Johnsons' Journey

Amanda, all ready for church!

I just can’t believe that in a few days my little Pixie-Girl is going to be 9 months old…. She really does seem younger than that to me. Mainly because she is following in Josh’s footprints and being in the slower department, when it comes to her gross motor skills. Josh was behind in his gross motor skills as well. Dr. Gyerko said that since other kids in Joe’s family have been a tad slower too, that there is probably come kind of minor muscle disease that runs in the family. He was going to have Josh tested, if he wasn’t walking by 18 months… He started walking a few days before that!

Anyway, it’s kind of nice, because Amanda, like Josh, seems so much younger, and will be a baby for longer. It’s so hard when they start walking and the baby stage is gone forever… Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s fun too… But I always miss them being a baby, as that first year goes so quickly.

Gerber Finger Foods 5/10/04

Though she did sit for the first time on 4/15, she still isn’t sitting well. When she’s on the floor she will only sit on her own for a minute or two. If she’s in my lap, she will sit on her own (without leaning against me) for quite a bit longer… I don’t know why that is!

She still hasn’t rolled over from back to front yet. She’s been able to roll front to back since she was 2 weeks old (That’s actually VERY early), but she just can’t make it the other way. It’s funny to watch her try though. This evening I put a wagon wheel (a baby finger food, which she loves) just out of her reach, and she was trying to roll over to get it. She makes these hilarious grunting noises, and would actually start laughing over it herself. It was so funny, I was laughing my fanny off. Joe was able to get some of it on video.

First Cheerios on 5/11/04

She’s getting QUITE loud with her jabberings too… I’m talking loud! You try to get her to be a little quieter, especially in the mornings before her siblings are awake, but she just grins at you and keeps right on a “talkin’” She likes to shake her head “no” while she makes her noises, so we have fun with that, pretending that she says no to everything we say to her.

She seems pretty smart. Sometimes during Jared’s lessons, when she is on my lap, I will give her a pen (with the cap on tight) to chew on…. (This was probably a mistake, because now every time I write, she tries to steal my pen! ) Well, the other day I was holding her, and was writing some of Jared’s scores in a notebook, and she was watching that VERY closely. When I was done I gave her the pen, and she reached over and started rubbing the pen against the paper, as if she was trying to write with it.

She also has an obsession with my keyboard on the computer. When I’m holding her while checking Emails or something, she just goes crazy with the keyboard… It’s very funny.

One thing she doesn’t like, which is strange, are toys that make noise, or play music. It scares her, and she’ll burst into tears. I had to hide one of them, because Alicia would always give it to Amanda, then Amanda would push the button. As soon as the music plays, she’s in tears… Poor little baby girl! I can’t even play the music from her mobile on her crib, she just hates it. Isn’t that just too weird?

She’s getting too big for her infant swing. She’s starting to pull one of Alicia’s stunts that Alicia used to do. When the swing is going, she will reach out and grab one of the legs, which stops the swing instantly. I’m afraid that she’ll disconnect her shoulder or something. I reclined the swing all the way back, and that helped… I don’t think she can reach it anymore. But I should just take it down, as we really only use it during dinner now…. And not always then. Sometimes she sits on my lap and munches on finger food.

She’s really a very good, easy baby… But really, all my kids were easy babies… Or “low maintenance” as Dr. Gyerko calls them…. (Well, Alicia was a little more high maintenance, but not because she was bad, just because she had more energy.) The only time she fusses is when she’s getting tired, and that’s an easy fix… You just put her to bed!

She’s pretty much made her own schedule. She wakes up around 6 in the morning, takes a 2 hour nap at 9 a.m., and another 2 hour nap between 2 and 2:30. Then she goes to bed for the night at 8 p.m. I would like to switch the naps to 10 a.m., and 3 p.m., as she’s tired before 8 p.m., but I don’t want her going down any earlier. We’ll have to focus on that once school is over.

I’m sure there was one more thing I wanted to write about, but heck if I can remember what it was…. Hopefully it will come to me soon.