Disneyland!

It's hard to believe we were at Disneyland about a month ago. But it's been that long. Be prepared for a post with lots of photos and very few words. We had a blast. It was great. Jenna did great considering we paid no attention to her schedule, put her to bed late pretty much every night and she didn't sleep in the stroller. Thank goodness we stayed in the hotel across from Disneyland. We got over our fear of leaving our stroller unattended with the diaper bag hanging on it. Jenna was a champ, slept relatively well considering we weren't at home and we were all in a single room suite. That's Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Pop and Uncle Jon... all sleeping in the same room as Jenna. Nick and I were able to escape and ride a few rides together while Grandma & Uncle Jon watched Jenna. It was great to go with Nick, a little mini date night just days after our 4 year wedding anniversary, celebrating in Disneyland. It reminded me of part of our honeymoon (we went to Disneyworld for 3 days of our 10 day honeymoon). All in all, we had a great time, but were EXHAUSTED when we arrived back home. Disneyland with a toddler is not for the faint of heart!

On this trip, Jenna really was taking to walking on her own. Here she is on Main street showing us the way....

These photos are out of order. I know you're totally shocked, too. Here we are at the entrance with Pop ... (actually, this is us leaving, but the trip was a whirlwind, and the order doesn't really matter, right!?)
Meeting Cinderella! This one's for you, Irma!
And Belle!
And Ariel. Jenna just wanted to point out things in the background. I'm looking forward to taking her when she actually knows who these characters are. Oh, and for the record, just so she won't be able to live it down... just before entering the 'Meet the Disney Princesses" part of the whole shin dig... she pooped. It was totally stinky, and she met the princesses with a turd in her diaper. NO TIME to change it. We waited in line an hour and she pooped as the cute little girl in front of us walked in to meet Jasmine. Oy....

Speaking of Jasmine.... Jenna loved, loved her chest. Whatever sparkly material was on her bosom Jenna was enthralled with. Poor Jasmine must be used to this kind of thing because she kept pointing out the pretty jewel on her bracelet, but Jenna kept smacking her hand away. So, a diaper load of crap and trying to grab the poor girls boobs. ::sigh::
Jenna also got to meet Snow White :)
On the Ferris Wheel. See that green shirt? yup, that's our monkey....
Jenna wanted to push the stroller.
Did I mention she's been making her desires more obvious with the pointing? Here she is demonstrating that skill.
We were all dancing. She decided to book it while Mom was looking like a loon. Gee, thanks, babe.
Again with the pointing
Mickey! She loves Mickey at home... when we met him... all she wanted to do was pull the bow out of her hair. Maybe she wanted to give him a gift. Maybe?
Fireworks. I'm proud of this shot. (all the others were by my Dad, thanks Pop!) I was told that in order to shoot fireworks, you had to had a tripod with a remote shutter release thingy... Not I said the fly! This was with my hand. I'm proud... I think it's purdy.
This was taken the first day with my camera. I quickly decided to ditch my camera in the hotel as baby + stroller + family to tend to + camera = doesn't work. But I got like 3 shots...

She danced, danced, danced in line on this ride. Inside the ride (her first, how fitting, right?!) she was confused... but still danced.
This is in the finding nemo submarine ride. This girl loves her fishies... which is what's she's pointing to. She also liked the bubbles and the divers. I wish we took her on this ride twice, but there just wasn't time.
My little bean. She's tired, but she's got her custom ears on.
Like I said, a great trip, but an exhausting trip. We're looking forward to taking her again, though I think we'll wait until she's closer to 3. Very, very exciting.

Jenna and family

We got together at Aunt Heidi and Uncle Mike's for Mother's Day brunch. It was good to get Jenna aquainted with her 4 legged (wait... her only) cousins. 

Left to right: Reuss, Poppie, Jenna and Aunt Heidi. LOVE this picture. 

Madison checking Jenna out towards the end of the day. Jenna is inspecting something that got stuck to her hand while crawling around. This is so normal, but I don't catch it on film because I just don't like it. I hate that no matter how much I clean, or sweep, or keep her in a bubble, she still finds stuff on her hands. Hey, maybe I should embrace it. She's entertained, right? Oh, and at least Madison got to check her out without actually confronting this little person. 
Reuss, on the other hand, was all about playing with Jenna. He loooovvvees her. 
I realized I haven't taken a good picture of my Mom and Jenna in a longer time than I care to admit. So... mini photo shoot proved successful. They were both having a blast. My Mom knows how to get her giggles going. I love it. 
Ah, quick one with Pop and Jenna... she loves to watch people talk on the phone. 
Back to Grandma... 
This one's my favorite. 

Jenna's first Easter

It's Jenna's first Easter! She was so excited to be in her Easter 'duds' she was a little impatient with every one's arrival! Here she is, all dolled up, wondering where everyone else is.... (I took this opportunity for a little photo session... be warned LOTS of pictures ahead!)

Where is everyone?!

"Is Daddy ready yet?" She's looking down the hall...
"Nanny, Poppie, Aunt Heidi, Uncle Mike, Grandma AND Pop?!?! They're all coming! When will they get here!?!"

"Mom, you missed a spot on this window... lemme get it for you. WITH MY EASTER DRESS"

Still waiting...

Grandma broke out the bubbles that were in her Easter basket... She wasn't sure what to do with them, and was a bit irritated they went away just as she got her hands on them!

Greeting guests. (She waves now, have I mentioned that yet?)

Poppie reading her her Easter bunny book

She's dancin away! Super excited every one's there to watch.

Playing with Aunt Heidi.

This is after our dinner, she's super tired, a whole lotta guests and a whole lotta play can wear a girl out! Nanny was happy to hold her. Jenna was happy to play with her necklace.

One last bubble session with Aunt Heidi before everyone heads home!

There it is! Jenna's first Easter. We had a great time, the meal came out surprisingly quick and easy. Grandma and Pop were there, too but I didn't manage to snag them in any pictures (mental note for the next time we're all together!!!)

Stories, before they're lost... and a few pics

So, I've been meaning to blog about this for over 2 months now (yipes!) and I keep forgetting, or maybe I'm just hesitant to get it written down for fear that someone will try to tell me Jenna's first word was something other than Dada.

A couple of months ago, just when Jenna was getting mobile enough to get into trouble, we started setting limits on what she can and can't touch in the living room (or is it family room? I always get those confused... it's the one with the TV). One thing she's not allowed to touch is Nick's guitar (um, for obvious reasons, right?) So, she crawled over to it. We sharply said "Jenna, No." and take her hand and remove it from the guitar. This was repeated over and over and over (we tried removing her and distracting her, but the allure of the guitar was apparently too much for her). At one point, after removing her hand and saying "NO" again, she looked at me, angry, turned back to the guitar and yelled "NO!" I dropped my jaw, looked over at Nick and we both started laughing. We did hear what we think we heard, but I maintain that she has yet to repeat the word 'no' again, thus, it isn't really her first word.

The other story happened about a month ago (maybe less?) I'm in the kitchen making coffee (decaf for me, leaded for Nick). Nick's in the above mentioned room (family room!?) laying on the floor, Jenna's crawling all over him. All the sudden I hear "Ow, hehe, ow... OWWW!!!" I go over to see what all the commotion was about and see Nick holding his nose. I asked him what's wrong and he proceeded to say "She gave me a bloody nose!" She was examining his face and stuck her finger up her nose. He claims he thought she'd stop, only to discover she wanted to see what was up there. She found blood, apparently.

OK, so normally I save all my favorite pictures for the month end letter, but I can't wait on these. They turned out great. I'm super excited I picked up a new lens, and the results, thus far, have been amazing. YAY!

I just pulled her hair out of pigtails and she was rockin her mop-top

I really can't get enough of her little round booty or her thigh rolls!

Jenna and Kellen, hanging out, admiring all the leaves outside they would love to get their hands on.

Again with the booty and thigh rolls... the smiley flower bloomers were too cute to ignore!

Mama and her baby.


This is, by far, my favorite picture lately. I love her eyes, I love that she's not all the way in the frame, I love that her pigtails are in the distance. This picture never fails to make me smile, and I think it ranks up there with my other favorite shots: Daddy's girl and the Tutu shots

Random pictures...

So, I'm looking over the pictures that I've recently uploaded, and I wanted to share a few. I was supposed to do a 'day in the life of Jenna' post, but my camera battery died half way through the day... grrr... I'll have to repeat this process... so most of the pictures are from this past weekend.

We introduced egg yolks....
I've been meaning to take a picture of her chunk-a-licious thighs because they're dwindling. The bean's losing weight due to her crawling and keeping us on our toes. That, coupled with it being winter still (lol, well, winter for Northern California), means she's in pants most days. But.. here's a quick shot I got of her while in her infant seat... I love her little rolls!

How adorable is this hat? She's all dressed up and ready to go to Cameron's first birthday party!

We finally sold our old guest bedroom set and purchased a new dresser for her (to match her crib). Here she is trying to help us unwrap it. She's focused!

Once she realized she couldn't get it unwrapped, she decided it should be moved, as is into her bedroom... she's pushing. Notice the day one bag at her feet? She's discovered where we keep our shopping bags to recycle. It's one of her favorite spots in the kitchen... she pulls one out, drags it around for awhile, attempts to drool all over it, then goes after another. So, her leaving the bag at her feet means she was REALLY excited about her new dresser :)

Her eyes... I love her eyes. People stop me on the street to comment on her eyes. They think she gets them from me, but that's not the case, she's got her Nanny's eyes. I love them and get lost in them frequently.

More pictures...

So we took Jenna to the park to try out the swings at Irma's request. She said she thinks she's ready and she just wants us to introduce it to her and enjoy this 'first' before she gets her on the swings during their daily park trips. You saw the video below... here are the stills...

She's a fan!
After quite a bit of time on the swings, we let her crawl around while I followed her and cringed at her crawling on the park 'floor' She didn't put anything in her mouth (maybe she knew?) but she did get to exploring.. This is her most recent 'face':

Here she is exploring

and standing... (sigh)

Sitting.. she loves her flower zipper pull!

exploring some more....

And, just cuz I wanted to throw it in here.. this is her after we took her away from trying to 'play' with Daddy's guitar. She wasn't happy we took her away, but she was smiling with the little tear stuck on her cheek....