civil War and Reconstruction in 8 weeks, I think our family can plan a Christmas get together! :) Looking forward to seeing everyone... for my birthday AND for Christmas!

Octibbidy.

These past few weeks have gone by VERY quickly. Chip and I both have a head cold (mine's spreading into my chest) and poor Jo was the only one who felt well this past weekend. But she's going through a growth spurt, so she's up a couple times at night to eat.

She's started eating real food at daycare. Yesterday I sent her with sweet peas and I told Mrs. Susan good luck. I think sweet peas are DISGUSTING! Jo ate all of them. She's SO Chip's baby.

We've had such a busy week at school. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow in the morning we've been doing MCT2 style testing. It's thrown our schedule off, which has been challenging, but we've got to do what we've got to do. The school district hired a new PEAK teacher and they gave her my PEAK class and gave me some VIVA art kids. It's been hard to lose my kids, but I can only do so much.

The musical is getting underway. We're having an interest meeting next Thursday. I can't believe it's here already!!! OH MY GOSH!!! Life is going to FLY by the next few months. I know it.

Thursday night we're having birthday parties for all of our "Octibbidy" birthdays. It'll be fun to take Jo up to Tupelo and show her off. Papa John's seen her most recently -but she's trying to sit up now and Chip's been putting her on her belly and watching her try to scoot around. What a mess! I gave her applesauce yesterday - she HATED it. Chip thought she was going to throw up. Poor thing.

Well... I just felt like I should update the blog... it's been a little while. I'm still alive!!!

Jo's First MSU Game

Well, I guess we picked a good game for Jo to go to. It was the LSU game and, although we didn't win, it was a really good football game - not like the usual clobbering that we receive from LSU. Here she is with Papa John. Winnie and Papa John got to pass her around a little bit during the game. She was quite entertained with Winnie's phone and her glasses case. She had a wonderful time watching people and was in a really good mood - despite all of the rain that morning. We were soaked... she was pretty dry.

She just hung out. We got a lot of compliments from people sitting around us about how good she was. She was wonderful. She loves being outside and LOVES being around people.

I was worried about what we'd do when naptime came around. Chip tried to get her to nap in his lap, but Jo wouldn't take it. I held her and kept the pacifier in and she went right to sleep. That child slept through touchdowns and interceptions. Even with the crowd yelling, cheering, and ringing their cowbells. She slept through most of the 2nd quarter and she woke up right before half time.

She was a trooper that day. She went to the game, sat through the weather, napped through the cheers, and then went to Old Venice and let us eat a nice dinner. We are so lucky! (I promise, she's not that patient at home...)

Well. One nine weeks will be over next week. It seems like school just started and we're already 1/4 of the way through. Amazing.

MSU, sitting, and more...

One of my friends at school brought me her son's seat because he's walking now. We're trying it out on Jo to see how she likes it. She likes it ok, but she's just not convinced. To be honest, she does pretty well sitting and playing by herself. She'll tump over every once in a while, but she can sit by herself some!Chip was feeding the baby the other night and she fell asleep. Sweet things. I love it when babies fall asleep on you!

She's had a cold here the last few days, but it really hasn't affected her too much. She's so funny!

This was Chip the other day holding his two babies. Jo's trying to hide her face and Stella's trying to lick it. They love each other. Up until now, Stella's been pretty much the winner - getting her licks in when she wants. Now, Jo's learned how to reach out, grab, and PULL Stella's ears. Stella does not like that at all!

Jo in her MSU outfit. She wore it to our first football game vs. Jackson State. It was a "Maroon Out." They had MSU day at daycare too - this was also her outfit. She has other MSU stuff, but none of it fits yet. And she's also got a maroon bow - but I think we'll have to wait a while longer until some hair comes in. She's finally lost all her newborn hair.

That's our chunky baby! She's getting SO big and she's eating veggies and fruits now. She prefers veggies, but I've tried to get her to like bananas and peaches. No go. She really really liked sweet potatoes. Mmmm Mmm.

Wallpaper

I made a new wallpaper for my desktop background. I'm attaching it to this post. If you click on it, you can see the new collage of baby Jo. I have brand new pictures of the baby in her MSU outfit, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet. I'll have to remember to do it this week.

We had a wonderful week this week. It was quite full. Chip took Wednesday off to meet a plumber at our house to fix a leak (it was an easy fix, thank goodness). Friday we met some friends from work after school and hung out and for dinner Chip's best friend (who lives in Kansas) met us at the Grill with his girlfriend, Aimee, and her daughter, Makaiya. We had a wonderful Friday night.

Saturday we got up early (even earlier than the baby) and woke her up to go eat breakfast at City Bagel. We stopped by the farmer's market that they've started and looked around, but I was not in the mood to spend any more money - so we came home empty handed. It's a kind of neat thing for a Saturday morning though.

Saturday around lunch we went up to campus to walk around and show baby Jo the tailgating scene. It was SO HUMID though. I did not enjoy it, but she had a good time. I think the heat took a lot out of her because she slept almost the rest of the day. We got to see the Jackson State band on our way back to the car - she was not too impressed. I think she was on "sensory overload." We came home and watched the game on the TV - thank goodness MSU won. Chip's parents came over after the game and we ate pizza together. We were really glad to see them and thankful they got to come over.

Don't know what the rest of the weekend has in store, but we're having a relaxing 3 day weekend. I'm telling you, I could go teach on Monday. Normally by this time in the year I'm worn out and I need that extra day, but this year is going so well I'm sad when the weekend rolls around.

Jo's started to reach for stuff now. I gave her my rings the other day and she reached out to grab them... and then tried to stick them in her mouth! She's most interested in the remote and will almost fight you for it when you're trying to change the channel. She's getting SO BIG and she's so much fun! We're having a great time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Baby Jo!

Mom wanted to see some more pics of the baby... here she is!!!

I think this was last Saturday morning. Jo and I and Stella were all too comfy on the couch and Chip had to capture it on camera. Excuse the glasses, pjs, and bed head.

We took this picture today. If I look tired, it's because I am! School is wonderful, but it's exhausting. And today I went to WalMart and Kroger after school. Ugh.

It's baby Jo's 5th month birthday. I am having such a great time with her. She's becoming so much more fun to be around. She loves day care and is still adjusting somewhat, but she's doing so well. This is the beginning of her 4th week in day care. They do art projects with them and schedule activities. Some days her activities are Bible stories, others are music-based, and sometimes their activities are "bubbles." Here's my first art project from my daughter. I'm laminating it tomorrow at school and putting it up by my desk. Definitely a future artist... I can tell! (Just kidding...)

She's started to eat baby food now. We started her on bananas and she gags when she eats them. I moved her to peaches when she finished her round of bananas and she gagged on those too. I'm with her. Baby food is nasty. I think the only thing that is excited is Stella. She gets to clean up!

I took a short video the other day of Jo laughing. Chip can really get her going, but if I take a really long video, I'm sitting here for hours trying to get it to upload. Anyway... here's the baby...

Lovely Baby

Jo with Mommy... she's so sweet!

I still say that Jo looks like her daddy... and this is why! Aren't they so cute together???

Ahhhh ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!! She's recently started squealing with delight. It's hilarious. This isn't the best example, but I'm quickly learning that as soon as a child does something worth capturing on video, they'll stop doing is as soon as you get the camera. :)