End of Summer

In August Jenna and I traveled to California for my cousin Andy's wedding. My mom was with us on the way out to CA but Jenna and journeyed back by ourselves. We had a wonderful time with the family! I will write more later. Enjoy the pictures!

Our sleeping baby

Jenna has switched from two naps a day to one nap. Earlier in the week she stopped wanting an afternoon nap. That made the evenings and nights not a lot of fun. So when we realized the two naps might be going we decided to try for one long afternoon nap. So for the last few days Jenna hasn't had a morning nap and has been going down around 1:30 and getting up around 3:45. With this arrangement she is still usually going to bed at 8 and getting up around 7am. This is just another step in reminding me that she is growing up and she is no longer a baby.

Mill Mountain Zoo

Today I took the day off of work and we had a mini vacation. We took Jenna to Mill Mountain Zoo. It was so hot today. We got there right after it opened. Jenna was very good looking at the animals. The animals were hot today too. Many were just laying in their cages trying to keep cool. We did see the cougar as it walked from its house to lay under a platform. We decided the next zoo should be the NC Zoo.

Growing up too fast

Jenna is becoming a very big girl. Robb and I were talking this past week and talking about how she doesn't look like a baby anymore. She is just growing up so fast. Jenna has been bottle free for a week. She is drinking her milk out of her Tommee Tippee straw cup. We thought that she was going to give us a hard time about giving up bottles but it was rather easy. We must have hit it at the right time because I've tried giving her milk in her cup at other times and she refused to drink it.

This week has also seen the appearance of tooth number 12! I can always tell when Jenna is teething because she runs a fever and just isn't herself. She doesn't make a big deal out of teething but things just aren't normal. So I'm thinking that we have two more teeth to go.

I also know that she is growing up because she has started showing her displeasure with things I make her do. Jenna has started hitting. We are working on this situation. She doesn't seem to hit Robb just me and my mom. I guess we are the people that make her do most of the things she doesn't want to.

She is growing up so fast! But we are having a great time with it!

A few pictures

Here are few pictures from the last several weeks. Hope you enjoy!

Dancing

Uh-Oh and straws

I realize it has been a really long time since I posted. Jenna has been doing so many things. Also we as a family have been doing so many things. In the past month and a half Jenna and I battled terrible diaper rash, had our first visit to the lake.

So Jenna has started saying a few words but her favorite right now is Uh-oh. She actually uses it at appropriate times but she also uses uh-oh when she purposely throws something down. It is cute either way. Other words she is using is ball, bug, daddy and kitty.

Also a big exciting moment that happened this weekend was Jenna started using a straw. We have tried several times to use a cup and straw but Jenna just didn't understand. So this weekend while I was drinking some root beer she acted like she wanted some so I let her try thinking it wouldn't work. She put the straw to her mouth and drank. However she didn't like the root beer at all. Since then she has been straw crazy. Our girl is getting so big.

Jenna is fun every day and she is getting bigger and acting more and more like a person every day.

Jenna's 1 year photo (a month late)

I am a month late getting Jenna's 1 year photos taken. So really these are 13 month photos but I will take it. She did really well and I was pleased with the new studio I used in Roanoke. Enjoy our beautiful little girl!

Easter!

Pictures of life

over due pictures

Here are pictures from Jenna's birthday!

The inchy winchy spider

I have been away from the blogging for a bit. There is so much going on. I keep thinking of great blogs but I never get around to actually writing them. So here I am writing about Jenna's love of the inchy winchy spider.

My mom has a collection of tiny little books. I believe there are 12 in all. Jenna can find the inchy winchy spider book every time. Mom says she sings that song about 12 times a day. I'm pretty sure it is more. Just today at lunch I sang it 4 times. Jenna likes to "dance" (sway her hips) and look at the pictures of the book. I've started doing the motions but she isn't into that yet. There are several other books that have songs and I have sung them for her but she loves the inchy winchy spider.

I have more pictures to put up but I will have to locate my cord to get that done.

The croup

It has been an interesting several days. Thursday Jenna was not feeling well. In the morning she just wanted to be held and slept a lot. The Thursday afternoon she started running a fever. When she and I came home on Thursday afternoon I had given her some Tylenol and was hoping for an ok night. She started coughing and it sounded like a dog barking. Then as the night went on she was having trouble breathing. For much of the night she and slept sitting up in the recliner in the living room. Friday morning I knew we needed to see a doctor. However our doctor is in Lynchburg and I didn't think we should drive an hour and 20 minutes to see him. I called a nurse from church and she got us an appointment in Roanoke. We got to the doctors office and Jenna's breathing was getting worse. The receptionist checking us in immediately took us back to an exam room. At that point in time we were seen by the doctor and told that Jenna had the croup and an ear infection. Her breathing was becoming so labored that Dr. Gard decided she needed a treatment of epi mist. This treatment involved putting a mask over Jenna's face and holding it there for 5 minutes. This didn't make her very happy. As this treatment was going on Dr. Gard told me that Jenna would need to go to the emergency room for observation after this treatment. The mist worked for about 4 hours and she needed to be watched to make sure it worked and if it didn't we would already be at the hospital for a second treatment. After the mist we had to clean the wax out of her ears to confirm that she did have an ear infection (which she did). So we got a prescription for that and then she was given an oral steroid. After all this Dr. Gard said he wanted an ambulance to take us to the hospital. We were probably only 5 miles away from the hospital and Jenna was breathing much better. I asked if this was completely necessary and he asked if he let me drive if I was going to go straight to the hospital. When I promised to drive straight there he decided to could take her myself.

I took Jenna to the emergency room and we were taken to the pediatric section. She had a fever of 102. They said that a fever made the croup worse so they gave her some Motrin to lower the fever. We saw several people and the doctor and then Jenna took a nap. We were in the hospital until 2. We were told that if her breathing didn't improve she would be admitted to the hospital overnight. Robb left school and showed up around 1. So we had the croup and an ear infection. While Jenna and I were waiting for our time to be up we were playing. In that playing she hit her mouth on my shoulder and bit her tongue. She bit a hole in it and we had to deal with a lot of blood. So I decided that was the 3 things that were going to happen.

Finally at 2 the doctor said her breathing was much improved and we could go home but if it got an worse we were to come back immediately. We were also given the directions to alternate tylenol and motrin every 3 hours for the next 24 hours. We also got an oral steroid to give her for the next 3 days. So we went home and started all this medication. The hard part was waking her up in the middle of the night to take medicine. Saturday morning she was much better. She still has a cough but it doesn't sound like a bark. Last night she slept through the whole night. I'm sure we are on the mend. Jenna is also use to taking medicine and doesn't fit it at all now. I just ask her to open her mouth and she takes whatever I give her.

bithday cake!

birthday video

Our 1 year old girl

Yesterday Jenna and I went to the doctor for her 12 month appointment. She is 23lbs 5oz and 30 3/4in long. She is growing by leaps and bounds. The doctor said she looked great and right on target with her milestones.

Since we have been in the process of moving I haven't had internet to blog about Jenna's birthday or her party. Her birthday was a very fun couple of days. I have a lot of pictures and videos. However we are currently at the appomattox house boxing more stuff up so I will post those later.

Until later....

Happy St. Patty's Day