Back in Action

Hi all, sorry for the long absence. I tried to post a few times over the last few months, but just never quite felt up to it emotionally. I’m doing great now and ready to get back in the ring!

Jenna’s still amazing, smart, beautiful! But, now she’s also potty trained, learning a few letters and numbers, speaking in complex sentences, and so much more!

A few weeks after her birthday Jenna started telling me that she needed to use the potty and she would get upset when I put her in a diaper. Unfortunately, this was also right around Christmas, so we were in the car a lot and it just wasn’t the right time to put her in underwear. So, we took her to the bathroom when she needed to go, but kept her in diapers. In January, we moved her to underwear and started using the potty all the time. She got a small piece of candy (a Smartie or mini-M&M) for each time she told us that she needed to pee. It only took a couple of days and she was only rarely having accidents. She didn’t take to well to going #2, but I told her that she could have a mini-Reese’s if she went in the toilet. Imagine this, she started using the toilet that day and didn’t look back. She got a Reese’s the first day and then got three the second day (she did her business 6 times that day, so we had to cut her off! Yeah, I’m not sure how that’s even humanly possible!). Of course now, 6 weeks later, she still asks me for a Reese’s.

Last summer one of our neighbors put a Crayola easel on the side of the road, so I picked it up and cleaned it and put it in the playroom. Jenna likes to use the chalk to draw. A friend mentioned that she put alphabet letters on her son’s and he got really interested in learning the alphabet, so I decided to move Jenna’s to the living room and to put the letters on it. She loves to play a game where she brings me a letter and then has me hold it up and ask her what it is and then she has me draw it on the easel and then she “draws” it, too. She has known J for quite a while and also knew O, but now she’s started learning a few more letters. I keep thinking that she’s going to suddenly know all of them because we play this game so often! She also likes to point out letters in books, on signs, etc and will ask what they are one-by-one.

Jenna’s language is still amazing and advanced for her age. Sometimes she really surprises me. She loves pretend play. Just today she was pushing her stroller through the house and asked me to follow her because we were going shopping. She pretended to pick something up and then handed it to me. She said, ‘here’s an antique for you to buy’.  Antique? Really, at 2?

Two!!!!

Jenna turned two on Wednesday. Aaron usually works from home on Wednesdays, but this time he had to go into the office, so we let Jenna open one gift before he left.

It was a tag reader and two books. I was afraid that she was a bit too young for the reader, but she picked up on it right away and really seemed to enjoy it.

Then, she and I enjoyed a fun day. It was very cold outside, but we ventured out. Fortunately for me, we saw our neighbors return home within minutes of getting out and Jenna was happy to show Jalen her new toy…inside!

Nana and Papa wanted to drop off her gift after Papa got off work, so they stopped by for a few minutes. I fear that their gift unleashed a monster…

Jenna figured out the gas pedal fairly quickly, but steering hasn’t been going so well!

She seemed to have a great day and I have to admit that it was a lot of fun for me to see how excited she was!

“I two”

Birthday Party

It’s hard to believe that she’s almost 2. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was waddling around, (unsuccessfully) doing everything I could to go into labor so that I could meet that sweet baby. Well, now she’s a sweet toddler and about to turn 2!
While by no means does she need any gifts, I know that some of you will insist on getting her something, so if you insist, here are a few gift ideas: 

• Books
• LeapFrog Tag Junior books
• Art activities - Coloring books, stickers, paint, play doh
• Matching games
• Outdoor toys, specifically a wagon
• Disney Movies on DVD – we have Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue and Toy Story 3, but would love more. We do have a Blu-Ray player, so we can play Blu-Ray or DVDs
• Mini trampoline
• Toddler bike helmet and pads
• Anything that initiates pretend play
  • Dr Kit
  • Dress-up jewelry and shoes (especially shoes, ok that’s just me talking)

Kid Tough Music Player

Alphie

A first scooter

Giant Activity Cube

I don’t really know what these are, but they look F-U-N!

This looks fun, too!

I think that Aaron would love to play with this with Jenna

Finger painting is fun!

Monkey’n Around

Aaron didn’t work yesterday, so we decided to have a fun family day. After hitting Target and the 75% Halloween rack (where Jenna got a zookeeper, Elmo, renaissance princess, and cat costumes!), we went to a place called Monkey Bizness. It is an indoor building with climbing areas, large moonwalks with slides and obstacle courses, and in general lots of fun things. Kids under 2 are only $4.00 and we got an extra $2 discount for bringing a Toys for Tots donation, so not only was it a lot of fun, but it was very inexpensive (parents are free).  We ended up pretty much having the whole place to ourselves.  I’m not sure who had more fun, Aaron, me, or Jenna!

Jenna liked to go down the slides by herself, but she didn’t quite grasp the concept of leaning back into the slide, so she took a few rough face plants, so we ended up trying to slide with her. Here’s one of her and her dad.

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween!

Jenna was a unicorn this year.  She was so cute and had a great time trick-or-treating, especially when she realized that she got candy!

After visiting grandparents’ we hit the town with our buddy Jalen James Bond and his mommy and daddy.

 

Fall School Program

Last night Jenna’s school had a fall fundraiser.  They had a mini-worship session at the church and then a hot dog dinner and activities.

 

The worship was short, informal and geared toward the kids. After a few quick announcements and a fun sermon, the kids were invited to the front to sing.  Most of the kids at the school are preschool aged (3-5) and most of them were excited to perform the songs that they sing at school.  The younger kids had no idea what was going on, so their teachers helped them to the front.  Jenna’s teacher brought her and another little boy who was probably in the 2 year-old class to the front and she sat facing them so they could see her singing and doing the hand movements.

 

But, did they watch her? No. They were too interested in each other.  First I saw Jenna hug him, then he hugged her and leaned in for a kiss.  So she leaned in for a kiss. Hug, kiss, hug, kiss. It was the cutest thing ever. Mostly they did this in between songs, which I wasn’t taping, so I kept missing it. I haven’t looked at the videos yet to see if I did catch any of it. If so, I’ll try to get it posted tonight.  I don’t think that her Daddy thought it was quite as cute as I did, but, seriously, it was so adorable.

 

The youth group does a fundraiser by selling pumpkins, so we walked around the “patch” for a bit. Jenna loved picking up the pumpkins and tried really hard to pick up some very big ones (later that night she told one of our friends that she “saw punkins, heaby”.

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Bike-cycle

A new trail was recently finished near our house.  We decided that it would be a fun family activity to start riding our bikes on the trail in the evening.  So, we bought a bike for Aaron and a trailer for Jenna.  When we were looking for a bike for Aaron, Jenna kept pointing out “bike-cycles”.

 

She loves to ride and almost every morning when she wakes up, she asks me if we’re taking a bike ride!