Being Silly

Jocelyn waving "hi" as I took the picture.

Jocelyn is such a silly girl sometimes. She has fun just hanging out on the couch and talking/singing. She also thought it was funny how I was taking a picture of her upside down. Jocelyn makes me smile and laugh everyday I am with her. She has such a sweet spirit and I love her very much.

Getting So BIG!

I took this picture of Jocelyn one morning when I realized how big she has gotten! This girl is growing up so fast and I can't believe I am going to have another one.

Eating All By Myself

I made Jocelyn a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, and usually she eats about half of it. This time, I decided to cut it up into little pieces for Jocelyn to eat with a fork. It was her first time ever feeding herself for the whole meal and finishing it! She even wanted more afterward.

Jocelyn about to take her last bite!

Taking her last bite...

... and carefully putting her fork down after taking her last bite.

Jocelyn getting a drink of water/juice.

Jocelyn looking at mommy and smiling because I caught her eating up the crumbs on her tray!

After lunch, Jocelyn played with her stroller she got from Lauren for her 1st birthday. She didn't use to play with it much, but lately she has discovered how fun it can be... especially having a purse and pushing it at the same time like Mama does. She wanted me to help her get the purse and put it on her shoulder. Just to show that kids are always watching what their parents are doing.

Jocelyn waving "bye bye" to mama.

Our Evening Walk

Usually after dinner if we have time, we take Jocelyn out for a walk and sometimes we bring her out to the swings. She loves the swings and gets extremely excited when we tell her where we are going. The hardest part is taking her away from the swings. She cries and wines, but once we distract her with something else, like a squirrel or a bird, she usually fine. We love how the weather is nice here and we get to go out in the evenings.

While we were swinging Jocelyn, Jacob noticed a praying mantis on top of the swing set. Of course Jacob noticed it since he is so tall... and I had him take a picture of it. It was cool seeing a real praying mantis and how it moves. We saw a segment on animal planet on how a praying mantis sways back and forth while it moves and it was amazing to actually witness it in person... I know, I know... we're nerds.

Jumping

Jocelyn has discovered the fun in jumping. She loves to jump with the help of Jacob or me. These pictures were taken when we went out for a walk around the engineering buildings on campus. She had lots of fun jumping from one bench to the other with the help of Baba and didn't want to leave. It was nice getting to go out for a walk and I can't believe how big this little girl is getting!

Breakfast

Jocelyn eats so much in the morning. She has her normal 1/8 cup quick oats with 1/4 cup water cooked in the microwave, and then half of a banana that is mashed in to the oatmeal to give it more flavor. After she eats all of that we let her munch on either Cheerios or Kix cereal. These are pictures from one morning when she discovered how the Kix cereal sticks to her fingers. She is so goofy. Even after eating the oatmeal with banana and some cereal, she still wants more. Keep in mind she also drinks a cup of milk too with her breakfast. AND if we are eating while she is eating, she will eat some of our breakfast too... in addition to hers! Oh Jocelyn...

Jacob's Trip to Arizona

I found out during the week that Jacob was going to head to Arizona for the weekend to see his dad. Jocelyn and I were not able to go, but we decided to take pictures and make a card for Jacob to bring to his dad. It was fun taking pictures with Jocelyn.

Jocelyn and I were able to have fun at home while Jacob was gone. I sometimes put Jocelyn down on the couch after her nap and let her wake up a little. I caught her just laying there on the couch making funny noises. It was pretty funny... that silly girl!

Jocelyn also loves to play on with our keyboard. I let her play on it while I get ready for the day. She loves to dance to the beat of the music. She can also make the keyboard make different sounds and make it play different music too. I'm thinking she is going to grow up to be a musician.

Jacob with his dad and family at the hospital in Arizona. Many thanks to his sister Val for making it possible for Jacob fly down to see his dad. Jacob had a great time surprising his parents and I was so happy that he was able to go see them.

BUGS!!!!!!

I hate bugs... and lately there are bugs all over the entrance of our building!!! They fly too! I had Jacob run out to take a couple of pictures for me. He is so brave!
Jacob searched to see what kind of bug this is and it turns out to be the western conifer seed bug! It turns out that they are harmless, but I still don't like them hanging out on the door to the entrance of our building. Hopefully the housing pest control people can come soon to take care of these bugs. I don't like going out anymore because these bugs seem to always fly and land on me and only me when I go out! Jocelyn and Jacob thinks it's funny that I run out the entrance because I am scared of the bugs...

Argh! He got me again!

Okay, Jacob got me again... I guess I'm not too hard to scare/surprise me according to Jacob. Well it was Friday and I had cooking club and I get home around 3 PM and wasn't expecting Jacob to come home until after his demo, which was around 3:30 PM. After coming home from cooking club I started to open the window blinds in the kitchen and at first I didn't see our car parked outside. Then I remembered that I had parked in a different spot and looked there, but I didn't see it there either! I was so worried and thought that for some reason the car got towed. So I called Jacob and told him that the car was gone, but luckily Jacob said that he took the car really fast to get some stuff for his class and would be home shortly. Of course I believed him and was relieved that the car was not towed. Well Jacob came home and surprised me with flowers! They are so pretty and I love the fall colored flowers. I love Jacob and he is so sweet and thoughtful! I am so lucky to be married to him =).
Jocelyn loved the flowers too. I gave her a flower to play with and then I put it in her hair and she loved it. She was staring in the mirror with a big smile on her face while pointing to the flower in her hair. She is such a cutie!

Scared Me

Every Friday I take Jocelyn with me to cooking club. Cooking club is from 2-3 PM and Jocelyn loves to come with me because she likes to watch people cook and bake. When we were coming through the front door, Jocelyn was starting to fuss so I told her that I would get her a snack and let her watch Arthur. Well I quickly put her down on the couch and went to close the front door. While I went to close the door, she kept saying "baba, baba, baba." I was wondering why she would say "baba" when I knew that he was not at home and was at school studying. So I turned around and told her that baba was at school and not home, but she kept on saying it. I looked toward the direction she was looking and let out a scream... at first I thought I was imagining it, but it was JACOB standing our apartment! He totally scared me! I was not expecting Jacob to be standing there because he told me he would be at school studying until 5:30. Although he scared me, it was nice having him home... even though it would mean he would be studying at home.

Bath Time

While bathing Jocelyn, we noticed how long her hair was getting and decided it would be fun to play around with it. I remember when I was little my brothers would give me a bath and make a shark fin out of my hair... well Jacob made a shark fin with Jocelyn's hair and she thought it was so funny.

I made a hooded towel to wrap Jocelyn in! After seeing my nieces and nephew in hooded towels, I knew that I wanted to make one for Jocelyn too. Lauren (my sister-in-law) taught me how to make it. It is really easy to make. All you need is a bath towel and a hand towel. I think Jocelyn looks so cute when I wrap her in her towel.

Thomas Dance Party

On Saturday we cleared our living room to play some music and dance. We found out just how much Jocelyn loves music and dancing. She had a blast and even has her own signature dance move (putting her hands together and waving them up and down). She would not let Mama stop even for a moment to rest. She also threw a fit when we were too tired to keep dancing with her! She's an animal!

Saying "xie xie" (Thank You)

We have been trying to teach Jocelyn how to say thank you and she has been catching on pretty quickly. Today when I was driving home from church, Jocelyn dropped her sippy cup and she asked me to get it for her. When I handed it back to her she said on her own in the sweetest voice "xie xie." It was so cute. Then tonight Jocelyn made Jacob and I both laugh when she was taking a bath:

Jacob: "Jocelyn yao bu yao qu ma ma?" ("do you want to go to mommy?" I usually catch her and dry her off after her bath)
Jocelyn: "no... no..." (while shaking her head)
Jacob: "hao, rang Jocelyn wan yi xia" ("Okay, let Jocelyn play a little bit longer")
Jocelyn: "xie xie" ("thank you")

Jocelyn just amazes us and we feel like she is growing up so fast. This is one of the reasons why I want to start blogging. So I can write things down, and hopefully be better at this than keeping a journal. Anyway, Jocelyn makes me smile everyday and she makes it so worth being a mommy! I love my little family.

Full of Surprises

This girl was just full of surprises on Monday. Since it was a Monday, we had playgroup scheduled. Jocelyn was a lot more outgoing this time compared to the first time. She wasn't scared to go off and play with the toys by herself. She still doesn't really "play" with other kids. She does sometimes share... which is good. Anyway, there was this baby next to her that was about 10 months and the baby started to cough. Jocelyn... being the great girl she is... saw that the baby was coughing and started to pat the baby on its back (softly). It was cute to see her do that. She does it to us and herself too when we cough, sneeze, or burp.

It was also a cooler day so I decided to put her in long sleeves and pants. It has been awhile since she last wore long sleeves. So the whole day she has been looking at and checking out her sleeves. She even tried putting it in her mouth. The most funny part was when I went in to get her after her nap and found one arm out and through the neck of the shirt! She definitely surprised me and I thought it was funny... I'm not sure if she meant to do that or not. Anyway, Jocelyn thought it was funny too. We both laughed and I took pictures.

While I was getting ready on Monday, I had Jocelyn playing with legos in her room. Then I hear "Mama... mama..." She does that quiet often so I didn't think much of it and just responded with, "Jocelyn..." Then I hear her saying it again, "Mama... mama..." and she walks into the bathroom proudly presenting the little tower she made out of her legos! It was my first time ever seeing her put that many together. She looked so proud of herself... it was so cute! She definitely made my morning that day!

Last Saturday Jocelyn thought it was a good idea to color on the walls instead of the paper. I was getting dinner ready and thought that Jacob was in the room with her. After we took the crayon away from her, Jacob and I told her "no" and pointed to the wall. I still haven't cleaned the walls yet and everyday Jocelyn is in her room and sees the marks on the wall she tells herself "no, no... no, no." I think it's cute that Jocelyn does that... but I think I will clean the walls today.