Sunday, September 2, 2012

Jensyn – 16 (almost 17) months

Little Miss Personality – that’s what we sometimes call this adorable little mischief maker!

You just never know what she is going to do next.  She is SO. DARN. CUTE.  She’s also always getting into trouble!

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Jensyn started walking at around 15 months, and she no longer crawls at all.  She’s movin’ pretty quickly now, and she’s almost figured out running.  She’s a quick little thing!

She loves dirt and sand.  She loves riding our toy four wheelers. She even figured out how to make the motorized John Deere tractor go last night.  Her legs aren’t long enough to sit down, steer, and drive…but she learned that if she stands on the side, she can hang on to the steering wheel and push the pedal at the same time.  You haven’t heard anything if you haven’t heard Jensyn’s maniacal laugh as she took off on that John Deere all by herself!  (Thankfully, we have a huge backyard so there was no chance of her crashing!)

She got to be a folwer girl in my niece Danielle’s wedding this month.  She and Jesse’s niece rode down the aisle in a wagon.)  We were a little worried that she’d bail out halfway down the aisle, but she sat nicely & cooperated.  SO proud of her! :)

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She’s *almost* finished with nursing.  She wakes in the wee hours once in a while, and if I can’t get her back to sleep, I’ll still nurse her so that I don’t have to start my day at 4 or 5 AM.  I’ve only nursed her 3 times this week, though, and it’s Friday…so I’m guessing we’re getting close to finished.  It’s a good thing, but it’s a sad thing.  For over 5 years now, I’ve been pregnant or nursing (or both at the same time).  Now, it’s about to end…forever.  I don’t like finality.

Jensyn never used to be a snuggler, but now that she no longer nurses during the day – or at bedtime – I can *FINALLY* snuggle my baby girl!  We snuggle, rock, and sing at bedtime.  She snuggles in my arms or lays her head on my shoulder when she is sleepy or hurt.  I love it.  I guess that’s my little “I’m done nursing” present ~ my baby will snuggle!

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She is doing toddler things right these days – exploring, learning about the things around her, trying new things, etc.  It’s so fun to see what she comes up with.  Here, she learned that toothpicks fit in the straw on her thermos cup…an exciting discovery!

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She loves to “dress” herself, if you can call it that.  She very proudly opens her dresser drawers, pulled out a shirt, and puts it on.  She also loves to wear necklaces…which is fine, as long as we are watching her closely.

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This morning, I was getting dressed & ready for the day.  I *thought* Jensyn was playing quietly on the bedroom floor.  Oh, she was playing quietly, all right…with a box of tissues from my nightstand.  She silently filled the bathtub with kleenexes, and then she started decorating the bathroom floor.

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Jensyn got this chair from her cousins for Christmas, and she recently rediscovered it.  She’s having a good ‘ol time dragging this chair all over the house, sitting in it in every room with an open door.

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She’s still napping twice a day.  She will come to me around 10/10:30 AM, hold up her hands and lay her head on my shoulder.  I ask her if she wants a nap, and she nods her head yes.  She very willingly lays down and sleeps until around noon.  Then she naps again in late afternoon, from around 3 – 5 PM.  Naptime is over when she stands up in her crib, tosses out her snuggle blankets, and calls happily for someone to come & get her. 

We give all 3 kids a bath around 7:30 PM, and then bedtime is at 8-ish PM.  She sleeps until about 8/8:30 AM. 

Eating…she loves to eat!  Mashed potatoes are still a favorite.  She happily ate 1/3 of a ribeye steak the other night.  It was cut in very tiny pieces, but she finished it and begged for more.  (There was no more ~ ribeye is a rare treat here, and we ate every bite!)  There are very few foods she won’t eat right now…in fact, at the moment, I can’t think of anything she doesn’t like.

Milk is her favorite drink.  She’ll take juice, but she LOVES milk!  She also loves sneaking her big brothers’ cups, which are usually juice or milk…but somehow it’s more fun when it comes from a boy boy cup ;)

She loves to speak her own “language” right now.  She says some words.  She responds to our words in ways that show understanding.  (For example, I held out a toy and said, “Please bring this to Max.”  She walked across the room and handed it to Max, with a proud grin on her face.  I also asked her “Where did you put the phone?”, and she led me straight to the cordless phone that she had just hidden.)

But for now, her favorite language is this:

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We had her weighed the other day at Max’s 3 year well visit.  She *FINALLY* broke the 20 lb mark.  She weighs a whoppin’ 20 lbs, 6 oz now.  She’ll still stay rear-facing until she outgrows the height requirement on her carseat.  I think she’ll be good until age 2…I hope so…but we’ll see.  Our car, a Taurus X, doesn’t have a lot of room between rows, so we can’t add on the additional headrest without forward-facing her seat.

She’s finally started to really enjoy her daddy.  To this point, she’s been mostly a Mama’s girl.  She’s fine after I leave, but if I am around, she has wanted to be right by me.  Now, even if I am around, she will often put her arms out for Keith and just enjoys being with Daddy.  He’s pretty happy about that!

Jensyn is a sweetheart, an adventurous one, and a loveable little girl.  We’re so glad to have her in our family…I LOVE YOU, BABY GIRL!

(written August 31/posted September 2nd)

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