My Little Helper

This weekend when I was Swiffering (hm, is that verb?) the floor Jenna followed close-by, so I let her have a go with the broom.  It was so cute!

Dr Pepper

My name is Julie and I am an addict.

Dr Pepper. Mmmm, I love that stuff. I used to drink a can a day and an occasional Rt 44 from Sonic on the weekend.  I had no desire for DP during the first half of my pregnancy and had an occasional can during the second half. When Jenna was born, I quickly resumed my can a day habit. But then I went back to work, we moved, and she went from waking up at 10 am to 6:30am AND (most notably) McDs started selling their large drinks for $1 and my DP consumption grew exponentially. Now, I must have 4 cans a day and often have more. Although I am only short 5 lbs of my pre-preggo weight (and haven't gained extra due to my addiction), it is obviously proportioned different, not to mention that my pre-preg weight was a good 10-15 lbs higher than desired. I work out enough and eat well enough that I think I should be able to lose at least the 5 extra pounds, but I know it will never happen with all that DP running through my system.

Soooo, I'm telling y'all that I am quitting DP. I don't plan to never drink it again, but starting Jan 1st and for at least a few months I'm not going to drink it at all. So, if you see me out and about and notice that I'm thinking about having Dr Pepper, can you remind me that I'm off it? Please? :) Thanks!

P.S. Please don't tell me not to drink it between now and New Years - I am enjoying it while I can!

Table Manners

Hey Mom, can you put some food on my fork, please?

 

Mmmmmmmm!

 

Don’t even think about getting between me and this fork!

 

I’m so cool now that I can feed myself!

 

Toys, toys, toys

Since Jenna just had a big birthday and got lots of great gifts, I decided it was time to swap out all those “baby” toys for her new “toddler” toys.  Yep, I pulled out every-single-little-itty-bitty-toy from her toy chest and special drawer in the living room.  I found out that we had about 1000 30 books stashed away, along with many, many stuffed animals, teething rings, and did I mention books? Here’s the after picture of her toy chest – yes, it is also after she had a fun afternoon of playing.  I admit that sometimes my living room is covered in toys! Luckily, it is super easy to put everything back in the chest (well, at least it is when you don’t have a toddler pulling toys out faster than you put them in! 

We also expanded her special drawer to two drawers. I think she was pretty excited. The table has 4 drawers in it and she is always trying to get into the other drawers (as you can see by the picture below – the top drawer is “not-for-Jenna”, but she really wants to get into it since that’s where her diapers and wipes are).  The left drawer is for books. I think we narrowed them down to about 10 and the right has a few random toys that will probably go back-and-forth between the toy chest and her drawer.

1 year checkup

Jenna's 1 year checkup was last Friday. She did good, but was definitely more aware of what was happening than she has been in the past.

First, the nurse had me undress her and sit her on the table. She didn't like the cold paper very well, but remained calm. The nurse measured her head circumference (18cm, 80th percentile), then laid her down to measure her height. Jenna was not happy and started fussing. The nurse was good though and was able to get a good measurement by making a mark on the paper at Jenna's head and another at her feet. I picked Jenna up and the nurse measured between the marks (31.25", >95th percentile). Next was weight (26 lb, 4 oz, >95th percentile). Amazing that 9 months ago we were worried about her weight gain!

Next was waiting for the doctor. We only had to wait about 5 minutes and I really liked him. Jenna has been playing shy, so she curled up on my lap while he evaluated her. Everything looked great. Then he talked to me about the vaccines she'd be getting (4!) and what to expect over the next 3 months until we see him again. He is a hand talker and nodder and kept laughing at Jenna because she would mimic his every move during the conversation.

Next was the worst - shots. :( As I mentioned, she had 4. The first was in her arm and she whined, but not bad, but the next 3 were in her legs and she got MAD! Fortunately the nurse was quick and Jenna calmed down after a couple minutes of cuddling with Mom and we were on our way.

Much like with her vaccines at 2 months, she had a reaction, but this time was very mild and only resulted in a few small red bumps around one of the injection sites. As a precaution we gave her a couple doses of Benedryl, but it never amounted to much.

I've been in the process of working with IT to swap laptops and therefore have had no opportunity to post pictures from her bday and parties. As I am planning to have a very lazy weekend with no plans except Xmas shopping, I hope to be able to edit the pics and post them before Monday.

Happy Birthday Princess!

Happy Cyber Monday

Last Cyber Monday I was busy having a baby. In fact I just realized she was born on Cyber Monday yesterday. In a very nerdy way that makes me excited. Tee hee!

I tried my hand at making some legwarmers for Jenna this weekend (they are for her birthday, but I tried them out a bit early). They are all the rage for babies, but outrageously expensive to buy, so I made them myself (yes me - I even used the sewing machine. We are slowly warming up to each other). They are super simple to make, so if you want some let me know and I can teach you. The picture doesn't do them justice. I took it with the phone, so the quality is bad, but also one started to roll down on Jenna's thigh, so you can't quite see the full cuteness. Regardless, Jenna posed so well for the picture I has to post it and I didn't think I could get her still enough for another shot.

Happy Halloween From Our Little Monster to Yours!

It is getting harder and harder to get pictures of our busy girl!

We are heading out for a little trick or treating (no, she can't have sweets, but she looks too cute!). I'll post some pictures later. She looks soooo adorable!

First Steps - Kinda

Jenna took her first steps yesterday - kinda. She doesn't quite have it figured out, but has at least moved her feet a couple times to move a (very) short distance.  She was willing to show me a couple times when I got home from work and showed Aaron once, but then got mad when we were trying to get her to walk on her own and refused to do it again.

On an unrelated note - for the first time in my life I'm NOT excited for the time to "fall back". Am I going to have a fussy baby in the evening and then a super eary morning (this week she's been trying to get up at 6!)? Any other moms of young kids not so excited for the time change? :)

UPDATE

Folks, don't fret about the dog bone from the previous post - we don't actually let Jenna get it. Of course now you may be fretting that we're mean parents...

Watching Football

We are at Jenna's Uncle Evan's 8th grade football game (Aaron helps coach). Jenna and I decided to watch from the truck. She's in the front seat in my lap and, I believe, has touched every button in the vehicle!

We still haven't gotten her to take a step on her own. This morning we were laughing about how Portia's dog bone was the main incentive for her crawling, so we got it out and tried to get her to walk to it. It almost worked, she stood there looking at it and leaned way forward, but wouldn't move her foot to step. She sat down and got mad and was mad at us for a few minutes. We put it up...till another day. :)

Story hour

Jenna and I just got back from her first story hour (the pic is of her sleeping on the way home). The Gardner library is holding a 4 week session specifically for infants and toddlers, so we decided to go. It was so much fun. Jenna was so excited to see lots of kids, although all but Thomas were quite a bit older. She played with some toys for a little while, then we sang a song, did introductions, read two stories and sang a couple more songs. She got really excited when we were singing and liked listening to the stories, but during introductions, she just wanted to get off my lap and crawl around the room. I wouldn't let her, so she threw a brief temper tantrum and continued to try to escape. It wasn't nearly as fun as the rest of the event. One of the books we read had a cow in it and she can say moo, so she thought it was fun to say moo with the older kids (albeit, she usually started a few seconds after they were done). I also think she tried to flap her arms like a duck, which the older kids were doing. Cute!

Oh talking about making cow noises reminds me of something that happened last week. There is a petting zoo near us called Deanna Rose Farmstead. We met a friend for a playdate last week. One of the buildings had an older calf in it. Jenna was excited to see it and was saying 'mooo', but then the calf started mooing herself. Jenna got a perplexed look on her face - like, that's not how a cow sounds. Then the cow mooed again and Jenna threw her arms out and screamed! It scared her. Of course the cow kept mooing, which scared her more and more! I picked her up and hugged her and we left the barn, but it took a little bit to calm her down. I thought it was ironic that the one animal that she can imitate terrified her!

Grr!

So do you think Tupperware's lifetime guarantee covers dogs with chewing fetishes? Yes, that is the lid of a sippy cup that I unfortunately did not was between the time Jenna drank it and putting her to bed (which I did immediately after she drank it).  Grr!

Jenna has started to say 'uh-oh' when she drops things, although it is usually just 'uh' or 'oh'. Today she started saying 'uuggghhhhggghhh-oh' (imagine someone starting to say 'uh', but then clearing their throat and then whispering 'oh'. It is rather hilarious, but I wonder what the other Johnson County moms will think when my princess growls in front of them after dropping her sippy cup (that she obviously shares with her dog)???

Finally Figured It Out

A couple weeks ago I got Jenna to drink from a straw, but since then she hasn't been able to - until today. Aaron and I stopped by McDonalds for lunch and then stopped by my mom's. Aaron drank his tea, then refilled the cup with water. I was mentioning that I was unable to get her to use a straw since the initial success, so he gave it a try. After a few attempts, she figured it out. Of course we were all cheering her on and my daughter, who LOVES attention (and praise), kept doing it. We finally had to take the cup away because she drank so much. Tonight at dinner I let her have a drink from my water and she immediately drank from it, so I think she has finally figured it out for good.

Oh the power of chips

Aaron is going to be out of town deer hunting for the next few days, so we decided to go to dinner. Jenna ate while we waited for food and we gave her a chip while we ate. It took about 5 minutes for her to eat one - awesome! But she started wanting to share with us. That was really cute, but then the sharing turned to everyone else, waiters, other customers, you get it. :) it is nice that she is so sweet though!

Dinna Time

Jenna wanted to say hi tonight while she was having dinner, but she was too busy trying to find crumbs in her bib pouch. What a nice invention! Not only does it help with the mess, but it provides a nice challenge for Jenna while I am cleaning up dinner.

Standing

Jenna has started standing on her own. She will push our hands away once she gets balanced, then will stand for a few seconds. When she starts to fall, she will put her arms out (like airplane wings) and fall straight forward and laugh like crazy when we catch her. No video or pics yet, but hopefully I can catch a pic soon!

On a side note, if you follow more than 1 blog, I highly suggest checking out Google Reader. You can find it on Google's main website. It makes it so easy to monitor multiple blogs and it is easy to see when an update is posted to a blog. You do need to set up a Google account, but that's pretty simple and you'll love it, I promise!

Sneak peek

Thought I'd share a sneak peek of Jenna's holiday dress that I found at a consignment sale this morning! So cute, but you'll have to wait until December to see it. :)

Halloween Fun

I found this cute bag today @ Walmart for only $1. O what if Jenna won't actually be getting candy this year - a Tink needs this bag!

While I was blogging...

This is what Jenna did! ORNERY!

Beautiful Baby

Jenna and I are getting ready to head out for a walk. Thought you'd enjoy a pic.

Just for those of you who are curious about how the babyfood meals are going. In all honesty it has been pretty bland. On an interesting note though, I cooked a potato for the first time in my life. I hate potatoes - it is the texture, eck. I made something called Cherub's chowder. It was bland and had potatoes in it, but Jenna liked it. Then again she has really liked the foods with flavor, so in the future that's probably the route we'll go.

Adios! We're off for our walk.

Yay! Phone blogging works!

Just for fun, I'll do another post. This time, I'm trying to attach a picture.

We had a great time at the Royals game on Saturday. We went with my aunt and uncle, who were fantastic baby entertainers. At the game AC's cousin and his wife found us and sat with us for most of the game and we also got to talk to some other friends who were at the game.  The updates at the K are awesome and I can't wait to go back when Jenna is a bit older. This time she loved watching the fountains (as did I!). It is so fun being able to see them close up.  Another very fun thing for The Princess was cheering for the Royals. She would clap when she saw everyone else clapping and danced to the music on the loudspeaker. I hate to admit it, but we left the game in the 9th inning with the score tied (the Royals went on to - what else - lose). Unfortunately Murphy chose to strike and we had to go. Yes, Jenna's diaper decided to leak during that wonderful inning and guess who's lap she was on? Who else, but Mom. Needless to say, I was ready to get home! All in all though it was a fab time and I really want to take her again!

The meal so nice, we had it twice

Now that I stay home part-time, I feel obligated to save when I can. One of the best ways that I've found to save is to make Jenna's food. With a little water, peeler and my Magic Bullet, I have succeeded in making all of Jenna's food. Now that she is getting older, we are able to feed her the same thing that we are eating, so I'm trying to make things that are a bit healthier than usual (gasp! Yes AC and I aren't the healthiest eaters!).  This week I'm going to try to cook something from either my babyfood book or from a website that I've consulted (many times) in my endeavours of babyfood making.  Wish me luck!

Now, in reference to the title, this morning I made a yogurt dish for Jenna. I used a bit of plain yogurt (none of that sweetened stuff!), chopped up a pear, poured in a dash of 100% orange juice, then crumbled up a granola bar, then mixed. I tasted it while I was feeding her and it was delish! I craved it all day, so I made my own version for desert. Instead of pears, I used blueberries and I added some chopped walnuts (off limits to Jenna until she's older). YUMMY!

P.S. I am, for the first time, using my phone to blog via email. Hopefully it works because now that I have a phone with the internet I don't use my laptop very often and I should blog more often since it is so easy.

Running Around

Nah, Jenna's not running around yet, at least on two feet. If you can call crawling and cruising all over the place 'running around', I guess she's doing that! But, I was actually talking about me and my aunt Dee. We're doing the Royals 5k tomorrow morning at the K. It will be an early morning and I'm actually sacrificing my day of sleeping in to do it, but I do love to run, not to mention that I get a free ticket to the evening game and a discount for a ticket for Aaron (well no one wants to pay full price to watch a team that would probably get beat by the Little League champions).

So, we're taking Jenna to her first game! It is a 6:10 game and her bedtime is 7:30, so we may be pushing things a bit, but we hope she'll be enough entertained that it won't matter. Go Royals!!!

I don't need a float, let me in the water!

Swimming with my buddy Thomas

Looking out the window - is that a dog I see???

Surprise! Surprise!

Yes, we do still exist! Between a busy little girl and lots of activities, I haven't made to time post. I'm going to post a bunch of pictures seperately, so check out the other posts to see them.

Jenna is crawling, climbing, singing, dancing, and being very cute, among many other things. She still loves her Portia dog and has started petting. It is very cute and she's done a great job of being very nice. Portia had a vet visit this week and weighed 21 lbs. I weighed Jenna last week and she weighed 20.8 lbs! So, they're almost exactly the same weight.

Since I've posted last, Jenna had another playdate with her friend Thomas. This time they went swimming. Jenna got very excited when they got in the pool and started splashing like crazy. Thomas wasn't so thrilled about getting splashed in the face and wanted out. But, he quickly realized that he could splash her back and they had a blast. Thomas' mom and I try to get together every couple weeks. They kids have a good time and it is really nice for us to visit.

Another day Jenna and I visited our new "neighbors" Jason and Melissa (their house is a couple blocks away) and we went swimming in their subdivision's big pool with Melissa. Jenna kept wanting to lay on her belly and would stick her face in the water. We didn't take pictures until it was almost time to go, so she was a bit fussy.

A recent favorite pasttime for Jenna is to look out the window. She loves to stand and watch everything. She often will pull up on the window sill and point and say dog. It is so cute, but usually there isn't a dog out at the time!

Busy Girl

Last weekend we visited Grammie while Aaron watched his cousin racing (he won!). My great-great grandparents gave my mom this dress when she was born. We have pics of Mom, me, and Jenna in it.



Jenna is pulling up a lot. Here she is playing with a toy.

Crawling

Jenna is doing pretty well crawling now. She falls a lot, but when she is motivated she can really get where she wants a lot faster than I think she is able to! Also, last Monday when she first was showing off her new crawling ability, she went from her stomach to sitting.

Today we're having a playdate. Thomas' dad works with me. His wife and I have emailed a bit because the kids are only a few days apart in age. We decided to get together this afternoon to let the kids play. I'm super excited!

7 Months!

Where has time gone! June went by so fast! Jenna is now pulling up a lot, although she's still too wobbly to stand. She has also within the last few days started to get onto all fours in an attempt to crawl. She is really frustrated that she can't crawl yet, but she's started improvising by rolling everywhere. She can move really quickly when she is motivated. Speaking of motivation, the things that motivate her to move the most are (1) Portia, (2) Portia's favorite bone, (3) the remote and (4) our cell phones. Of course Portia is a moving target, so she doesn't catch her often, but we've caught her with the bone a couple times (eww!) and one day the TV started changing and I couldn't figure out how - I swore I had the remote, but she got her hands on it and was busy pushing buttons.

Last night we fed her a few pieces of chicken. So, she's officially an omnivore and no longer a vegetarian. :) We ate at the table and let her pick up sweet potato bits while we ate. She was mad when they were gone! She's been eating Cheerios and Puffs for a few weeks now and has gotten quite good at picking them up. She's even using the 'pincer' grasp to pick them up part of the time.

Bad Hair Day?

I swear - Jenna has some of the craziest hair! I thought that by the time it was this length that it would start to lay down, but it keeps standing straight up. It is so crazy that we have people ask if we put product in her hair to get it to stand up. I'm sure that it is going to be beautiful thick hair once she gets older, but for now, it is quite the conversation starter! LOL!

The sun was shining in her room the other day when I captured this picture. I think it nicely shows off her 'do!

Happy Father's Day!

Jenna and her WONDERFUL daddy!

Hi!

Happy Jenna Bean!

Thanks Gram!

Gram got these shoes for Jenna - aren't they cute!



Other news - Jenna is now saying Da Da!!!! Yay!!!

Stand Up! Sit Down! Yell a Little Louder!

Jenna has started to pull up to standing from the sitting position. She's still too wobbly and not strong enough to really stand, but she's doing it. She first did it today with Nana, who sat her in the crib to play while she picked out her outfit. Then this afternoon while I was putting clothes away she did the same thing! Time to move that mattress down!

I think that she may be getting more teeth - although I've thought it for a couple weeks now. The last few days she's been gnawing on her finger and today she took a 2 hour nap in the morning and this afternoon she has been asleep for well over 3 hours! When she got the first two teeth she was extremely tired.

Correction

I noticed this morning that I read her chart wrong! She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 90th for head circumference!

We had a great morning - Jenna slept until 9! Wow! She probably would have slept longer, but I checked on her and she heard the door and woke up. Since she had a reaction to her first set of vaccines, they have us give her Benedryl to help protect against another reaction. I guess it really zonked her out!

6 Month Check-up

We visited the doctor today for Jenna's 6 month checkup. It went well! Our petite baby is no more. She is 17lbs and 4 oz and 26.5" long! That's 90th percentile for weight and 75th for height.

The doctor said to start offering her 3 meals a day and offer water to her with the meals. He said he doesn't advise against giving her juice, but to stick with water if she will take it because the juice can be empty calories that she does not need. He said that within the next month or two she will stop drinking as much formula. We've already noticed that she seems to be waiting a little longer between bottles and she isn't even having too much solids food yet, so I suspect she may start drinking less before then.

She only had to have one shot today, BUT we have to go back because they were out of 2 vaccines (one oral and one shot). :( On one hand I'm glad because I'm not entirely comfortable with her having so many vaccines at once, but I also don't like that she'll have to go through pain twice when it could have just been once. She started screaming as soon as they poked her. We got the nurse that isn't as experienced with pediatrics and thus not quite as good at giving shots (she's still pretty good, just not as quick). As soon as I could pick her up I did and gave her the pacifier and she calmed right down. Phew! I know that it really helps her for me to stay calm, so I try really hard not to let it show that it makes me sad for her to get the shot and it seems to help.

We aren't going back for another checkup until her 12 month checkup! I think that we're going to try to find a pediatrician near where we live. We like our current doctor, but there have been a few things at the office that have been frustrating and in a lot of ways I think that we may be missing out by not taking her to doctor specialized in childcare. So, if anyone has a reccomendation for a ped in the Olathe area, let me know!

After the appointment as a treat we stopped by some friends in Spring Hill - our old neighbors. Dallas and Maddison had so much fun with Jenna and she with them. They haven't seen her since March and she has grown so much since then! She loved both of them. She kept staring at Dallas and got really excited when he was holding her. She loved Maddison's hair and would grab it and laugh if it touched her face.

This pic is a couple weeks old, but so cute!

Happy 1/2 Birthday! Pics Added!

Jenna is 6 months old today!!!

Not much to post, but I have a free minute, so I might as well, right?

Jenna has her 6 month appointment on Thursday. I have a feeling that we won't have to worry about her being underweight this time, lol! She's a bit of a chubby bunny. Gotta love leg rolls!!!

Today we were fairly lazy. Aaron and I take turns getting up early with her on the weekend and today was my day to sleep in. Ahhh! I so look forward to the days I get that extra sleep. Why is it that the night owls always have a morning bird?

I got some new toys for Jenna to play with in the tub, so she was really excited while waiting for me to get her bath ready tonight. It was so cute to see her so excited!

Music to my ears!

Jenna said 'ma ma' for the first time last weekend! She can make the 'b', 'm' and 'g' sounds fairly well. We're working on 'd' - it isn't fair if she only says 'ma ma', right?

I can wear a bow!

We took this picture last week before heading to my cousin's graduaton party. It was the first time we were able to put a bow in Jenna's hair.



I took Jenna on a playdate today with my friend Kristin's baby Aubrey. She's a few months older than Jenna. At first they were sitting and looked at each other a bit and played with their toys. We laid them down and they grabbed each other's hands and then moved their arms all around. It was really cute - my guess is that they were both trying to figure out how to get the other's hand in their mouth. :D

Mother's Day Surprise

I hope that all you mothers out there had a great day yesterday! "Jenna" got me a gift card for a massage and a sweet card.

The big surprise that she had for me though was her first tooth! It popped through at some point yesterday. She was a bit more fussy than usual, but not too bad. I was worried that she wasn't going to sleep well because she seemed to be having some pain just before bed and we were having a difficult time getting her to calm down. But, Aaron took her to bed and she went down without a fuss and didn't wake until after 7 this morning.

Who's Ready for Summer?

I am!!!

First Food

Last week I took Jenna for her 4 month check-up. She is doing great! She weighed 12.5 lbs and was 24.75 inches. Her weight is still fairly low, but a bit better than it was before - the doctor was not concerned. She had two shots - and did great with them! She cried right after the first prick, but the nurse was quick and Jenna recovered quickly. By the time I was able to pick her up she had stopped crying. The doctor told me that she could start eating solids anytime between now and her next appointment. We decided to give some very runny cereal a try last night. She did great! Everyone (including the doctor) had warned me to expect her to spit most of it out and to hate it. She seemed to already know how a spoon worked and after 2 or 3 bites she was opening her mouth when we got the spoon to her mouth. She did spit out one bite, but otherwise she ate it very well. Tonight we made the cereal slightly thicker. She wasn't sure about it at first, but after a couple bites was opening wide anticipating bites. We think she actually likes it. What a funny babe!

First bite:



Mmmmmm:

Long time...no see

15 Weeks:





Well, between work, moving, and baby, blogging has taken a backseat, but I'm back.

Since I last posted Jenna has continued to roll over - for Nana only! Aaron and I still haven't seen her roll over, just Nana and Faith! It reminds me of when I was pregnant with her and she wouldn't move when people were feeling my belly...paybacks, perhaps?

Other recent developments that I may not have posted about:

(1) She is now sitting with assistance very well. She still topples over if we don't give her some support, but she's doing very well for her age!

(2) The fuzzy chick hair (or tennis ball hair as Aaron likes to call it) is getting longer. If it wasn't so fine I think we could put a barette in it, but alas, it is fine as, well, baby hair. :)

(3) Her eyes seem to have settled on BLUE! Yay for team Julie! Lol!

(4) She has entered the stage where she cries as soon as we lay her down for bed or a nap. Not fun, especially when you move and your baby is having an adjustment period and is waking up at 3 am most nights. She usually cries herself to sleep within about 10 minutes, but it makes us so sad to hear. Unfortunately we found out the hard way that if we don't let her cry, she will cry every time we lay her down...over and over again. I couldn't resist and had to take a picture as she was starting to cry the other night.



(4) She's a talker! She jibbers and jabbers all the time. She throws in all kinds of inflections with lots of different sounds - it is adorable!

16 weeks (shirt courtetsy of Chris - isn't it cute?):



17 weeks:

I took this today when she was riding in the sling while I picked up around the house. She hadn't been in it for a couple months. She used to sleep whenever I put her in it, but this time, she was wide eyed and very calm.