Slacker Mom

It's been pointed out that I haven't updated in quite some time. While I was posting my defense (potty training one while nursing another doesn't leave a lot of blog-posting time) (which is really a shame because it does make for LOTS of blog-worthy stories) Jaynie (who was in her crib supposedly napping) pooped in her diaper, TOOK IT OFF, then started yelling for me that she had to poop in the potty. When I got down there she had already peed and was really upset about it. So she's standing on wet sheets, crying because she didn't make it to the potty, then points to her diaper and says "There's poopy in there." Yeah. This is why the blog is slowing down.

Like Princess Jewelianana!

Jaynie has this book - "Princess Jeweliana and the Sparkling Rainbow Ball" (pronounced "Jewelianana" by the Twink.) She loves it. It's the favorite right now. She insists on having it read before every nap, and at bedtime each night.

It never occurred to us that she didn't know what a "ball" was, until she turned to Joe one night and asked for a "sparkly rainbow ball - like Princess Jewelianana!"

The next day I was in Target and as I walked past the big bin of playground balls, I spotted a swirly multi-colored one buried under the solids. I had to stick practically my entire body in there to get to it, but it found it's way home.

Jaynie took one look at it and squealed "It's a sparkly rainbow ball! Like Princess Jewelianana! THANK YOU, MOMMY!"

I did good. =)

Domestic Goddess

This morning I pulled a Colorform out of the dryer. It's perfectly fine, just cleaner than when it went in.

A couple of weeks ago a binky fell out with the clean laundry. I have to assume it was hiding in a pocket. Washed and dried.

The winner, however, would have to be this entry by Joe (when I was telling him about the binky...) "That's nothing! Last week I found an empty Diet Coke can in the washer when I went to switch loads!"

Good thing we're so careful about seperating our loads. Whites, colors, aluminum cans...

The day the changing table bit the dust...

Some days, life with the kidlets is so smooth and easy and fun. Some days, they don't let me eat or go to the bathroom. I was having one of the latter.

Jonas was awake way past nap time, and was screaming bloody murder. I thought he was just overtired, and was trying everything in my Mommy arsenol to get him to go to sleep. After watching him start to doze off then wake back up and scream some more approximately 13 times, it occurred to me to figure out what was bothering him. In a word? Poop.

So now I've got a clean, dry, severely cranky and overtired baby on my hands. I'm bouncing him on the ball, and he's falling asleep for real when Jaynie comes running in, yelling "ARE YOU SLEEPING YET, BABY JONAS? ARE YOU TAKING YOUR NAP???" Sigh.

So after a few of these helpful conversations, I start begging her. "Please. Please Jaynie. Please just go play in your room for a few minutes. Please."

She runs off, Jonas starts dozing, I put him in the bed and start to sneak out of the room. Two things happen - 1) Jonas starts screaming ("How DARE you leave me in this room alone! Get your boobs back in here!"), and I spot Madam standing on top of her changing table. Needless to say, Jonas lost out on that one.

I rush in and survey the situation. Seems that even though we removed the shelf from the table months ago after she figured out how to climb it, she can now get up there again. We have a little shelf mounted on the wall above it where we keep diapers, wipes, creams, etc. She was reaching up, trying to open the wipes, when I got there. I told her no and put my hand on the box... and came away with a very greasy hand.

I look at it. It's covered in Vaseline. Uh oh.

I look at her. She has two handfuls, its all over her face, in her hair, and on her shirt. She says to me, and I quote... "I need a wipe!"

Yeah - it's funny now. At the time, with Jonas screaming bloody murder in the next room? Not so freaking funny. Sometimes I worry that I might actually not survive this Mommy thing. I suspect they're trying to kill me. Slowly.

Actual conversation...

Jaynie: Baby Jonas is a little Winnie the Pooh!

Me: Oh, he is, is he?

Jaynie: Yes! And Jaynie is a little Tigger!

Me: Mmm hmmm...

Jaynie: And Mommy is a BIG PIGLET!

Me:

Do you know...

the Muffin Man? That lives on Norma Ct?


I freaking love this picture. It's like he's saying "Ha! I got milk boob! I get it whenever I want!" I swear, he's actually taunting Joe in this picture.

He is the sweetest little muffin man on the planet. He's awake and smiley more and more lately, and we're all having a blast with him. The fun thing about baby #2 is, for the first month they really just sleep in the bouncy a lot, which gives you plenty of time to ease baby #1's fears about sharing your attention. Jonas was basically ignored for the first 5 - 6 weeks of his life, unless he was getting fed, changed, or Jaynie was asleep. Even when I was holding him I was paying attention to her. If I so much as looked at him she would start demanding "MOMMY WATCH JAYNIE!!!"

Then, just when she's getting comfortable sharing me, he starts to wake up and pay attention! So much fun! The three of us cuddle and play in the bed together every morning. Both of them wake up in good moods, and there is much smiling and giggling (from her) and cooing (from him) and tearing up (happy mommy tears from me). She loves to sing to him or read him books, and he follows her with his eyes whenever she's in the room. He's always smiling at her, which causes her to yell "Baby Jonas is smiling at Big Sister Jaynie! Baby Jonas LOVES Big Sister Jaynie!" in delight.

Jonas's major drawback is that he has reflux. I cannot begin to describe how tired I am of changing both him and me several times a day. He's like a hot milk dispenser. Or, if it's been a while since he ate and he's had time to work on it a bit - a hot cottage cheese dispenser. What joy.

He sleeps in his hammock for about 5 - 6 hours a night, and in bed with us the rest of the time. This isn't because of him, it's because of me. He wakes up wanting to eat around 2 or 3am, and I bring him to bed then fall asleep feeding him. Hence the co-sleeping. Sometimes (like once in the past 2 weeks) I wake up when he's done and put him back to bed. I'm working on it.

We don't have a room for him in this house because we knew we'd be moving before he turned 6 months old, and he'll be in the hammock for at least that long. I figured why move a bunch of stuff around in the guest room when his hammock fits so nicely next to our bed. Makes night time feedings that much easier, too. Well - then I got to know the wonder that is this noisy sleeping baby. He grunts. He snorts. He randomly babbles. This kid makes more noise while sound asleep between the hours of 9 and 3 then he does for the rest of the day. I may have to look into moving some furniture around. Soon.

He has what we call his "proximity alarm", that goes off when I enter or leave the room. Example - he can be sleeping soundly in the bouncy next to Joe, then I walk in to check on him and 3 seconds later he's stirring and whining and waking up. Whoops. Conversely, I can be laying next to him in bed (not touching - like a foot apart) and he'll be sleeping through Joe and Jaynie coming and going, but if I get up and leave... WAAAH! Sometimes he wakes up if I roll over and put my back to him. (Which makes me wonder if he's not attuned to my location, but the location of my boobs. Hmmm.)

He's already outgrown several 0-3 sized clothing items. Many of which he never actually wore. Sigh. My baby getting bigger already.

He suddenly has chunky thighs. I love them. Little tiny feet, big chubby thighs. Diaper changes are getting longer and longer as I am spending more and more time admiring his feet (usually covered in footie pj's) and chubs.

We're cloth diapering both of them, and I have to say I wish I'd done it when Jaynie was born. CD'ing a newborn is so wonderful. All that runny breastmilk poop that used to escape Jaynie's diaper and get on her clothes, carseat, bed, my lap, my bed, her swing, her playmat, the carpet, the cat, etc - the cloth diaper holds it in, no problem. We have had exactly 2 blowouts, and neither were all that bad (and neither of them were when *I* put on the diaper, so I blame user error instead of the product.) Everyone thinks CD'ing means gross laundry - lemme tell you, I'd rather wash poopy diapers than poopy freaking everything else because the diaper doesn't work. Either way I'm washing poop. W/ CD's, I'm not also scrubbing it out of upholstery. Ok, cloth advertisement over. :)

Well, that's all the time I have for you folks today. Mr. Muffin himself is demanding I get up from this chair and come play with him. How can I resist?

Trick questions

There's an old Calvin and Hobbes strip that is one of my favorites - Calvin's mom walks in on him while he's hammering nails into the coffee table. She shrieks "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" He looks at her, looks at the nails, looks back at her and asks "Is this a trick question?"

Jaynie does this all the time now. The question "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" has recently been answered with...

Feeding Georgie a Cheerio!
Climbing the chair!
Standing on the table!
Licking the TV! (my favorite)
Sitting in Baby Jonas's chair!
Chasing Victoria!
Going pee-pee on the floor!
Pouring water on the table!
Spitting!
Splashing in the milk! (from her cereal bowl)
Tearing the paper!

Etc, etc. She's a holy terror. She sure is cute, though.

Hey Baby Jonas!

"Hey Baby Jonas! That's (pointing to her own chest) Big Sister Jaynie!"

How cute are these kids, I ask you?


The day after Christmas we all went to the zoo to try and walk walk walk me into labor starting. Apparently it worked, because at about 12:45 (about 3 minutes after I lay down and closed my eyes - nice) my water broke.

Suz was supposed to be there for the birth, but we figured it was already 1am, Jaynie wakes up before 7am, no way was I going to have a baby in less than 6 hours. Right? Right? So we left her there w/ Madam. The plan was once Jaynie woke up a friend would come get her and Suz would meet us at the hospital in time for all the exciting parts.

Well - so much for plans. When we got to the hospital I was already feeling some pretty freaking serious contractions, and the nurse checked and reported that I was at 4cm. Less than an hour later I was at 6cm. I then had one long contraction that lasted about 30 minutes and almost killed me, and at the end of it I was fully dialated.

It was at this point that they called the Dr. and woke him up and told him to get dressed and make the 20 minute drive to the hospital. Yeah, you read that right.

The room was full of nurses telling me not to push, explaining to me how to control myself (yeah, cause blowing out is just as good - who needs to push, anyway), telling me to wait for Dr. Wood, etc. I spent the entire time trying to negotiate with them. Joe does an excellent imitation of this. ("Explain to me why I have to wait for the Dr? You girls look capable of catching a baby. Get your gloves on." They tried to tell me he had to be there in case there was something wrong with the baby. "He's not a pediatrition. You have those on staff. He's just for me, and I'm perfectly happy being in your care. Now, get down there because I'm about to push this baby out.")

Dr. Wood showed up and there was a really funny few seconds where the nurse that had been telling me no no no lifted my leg and started counting like I should be pushing, and I had to tell her that I wasn't having a contraction right then. Then they started again and I got down to business. 3 contractions and he was out. We won't discuss the injury he inflicted on me on the way out. Let's just say I now feel silly for worrying about what form of birth control I was going to use after the baby was born.

Jonas Nathaniel Moore was born at 3:46 am (Yes, for those doing the math - 3 hours after my water broke. Apparently, he was in a hurry.) on Dec. 27, 2005. He weighed 8lbs 12oz, and was the biggest baby in the hospital (considering the fact that I'm currently sitting on a pillow... these women who have 6lb babies may be on to something.) He's 21 inches long, has lots of dark brown hair, dark eyes who's color is still a mystery, and is yummy and smoochable all over.

Joe and I are both amazed at how easy he is to take care of. We seem to recall the first few weeks being absolute hell w/ Jaynie, and now we have this tiny baby who just eats and sleeps and that's really it and we're like "Was she this easy too? Are we better at this this time? Are we remembering wrong?" Seriously - during the first 2 weeks of Jaynie's life we looked at eachother more than once and said "Maybe we only have one kid." How did people do this with a toddler running around? Well, now I know the answer. The toddler is where all your time and energy goes - not the newborn. He wakes up in the morning when Jaynie does, and nurses while she watches some cartoons in Mommy's bed. Then he sits in his vibrating chair while she and I eat breakfast, get dressed, etc. Just when she's starting to wind down from playing, he's ready to eat again so we all go sit on the couch and watch "Sleeping Bluety" while I nurse him. Then he goes back in the chair while she and I have lunch. Then it's nap time for everyone. Jaynie sleeps in her crib, Jonas sleeps either in his hammock or snuggling with me.

When we wake up there is more movie watching/nursing/cuddling action. Then we play until it's time to make dinner. Jonas sits in his chair up on the table and stares at the chandelier while we eat. After dinner it's bathtime for everyone. Jaynie's in the tub and Jonas on the floor getting a sponge bath (he still has the cord thingy.) Joe takes Jaynie, I take Jonas. Jaynie tells me what songs to sing to "make Baby Jonas feel better" if he starts crying. They both get the lotion rub down and pj's on in the bathroom, then we say night-night to Big Sister, and Jonas and I settle in for another nursing session.

Sometimes he goes down then, sometimes he stays up and eats like 4 more times then goes down right before I do. What he does do is sleep sleep sleep. Last night he slept for almost 6 hours before I woke up leaking and had to get him up to eat. I'm not sure what I did to deseve such a good baby, but I'll take it.

Jaynie calls him "Jaynie's Baby Jonas". She gives him pats to the head, holds his hand, gives him kisses on the forehead or "little feeties", wants to hold him, wants him to watch her ("Baby Jonas watch Jaynie!") and in general acts crazy about him. She'll tell you that he's a little baby so he needs "lots of naps, and lots of milk" (sometimes she qualifies that as "lots of milk... from Mommy's boobies!") When he cries she'll tell me "He's so hungry, Mommy! He needs some milk!" The first few times she saw me nurse him she wasn't thrilled about it. She'd lean in close and watch him sucking and start yelling "Stop! Stop!" We're not sure if she thought he was hurting me or what, but she's gotten used to it now. In fact, I think she tries to talk me into nursing him more frequently than he needs it, because she knows it means I'll turn on a movie and cuddle her on the couch.

I am in Mommy heaven. These kids are so yummy, I could just eat them up. Jaynie is still a little trigger happy from my long absence at the hospital. If I could sum up the past few days in 3 words they would have to be "Jaynie HOOOOOOLD Mommy!" But she's starting to mellow out a bit and is more willing to give me room to breathe. My little family of four is having fun.

I'm a ticking time bomb

That's how it feels, anyhow. We're seriously hoping that this baby waits until after Christmas to make his appearance. Last week I was a frenzy of activity, making sure everything was ready for him, convinced he'd come any moment. Now that we're so close to the holiday I've been laying around trying to explain to him that his birthday will be tons more fun for him if it isn't the same day as the biggest gift-giving holiday of the year.

I am absolutely the largest pregnant woman on the planet. I was telling Joe this morning - when I was pregnant with Jaynie I could still fit into my non-maternity oversized sweatshirts. They were sung where once they were loose, yes, but they covered me. I tried to put one on today - it covered my arms and boobs and that was it. There was no pulling that waist-band down over my belly. I suspect I'm carrying the Hulk in here.

I've been telling Jaynie the story of her brother's birth. She knows he's in Mommy's belly, she knows that one day she'll get to go "play with Alex at Miss Stacey's house" while Mommy and Daddy go to the doctor. And then Daddy will come get her and bring her to see Mommy and the Baby Brother OUTSIDE of Mommy's belly. And then he'll come home and sit in the "baby chair" (a bouncy seat I have out in the living room), and he'll use a "little tiny binky" and he'll probably go "wah wah wah" because he's just a baby. She has it all figured out. Ha. You notice I left out the parts about him pooping 12 times a day and waking her up at night.

She annouced today that there were only 2 days until "Aunty Suz comes hoooome". Who knew she was counting down the days! "Aunty Suz comes home, and Santa brings Jaynie LOTS OF PRESENTS!" Should be a good day. (If I'm not in the hospital. STAY PUT, BABY!!!)

Right, then. I hear some Cocoa Pebbles calling my name. As Jaynie says - "Feliz Latidad" to you all.

Dear Future Jaynie...

Hi Honey, it's Mom. If you have been looking through photo albums or the saved version of the website or watching home movies lately, and are wondering why there was a serious drop in the number of pictures taken of you right around the time your brother was born, don't blame him. Don't blame your Dad or me, either. You know why we hardly get any pics of you anymore?

BECAUSE YOU'RE A PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!

Every time I get the camera out you rush me, trying to get it. "JAYNIE TAKE THE PICTURE! JAYNIE TAKE THE PICTURE! JAYNIE HOOOOOLD CAMERA!"

Today you looked so cute in your little Christmas shirt and pants. I got a few pictures of the floor, and one of the ceiling while wrestling over the camera with you.

Then you wanted to put on your Nemo costume. I did get a couple of the back or side of you, but once you turned my way? All I have is one of you screaming at me (which is actually pretty cute and will be making an appearance on the website.)

When you insisted on trying on my maternity pj's and wandering around, lost in all the fabric? More ceiling and floor shots.

I give up.

Jaynie-isms

Tonight after dinner Jaynie picked up my phone, pulled out the antennae, pushed several buttons, held it to her ear, and said - "Hello? Blah blah blah. I'd like a cheeseburger, pleeeaaase."

This event was obviously blog- worthy, as it had both Joe and I near tears (well, I was near tears - Joe was too busy asking me "How often do you take this kid through the drive through?!?!) It also made me realize it's been a while, and she says all kinds of cute things that need to be recorded for posterity. Of the top of my head...

Sleeping Bloofy

On Comet and Q-tip and Donner and Litzen

Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin (ok, she pronouces this correctly, but it's cute enough to include here.)

She can sing the 12 days of Christmas. Seriously - starting from about 10 down she's got it. "10 Lords a leaping, 9 ladies dancing.... an a porridge in a pear-eeey"

Jaynie's version of counting to ten - "One, two, three, four, five, eight, nine, ten. (pause) six and seven. (pause) ELEVEN!"

She's big on throwing around the words "also" and "too". "Mommy has brown hair, toooooo." She's learning her letters and will look at her ABC book and say something like "C is for cow, also car tooooooo."

There are more. There are hundreds of thousands of cute things she says, but that's all I've got for now. I'd promise to do better keeping up with this, but considering I'm going to have twice the trouble around here any day now, I don't want to make promises I can't keep. Seriously, folks, have you ever tried to chase around an almost-two-year-old while weighing approximately 400lbs? It's not easy. When she runs up to hug my leg I totally lose sight of her. And losing sight of this kid for a second is bad news. She can destroy a room in under 20 seconds if left unattended. (Joe is saying she can destroy it in half the time with my help. He claims he can leave a perfectly clean room and come back less than a minute later to find the two of us playing surrounded by toys and crushed Cheerios. I have no idea what he's talking about.)

She's too cute for her own good.

Tonight after she was lotioned and pj'd, she didn't quite seem ready for bed, so we read some stories.

First she brought "Home for a Bunny" to Joe and had him read it to her.

Then she brought "The Runaway Bunny" to me. (Theme night?)

Then she got out "Goodnight Moon" (which, btw, has bunnies in it), sat down, said "Jaynie read Moon book!", and "read" the whole thing to us. She has it totally memorized. I could tell that she was using the illustrations to help her remember what came next in some places - it was really impressive. Not to mention SO CUTE! When it was over she said "The End!", put it back on the shelf, and was ready for bed.


(I forgot the part of the evening when I said to her "Go tell Daddy you need your binky" and she ran off, found him, and yelled "BINKY, PLEEEEAAASE!")

Now she's in bed, but she's not quite asleep. She's saying something over and over. Joe and I snuck up to listen at the door, and he finally identified it as "Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins. What we kept hearing was "SNAP! The job's a game!" She's also saying "He knows, a song, will move the job aloooooong." She's killing me tonight.

Not exactly Miss Manners....

Last night during dinner Jaynie burped, then excused herself. It was the cutest freaking thing. "Excuuuse me!", then goes right back to eating. Joe and I were trying not to hurt ourselves laughing at it. And what made me especially pleased with us was that neither of us has taught her that. We never said "When you burp, you say excuse me." We must just both be very polite people and she's learning from example. Good to know.

Of course, later when Joe was putting her pj's on she farted. This was a serious fart. This was no lady-like "passing of gas", this was Blazing Saddles quality. Did she excuse herself?

No. She giggled like a maniac, said "Farts!", then laughed out loud. Seems we have some more work to do.

I've always suspected....

Today over breakfast....

Me: Jaynie, use your spoon, please.

Joe: Like a big girl!

Jaynie: Mommy use a spoon like a big girl! (I was, in fact, eating my Cheerios with a spoon.)

Us: That's right!

Jaynie: Jaynie a big girl, too! (As she takes a bite w/ the spoon.)

Us: That's right!

Jaynie: Daddy a big girl, too! (He was not using a spoon - just standing there looking like a girl, I guess.)

Me: That's right!

Hee hee hee.

She talks in her sleep...

I've heard some pretty funny stuff come out of her room at 2am, but being that I was asleep too... well, it's hard to remember in the morning. Sue me.

Luckily for this blog, she also talks while she naps. She generally naps for about 2 hours. 45 minutes in, she wakes up just enough to cry a little, maybe say a few ridiculous things, then lay back down. Last week after a trip to the zoo she woke up saying "Monkeys! Monkeys! More monkeys! Jaynie wants the monkeys!" (Apparently we headed for the elephants prematurely.)

Yesterday's is the all-time winner, though. She was in her room and I suddenly hear "ALL DONE!" and I'm thinking "Crap. That was a short nap." (assuming that the "all done" meant "I'm all done with this nap, thanks.")

Then I hear "ALL DONE GEORGE!" and I briefly entertain thoughts of smacking that cat around... till I notice he's on the couch next to me. Not, you know, in her room harassing her.

But the part where I finally figured out she was dreaming? "All done George blow bubbles! Jaynie want the bubbles!"



I'll let you ponder that image for a minute. Apparently, in her dreams, George is a bubble-hog.

And for her next trick...

This happened a while ago but I forgot to post about it...

I was attempting to pee in private, which I usually have about a 50/50 shot at. Suddenly there is the THUMPTHUMPTHUMP of little feet running down the hall towards the bathroom (not so much a pitter-patter around here - more like a herd of elephants.) She slams open the door, rushes in, throws her arms up over her head, yells "TA DAAAA!".... then runs back out.

I can't make this stuff up, folks. I'm just not that creative.

Time for those parental controls...

Jaynie naps in her crib now. I finally have got her to the point where I can just lay her down, tell her to go to sleep, leave the room, and she does. It takes usually like 15 minutes of singing/talking/playing with her stuffed animals - but eventually she dozes off.

Problem? On Thursdays I babysit another toddler and she gets the crib. So I've been bringing Madam to my bed on those days, and snuggling her till she passes out. This usually takes considerably longer than if she was alone - like 30 minutes of me laying there with my eyes closed waiting for her to stop playing with my hair, changing position, offering me the binky, giving me kisses, saying "Hi Mommy!" over and over, etc.

Today I decided to see if the drop her off and walk away technique would work in my bed, too. So first we said "Night night" to Riley, and left her in the crib. Then we walked across the hall and I put her in my bed. Gave her a kiss. Gave her a stuffed animal to snuggle. Told her to go to sleep. Left the room.

All was quiet for about 10 minutes. I was out here doing a victory dance when I heard a suspicious noise. Sounded like.... music?

I go down the hall to find my not-even-two-year-old laying in bed, watching The Wiggles on tv - remote by her hand. When I managed to squeak out "What is this?" she casually pointed to the screen and said "Wiggles!" then went back to watching.

I'm going to assume that was the last channel we had on, and that she only managed to A) find the correct remote and B) hit the power button. I refuse to accept that she has mastered channel surfing to find a show she likes.




BTW - I realize I've been slacking on this thing. Jaynie has done and said many, many cute and hysterical things in the past weeks. Bottom line? When you are ginormously pregnant and have no husband around to help out you tend to crash and burn in the evenings right about the time the kiddo does. Blogging takes a backseat to basics like making sure there are clean sippy cups for the next day. I'll try to be better. Promise.

Update on the update

Since posting that 18 month update, Madam has mastered the ABC's. She sings them all the time. My favorite part is "L M N O P", because when she does it it sounds like "Elmo P". So cute. "Now I sing my A B Ceeeeeeeeee's, next time sing with meeeeeee!" She also recognizes letters as "ABC's". She'll point to big text on signs and say "A, B, C, D...." like she's reading it.

She knows her left from her right. She's officially smarter than me.

Jaynie do it!

We have officially entered the phase of "Jaynie do it!" Isn't it early for this crap? Shouldn't I have a few more months of cute baby before she turns into a holy terror?

Last week she would say "Jaynie do it!" about getting dressed, but what she meant was "Mommy - you hold out the shirt the correct way, I'll put my arms in the holes." This week she yells JAYNIE DO IT! and means "Mommy - get your HANDS OFF my shirt! I'm putting it on! So what if I'm trying to put it on backwards and upside-down! Didn't you hear me? JAYNIE DO IT!" and on and on and on. She wants to bathe herself, dress herself, climb in the car by herself, climb in her carseat, buckle herself in, mix her own chocolate milk (Yes - I give her chocolate milk. It's Instant Breakfast so I figure it's almost like it's good for her.), clean up her own milk mess, undress herself, turn on the tv, turn off the tv, lotion herself, brush her own teeth.... I'm sure there's more. Those are just the situations in which I heard JAYNIE DO IT today. Thank God it hasn't occurred to her yet to want to change her own diaper. Any day now she's gonna reach for a wipe and I'm going to have a problem.

So much cuteness!

Joe left last week for a two-week TDY, and Jaynie has been trying to break some kind of record for cuteness since he left.


Monday night -
I put Jaynie down for bed and shut her door. She was babbling and singing to herself in the crib, and I was wandering around the house tidying up (I do do that, sometimes.) When I was right outside her door I sneezed. Whoops.

There was a break in her song, and then I heard "Bless you, Mommy!" Then right back to the ABC's. Cutest. Thing. Ever.


Tuesday night -
Instead of giving her a bath, I brought her in the shower with me. While in there she A) washed her own hair, B) washed her own body, and C) washed me from the knee down (which was really appreciated - I can't see my feet anymore, much less reach them. The only parts she needed help with were her back and her right arm (she couldn't figure out that she needed to switch hands with the sponge - she was trying to reach her right arm with her right hand.)

When we got out she toweled herself dry. How did this happen? Wasn't it just yesterday that she was in the ducky tub?


Thursday evening -
While I'm elbow deep in dinner prep (not really, but I was cutting up raw chicken and had yucky germy hands), Jaynie casually walks past me from the living room to the den. She climbs up on the computer chair, stands up (!!!) and reaches up onto shelves that supposedly she can't reach. She gets the cat clippers, gets down, and strolls back into the living room while telling me "Kitty cat clip nails. Jaynie do it!"

You can imagine how quickly I was trying to wash my hands. Especially when I heard "meOOOWW!" from the living room, followed by "SIT DOWN, GEORGE!"

Now, I ask you - what on earth happened out there that made her think to give the cat a manicure? He was napping, she was watching a video and playing with blocks. At what point did she think to herself "Ya know, I don't believe this cat has had his nails clipped recently..." And how did she come up with, then carry out a detailed plan like that? SHE'S JUST A BABY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!


Last night -
As I drove up to the pick-up window at Little Ceaser's, Jaynie yelled out "PIZZA!!!". She recognized the outside of the building, people! I guess I'll have to start making dinner, instead of just getting dinner.