Grandma entered a picture of Jeannette into a photo contest and she won! Check it out here. This isn't the picture that won, but it is the hat the won. Isn't she a cutie? And now she's award winning too!

Well, I'm really gonna make an effort to post more often,although that'll mean less pictures with each post. I figure it'll be easier to follow Jeannette's progress through life if I post more little details more often rather than just hitting the big ones.

She was a little cranky last night. I think she wasn't feeling well from the shots she got. We gave her some infant Motrin and held her 'til she was ready for sleep finally. She woke up a little early very hungry. She only had the tiniest of marks on her legs from one of the shots, so, at least she didn't have a reaction to anything. I fed her 8 ozs of formula for breakfast and got her ready for day care. She likes her day care so, it makes it easier to drop her off, although, I'll be honest; it breaks my heart to leave her there. The fact that she doesn't fuss or cry makes it even worse. I've got a digital photo frame with a couple of hundred pictures of her on my desk so, when I start missing her during the day, I just sit and watch the slide show and it makes me smile.

I guess that means she's got Dad wrapped around her tiny finger huh? :) 'Course, I think she had that covered from the beginning.

Just a quick update. I took Jeannette to the doctor this morning for her 6/7 month check up. According to the doctor, she is "just perfect." He was amazed by how well-behaved she was. She didn't fuss at all and let the doctor examine her with no trouble. She is 27 1/2" long, weighs 18 lbs and 3 1/2 ounces and is in the 90th percentile for length and 70th percentile for weight. He was really surprised that she hasn't been in for a sick visit since she goes to day care three times a week. She got three shots and really didn't fuss about those too much, although I think it helped that Daddy was right there to comfort her. She didn't even notice the first shot, but the last shot hurt a bit and she needed some comforting. Other than that she is doing great and goes back around 9 months. The doctor also said that we can start introducing "real" food, although it still has to be mashed up (obviously since she only has two teeth).

Well, first off lemme apologize for slacking off the way I obviously have. The holidays have just been crazy. So, that said, I'll try and catch everyone up on how Jeannette's been doing the last couple of months.

She is growing and developing just fine. She's a very happy little girl, as all the smiling pictures I post can attest. It's not hard to get her to laugh or smile these days. Thanksgiving was just Mommy Daddy and Jeannette so, it was quiet.

She's eating baby food now but is still a little young to enjoy any of the treats Daddy cooked up for Turkey Day. Next year.

While I'm sure she didn't understand what Christmas was all about she sure did enjoy it. The blinking lights on the trees and the wreath on the door as well as the lighted garland on the steps upstairs all fascinated her.



Come Christmas day she really got into tearing the paper off her presents. It didn't take much coaching from Daddy on that. In fact, I think she enjoyed the paper almost as much as all the toys!



One of her favorite toys turns out to be a gorilla that, when you squeeze his hand, roars and beats his chest and marches towards you. She loves that gorilla! I think it looks and feels (and tastes!) like her black kitty, Max. She also got all kinds of toys and activity centers and lots of things that make noise, as well as a new quilt and dress from Grandma.

Speaking of the kitties, she really likes them all and they don't seem to mind her. One of my favorite things to do is to plop her down on the back of Punkin, my big fat orange tabby, so she can really love on him. She gets SO happy and squeals with delight and Punkin, while I can tell he doesn't really like it, doesn't seem to mind it too much and tolerates her like he would any new kitten.

She has hit two milestones in the last week or so that are worth talking about. First, she's started not quite crawling but she is definitely mobile. She kinda skooches along. She's determined to catch herself a kitty too.

The other one is she's saying her first words. For the record, I'm calling that her first word is "Mom." She quite clearly and distinctly says "mom" when Mommy isn't around or when she's being held by Daddy and wants Mommy. When Jennifer is holding her says "Momma" to her, she smiles as if she understands what is being said.

Her second word is "AhDah" which means Daddy (or Dada). If she hasn't seen me in a while, or if Mommy is home with her for the day, she'll say "AhDah, AhDah" to Mommy. If I say "Dada" to her, she'll just smaile at me.