18

At 18 months, Jenna:

still sucks her (left) thumb

is super silly

is still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen

does EVERYTHING her brother does

eats a TON

loves to talk on the phone "halll-lllo"

just started wearing some 12-18mo clothes

loves the outdoors (unless there's snow!)

is still a snuggle-bug

doesn't stay still...no more posed pictures for now!

loves to read books (favorites are the Baby Signs books, Goodnight Moon, What Does Baby See?)
tells us when she's wet or stinky

had to start her first antibiotic and breathing treatments

talks and sings a lot

is a bit of a drama queen

likes to bug her brother

is a great helper...she helps unload the dishwasher, put the clothes in the dryer, clean up, and her favorite is to throw things in the trash/recycle

I LOVE YOU JENNA BOO!

White Stuff

What is all this white stuff that fell from the sky? It's not the usual N. TX snow. Nope. This is mounds and mounds of white fluffy stuff. We had a record-breaking 12.5" of snow this week! It snowed from 5am until after midnight. Crazy. Big. Huge snowflakes. It was so pretty!

I took Jacob to school on Thursday morning. It was snowing, but the roads were all fine so all the schools stayed open. When I got home, me and Jenna got all layered up and took off for a walk. It was pouring giant flakes and Jenna did NOT like being pelted in the face with snow. So we made it to the end of the street, took a picture of my crying child, and headed back home.

When we got home, I thought she might like playing out back instead. Not so much.

When Jacob got home from school, he sort of wanted to go play in the snow but I distracted him because his asthma doesn't get along well with the cold. Brian and I had a date night so we headed to Papa's house which was a good distraction. Brian and I had an AWESOME dinner at Outback, then headed back to get the kids since the streets were started to get icy.

The next morning, we woke up to this. LOTS of snow. I couldn't keep my boy in any longer. So I bundled him up and Brian and Jacob were off to play.

I threw a hat and coat on Jenna so I could take some pics. She just stood near the front door and watched the festivities.

Dentist

Dr. Mel

Mrs. Jackie

Jacob had his first dentist appointment. He did wonderful! It was a bit challenging trying to get him to open wide and keep his mouth open but he did very well. His dentist is a church friend Dr. Melody Stampe. It was nice to have someone we know so well and feel comfortable with. The hygentist Mrs. Jackie was super sweet and explained everything so well.

Jacob was very happy when we were all done! I got him a SpiderMan ball for a reward for doing so great.

Joy

Silly boy! Full of joy!

My little beauty. Aint she a cutie!

Girl Crazy

The more time passes, the girlier Jenna gets. And the girlier Jenna gets, the more girl crazy I get. I recently made her a TUTU and some new hair bows.
She hates the tutu. Won't even wear it for a second (the above picture was the one out of 100 that she wasn't crying). She shakes her head and says no no no no over and over while tugging it down. I was hoping to take her 18month pics in it next month but it looks like I need to go to plan B.Jacob likes it though.

The bows turned out really cute but I don't care for the clips they had a HobLob so I'm going to switch them out as soon as I get around to going to Sally's.

Jacob started gymnastics class this week. He loved it! He did so well. It made his mamma who just so happens to be a former gymnast so proud ; ) He is doing great in school too. I am so glad the 2's are over! He is turning into such a sweet boy.

He is finally starting to pedal his tricycle. For the longest time he would just scoot his feet. I think our slightly older and super cool neighbor boys are inspiring him.

Brian took these last 2 pics last night. When I was scrolling through them I had to stare a minute to figure out which were Jacob and which were Jenna.

No Mas Leche

Well folks, after almost 17months, Jenna is no longer nursing. It's a long story but basically I started an antibiotic for a sinus infection and didn't even think to look and see if it was safe to take while nursing until the second day I was on it. Of all the families of antibiotics, I was on the one that is least safe (quinolones). So I decided to try and skip our nightly nursing ritual and Jenna didn't seem to mind much. The second night I had quit taking the antibiotic because it made me nauseous but I made the decision that we were done. And that was that. She only asked for "mamas" a few times and I just told her it was all gone. She didn't argue. It's bitter sweet. It was the only "alone" time me and Jenna got all day and I really enjoyed the bond. But it's nice to be milk-free too. I love you Jenna and I'm proud of us for lasting as long as we did!

On a random note, I keep forgetting to blog Jenna's obsession with candles. She LOVES them. I have no idea where it started. Actually, I do. It started with a candle at my parent's house that had a lid. It was in a wooden acorn container and she loved to take the lid off and on. Last month she discovered my candle stash in the armoire and it's been non-stop from there. I do worry a little about the fact that they are mostly glass jars but so far so good.

Jacob is going to start gymnastics with his buddy Ephrem. He would start this week but I have to work so he'll start next week. He still loves playdough and markers. He likes making circles and ovals and sometimes triangles. He is so happy to be back in school and I am so happy about that too!

This and That

This is a random entry of things I keep forgetting to blog.

Jenna loves to sing. Her new favorite song is "Jingle Bells."

She still wakes up every morning requesting "a bow" and often has 2 or 3 or 4 bows in her hair.

She is SUCH an imitator. I remember this phase with Jacob, however with Jenna it's different because she imitates him! Some of my favorites are she slurps just like him when he is drinking down his medicine, she takes big breaths like him while he is doing his inhaler, she even said 'ahhhh' like him while Dr. M was looking in his throat!

She also insists on WALKING down the stairs now. She never would go down backwards. She would scoot down on her butt. However, now she holds on to the wall or stair spindles.

Jacob is still in his independent phase. It's really annoying but I try to go with the flow.

He has to be tucked in every night by Brian. If Brian isn't home, he lets me do it but it's just not the same.

He is OBSESSED with Super Mario Brothers. We got it for the Wii and him and Brian have already beaten the game. He asked me a million times to play "Mario Brudders" when he was sick. It's all I could do to keep him still. When he would get up to play the cough would get worse. He sings all the Mario tunes and speaks the lingo well. Randomly throughout the day he will say "We need to get some stuff so we can go to the castle" or "I have 40 more lives" or "Daddy jumped on that monster good!" or "I got some coins!" and I could go on and on.

I LOVE my babes and can't even remember what life was like before them!