15 Months

Jenna is 15 months and starting to look more like a toddler every day. She is very healthy and happy. Her personality is really starting to show. She can be impatient and demanding (I think mostly because she can't tell us what she wants). But she can also be sweet and loving. For the most part she is very good and we are so proud to be her parents. 

 Here are a few little things she is doing now:

• Weighs around 22 lbs. Height is unknown (still short)
• Wearing 12-18 month clothes.
• Loves music- will start swaying if she hears a good tune. Especially in the grocery store. Will start playing any toy with music as her "background noise" while playing.
• Enjoys looking her touch and feel flash cards. Especially loves taking them out of the box in a dramatic way, so they go flying. 
• Will gladly shut a door or cupboard when needed. As she crawls down the hall she will shut the bathroom door for me.
• Snuggles on my chest when tired. Will pull down my shirt to be able to put her face on my skin...precious
• Napping once a day. Sometimes twice
• A couple steps have been taken. Enjoys crawling more
• Understands more than I give her credit for. We have realized that we need to watch what we say now otherwise we might have a problem.
• Repeats a few words in her own lanuage...i.e. up=op or bop, wow=oh
• Will repeat "Yah, Yah Yah" "Mama" "Dada"
• Mimics "shhh" sound
• Touches her nose on command
• Signs for: More, Milk, Eat...going to work on diaper
• When full throws food on the floor
• Enjoys eating off our plate then her own
• 6 teeth (3 top, 3 bottom)
• Will brush her own teeth, but only if I sing the song I made up :) 
• Demands to look at the pictures on the fridge as we pass by
• Still shy at first, but is warming up more. Doesn't really worry about what others are doing unless they are in her way or have a toy she wants. Happy playing alone.
• Making more friends everyday and staying very busy!
• No eggs or zucchini
• Holds the phone, remote or any object to her ear and "talks"
• If we are on the phone she must hold it for us and then "talk"
• Uses a spoon to feed self
• Gets really excited when Jeff comes home. She will crawl over to the baby gate and stand on her tip toes and waits for him to open the door. It is the cutest thing!!

Still waiting for her to walk. Some people tell me to enjoy this "non-walking" time, but I am really looking forward to her walking. She is getting heavy and harder for me to carry her all the time. It would also make trips to the park with friends a little easier. She one of the few not walking while others are walking through the grass the the playground. I have a crawler who gets muddy...remember I hate messes! In due time we will have a walker. Until then I will have the Spray n' Wash handy :) 

Feeling Sentimental

Jeff recently purchased Lightroom for me and I LOVE IT! For those that don't know what it is, it's a photo editing program. It's probably a little advanced for me, but I am trying :) I started editing some of Jenna's newborn photos and a wave of emotion came over me. The day was so blurry for me with being tired, etc. Having these photos are so special to me and helps me remember what a special time it was.

Happy 15 months to my precious lovey!

 These pictures are absolutely precious!

Cousin Love

Cousin Kailey and Krissa came up to the valley last month for a visit and we joined them.  I couldn't resist not visiting my sweet niece and let the cousins play together. I think it's important for the two of them to see each other as much as possible. Plus we got to spend some quality time with Auntie Krissa, Gramma, Grandpa Glenn and GG. It's funny to see them play together. They are both not used to having someone else around "their" toys at Gramma's house. It was a good time to practice sharing. 

Wearing matching pj's

Celebrating Kailey's 3rd Birthday

Kailey is such a big helper and wants to help me anytime with Jenna. Whether it's getting a diaper, wipe or her bottle. She is right there ready to help. I love seeing her grow up and turn into such a wonderful little girl. I think she is smart beyond her years. I'm sure all Aunts say this, but I am serious! She continues to amaze me. I think Jenna is smart but Kailey is really SMART for a 3 year old (just my 2 cents).

We were lucky enough to have my friend Hannah take pictures of the girls. You can check out Hannah's blog here. She does amazing work and is so talented. We went to Hannah's parents house in Anacortes, which was beautiful. It had such a relaxing feel to it. It's the kind of place you want to go to and read a book and get away from it all. It was a partly-cloudy day (thankfully no rain) but it was cold and Jenna was freezing and tired. Hannah managed to get some good photos in between Jenna's cries.

At this point Jenna was done

Using a Spoon

Another milestone has happened at the Moller house...Jenna can use a spoon! I noticed she was getting a little whiny when I was feeding her, so I gave her a spoon and she was able to put it right into her mouth on the first try. We now have a Jenna spoon and a spoon for us to slip in some extra bites (otherwise we would be sitting at the table all day). It appears that she prefers to use her left hand when eating, but chooses her right when playing. Not sure if she will be a lefty or a righty or both!

I took this little video today so show how well she is doing!

Also, she took two steps the other day! Hopefully we will have a walker soon :)

Making Art

A friend of mine, Lindsay was telling me about she let her 1 year old daughter finger paint in the bathtub on a canvas and how successful and fun it was. I immediately thought that this would create anxiety for me and she was saint for letting her child have fun while making a mess. Let's just say I panic at the thought of a mess. I think Jenna is the cleanest eater I know. This is also because I am standing over her to make sure nothing falls to the floor or gets on her high chair. It was a struggle for me to let her eat her birthday cake with her hands and let's just forget about the idea of spaghetti :) I know I need to loosen up and let her have fun with her food...but secretly I don't want to. 

I gave the finger painting idea some thought and having Lindsay tell me that it was easy to clean gave me some comfort and certainty that we wouldn't have a red or blue bathtub forever. I mentioned the idea to Jeff, who agreed that it would be fun for Jenna and maybe we could get some cool artwork. We ventured to Michaels one Saturday to buy the supplies. Jeff picked out some finger paint that was few dollars cheaper than the Crayola paints that were recommended. We looked them over and I think he saw the look of fear in my eyes that these paints would not wash out and wisely grabbed the Crayola finger paints. With the good paints in our cart and a pack of canvases we were on our way. 

Lindsay gave me some hints on how to do this project and one was put Jenna in a diaper. My thinking was "oh she doesn't need a diaper because she will be getting a bath afterwards!" I should have listened. Right when we put her in and started to give her the paint she peed. So we had to take everything out and wash out the tub then start over. Diaper will be put on next time.

Once the tub was dry we were ready to start the painting again. We decided to give Jenna one color at a time on a paper plate then we would hand her a canvas. We wanted her to make 3 of them (for the grandparents and us). 
So there we were...
Jeff: taking photos, handing me paints and the handling the canvases from tub to counter. 
Me: holding the paper plate with paint and guiding her hands from paint to canvas.

Jenna: trying to figure out what we are doing and more interested in what the canvas was

Me: showing Jenna how to put paint on her hands 
Jenna: trying to crawl out

 Me: panicking that she will get paint on the floor 

Jenna: sliding and slipping then falling in the tub because her hands are full of paint (no tears or injuries occurred)

Jeff: chuckling at me and snapping photos
Me: sweating and having to breathe into a bag (not really...but I thought about it)
Jenna: looking at us like we are crazy

In the end we managed to get 3 beautiful pieces of art and I actually look forward to doing it again. I realized that making a mess sometimes is good for me and let's Jenna have fun. Having a husband that encourages me to face my fears is also a good thing!

 P.S. Crayola Finger Paints is amazing and washes up great! No red or blue bath tub here.

Remembering Auntie Audrey

1/13/11 - Jenna (21 days old) & Auntie Audrey

This past week was a tough week for our family. We lost a great woman; my Auntie Audrey (she is my great aunt on my mom's side of the family). Jeff and I were lucky enough to visit her a few days prior to her passing. Jenna was with us and Auntie seemed to light up when she saw her. As we were leaving I noticed on Auntie's fridge that there were 3 pictures of Jenna! Auntie has lots of extended family and I was touched that Jenna was on her fridge so many times.

The last time I saw her healthy, was this summer at Camp Grande. She was camping with my grandparents, aunts and uncles. They love being together and this has kept our family very close. Often times families tend to grow apart as more generations are born. Not the Carlson family! They along with Auntie, have shown us younger kids that we need to always be there for one another and keep in contact; because family is number one! I hope that Jeff and I can carry on that tradition and teach Jenna the importance of that.

 

The joke in our family is that there are very few pictures of Auntie because she hated getting her picture taken...well I managed to find a few good ones.

Auntie & Uncle Dick at our wedding (2008)

Auntie Alice, Auntie Judy, Auntie Audrey & Grandma Gail (2007)

She was a special lady and always smiling. She will be truly missed. I am lucky to have known her and to be able to call her my auntie.