One.One Year

 1.1 Year

• We celebrated Halloween this month. Maggie convinced me to get you a kangaroo costume with you being our little Joey. I was nervous that you were just going to rip the whole thing off in two minutes, but you ended up really liking it. It kept you warm while we went out that night to trick o treat. 
• You are standing so much this month. When Mille first told me that you stood up, I didn't believe her because she treats everything you do like it is a major milestone. Then later that night, you were holding onto my leg when you let go and straighten up. Since then, you have stand up so many times. You love sitting on the step down in the livingroom and going and down with sitting. 
• Dad and I have been working on getting you to walk, so we started the chocolate chip game with you. We will pass you back and forth (really it is holding onto our finger and then you falling into the other's lap). You get a chocolate chip for trying. You love the game. Your big siblings will get involved and try to play with you.
• You have been going back to waking up around 5/5:30 each morning to have a bottle of milk and then you will go back to sleep. It's not my favorite thing. I don't know what to do to get you back to sleeping through the night. Naps are hard, because days you want to go down for a nap around 10 but then you will have a hard time going for a second. I don't really know how to schedule my day, so good thing most things are canceled with COVID so we can have flexible days.
• You are still a big mess maker. You rarely play with toys. You do love exploring places and pulling things out of drawers. You keep getting into my side table and pulling out the Christmas cards. A few people will end up with crumpled photos.

One Year

 One Year

Oh my goodness! How has a year gone by so fast. I have a tradition that on birthdays, instead of making a list of your milestones and funny moments, I like to take a moment and write you a love letter. I really love you. I know I tease that Dad had to beg for the last two, but really, you are exactly what our family needed. 

You bring goofiness. Whenever I try to get you to say "mama", you will say "papa" and then laugh at me, every time. 

You bring strength. When you want something, you will crawl over three laps, belly flop over a pill, scale the side of the couch, climb up onto the table, just to get a book that you know you aren't suppose to have. I will take the book away from you and then the process starts all over to reach the other table for another book. 

You bring extra love. When you wake up in the mornings, you love to cuddle up, drink a bottle milk, and then snuggle for another 15 minutes, most of the time, falling right back asleep  for another hour or so. 

You bring messes. Oh the messes. I just ordered more baby locks because you love to get into the cabinets and create chaos. I found you had dumped the bucket of oxyclean all over you. You love to suck on my tampons (still in the wrapper, thank goodness), and rummage for leftovers in the trash can. I was playing a game with you the other day. I was putting all the shapes into the shape sorter toy. Once I did them all, you ripped off the lid, each them one at a time, and threw them one your shoulders. That was the game. We played about 20 rounds of it. You love making messes. 

You bring laughter. All the kids adore you and you adore them. I love finding out what makes people laugh. At the dinner table, you kept putting your feet on the table as you ate a dinner roll just because Sam was cracking up over it. When Dad is wrestling with the big kids, you crawl right on over because that is where the laughter is and you want to be a part of it. 

You bring so much into our family. I know what our family was like without you, but to tell you the truth, you add so much more to our family that I would never go back. My love for you is bursting from me that I want to literally squeeze you and eat your cheeks off. I have been bale to hold off for this long, so I think you are safe. I am sad to see you leave the baby stage and become more of a toddler. At the same time, I am so excited to see where you will go in life. 

Love Always,

Mom

Eleven Months

 11 Months

• This picture is a week late because on the day that you turned 11 months, you were so fussy, you refuse to let me sit you in the chair by yourself. It turns out that you were cutting your second top tooth. This happened last time. You get a runny nose when cutting a tooth, but your ears must be really narrow because it then turns into an ear infection. We were leaving in a few days for South Dakota, so we got you medicine right away, since last time it ended up with a ruptured ear drum. 
• You are wanting to stand and cruise! Once you realized that there is some benefit to being on your feet, you are hard to stop. You stand up a lot in your crib, which makes it harder to fall asleep sometimes for nap. You pull yourself up to the couch when I am folding clothes so you can pull off all my folded piles. You even will walk around the room a bit when we hold your hands. 
• Your crawling has officially moved from the belly army crawl to the hands and knees crawl. Yay for not as dirty of a shirt. And here's to holes in the knees. I think though you will catch on to walking pretty quickly.
• You still are really clingy to me, but overall, you are such a happy baby who really loves life and messes. You dart for an open closet to destroy and then turn around and smile at me for your great work. Favorite areas to mess up are the newspaper box in the small pantry, the church bag in the entry way closet, and the shoes in the laundry room. 
• I have been taking you to soccer each time and for the most part, there is someone (usually one of the Zechmann girls) who just scoops you up and plays with you for the evening. As long as you can't see me, you really enjoy yourself.
• You are miss chatty. Still no real words. I mean you say dada and mama, but you say it a lot even when we aren't around, so I think it is more noise than word. I love how you and Millie will play this game. You will say "baba" and then Millie will repeat you. Both of you will laugh and start over again.

Ten Months

 10 Months

• It has been a fun month for us, seeing you get bigger and more of a personality. 
• You love to dance. We like play Kidz Bop Music in the kitchen you start flapping your wings (your signature dance move). Havannah is a sure fire song to get you to flap and laugh.  
• You love getting others to laugh with you. When you know something is funny, you were repeat it over and over. While we were eating dinner, you thought it was so funny that Mowgli was eating the food you threw off and lick your hands. So then you just kept throwing your dinner off instead of eating it. When we tell you no, you think we are encouraging you (you have know idea was no means), so you laugh harder and keep doing it. 
• Another thing that I try to say no to but you interpret it as "okay Mommy, I will keep doing this" is playing with the dog food. Not only do you like to eat it, but you will throw it in the air like it is a firework. One night as I was trying to make dinner, You threw the dog food all over the laundry room. Right after I swept it all up, you snuck into the small pantry and exploded all the newspaper in the box. 
• Your tooth top popped through! You use to eat all the meat that you like. Your favorite foods are bread, meat, and fruit (strawberries and plums are going strong). The last one is causing a month long case of diarrhea. 
• I haven't been able to get you to sit still for much of a book yet, but so far we are up to two library books the you have ripped up. 
• You do like like to stand at all. Maggie is sweet and has been putting raisins along the fire place to get you to stand longer. I have found that you can pull yourself up in your crib. So, yes, you know how to pull yourself up and to stand, more most of the time, you simply won't.

Nine Months

9 Months

• You are everywhere. You love crawling under the desk, over to the piano to play with the pedals, and then onto the steps where you cry to join me in the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, I have to put the dog food up. Your clothes are trashed because you will sneak out to the back porch. Whatever. Good thing you are the last so I don't feel like I have to keep it perfect for the next child. 
• Fourth of July went really well with you. I never know what to do with babies so late at night. We just put you to bed around 7pm and woke you up at 9:30pm when we headed out to see the fire works. You treated it just like a nap, were so happy to see the lights, and then went right to bed when we got home. I didn't get any pictures of you in your outfit because you got it so dirty at Pine Bar that we just changed you wen we got home. 
• You diet has been really expanded lately. We went on an adventure to the Selway Falls and you tried dog poop, sand, and power bait, along with Chinese food that night (though you liked all of them the same). 
• We introduced you to playing balls and it makes you crack up. We just pass the ball back and forth. At one point, you were laughing so hard, you would fall backwards. I got a video of you and sent it to the grandmas. They love seeing you.
• You have been so grumpy this last week. At points during the day, I have had to leave the other kids at home and just push you in the stroller for 20 minutes to calm you down and give me some quiet. Dad was on call this weekend, so it has been hard on me to deal with your crying and clinglyness all by myself. I kept checking your temperature, but never a fever. Finally, a week into this new mood, I started giving you medicine (makes you so much happier). So is it teething? Well, a fever finally came (though honestly I think you had one for a while, out thermometer just wasn't working) and you woke up with crusts in your ear. Poor baby, you have had a horrible ear infection this who time. We finally got you on real medicine and drops, so there is hope again. What was hard is that you wanted only me, but you hate being rocked so I don't know how to comfort you. Really the only thing that comfort your is me holding you while walking around. I did this a lot because I love you so much and really was trying hard to make you feel better.

Eight Months

8 Months

• Oh my goodness, could you get any more cuter? Wherever I take you, people always comment how cute and happy you are. You really are a happy baby, but at the same time, you are not afraid to let me know that you are not content at the moment.
• Crawling, moving, shaking, that is what you do all day. You love to crawl around the furniture but then will get stuck in the legs of the side tables. I am having to sweep and mop more because your cloths are getting so brown from army crawling all over the floors. The living room has serves sort of a play pen for you because you can't climb the stairs yet, but now you discovered that you have to left in the room by yourself, so you crawl over to the stairs where you can seeing me cooking, and cry for me to pick you up. I don't love you in the kitchen because you found the dog food and the floor in the kitchen is so dirty at times, I feel like I have to change your outfit afterwards.
• Swim season has started and you really enjoy the water. It is still tricky knowing when to go-before or after nap-but you usually a good sport about it.
• We went to CDA over Father's Day to visit the lake and spend a day at Silverwood. You were obvious to small to have done anything, but you were happy the whole time, especially since you only napped a total of 40 minutes the whole day. 
• After reading the other kids blog at this age, I realized that we were behind on having you stand up. You just love the floor so much, you usually sit right down the moment we stand you up. The kids have been working hard on getting you to practice standing along the fireplace. You haven't taken any steps while standing, but you will stand for a whole minute or two before just sitting down. 
• Food is still your favorite and for the most part, you love it all. I have introduced a bit more dairy, which you seem to hardly well. The other thing that had bothered you are really cold food like fresh cold smoothies or watermelon straight from the frig. 
• You are a crack up. You will do the blowing bubbles/spitting sound. You know that it makes us laugh, so you will do it over and over to see us laugh. If I lay you down on the bed to get you dress, you start laughing while trying to crawl away. I love seeing these glimpse of your illy personality coming through. I have a feeling you are going to be a real goof ball.

Seven Months

7 Months

• The fun news this month is that you learned how to sit up and you got your first tooth! It is amazing to see you grow and get bigger. You still aren't amazing at sitting up, but not due to lack of ability. You are so wiggling that when we get you into sitting position, you just flop back onto your tummy because that is how you prefer to be. Being able to sit up makes it such that now you are sitting in your high chair at the table (bring on the JoJo zone). The other morning, you woke up early and I was able to put the basket of toys in front of you and go back to sleep on the couch (love this stage). 
• Your tooth also came while we were in Oregon. Although that tooth does not do much to increase your food consumption, there is no worries in that department. You are an eating machine. There has been nothing that you haven't liked. Also, the amount you eat is crazy. When we sit down at the table, you start screaming to feed you. You will keep screaming because we can't shovel it into your mouth fast enough. Uncle Joe kept commenting how much you ate. You have a lovely rolly poly figure to prove it.
• You are beginning to say Dada more. I don't know if you actually know what it means, but you do seem to say it more when Dad is around than when he is not.
• You have amazing big sisters and brother. We have been really busy getting the garden ready and building the chicken coop. They have been taking turns watching you while we work on those projects. 
• Your wiggling around has led us to put up our first baby gate ever. It is not found having it up, but when I found that you had wiggled yourself under the piano, I knew it was only a matter of time before you wiggle down the stairs. 
• You are so incredibly happy and smiley. I really have loved the baby you are growing into being (plus that reflux med helped). 

Six Months

6 Months

• Oh my goodness, you need to stop growing up. First of all, you are the master tummy timer. The moment I lay you down, you roll over to your tummy. And you like it! You haven't figured out how to roll over the room or crawl, but you pivot around a circle all day long. Even when we are holding you, are are antsy to move.
• You are loving food now. Some of the food that we have tried are peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, rice with sauce from dinner, banana, bread, oatmeal, applesauce, and obj sandwich. Ever since we discovered you wanted food with flavor and a bit of texture, you just gobble it all up.
• You are close to sitting up. You can sit up by yourself for about 30 seconds before tipping over. But in all honesty, whenever I try to have you sit up, you purposely tip over so you can get back to you belly.
• We started the reflex medicine and it has made all the difference in your personality. You are so giggly and smiley. Before, you hand a hard time being set down, especially in the evening, but now you are a lot more chilled.
• You think your siblings are the funniest thing in the world. You will crack up watching them wrestle, dance, and especially swinging on the swings. 
• The weather has been nicer so we have taken you outside more. You are an awesome hiker in the ergo and will bounce away in the bouncer while in the garden. 
• You are babbling more and more. Sam and Millie love to think that every coo is your first word. 

Five Months

5 Months

• Although you won't remember anything from this month, it will go down in history as a big month in your life time. COVID 19 has come to the US and our world has shut down. School and church has been canceled. Businesses have to shut down. Idaho has mandated a stay-at-home order. We don't know how this is all going to pan out, but it has been a challenge. 
• This was birthday month for your siblings. Each of them was able to have party, which you tagged along with. We may have snuck you a few bites of cake each time, which you willing accepted.
• Food! We finally figured it out. We have been trying for a month with rice cereal and you scream each time we give it to you. Oh my goodness, I have felt like nothing has come super easy the first time of round with you. Well, one night, we were having curry and rice for dinner. I thought, well it can't hurt to just try. You gobbled it up. Curry. You ate a lot of it. The kids were freaking out that you liked curry but not baby food. Well, you have since tried just giving you table food and it seems to have work.
• We bought a used play structure that came with another baby swing. With the warmer weather, we have been able to go outside and push you on the swing and sit on the trampoline. This is one way to really get you to giggle.

Four Months

4 Months

• This has been a roller coaster of a month. You started the month refusing the bottle. It caused me a lot of anxiety because I felt like you weren't getting enough, even though I knew I was making enough. You were down to one feeding at night when suddenly you were waking up three times to feed. It was really wearing on me. Triple play was hard because I was feeding you every two hours. When we got home, I was finished. I pumped and gave you the bottle. It took just a day for you to take it well and it felt like a huge weight was lifted from me. I continued to pump until I had enough for your four month mark. That was my goal when you were born, and we made it. I feel like you are happier also. You take the pacifier better, are more happy during the day because you can go longer between feedings. You even went back to one feeding at night.
• Now for the down part for the roller coaster part. You got a cold and bad cough. Because of that, you are back to waking up for two feedings, but some nights, you have woken up 4 times. I wanted to have you cry it out this last weekend because Dad was on call, but with the cold, we will have to wait. 
• On happier notes, you are laughing more. I love tickling and kissing your neck to get you to laugh. Baths are a favorite of yours. You kick the water all over the place and wiggle your way down the sling until your head is in the water. You are starting to hold on to "Ellie" your elephant and I made you a wooden play thing that goes over you when you lay on the ground and has toys dangle from it.
• Are you very social in the fact that you want to be able to see people or be held by people. Having you sit in the gumbo on the counter has been a life saver.
• You are so wet all the time. You are still drooling all over your shirts. Some days I have to change your onesies just because of your drool.

Three Months

3 Months

• We celebrated your first Christmas. We didn't need much, so we kept it simple. You got that onesies you are wearing in the picture, a JoJo book, and pacifier clips. You took a lot of naps. Next year will be more eventful. We headed to Utah for New Years, and you were the best travel baby. You slept well in the car, did well sleeping in different cribs, and loved all the attention that you got. Grandma Matthews kept taking you from me, which I was totally fine with. 
• While in Utah, we took you swimming for the first time. You seemed to like it, or at least tolerated it. 
• You are sitting up a lot better this month. We have had you sitting in the bumbo a bit. I like having you on the counter while we are eating a snack. The other day, Millie wanted to do a tea party with you, so I put you in the gumbo next to her while she pretended to cook for you. At one point, I found the food basket on your head so we had to stop the party at that point.
• You are laughing! Your first chuckle was for dad on Christmas Day. I did get a video of you laughing really well. You don't do it often, but I love hearing it when you do. You are so smiley though. Many people comment on how smiley you are.
• You are sort of our sour patch kid. You will be so happy and smiley and then suddenly, you will start crying. It is pretty night and day. 
• You still have the mark on your cheek this month. We have tried to so many different creams. It is just a crazy ring worm that is holding on tight.

Two Months

2 Months

• Look at that smile!!! I love how you learned how to smile this month (at 5 weeks old). You use your whole body to smile. And those cheeks!! You have gotten so chubby. It is so adorable. I just want to eat those cheeks off your face.
• This month, we went to Oregon for Thanksgiving. All your cousins and aunties and uncles were so excited to see you for the first time. Uncle Joe was a baby stealer and literally would grab you from others arms. But to his credit, he was able to calm you down every time he held you. We joked that he was going to come home with me to become your nanny. It was a bit of a rougher week for you. I don't think that you were able to nap well during the day, so it led to lots of crying. We were able to bless you while there. I was pretty stressed out that you were going to cry during the whole blessing and I wasn't going to be able to hear it, but you were clam for that brief moment, so all was well.
• When we got back home, I was able to get you to nap in your crib more regular which has made a big difference.  
• You have been cooing. Sam loves to think that you are saying actually words, so he will run up to me and tell me that you said your first word "agg". You are more happy to just lay down on the blanket, so the big kids will come lay next to you and try to get you to smile or coo.
• Maggie loves being a little mother to you. One Saturday, I was still sleeping when she heard you start waking up. She got you out of the crib, brought you into the living room and changed your diaper. Then she brought you to me to feed. 
• At your 2 month appointment, you were 13lbs and 8 oz!! We are needing to move up to size 2 diapers because of your chunkiness.

One Month

1 Month

• Oh my goodness, how are you already a month old? It has gone by so fast. You have had grandparents here for the first 2 1/2 weeks, which has helped out a lot. I don't think you laid down on your own during the day much during that time. Everyone loves you so much and are constantly wanting to hold you. 
• You are an amazing eater, super fast, and like your brother and sisters, you are packing on the chubs fast. You take the bottle really well, which is nice because then your dad gets the chance to feed you, which he loves.
• Sleeping is good. To be honest, you are not the best baby when it comes to sleep, but you are still a really good sleeper. The mornings tends to be your needy time. You have a harder time staying asleep on your own or when you are awake, you are not content to just lay on a blanket next to me while I am folding laundry or something. So I end up holding you all morning long and don't get much done, or I put you in the carrier and go for a walk. The afternoon is full of naps. In fact, I wish you were awake a bit more in the afternoon so you will get a full feeding. But night time, you are pretty good about going to sleep right away after feeding. 
• It took us a while to realize that you don't whimper when you stir at night. You let out a loud cry and then go back to sleep. So it is hard to tell if you are actually awake or not. In the morning, you will wake up an hour after your last feeding and I will send your dad into rock you wince you are crying loud enough to wake us both us. But by the time he goes to the bathroom real fast and walk in the room, you are already asleep. 

Baby Blessing

We were able to bless you in Oregon (Canby 2nd Ward of the the Oregon City Stake) Sunday, December 1, 2019. Those in the circle were your father, Grandpa Price, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Dusty.

Heavenly Father, with the authority of the Mel priesthood which we hold, we bring this infant in our arms to give her a name and a blessing. Her name which she will be known by throughout her mortal life is Joanna Bennett Matthews. Joanna, the lord has great things for you to do in this life. And being such He has many gifts that you will develop throughout your life time. We bless you with the gift of intelligence and with the gift of wisdom.We bless you with a cheerful countenance, and those around you will come to you and flock to you because of this countenance, because of the happiness and the love of Christ that you will show to the world. We bless you with friendship with those in need and with the ability to discern and recognize those who need this gift and all the other gifts that you have been given. We bless you with love for those around you. And these things we bless you Joanna in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

It was really sweet to share this moment with family. After church, we all meet up back at Grandma's house where we had pulled pork sandwiches, Cole slaw, fall harvest spinach salad, and chocolate chip cookies.