Pretend Play

Last week we had a house visit with our Parents As Teachers person. She talked about how "pretend play" was very important at this age. Jesstine has really just kind of started to do this on her own without much prompting. Her play is SO creative! I think she has her daddy's creative mind! Here is a little glimpse of this week's "pretend play."

Playing her guitar! She almost has the right form.

Feeding her baby, Dolly. (With a dirty spoon she found on the floor!!!!)

She got an American Girl catalog in the mail. She was SO excited she got in the house and put it on the floor and picked out the one she wanted!

More of the same!

Here is her "MONKEEEEEEE" in the same place that Dolly was! She has even tried to put the safety belt on the dolls she has tried to feed! I usually catch her doing this while saying, "EEET, EEET, EEET" which is what she does as I make dinner and she is ready to eat.

Can't forget to stay hydrated!

Here she is actually feeding her monkey. This is in three parts, so I hope you enjoy!

DEE INNNNNN! (The End)

18 months of Terrific Blessings!

Our little girl turned 18 months old on Sunday. We are SOOOO thrilled to have her in our lives! She is so much fun! She is beautiful, loving, and smart! Every mother and father's dream. Because she had a touch of a cold/teething, we waited until today, Thursday, for her well baby appointment. She is smart enough to know that when you go to the doctor, it isn't the most pleasant thing. Little did she know she would not be receiving shots today! She is already anxious about stepping on the scales, hopefully for different reasons than her mommy! She really does NOT like having her height checked. She really just wanted to play when we got in the exam room. Luckily there was a box of crayons and a coloring book (that every sick child that has come to that exam room has probably played with as well). She colored until the doctor came in. He asked a few questions and checked her heart, ears, and throat. She was a trooper, but after the second ear, she was quick to push the light away and say "no" to the doctor!! When we got home after I worked later that afternoon, she found her play phone. She was talking on it to someone. I asked who it was and she said, "Docker!"


So, at 18 months, Jesstine Jonelle Hutchins is 2' 8.5" tall and weighs 24 lbs (23.9 technically) with her clothing and shoes on. She has a vocabulary of roughly 100 words and including several two to four word sentences/phrases. She knows what a heart shape is and a star shape. Just this week she has taken to calling us Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada. She knows where her nose, eyes, ears, head, hair, belly button, belly, hands, feet, legs and knees are located. She can walk forward and backward as well as run. She is slightly pigeon toed like her mommy. She loves monkeys, most animals, Elmo, Dumpty, balls, slides and many other things! Her favorite TV show is still Sesame Street, but she also likes Diego, Dora, Max and Ruby, Curious George and has taken a recent interest in Minnie on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She likes to do the "diggity dog" dance at the end! As mentioned above, she is SUCH a joy in our lives! Here is a picture montage for you of the last year and a half!

Here is our little one at 1 month. At this point we were SO overjoyed to finally have our empty arms filled. I was still missing Babe B. and cried often for the things I was getting to experience with Jesstine that I never got to with Babe B. At the same time I was just SO thankful for my little girl!

Here is her "chair" picture at 6 months. She was also diagnosed with RSV the next day! Poor girl! She didn't have it as bad as some though! It was still scary!

Here is her professionally done 6 month picture!

Here is her 12 month "chair" picture. This was a HARD picture to take! She had become so much more mobile at this point! The month before, she actually dove face first off of the chair!

Here is her professional 12 month pic. done by a friend from HS named Candi. Plans are in the works to call her again for the 18 month pictures, but we are awaiting funds to do so!

And last but certainly not least, here is her 18 month "chair" picture! She picked out her own shirt today and it is one of her all time favorites! She will proudly point to her tummy or chest and say "Monkeeeeeee!" Followed by "hoo hoo hoo hoo!" We couldn't do this picture without our beloved friend, Dumpty! She is starting to fade, but Jesstine's love for her just keeps growing and growing! Oh and one more thing, she is actually saying "cheese" here which explains the goofy grin!

Well, people are right. It really does go by fast! We are so blessed to have a happy, healthy sweet daughter and a perfect one in heaven whom we are looking forward to reuniting with in our eternal home someday! Until then, we will keep on posting and enjoying our life here on earth thanking the Lord for each new day!

In Him,

Lacie

Strollers, Blanket Forts and Monkeys (Chimps), Oh My!

First, I want to give a shout out to our friend and babysitter, Kara!! Kara was a life saver at the church Valentine's Dinner on Saturday night! We were going to leave Jesstine at home and allow Grandmom to come over and watch her then put her to bed. We decided at the last min. that because there we childcare at the church, we would let Jesstine go with us and play! We dropped her off in the gym and Kara was there! Jesstine is typically okay at church. We can usually drop her off and she just looks back and says goodbye. Only on a few occasions has she ever cried and threw a fit. That night was one of those! Because Kara was there and was able to find a ball for her, she was won over and did GREAT!! We love you Kara and thanks for winning our little girl's heart!

Now for the REST of the photos! As you all know it has been EXTREMELY cold in these parts of late! We have had at least three snow storms from Christmas to now. It has been increasingly difficult to keep from going stir crazy, especially with school being called off (as was playgroup)! We have been coming op with some creative things to do! You can see our adventures below!

We have explored the world of ghetto stroller driving complete with back turned Dallas Cowboys hat. Wouldn't you love to be the baby doll in this ride?! And don't you LOVE how the blue on this hat matches the blue on her shirt so perfectly? NOT!!

This is the stool that belongs to her piano that she got from Grandmom for Christmas. It has traveled to various places in the house that Jesstine wants to reach and knows she isn't supposed to! For instance, she came into the front room the other day with two pennies in her hands. I went to investigate how she could have possibly found said pennies. I found this stool up next to the dresser in our bedroom. Kind of suspicious! It has also been used to play the piano section of her Leap Frog Learn and Groove music table. I have to admit, she is creative like her father!

And what snowy day would be complete without a blanket fort. We are still working on the rules of blanket forts. I will outline them for you below.

Rule number 1-NEVER and I mean NEVER stand up in a blanket fort!!

Rule number 2-A blanket fort is NOT the same as a trampoline!

This is the result of Jesstine not understanding the two main blanket fort rules!

Jesstine has recently discovered Minnie Mouse. Always before when I tried to get her to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she never was interested. Now, she is riveted!!! I was able to find a Minnie Mouse plush doll that is SO soft!! She loves it! You can't see, but in this photo, she is also wearing a Minnie Mouse sweat suit I found before she even really knew who Minnie was.

The weather was nice enough this Saturday for us to take a quick trip to the zoo. We are so blessed to have received a zoo membership from Grandmom for Christmas this year! As a result, we were able to decide on a whim that a trip to the zoo would be good! So, as soon as the little one was up from nap, we went to the zoo. Because of her recent fascination with Monkeys, we hit the Apes and Man exhibit first. Her she is with a close up view of a chimp. They were quite playful and ran around chasing quite a few times. She was again riveted!

Oh, and we have recently been allowing her a little more freedom. Thanks to Aunt Jenni, Uncle Seth, Noah, Ian and Connor, another Christmas present was put to good use! Her Elmo harness! She loves hugging Elmo while getting the freedom to walk on her own. It has a tether on the back (or leash if you will) so I can be comfortable allowing her to walk most of the time too. I had something similar when I was a kid. I didn't mind it so much and I am sure with 5 kids in tow, my mother found our leashes handy!

We didn't have too much time because it started to get cold very quickly. We were able to see the chimps, orangutans, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, hippos, a cat, baboons and the gorillas which were our last stop. Also at this point, Jesstine was saying hi to the animals up close to the glass and then saying goodbye in almost the same breath! She loved seeing them so close to her though! That membership is going to come in handy.

Until next time!

Lacie

Missing Daddy Part 2

So Jesstine was REALLY going stir crazy today! She was getting into trouble all morning! So at about 9:30, I called up a neighbor friend whom we hadn't seen all winter! She wasn't busy and was glad to get her little guy (3) and Jesstine together to play. So we met for lunch at the McD.'s with a play place. Don't worry, their hands were sanitized after they completed playing!!! Jesstine had a blast! The first picture is actually from just before we left. She was playing her usual game of "take a nap on the couch." When she gets tired of taking a play nap on the couch, she puts her dolls down for a nap and says "Nigh Nigh!" When we got home and she was down for her real nap, this is what I found on the couch! How cute is that! Anyhow, we are still missing you Daddy (Sweetie) and are anxious for you to return! BTW for all of your other blog viewers out there, these photos are not of the best quality due to the fact that Daddy has the camera with him! He got to tour Cowboys Stadium and desperately needed the camera to take photos of it! Maybe there will be a post about that when he returns! So for now without further adieu, here is to our last full day without Daddy.

Baby wrapped up in a blanket and on a pillow on the couch!
This kid on the slide made me mad! I caught him kicking Jesstine because she was standing at the bottom of the slide. I looked at him and told him he was not to kick. I was afraid a mom was going to fly at me and give me heck for defending my child. UGH! Some people's kids! Anyhow, rant over! Jesstine's favorite thing was to crawl as far as she could up the slide. Most of the time the way was clear, when it wasn't she quickly learned when to get off of the slide.

She never got to the top and actually went down the slide even though this picture would appear that was the case. Here she is scrambling to get down because people are coming down the slide!

*Sigh* my beautiful girl! Too bad this was on my phone! It could have been a great photo!

Here is our neighbor friend Adam! Thanks for joining us!! It was fun!

Was too late to catch the nice hug Adam gave Jesstine! They play so well together and Adam is so gentle and nice with her! His mommy took the kids to the table while I got my drink and ketchup. Adam was so nice and held Jesstine's hand all the way to the table! SO cute!

That's all I've got right now!

Lacie

Missing Daddy

Daddy has been on a couple of business trips lately and we will be so happy when he returns tomorrow! Here are just a few pictures and a video of all the things that we have been doing to keep ourselves busy while he is gone.

Jesstine has started to be more adventurous and started climbing on stuff. Here she is climbing on her Leapfrog music table.

She has also discovered how to get on the couch without help. She loves to lay down and say "Nigh Nigh." She even practices putting her dolls down for a nap on the couch!

Oh, yes! The Goggles!!! This has been one of the most amazing things to keep her busy! I know some of you out there are thinking of all the things that could go horribly wrong here, but I watch her closely! It has turned out to be a great bath toy!

And of course no toy would be complete without trying it on her dolls! Here is her favorite companion (besides Mommy of course), Dumpty! I think they look nice!

This was Daddy's little companion when he was a little boy (after a body transplant...ask Stephen). Of course we had to try the goggles on Lion as well!

We spent Saturday evening at Grandmom's house. It was really cold this weekend. Jesstine's hair had a mind of it's own!

Grandmom gave her some mashed potatoes. She is trying to master the use of a spoon. She can get it to her mouth, just not in. That is where the tongue comes in handy!

This was after a nap on Saturday right before going to Grandmom's. This is NOT static! It was stuck up like this! I had to wet it down to get it to lay flat! Must have been a good nap!

Daddy is usually the one that does bath time. Here Jesstine is blowing bubbles in the water! She learned this in swim lessons at the age of 10 months, but never was brave enough to try it.....until now! We look forward to going back to the Y pool on Friday!

We miss you Daddy (Stephen)! We have had fun without you , but wish you were here to have fun with us!

Love,

Lacie and Jesstine