California Times- Part 1

Jessica and I have been in California for the past few days and I am sure Joe is missing us terribly. This blog is for Joe and Megan because I have been slacking on my blog duties lately and Megan made it known that she needs her Jessica fix. Here's a picture that Joe took of Jessica the day before we left. He heard her making strange noises and got alarmed that something was wrong with her, when she looked up at him this is what he saw. Yep, someone has a pretty severe paci addiction.The plane ride out to California was every bit as difficult as I thought it would be. Even though the flight attendants felt sorry for me and moved people around so I could have an empty seat to stow Jess in. They said that they were afraid I would go into labor if she bounced on my belly for three hours straight. I was SOOO grateful. She still managed to put her mouth on everything, tear up some magazines, throw a fist into a 90 year old man as he walked by on his way to the restroom, pull a strangers hair, put her fingers in a sleeping man's mouth and try to poke his eyes, and smear crackers all over. Not to mention the constant babbling.It could have been worse, she could have screamed the whole way. Nonetheless, I know that Joe is probably dreading the flight back, she will embarrass him. She looks so innocent here with her Elmo sippy cup and bottle though.The difficult trip was definitely worth it. Grandpa took over Jessica duties right away. It is nice only being necessary for snuggle time. Grandpa has a couple really nice playgrounds in his neighborhood and Jessica enjoyed the California grass and the swings.Jessica discovered the thrill of a good slide too. I never put her on the slide in our playground because it is either too hot or too dirty. This one was just right. She started to throw herself down it after the first time. She is a daring fearless little girl. She giggled and squealed with sheer joy.Grandpa showed Jess how to workout with Grandma's one pound hand weights. She grunts as she lifts them up and waves them around, it is too funny.We got to visit with Jessica's cousin Audriana too. Audri is 1o months old and she is Grandma Kari's youngest son's little girl. Jess crawled right over to her and started taking things from her immediately.The look on Audri's face is very familiar to me, I've seen the same look on Kathryn's face dozens of times. Jessica has to be nicer to her cousins or they won't like her very much when they get older. My dad watched Jess while I shopped to. Somehow Jessica ended up with more stuff than I did when we got home from the shopping trip... hmmmm.We got to visit with Great Grandma Pat (GGP) this morning. And, oh yes, more glorious California grass!Jessica stomped around barefoot in the luscious grass for a long time.Then I got some great group pictures.All the excitement was too much for Jess and she passed out on the way home. Unlike most kids she has to be pretty tired to fall asleep in her car seat. Here's a video of Jessica jammin out to a pretty awesome sesame street jam that Grandma and Grandpa found on Youtube for her.

Here's a video of Jessica stomping around GGP's backyard.

Elmo and Jess

Just wanted to post a quick video of Jess showing her dancing skills and her Elmo addiction.

After the Move

We moved 3 houses over to get a better quality of living. I have to send out an ENORMOUS thank you to Paw Paw, Megan, Steve and even Nathan (safety inspector) for helping us move. We are so fortunate that you were able to come help us. It was a huge job and made even worse by the miserable temperatures here that weekend. I sure appreciate everything you've done and we LOVE our new place. Here is a long awaited blog. Below are a couple pictures of Jessica's new room. She gets around pretty good on the new carpet and she isn't eating lead paint off the walls. Yay!

The stairs are definitely Jessica's favorite feature of the new house. I spot her while she climbs up and down and wears herself out.

I took an entire week for the cable guy to get here but it was a good thing because I was able to get stuff put away without distractions. Jessica is fixated on Elmo.
To keep on the Elmo theme, Jessica had a nice little surprise in the mail this morning. Aunt Megan sent her a picture of her favorite Muppet and she had to show mommy.

Jessica is still getting into the cat toys and putting the jingle balls in her mouth.

Baby gates were one of the first things I put up after the move. Jessica likes to shake and rattle the gates to make her displeasure with them known.

I had my first play date at the new place this morning and I got a cute video of Jessica and Kya eating cheerios together. This doesn't capture the 5 minutes before I started filming when Jessica was feeding (well shoving) cheerios into Kya's mouth.

Here's a video to show how Jessica is cruisin now.

Here's a video of Jess and Bunker playing in yet another box during the move.

Jessica likes to sway when she hears music. She actually tuned the radio into a country station herself and was pretty proud of herself.