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.

Too long, it's been too long

It's been way too long since I've posted. I've been enjoying my time with Jenna lately. This is a fun age in that she's running around, talking up a storm, can (and has) said "I lub you" with kisses and is just all around awesome. She's also throwing temper tantrums, but I'll ignore that for this gooey post.

We're in full swing this holiday season. We went to visit Santa and although she says his name and points out every stuffed Santa, Santa cartoon, etc. When we went to go visit him this year, she watched in amazement as the other kids were talking to him, telling him what they wanted for Christmas. When it was her turn, I picked her up and we headed his way.

Once we were standing next to him I asked her "Do you want to see Santa?" She replied with feverish head shaking and "No, no, NO!!" So I asked the next logical question... "Do you want to sit on his lap?" at this point, she's scrambling up my arm like a baby monkey trying to crawl on her Mom's back.

Santa suggested a photo with Mom and baby. I looked over at Nick and said "How about a FAMILY photo" (shooting daggers). Nick came and sat on Santa's right knee, I sat on his left knee (how long has it been since I've sat on Santa's lap!?) and I held Jenna to my left side... as far from the fat jolly man as possible.

We snapped a few photos and I didn't like them... I wanted to mimick last year's photo. So, I asked Santa if we could try again. He said OK and I put the munchkin on his lap. Her eyes were filled with terror and she was signing "All Done" over and over and over... also saying "No" and shaking her head back and forth. BUT Mama got her photo.... :)

Lately we've taken to driving around to look at Christmas lights. It doesn't matter if there is a single strand on the gutters or if there's a full display with reindeer and blow up snow globes... the same reaction comes from the back seat each time we pass by a lit house. "Wow, wow, WOW!!" the second that it's out of her sight this can be heard "More, please... more, PLEASE" I haven't been able to figure out how to tell her that we'll get to the next house ASAP.

She also loves the tree (when the lights are off, we tell her it's sleeping... she makes the shhhh face as to not disturb the tree). The red balled ornaments she would point out and say "Apple" and I kindly remind her that they're not apples, but they're ornaments. To which she replies with 'orddednts' (or something similar... it's hard to type out toddler speak). She also enjoys pointing out each person's stocking.

Possesion is really big to her right now. When we explain that she can't have Mommy's coffee... she points and says "Mommy's" then turns to Nicks and says "Daddy's"... same with pretty much all beverages and anything else she's not supposed to have (we tell her it's ours as to avoid her throwing fits to get it... ours = off limits... it's working, sort of).

Ahhh, she's fun. I love her. Can we keep her like this forever?

My head is spinning

So, over the last 3 weeks or so, I've realized such a change in Jenna. She's really a little person, displaying her wants, her needs, her desires. She's throwing less tantrums because she's really able to express herself now.

I can *talk* to my child now. She can converse back with us. She says so many words every time I try to write them down, I miss A LOT. She sings 'take me out to the ball game' with us. I'm going to try to list a number of the words she's saying but I know this list will not be all the words. I.just.can't.keep.up!

Tree, apple, light, more, please, up, down, Pop, Poppy, Mama, Daddy, Mom, Dad, Daddy, bath, potty, broccoli, cheese, sock, shoes, zapatos, boca, eye, nose, head, cabesa, mesa, Noble, bye, hi, go, Ohhhh Doctor!!! (phrase used when the Yanks hit a home run), kisses... the list goes on and on. She repeats new words daily and frankly, I don't know what to do with such a verbal child! Oh, I left out the word 'crap' which she's repeated but not used in context... much better than some of the other words that came out of our mouths during the 49ers game the other day.
We went to the pumpkin farm a few weekends ago. We had a blast. Jenna loved pushing the pumpkins over then trying to pick them up...

She's so big, so independent, such a toddler. I *love* this age. I love that she's striking out on her own every chance she's got.

Although I can't say I'm surprised. The girl has always been opinionated. Need I remind you that she likes to make a statement?

Seriously... look at this kid. So different than 6 months ago. When they say 'this too, shall pass' they're not kidding. The blink of an eye yields a different child entirely. And yet, she's not all that different. She still makes us aware of her wants, her needs, her desires... rather forcefully. But now I'm able to encourage her to phrase things instead of just balling or screaming. Crazy cool is what it is. Crazy cool.

Jenna is just shy of 16 months and blowing my mind.

I heard the magic word...

I'm behind on blogging, but had to stop tonight to note the following. Tonight Jenna said Mama (YAY!!)

She's also saying:
Doggie (duh)
Dada
Ducky
Kitty
Vinnie (our chinchilla)
Hi
Bye

All of these words popped up, out of no where. It's really cool and frightening to watch. Also, my unrational fear of not being able to understand toddler-speak is not coming to fruition. I've never been able to understand kids. But even though Ducky, doggie, kitty sound similar, I really can tell the difference between them.

OK, it used to be cute...

Jenna... you're a doll, you really are. But there's one thing I'd like to have a talk with you about. The word "doggie" has come out of your mouth literally hundreds of times a day.

When a dog barks "doggie!"
when you see a dog "doggie!"
When you see a cat "doggie!"
When you see Vinnie our chinchilla "doggie!"
When you see a bird "doggie!"
When you see me "doggie!"
When you see Daddy "doggie!"
When you say good bye to friends or family "doggie!"
When you're in the bath, when you're in the car, when you're at day care, when you're at home... you get the point.

As much as your single word is cute, honey, let's learn to use it in context. As much as I was sad that you were saying "Dada" and "Daddy" and not "Mama" being called "Dada" is preferred to being called "Doggie." And now that Doggie has replaced all other words... well, I'm at a loss.

Jenna's a couple weeks shy of her 1st birthday.