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.

HAPPY Halloween!!!

Isn't this devil hat the best?!? She's such a little angel with that smile it makes it all the more cute! Jeannette had some big adventures this past month. Last weekend, we took her to a pumpkin patch and she had a blast.

She really loved the hay ride. Every time the cart bounced around she just laughed and giggled. She was smiling and laughing at everyone else on the cart and they all remarked how cute she was. All I heard all day was "what a cute baby!" from everyone who passed.

Here she is, the cutest little pumpkin in the patch! It was very sunny so getting her to smile took a little doing. A couple nearby even got into the act and were trying to get her to laugh.

Her she is checking out the scarecrow. I'm not too sure she knew what to make of him. After all, he didn't look like her Daddy. :)

And, of course, after such big adventures, she needed a little break. Mommy had a nice delicious bottle all ready for her. Even though it was rather cool out, the shade was welcome.

And, of course you need a close-up of her pumpkin hat! Everyone loved it and asked Mommy where she'd got it. Of course, we gave credit to Grandma for knitting it. The cutest thing about it is that it falls down over Jeannette's eyes so it looks like she has a whole pumpkin on her head.

I think the biggest decision facing us in the next week is what to dress her up as for Halloween. Here she is in a little ballerina costume, all the cutest part is how much she likes her little Pooh bear.

And of course we had to get her a kitty cat outfit! It's so cute, it even has a tail! Speaking of kitty cats, she has finally discovered that she owns kitties and she really likes them. They let her pet them and she just grins and laughs whenever she gets to stroke them. They are still getting used to her little squeels of delight though.

And here's my little fairy princess. Isnt' she precious? She especially likes to chew on this little dress. I guess it tastes delicious.

And here're just some random shots from the past month. Here she is in her little chair watching mommy on the computer. She really likes to sit like a big people, although she still has some balance issues when she tries it on her own, but, she's getting better.

She still really likes her little workstation. She happily stays busy in there for quite some time. Surprisingly her favorite toy on here is the blocks (the little blue clover thing in front there). She really loves those things.

And here's Daddy lookign all grungy feeding his little girl on the weekend. She's eating all kinds of solid food now nad hasn't found any that she doesn't like. She's gotten the hang of opening her mouth and is getting much better at the whole swallowing thing. Now most of the food actually makes it down to her tummy, rather than down the front of her bib.

Wow! It's been a busy month. Not just for Jeannette. who's been working hard at growing, but for Daddy and Mommy too! But, since I've been getting a lot of "post more pictures!" demands I figured I'd better stop and post some of the latest pics. That's me holding Bumbly after a bath. She looks so cute in her little bear snuggly.

This one here was taken around my birthday. Jeannette is showing off how she can sit like a "big people."

Early last month, she started really working on the whole rolling over thing. She also really loves her activity mat.

And here she is grinning at Daddy while he works. She's so proud of herself since she mastered rolling over. It's been just a week or so since she figured out the trick and she now rolls from back to front and front to back. She's still working on crawling, but, my guess she'll get the hang of that in a month or two.

The 23rd was her 4 month birthday so Mommy decided it's time to start eating "real" food. Here she is having her very first meal of baby rice. She actually does eat it, although she gives Dad the "what the heck are you putting in my mouth" look when I feed her.

Here she is, just yesterday, dressed up in a cute little party dress and sitting with Mom. I think the blanket was made by my Mom.

Ok. Just a random Daddy and Bumbly shot. She sure is cute, huh?

My step mother, Penny, who is Jeannette's Godmother, came out from California to see her little Goddaughter in person and they really seemed to hit it off. I think they both enjoyed the short visit.

Penny's sister, Karyn, who lives in North Georgia also came down to visit. Karyn hadn't seen the blog yet, so Jenn was showing them the old posts.

As you can see, Jeannette is really growing. I went through my previous posts and it's amazing how much she's grown and changed in just the two short months she's been with us. Here, you can see her sporting and awesome knitted jacket and hat (the hat truly is awesome) that her Grandma made for her.

Here's the whole outfit. Notice those cute little socks too! We can't wait for winter now as Bumbles has all kinds of cute little outfits to model.

Yes, that's right. Jeannette's nickname is Bumbles. Don't ask me how mommy came up with it, but, it has stuck. Bumbles has discovered she has a fist and she is very interested in it. Sometimes, she studies it so hard her eyes go cross eyed. I think she does it on purpose cuz it makes things look funny. When she's hungry, we say she's "Rumbly Bumbly." When she's cranky, she's "Grumbly Bumbly."

I know... it's too cute, but, so is she!

She's very alert and has grown a ton! She's wearing the 3/6 month outfits now as all her newborn to 3 months clothes are too small on her. She enjoys being on her back and playing with the dangly balls and such and can even kick the ball by her feet, although I think it's mostly on accident. She's also desperately trying to learn how to sit up on her own. Sometimes it looks like she's doing baby-robics as she cranks out the crunches trying to get into an upright position.

She's also a champ at holding her head up. She really likes her tummy time, whether it's on her floormat on on daddy's tummy. It gives her chance to look around. She's even started reaching out and grabbing things.

Of course, being a baby, Bumbles still sleeps a lot. Here she is all ready for Santa. I think she heard someone mention presents. :)