Update on Miss Jenni Lin

Jenni turned 11 months old on August 24th. Can't believe where the last 2 months went. She is changing everyday. We had a little bit of rough week. She had 3 different babysitters last week and although she loves her Aunties I think she just needs some consistency. She suffers a bit from acid reflux issues and her stomach was real upset last week. They ended up putting her on some Zantac and that has really helped. I felt so bad for her as you could just tell her stomach was hurting. She would be playing and all happy and then all of sudden just throw herself on the floor and arch her back up in pain. It just broke your heart. Mommy has been home with her for the last 3 days and she is much happier and feels much better. She is at her happiest when she has mommy and daddy with her. She is just so happy all day and has lots of giggles for us. We went to the park yesterday and she loved that. They were having a function called "Pig out in the Park" and she really enjoyed watching all of the people and seeing her Aunt Debbie and cousins. I will download those pictures at another time. Here is an update on her milestones:

*drinking from a sippy cup
*feeds herself finger foods
*crawling everywhere and very close to walking
*will still go to the bathroom on the toilet if we remember to put her on
*Climbs stairs
*Has 2 teeth
*Waves hello and goodbye
*Standing up in Crib and everywhere else where she can hold on to something
*Knows some sign Language
-All Done
-Hungry
*Loves her Elmo doll-rocks it and pats its back like it is a baby and kisses him

I am sure there are many other things I am forgetting but lets just say our little girl is growing up fast!!

Just Photo updates

Just wanted to say this last week has been so fun. Our little Jenni Lin will be 11 months old tomorrow. Our little girl is growing so fast. We waited so long to get her and now the last 2 months have just flown by.

Jenni loves the water!

We have had a busy last few days. Our weather here has been around 100 degrees. Thank God it isn't like China was with high humidity. We went to one of our many lakes in the area on Friday. It was just beautiful. It was Dada's birthday and he wanted to go there have lunch and go swimming... just the "family". It seems so strange to call the 3 of us a "family". I have admit it was really nice. Jenni Lin had her own little fan club. The restruant we went to was full of people and sits right on the lake. It was a bit hard to enjoy it peacefully as Jenni had all sorts of people coming and over and talking to her and telling how cute or beautiful she was. I would say at least 20 people! Heck, it was dada's birthday and no one cared. They only cared about "flirting" with Jenni. It made us both so proud! Rich isn't use to be able to go out in public with Jenni very much due to his work schedule and he was just amazed. I told him was like that everywhere I took her. Maybe not quite so many people but still quite a few. It didn't mattter where we were that day. It was even like that on the lake when we were swimming. I now feel kind of sorry for the movie stars being hounded all of the time. Daddy was so cute with her. She is really a "babe magnet". Although, some of the "babes" were just young teenagers in the water wanting to make sure Rich knew that Jenni Lin was the "cutest baby on the beach" that day. I included a few pictures from swimming that day. Also, 1 picture of Jenni Lin with a "big smile" for the camera..please note the mess in back. Jenni has a way of making a mess faster than anyone I know. She is just so cute when she is "busy" making the mess that is hard to stop her. For some reason, newspapers are one of her favorite "toys".

Terri

Back to work this week!

This was my first full week back at work. Jenni Lin was babysat by one of my sisters and did really well. It was very hard to get her up at 5:15am in the morning not to mention getting myself up at 3:45am!! But you do what you have to do for your child. My sister lives about about 20 minutes away (on Northside) and then I have to head back up to the Southhill for work. So from the Valley to the Northside and to the Southhill. Then working a 10 hour day. Tomorrow won't be so bad as I only work a 5 hour day, however we are going to try out our new daycare. I figure getting her use to the daycare with a shorter day would be best. I am sure she will do really well. It is much harder on me than her. She cried when I left on Monday but with each day the crying for much shorter until there was just a whimper today. She is so cute when she sees me walk in at the end of the day. She will often start crying when I arrive to pick her up almost like to let me know she is very displeased that I left her somewhere. She loves going to my sister's house but just doesn't want to me to leave. She then just keeps tight grip on my arm with one hand and then keeps patting my shoulder with her other hand as to say "this is my mama" and I am happy to be in her arms. She is making big milestones this week. She is now crawling at full speed and climbing up the stairs like a pro. She has 2 teeth coming in and is eating table food much easier. Her hair is getting much longer and more wild!! She has also learned the word "no" many times this week. She has a couple bruises from her adventures but it never stops her. She is a tough old girl! Except when she is tired and then she is more emotional especially if I am in the room. I think she lets her guard down with me. Either that or she knows I a softie when it comes to her and will give all sorts of sympathy. I will try and download some more pictures tomorrow too tired tonight!

Terri

MY THOUGHTS

Well, I want to tell you at this moment I can barely remember what my life was like before Jenni Lin. That is really unbelievable considering Rich and I had 24 years together B.C. (Before Children). I have another blog that I love to read and she said her life was B.C. (Before Children) and A.D. (After Diapers). How true is that! As I am typing, my daughter is standing (holding onto the end of the recliner)giving me a much needed foot massage. Ok, now I see why you all love your children so much! At 10 months, she knows exactly how to massage those painted toes..hee, hee. I know really she is just using my feet to "hang on" but every now and then she give a little squeeze and it feels like a massage. Man, children are great!! Every time I feel tired or my patience starts run just a tad thin all I have to do is look at that beautiful little face and just fall in love all over again. I have to admit I didn't get to watch very much of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night but what I did get to watch was awesome. For some reason, I did feel a little sad thinking that my daughter could been one of those children in presentation or maybe even one of the performers was her birth dad or birth mom? We did record the event for her as we are starting a Hope chest for her and some day we will bring out all sorts of her history (what little we have) and show it to her and hopefully she will treasure it all. I am very sad for her birth mother. I know it must have been so hard to give her up. I just look at her sweet little face and know that it took her birth mother 4 days to eventually give her up so she was probably just so grief stricken. But I have to tell you I am also so thankful her birth mother did make that difficult choice as now we have our beautiful daughter! Our life is now A.D. (After Diapers) and we can't be more happy!! We love you sweet little baby girl!

Mama and Dada

A DAY AT WORK

Yesterday was the first day I left Jenni with someone other than Rich for more than a few hours. I worked about 9 1/2 hours yesterday and my sister (Auntie Don Don)babysat Jenni all day at her house. Jenni did great probably better than me. I know she was in great hands I just missed her terribly. She loves her Auntie's so I know she was fine but it felt so good to see that smile when I walked in the door. I can't thank my sisters enough for helping me with the daycare issue until Jenni turns 1. Once she turns one she will go into daycare 3 days a week. Jenni is very, very busy so I think daycare will be great for her as she will have alot of other children to play with. I think she gets bored with mom and dad. She is really good until late afternoon and then she gets fussy (almost like she is "bored" and needs a change for a few hours). When I am home I usually try and do something outside of the house with her after her afternoon nap. She is so like a "sponge" she just wants explore and learn every moment. She is so fearless! I think right now she would tire out the "grandma's and grandpa's" if they had to babysit her for more than a few hours. She tires me out!! She is just so smart and quick! She is standing (with 1 hand holding on to something)like a pro. This morning she actually let go and stood for about 2 seconds and than fell. She will be walking soon and then oh, my!! She waves bye, bye and claps and has found her "loud" voice (learned by yelling for the Shock Football team). We are also starting to work with her on sign language. I start back to work full-time next week. I will miss her sooo much! I have included some pictures of my "nephew Gordon" and his girlfriend playing with Jenni and one of her checking out all of her toys (can you say spoiled??)!!

WHAT'S UP IN JENNI'S WORLD!

Jenni is doing well. She seems to be changing everyday. The last few days have been a little bit rough but not bad. We really have been spoiled because she has been so good since we got home. We think she is teething (She still has no teeth at 10 months). She just isn't wanting to eat much and wants mama to hold her every chance she gets. She has still been sleeping pretty well although she hasn't really wanted to take her afternoon nap. If she does she only wants to sleep for about 20 minutes. Her morning naps are still about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. She woke up several times on Wednesday night..she just seems to be having some discomfort. Last night we gave her some children's motrin before bed and she slept from 9:00pm to 5:45am and woke up crying (normally she just wakes up and plays in her crib until we get her up)and then she fell back to sleep for another 45 minutes. She really is a tough little girl so I know if she is having discomfort she must really be hurting so I feel bad for her. She is still not crawling fully yet but she can pull herself up on the couch and other objects without our help and she does a little "crawl, slide, slide, crawl" to get around. She can now eat finger foods and mama has had to change her outfits several times a day as we have been playing outside more since the weather has been so nice and she loves getting "dirty". We are planning on taking a trip up to Priest Lake on Sunday so I think she will really enjoy that. I have included a few new pictures. I love the one of her in jumper. She was being such a wild little girl at that moment. Her hair looks so funny and she was just jumping like a "wild woman". We were laughing so hard.