Jenna tries a cheeto by accident

I wanted to record this before I forgot... Last week when I was up at Little Robby's school working on the school internet site I let Jenna crawl around on the classroom floor. Okay, so it's not the best baby exploration spot, but it was let her crawl or let her scream in her car seat. She is very particular about not spending too much time confined in her car seat without going anywhere. She doesn't mind as long as we are moving. So anyway, I was working with one of the teachers and Jenna was crawling under desks and around chairs. She thought it was great fun! As we were wrapping things up and I was collecting Jenna's things to go, the teacher that I was working with walked over to Jenna and noticed that she had something in her hand. Upon close examination we realized that she was holding a very soggy cheeto of the Hot and Spicy variety. Evidently she had found it and as all babies do with any treasure they find on the ground she put it in her mouth to taste it. I can only imagine that she must have gotten quite a surprise with that hot and spicy cheeto. I'm sure she spit it out quickly when she realized her mistake. I wish I could have seen her face!

Has it cured her of putting little things she finds on the floor in her mouth? Not at all. There are too many little odd objects around to experiment with still.

Jenna and the train

Jenna is really learning how to communicate her wants to us in ways other than crying which is helpful. For instance she has learned how to point. Although she mostly does it just because she likes to put her hand in that position or merely because she is copying what she has seen Robby or I do. Sometimes for fun she will point with her finger and touch our lips. Then we kiss her finger and she smiles. This has become a game for us. I do think though that she is getting the idea of how useful this pointing finger might be. Yesterday as I was getting out more of the Christmas decorations, I set up the toy train that runs around the bottom of our Christmas tree. For fun I turned it on to show her how it moves around the tree on the track. She watched in awe as the train circled the tree a few times. When I turned it off, she sat there for a moment expecting it to start moving again, but it didn't. Quickly she grew impatient and started grunting and fussing at me. Then she made her little pointing finger and appeared to try to point in the direction of the train. I was surprised at her display. To oblige I turned the train back on and she quieted down and peacefully watched as the train circled the tree several more times. Again I turned off the train and again she fussed and attempted to point in its direction. This time I turned on the train and yelled to Robby who was working on the computer to come and see what Jenna was doing. Robby came in, sat down on the ground next to Jenna, I turned off the train, and she didn't care in the least! That little stinker knew I wanted her to show Dad. Kids never perform when you want them to. But, I promise she was fussing and trying to point at the train! If she does it again I will have to video tape so I have proof!

Our Trip to Salt Lake City

We had a wonderful trip to Salt Lake City for Jenna's adoption finalization, Little Robby's Birthday, and Thanksgiving! Our trip began with a visit to Great-Grandma King in Garland to introduce Jenna to grandma. We enjoyed two days there with Grandma.

When we got there Jenna leaped out of Dad's arms to go to Great-Grandma. Grandma King was so touched.

Dad and Chap enjoyed the cold weather as they walked out to the train tracks and the canal. They even brought back the ice that they found along the way.

Jenna says "We love Great-Grandma King!"

After our visit to Garland we stayed in Salt Lake City with my parents in a place right next to Temple Square. While there we went to the courthouse to have the adoption finalized. We drove down to Orem to celebrate Little Robby's birthday on Wednesday at Grandmas White's and to Lindon on Thursday to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at Aunt Jean's house. (Justin did most of the cooking and it was delicious!) Grandma White and my parents had a ball talking about anything and everything.

Here's our seven year-old! And the next picture is his big present!

Okay, so you're wondering why I'm on a bike if it is Little Robby's birthday present. Well since we didn't have enough space to pack his bike we decided to go to the store and take a picture of one and give him the picture with a promise to let him pick out his new bike when we got home. I had really wanted to take a picture of Jenna being held on the bike, but she was asleep in the car with Dad and I didn't want a picture of a cranky baby!

Here's Little Robby's reaction to his big present!

Jenna and Great-Grandma enjoy some snuggles on Thanksgiving Day!

Now Jenna snuggles with Grandma!

Little Robby loves being with Great-Grandma!

My parents had never been to Salt Lake so we really enjoyed showing them around. All of us has a great time visiting the sites in Salt Lake.

Here we are standing on top of the Conference Center overlooking Temple Square.

We also got to see the lighting of Temple Square! It was beautiful!

That night my Mom was interviewed by Fox 13 News in Salt Lake City, but unfortunately they did not air her interview. Instead, you could hear her voice saying, "beautiful" at the beginning of the segment.

Little Robby and Dad had great fun playing in the snow the day we left Utah! (Especially since we won't see any snow where we live!)

And finally, here is the birthday bike that Chap chose when we got home.

To see more pictures from our trip visit the photo album page on our family internet site at http://www.robertandsharon.com/family/photoalbum.htm and click on the "Thanksgiving in Utah - 2005" photo album. In a few days I will also post a couple video clips from the trip in the video clip section of our site too.

Jenna's Official!

As of Wednesday, November 23rd Jenna Marie is legally our daughter! She is no longer named "Baby Girl" on her birth certificate. The picture shows our family with the judge that finalized our adoption. The day was extra special because it was also Little Robby's Birthday, so not only did he get a new bike for his birthday, but even better he got an official baby sister! The whole proceeding was very short. We met with the judge in his chambers (a fancy name for his office) and everything proceeded very officially with all the "Your Honors" and "I would like to present to the court..." and "Hold up your right hand. Do you promise to tell the truth...." It was interesting to hear all the legal jargon. After the whole thing was over I decided that I think it is really weird to address someone as "Your Honor."

Now we are looking forward to taking Jenna to the temple on December 28th! We are waiting just a little bit so that our sealing can correspond with the gathering of Robby's family for his sister Kaci's wedding reception. This way everyone can be at our sealing and the reception too, plus we are going to do the sealing in the Dallas Texas Temple since that is where most of our family lives.

Little Robby's Feelings on Jenna's Mobility

I had one more thing I wanted to post. Little Robby has mixed feelings on Jenna's new crawling ability. It's fine so long as she doesn't interfere with him playing with his toys. As you can imagine, Little Robby owns a lot of toys that have very small pieces that are not appropriate for small children. He is also used to spreading his toys out across the living room (gone are those days). I must admit that Lil' Robby is very good at supervising Jenna's progress towards his toys. We have now gotten to the point that he will sound the alarm if Jenna just faces his direction even if she is 15 or more feet away! Because of his concern, he will go and gently move her as far away as he can. Of course all this attention on Jenna only increases her desire to go and investigate what Big Brother is doing, so then he finds himself more concerned in her progress towards him than in playing with his toys. Poor kid, I know it's only going to get worse as she gets faster. I guess he's going to have to learn to play with those things in his room.

Jenna Has a Tooth!

About a week ago we discovered that Jenna has a tooth! In fact, her second tooth is visible just beneath the surface of her gums. Now when we allow her to gnaw on our finger it's beginning to hurt . That little tooth is sharp!

Jenna has also gotten faster at crawling. She is enjoying her freedom to explore the house. She especially likes to go where she is not supposed to go. I think babies have the ability to categorize. They have two main categories at this age: "things I'm allowed to play with" and "things I'm not allowed to play with." The second category is always more interesting than the first. Jenna is attracted to cords, her brother's toys, and papers (especially Little Robby's homework when it is left out), and no matter how many times I move her away from those things she persists in going back to examine them.

She has also become quite a Mama's girl. She can be playing just fine in a room with brother or Dad and the moment I walk into the room she begins whimpering and whining for me to pick her up. It's kind of nice to be needed by such a sweet and lovable little girl.

Jenna's Crawling!

Jenna is six months old today, and she started crawling two days ago! She's not terribly fast, but I'm sure she will perfect her skills quickly. Have I baby-proofed my kitchen yet? No, so I will be in trouble very soon if I don't get going. She is also beginning to try to pull up on things. She hasn't been successful in getting up on her feet yet, but I imagine that it won't be too much longer. She can stand holding onto the couch for a while if we put her there. Jenna can also sit independently, although not for very long. Typically she gets interested in other things and goes crawling off.

One thing we are really enjoying is eating baby food. She gets so excited that she wiggles all over the place. Trying to feed her is like trying to hit a moving target with a loaded spoon! We have discovered that she likes mashed potatoes a lot. I think it's because she sees us eating it so she is extremely pleased to be able to eat big people food. Today we tried pureed green beans for the first time. She wasn't sure whether to smile and eat it because I was laughing or to spit it back out because it wasn't quite what she was expecting. I guess it's an aquired taste.

I seem to always write about Jenna, but Little Robby has neat things going on for him too. This week he was given the Outstanding Citizenship award at school along with 6 other student from his classroom. (It's kind of the Honor Roll for the primary grades, but based more on behavior.) On Saturday we all went to the University's Homecoming Parade (where Little Robby got his first stash of candy). After the parade Dad ran into one of his professors who offered to give us 2 tickets to the afternoon football game, so we decided that Dad and Little Robby would go while Jenna and I would go home to nap. Little Robby and Dad had a great time, especially since our team won 44-20.

After the game we all went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat party and Little Robby got his second stash of candy. That night he decided last minute to dress as a soccer player. Then on Monday night he went Trick-or-Treating dressed as a fighter pilot with his friend Ben and got his third stash of candy. So now we have our year's supply of candy! Okay maybe month's supply (especially since Mom and Dad can't seem to stay away from the sweets). Jenna would get in on the candy action too if we would just let her!

Our Little Adventurer

Jenna is definitely beginning to explore her surroundings. Although she is not quite crawling yet, she is scooting quite well. She makes forward progress by getting up on her hands and knees and flopping forward, occasionally she will take one or two crawling steps. For the most part she has been staying in the living room on the carpet because the surrounding flooring is tile, that is until yesterday! Yesterday afternoon I laid her down on the carpet and walked out of the room for a couple of minutes, when I returned she had scooted about 8 ft to the tile and was proceeding to cross a tile walkway to get to the toy cars that Little Robby had left in the piano nook. She succeed in obtaining her goal and then began squealing with delight to tell me how proud of herself she was.

After discovering her new found skills of crossing the tile (that had detered her before today) she set out again to cross the tile later in the evening. Towards bedtime Dad and I laid her in the living room and went to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. While we were working Jenna was inching her way to the kitchen. She traveled the same 8ft of carpet in the living room and then scooted down about 22ft of tile to get to the kitchen where we were. All along the way she made little squealing noises to let us know that she was coming to get us. When she arrived she smiled and squealed to let us know she was there and then a few minutes later she decided all that work made her hungry and she broke down wailing for food!

Okay, so I guess I can't put off baby proofing the kitchen any longer!

A Little Robby Memory

This past week we have been enjoying the fun of a stomach bug. On Monday Big Robby and I had it, on Tuesday Little Robby had it, and between yesterday and today Jenna has shown minor effects of it. When Little Robby got sick at 12:30am on Tuesday morning I remembered an experience with him several years ago that we found very funny.

When Little Robby was about 18 months old he had a similar stomach bug. Throughout the day he had not been able to keep anything down, not even water, so I called the nurses' line in the evening. They instructed me to wait an hour and then begin giving him a teaspoon of water every 15-30 minutes, gradually increasing the amount throughout the night until I was sure he could keep a significant amount down. I felt so bad because Little Robby was extremely hungry and he kept asking for food, but I thought he wouldn't be able to keep it down. That night I slept next to him and every time he awoke I gave him a very little bit of water, which wasn't satifying at all to him. He would whine, but I tried to explain that he couldn't have more or else he would get sick to his stomach again.

Eventually he fell asleep... or so we thought. The next morning Dad came to check on us and when he saw Little Robby he gasped and exclaimed, "What is that!?" thinking he saw dried blood on his mouth. I bolted awake thinking I was probably laying in throw up and rolled over to look at Little Robby and the bed. As Dad examined Robby he realized that it was chocolate around his mouth!

Apparently Little Robby had decided that if I wasn't going to feed him, he was going to have to fend for himself! All we could figure was that in the night while I was asleep he must have gotten up and gone to the kitchen to find something to eat without waking me. On the kitchen table I had left the remainders of my late-night snack which consisted of a half eaten bag of M&M's (this happen to be a 1lb. bag that I had been snacking on for many days) and a glass that was half-way full of fruit juice. After we saw his chocolate covered mouth we found the remainder of the evidence in the kitchen - a bag of M&M's that was a lot more empty than it had been and an empty glass! Poor kid thought we were starving him! Fortunately for both of us, he managed to keep it all down after he went back to bed.

Baby Sign for "Milk"

I just had something really cool happen with Jenna this morning. Recently I started looking into teaching baby sign to Jenna. We decided that since she is beginning to understand how to imitate (with her tongue-sticking-out talent) that maybe now is the time to start using baby sign with her. The first sign that I learned myself was for milk (the sign looks like you are milking a cow - opening and squeezing your hand). During the past week I have used it when ever I have been preparing her milk. Usually by the time she sees me preparing her milk she gets very fussy, but since I started signing "milk" to her she has stopped her fussing to smile and laugh at me making the sign. I had figured at least she's paying attention. Well today she surprised me because when I showed her the milk, pointed to it, and made the sign, she imitated it! I even startled her in my outburst of surprise, but when she realized I was pleased she got a really big grin and did it again! I was so proud that I took her to show Dad, and she did it for Dad, too! I think we're going to have fun with this signing thing. Now the trick is to get her to show me the sign for "milk" instead of fussing when she is hungry.

Little Robby Says

Before I close for the night... we thought Uncle Forrest and Aunt Abbie would appreciate what Big Robby heard Chap say on the way to school this morning. Evidently he saw something that pleased him and exclaimed, "That's what I'm talking about!" (quoting the movie Napoleon Dynamite). He didn't see the movie, but instead he picked it up from Big Robby who has used the line jokingly on occasion.

Rice Cereal and a Barricade

Jenna tried rice cereal for the first time tonight and ... it was a success! She was successful at opening her mouth when the spoon approached, sucking the spoon clean, and then spitting more than half of it back out! Feeding her rice cereal was our Family Home Evening activity. She did seem pleased throughout the process. By the end she was grabbing the spoon from Dad and trying to put it in her mouth by herself. We videotaped (Chap was our primary cameraman), but forgot to take pictures. I must say she was pretty cute though, especially when she smiled and rice cereal oozed out of her mouth and down onto the high chair tray.

Oh another cute moment today happened this afternoon after Chap got home from school. He sat down in the living room and started to do his homework. Once Jenna had finished her afternoon meal I laid her on the floor several feet away from Chap. Very quickly she noticed that he had paper! Paper is one of her favorite things to play with. I think she really likes to hear it crinkle in her little fists. Within a few moments she had scooted herself within grabbing range and Little Robby started protesting that she was going to get his homework. I gave him permission to gently move her away which he did. Then to protect himself he proceeded to erect a fence to keep Jenna away from his homework. I have been feeling a little sick so I laid on the couch for a little with my eyes closed. Well, when I opened them again he had built a wall of pillows, toys, and the ottoman down the middle of the living room to keep Jenna on her side of the room. Needless to say she was not very happy about being sequestered, especially since almost all of her toys had gone into building the wall and she was left with only one little rattle.

Jenna and Little Robby News

For our first blog ever I will tell you about Little Jenna's new talent. She has discovered her tongue and likes to stick it out at Mom, Dad and Big Brother. It's rather cute. She usually smiles at us and then sticks it out with a playful look in her eyes. I think its fun for her because she gets a reaction from us since we usually laugh and stick ours out at her.

It's crazy that she is 5 months old today! I can't believe it. She is growing like a weed. When I took her in for her 4 month doctor's visit she measured 27" tall which was off the top of the chart! Like I've said before she is going to tower me! People keep telling me that she will surpass me by the time she is 10! They're probably right!

Currently her biggest milestones are getting on her hands and knees and almost being able to sit independently.

To update you about Little Robby he is in first grade and is loving it. He has a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Goodenberger. He likes being a big brother and is an endless source of entertainment for Jenna. Not long ago we all enjoyed a night out at a baseball game in honor of Little Robby's success with the Library's Summer Reading Program. It was a fun family night.

Little Robby's latest activities are taking piano lessons and soccer lessons and trying to beat Mom and Dad in the many board games that we have.

Well I've got to go because the little girl needs me so till next time...

Sharon