June already

Just a few quick lines to remember things:
Jena has quite a few teeth now. 4 top front, 4 bottom front, 4 molars. She has such a cute little toothy smile.

She's still as loving as ever. Last weekend we were riding in the car and she said "I love you" and then blew me kisses. Yes, I melted.

We had her 16 month(?) checkup the other day, got 2 shots, checked her sizes. She's 30.1" tall, which puts her in the 10-20% for height. Her weight is at 50%, though, so I guess she's just a little bit short.

She's been staying at home with her mom since Kat is out of school for the summer. Spending time with her every day when I get home is wonderful. Even the times like last night when she ran over to me, I picked her up to hold her, and got a whole handful of poop as her diaper was overflowing :) Ah well, goes with the territory.

She's growing like crazy, running, babbling and trying to talk.

Easter 07

I can already see it. A common theme to my posts is going to be "I am so slack, I can't believe I haven't written anything lately." There's so much to tell. Jena is beyond just walking, she's pretty much running these days. Not exactly gracefully, she pretty much just puts her head down and takes off, but she's definitely running.

She's also beginning to talk. She's been saying Da-Da since January, but when I went to pick her up at daycare last week she saw me and came running and said "Dadee Dadee!" Yes, I melted. She also says MaMa, bird, and ball. And she knows what we're saying to her. When asked where the light is, she'll point at it. Same with her ball, her dog, Mama, Daddy. She knows what no means, but she just ignores it sometimes :)

She got a Pooh ride-on/push car that makes all kids of music and sounds. She loves it.

She also found eggs that were "hidden" for her at K-momma's house. We got some great pictures of her sitting on the lawn playing with them.

Jena loves bathtime. She often tries to climb into the tub while we're still filling it.

She's not a big fan of bedtime/naptime anymore. Gone are the days when she fell asleep immediately after being put to bed. Now there's a mandatory period of crying before sleep will come. No surprise, her mother and I both fought sleep as kids.

Playing possum

I almost forgot about this one. Several nights when I've had to go in and rock Jena to sleep, she's done this. She's crying, and when I open the door, she's standing up in the bed. I walk in, say "what's going on in here?" or somesuch. As soon as she sees/hears me, Jena flops down in the bed. When I go over, she's laying on her tummy, face-flat as if she's sleeping. Then I pick her up and she's grinning. I rock her for a few minutes and she usually drops off to sleep. Too funny.

Little faker :)

Happy New Year 2007

This year has been an incredible one for me. The fact that I'm a daddy now has totally changed my life and my outlook on so many things. Things that once were very important to me are now insignifcant. Kat and I have grown so much closer through the sharing of being parents. It really allows us to focus on what is REALLY important. And the obvious love that Jena has for both of us is like standing in a warm sunbeam. It's a wonderful thing. I could rattle on and on about the changes this has made in my life this year, but I'll just sum it up and say that 2006 was undoubtably the happiest year of my life, and I expect 2007 to be even better.

Here's a few tidbits to remember:

Jena has now cut her top two front teeth. She had an ear infection AND a cold while she was cutting them, so she/we had a rough few days where she was very fussy. She just didn't feel very well.

Christmas Day she took her first steps. On two different occasions she took 1 or 2 unaided steps. Since then she's repeated it a few times. I expect she'll be walking soon.

We started bathing Jena in the "big tub" and put away the baby tub. Jena loves bathtime, and usually cries when I take her out of the bath- she's not ready to get out.

Here's our usual evening routine: baby dinner at or around 6:30. Maybe play or watch a little TV until around 7:30. Then bathtime (every other night). Then Kat takes Jena, puts on a fresh diaper and PJs. I'm usually running around, cleaning things up. I kiss Jena goodnight and turn on the sound machine. Kat reads Jena a book or two, turns out the lights, sings to her, then puts her to bed. This is usually all it takes. But for several nights in a row, after that, Jena starts crying. I go in, cradle her in my arms, rock her to sleep. Maybe she's just been off her schedule, but I'd like to think that she just wants some time with her daddy before she goes to sleep.

Jena got a Playschool "Play&Learn" piano from Santa Claus. She loves it. In addition to the keyboard, the thing has buttons, dials, and levers all the way around it which make sounds when manipulated. Jena goes in circles around it, playing with all the parts of it, making noises. In addition to making music, it has teaching modes, teaching music notes (do, re, me...), numbers, and songs. We are pleased with it, and so is she.

Jena is very active now. She likes to be held, but only if you are standing up and moving around. If you sit down, she arches her back and tries to get down. So, either you are moving, or she is moving. No sitting. Even after sitting and having her bottle, as soon as she's done, she wants to get down. And then it's off to the races as she's all over the house getting into things. I've been a bad daddy and haven't finished putting on all the baby locks, even though we've had them for months. I'll try to get on that today.

Jena continues to be a blessing and a joy in my life. Every day really IS a new adventure with her.

December update

I've been slack in updating this journal. Life happens.

It's December, and Kat and I just celebrated our 6 year anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married that long, it seems like just yesterday that we started dating again. And THAT was 8 years ago! Last weekend we took a picture in front of the Christmas tree at Christ United Methodist Church in Forsyth. Kat, me, and Jena. Almost exactly 6 years before that, Kat and I were taking a picture in the same exact place as we got married.

Jena is all over the place. Crawling at top speed. Pulling up on everything, cruising around the furniture. We're glad that we got an oval coffee table so that we can watch her do laps around it. Sometimes she are able to stand on her own without holding onto anything. And she is getting into EVERYTHING! We've tried to babyproof, but she still find things we've missed. Also, we borrowed a "baby cage" from her Aunt Jennifer so that she can roam around and play but still be somewhat contained. Her cousin Mary Rachel said she "would be like a tiger in the baby cage".

Speaking of tigers, she's got her first two teeth in! Or at least, they are coming in, both her front bottom teeth. They're quite sharp and painful.

She's been vocal for many months, but we think Jena MAY have actually talked to us now. Yesterday I think she said "bye bye" when I dropped her off for daycare and said it again this morning as we said goodbye to her mother. But it's hard to say since "ba ba" is one of her favorite phrases right now. I also think Jena said "da da" or "da dee" last night. Again, hard to say, "ba ba ba ba" and "da da da da" are things she says a good bit.

It's hard to believe how much she's grown, hard to believe that she is 10 months old.

Baby kisses

Jena has learned a new trick: giving kisses. Granted, they are open-mouthed-sloppy-wet-slobbery-baby-kisses, but they are sweet nonetheless. She actually started this last week when her K-Momma was visiting. Jena were sick with a stomach bug and couldn't go to daycare, so she came to stay with us for a couple of days. While she was there, Jena started giving her kisses on the cheek. As a matter of fact, at first, Jena would ONLY kiss K-Momma, not Kat or me. But a couple of days ago, Jena started giving her kisses to Daddy and Mommy.

reasons

To Jena:

I started thinking about all the things I've enjoyed about being a dad, lately. Kat has a journal that she writes in, I assume she'll show it to you one of these days. I'm not one to scribble on paper, my handwriting looks vaguely like cuneiform, and after a few minutes of writing, my hand feels like a claw. But I can type up a storm, so this is my venue. Here's a few things that have struck me as needing to be preserved:

Right now, you're 6 months old. We've finally found a formula that doesn't upset your tummy too much. Just a few weeks ago, you were spitting up all the time. We kept a bib on you at all times. It didn't really matter if it had been 5 minutes or 2 hours since your last feeding, you might spit it all out at any time. But at least you were a good sport about it. You've always been a happy baby, grinning and laughing all the time, even when I know that you are sick. A week ago you were sick with some daycare-spawned stomach bug, we kept you out of daycare for almost a week. The whole time you never got fussy, you were your usual happy self.

You're so close to crawling I think it will happen any time now. You've been rolling around and scooting on your tummy for a couple of months, but just in the past week you've really started getting ready to crawl. Last Saturday I went to get you out of your crib in the morning and saw that you were up on all fours (a first, for you). Since then your mom and I have seen you do it several times... you get up on your hands and knees and start rocking back and forth. You haven't quite got the whole forward motion thing down yet. As a matter of fact, you often end up pushing yourself backwards, to your apparent frustration. But I think it's a matter of days, not weeks, before you get the hang of it. And then we'll have to baby-proof everything :)

So many things I need to remember...

Sometimes you're not really thrilled about going to bed. Don't worry, you get it naturally, your mother and I both hated to go to sleep. She and I both used to "fake out" our parents and stay up late, reading by flashlight. Also, Kat always says that she could never go to bed if there was something going on in the house, she didn't want to be left out. So it's no surprise that you are sometimes resistant to going to sleep, even when you are tired, grumpy, and rubbing your eyes. Sometimes it takes both of us, sometimes just one or the other of us has the "magic" that puts you to sleep on a particular night. Your mother rocks you, reads to you, sings to you. I usually just cradle you in my arms and rock you back and forth. Sometimes you reach up and run your fingers through my beard as you drift off to sleep.

Beginnings

I created this blog as an online journal with a particular purpose... something for my daughter Jena to read one day. I've got another blog elsewhere for the usual bloggy stuff, memes, rants, reviews, etc. But this one is for her. Maybe one day I'll show it to her, although I'm wondering what that will be like:

Jena: "Daddy, what's a blog?"
Me: "Well honey, it's kinda like (some futuristic blog-replacement) only it doesn't have (some cool feature) or (some other cool feature). It's just words and pictures."
Jena: "That sounds boring, Daddy."

But the words will be here, and hopefully that will be important to her.

Plus, a picture of us together in the hospital: