Facebook comments: Joanna's 1st birthday

Dear Joanna,

I wanted to save your first birthday comments being made from my friends on my Facebook page.  I thought it'll be worth reading by the time you are old enough to read this.  Anyway, here are some of the comments my friends made on your 1st (year) birthday, Sept. 29th, 2011.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did. Just so you know, you have already met some of these sweet people personally but probably won't remember them. The others you haven't met BUT they are just as sweet and thoughtful to take the time to wish you a Happy Birthday.  One of these days, you can ask me about each one of them and I'll tell you how we met.

Love you,
Mom

Double click this picture below to magnify and make it easy to read.

Happy 1st Birthday to you Joanna!

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday, Dear Joanna...

Happy Birthday to you!

We love you baby girl!  We thank God for you!

Let me take the time to thank my mom for allowing me to get Joanna a birthday cake, candle and birthday hat to celebrate Joanna's first birthday.  Also, thank you also for allowing us to buy her a gift too! 

Then, thanks also goes to Grandma Guerra for allowing us to get her another birthday gift! 

Aren't grandmothers the BEST!?!

I know Joanna is always going to be spoiled by them one way or another.

They just love her to pieces!  I just sense it.

Since I didn't get a chance to go shopping during the week. I had to do it the very last minute.  We stopped by Walmart around 9pm last night. The Bakery was closed so I had to write "Happy Birthday Joanna" on the cake myself.  It sure wasn't easy!  I had to practice on a small plate before putting it on the cake. I kept messing up with the frosting and ate it afterwards. That's a good excuse to mess up. 

I had to find something (toys) for her quick and ugh...I couldn't find a birthday cone "hat" for her age so I got her a different one. But hey, the one I'd picked is better than nothing, right? All in all, we had a small birthday celebration for her today during Matt's lunch break (1 hour). I fed her pizza first before giving her a taste of her own birthday cake. Oh my, she loves it! 

Well, here's her first birthday cake. A chocolate one!

 She wanted to touch her cake.

 Wasn't happy that we pulled it away from her.

 Just waiting...

 Her patience paided off.

 Getting ready to take off her bib and to clean off the mess she made.

 Well after I take two more pictures.

 Sugar high?

Tom and Lori LaSalle called us to their home and we sang Happy Birthday to her again with a little cake and candle. Aw, they even gave her a giftcard to Walmart and a book to read.

Let me tell you one thing I've noticed. She loves books!

This is from Grandma Aurora.

This is from Grandma Guerra.

These all her birthday toys! She loves them!
Thank you for making her birthday special!

I found a new hobby...making bows!

I've always wanted to learn how to make bows for Joanna. One day, I read someone's comment on Facebook wall saying she made bows. So it was a push to ask.  I contacted Rawnee and she showed me how she made flower bows for her girl.  She let me get the hand-on experience too!  Thanks Rawnee!  I did the first two on the left (small purple and fluffy pink). The rest were made by Rawnee just for Joanna.  Sweet!

Anyway, I have been motivated to start my new hobby. I got some ribbons on sale from Hobby Lobby. Thanks to Mrs. Sandra Parker for her generous gift a couple of months ago before we left, I was able to purchased them. Now I can't wait to start! I'll be sure to post them here as soon as I am done with them.

 Here's a close up view.

 That's right baby girl... it goes right there.  You look so pretty!

my one year old toddler unrolled toilet paper

Yep, she has finally figured out how to unroll a toilet paper! 

 Just look at what she did...  Sighs.

visiting daddy at work

Video - 11 months experience

I was able to capture some things Joanna got to experience throughout her 11 months old stage. I still can't believe that she'll be one year old this coming Thursday. Hopefully, I'll keep up with making "live" memories with videotaping. It isn't always easy but I'll do the best I can just so that you can watch her grow too.

Week 24 and 25 photos

There is no way I can hide my "outie" belly button! 

You can see it sticking out. That's if you're wondering...Yikes!

Oh and you'll noticed I am not able to fit into my wedding ring.  I had to take it off about 2 weeks ago because it was bothering me and my finger... well, it swelled up.  I couldn't take it off when I woke up at 3 a.m., I tried putting water to slide it through.  Nope.  Then I tried baby oil.  It still wouldn't come off!  I had to nudge and pull it very hard. I cried because I didn't want to go to the hospital and have them cut it off so I said a quick little prayer and off it came!  Thank you Lord!  Even I pray for situation like this.  

I still fit in my high heels shoes.  I really like to dress and wear something pretty when I can but if it's going to hurt my feet then I'll have to wear flat shoes.  Yeah, I like to stand tall but in reality I am... what's that word?  Little? Short? Small? Tiny? Plumpy?  Eh... you know!

Joanna testing out a carseat

These photos were taken last month on August 8th, 2011. We went to BabiesRUs to test out this one car seat that I like for Joanna.  I wanted to get the black color car seat because I'd figured we could use it again for our second child but got the pink one instead.  We found out the car seat will be good up to when Joanna is 4 or 5 years old... so we went ahead with pink (next to the black).  Thanks to grandma Aurora for allowing us to purchase this car seat!  We'll take another picture of the actual one we got for her sometime soon.

Matt got tired of holding Joanna so he decided to put her up on his shoulder. She does get heavier the longer we hold her!  What a growing baby!

She crawls, signs, and just started climbing

So I was brushing my teeth this morning and kept an eye on Joanna as she crawls on the floor. Well, we have steps leading to the bathroom/bedroom area. I knew one of these days sooner or later, she'll climb those steps... and today she did! I caught her before she climb another step. I didn't want her to fall back and hurt herself. She has already fell back a couple of weeks ago hitting her head on the floor (I think this was maybe two months ago?) as she was learning how to crawl while standing up holding on to something. She does fall when she lose her balance. My oh my! I think it won't be long til she's walking. She shows all the signs of wanting to walk. Yesterday, Matt said he stood her up and let her go. She was standing on her own for a few good seconds. That's some balance, don't you think?

I have been lagging behind posting updates about fun and interesting things happening all because I got caught up with things Joanna can do! Besides that, she keeps me busy. So interesting things has occurred. For instance, I was in awe of Joanna being able to sign! Oh yes! She can sign using two different words now. They are: milk and more. The other so-called signs are common for most babies, I think such as waving hi/bye. Interesting fact, while Joanna naps she will wake up and wave whenever her daddy comes home from work. No kidding! I'm serious! It happens just about every time. You could even ask Matt if you don't believe me. Ain't that cute or what?!? If it's ever possible, I will try and catch this on video just to show you. It is fun to see her trying to communicate with me using her little fingers. I was making her milk and cream of wheat for dinner... she was getting hungry and noticed what I was doing. Oh yes... she tends to watch me whenever she's hungry. It seems like she knows when I am getting her food ready. She crawled up to me in the kitchen and sat on the floor signing milk! What a smart little baby! Other times, she'll forget to sign or something so instead of using her regular sign for "milk" she'll just cry and well... she'll also wave, wave and wave. How funny!!

Early on this morning at 5 a.m., Joanna woke up crying. I think it is because she wet herself, which she did. I think it was because the diaper was a little loose. We had to change her diaper and clothing. Twice, so far. This time, we didn't put her back in her crib since she normally wakes up around 7 a.m. and then it'll be time to feed her breakfast. So we let her sleep with us for 2 hours. Matt went back to sleep while I sat back up due to my growing belly and held Joanna as she lay her head on my chest. She got calm and about ready to fall asleep. I was getting uncomfortable in that sitting position and wanted to lay down myself. So I set her to lay down in the middle between Matt and I. She looked so cute and comfortable laying between us. It was a bit awkward trying to sleep because she took up most of the space turning her head sideway (to my thigh while her feet face Matt's thigh) instead of the same level as us. She just spread herself so comfortable not knowing that she is pushing me and Matt almost off to the edge of our own bed. Hmph! But she's our baby. Some times my head play tricks like wondering if my baby thinks she own our bed our something. Ha! Crazy thoughts, I know. Well, it sure took her a while to fall back asleep. I stayed up until she finally fell asleep at 5:50 a.m. leaving me an hour to sleep. Why not sleep past 7 in the morning? Well that's when Joanna wakes up on her own. Plus, Matt wakes up at 7ish anyway to get ready to work and I have to as well in order to make her breakfast, et cetera.

Joanna eating cut up hot dogs

So I gave her small pieces of Mac-n-Cheese and hotdog. Boy, she sure enjoyed them! I noticed she had a hard time picking up the MacNCheese with her tiny fingers except for the hotdog which were much easier for her.  I'd helped her with some but the rest she has managed to pick them up herself. Grandma(s), y'all are going to have fun feeding her for me when we come for a visit!  It'll give you a chance to enjoy her while I take a little break.  Fun, right?  So far she has also tried banana, watermelon, peach and cantaloupe... yep, our grown-up fruits! 

Let me just say, she loves them!  If you feed her, she'll come back to you begging for more. You'll see!