JAMSquared

Tag Archives: Jessica

Visiting Santa

Posted on by

On Friday, our playgroup met up at the mall to visit Santa. Millie went first and at first she was okay sitting on Santa’s lap, but then she got upset. Jessica went next and I thought she would scream bloody murder when I tried to put her on Santa’s lap, but she surprised me. She didn’t cry when I handed her to Santa. She didn’t cry when I stepped a few feet away out of way of the camera elf. She didn’t cry at all. I couldn’t get big smiles out of her, but she did great. I was so proud of her. Parker was the last of our playgroup to visit Santa and he had such a serious face the entire time he was on Santa’s lap. I have to say the Barton Creek Mall Santa is awesome. He has a real bead and he is so great with the kiddos. He tried so hard to make them smile. He had this little reindeer stuffed puppy and some sleigh bells and Christmas books. I would definitely recommend him if you’re in the area.

Jessica and Santa

Jessica Smiling Up at Santa

Taking Apart Blocks

Posted on by

Jessica has been enjoying both of the block sets she received for her birthday. She hasn’t completely gotten the hang of building with the blocks, but she certainly knows how to take apart piece by piece. Here she is in action with the Lego set.

I doubt she realizes how excited this kind of play makes her mother. I can easily build her houses all day to take apart. Although I’ll be even more excited when we can build the houses together.

Wii and Quoits

Posted on by

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, our friends Ranger and Clarisse hosted a “Wii Would Like to Play” party. We showed up a little late since it started during Jessica’s naptime. We arrived just as the quoit action was about to start in the backyard. I had never heard of quoits before, but it is a game somewhat like horeshoes that is prevalent in New Jersey where Clarisse and her brother Eric grew up. A quoit is the heavy metal ring you toss. Lori and I were the only adults who didn’t toss a quoit. Lori was the scorekeeper and I was the Jessica wrangler.

Phap, Linette and Ranger Getting Psyched to Throw Some Quoits

The first match was between Team 609rz, which consisted of Justin and Eric, and Team Dirty Jersey, which consisted of Clarisse and Phap. Even though Clarisse has played before, Phap and her got whooped 21 to 4.

Phap Tossing the Quoit

Justin Tossing the Quoit

Team Dirty Jersey: Phap and Clarisse

Team 609rz: Justin and Eric

The second match was between Team Gibbletz, which consisted of Ranger’s sister Linette and her husband Mike, and Team Lamb Chopz, which consisted of James and Ranger.  I’m not sure where the teams came up with their names. I’m guessing you can tell the outcome of that match based on their team photo, although it was a much closer match at 21 to 18.

Linette Tossing the Quoit

Ranger Tossing the Quoit

Apparently the Lam genes bring out the seriousness when tossing the quoit.

Team Gibbletz: Linette and Mike

Team Lamb Chopz

The final match was a showdown between the two winning teams. It actually got kinda exciting. Team 609rz beat Team Gibbletz 21 to 14.

During all the quoit action, Jessica enjoyed a cookie and enjoyed dragging her sippy cup as she crawled around on the ground.

Jessica Eating a Cookie

"Yummy!"

"I'm having fun getting dirty."

We then took the competitive action inside for some Wii sports. I love the sword dueling, even if I’m not the best.

Justin and Linette Sword Dueling

Ranger and James Sword Dueling

Did you notice Lori, Linette and Mike smiling at the camera in the background?

While we dueled to exhaustion, Jessica explored the diaper bag by taking every single item out of the section I had left unzipped.

Jessica in the Diaper Bag

She also enjoyed playing/crawling all over Linette. Jessica really took a liking to Linette.

Jessica and Linette

Overall, the party was a ton of fun. Hopefully, we can do something like that again soon.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Posted on by

I know most people think of pumpkin patches as a Halloween thing, but the pumpkin patch at Sweet Berry Farm is open from mid-September to mid- November. My friend Kristy, Jessica and I went November 1st. We had planned to go before Halloween, but a stomach bug and rain delayed us. I think it might have worked out waiting until after Halloween and going on a weekday, because it wasn’t very crowded. It ended up being pretty warm and I wish I and Jessica had been wearing short sleeves.

Jessica Riding a Tractor

"I take my pumpkin pulling seriously."

We had a lot of fun and I liked going with Kristy since she is quite the shutterbug and I got lots of great pictures of me and my lil’ pumpkin.

Jennifer and Jessica Checking Out Bumby Pumpkins

Flower Heads

We even got a few with the three of us, since Kristy’s camera has a remote. Jessica liked the remote.

Kristy, Jessica and Jennifer

Lil' Pumpkin

Checking Out the Goats

Pumpkins

I love that the pumpkin patch could be a totally free experience. We did end up spending $6 for two pick-your-own flowers cup and two drinks. I thought my flowers were goners since they fell over on the way home and didn’t look so hot. I recut the stems under water and added a little sugar to the vase water and they lasted a good week. I didn’t think to take a picture of the vase after they perked up.

Jennifer and Jessica in Field of Flowers

Kristy and Jessica Checking Out the Chickens

I can’t wait to go back in the spring or early summer for strawberries or blackberries.

13 Months Old

Posted on by

Yesterday, Jessica turned 13 months old. She is definitely a toddler now and no longer my baby.

On Her Princess Ride, 10/20/10

In Her Car Outside, 10/22/10

What Jessica is Up To

Jessica isn’t walking yet, but she is so close. She is a master cruiser. On Sunday, she stood up for a few seconds without holding onto anything, so I know it won’t be long.

Pushing Doll Stroller, 10/22/10

Pushing Doll Stroller, 10/25/10

Switching Push Toys, 11/9/10

Using the Balance Beam at the Park, 11/14/10

She is still very much a climber. She climbs on top of her little table and tries to climb inside the doll stroller. She has mastered climbing down from the futon in the play room, so I don’t have to be quite as worried about her falling off anymore.

Climbing into Doll Stroller, 10/25/10

Jessica loves to put objects inside of other objects. The pink Mega Blok bus she received for her birthday is a great example. It has six blocks and a little girl that came inside of it. I will empty the bus and she will fill it back up. She does take the blocks out of the bus herself, but she much prefers putting them in. This can be a bad thing. She will put things like mandarin oranges or pieces of cheese inside her snack trap with the cheerios or Kix.

She almost always waves on command and will give high fives occasionally. She also loves to clap, especially if you clap with her.

In the house, if she gets close to the window, Jessica likes to go look outside. I wonder if part of that is she misses the daily walks to the playground. Hopefully after next Wednesday’s surgery that will resume. Maybe then my knee won’t hurt.

Looking Out Back Door, 10/31/10

She recently had Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease, which is contagious. Fortunately, it seemed to be a mild case. If it hadn’t been for the spots all over her body, you wouldn’t have known she was even sick.

Covered in Spots, 11/8/10

What Jessica is Saying

Jessica talks a lot. None of it is really intelligible, but every once in a while I hear clear words, such as mama, up, ball, fish.

How Jessica is Sleeping

At night, she goes down for bed around 8 PM and sleeps until sometime around 8:30 AM. We recently went to one nap during the daytime. She was fighting, fighting, fighting her 2nd nap of the day, so I thought I would try delaying the nap until just after lunch and see how one nap a day would work. It works fabulously. She naps anywhere from two to three hours and I love it.

What Jessica is Wearing

I’ve moved completely to 18 month clothes, primarily because she had very few warmer 12-month clothes and it is actually starting to cool down here in Austin. I pretty much always put her hair up in one of 3 ways: dog ears, one pony tail (although that usually only stays up for a few hours), or one mini pony tail with just the hair from the front half of her head. Her hair up is pretty much a necessity since otherwise it hangs in her face, which is a bad thing at meal time.

What Jessica is Eating

She still has just four teeth. It’s been three months since Jessica got the top two and I’m wondering when she is going to get more.

Lately, Jessica has been on a blackberry kick. She absolutely loves them and if I don’t watch her carefully, she tries to stuff more than one in her mouth at once. She’s also really digging peach pieces and mandarin oranges, although I don’t let her have mandarin oranges too frequently because the acidity can sometimes irritate her little bum.

Vegetable-wise, she likes spinach with cheese and most squash types, although I often have to add yogurt for her to eat the squash. She does love her yogurt. Pumpkin puree with pumpkin pie spice and yogurt is also well-liked. Jessica also enjoys refried beans if they are a smooth consistency.

Meat-wise, she really only eats turkey and chicken.

Sitting at Her Table, 10/22/10