Easily Distracted

So, she's known her ABC's since she's was a year and a half but I realized that I never got it on tape. So, a year and a half later, I decide....why not try to tape it now?

After about 30 takes...I gave up. This was the best one I got.

The multi-tasking.....she get's that from me. The fashion sense, however, must be a gift from her father's side of the gene pool. :)

Just playing!

Just thought I'd post a few cute pictures from this past weekend. Jenna was invited over to her friend Addison's house for a playdate. Addie's mommy and I have known each other for awhile and she's really great. We have a lot in common. And so do Addie and Jenna! They got a long great and had such fun playing in Addie's new playroom, having a tea party, playing dress up and playing with Addie's super cute baby brother, Brayden.


Here are a few pics from their fun day together.

Too Cute!! We can't wait for our next get together!

SSSSSSStalling

Going to bed at night has become a huge ordeal in our house. Everything is a battle. We start the routine around 8 or 8:30 each night.

We start with a 5 minute warning "Bedtime in 5 minutes...okay Jenna?" we get a halfhearted "Okay" and then we wait.....

Five minutes later and the showdown begins.

Time to brush your teeth. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. She doesn't want me to do it, doesn't want to do it herself (and that's a joke anyway)...doesn't want to do it at all.

She doesnt' want to go potty....

She's hot.....She wants to be naked.....

No...she's cold.....She wants her jammies back on.

She doesn't like the pillow she's sleeping on.....

She wants a different stuffed animal......

She wants her baby......

She wants a DIFFERENT baby.......

the one that's in the car......

She needs another "ya-ya" (blankie).

Now the baby needs a "ya-ya".....

She doesn't want the baby.....

She needs her music restarted!!

She needs another "huggie and kissy".

She wants to cuddle.

She needs more eskimo kisses.

She needs another story.

She wants Mommy to read the story.

No...she wants Daddy to read the story.

No....wait...she wants Mommy to read the story while Daddy lays on the floor next to the bed holding the baby.

I could keep going.

Next...we play this constant game of "I'll be back in 5 minutes to check on you"

Then we listen to her yell from her room (we can hear her on the baby monitor)...

"Are you coming?? Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmy?? Daddddddddddddy?? ARE YOU COMING????"

I don't want to complain too much...because I know other parents have it MUCH worse than we do. But I just wish someone could give me some magical answer to this ongoing issue.

I can see clearly now....

.....the rain is gone. Well....it was gone for a little while yesterday anyway! And this was the BEAUTIFUL view of the mountains that I could clearly see.

Made me realize just how close those snow-capped mountains really are! Can't wait to go back to the snow!!! It's practically calling to us!

Now? Well......it's raining and yucky outside again. But in all honesty....I LOVE the rain!

Good help is hard to find.....

They say that toddlers are like little sponges. Constantly observing and absorbing whats going on around them and oftentimes mimicking it themselves.....

It's clearly time to have a talk with the housekeeper.

Is that weird?

So...where does a popsicle loving 2 year old eat her cold and messy popsicles in the wintertime??

That's not weird.............right??

A Stinky Subject

Tonight, during our bedtime story reading ritual, Jenna requested that I read the following book to her...

This was a gift to Jenna and us from her Auntie Elaine. I believe she gave it to us before Jenna was even born.

Thanks a LOT Auntie Elaine! Jenna thought the book was hilarious. Mommy, on the other hand...not so much. I had to change the "F" word to "Bubbles" throughout the book. I couldn't bring myself to say it outloud to my 2 year old. I don't want her saying that word! My mom wouldn't even let us say that word when we were teenagers!

I know....I have issues. Blame my mother.

A Big Girl Weekend!

I am happy to report that Jenna kicked booty this weeked on so many levels.

She has now officially graduated to her big girl bed. She slept there all night and for every nap for the entire 3 day weekend. We are on night # 4 tonight and I'm happy to report that she's already in bed and on her way to dreamland.

She is also doing great wearing her big girl panties! She wore them all day Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Today and has had only 2 small accidents. Not bad I'd say! Even her babysitter, Evie, is shocked at how quickly she caught on to the whole potty training thing. She said that if we could market this quick transition process, Jim and I could both quit our day jobs and be independently wealthy. It's just amazing how quickly she ditched the diapers! I'm so proud of her but I must admit that there's a little part of me is also sad to see the baby days behind us.

We'll be moving the crib out of her room this weekend to make more room for her toys. Yay!! Maybe I'll get my living room back soon!!

On a funny note, her newest phrase that just melts our hearts is to look at us and say "I've got my mommy and my daddy. I'm happy." Couldn't you just die?? This kid definitely knows how to keep us wrapped around her little finger!!

Monkey see....

Monkey Blog.

I'm pretty sure she did some shoe shopping too.

Pulling an "All-Nighter"

Tonight is Jenna's first night in her big girl bed. She was extremely excited about it. Mommy....yeah...I'm excited too. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared outta my mind. I don't know if I'm more worried that she'll fall on her head...or that she'll wake up and start wandering through the house at 3 in the morning and end up supergluing the cat to the wall, making long distance calls to China, or emptying the cereal boxes all over the kitchen floor.

So it's 1:45 am and I'm still up and checking on her every 20 minutes. At one point she had turned herself completely sideways. She hasn't done that in months! What's the deal?

Here's a picture of her from this afternoon taking her first nap in her bed. She slept really well....despite her crazy mothers photography frenzy.

You can see she had pillows all around her...just in case.

She was VERY "cozy" as she likes to say it.


Didn't want to wake up AT ALL!!

Here's hoping that tonight goes just as smoothly!!

Bow-dacious!

Does anyone else think it insane that a 2 year old has a bow collection this large?

Auntie Kim and Cousin Madison made Jenna the cutest bow holder last Christmas (2006). It was great but I finally decided it needed to be "enlarged" a bit. I quadrupled the storage space by adding new ribbon to it.

The scary part is...this isn't even all of it. The headbands and other clippies take up a whole drawer on her nightstand.

Craziness!!

Snow Day!

We went to the snow this past weekend and I've been meaning to put some pictures up on here to show how much fun we had!!

Last year when we went to the snow, Jenna liked it...but wasn't really old enough to enjoy it too much. I think it was more confusing than anything at the ripe old age of 18 months.

This year was a whole different story!

Here she is in the car on the way. The anticipation was building. At this point I don't think she really had a clue where we were going but she was sure feeding off of Mommy and Daddy's excitement.

And here's Mommy and Jenna (Daddy got cut out because Mommy's not all that good at taking self portraits....oh...yeah...and he was driving and that was probably more important that taking goofy pictures)When we first suited her up she just kinda sat there and wasn't exactly sure how to approach the whole snow situation.

She did a lot of this (eating snow)

She went down a few little hills with Daddy and then with Mommy. But she didn't seem all that thrilled. Daddy and I were starting to worry that our big Snow Day was gonna be a big BUST.

Every time we asked her if she wanted to go again she said "No." Then she started saying that she wanted to go by herself. Yeah right I thought! Like I'm gonna put my two year old on a sled and send her down the mountain BY HERSELF!!?? I don't think so!

But...after her repeated pleas...we finally relented. I put her on the sled, at the top of the tiniest little hill we could find. Daddy went to the bottom...to catch her and ultimately kiss away her tears (because of course it would be terrifying and she'd never want to do it again...right?)

I showed her how to hang on tight...slowly counted to three (to give her time to rethink the situation and back out) and then reluctantly gave her a little push. All the while thinking that this was gonna be a disaster. Boy was I ever wrong!!

UNBELIEVEABLE!!

SHE. LOVED. IT!!

After about 20 more times down the mountain (and poor Daddy practically breaking his back carrying her back up every time) we finally tore her away from the snow and back to the car. We stopped at the Hungry Hut (a Shaver Lake tradition) on the way home to have lunch and of course HOT CHOCOLATE

and then she sacked out in the car on the way home.

It was a memorable day and we can't wait to go back soon!!

The Mom Test

This was sent to me by my husband....

A mom was out walking with her 4 year old daughter. The little girl picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. Her mother took the item away from her and asked her not to do that.

"Why?" the daughter asked.

"Because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's
dirty, and probably has germs," her mother replied.

At this point, the 4 year old looked at her mother with total admiration and asked,

"Mommy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart."

The mother was thinking quickly and replied,

"All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mom Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mom."

They walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, while the little girl was evidently pondering this new information.

"OH...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad!!"

Hee Hee Hee....LOVE IT!!

Adventures in Potty Training.....

Adventure is the best word I could come up with for this potty training saga. I'd say Jenna has been 1/2 way potty trained for a few months now. She took to it in the beginning like a fish takes to water but we didn't want to push it so we stuck with a pull up and decided to just reward her with positive reinforcement without being too forceful.

The result has been that she does GREAT when she's at daycare. All day long she goes in the potty without any problem. However, at home and at Kye Kye's it's an entirely different story. She doesn't do so well. I don't know why. I've tried rationalizing it but it doesn't really make sense. I know I should just ditch the pull ups and go for panties during the day but I just don't want to get all stressed about it.

We'll probably bite the bullet soon and go for it but I need a few days home with no interruptions for that. I'll be afraid to even go to Target for fear that THAT would be where she'd have an accident. Lord knows I wouldn't want to do anything that would jeopardize our good standing at my favorite store!! ;)

Total Awesomeness!!

This is hilarious...I HAD to share.

I got halfway through and had to stop reading. I was laughing. so. hard.

"I Don't Like You"

Jenna's got some new words she's using. Never did 4 small words hurt so much. Everyone's heard those words before in some capacity. A childhood playmate is typically the one uttering them and they usually sting a little, depending on who is saying them. But when your own child, your own baby who you've spent day and night for the past 2 1/2 years catering to, holding, feeding, burping, changing, hugging, kissing, spoiling and loving looks at you out of the blue and says "Mommy, I don't like you." THAT is what really hurts.

Don't get me wrong. I know she's only 2 1/2 and has no idea of the power behind those words...but I'd be lying if I said that my heart didn't wince just a bit when she said it.

I had to really bite my lip when I responded to this phrase. The first time she said it...I simply said "Well I LOVE YOU Jenna!" She laughed in response. She can be a little evil at times. The second time she said it I let her know that those words hurt my feelings and it wasn't nice to say that to people. She has since made a laundry list of people she does and does not like. She includes people like Daddy, GranMary, Grandpa, Poppy, Kye Kye, Uncle Scott, Auntie Kimmy, Madison, Auntie Elaine, Evie & Marilyn (her daycare providers) her toys, Oscar, Buck...etc. Sometimes I'm on one side of the list...sometimes I'm on the other.

I guess it's just a taste of what's to come when she enters her teenage years right?

Sigh.

Picture Perfect!

I love photography. Someday I'd love to invest in a really nice camera and lenses etc.... especially now that I have such a fun (and adorable) little model. She's FINALLY getting into taking pictures after over a year of not wanting to sit still long enough to smile.

I love taking pictures of this kid...and the camera seems to love her lately. If I was one of those crazy stage mom types she might be able to make some money doing this. But I don't think Jim would ever go along with it. I'm sure all moms think their kid is adorable though.

Today I got her dressed in a cute little outfit and we went downtown for a fun little photo shoot. Here are a few of my favorites. She picked out the boots.











We had a BLAST! It was a beautiful day and I'm glad I got some great photos to remember it by. I love this little girl!!

Interesting

The following is an interesting exercise. You answer a few questions then click the "find your candidate button" and the program selects the presidential candidate who's position on the issues is most like your own. You may be surprised at what you find.

Here's the website:

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

My results were no surprise actually. Just makes me feel even more confident about my top choice. ;)

Big Girl Bed!!

So this past weekend we bit the bullet and took her glider (rocker) and ottoman and two dressers out of her room to make room for her new dresser, nightstand, and........(drumroll please...) BIG GIRL BED!!!

I can't believe SHE is ready for this!

I KNOW that WE aren't ready for this!!

It's such a pretty bed and of course I had to get it all decked out with a Pottery Barn Kids duvet, a down comforter, and two sets of matching sheets...etc. It's absolutely adorable and she looks and feels like a little princess laying on it.

Of course I'd be lying if I said she's sleeping in it. She's not. We aren't crazy! We need to take things SLOOOOOW around here. We kept her crib in her room for now and she's still sleeping there. Eventually we'll transition to the bed for naps...etc and then work our way up to all-nighters. I see us moving the crib out of her room completely by the time she's 18. Or maybe when (or if!) baby #2 comes along.

Did I even mention how high this bed is?? Seriously....higher than any bed I've ever had!!! She needs a stool to get up on it. We'll be putting a railing on one side and the other side is against the wall. Still scares the crap outta me though.

Is my baby really old enough for this??? Seriously??

Happy New Year

So, one of my resolutions was to start a blog this year.

I'm extremely bad at keeping Jenna's baby book up to date and scrapbooking just isn't my thing (much to my mother's dismay) so I've decided this is the most reasonable way for me to journal the latest and greatest things that Jenna is up to and all the fun stuff that's going on in our little corner of the planet.

We spent New Year's eve at my cousin Krysti's house with her husband Dave and their girls....along with a number of their friends. We spent most of our time making sure Jenna didn't trash the place or fall down the stairs.

She had a blast with the kids and didn't stop moving until we strapped her into her carseat for the drive home.

Here she is at the end of the evening. This picture was taken at around 12:30 am.

This kid is non-stop I tell you. I wonder if it's normal for a 2 year old to be this bright-eyed and wild at this hour?

Here's another with one of her cousins. Think MAYBE she's starting to wind down??

Well, wish me luck with this New Year's Resolution! I hope everyone has a very Happy and Healthy New Year!!