This is going to be a very picture-heavy post!! As usual, I have a long blog-update, but I'll put it after all the pictures, if anyone sticks around that long!! Ok, so I uploaded the pictures smaller this time, but unfortunately their cuteness gets lost in the small picture, so I'm shamelessly telling you that you have to click on the pictures to open them full size, particularly the one of Josh and Jenna, the ones of Jenna jumping on our bed, and the ones of her standing on the car. Again, shamelessly, they're just too cute not to see full size!!

On our nightly post-daycare, pre-dinner walk (I love that it stays light out longer now!!) Jenna will NOT let me help her down the stairs, she HAS to do it herself. And in between steps she likes to pretend she's in prison, apparently!

Who could ever put that face behind bars!?!

Look, over there!! I see sticks!!!

See, Mommy! I told you I found a stick!!

Yuck, apparently sticks don't taste good!!

Just because sticks don't taste good doesn't mean she's willing to let them go... this was her reaction when I took the stick away...

Jenna was also a fan of picking up the leaves and saying "flower!!" After a night or two of telling her that they were leaves, she now calls them by their real name... and she likes to pick them up and carry them to our outside trash can. I'm hoping her love of cleaning translates to cleaning her room one day!

Look how long my hair is getting!!

Over the weekend, we had to stop at Grandpa's house to pick up some stuff. Grandpa wasn't there, but Jenna made sure to wave hi to him. She also took some time to jump on his bed... see the video below.

Grandpa has a box of little animal figurines that Jenna plays with whenever we go to his house... as soon as we walked in, she saw the box and said "Jenna" then "anmals" and pointed to them, demanding to play.

Jenna's new thing, if we're hanging out in her room, is to go to her crib and ask to get in. She's not tired, but she wants to play (SOMEONE cough*Josh*cough taught her to jump in her crib)... Here she is last Friday, with a somewhat devilish smile on her face, as she did her best to ruin the springs on her crib mattress, jumping away!

The next day, we were in her room getting her changed out of her PJ's, when she asked to get in her bed. She was acting like a total goofball, but took a minute out of her playing to give Daddy a quick kiss. This might win the prize for my new favorite picture. (you have to click to enlarge just to see how happy she is)

Did I mention that Jenna LOVES to jump?? especially in mommy and daddy's bed...

(I can't remember having this much fun... click to enlarge)

Did I mention she also loves to climb?? into and out of ANYTHING. If it's climb-able, she's climbing. Here she is trying to climb into our bed...

Uh oh... Mommy caught me...

I took her to Target over the weekend... she will no longer sit in a shopping cart, she immediately climbs out no matter how tightly I strap her in, and she insists on walking in front of me, helping to push the cart. But I turned around for one second to look at something, and when I turn back around, sure enough she's trying to climb into the cart... (you can't tell from the 2D picture, but her left foot is not on the ground, it's dangling in mid-air while her other foot is on the back of the cart)

Of course, I can't really blame Jenna for her love of climbing... as I learned this weekend, her daddy is apparently a bad influence. I left them alone outside for 2 minutes while I ran in to grab the diaper bag, and this is what I found when I came back out...

Uh oh, Daddy, I think she's on to us!!

Throwing her hands up in guilt when she realized they got caught.

I promise, Mommy, it wasn't my idea!! he made me do it!!

Dude, where do you think you're going?? you're gonna leave me up here all alone to take the heat for this!?! we both know it was your idea!!

Looking much more like a child and much less like a baby... I'm sure this won't be her "first day of school" picture for the next 17 years or so, perched on our front steps, wearing her pretty dress, and smiling for the camera... help, how is my little girl growing up so fast?!!?

Back inside after a long day... what started out as an innocent coloring project quickly turned into Jenna taking out some pent up frustration with the brown marker on our white kitchen table... that's why I bought the washable markers :-)

And at the very end of a long day, she likes to remind me that, no matter how adventurous and crazy she can be during the day, she's still just a little girl who loves to cuddle up in mommy and daddy's bed... shortly after this, we took pictures of me and Josh snuggling in bed with her, but I was sick and look too scary to post. She was so sweet and cuddly, though!

As promised, here is the video of Jenna jumping on grandpa's bed. If it's too blurry, I'll try to re-upload tomorrow. She definitely liked his fuzzy blanket. She was long overdue for a nap, so this was the best jumping I could get out of her. I'll have to go back for round 2 before grandpa moves back in May!

as you may gather from many of the pictures/video, Jenna's new favorite activities include jumping and climbing... in fact, if she had her choice, she would probably spend all day every day climbing on something or jumping on something... preferably someone's bed or her crib. Because she is VERY vocal these days, she has no problem telling you what she wants. If she wants to get out of her bed, she'll bribe you to let her into "mommy's bed"... so we'll take her out of her crib, she'll run full speed into our room, climb up onto our bed, and proceed to jump until she can't laugh anymore!!

She has also turned into a little parrott and can repeat everything we say, but she surprises us with the words she knows, the things she can identify, and the things she knows the meaning of... Josh took out a power bar after his work out the other day, and Jenna saw him unwrapping it. To our surprise, she shouts "cereal bar!!" (sounds a bit like ceel bar, but it's definitely cereal bar). Among her other favorites are "seriously" "good girl" and counting... but she can only count to 2. If you ask her to count to 2, she knows 1, 2, and if you're holding 2 of something, or she winds up with a blankey in each hand, she'll shout out 2!! Unfortunately she hasn't mastered 3 yet. When we're walking up the stairs, I'll count them for her... 1, 2, 3, etc. Then she starts counting, but she goes "1, 2...1, 2...1,2..." one day we'll get to 3!! She's also a huge fan of shouting "applesauce!" and "pasta!" and "yogurt!" and "blueberries" or "strawberries" as she watches me make her lunch in the morning. She insists on giving me the play by play of everything I put into her lunch bag.

of course... her verbal skills brought with them quite a temper. In addition to being the sweetest, most loveable little girl (she has become quiet adept at giving hugs and kisses, and she says "i love you" although it sounds like "olive you!") she has developed a ramapant temper if you take away something she wanted, or won't let her do what she wants. When I say temper, I mean full scale, throws herself on the floor, gives you dirty looks while screaming at the top of her lungs, temper tantrums. For the most part, we try to let her get it out of her system, and then ask her to use her words because we can't understand what she wants when she just cries. That usually works and she'll say what she wanted, or ask for something else that she knows she's allowed to do/have. One thing that's rather amusing... I'm beginning to wonder if she has a touch of OCD... on our first floor, right outside the kitchen, is a small bathroom. You have to pass it when you walk from the kitchen to the stairs, or the living room, etc. Jenna runs back and forth a million times a day, but NEVER without stopping to make sure the door to the bathroom is closed. It's usually open just a crack, it's never wide open, but she cannot walk past it without stopping to push it shut. It's cute, but slightly bizarre. She's starting to get equally obsessed with closing the door to the basement, but instead of pushing shut, you have to pull the door towards you, and because the door knob is a bit high for her, the basement door proves more of a challenge. I'm sure she'll have it mastered in no time!