You decide...

Everyone always says Jenna looks just like Josh. I personally think she looks a lot like me when I was little. Here's a picture of me from, oh, I don't know, about 25 years ago or so. (sorry for the picture quality, they didn't have digital back then!)

I'll try to find a picture of Josh from about the same age.

"What is Love, Baby Don't Hurt me..."

As you may have gathered from my previous posts, Jenna loves to dance. And when I say "dance" I mean it in a ridiculous, over the top, bouncing up and down while swaying back and forth, can't help but make you smile way that apparently has her daycare teachers demonstrating to their boyfriends at night. So, this morning, we're in the car on the way to daycare, and a great "dance" song came on the radio... one of her favorites from Daddy's iphone. Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold"

Obviously she was tightly strapped into her car seat, so her dancing ability was significantly hindered. So what do I see when I look in the rearview mirror? The "Night at the Roxbury" "What is Love" head bob. It was so funny that I almost cried from laughing so hard. If you don't understand the reference, there's not much I can do to explain it. I'll have to get it on video.

Memory Madness!

I think we've reached the stage in mental development where memory skills start to show themselves. A week or so ago, I was sitting in the back seat of the car with Jenna while Josh drove. She was getting antsy, so I put a piece of chewing gum in my mouth and started blowing bubbles to amuse her. She got a huge kick out of them, and somehow identified them as bubbles (which surprised me, considering how different a chewing gum bubble looks to the bubble-blowing she's used to).

Fast forward to this morning... we got in the car to take Jenna to Josh's parents house (daycare was closed due to the lovely weather). I hadn't sat in the back with Jenna since the time I mentioned above. As SOON as I sat down in the car, she said "bubble?" I was confused for a minute, thinking maybe she was asking for a bottle (she calls them bobbles), but that didn't make sense. I said "what?" she said bubble! and repeatedly said bubble emphatically over and over again. I finally caught on, put a piece of chewing gum in my mouth, and munched away until it was soft enough to blow bubbles. Once she saw the gum in my mouth, she got all excited and picked up the speed of her "bubble! bubble!" demands.

I blew some bubbles and a good time was had by all. It just amazed me that, a week after the initial event, Jenna's memory immediately associated "mommy sitting in the back seat with me" with "blowing bubbles"

Clearly she's going to be a rocket scientist :-)

What, You Dont?

You mean you DON'T dance around the basement with elmo for hours on end? Gee, how ever do you entertain yourself!! Remember when life was so carefree that dancing with elmo made you the happiest person alive? Ahh, childhood! (these are in order, I just kept snapping a way as she twirled elmo in circles all over the basement dancing to whatever music was coming from the TV... it was quite adorable!)

I'm throwing in a few more for good measure... Jenna has become a very astute dancing queen. Here she is dancing up a storm to some cheesy MPT children's show... (the video is even better!)

Here she is snuggling with daddy, reading a good book...

And here she is (making a goofy face!) on January 25, 2009 with her very first full-head ponytail, which officially means she has more hair than most 17 month olds combined!! (it's been long enough in the back for a while, but it had to grow a lot to get the front to make it all the way to the back!)


It still doesn't look that pretty, so I think we'll leave it down for a while longer!

I know, I know...

I suck. I officially get an "F" for blogging in 2009. Things have been busy lately, but that's no excuse to leave my (2) loyal fans hanging!!

Updates:

Our house is officially on the market as of yesterday!! It's scary because we do not know what will happen, if anyone will even come see it, or if we'll get so much as an offer in this economy, but we figured it was a good time to take a chance. We will not buy or build another house until/unless we sell this house, so in the meantime, if we sell before we buy, we will likely move in with Dad Mandy and store our furniture. All of this is VERY speculative, though!!

Jenna is nuts! In a good way! This is such a crazy age, because she's into everything and understands everything, but, while she's pretty advanced as far as her vocabulary, she can only communicate so much. Lauren and Frank came over to watch the Ravens game on Saturday with their two little girls, and it's amazing to see Haley communicate. At 2 years and 2 months old, they are able to tell you "I'm hungry," "I'm tired," etc. Right now Jenna's favorite thing to do is eat. If you ask her what she wants to do, her canned response is "eat eat eat" (while making the sign language motion of putting her hand to her mouth). It's quite adorable, but she does it no matter when you ask her what she wants to do, even if she just finished eating. It's like daycare trained her that all she ever wants to do is eat!!

She has also become quite vocal. If you ask her what she wants to do with more specificity, she will tell you how she feels. "Do you want to read a book?" "yes" "do you want to go to bed?" "no" "do you want a waffle for breakfast?" "waffle!!" "do you want Lennon to come over and play today?" "Lennon!!"

My only issue these days relates to the bed time bottle. We had successfully weaned Jenna from all bottles around her first birthday, and she drinks all milk/water from her sippy cup during the day. It took a little while longer to get rid of the bed time bottle, but she was finally going to sleep without it... until we went to Florida over Christmas. Because she was sleeping in the uncomfortable pack and play, it was easier to just give her a bottle of milk before bed. Well, apparently she got used to it.

Now, Jenna associates being tired with wanting a bottle... and she's able to tell us that, which she wasn't able to do the last time we weaned her. When she gets tired, before bed, she'll demand "BOBBLE." I will try to put her to bed without it, but she will continue saying "bobble" and screaming until we oblige. Finally last night Josh gave her a bottle, but that didn't do the trick. After letting her play for a few more minutes, we realized she was truly tired, so I put a few more ounces in a bottle and took her back up to bed myself. When she drained the bottle, she started crying, and as I went to put her in her crib, she grabbed my shoulders in a tight hug and just laid her head on my shoulder, instantly going silent and still. After a few minutes of quiet cuddling, she went right down in her crib. That made me realize that it's not the "bobble" she wants, but the few minutes of quiet cuddling we always shared before bed. Our ritual was Jenna and I cuddling in her rocking chair, while she drank her bottle, and I softly whispered about the fun things we'd do the next day and how much I love her, etc. When she'd finish the bottle, I'd snuggle another few seconds, and then put her down. I think she associated all those extras with the bottle itself, and I didn't give enough credit to the fact that weaning her from all bedtime rituals at once was too much. I think tonight I'll try the cuddling without the "bobble" and see how things go!

Meanwhile, we had a lot of fun this past weekend!! Lennon and Laurie came over to play on Saturday afternoon, and as I said before, Lauren, Frank, Haley and Ava came over on Saturday night. I'll try to post the pictures from this weekend as soon as possible!

Aww

Not only do I love watching Jenna read "Where's Stretch" but what I love even more is that Josh decided to hijack the blog last night to post about it!! When we woke up this morning, he told me to check the blog, he had posted an entry last night. Jenna is lucky to have a daddy who loves her so much! Meanwhile, it is seriously aborable reading "Where's Stretch." I mean, it might even be video worthy, but I'm not sure I want to share that special moment with the masses.

I will, however, post more pictures (New Years Eve, etc) soon!

Where's Stretch?

One area we have noticed significant advancement in recently is Jenna's attention span. In the past, Jenna would grab a book with great enthusiasm, hold her arms out high and request a spot on your lap to read. Without fail, however, by page two Jenna's little attention span would inevitably give way as something new would catch her eye and all interest in the book would disapear. It has only been in the last couple of days we've noticed a drastic improvement in her ability to stay focused and read and re-read books. There's one story in particular that she has grown very fond of titled 'Where's Stretch?'. The premise of the book is quite simple--you turn the pages (and the fold-out-flaps) in search of the family dog, Stretch. Jenna is completely enthralled by this book. We'll ask, is Stretch in the shower/closet/bed/kitchen, etc and Jenna will turn the flap and say, "nooooooo" with the cutest inflection on the word "no".

She asks to read the book over and over and frankly it's fine with us because we find it hysterical by the way she says "noooooooooo" every time.