Hello Old Friend!

Sorry it's been a while!! Life has been busy, but that's no excuse. After all, there might still be one person out there checking this blog for updates, and I don't want to disapoint!!

Jenna has been changing SO much in the last few months!! She's such a big girl now who understands everything we say, usually knows how to respond, and is starting to talk all the time!

Her favorites are "hi" "yeah" (I should really teach her that it's 'yes' not 'yeah'), "up"... If you ask her what a doggy says, she says "ruf" and if you repeat it, she'll repeat it back to you (after she says ruf, I'll say ruf ruf ruf and then she'll say ruf ruf ruf). (courtesy of Max's mommy... she told me that at Max's 15 month appointment they asked if he was making animal sounds, so I figured I'd better get working on it!) Also, her favorite song is "row row row your boat" which she repeatedly asks you to sing for her by saying "row row row?"

Let's see, what else. She knows all her body parts (head, nose, tummy, feet, tongue--that was one of Josh's instructions and if you ask her where it is, she sticks it out at you-- teeth, and most importantly, knuckles). Someone once told me that when evaluating children for IQ or entry into schools, etc, they know that all little kids know their normal body parts, but if they can identify their knuckles, they're supposed to be super smart, so I taught Jenna her knuckles. Now if I ask her where her knuckles are, she knocks them together. It doesn't make her any smarter than any other kid, it's just that she'll remember whatever you teach her, so why not teach her knuckles!)

She's very verbal and interactive now. If I ask her to go do something, she does it. If she's playing and I ask her to go take a sip of water, she stops what she's doing, walks over to her sippy cup, and takes a drink. During her bath, which she LOVES, I'll frequently ask her if she's ready to get out... she looks at me, thinks about it, and shakes her head no. Finally after she's been in there a while, I'll ask her if she's ready to get out and she'll say "yeah" so she takes all her rubber duckies out of the tub, lines them up on the wall, and then stands up. Her absolute favorite thing to do is watch her tv shows (I only let her watch about a few min a day)... Comcast has these "on demand" nursery rhyme shows for kids. They're 9-12 minutes long and she LOVVEEEESSSSS them. I mean, I think she'd marry them if she could. She goes crazy. I ask her "Jenna, do you want to watch a show?" and she says "yeah!" and starts clapping. I put her show on and she seriously goes nuts, clapping every two minutes, singing along (only to row row row cause thats' all she knows).

Oh, she also learned the sign language for "more" (daycare taught her, I didnt), so now when she's finished all the food on her tray and she's still hungry (which is often), she does the sign for more. Then she gives me a big smile cause she knows she's impressing me and I'll give her whatever she wants. We also have a made up sign for "all done." For some reason, I said "all done" one day, and made a hand motion, sort of like "so so" waiving my hand back and forth. Jenna picked up on it, and now whenever I say "all done" she waives her hand like that, and if she's eating and all done, she'll let me know by waiving her hand (or saying "up" so I"ll pick her up). It's just amazing to watch this cognitive transition from baby-hood to becoming a little person who talks and understands things. She's so sweet and fun and I'm enjoying this age so much that I can hardly remember crying when she was a newborn thinking she'd never be that small again. I can't imagine not having this fun crazy little girl!!

I'm at work, so I don't have a ton of new pictures (I have a bunch at home and I'll try to remember to upload soon), but I took my little camera to daycare last week and just left it there for the day. I asked them to take pictures of Jenna and her friends during the day... here are a few of the cute ones!

Grr, it's not working, so for now, here's a link to the pictures, and I'll try to upload them from home!! http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=244756392/a=5822915_5822915/t_=5822915