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.