Twinkle, Twinkle

I've been wanting to get a video of Jenna singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" since she does such a good job doing so. She has her hand in her mouth the whole time, but you can still get the gist of it. She even adds in a little bit of "Old MacDonald" afterward. The video ends abruptly when she observes there are two Jennas--herself and the one she was watching in the video.

Mommy's Kitchen Helper

Last night, we decided to make semi-homemade pizza for dinner. Jenna wanted to help, as she always does. I was trying to prepare the meal, so I wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing since she was right next to me.


When I stopped to see what was keeping her so busy (and so quiet), I immediately knew what she was up to...

She was helping me conserve space in the kitchen cabinets...by mixing these two green bottles together. How thoughtful of her!

Climbing Up the Wall

Jenna has been quite wound up the last couple of days. Maybe the energy she didn't spend while she had the stomach bug has been saved up and she has to get rid of it--who knows!?! Anyway, when she got home from her first day back at school, this is what she did...

Christmas in March

We were given a gift of a gingerbread kit for Christmas, but had not yet put it together. When Jenna was home sick this week, she said she wanted to make it, so of course, I said yes. Here are some pictures of the experience; she had a blast!

Unexpected Vacation

Jenna has had an unexpected vacation from school this week. She started with some loose bowels on Saturday, then progressed into a fever and vomiting on Sunday. The fever and vomiting didn't last long, but the loose bowels have. She can't go to school until she's back to normal. Overall, she's acting like she feels ok; she just doesn't have much of an appetite. I took these pictures of her yesterday; you'd never know she's got a stomach bug, would you?

Fancy Pajamas

Last year, Mimi gave Jenna some fancy satiny pajamas. They were way too big for her then, but now that she's taller and the weather is warmer, they're finally able to be worn. Jenna tried them on for the first time after her bath one day last week, and she was hooked. She loved the feel of the pants, and has wanted to wear them each night since. Doesn't she look like such a big girl. And how perfect are the ducks for the child who use to carry around a rubber ducky when she was a baby? So cute!

Jenna's "Bike"

The weather has been great the past several days--in the 70s and perfect to enjoy outside. Last night, we went for a walk and saw lots of kids and dogs, which Jenna loved. Most of the kids were riding bikes, big wheels, etc., so we decided to get Jenna's big wheel out from last year. It was too big for her then, but she's growing into it now. She had a lot of fun riding it, and I'm sure this is just the beginning of fun to last for several years!

Here is her reaction when Randy first brought it up from the basement.

Here she is posing on it for her first ride...

3rd Post for the Weekend!

I thought Jenna looked really cute in her outfit for church today (what a surprise, right?). Anyway, I had to take some pictures to capture how big she's getting.

Jenna loves to play the drum
so she wanted a picture in front of it.

"Let's go, Momma!"

Look at how thick her hair is getting!

Our Creative Child

Yesterday, as I was cleaning the floors, Jenna decided to get creative. She pulled out all her DVDs and lined them up, saying "Choo, choo!" Then she arranged her animals on it for a ride. I was pretty impressed with the idea! She then posed for a picture on the train too. What a cute child she is!

Jenna's Artwork

Jenna's school is really good about doing lots of arts and crafts every day. It's great to see them and see what she's doing, but I literally had 3 inches of papers to go through! This weekend, I sorted them and picked out my favorites; I saved some but just took pictures of others. One thing I really like about her 2-year old class is that they do "finish the phrase" crafts where they start a sentence and write down how she finishes it. I've cracked up at some of her responses, as you'll see below.

Jenna loves...Kitty (no clue who this is), Daddy, Jenna, Mommy, Teacher.

My heart belongs to...Mommy!
(This melted Mommy's heart!)

I loved the use of colors and technique on this one.

What a cute idea!

Splatter paint!
Jenna had a lot of fun doing this one
and enjoys demonstrating how she made it.

And my favorite one of all--I cracked up when I saw it!
Jenna's fun place is...Kroger!
(Isn't that the truth?!?!)

Visit with Mimi & Poppa

We had a great weekend with Mimi and Poppa! Jenna was so excited to see them, and we were too! We vegged out most of the weekend, and stayed in from this ridiculous cold weather. We're all ready for spring where we can spend more time outside! This winter has been too long and cold--we moved down South so we didn't have to deal with this! Here are some pictures from our fun.

Do you think she likes chocolate???

Here are some sweet pictures with Jenna's grandparents...

Kroger

Well, five months after my original post about Jenna's love for Kroger, if anything, her love has increased. She now lets me know which Kroger she wants to go to--the old one or the new one. The old one is just a few minutes from our house, which is the one we most often go to. However, the new one is about 15 minutes from our house and is quite the experience! If you've never been to a Kroger Marketplace, you should check it out if you have the chance. Anyway, tonight we went on the way home from work/school, and much to my surprise the store was actually not very crowded. So when Jenna pointed to one of the car carts, I could no longer resist. I've never wanted to maneuver one of those in a busy grocery store, but tonight was a perfect night to try it out. I had to get pictures of her because she was so excited. She had a blast, so now this will most certainly be another highlight of our Kroger excursions.

Funny Jenna

Here are a few shots of Jenna being funny. She made this face herself the other day, so I had to take a picture.

Here she is riding on one of her Little People princess coach; I guess she figures, "Hey, I'm a little people!"

This has been a big week for Jenna. We moved the rocking chair out of her room to give her more space to play. Also, she's been showing lots of interest in the potty--very exciting! She's frequently walking around saying, "I'm a big girl!" and we're not disagreeing.

Valentine's Day Nap

Jenna took a nap with Daddy this Valentine's Day. When she woke up, as usual, her hair was all wet, matted down, and curly. She gets so hot when sleeping! We took some pictures of her, and within a few minutes, she had woken up and was as sweet and cheery as could be.

2 years, 2 months old

Jenna was 2 years, 2 months old yesterday! We took some impromptu pictures of her as we were leaving for school, and I thought they really captured her personality.

An Unexpected Snow Day

Well, last Friday, the weather forecasters were predicting we could get significant snowfall on Monday night and into Tuesday, so of course all of us were getting very excited and planning our day off for Tuesday. They said the weather pattern appeared to be very similar to the Blizzard of '93, so we were very excited at the prospect of getting more snow than a dusting. I'm amazed at how little snowfall Knoxville gets--even in comparison to Cleveland, an hour south of us. I definitely wanted Jenna to experience snow before she was 5 years old!

Back to the weather forecast...by Saturday, the weather advisory was gone and there wasn't a snow prediction anymore. Apparently, the weather pattern had changed, and we weren't expected to get much of anything at all. So this morning, I went to work expecting nothing, but by 10 am, the snow had begun...big huge flakes and all! By 10:30, Jenna's school had decided to close at noon, so I had to leave work to get her. I had plenty to do at work, but was glad to have an unexpected half-snow day! The roads were pretty slushy by the time I left work, and I was glad to not have to drive in them later in the day when they would potentially be worse. I couldn't even get up our driveway (which is not that steep) until I'd shoveled it!

This afternoon, we just took it easy--Jenna napped and I did some stuff for work. Then came the fun when we built Jenna's first snowman. She really wasn't excited about playing in the snow--she more liked playing in the melted snow (i.e. water puddles). I asked her if she wanted to lay in the snow to make a snow angel, and she said nope.

Enjoy the pictures!

Our Growing Girl

Here are a few pictures of Jenna before going to church today. She's growing up so fast. I worked in the nursery today with her, a 13-month old, and an 18-month old. In the past, she's been totally jealous of other kids and didn't even want me to hold them, change their diapers, etc. Today, she didn't act jealous at all, and was actually very helpful. She brought toys, pacifiers, books, and anything she could think of to help entertain them if they were upset. She was such a big helper and made me proud. She even tried to teach the 18-month old how to jump by showing him and telling him to "watch!" It was so cute. Afterward, we went to a restaurant where we weren't sure what she was going to eat. And she did good there too. How pleasantly surprised we were!

Words of Wisdom

Here are two short funny stories from this week. Jenna is getting to be quite the conversationalist, and sometimes the things she says just crack me up.

Story 1:
On Tuesday morning, it was pouring down rain when I was dropping Jenna off at school. So before I got out of the car, I told Jenna I was coming around to get her but that I was going to be wet when I got there. When I opened the door, she was pointing to the floor and saying her version of "umbrella." Duh, what an easy solution to not be wet! Why didn't I think of that?!?

Story 2:
This morning, I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit before going to work. Odds and ends usually accumulate on our island throughout the week and stay there longer than they should. So I cleaned it off completely, and it looked great. My bubble was burst a bit though when Jenna responded, "Uh oh, all gone!" as if she was so used to seeing it a mess, she thought it was supposed to be that way. Ah, the life of a busy family!

This week in pictures

On Monday afternoon, the weather forecasters started saying we might get some snow on Monday night. I have learned to ignore such predictions so as to not get my hopes up. However, we actually did get some accumulation, probably about an inch. It looked very pretty, so we had to take some pictures. It was very cold, so Jenna didn't get to play in it. She did touch it and thought it was too cold to hold. : )




I thought this was a cute shot of Daddy singing to Jenna. She sang along with him during parts of the sing-along, but the sweet look in her eyes watching him in this picture was priceless.

This morning before church, I had to snap a few shots of Jenna in her skirt from cousin Steven. I thought she looked so grown up in it! I took the first shot, then she saw her friend Mr. Vacuum nearby, so she wanted a picture next to him too. This child has been infatuated with the vacuum since she was about 7 months old. She loves the thing and laughs every time she sees it. She treats it like a person and always says hi to it. Funny girl!