4 months

Age
4 months (and then some...I swear I had this all written out two weeks ago.  We've been busy haha)

 

At her doctor's appointment this week, she weighed 14 lb. 11 oz. and measured at 24 inches...later when the doctor handed me the paper with her information I saw that her weight was in the 60th percentile and her height was in the 28TH!  I was so surprised that I straight up yelled out, "She's SHORT!!!"  But then the doctor told me she thinks that Jenna maybe wasn't stretched out all the way when they measured her because she didn't LOOK 28th percentile short.  I measured her myself later, and sure enough she's almost 25 inches, which jumped her back to a more normal percentile.  Somewhere between 70 and 100....those charts are hard to read. Phew.

Milestones
She has a lot more control over her arms now.  She's started to intentionally reach for things a bit more, or at least hold onto them when they're within her grasp.  The other day, she was very intentionally knocking over my water bottle.  I'd set it back up, and she'd knock it down again. I was prepare to do this for hours but eventually she got to the point where she would cry every time I put the water bottle upright...I guess she really wanted it down...

She's holding herself up really well on her stomach!! 

Tummy Time expert!

I don't need to burp her anymore!  Hooray!

My Favorites
She has started squeezing my neck with one arm when I pick her up and it makes me never ever ever want to set her down.

Her totally bonkers hair.  We accidentally packed up her hairbrush a little prematurely and couldn't remember where it was so for about two weeks she's had tufts of hair just randomly sticking out all over the place.

Her Favorites
Crinkling things!  She is a crinkling FIEND these days!  I have to watch it when I bring plastic bags home.

Moving her tongue around.  I think she's practicing to be in a KISS cover band when she grows up or something.

I couldn't pick just one, they were all cracking me up

HOLDING HANDS!  Actually, this should be one of my favorites too.  Whenever she's sad about something, the #1 thing that makes her feel better is holding one of my fingers.  If she's really upset, she'll grab one with each hand.  It absolutely melts. my. heart.  She was also holding hands with her friend Brooklyn the other day, which was ADORABLE.  Alice and I took probably about 40 photos between us because it was just too much. 

Squeaking!!

Sucking on her fingers!  She does it ALL the time!

Sometimes it's hard to coordinate

Sometimes she accidentally gags herself

But when she gets it right, it's pretty darn precious.

Looking at her dad!  It's so cute, when Jacob comes home she will not take her eyes off him.  She smiles and flaps her arms and I absolutely love seeing how much she loves her daddy.

Oh my gosh, me.  For 80% of her wake time, she is absolutely fine being held by other people, looking at other people, etc. and she barely notices if I'm not around.  When she gets tired or overwhelmed?  Look. Out.  She needs to be in my lap or over my shoulder or she will freak. the flip. out.  It is simultaneously flattering, heartwarming, and a little exhausting.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I love that she loves me and I love holding her pretty much whenevs.

Really? You won't even smile for this little cutie?

Surprises
How much she looks like me!!  Especially since she's all about imitating my facial expressions.  It's really a crazy feeling seeing my face almost exactly reflected on this tiny little baby head.

Other Notable Moments
Getting to meet & spend time with Rachel!  Jenna LOVED her, which was so cute to see!!!  Also, cheering us on during our 5K (which Jenna did not actually enjoy, but Rachel & I did!)

Moving to Houston!!!  It was a little sad packing up the house where we started our marriage and had Jenna, but this will be a fun new adventure!

Looking Forward To...

New adventures in Houston!! We're going to stop by our new BSF class (mostly just to get her registered) and maybe join a playgroup?  It'll be fun!

Her being able to sit up on her own.  She LOVES being able to see everything that's going on, but can only stay comfortably upright in her Bumbo for so long.  She'll be a lot happier when she can do it on her own.

3 Months

Age
Three months 

Milestones
Laughing!  So far there's pretty much just one or two things that consistently make her laugh, but I do them all the time now because it's so fun!!  I've also heard her jabbering and then laughing to herself when she is supposed to be napping, which is pretty hilarious. 


She's pretty great at holding up her head now.  She can stand and sit up with help from us.  She's so strong!!

My Favorites
Just hanging out with her...she's so fun and smiley!!  Most of the day we pretty much just sit and chat and smile at each other, which probably sounds awful to anyone who has ever babysat before, but it's actually pretty awesome when it's your own spawn.  I love it so much. There have been a few times when she's woken up in the morning a couple hours earlier than she's supposed to and to keep babies in "sleep mode" you're not supposed to make eye contact...but as soon as she sees me she starts smiling and giggling and I can't help but look at her and start laughing too.  No self control for either of us.

Her chubby little cheeks and thigh rolls and elbow dimples!!!

Her Favorites
Being a copycat...apparently, I make a "surprise" face at her a lot, and she's started copying it anytime I get near her face...kind of.  Jacob got a video of her doing it, which is honestly ones of the funniest things I've ever seen (although that may be biased mom talk), but if you don't have time to watch it, you can at least look at this picture of the face I make vs. the face she makes.

Oh well, she tries.

She also started copying the way Jacob sneezes which, if you've never heard him sneeze before, it's basically an enormous war cry followed by a sneeze.  It's the second loudest thing you will ever hear (the loudest is Jacob throwing up.  I can't even BEGIN to describe that experience.) I love that there are now TWO people in my household that do this.  Not.

Blowing spit bubbles 

Looking in the mirror

Mom & Dad.  I LOVE how much she loves her mom & dad :) 

Surprises
How quickly she's grown!  I feel like her head is twice the size it was at birth, it's CRAZY!

Other Notable Moments
I took all the blog posts from my pregnancy and put them into a Shutterfly book...it arrived this week and looks so good!!

I can't decide when I want to give it to her...when she learns to read?  Or maybe middle school?  I feel like that's when kids are most curious about themselves (read: self-absorbed) and she would appreciate something like this at that time...or maybe around when she goes to college since that's about the time you can actually starts seeing your parents as cool and she'll appreciate my jokes more? TBD

Looking Forward To...
Visitors coming this month!!  Jacob's parents are coming into town immediately followed by my best friend Rachel!  I can't wait for Jenna to get to know them!!

I'm also really excited about her being able to sit up on her own and start moving around.  I mean I know that's going to add a whole layer of craziness on my day, but it's going to be so fun to see her putting around the living room! 

Cousincation 2014

Well, I meant to post this like a month ago, but whatevs.   In mid-February, the Lisi family came down to TX to visit!!  We got to meet Asher for the first time, they got to meet Jenna, and the cousins got to meet each other.  Lots of meeting.  It was amazing.  I just wanted to post some pictures from #cousincation2014 for posterity (almost named #cousinlovin which was, surprisingly, voted against...)

The babies got off to a rocky start...

Cousincation?  More like Cryingcation.

But they warmed up to each other pretty soon.  Jenna ESPECIALLY loved her Tia and Zio.  I'm not sure if she ever really registered that there was another baby around, but that's ok because that left me wide open to get plenty of playtime with Asher!

We went on walks together...

...hit up HEB...

...celebrated Valentine's Day (complete with heart-shaped bacon)...

 

...ate some delicious grub...

How much do I love Bird Bakery?  So much.

...and forced our kids into embarrassing pictures that we will treasure for years to come.

Aw...holding hands

About a week after the Lisi's left, I was on FaceTime with Stacy and showed Jenna the screen...she started smiling and kicking because she was so excited to see her Tia.  I totally cried.  Love you Lisi family!!!  Come again soon!!

Top o' the Morning to ya

Actually, since it's 5:00 at night I really should be saying top o' the evening to ya...but in reality I shouldn't be saying either of those things because I'm about as Irish as a giant pile of schnitzel.  Luckily, my daughter is part Irish and makes a super cute St. Patrick's Day babay.

I love the holidays.  Even the silly ones that originated as celebrating things like the death of saints but have since turned into celebrations of candy or green beer (read: Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day).  Side note...a quick Google search just told me that I've been punctuating sentences with parenthesis at the end wrong my entire life.  A teacher at one point told me that the period went outside of parenthesis, no exceptions, and I've been following that religiously ever since.  Now Google tells me that isn't true.  It makes me wonder what incorrect things I might've said to my students that they will think is true for the next 15 years...it's crazy how the things teachers do can stick with you for so long.  For example, I remember in preschool my teachers set up a little leprechaun hunt, where the leprechaun left a trail of mini Reese's that we followed all the way to a pot of gold.  We each got one of the Reese's in the trail.  I can't remember what ended up being in the pot of gold (more Reese's? Lucky Charms? Chocolate coins?) but either way, it was awesome.  I love holidays.  (See how I brought that back around? Boom.)   Anyway, I can't wait to do fun little things like that with Jenna as she gets older.  In the meantime, I can celebrate by dressing her in green and taking a whole memory card's worth of pictures.

And one more of mom & baby for good measure.

Hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day yesterday!  

2 Months

Age
Two months (and three days)

Yay! Two months!

Also, as a side piece of information, we took her to the doctor a couple days ago and she is 12 lb even (just less than double her birth weight!) and 22.75 inches

Milestones
Smiling when she sees us!!  It is the best thing ever.  It's crazy, she really does know us from other people.  Our landlord & his family came to visit when she was sleeping and woke up when his wife was holding her.  When Jenna realized she was being held by a stranger she jumped so bad and had this look on her face that...well, it was probably the same face that I would make if I woke up being held by a stranger.  It was awesome.

Interacting with toys!  This has been a total blast.  Stacy & Andrew got her these little jingle bugs to hang on her carseat and the first time she saw them she could not stop smiling.

She sleeps 9 hours a night pretty consistently.  I am so. ridiculously. lucky.

Actually starting to work at tummy time instead of laying face down and completely immobile until we finally give up and flip her over.  I was really sure for a while that she would just kind of skip over the crawling phase, move straight to walking, and go through life with zero upper body strength.

My Favorites
Waking her up and hanging out with her in the morning.  She's super happy and just smiles at everything.

Her cry...it's just so cute!  And often lacks conviction, as seen in the video.  Even when she got her vaccines, she let out the huge wail that lasted for maybe less than a minute and then just stopped the second I picked her up.

Her sad face

Which brings me to my next point...I love that she is pretty much instantly comforted when Jacob or I pick her up.  All it takes (most of the time) is putting her up over our shoulders and she immediately relaxes.

Her tiny feet

Doing stupid stuff like make it look like she's dancing or riding our dog.

Dressing her up in ridiculous(ly cute) outfits, like as a football for the Super Bowl or like a cherry just because...

I think her face says it all

Her Favorites 
Kicking her jingly owl and staring at the green bird in her play gym

Snuggling

Mom & Dad

Tia and Zio!!

Surprises
Babies can projectile poop.  While Jacob was changing Jenna's diaper, she pooped and it shot out at least 3 feet.  Most of it hit Jacob, but there was some carpet evidence to show how far it went.  Thank goodness for Resolve. (Note: I did not get paid for that endorsement...but I probably should've been)

How quickly her brain develops!  It's like one day to the next...one day you really don't think she can recognize you and then literally the next day she smiles whenever she sees you.  It's crazy.

Other Notable Moments
Mastering the Moby wrap...sort of...I felt like a total baller cleaning the house with this thing on and then checked the mirror and all of a sudden felt like a total idiot.  Practice makes perfect I guess...

#momfail

Looking Forward To...
Being able to make her laugh!!