What a Difference a Year Makes!!

Here is Jenna during the high holidays last year (I originally thought this picture was taken on Rosh Hashana, turns out it was Yom Kippur, but I don't feel like waiting 10 days to post this :-)

(why do I feel like we look a LOT younger here?? it has been a long year!)

And here she is, Rosh Hashana, 2008 (ignore her sleepy eyes, she was in the middle of eating, which is really the only way to catch her sitting still long enough for a photo these days!)

Here are a few more from Rosh Hashana...

The only other way I can ever get a picture... if she's not running away from me, she's sucking her thumb.

And here's a little story for you... while Mommy was rushing around trying to get everything ready so we could go to Rosh Hashana dinner at Aunt Becca and Uncle Mike's, Jenna decided to raid the fridge. She found a can of whipped cream and decided she'd like to keep it...

She played with it for a while, trying to figure out how to get the top off to get to the good stuff...

But then... UH OH... she heard mommy coming!!! Jenna rushed to the tupperware drawer to hide the evidence...

But alas, she got caught. I'm sorry, mommy!! Who could resist those big brown eyes?

Jenna was just trying to get a taste of the sweet whipped cream to start off her new year... and on that note, wishing you and yours a happy, healthy new year :-) L'Shana Tova.

Affection

Jenna has never been a very affectionate, cuddly baby. She is sweet and loving, but has always been very independent. I often hear people say that, when their babies won't sleep, they just bring them into the parents bed and the baby will sleep for hours. Not Jenna. She has never once slept with us, nor do we think it's possible... if she's in our bed, she's roaming around, playing with us, climbing up the headboard, trying to reach whatever book, alarm clock or kleenex box might be on a night table, etc.

Lately, however, she has started becoming much more loving. When she's in an unfamiliar situation, she'll walk up with her arms out, asking to be held. Of course, as soon as you pick her up, she's content and wants to be put down, but it's the thought that counts. Also, whenever I have her in a grocery cart, sams club cart, target cart, etc, she must hate that thing, cause she frequently puts her arms out and leans in for a hug (though she usually takes that opportunity to try to pull her legs out and stand up to make a run/jump for it).

It's 7:25am and pouring rain, with occasional thunder and lightning. Jenna is still sleeping, and I'm sitting at the computer, pounding the keyboard as loud as possible, and hoping that a thunder crack will make her stir. I miss my little girl, and am hoping she wakes up in the mood to hug. Ooh, I think I heard a whimper!!

Jenna is one lucky girl!! I love putting bows in Jenna's hair, partly cause it's cute, but also because her hair gets in her eyes otherwise. The problem, though, is that the good bows are so expensive!!! I mentioned that to Antonia last time she was up here, and amazingly, a single bow that would cost $5-10 dollars in the US goes for 2 for $1 in the Dominican Republic. My dad just came back from visiting, and thanks to Antonia, he brought all of these back with him!!




Here's Jenna at breakfast this morning, sporting her green shirt, green bow, and green sunglasses!!



I haven't stopped to blog much lately, because life with Jenna has been so fulfilling that I don't have time to get on the computer! It's absolutely amazing to me how much she's changed and grown lately!!

Among her new tricks...

If you ask her where her tummy, head, nose, or mouth are, she'll point to the appropriate body part. If I ask her where Mommy's nose is, she grabs my nose.

If I ask her to do a somersault, she leans over to put her head on the ground, and I flip her legs over. She's cracking up by the time she gets up.

We read her farm animal books, and she can point to the ducks, piggies, cows, etc on command. She can also point to elmo on command (she loves elmo now!!)

She's starting to say "ducks" and "dog"

If her sippy cup is across the room, and I ask her to go get her milk, she'll walk over and get it. As soon as we get to daycare, she immediately walks to the back of the room where the bookshelf hangs on the wall, grabs a book, and brings it to any adult in the vicinity. She'll promptly sit on your lap so you can read to her.

If you ask her to say hi or bye, she will wave, but she doesn't say "hi" regularly. I've heard what sounds like "hi" on occassion.

If you ask her where the lights are, she looks up to the lights on the ceiling.

If I ask her "Jenna, how much does mommy love you?" she puts her arms up in the air like she's doing "SO much" (looks like "SO big")

If she sees a hair brush or comb, she immediately picks it up and holds it to her head and tries to brush.

If I ask for a hug, she lays her head on my shoulder and snuggles, and if I ask for a kiss, and she's in the mood, she'll put her face out with her lips clenched so I can give her a kiss.

Her favorite game is playing in her high chair with her daddy. Josh will turn his head to one side, and she'll do the same. josh will rock back and forth, and she'll copy him, etc. She is turning into more and more of a daddy's girl every day, and it's so sweet to watch!! This morning, I was getting ready to take her to daycare, and she cried and reached out for her daddy. Granted, she knew she was leaving for daycare, and from his still pajama-clad state, she probably thought he was just going to stay home and play all day, but she clearly wanted to stay home and play with him. it's so sweet to watch them together. Josh loves to say "we had a BALL" when he describes what he does with her in the rare moments I'm not around.

She loves watching her puppy and nursery rhyme TV shows, and will happily lay next to you and cuddle for the 10 minutes it takes to get through a program.

There are so many more that I can't think of, but she is just turning into the sweetest, happiest, friendliest little girl!! All my fellow daycare moms tell me that, when they go to pick up their kids in the afternoon, Jenna always runs up to them, arms out, wanting a hug. Granted, I love that quality about her now, but it definitely puts a mental flag in my head to teach her stranger-wariness as soon as she's old enough (not that any of the daycare moms are strangers, but Jenna does have a tendency to flirt with strangers when we're out).

Date Night

Max and Jenna went on a date tonight. First they ate at California Tortilla...

Then they took a walk around the Quarry... Oh, they invited their mommies to chaperone...

At first they played nicely with a toy Max's mommy brought out...

Then Jenna decided she didn't want to share, so she grabbed the toy and prepared to take off with it...

Max wasn't going to let it go that easily, so he took off after her.

Jenna decided her best escape strategy was to run away as fast as she could...

While Max decided that the best way to get the toy was to tackle the girl holding the toy...

The mommies quickly intervened and removed the toys before things turned ugly, and Max and Jenna returned to their sweet playful selves.

After the Quarry, Max took Jenna back to his new house, where both kids simultaneously decided to show us how big they are... SO big!

Soon Max tried to get frisky, so Jenna made a run for it!

But before she knew it, Max had her back in his crib!!

a few more...

So fresh and clean after a bath... using the motrin box as "fabric"


beach baby (just going to daycare, but I love this beachy outfit from grandpa!)


WHAT DO YOU MEAN DADDY'S OUT OF TOWN AND I'M NOT GOING TO SEE HIM FOR 3 DAYS?!!!!!?!?!?!?!?

Sorry it's been a while!!!

Things have been CRAZY lately, leaving little time to blog!!! I could write a long shpiel, but lets face it, you only check this blog for the pictures, so without further ado...

Please, no more pictures... I know I look cute, but I'm just not cut out for this life of paparazzi!


*YAWN* it's tiring looking so good!


Getting my yoga out of the way...


I call this look "blue steel"


You wish you loved anything this much!


yummy!!


Only 1 year olds can get away with wearing a crown on their behind


Feed me now, or there will be consequences!!


This is my pantry. I like to go in here to get some privacy. Lately I've been sneaking in here to take care of business.


Excuse me for a moment...


Um, I said excuse me! What's a girl gotta do to get some privacy!!


That's what I'm talking about!! (note the tiny fingers closing the door by herself)


until next time!!

Jenna the Genius

We have a TON of leftover little rubber duckies from Jenna's ducky-themed 1st birthday party. They make great bath toys, so I brought a bunch upstairs to assist with her bathtime fun. Every night, when I drain the bath, I put all 6 or so duckies up on the corner (outside) of the tub.

Tonight, I put the duckies in the bath with her, and she played/chomped on them as usual. When it was time to get out of the bath, I asked "Jenna, where do the duckies go?" One by one, she methodically took each ducky and put it them in the same corner where I keep them. The corner was soon full, but there was still one ducky left. She looked at it for a while, then put it in her mouth to chew. A few seconds later, she put it up on the other side of the tub, away from all the other duckies.

I got her attention, pointed to the other duckies, and asked her to put that ducky with the others. Sure enough, after one last trip to her mouth for a quick chomp, she put that ducky back up with the others.

Totally blew my mind!! Someone call Mensa!!

a few of the duckies...

I love this picture!

I think I posted a similar version before, but her face was too dark from shadows... the wonders of photoshop!

"Me"

There's this website, meez.com, where you can go make a virtual rendition of yourself, doing whatever you want... here's mine... I think she kinda looks like me!

Check out Max's blog to see Kim :-)

I Love this Age!!

Jenna has always been an incredibly happy baby. Very good natured, she rarely cries, fusses, etc. Always has a smile on her face. But... she was never an easy laugher. She giggled often, but not on command. I've interacted with plenty of babies whom, if you shoot them a funny look, or tickle their tummies, will burst out in laughter. That was never Jenna. She laughed, but you had to earn it. She made you work for that glorious sound!

Last night, the little miss decided that she wasn't tired. Figured, the one night during the week when I had to work late, she decided to stay up and play. So Josh was downstairs in the basement (converted to Jenna's toy-room) watching Jenna with one eye and football with the other. I decided to take a quick break and run downstairs to check on my favorite people. Jenna was amusing herself quietly, and Josh seemed content.

I decided to pull out one of those pop-up, crawl-through tunnels. We have a few that connect to make a longer tunnel, but last night I was just using one of the small tunnels, identical to one of the yellow ones coming off this big thing...

I got on one side, and Jenna got on the other. She poked her head in, and every few seconds, I'd poke mine in as well. You would have thought I was Chris Rock on his best night. For a solid 5-10 minutes, I had Jenna rolling in hysterics unlike anything I've ever heard from her. Josh and I were cracking up as well, cause we've never seen her react this way. The squeals coming out of this kid would have made a hyena jealous!

I had to return to work shortly after that episode, but this morning Josh told me that he had her going again later in the night. Who would have thought that a $3.00 tunnel from Toys R Us would have been the key to unlocking Jenna's inner hysteria. All I know is, the tunnel may have cost $3.00, but those ten minutes were priceless.

Flipped a learning switch

I really believe there is some sort of internal switch that flips at 1 year, when all the sudden they go from being babies to little people. In the last week, Jenna has changed so much. All the sudden she's this litte person, who listens to us, clearly thinks before she acts, expresses herself much more clearly than before, etc. She is talking up a storm, pointing to Josh and saying "dada", looking at me and babbling "mamamama", making all sorts of connections (if you just say hi or bye, without waiving, she immediately waves. While waiving, she makes a noise that sounds like "hi" but isn't quite there yet).

If you ask her where her nose is, she points to her nose, same with her mouth. If I ask her "where's Mommy's nose?" she points to and touches my nose. If we're reading a book and I ask her where elmo is, she not only points to elmo, but leans in to kiss him. She always looks up at me for approval before she does anything she's not sure of, like she's waiting for me to tell her it's okay.

She also no longer takes bottles during the day. She has two sippy cups, her milk sippy cup and her water sippy. She MUCH prefers the water one, but we try to force some milk in every once and a while. At night she still has a bottle of warm milk, but she'll even push that away from time to time. In the morning, we bring her into our room, put on a "baby genius" video, and she watches with rapt attention as we get ready for work. If we walk past the TV and block her vision, she moves to the side so she can see better. I can almost picture her saying "mom, get outta my way!!" She LOVES doggies, and always goes right up to them with no fear. In fact, the dogs are usually the ones backing away from her!

This is just such a fun age, and I know it's just going to get better, the more she understands and is able to communicate. One is fun!

Here are two more party pictures that were on my dads camera, plus a labor day weekend picture of my dad with his two babies!