Jenna's First Haircut

WHY do I need my hair cut!?

She did really, really well. Didn't freak out at all, and in the end it's pretty cute. We were scared it would end up looking mullet-ish, but in the end... not at all!

She does look more like a big girl now, but the wispy ends allow for her to still have some baby hair :)

Jenna is just shy of 16 months old.

Jenna's Baptism

We baptized Jenna last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) at Christ the King Church. Nick was confirmed and was an alter boy here many moons ago. I can say that getting to the point of the baptism was a bit of a struggle in having the baptism class cancelled and getting it arranged and apparently we ended up with the last date to have the baptism in the church as they're remodelling it as of this weekend. Had we decided to have her baptised while it was being remodelled, it would have ended up out on the lawn under a large tent.

OK, enough of the logistics, lemme get to the good stuff, the pictures.

The day went swimmingly, likely due to the fact that we wanted it to be a mellow, low key kind of event. We only had the Grandparents, Aunt Heidi and the Godparents in attendance.

Nanny brought down the bib they used to baptize Nick, but as I'm showing here, it's way too small for Jenna's head. Apparently that's the difference between baptizing a preemie and baptizing an 11 month old.

Nanny & Jenna pre-ceremony. Jenna had a beautiful bracelet made by her Great-Aunt Reenie and a cross of her own (tucked inside the onesie) that was blessed after the ceremony. Both pieces are stunning.

Please ignore my 'I'm stressed, when are we getting out of here' face. My Mom and I, pre-Mass.

Awwww.... He's so wrapped around her finger, it's crazy.

She didn't cry. But that doesn't mean she wasn't questioning what kinds of shenanigans we were up to.

Taking a good look up above.

There was one other baby being baptized that day, too. He was 6 months old.

Our little family :)

Us, the priest, and Jenna's Godparents, Uncle Mike and Karin.

:) Jenna and her Godparents

Us and her Grandparents.

Back to the house for food... and CAKE!

Karin & Jenna

Struttin her stuff...

Winning over her Godfather with that smile...

Uncle Mike got to feed Jenna. She's getting better with the bottle.

Jenna with her absolute favorite toy... a water bottle. Dunno why we purchase toys. They're useless!

I love this smile. Can't get enough of it.

All in all, everything came together beautifully.

Memories

I want to remember the following:

- Jenna's hands are so soft. She likes to grab and play with my hands when nursing and her hands are so soft and baby-like, I don't want to forget that. I would, however like to forget when she digs her talons into my collar bone or cuts my lip from grabbing at it.

- Nursing is the only cuddle time we really get. So as we approach the year mark and we start to transition towards WCM (whole cows milk) I want to soak up all the snuggly time I can get. I know it's going to get fewer and farther between snuggle sessions. That being said, she's getting better about just sitting in our lap for story time, as opposed to thrashing out trying to get away, or to eat the book, so maybe our quiet time together won't be forever lost...

- I've had to stop looking forward. Meaning, I've been so freaked out with Jenna coming closer to her first birthday, I wasn't taking the opportunity to enjoy my 10 month old. As a 10 month old. She's getting big, but she's still my baby. Always will be my baby, but before she turns to a toddler, I'm going to treat her like a baby while I still can.

- I keep reminding myself to slow down. Stop running through the motions and stop and make a goofy face at Jenna. I love stopping everything and doing whatever is necessary to elicit a full on belly giggle from Jenna. Nothing makes me happier. I really do live for her, it's crazy.

- We went to Bo's BBQ for Mother's Day dinner (yum!) Jenna was fantastic. She was eating away and a gentleman walked by and stopped. He said "Oh! She's just all kinds of Precious. Just all kinds of precious. I mean, you two are an attractive couple, but she. Wow. Precious. All kinds." Nick and I keep giggling over our "all kinds of precious" and I think we've got a new nick name for her ;)

- Jenna started climbing this week. She's been cruising like a champ all over the house and her crawling is unbelievably fast (Where'd she go!? I thought she was with you!). I was trying to prepare myself for walking, as she's really good standing, pushing stuff around the house (her walker, the laundry basket, the box from the diapers, her musical play table) but this week she started climbing. First on her rocking chair (climbed on it, was standing, holding the back of it and rocking.. nearly gave Nick a heart attack!) then on the box of diapers, on the nursing stool in her room, she now pushes stuff over to the couch to climb up. I.was.not.prepared.for.this!

Ahhhh... fun times. Really, really fun times. I love my munchkin.

In Honor of Mother's Day

This weekend is Mother's Day. It's my first mother's day. I'm kind of in awe. So, in honor of this momentous occasion (to me) I'd like to list a few things I've learned thus far...



- I'm a good Mom. It's hard to admit that, but I've come to realize that I need to commend myself for making it through the last 10.5 months and doing the best I can. I have more respect than ever for all Mom's out there whether they're working or a SAHM.



-Never say never. I remember when I was pregnant I had all these ideas of the type of parent I was going to be. The fact that my child would STTN (sleep through the night for those that aren't in the know) by 4 months, that I would breastfeed until Jenna decided to stop, that I would be able to get out of the house perfectly coiffed each day. I imagined that I would be going on monthly date nights and having another night just for the girls. I had wild, crazy dreams. Then I became a Mom. Reality set in. Ask me where I am now? Gee, Jenna has only STTN a handful of times (and when she does, I've learned not to celebrate too loudly as it often jinxs the following night!) Jenna's still being nursed but won't take the bottle (well, she will, when Irma gives her a bottle, but no one else... we're working on Nick being able to feed her now) which cuts out date nights and GNO's.



- Motherhood is demanding. Duh, right? Well you just can't explain it to someone until they've been there. They've been in the trenches and understand it if you happen to take a shortcut or veer from the norm. An example: I don't have Jenna's convertible car seat in the center because it's too hard on my back to get her in and out of the center position. It hurts! I'm not following the 'safety guidelines' to put your child in the center position, but you know what? Jenna's safe. She's buckled safely in her car seat using the latch system (thank goodness! so much easier than using the shoulder belt! No more shifting!) But we had to make that decision. Follow the guidelines or do what works for our family? We're doing what works for our family.



- I still don't believe I'm a parent. I'm still coming around to the idea that I'm a Mom. But there are days that I look at Jenna, well up with tears and can't believe she's ours. We get to keep her. And when the 'P' word (parent) is used, I freak out a bit. I have parents. I grew up with parents being authority figures, adults, grown ups. They go to work and take care of their children. It's weird, I fit the role to a T and yet can't comprehend that I, in fact, am a parent.



- Time flies. I keep saying it over and over. This time has gone by so quickly. It's hard to try to grasp onto the memories as they fly by. I feel like I'm in one of those clear boxes with cash flying all around me and I can't grab any of it. Thankfully, I'm starting to figure out the balance of having the camera in my hand just enough to capture memories, but not so much that I lose out on the experience.

So, I started this post, before Mother's Day. Now I'll finish it from a different perspective.

I love being a Mother. I really, really do. It's a lot of work. I'm running from sun up (or before that) to sun down and then some. The best thing about my first mother's day was the note inside the card Nick got for me. It said something to the effect of "Thank you for all you do, it means a lot". I actually think it was more insightful and sweet than that, but it meant a lot to me. I think that's exactaly what I wanted out of Mother's Day. To be recognized for all that I do for the family. For Nick, for Jenna and for me. It's amazing what the last 11 months have done to me as a person. I'm so proud to be a mother. I'm so proud to be Jenna's mother and Nick's wife.

I also wanted to take a minute to thank all of those I've turned to since becoming a Mother. To all the Mom's out there (you know who you are!) Thank you. Thank you for supporting me, listening to me, helping me when I'm clueless and letting me help you when I've been through something you haven't. We're in this together, raising awesome children and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you for being one of my very sturdy rocks.

Yeah, I'm that Mom...

OK.... let me preface this with saying I hate diapers. Yeah, yeah, who likes them, right? Well, I've heard of this thing called elimination communication. I've done a bit (like a spec) of research on it enough to understand that the point is to try to get your little one to tell you when they need to use the restroom. Well, I've figured it out with poop (she's a grunter...) but not with pee.

I need to preface this story with a couple other tales... last week, Nick had a few late days at the office. He wasn't able to be home for the bath, so I said I'd do it. Can't be that hard, right? So, normally after her dinner, he goes and draws the bath while I go into her room with her and strip her down. Well, wasn't going to leave the water running so I went and stripped her down, took her into the bathroom and started the water. As I did... I was talking to her and... what's that? Ah!!! She's peeing, all over me, all over the bathroom floor. OK. I'm now soaked in pee. I grabbed a towel, threw it on the floor and went to our bedroom to change. I stripped down and put on a bath robe. When we got back to the bathroom, I realized I needed to pee... ugh, so, I'm holding Jenna, while in my bathrobe and I peed. Nick rounds the corner as I'm holding J, trying to wipe and the water's still running on her bath. Needless to say, we all laughed.... I'm sure it was quite a sight.

So, fast forward to Friday. Nick is up with his Dad and brother fishing and I'm left to fend for myself for bath time once again (dude, Nancy, I know you're going to laugh at all this, I'm clearly not cut out for running the bed time alone). This time I stripped her down, let her play in her room while I went to start the bath. She had a pretty bad diaper rash so this was round 2 of naked tushy time to help clear it. I started the bath and went back to get her and.... a big wet spot. My darling child peed on the carpet. I grabbed one of the 48 burp rags in my possession (thanks to reflux!) and got it up, then took her into her bath. Oy...

Next up? Sunday night. Nick's still fishing... OK, I can do this. The water starting is clearly what's triggering her to pee. So, I went and got her little infant seat out, put it on the floor of the bathroom and stripped her down, sat her on the potty and started the water. No pee. She was more interested in the clacking of the seat on the tiles. I put the potty on one of our kneeling pads (for bath time... kneeling on tile = ouch!) to stop the clacking and was making the psssssss sound that I want her to be able to associate with peeing. Nope, still nothing... So, this is where my college education came in handy. I looked over at the bath, being filled with warm water, grabbed one of her toys that happens to be a cup, filled it with water and stuck her hand in and started saying pssssssss ... this is what I found.....

Yes, I cheated my baby girl into peeing on the potty. I'm sure I've ruined her for life. And, yes, I took a picture of the potty with pee in it. I really am that Mom (hey! in my defense, Nick missed it! I wanted to share with him and show him I'm not nuts!)

As for elimination communication, I'm currently reading a book on it. We'll see what I get out of it (if anything). I figure it can't hurt, right?

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!!!)

She crawls!

Bumps and bruises....

So, Jenna's full on crawling (I have a couple videos, but they're stuck in the camera until I get a moment to upload) and now she can pull herself to standing. At first, she'd get stuck standing, then cry not knowing how to get back down to move on.

So, now she's figured she can plop down on her butt. Falling with style, right? And, she's currently working on reaching out for other objects... reaching over to something to pull herself up. Which sounds like fun, right?

Ugh. She was pulling herself up and down from the coffee table. The coffee table that I really don't like, but bought while I was in college and broke and we needed a place to put our remote controls. It's ugly. Aluminum frame, glass top, ugly. Anyway, she was pulling up (from farther away that I would've liked... a side effect of this new found 'testing limits' thing) and her hand slipped... her face, more specifically, the bridge of her nose bashed against the aluminum frame and we waited the requisite half a second to see her response (sometimes it's none, sometimes she cries).

At this point I need to say that the day before we went to 'Baby Sign' class and learned all kinds of nifty signs to use with her. And, in order to teach hurt/pain, the instructor encouraged us to wait until they tumble, or they bop their head and then show the sign once or twice before comforting. She said it won't take long and you'll still shower with hugs and kisses but it will help when the baby can tell you they have an ear ache and aren't hungry down the line.

So, I started to sign 'hurt' and realized it was worse than I thought. I picked her up. Nick jumped up. I asked him to sign 'hurt' while I comforted her. His reply was "I don't know hurt" I showed him behind J's back (while holding her) he signed it once then said "Babe, she's bleeding". UGH. My heart dropped. Why was I trying to teach her signs when she hit herself hard enough to cause a bloody nose? It took her a bit to calm her down, but we did, the bleeding stopped and her face swelled up a bit.

After a bit of discussion, we decided it was worth a call to the advice line in case there was anything to watch out for. After 25 minutes on the phone, she said that they'd like to look at her. Likely it's nothing but if there was a fracture, it could lead to a brain infection, so it's worth coming in even if it's nothing.

We went to Minor Injury we got seen relatively quickly (30 minutes) and when the Doc came in he said to Jenna "Hi honey! Did someone drop you?" AHHH! No!!!! my response? "No! She kinda dropped herself. She's learning to pull up and slipped". He looked right at her said, "I think it's just a bruise" but continued to check her ears and nose... he then went on to say "Even if it is broken, it's still symmetrical looking, so it should heal just fine. Nothing else we can do about it."

On the way back home, Nick said he felt bad. We were about to have some friends over with a baby and he was concerned that our house was 'too dangerous'. I told him that we couldn't have prevented it (without removing the table entirely, which we may consider doing) and it's ok.

So, we went home, she took a nap, friends came over and the babies were playing on the kitchen floor... then Jenna fell again. This time she was just sitting (something she's really mastered... she hasn't toppled for over a month!) she fell back and bopped her head on the kitchen cabinets. I have since done a few google searches and she's likely become a bit more clumsy because she's either a) right on the brink of a growth spurt or b) trying to 'push the limits' of her situation (like reaching too far off a ladder and losing your balance) Either way, it's not fun for anyone.

It's been hard to watch, and I've been trying to find the balance between encouraging her to try new things and keep her safe. I can tell she's working on mastering the new mobility (both in lateral movements with crawling and now vertical movements with pulling up to surfaces) but I just don't know how or when to stop her in order to ensure her safety. I've always been one to expect bumps and bruises... I guess I just didn't expect to see her first bloody nose (and potentially broken nose... they said it was straight, so they can't do anything for it) at 8 months old.

Milestones galore!

So, this past weekend we went up to Nick's parents (mountain camp) for the weekend. It's been a while since they've seen Jenna and we skipped out on a trip up there last month when we were at the apex of our sleeping/fussy/teething fiasco. So, needless to say, Nanny and Poppie were super excited to get some 'Jenna-Time' in :)

Just before packing up to leave, I was sitting across the room from Jenna. She was sitting up and I clapped and said "YAY JENNA!" She suddenly brought her hands together and clapped. I was shocked, we haven't worked on this one at all! So, I tried again and again that afternoon, and although it's a loose interpertation of a clap, it's an intentional clap none-the-less. It's funny when she's tired and trying to suck her thumb and clap at the same time.

Then, this weekend while up at mountain camp, she kept doing her 'mock' crawling around the hardwood floors upstairs. So, I suggested we bring her downstairs to the family room (carpeted) and play with her there for a bit. It didn't take long, she officially started crawling. She only gets 3-4 "steps" but she's finally figured out how to move forward rather than backward.

::let the babyproofing begin::

So, she now can go from any position to sitting, pull herself to standing (if she's near a surface to grab onto), crawling, clapping, smiling and laughing. Oh, and she now has 5 teeth. My oh my, this all happens so fast!

7 months, 19 days

Before I forget!

So, this week Jenna hasn't been napping very well at day care. I think it started on Wednesday (see why I'm noting it now!) Irma said that she laid her down for a nap, and a few minutes later she was still chatter boxing and it sounded like she was playing (you have to stay out of her sight otherwise she thinks you're going to come and play with her!) So, Irma walked over to the pack n play and saw Jenna, sitting upright, trying to pull her self up on the side of the pack n play.

Thank goodness we lowered the crib mattress from the very top level to the lowest level a few weeks ago.

Jenna's learned to go to a sitting position independently. She's also still working on crawling. She can go backward, but gets frustrated easily. She also goes on all 4's then straightens her legs (think downward facing dog). Who knows what she'll do next... this girl's already keeping us on our toes!

~ 7.5 months

I've been absent

I've not had time to blog lately. Well, not adequate time. No time to upload photos (I've got a couple good ones, too), no time to rest, no time to post.

As I've noted, Jenna's been fussy. The top tooth is coming in s l o w l y as it's half way through (took about a week to get from barely pointing through to half way through). She hasn't been sleeping well since Christmas, and, the two weeks before Christmas she was ill twice. So, roughly six weeks worth of poor sleep has really worn on all 3 of us. But, I feel like we're on the mend. YAY! We're currently reducing the night time feedings down to what they *used* to be at 1-2 per night. I think with the illness/travel/teething/chaos she just got used to being held and comforted at night and her sleeping habits took a nosedive.

The other reason I've been missing. I've decided I spend way too much time on my computer at work to come home and spend some more time starring at a screen. So, I'm limiting my computer use at home. That, and, I've started back on FlyLady and my house is slowly but surely getting back into shape. This month is all about reestablishing my daily habits (little more than that) of unloading the dishwasher in the morning, starting a load of laundry, making the bed and swishing and swiping my bathrooms. If I have time for my other 'task' for the day, so be it. If I choose to knit instead, that's ok too.

Jenna's been making leaps and bounds in terms of developmental milestones. One of the reasons I started this blog was to actually *remember* to write these down, and now I feel like I've already missed so much to document. But, as of right now, she can currently roll (both ways! Finally!) scoot around on her belly (360 degrees) sort of crawls backwards and now she's doing the sitting -> 3 point 'stance' rocking as though she's going to crawl. Nick predicts she's going to be crawling by her 7 month birthday (in 8 short days). Most of these little milestones happened over the weekend, but they're all very exciting, none-the-less. Oh! And she's standing... we got her a musical table (still haven't posted on Christmas, due to not uploading pictures) and originally Santa put the legs on the table only to realize that when the box says "removable legs" they only mean that if you don't put the legs on first... meaning, the 'table top' can be used on the floor and then the legs can be ADDED. Once they're on, they don't come off. Nick and Poppie both tried very hard to get them off and they just don't. Well, Christmas morning, it seems as though it would be forever for her to stand and use the table.. so we just kind of held her up to it. Now, she stands at the table, hits at the different 'stuff' and dances to the music. The trombone is her favorite :) (note to self! Must get video!)

8 days shy of 7 months...

She can sit independently!

OK, it's Thanksgiving weekend and Jenna decided she's thankful for a new view of the world, from a seated position. That's all. I'm proud and excited.

When they say all the sudden they 'just do it' in regards to milestones, it's so right!

Today we're off to shop for a super comfy carpet so she can continue to 'test her balance' in the living room (with a bit of padding for the miscalculations).

5 months, 1 week