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Jessie April 06 text

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4-27-06
 
Jessie has been talking more and more.  I don't remember what it was yesterday at the dinner table, but she said a whole paragraph.  She will do that more now - talk in length about a particular thing.  One thing I've noticed is that she talks a LOT like Gavin did when he was finally getting talking down.  Granted, he was 3 then, but the way she works out each single word at a time and strings them together while still keeping each word a single word really reminds me of Gav.
Last night Daddy gave her a bath due to my allergies going nuts and me trying to lay down and keep my eyes shut.  Afterwards, she got out and refused to put the diaper on for overnight until I brought out the elmo underpants to go OVER the diaper and she was all for that!  She also was looking through this magazine I gave her full of different birthday party themed stuff.  She saw the elmo page and kept telling me, "Elmo shirt there, elmo shirt there, like elmo shirt.  Abby (daycare friend) shirt like, Jessica like elmo shirt."  hehe, I think she liked the shirt.  She also told me how much she likes the purple unicorn plates.  She also told me how much she liked the army guy plates and the Thomas the tank engine and the army jets plates.  And the balloons.  Ya, she pretty much liked the whole catalog.
 
4-25-06
 
Jaws struck again.  I wish she'd get over that whole biting thing!  At our playdate this past weekend she decided to leave her mark on poor little Emily.  The next morning she brought it up again and recalled "Jessie no bite Emily."  But I don't know how much it stuck. 
Other then that, our playdate was quite fun!  I hadn't seen Jen and her family in a LONG time and Gavin had a little playmate as well. 
This weekend we sort of moved forward with the whole potty training thing.  Well, We're trying harder.  I don't know about Jessie.  We got her some tiny little underware which she LOVES wearing and we're trying to go diaperless now.  Mostly the effect has been to have me paranoid and constantly asking if she has to go potty - with her refusing to sit on the potty chair.  She will sit on it from time to time though - but we haven't had any success since those earlier ones.  Yesterday she spent nearly 10 minutes sitting on the potty chair while I read her a story.  She got up and wanted to sit on the real toilet instead which lasted 3 seconds, and then she went out into the other room.  Nothing.  OK, so I walk into the other room for something and I come out and she is pulling down her underpants to sit on the potty again saying something about going potty again.  I get suspicious and check her and sure enough, she peed on the floor right next to the potty chair while I was in the other room.  AHHHH!  I'm not giving up yet, but I'll tell you it is a lot more work on the parents part to try potty training this young.  Gavin was a breeze at 3!
 
4-21-06
 
This past week I've been doing both mornings and afternoons with the kids since Kris has had to do open and close work for his armory.  I know, I don't get into work as early but YAY for spending more time with the kids! 
Jessie took her diaper off last night after she peed in it.  I TOTALLY want to start potty training and to really go for it with her but I need life to calm down a little to give me time at home with her to actually do it.  I know she can since she's clearly got the idea down.  I also think we'll need one of those toilet seat covers because she's really more of a "real" toilet girl vs using the potty chair like Gavin did.
She seems to have lived through the whole MMR shot thing.  Not that I'd know what to look for at this point for autism or diabetic signs or anything but I'm not noticing anything different about her.  I'm glad to have that shot out of the way and now I can find out how many HiB we'll need since I don't think she REALLY needs all 4 shots if she starts in a few months from now.
Jessie actually let me dress her this morning!  YAY!  She insisted on wearing her pink socks which totally didn't match but I can live with goofy socks.  I AM concerned with her tendancy towards picking pink things on her own but I'm in denial right now that she is really doing that.
Yesterday when I picked her up from daycare, Cindy was finishing up changing her diaper and when she got up she went over to the other "baby" (he is walking, but a bit younger then her) and said "Come here, Payton, come here." and held his hand and walked him over to Cindy so she could change his diaper.  It was very cute. She is so attached to those other kids at her daycare.  I'm glad that she has those friends.
 
4-17-06
 
We have had a great long weekend!  Kris was called into work on Friday afterall, so I ended up staying home with the kids.  Then on Monday (today) they had a doctor appointment in the morning so Kris and I went to that and then Kris took Gavin to school and is home with Jessie now while I'm at work.  The weather has been great and we've been trying to take advantage of that and changing our habits a bit to walk to various things in the neighborhood instead of driving.  (IE - walking to CVS to pick up some prescriptions and drop off some film rather then driving there.)  The only downside is my icky allergies which have taken hold like every spring.  SPRING ALREADY!  *sniff*  I've nearly forgotten the days when I wasn't pregnant or nursing and I could take allergy meds and not be misserable this time of year.  Anyway, Jessie has enjoyed the time outdoors and seems to really like the swings at the park.  She spent the WHOLE time on the swing when we went Friday night.  She also REALLY likes the bike attachment that lets her ride along in her little cart behind daddy's bike.
Over the weekend it seemed that maybe she was running a little fever or something and she was a little cranky but it never really developed into anything more then that so I wasn't sure what to think.  Kris got a call that his culture (I don't even know WHY he got a culture done and he says he was at the clinic for an appointment anyway and his throat had been catching a little so he had it done on a whim - no fever or illness or anything) came back possitive for strep.  Weird.  Anyway, since the kids had been exposed awhile back anyway I figured we'd have them checked.  When I asked the doc though, he said there was no point because they were not displaying any strep symptoms and even if the culture came back possitive they wouldn't treat it.  Apparently he had just done some "strep" research and you can be a carrier without getting the symptoms and there's no point in treating any case of strep that doesn't have the full blown throat lesions and all that.  SO - they just had a regular well child visit.  Jessie was certainly due and I wanted to check in with the peds on Gavin's "issues".  (Which you can read about on his page.)  All things went well with Jessie.  It was actually funny.  The doc asked if she could say up to, oh, I think he said 10 words and I said it was well over 3-500 actually, although I wasn't counting anymore.  He asked if she was putting 2 words together, which she's got covered.  He asked if she could drink from a cup and eat with her fingers, LOL!  CAN she eat with her fingers?  Sure, but she'll yell if you don't give her silverware and a non-sippy cup just like her brother!  I was all excited to show off her coloring skills and our working on shapes and colors but he didn't even ask that.  She was really, I mean REALLY, freaked out by this doc which is odd - she's never been like that before but all her other docs have been women so that may have something to do with it.  She had her face burried into Daddy's chest most of the time.  She was also very unhappy about being undressed and kept putting her clothes back on.  Oh, I almost forgot, her stats are 33 3/4 inches and 23 pounds 10 ounces, and head circ was 50.5 cm.  That's a 75% for height, somewhere between 15 and 20% for weight, and WAY above the 100% for head size.  Weight for length was between the 5 and 10%.  Translation?  She's skinny with a giant head.  I'm actually suprised that she's over the 50% for height since she's even smaller then Gavin was at this age and he was tiny - but I'm certainly not dissapointed!  I knew her head was huge.  We've been buying her pretty much the same size hats as Gavin.  She has this one from when my sisters lived at home - I think they were high school aged - that she just LOVES and it fits her perfectly.  She has never fit into toddler hats.  Yep, I gave birth to her too! LOL!  This Tater baby has been keeping that head circ way porpotionally huge as well so we're really looking forward to that.  Finally in the appointment we went over the inevitable vaccine discussion.  It is so funny that the peds try to be all non-confrontational but they never really succeed.  This guy, being an older doc, seemed like he was gonna not be a great one for this issue and of course, he wasn't.  You see, we're not anti-vacs.  We're just trying to spread out the schedule a little more.  When I asked for real advice on which one we should give to her today he just couldn't really answer honestly, which was dissapointing.  After looking into it more now that I can, I wish we'd have gone with the HiB vac - as it is the least dangerous and most important of the ones she hasn't had yet.  Plus - it takes more then one dose of that to be effective apparently so I'd have liked to get that started now.  He pushed the MMR one though which I suspect now is just because that's the one that is more contested and he figured he could scare me into it with the Iowa college kids getting mumps.  (All of which were vaccinated, BTW, so his scare tactic didn't work that great.... he just said it was the most important so I took his word for it.)  They wanted to give a combined MMR and chicken pox but I wasn't about to give in to that since it is going the OPPOSITE direction that I want to go with LESS proteins at one time.  That chicken pox one has about 90 proteins to develop antibodies to all in just ONE round.  They had to dig up the "more expensive" MMR shot without the chicken pox but in the end they managed to do so.  Now, of course, I've just been reading all the stuff on Autism so I'm all freaked out again.  I just hope she is old enough being almost 2 now and it all goes over well.  I AM glad that I made them not do the chicken pox one though because Dr Sears has a lot of info out on that one and isn't real big on the vaccine.  Apparently they don't KNOW when it will wear off and we may be setting all these kids up to be most vulnerable to chicken pox right when they are old enough to really suffer - not to mention the girls that will grow up to be pregnant and getting chicken pox with the resulting birth defects to the kids.  Of course, with Jessie's playmates getting vaccinated, it may be harder to expose her to getting it naturally as well.  The ideal solution according to Dr Sears was to vaccinate against it, then get the kids sick with it anyway (because I guess it isn't very effective even in childhood) because then they'd have a lesser degree of the illness in childhood while still having adult immunity from having the "wild" illness.  The trouble would be in finding a way to get her exposed since I haven't heard of anyone with chickenpox in forever.  That's OK.  I'm still too freaked out over the MMR shot right now to worry about that.  I really wish we'd have done the HiB instead.
 
4-13-06
 
We'll see how this goes.  I tried to update this yesterday and when I clicked "done" it said this service is temporarily unavailable and deleted all my writing.  Grr.
SO, the other day Jessie kept leaning out of her chair to grab my face and whisper into my ear "I love you Mommy."  She wouldn't sit down and eat!  Yes, totally adorable and heart melting, but I'm pretty sure the little scammer just wanted to get out of her seat and get into my lap for the remainder of her meal.  Did it work?  Totally! 
Yesterday we made a trip out to Cosco with the whole family.  We started out with Kris going to all the TVs and computer stuff and saying "Can we get this?  Can we get this?  Can we get this?"  Then we had Gavin going along with Daddy on the computers and on to the toys "Can we get this? Can we get this?"  Yikes.  Then Jessie saw the kid movies (which she doesn't even watch, BTW - but I think she thought they were books) and SHE started saying "Can we get this? Can we get this?  Can we get this?"  I think I said NO about 4372 times last night.  Gavin did find a really cool bike that was about a 20 incher that had the really long body like the older kids are riding these days.  It was $82 I think.  He BEGGED for that!  We did not get it.  MUCH to my shock, Daddy went over to the tables with the baby and toddler clothes and started picking out these dresses and outfits in 2T and 24 month for Jessie!  I was blown over!  Nothing to ruin my resolves and "no" streak like cute little girly clothes!  We got a BEAUTIFUL Laura Ashley dress, some OshKosh stuff which I LOVE, a cinderella swimsuit and coverup (which she didn't need in any way shape or form), and some PJs.  We also picked up some nice OshKosh shorts for Gavin as I have yet to clean out his shorts drawer and I suspect there's not a lot of size 6s in there.  Jessie was modeling the clothing for me when we got home but once we got the swimming suit on her she was not about to take that off.  We even had a hard time at bedtime getting her to take it off to sleep.  Speaking of bedtime - Jessie somehow got ahold of silly putty last night!  I checked on the kids before going to bed and she was laying on a pillow on the floor with silly putty bits all over the carpet around her.  I managed to get most of it out of the carpet and I picked her up and put her back into her bed.  This morning I discovered that she also had silly putty all over her NEW PJ pants which thus got into the sheets and her blankets and everything.  That stuff does NOT come out, BTW.  Worse?  It is GREEN silly putty.  Bright green. Yuck.
Tomorrow Kris has the day off.  Not me because we got MLK day off back in January so our next holiday isn't until Memorial day - May 29th.  Daycare has Friday and Monday off though so we'll see what days we have to take off to cover that. 
I just scheduled Jessie's well child visit for next Monday.  Technically I think it is her 2 year one but I don't really know.  They want these kids to come in every week or something it seems and with Jessie not getting the shots and clearly being healthy, I'm not willing to bring her into the germ house otherwise known as the clinic that often.  She was in back at 15 months which seems like just yesterday to me still.  BTW - why is my baby girl growing so FAST???  Gavin's first two years took MUCH longer then this!!  I can hardly even remember baby Jessica!  It is so scary how fast she grows and I just LOVE the stage she is at now so I don't really want her growing.  Who is willing to stop time for me to catch up???
 
4-11-06
 
"What you doing, Mommy?"  Yes, this is asked a lot.  Generally, however, whenever we'd ask Jessie "What are you doing Jessie?"  She'd say "Good."  The other day Gavin was upstairs washing his hands in the bathroom while Jessie and I were downstairs at the table.  She was going over her regular "What you doing Daddy?" line of questions and we asked her "What is Gavin doing?"  She responded "Washing hands."  WOW!  Other funny sayings include "Gompkey" for "monkey" and "sure" used quite appropriately.
Jessie fell down a couple times yesterday on her first day out in shorts.  Both her knees are all scrapped up.  Poor baby!  She kept pointing to them and saying "owie, Mommy."  Not that it stopped her from being playing outside just as hard.  When I picked them up from daycare me and Cindy and the kids all took a walk.  Jessie had to actually be pulled out of the dirt and sand by the side of the road.  At least she wasn't eating it now!  She did not want to get in the car but I've discovered that telling her "I'm going to get there first!" and then running is a great motivator to get her to race me wherever I'm going.
This past weekend we had a fire outside which was unimpressive to Jessie - she wanted to have me push her on the swing the whole time.  We also went over to Farma's house on Sunday after a pancake breakfast at the Lion's Club.  Jessie ate a bunch of eggs and sausages while Gavin ate only the pancakes - they make a good team!  At Farma's house they got to color more eggs.  Jessie was being a bit of a brat by smashing the eggs on the table once she learned that we didn't WANT her to do that, so she was removed from the egg table.  There was also plush Ernie doll there that Jessie seemed to really like.  We had a hard time getting her to put it down to come home.
 
4-5-06
 
Do you know how awesome it is to hear this tiny voice saying "I love you too, Mommy." when I tell Jessie I love her?  Yesterday due to Gavin's appointment, I got to be home to help get Jessie ready in the morning.  It's getting tough to chase her around though being all pregnant and everything.  It was fun to play with her in the morning though.  That evening we had pizza and fruit (easy diner for tutor night for Gav) and she was eating up that fruit!  She even ate the papaya and passion fruit, I'm so impressed with her!  Those are things she used to refuse to eat so I'm glad she is more willing to try new things now.
Last night Jessie actually woke up at night!  She had this belt from one of Gavin's costumes around her neck like a necklace (it was pretty loose.. not tight or scary or anything) and she was having a hard time getting it off because it was under one arm as well.  I think she was also partly asleep still because she was trying to unvelcro it rather then just slipping it over her head.  Once I got it off she jumped into my lap and wanted to cuddle with me.  Awww, she is so sweet!  As much as I don't need to miss sleep these days, it is nice to be able to cuddle with her like that.
 
4-3-06
 
We had a nice weekend.  First on Friday night Cindy (our daycare lady) stopped by for a short visit.  Her daughter Hanna was downstairs playing with Jessie while Cindy and I talked and I tried to call Jessie upstairs and she calls back to me "NO, Hanna playing!"  I guess we know where Mom ranks.  I also finished off all but a small section of wall paper border in their room and moved the mammoth bunkbed/desk/dresser combination thing back into place.  MUCH more room in there again!  YAY!  Saturday we had swimming which I went to alone with the 2 kids due to Daddy being on drill.  Other then having to walk around in public with a swimming suit on, things went well.  Gavin did a good job of behaiving on his own.  We didn't get much time in the water since we were about 5 minutes late for our 30 minute session, but Jessie made up for it by spending another 20 minutes in the shower!  She LOVES the shower and could stand under that spray all day long if you let her.  I always stand there like a proud momma when she has the water going over her head and face and she loves it, but of course, we're at SWIMMING lessons, so ALL the kids there are the same.  After getting dressed, Jessie ran into the boys/mens changing room after Gavin so I look really great standing right outside the entrance yelling "Jessica, get back here!"  Nice!  Gavin walks her out for me, which is great, except he's NOT DRESSED! LOL!  Swimming done, we head home hoping for a nap before our playdate.  Jessie stays quietly in the room while I get some laundry done thinking she's napping, but when I get back upstairs with the laundry basket, she's making all sorts of noise.  Eventually we have to head out again so I go get her and she's UNDER the bed with her dolls playing.  Kids in tow, we head out to our friends house from my days at Honeywell and our mom's get together.  This time there are 4 kids about Jessie's age there, Annika and Brianna both have their pages linked from here.  They have fun playing, although Jessie took a little longer to warm up to the busy room.  The kids are still not really specifically "playing" with each other, but they seemed to enjoy the extra short people around them.  The photo session with them all lined up on the couch must've made a big impression with Jess because when we got home she started lining up her dolls to take pictures of them and she wanted me to take pictures of her sitting with them in her chair!  Very cute!  Sunday we hang out at home and Grandma and Grandpa Jim and Great Grandpa come over to visit.  Just before they get there I finish with the FINAL section of wall paper border.  ALL DONE!  They move the dresser back for me (good!  Because I wasn't sure how I was gonna lift that thing!) and the room is finally done.  OK, I still need to put the pictures back up... but that's all.  Then I need to get the baby's room into order.  We all made dinner that night and sure enough, Jessie demonstrated her weird issue with sitting in her own chair and eating her own food for everyone.  Actually, I thought she'd do well for diner since the daylight savings time thing had our schedule messed up and she ate breakfast so late she took her nap before eating lunch and then woke up just before diner so she skipped a whole meal in there.  Guess she wasn't that hungry after all.  Maybe I'll start sitting her next to Daddy with me over by Gavin.
Sunday night we have a slight issue with Gavin continuing to talk and keep Jessie up and me taking away his computer and game box and then he REALLY throws a fit!  How do you impress upon a 6 year old that a toddler's bedtime routine is sacred and cannot be messed with by 6 year old big brother not going to sleep???

Link to March 06 text.