New this week...

Sometimes the creative drive just isn't with me when it comes to putting a title on the blog posts. Today is one of those days.  I am home with Jenna, who is sick yet again, and decided that a more detailed post was in order.  I also wanted to record some of my observations of the past week because she is growing so fast I wanted to capture the awe I feel right now.

In the last post, it was almost midnight and we had just finished a 10 hour drive home from Pennsylvania, so I really didn't have the energy to write a detailed post.  I do feel compelled to share more here, as it was a great trip, and I am so excited that Jenna gets a chance to play with her cousins.  The big challenge for us with Jenna and cousins is that most of her cousins are older than her.  Way older than her.  My youngest niece is 14 and my youngest nephew is 13, and on JP's side he has a nephew that is 4 and a niece that is 8, but the rest are teenagers and older like mine.  As a result, we really don't have a lot of time for Jenna to spend with her cousins before they are at a place in life where she won't have the opportunities to get to spend time with them like she does now.  As a result, this trip was all the more special because she was able to play and spend time with her cousins - and play hard they did! :)  It was a great opportunity for us to get to catch up with Kimmie and John, too, as we don't always get to see both of them, since John's work schedule many times doesn't allow him the opportunity to come with Kim and the kids when they come south to visit.

A few funny things from the weekend...they taught Jenna how to say "Awwwwwww Devynn!" which she said with perfect clarity the first few times she said it, and then it was a game to try to get her to say it right again.  I don't think she ever did, but listening to the variations she came up with was definitely humorous.  Another...ahem...(dare I say) funny event happened at the Memorial Day parade.  The parade had passed and we all filed down to town square for the ceremony.  We parked it on a curb, in the shade, that seemed like a perfect spot.  A few minutes later Kim starts gesturing to me but can't quite get any words out before the men in uniform, literally right in front of us, start firing off their weapons in salute.  Given that all of us were totally oblivious to what was right in front of us, we had no warning before they started firing and it scared the hell out of Jenna.  Unfortunately, we were all so busy laughing at how we ALL missed that little detail that we really weren't much help in comforting her.  Poor boogie - never can catch a break.  Needless to say, there is never a shortage of high-jinks and laughter when we are with the Wiesniewski clan. :)

Other things I wanted to document here:

Jenna has started to use items for their intended purpose - like trying to comb her hair or put the leash on the dog - but my fave by far is when she gets a hold of a cell phone...

Jenna has started to model what we are doing - good and bad!  I had to redirect the dog last week for trying to steal food out of her hand, and in a moment of frustration, I lightly popped Dacie on the snout to get her attention.  Ever since, Jenna has been smacking at the dog.  Not good.  It does give her a chance to practice being "gentle", which she is getting better at, but it's taking a lot more redirecting Jenna away from the behavior of smacking at the dog as a result of attempting to redirect the dog from behavior that wasn't okay.  Lesson learned.  On the other hand, Jenna is now giving out BIG hugs, says "Hiiiiiiiiiii" or "Heeeeeey" in a really cute way (refer to the video post from a few days ago because she says it there), and has been trying to help Mommy fold clothes.  Last night I was folding clothes and realized that Jenna had folded her shorts and put them "up" in my stand up dresser:

(Those are her shorts to the right - she even did a pretty good job of folding them for a 15 month old!)

Jenna has also been following specific instruction, like picking up a piece of trash and putting it in the trashcan, putting toys up in the toy box & books back on the bookshelf, and putting her brush back in it's place on her changing table.  She also shows that she understands what things are and where they go without specific instruction.  For example, the other night she took a magnet off of the fridge and was walking around with it.  She put it down on the edge of the couch.  In the hustle and bustle of getting ready to go out of town, the magnet remained where she left it.  The other night, after we returned home, she was playing in the living room, stopped what she was doing, picked up the magnet, and went and put it back on the fridge, where it belonged.  It as such a simple act, but I was so proud of her!

Other random thoughts: she is extremely verbal - JP and I both agree we are probably going to be in trouble when we can finally understand everything she is trying to say, she eats like a horse - literally, she many times eats adult sized portions of things and it is not uncommon to have them write "2nds" with an arrow through all of the meals and snacks on her daily activity log from daycare, she is high energy, but loves to sleep - remind you on any two people you know? Lol.  There is so much more I know I am missing, but sitting down and trying to remember it all just makes it all allude me that much more.

Finally, as I stated, Jenna is sick, yet again.  Her ear infections are getting to the point where they are not going away with antibiotics, so we asked for a referral to the ENT, who we saw this past Tuesday.  Jenna is scheduled to have tubes inserted on Monday, June 11, so please keep her and us in your prayers as we prepare for this.  I am hopeful this will help, and even if she continues to get ear infections, this option will allow us to move to antibiotic ear drops vs. continuing on oral antibiotics.  Yesterday she had another fever spike, and when I picked her up from daycare, she was lethargic, fussy and clingy, none of which are the norm for her.  She wouldn't even sit up at the doctor's office, keeping her head on my shoulder and her arms tightly around my neck the whole time.  She fussed when I had to put her on the scale, got really cranky when Dr. Mills was trying to examine her, and became absolutely inconsolable when they did a pin prick on her toe to get blood to take a white cell count (which was thankfully normal).  No one knows what is going on with her, but it seems like something viral in addition to the continuing ear infection.  She is better today, but that fever has been creeping up as the day has progressed, so we will see.  I am praying that the tubes will help provide some resolution to this because it is insane how often I have to take a day off of work to be home with her due to fever.  On the other hand, I am grateful that her issue seems to be a very common one, and that there is a relatively simple solution.  

What a long post!  I just don't have time to be too detailed these days, so it was good to be able to put everything in here for the sake of having it documented.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and be safe in the heat!

Love to all-

Julie