I'm still alive

I'm still here.  The computer that has all of my pictures on it is currently sick, so I can't get on to upload photos for a new post.  But, that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.  Jesalyn has been doing so many things.  This is such a fun age.  I love seeing her experience things for the first time.  Here is a picture I took with my phone....just to wet your appetite.

Tent Living

When I was little, my sister and I would play outside in our front yard.  Some kids played hide and seek.  Others would play house. But not us. We made mud pies.  You know the ones.  Where you find a patch of dirt and get it completely soaked with water and just go to town.  Mom would let us use her pie pans or buy us our own (the disposable tin type) and we would play for hours. 

But as we got older, we took our creativity inside. We built, and I would say...back me up here Janel...mastered the art of tent making.  It started out with 4 chairs and a blanket.  We'd space the chairs a few feet a part and drape the blanket over them, creating an indoor tent.  The more we did this, the bigger our "tent" would get.  I'm sure there were days when mom or dad wondered where all the furniture and blankets in the house went.  Some nights, we would even make a bed on the floor under our tent and sleep there overnight.  So when Jarrod told me the other day he was going to make a fort (his version of my "tent") with Jesalyn, you know I was pumped!  The following are pictures of her first tent making. BTW, she loved it!!

Let's Slow it Down

           If you have ever spent any time around my daughter, you would know that she loves music.  It's a well known fact, but I don't think I've ever actually blogged about it before.  She really had no choice but to love it.  Jarrod and I both come from musical families.  He was raised on musicals as a kid and was in show choir until he was a senior in high school.  He has a knack for instruments, primarily the guitar. I have yet to see him try an instrument that didn't come natural to him.  I also have some music in my family.  I, myself am not all that talented with the instruments-I was mediocre on the saxophone in grade school, and sang a solo or two in praise band at church- but I love music.  Growing up, we actually had a "music room" in our house.  In that room, was just about every musical instrument my dad could get his hands on-guitar, mandoline, harmonica, keyboard, and on and on.  They weren't just in there either.  He knows how to play every one of them.
Also, I may or may not have a country music hall of famer in my family.    All this to say, Jesalyn was pretty much destined to have a musical bone or two in her body. 
             We haven't heard her sing yet, but let me tell ya'll, this girl has got some rhythm.  When she was first born, anytime a song would come on, she would stop what she was doing and listen. As she got a little older, the legs and feet would start to bounce a bit.  When she was old enough to put some weight on her legs while you were holding her, she would wear you out bouncing to the music.  I'm not kidding.  We literally had to pass her around the room one time, because one persons arms would get tired holding her as she bounced for 45 minutes straight. At least 3 times a week, I'll come home from work, we'll turn off the TV, blast the Itunes and all three of us will just dance. She absolutely loves it! And, bonus!, the exercise is awesome. Forget those dumbbells, turn on a Beyonce cd and just hold little Jesa as she goes and you'll have biceps of steel in a week. 
                There is a story I'm leading up to here, so I'll get to it.  So, most of the time she just bounces, she's not really on beat.  But lately, Jesa's getting her groove back.  I came home yesterday and Jarrod says "you'll never believe what your daughter did today?"  Now, in my head, this could be anything. I've learned to never underestimate what she can do.  That day, he had Austin Powers a really informative and educational movie on the tv and she was playing in the floor.  He said that she was dancing to all the 70's music like normal.   And then, Marvin Gaye's "Lets Get It On" come on and he said she stopped playing with her toy and just started moving and swaying her hips to the beat and then started bouncing her head to the music. Did my 10 month old just jump to 19 before his eyes?  I mean, really.  She is sooo no old enough for that yet.  I think we just might have our hands full. 

My Daughter the Monkey...Take Two

So ya'll remember a couple of posts ago when I told ya that I might just have given birth to a monkey 9.5 months ago? In case you didn't believe me the first time, the following pictures should prove to you once and for all:

Ya'll, these pictures were just a few of the hundreds that I could have taken.  She seriously uses her feet like hands all the time.  Is this normal?  Do all babies do this?  I mean, I thinks it's adorable and I personally can pick stuff up with my own toes, but she has flipped a couple of people out watching her.

And yes, I did say 9.5 months earlier.  I can't believe how fast the time has flown.  For instance, Jarrod and I found her like this the other day:

Okay, so I might be stretching it a bit, but she might as well be driving already with as fast as this little girl is growing up.  My mom is already asking me about her 1st birthday.  I just can't get over that it's only a couple of months away.

So, a couple of stats since I haven't posted any in a while. She:

-now has 5 teeth, with a 6th only days away.  2 on the bottom and 3.5 on the top

-has advanced from the army crawl to the full, belly of the ground, crawl

-can walk from one end of the couch to the other, while holding on with her hands

-is gibbering talking up a storm, but her favorite word is still dada

-still does not like to cuddle, (she is much to busy for all of that junk,) but will lay her head on your shoulder when she is tired. And it's the sweetest thing in the world

Yes I know I'm about 2 wks late on this, but I haven't gotten around to blogging much.
So, for the fourth of July weekend we were able to go back to our hometown of good 'ol Fairfield, IL.  This place is tiny, but it just happens to hold most of our favorite people in it, so whenever we get a chance to go back we do.  We knew the fireworks wouldn't start until sundown, about 9pm.  We also knew that Jesalyn's bedtime is normally 730 but we wanted her to have the July 4th experience so we thought we would "give it a go."  She did so good until the first firework went off.  I think it was a combination of hanging out outside in the dark for the first time, with the sound of the firework plus a train that just happened to pass at the time that scared her, and then add in to the mix that she was 2 hours past sleep time. She just didn't make it. She started screaming.  So, Jarrod and I took her home and put her to bed. We did get to see a few fireworks in the distance while driving home.

My Daughter the Monkey

Yes, I know this is post number two in one day. But hey, when it's there, you gotta go with it.

So as I said previously, Jesalyn has started to pull herself up on things.  There have been several falls and a couple of welps, but nothing crazy (knock on wood.)  But she is such a toughie.  When she falls, she use to look at Jarrod and I to see if she should cry or not and we would always tell her she was okay and she would just keep on going.  Now, she doesn't even look at us to "check."  It's like it doesn't even phase her.  There are times when she gets crawling too fast for her hands and she nose dives into the carpet.  She just gets back up so gracefully and continues on.  The other day I was laying in the floor and she came barreling towards me full speed.  I thought, surely she'll slow down and crawl over me (like she normally does.)  She didn't slow a bit.  Actually, she ran into me so hard she head butted me in the lip, crawled on top of me and over to the other side and kept on going, not even stopping to look at her mother who is holding her lip wondering if it's busted and bleeding. 
She is also trying to crawl over the barriers we have set up for her in the living room (our form of "childproofing.)  Use to, we could put down a pillow and she wouldn't be able to go past it.  We've had to upgrade the pillow to other pieces of furniture.  She's slowing learning how to get past those now.

 

She got in this, but couldn't figure out how to get out =)

Her very own jungle gym.  This is one of those jumpers that have all the "fun" things for her to play with at the top.  This is a picture of what most babies do with it (and no, this isn't Jesalyn, despite the fact that this baby also doesn't have much hair):

This is my child =):

Gotta love her!!!!   =)

Pure preciousness!!!

If that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what would (of course I'm partial)