More Time in the Kitchen

Jenna helped me make peanut blossom cookies this week. she loved unwrapping the Hershey kiss and deciding where on the cookie to place it. The third picture is of her clapping when she finished the last cookie on the plate. Amazingly, she hasn't thought to taste the chocolate yet--when she does, we're in trouble. She hasn't eaten chocolate very often at all, but when she has, she really seems to like it. Enjoy the pictures!




This is another cute thing she's started the past couple of weeks. She'll use both hands to grab our face and just look at us. It's very sweet!

A Cook and Shopper in the Making

Yesterday morning, Jenna helped me make a small fruit salad! I thought to get out the step stool so she could reach the counter without me holding her. She thought she was big stuff! She enjoyed stirring the fruit and sampling it. I affectionately call that "cook's profit"! She's learning the concept early. Yesterday afternoon she also helped me make chex mix too. She's definitely going to be a big kitchen helper.





Last weekend, I tried my hand at making my Papu's fresh apple pie recipe for my Dad's birthday. It was definitely a success so I'm sure Jenna will be helping me with those in the future too. We served it hot with french vanilla ice cream. YUMMM!!!!

Here's a picture of the finished product:

Here's a picture of my teacher:

This weekend, Jenna and I also went shopping twice! Usually, she's pretty anxious to get in and out, wants to get out and walk, etc. However, she was a little angel both trips! I think we have a born shopper on our hands! The second trip was supposed to be a short one, but she fussed so much when I put her back in the carseat that I took her to another store, and she did great for another hour!

What fun we will have with many shopping trips and cooking experiences!

Quack Quack

Mimi and Poppa visited this weekend, so we decided to go to the Great Knoxville Rubber Duck Race on Saturday. Although we didn't win any prizes, we had a great time. The weather was great...cloudy and cooler than a typical August day. Here are some pictures to commemorate the event.

Jenna wore a hat like her Poppa and Daddy

Three generations

That's a lot of ducks!!!

Sweet baby girl

Jenna Reading

Well, to our amazement on Friday night, Jenna began reading!!! "Reading" is a bit of an exaggeration, but we'd never heard her use such inflections. She was reading the book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Toes, and you will just have to see the video to experience it.

Funny Girl

Here are a few pictures of some funny things Jenna has been doing within the past couple of weeks.

1) Every time Randy gets up from where he sits on the couch, Jenna climbs over to be sitting there when he gets back. She loves to see his reaction!


2) She really gets a kick out of a certain section of her Baby Einstein movie. Here's er reaction to it.



3) She LOVES yogurt! She hurries through eating it, then raises it up and says "all gone" so proudly. Little does she know that a quarter of the container is around her mouth and down her stomach!

4) She grabbed Dada's shoes today and started walking around in them. How cute!

In other news, tomorrow is a big day for her at school--she moves up to the Toddler II class! She is in the Toddler I class right now, but with the older kids starting Kindergarten, the rest of the kids get to advance to the next class. Her current teacher said the Toddler I and Toddler II classes are very similar, but the Toddler II class has a little more structured time and they even start working on potty training if we want them to. WOW! She's growing up so fast.

Popsicles

We introduced Jenna to popsicles a couple of weeks ago, and now she eats a whole one by herself! It probably originally felt good on her teething gums, but now I think she just likes the flavor. Smart girl! She'll even ask for one by name ("cockickle") and especially likes to eat it outside, although it's harder for her to finish it with the summer heat. Yesterday we enjoyed them in the cool, air-conditioned house! Enjoy the pictures!

Snoopy

Well, we made it through last week, but it was rough! Jenna cut her last 3 canine teeth, so she was not a happy camper. She woke up screaming several times during several nights, and just could not be soothed. She used to fight us when we tried to apply tooth numbing gel; however, last week, she would look for it and then open her mouth for us to put it on her. She knew it meant relief! How pitiful!

She and Snoopy really bonded though, as we previously posted. He's certainly not as white and clean as he used to be! Here are some cute pictures of them cuddling while she was asleep. Isn't she getting so big?

Girly Girl

For several months, Jenna has enjoyed it when she gets to play with Mommy's makeup while I'm getting ready. She likes scraping her fingernail in my eye shadow then rubbing it on her forehead. Occasionally, she will "help" me put on makeup by putting eye shadow on my nose or lips. I tried to capture her fun this evening.

First, I'll put on my powder with this brush.

Hmm, what color should I wear today?

Next, I'll comb my hair.

It seems like I'm forgetting something...

Jenna's Best Buds

Jenna has become quite attached to her stuffed animal friends recently. Her favorites include Elmo (of course), Floppy the Bunny (who Randy picked out for her before we even knew she'd be a girl), Baby Bunny, Snoopy, and a soft cuddly teddy bear from her Uncle Aaron. They all sleep with her in the crib at night, and she enjoys kissing and hugging them when she wakes up in the morning. Tonight, as she was going to bed, I handed her one after the other until they were in a group hug. She thought that was pretty funny--here's a picture of it:

Earlier this evening, Jenna was having a hard time dealing with being told that she would have to put down Snoopy and Baby Bunny in order to eat her dinner. So, Randy got creative. He went to get a bib for Snoopy to wear and poured him a bowl of cereal. Then he set him in the chair and told Jenna that they were going to eat at the same time. She seemed to think about it for a second and soon agreed to it. She thought that was pretty funny too, as you can see in the first picture below. In the second picture, she allowed Baby Bunny to go eat with Snoopy so all three of them could eat at the same time. How cute!

ABCs

Here is a video we took last week to show how Jenna is learning her ABCs. She amazes us with how much she already knows! What a cutie she is!

Jenna's Latest Developments

Jenna is growing so quickly! This week, she started speaking in the cadence of sentences. Before, she'd say a word here or there, but now she likes to say a sentence at a time, most of which we can't understand, pausing occasionally and at the end of her "sentence." She's also become quite the climber--she now is tall enough to climb up on my desk chair and can boost herself up on our bed too. She always looks so proud of herself when she makes it to her destination.

This weekend, she also enjoyed sorting through and organizing my rubber bands, rearranging my cabinets, and, of course, climbing some more.


Here are some pictures of Jenna and Daddy playing. She loves jumping, flying, etc!

Playing in the Rain

Just like Daddy did when he was little, Jenna experienced playing in the Louisiana rain last week. In the middle of a hot and humid day, an afternoon thunderstorm brought some welcome relief. Jenna was started out cautiously touching the rain, but as you can tell from the progression of pictures, she ended up completely wet as she got more comfortable playing in it.

Cautiously feeling the raindrops.

She must have thought her pacifier needed rinsing off.

Inching out into the garden.

Walking barefoot through the rocky garden...
she's come a long way since she wouldn't walk on grass a few months ago!

All wet and cooled off.

Baton Rouge Zoo

We visited the Baton Rouge Zoo twice while in Louisiana--one of the perks of having a zoo membership in Knoxville is being able to visit other zoos for free or discounted rates. So we didn't get to finish seeing everything the first day, so we just went back. It was naturally very hot and humid in Baton Rouge, so we could only take limited exposure to the hot weather! Here are some pictures from our visits.

Taking in the sites of the zoo.
She was so excited!

Jenna refused to wear a hat
until she saw Daddy wear one;
then she wanted to put hers on.
What a Daddy's Girl!

Jenna loves trains--she can hear them from
a mile away to which she says "Choo Choo."
We thought a train ride would cool us off and
that she'd really enjoy it. It did cool us off,
but she immediately fell asleep. I don't even
think she knows we rode it!

Jenna really enjoyed seeing the giraffes
up close and personal.

Watching the otters swim by.