Asleep on the Job

I called this blog "Asleep on the Job" because Jessie seems to be falling asleep everywhere lately. This is probably because she is playing so hard from the time she gets up to the time where she falls asleep in the middle of playing. In this first picture she has just finished chewing on a teething biscuit, I have to watch her because she gets the biscuits so soggy that she manages to break a piece off which is when I take it away. You can see Bunker sitting under her jumper in the background. Those blue eyes, dimple and big gums are quite the combo.

Total heart breaker!

She knows it too!

Here's my wonderful family chillaxin' on the couch together.

I introduced Jessica to one of my favorite John Prine songs yesterday and she fell asleep while we danced.

The gym is no longer something Jess just lays under... she knocks it over, rolls over it, gets wrapped up in it, etc.

When she realizes she is stuck in a position that she can't get out of she will look up at me and whimper, it's really cute.

Yesterday we went out for a really nice walk. I spotted this owl, the size of Pinkerton, up in a tree by the gym. Jessica was asleep for the owl, but I told her about it afterward.

She slept through most of our walk, it was just perfect outside even though it was a little overcast.

After church yesterday, Joe and I took Jessica to Hardee's for breakfast. She fell asleep in the middle of a bottle so we had a very pleasant, quiet breakfast.

When people see her sleeping like this they always feel like they have to tell me to enjoy it while I can. They're totally jealous.

Jessica rolling around on our dirty floor.

I got this new monkey hat for J at the mall, it is totally my style.

My two favorite little monkeys. Yep she's yawning, 'bout to fall asleep again.

It was past Jessica's bedtime so she got a little goofy when we put her in the bouncer. She bounced like a maniac for like 10 minutes straight, I caught some of it on video... enjoy.

Jess looks at Joe when she says Dada now, it's pretty obvious she knows what she is saying. Who can blame her for being completely in love with him? He's everything a girl could ever want in a daddy. Here's a video of Jess n Joe playing.

Joe got a cute video of Jess practicing her roll overs. Joe doesn't think she'll ever be able to crawl because she is "too top heavy" and the mechanics of it just don't configure. She does have trouble getting her knees under her... and she does have a big head (runs in the family).

Out and About

Lately Jess and I have been getting out of the house a lot and fine tuning our social game. Jessica is making friends. Here are some pictures of Jessica playing on her floor gym with her friend Ella (Jessica knocked the gym over, it's kinda her thing she likes to do.) Jessica has been rolling over more and more in the past couple days. Joe witnessed a tummy-back-tummy roll today.

Jessica thinks Ella is hilarious and Ella enjoys entertaining Jess. Ella is checking herself out in the mirror.

Jessica is trying to roll but she doesn't realize that her roll is going to be blocked by the couch.

We took a walk earlier today and I took the camera so I can show you our place from the outside. I will take pictures of the inside once I get it all how I want it (in a year or so).

We are the apartment on the upper right side, you can see both of our porches from this angle.

This is the view from the back, we are the upper left apartment.

Jessica on her walk. I got her some new shoes that she can't kick off, yay!

We went to lunch at a local Greek restaurant called the Hip Pocket. I just had to show a picture of the "Wimpy Burger"

Jessica rolled herself onto her tummy while she was sleeping last night. She was back on her tummy this morning when I woke up, at the opposite end of her crib, little squirmer.

Jessica likes to fall asleep during Stroller Strut and I don't mind one bit. I just cover her up and park her in a quiet place while I get a great workout.

Here we were getting ready to walk over to the gym for our Stroller Strut class.

Ella made me realize that little kids love balls. So I found this really cool ball at Target and had to get it. It's a big hit.

Here's J in her walker.

Every time I get the camera out she turns on the smile like it's her job.

Here's a really cute video of Ella showing Jess how tummy time is done.

Rub-a-Dub in the Duck Tub

Jessica had a fun filled week. We went on several walks by the bay plus our normal stroller strut in the mornings. In addition to the fun stuff, there was the unpleasantness of her second flu shot. We had to get two because they only gave her a half strength shot the first time. But, in true Jessica fashion, when the nurse put the needle in her leg she had a more confused, ticked off expression than a painful one. She took it like a champ and when about her day.

Jessica thought she'd try the baseball cap look after one of her walks. She pulls it off nicely.As anyone who knows Jessica will tell you, she loves baths. We've started giving her baths pretty much every night as part of her bedtime routine and it really helps to wind her down for the night.

You can see the relaxation written all over her face.

This is a great action shot depicting how she gets her legs going crazy and splashing everything in sight. No wonder she's worn out after her baths!

After the bath she is in a great mood so Joe always wants to snuggle with her.

But, of course it evolves into some wild and crazy game which is counterproductive to the calming down process. Oh well, as long as she keeps smiling.

Carnival Cozumel Cruise

I would've called this blog entry "The Cruise to Nowhere", but we actually did go to Cozumel for a little while and we managed to get off the boat for a couple hours. So here's our story: Joe decided to treat me to a cruise to Mexico for my 30th birthday and our 5 year Anniversary. My dad flew in from California to take care of Jessica for the week. (I think Grandpa Jim and Jessica had just as much fun, if not more fun, as Joe and I.) We sailed out of Mobile, Alabama on Monday and we were supposed to get to Cozumel on Wednesday morning around 8am. However, the ship's propulsion system broke on Tuesday evening and we could only go half speed. This put us into Cozumel around 2pm so I missed my 11am appointment to swim with dolphins, total bummer. We did manage to get off the cruise ship but it was so rainy and windy that we decided the cruise ship was much more comfortable and went back after less than 2 hours on land. As you can see, we managed to get some pictures with the ship.

After we got back on the boat in Cozumel we learned that the mechanics on board the ship couldn't fix the problem and we would have to head straight home, skipping our 2nd port in Playa del Carmen, just to make it back to Mobile on the scheduled day. So, we were stuck on the boat which didn't bother Joe any because we got refunded all the money for our shore excursions and he got to spend more time on the boat, which is what he prefers anyway. (I prefer adventurous shore excursions.) Joe's favorite thing to do on cruise ships is sitting on the deck and reading. There was an "Adults Only" spot where Joe did most of his reading (when it wasn't too cold to go outside).

I joined him for about 10 minutes, I can't stand being the slightest bit cold, I'm a sissy la la when it comes to being cold. We dressed up for formal night. Joe has his signature suit on, looking handsome as ever.

I found this pretty purple dress at Ross for $15!!!

Sorry we didn't get any better pictures of the two of us all dressed up. The Mikado Theatre was spectacular, I really enjoyed watching all the corny shows they put on for us. All of the male dancers were definitely batting for the other team.

Before we left, Jess and I took Grandpa with us to Stroller Strut so he could experience that part of our daily lives. We showed him how we bundle Jessica up and walk over to the gym. He got a good workout too.
We hung up pictures of Jessica in our room.

Here are some more pictures of our stateroom.
We were fancy "Yankees" with a window. (One of our fellow ship mates called us Yankees over breakfast, it struck me odd that you would call someone a Yankee that you just met, but I guess that's coming from a Yankee.)
Towel animals make me happy... this one is a dogAnd this one is a frog.Joe checking out more cruise destinations in the magazine provided to us in our room. I think 3 day cruises are in our future... I can't be stuck on a ship for 5 days again and I've discovered that I go a little crazy after not seeing my baby girl after the third day.

Our favorite part of cruising: THE FOOD!!!!

I ate tons of seafood, but here I am eating snails. I think the warm chocolate melting cake had crack or nicotine in it because I am having withdrawals.

We prefer the sit down meals to the buffet, but we would go and hit the buffet after the sit down meals to make sure we didn't miss out on anything. Now I know why they don't allow pregnant women on cruises: they would eat so much that they would gain their whole pregnancy weight in one week. Although, I think I saw some pregnant women on this cruise... it was hard to tell. There were a lot of questionable characters on this ship with us, almost like Jerry Springer had given all his past guests a cruise vacation.

It was a beautiful ship, very nicely decorated. Here is the buffet.

Here is a video of the last sunset we watched from our stateroom window.

This video makes me sad, it is grandpa getting ready to give her his final bottle before going to the airport. She sure misses you grandpa. Before I left I was instructing grandpa on all things Jessica and when I came back he was giving me the rundown on what she likes... it was cute.

Jessica figured out the bouncer while we were on the cruise, it's a crack up, here's a video.

She also improved her technique with the walker, although she needs to work on the steering. She might get pulled over as a suspected DUI driving like that.

She says Dada constantly now, Joe isn't convinced that she knows what she is saying. I would argue otherwise if she were saying momma.

We also had visit from Uncle Larry and Aunt Ruth the day after we got back from our cruise. They were checking out their new beach house near Ft Walton Beach and we had a very enjoyable visit. I am kicking myself for not getting pictures, especially since Jessica sure seemed to like Aunt Ruth.