Gettin' Fit

Our home health nurse, Debra, came over for a visit yesterday and we filled out a 4 month developmental questionnaire for Jess. It turns out she is excelling socially, but she is behind on her upper body strength. The root cause: she absolutely hates tummy time. So, mommy and daddy are getting serious now. I picked up a tummy time mat at Sears while we were there getting her 4 month portraits done and daddy designed a special workout routine just for her. Here are some pictures of Jess on the mat and a video of her routine.

It's cute 'cuz you can see her fuzzy little head in the sunlight. The mat is shaped like a surfboard and there is a little water filled bag with foam animals that float in it.

She doesn't hate it... yet.

(Funny side story: Last night I got up for her 4am feeding and I propped her on my shoulder to carry her into another room. She was so hungry that she latched herself onto my neck and went to town before I knew what was happening. Luckily, I caught her before she gave me a hickey. That would've been embarrassing to walk around town with, I can only imagine the looks I would've gotten. Lil' stinker!)

Here's how you can check out her Sears Portraits: http://www.searsphotos.com/ Session# 115003 Password: VFD2X -We purchased pose #2 to distribute but if you like another one better you can buy it online.

Another Hot Week in Texas

I am running out of creativity when it comes to blog titles and, besides, there really isn't any common theme in this blog... just a blog for blog's sake. It was another hot week in Texas though, and we're having some bad luck lately. Our Fusion broke, ants got into the cat food this morning and we ate some terrible Chinese food. Ok, we should have known better with the Chinese food; it was a buffet and Chinese buffets are rarely any good. Some guys that Joe works with go there for lunch from time to time so we figured it must not be that bad. We figured wrong. Anyway, back to the Fusion... it's broke and stuck at the dealer over the weekend because when the technician checked it over it wouldn't do the thing it was doing. It seems to be a major problem too. I got bored at the dealership and snuck in some pics of Jess while we were waiting to claim our dirty, smelly rental car.

Funny Story: I thought that a car parked outside was the car they were going to give us so I proceeded to try to strap the carseat base in the backseat. When I got in it there was junk everywhere and a purse and I thought, oh great they didn't even bother to clean the big trash out of it. I started tossing stuff around when I heard someone say "What the %@*!" behind me and then I figured out that it was someone's actual car that they had brought in for service... oops. Luckily, Joe was inside with Jessica and only the owner of the car was outside to witness it... the rental car drove up at that moment and I exclaimed (mostly for explanation's sake) "OH, that must be my rental... oops!" I left the scene unscathed.

Here's a video of Jessica at the Chinese Buffet, she enjoyed the scenery.

Here's a video of Jess playing. All I have to do is look at her and she smiles.

Here is evidence of domestic abuse on a duck. Poor duck doesn't see it coming most of the time.

Today is Saturday and that means Football, so here's my two sweethearts enjoying a Vols game together... they won today!

Bed, Bath and Baby Jessica

Jessica is having a hard time falling asleep on her own lately and she has become somewhat of a light sleeper too. We have to carry her around, facing out of course, until the sandman overtakes her strong will to stay awake. Below is a picture of her losing the fight. We put her in her crib after we snuck a picture in. In the afternoons I let her nap in our bed sometimes... she gets really cranky at night if she doesn't get her afternoon nap. The kitties snuck in for this particular nap.

Jessica and Pinkerton are the same weight now.

My sweet little angel.

Here's a video I got of her after her nap today... such a little character!

Bath times are always enjoyable.

Here's a video of her bath.

Just a couple pics of a photo shoot we had the other day. I call it "dressing up the onsie".

You can thank Mooma for hounding me this morning to make a post, here you go Mooma :)

Changing Table Charmer

I made Joe grab the camera because I managed to get a few giggles out of her... but she knows when the camera is out and she clams up. She was willing to coo for the camera though. Actually, she's been cooing all day almost nonstop.

I kept hearing her coo in her crib so I grabbed the camera and tried to catch a coo but all I managed to get was a poo!

Like I said she is starting to get pretty talkative, especially on her changing table, I wonder why that is?

VideoRama!!

I just realized that we've made one hundred posts to this blog. This post will officially be #101. Wow, it better be good. We hope you like these delightful videos of our darling little daughter...

Football Season '10 Kickoff

I missed Joe soooo much while I was in California that you can imagine my dismay when I realized college football season was starting the Saturday after we got home. I tried to be understanding and suck it up, you know, take one for the team. Here are some shots of our reunion the day before Joe's football affliction took hold. Jessica fell asleep during tummy time and Pinkerton took that opportunity to get some attention from Joe.Bunker loves Jessica's nursery and sneaks in to take naps in there every chance he gets.And then Football started...So, I tried to make the most of it by dressing Jess up in her Vols gear and setting up a photo shoot... my version of fun.Joe is trying to brainwash our daughter.It seems to be working...scary! Yes, she's watching the game.

Here she's having a play break. Here are some adorable shots I got.

Here are a couple shots from her Father's Day photo shoot (2 wks old) so you can see how much she's grown.

Sometimes I can't believe I gave birth to her because she is so big and then I look back at these pictures and it makes it more believable to me. BTW, the Vols lost badly to the Oregon Ducks which usually puts Joe in a sour mood but Jessica wouldn't allow it so at least I have that.

More On That (Mooma and Grandad)

During our visit with Mooma and Grandad we got to go for several walks in Bidwell Park. It is an older park with really big trees, miles of paved trails and a stream running through it and it is located in the heart of downtown Chico, CA. Jessie loves looking at trees but the Sandman always gets a hold of her when she rides in her stroller so she missed most of it... we will go back when she gets older.In the picture below you can see "One Mile", a swimming hole, and Grandad pushing the stroller (of course that was a designated Grandad duty). I wore my GPS so I could track how far we'd walked and how many calories I burned.

I think Bidwell Park is one of the most beautiful parks in the USA... right up there with Central Park in New York, but on a smaller scale of course.

Mooma and Grandad were impressed by Jessie's sweet ride. I love that stroller!

Under a freeway overpass that a local artist has drawn trees on to make it blend with the natural landscape.

Jessica loves Cloe, her glow worm.They are BFF's (when Jess is in the mood to be friends of course).One morning Jessica woke us up at 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep so I took that opportunity to drag Mooma and Grandad out of bed and make them take me to Morning Thunder, an awesome breakfat spot. They were good sports about it.

Jess fell back to sleep once we got there, she definitely knows the meaning of the word "irony". My favorite thing on the menu is the California Omelet... I've tried to replicate it at home but it's just not the same.

Another local place that is pretty awesome is Brooklyn Bagels. They have a model of the Brooklyn Bridge built in the dining room and their bagels are pretty good too.

Here's a shot of Mooma with Jess at Brooklyn Bagel.

Jessica spent a lot of time outside, thanks to Mooma. Here she is laying in the grass on a blanket with Mooma while Grandad shuck corn for our dinner. Jessica kinda demands that you carry her around, facing out, so she can see everything. But she only tolerates the carrier for 10 minutes or so. Here Mooma is testing it out.

Joe and I wish she liked it a little more because our arms get really sore... she's like over 13 lbs now!

Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Eric

Jessica met her Uncle Eric (Booglie) and Aunt Lindsay last Thursday night when they came over to Mooma's for dinner. They think she is pretty cool.

Jessica showed them the cool floor gym that Mooma and Grandad set up for her.There are a few too many toys on the gym and there is only one that Jessica really cares about anyway... the duck. Jessica and the duck have staring competitions and the duck always wins.Jessica talked Eric's girlfriend, Shauna, into giving her a bottle...wasn't hard to do.All full and happy!On Sunday Aunt Lindsay had everyone over to her place for dinner. Out of everyone in our family Lindsay is the best cook so it was a real treat. Mooma was on Jessie duty.After dinner we played Texas Holdem' but Lindsay's cat, Kitty, had another game in mind: pet the kitty. Kitty reminded me of Bunker so much that it made me homesick.