Jenna and Sarah

Hard to believe my little angel face is 9 months old. We had her 9 month checkup yesterday and all is well. She is 19.6 lbs (65th %), 27 1/4 ” long (45th %) and her head is 45 cm (80th %). So she’s average, but much smaller than her sister was at this age. Those doctor appointments wear me out when I have both of them! Jenna likes to pick up EVERYTHING, turn off all light switches, and take stuff out of the doctor’s pocket. I feel like I’m always saying “Jenna, don’t!” “Jenna, no!” “Jenna, please stop.” I don’t want her to lose her curiosity, but give it a rest! When I am lugging Sarah around, along with the diaper bag, my purse, the papers that Sarah is trying to chew on, and the cans of formula I swiped from the shelf, disciplining Jenna while trying to pay for the appointment wears me out.

I digress. Sarah has personality bursting out of her little body. I don’t know why they say “bouncing baby boy,” because this girl loves to bounce. Put her in her ‘johnny jumper’ and she’s happy as a clam. Usually. She goes crazy in that thing. I have videos, but I’m too lazy to post now. 🙂 She also loves to pull up on things.

I think she is going to follow in her sister’s footsteps (pun intended!) and skip the crawling and go straight to walking.She is sort of crawling. She has her unique way of getting from point A to point B, which is basically crawling a few inches, rolling into a sit, and repeating. She also loves to be outside.

She loves to eat, but she does NOT like bananas, and she does NOT like when I leave. Still very attached. She’s getting better, but I haven’t even attempted to take her to the gym again. Going through that effort for a 10 minute workout before they call me to come get her isn’t worth it. She is doing better at church because they work with her so much. Yay, Sarah! She does cry as soon as she sees me go to the door, but I think most babies do. The difference is that she usually doesn’t stop crying until I come back to get her. But lately she has done better so I’m seeing the light. She also does NOT like to be disciplined. Disciplining a 9-month-old? Yeah, I don’t really do that. But she has a habit of biting me, and when she does, I give her a firm “No,” which is usually followed by a massive lower lip protrusion and lots of crying with huge crocodile tears. So sad! The biting is a shoulder/arm thing. When I’m holding her, she buries her face in my shoulder, which is fine, but biting it with those razor-sharp teeth is not fine!

Today she had her first juice. It was only an ounce, mixed with 3 ounces of water. Her doctor said she needs to be getting more fluids. Since she prefers spitting water all over herself to swallowing it, I mixed a little juice in. Worked like a charm. She does love cheerios now, which is great because they keep her occupied. She can sit at the table with us and eat cheerios while we eat our dinner. So fun!

Jenna still LOVES her sister. It’s very sweet. She smothers her, pushes her down, and is always in her face. But her intentions are good! We’re always telling her to give her sister some space, but after 9 months, she still doesn’t quite get it. Well, at least Sarah is tougher now and can take it. Jenna rarely shows any jealousy about the attention Sarah gets. I make a real effort to spend as much time with her as I can though. I color with her, play games, read, and hug on her a lot, which doesn’t hurt. But when I pick her up from preschool or when we say goodnight or go anywhere, really, she is quick to hug and kiss Sarah, introduce her, or ask about her if she’s not there.

It’s funny–that’s one of the few pictures in which Jenna is not squeezing the life out of her sister, but it’s also one of the few with both of them smiling. Ahhh, sweet girls. I love ’em!

I got a babysitter today. This is the first time I’ve ever had a babysitter come to the house. I love her. She is my hero.

Initially, I asked her to come today because I anticipated having a lot of work to do. It’s the proverbial carrot dangled in front of my face. Lots of work–oh, wait, maybe not. In this case, there were technial glitches that made it impossible for me to do what I needed to do, on a schedule that was already behind. So they gave it to someone else, but there will be more. I decided to have her come anyway, so we could try it out. I am astonished. Sarah is not crying. I have been in the office almost 3 hours, coming out only to put Sarah down for her nap and get her bottle ready, since I didn’t tell her (Jessica) where the stuff was. Sarah has not cried. At all. This is the first time Sarah has ever been left with someone else and has not cried. I have never had anyone HERE before. Usually I leave her at church or with Mimi & Beebaw. She does OK with Mimi & Beebaw here, but it’s been a while and I haven’t been here to observe how she actually does.

BUT I am thrilled to know that we can have a babysitter here when I need her! I am not thrilled to pay, but I think I will hang on to this one as long as I can. Jenna loves her already and is not going to want her to leave. She told me when I came out before that she does not love me. 😦 Oh, well, the first of many of those!

I think if I posted as regularly as I should, I would start every post the same way. We are in trouble. Sarah’s personality is shining through, and she’s full of it! Last night at dinner, she was sitting in her booster seat (we decided against the big high chair) and was playing with a bracelet of Jenna’s. There was a pipe cleaner sticking out, so Jay took it away from her to bend it around so it wasn’t sharp. She FREAKED.OUT. Screaming, read face, the whole works. Well, as soon as he gave it back to her, it was like a switch. No screaming, face returned to normal color, and she happily babbled and stuck the thing in her mouth. I would call that her first tantrum. We are in trouble.