Jazzy Stones XII

Baby Steps
At 10 months and a day, Jasmine Olivia threw her efforts to walk into full gear... and hasn't turned back. Now that her confidence has kicked in, it's amazing to see how much more stable she has gotten in just a week's time. But luckily we did manage to get those first few wobbly attempts on video. Here's a snippet.

With V still breast-feeding, the joke around the house last week was that when Jasmine became grown enough to get up and walk away from the breast-feeding session by herself (peace out mom... see you later) then it would be time to call it quits. Well... Jasmine must've heard us and figured this was her fastest way to table food (which she craves like I've never seen). Move over Justin. You've got company coming at the toddler dinner table. Time to start buying some formula!

Oh By The Way

In other news, she is up to two teeth now; with the second bottom tooth finally breaking through the surface. She's also defying all the baby laws of napping as she does everything in her power to only sleep when Justin sleeps; even though his one short nap a day is far from the 2 or three naps that she probably should be taking. And I don't know if "da da" constitutes a word, but she's been serenading us with that one for (I guess) a couple of months now... though she's also good at repeating just about any sound you make.

As for other tidbits... she still likes to smack everyone around... still heavy handed... as demanding as a 10 month old can be... is doing better away from mom and dad... climbs up and onto things that should be way too high... and has somehow figured out how to turn around to go down stairs without being taught. This last point is probably the most impressive to me because I cannot count on my fingers nor toes the amount of times that Justin had to fall face first before realizing, "hey... maybe there's a different way." But his sister approached the stair the first time... paused... looked at it... evidently thought about it... and proceeded to throw it in reverse to get down. Since it was never modeled, I have no clue how she knew (Lord knows we worked on that forever with her brother). Maybe there's something to that "girls are smarter than boys" thing after all. Or maybe Justin taught her on the sneak. Since I'm not ready to concede being of lesser intelligence, I'm going with option 2.

33 Spins

The earth went 'round, and just like that it was time to celebrate V's birthday again. She started the day early with Sisters in The Spirit (a women's bible study @ church) and capped it off with Sushi, ice skating, Avatar IMAX 3-D, strawberry cake, and an 88-key piano keyboard as a gift. Congratulations on another trip around the sun, my love. I hope you enjoyed your special day.

No way I'm leaving this wall.

Freedom.

Showboat Time. Actually, don't be fooled. I ice-skate

no better than I roller-skate. I just don't mind the fall.

A preview of her April celebration.

Memory Lane

While Justin was reminiscing on the days that he actually was allowed to be in the bouncer (for that matter, I guess Jasmine could have been reminiscing too since she outgrew it way faster than she should have)... I carved out some time to finally update the photo archive. Can't believe it had gone so long without an update, but as the number of photos piled up on the computer; the thought of catching up got more overwhelming... and the task got further pushed aside. But now that I've made a dent with January, hopefully the latter months of 2009 won't be too far behind.


In the midst of the update and getting organized, I also forgot to include photos from our January trip to New York for my aunt's birthday-turned-family-reunion. It was insane to see family I hadn't seen in a decade, not to mention teenage second cousins that I had never met at all. While there are no photos in the archive, I do have a bunch on my photography website under the Events link. The password is family.

Will Power...

... and a little gusto.

Jazzy Stones XI

The Breakthrough

At 9 1/2 months, tooth numero uno has finally broken through the surface for Jasmine Olivia. Bring on the teething biscuits, Motrin and Orajel.

The Last Hurrah

With rain and warmer temperatures forecasted to wash it all away, we got out in the snow one more time before it was too late. Soak it all in, kiddos. In the morning it'll be nothing but slush.