Where did my baby go?

Since I no longer write the monthly letters, I feel like time is slipping away. Maybe that's just the case. I've been told that the second year goes by a lot quicker than the first, and this morning, when I woke up, I was emotional. I was sad. I missed Jenna more than my normal Monday at work (each Monday morning is difficult realizing that I don't get to spend the day with Jenna like I did over the weekend).

I got to work, turned on my sappy mix on my iPhone and looked at the calendar. BAM. December 21, 2009. My baby girl is a year and a half old. How did she get from this...

newborn

6 months

12 months
16 months

to here!? (this photo is ~ 2 months old, I've been slow to upload). I love this age.

I love that if I even suggest the word book she grabs the one closest to her and runs over to my lap so we can read it.

I love that she sings 'Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" to herself.

I love that she'll 'read' to her snowman friends (I'll have a hard time putting them away now!) and when she does, she opens the page and says "what's DIS!? What's DIS? What's DIS!?" waiting for the snowmen to reply 'A red truck'.

I love that she's happier waving to the train as it goes by than she is to ride it.

She's now grabbing her shirt, pulling it up to suck her thumb with the shirt in the same hand and her other finger is in her belly button. Or in her ear. Or she's picking at the skin between the fingers of the hand she's sucking. I love that she's a bit odd. Just like her Mama.

I love that she's curious, and stubborn, and heartfelt. That she says "I lub ew"

I called her today, just to say hello. She's with Nanny this week. I spoke with Nanny for a bit then she put Jenna on the phone. Now, instead of just listening, she'll say "Hi, hi, hi!" I asked her to blow a kiss and she replied with kissing the phone. My heart strings have been a little bit tighter after that conversation.

So where did my baby go? Where do we go from here? I know it gets better, but I have a feeling it only goes faster from here. No longer a bean, no longer a baby... now I have a little girl and a swollen heart.

13 months

Ahhh, Jenna's 13 months old. I'm no longer going to write the monthly letters because I want to keep them to the first year. I think now I'll write them every 6 months, but I do still plan to do a monthly pictures and note what's been new in her world.

My primary reason behind this is to ensure I can keep up with "What you do for the first, you won't do for the second". I hope to be able to write monthly letters to Jenna's sibling (not coming anytime soon for those that are thinking of asking) for their first year, just as I have for Jenna. That being said, I still want to keep track of her growth and development... so essentially I'll still be writing about her monthly, if for no other reason, to keep the blog up and refresh my memory (because Mommy amnesia is REAL people!)

13 months. Crazy town! As I write this, I think I can officially call her a walker. She chooses to walk more than crawl now, albeit if she's SUPER excited, she'll crawl, much faster, after all. AND! She's said the word Mama. She's still selective in it's use, but it has been muttered on more than one occasion. Her obsession with the word Doggie has now turned to an obsession with the word Daddy. So now every thing's Daddy.
Practicing walking with Poppie.

I can't get enough of those blue eyes. Have I mentioned I can't keep track of the number of teeth she has? Seriously, she's got all the incisors (you'll see visual evidence in the photos below) and is working on all 4 of her premolars, and I think a canine tooth or two will be making it's appearance soon. I think. Maybe.

Playing at Nanny & Poppie's over the 4th of July weekend. I never thought I'd see Nanny's fancy coffee tables be so beautifully decorated ;)

Nanny bought Jenna some Russian nesting dolls to play with while up at their house. She loved them :)

Jenna doesn't have access to stairs at home, or at day care... but at Nanny and Poppie's, she climbed them without skipping a beat... going down the stairs was more difficult and we'd have to help her otherwise she'd roll right down.

Waving to the participants at the parade.

Reading "Brown Bear"

Our little patriot. So cute.

Her most recent 'thing'. She tucks her lower lip over her lower teeth and gives this overly excited laugh. CRACKS.ME.UP. Her little nose wrinkles just a bit and she goes to town. Just looking at this picture makes my day better instantly. I love it.

We went to Berkeley with Grandma. "Little Farm" is in Berkeley and you can bring celery or lettuce to feed the Cows, Goats, Pigs and Chickens (I'm sure there's more, but I forget, it's that mommy amnesia thing again)

Walking with Grandma
Checking out the chickens. She would 'talk' to them, too. Have I mentioned she 'talks' in sentences? Something like this "Gebaba GO beba daddy ducky Gee go de DAW" Sort of. ;)

She's signing 'light' here. We've been playing with sign language and *this* is the one sign she's picked up and uses often. She uses it all the time. You know, it'd be more helpful if she signed hungry, milk, all done or more... but she likes the 'light' sign best. Eh, we'll keep practicing. At least we know she comprehends.

Swine flu!? What swine flu ;) She got along with the piggy just fine.

A little out of order but there's also a steam train in Berkeley. We went and Jenna loved it :)

Our little family, waiting to get started on the train...

A rare photo where I'm not behind the camera... on the train.

OK, back to the farm... did I mention there were COWS? And the cows have crazy tongues? Jenna was curious enough to get this close, but wise enough to pull her hand back off Daddy's when that tongue came out to grab the food.

The same day we went to little farm and the steam train, we got a little splash pool. Jenna played and played and played until her lips turned blue (oops!)

My little cutie.

ruffle butts are the cutest!

That's all I've got for now. She's doing well, growing like a weed. Next month is going to be crazy. We're going to Disneyland for the first time, going camping (kind of, details later) I think we might be skipping hot august nights this year but there's lots on the agenda.