Love

After Jenna was born, I won a photo shoot and a few pictures from a local photographer. Although Jenna was not so happy when we left for the pictures, she quickly turned things around and we got some great pictures. Yesterday I received an E-mail from the photographer letting me know that they featured the girls on their blog yesterday, so I thought I would share. We took Jenna for her 9 month check up yesterday and she is doing great. She weighed in at 15lb 10 oz, 26.5 inches long with a 42.5 cm head circumference. At least she is proportionately small in the 5th percentile for weight, 10th percentile for length and between 5th-10th percentile for head circumference. I asked the doctor how much she should be eating and she just started laughing and responded with - this kid, she can eat however much she wants!

Jenna still has the same tricks - laughing at Claire, clapping, pulling up on EVERYTHING, getting into EVERYTHING, and crawling and cruising. She loves the vegetables that Dan is making for her - sweet potato, squash, lentils, cauliflower, tomato, celery, onion, basil. But God help the person who tries to put a green vegetable in her mouth. She squeezes her little lips together so tight and closes up the feeding station. And good luck gaining her trust again after that! As far as fruits go, she will eat bananas although her stomach can't really handle them and after that she is not loving any other fruits. We have made some and bought some and haven't found anything she will eat on a regular basis so we aren't forcing the issue. The girl loooooooves her yogurt - she can devour 2 bowlfuls at a time. We have been giving her plain, vanilla and Stonyfield's Banilla (banana & vanilla) which I highly recommend, it is delicious!! She has no interest in the sippy cup and is still taking 4 bottles a day and sleeping from 8ish until 7ish when Dan wakes her up.

Claire continues to be sweet as ever with everyone at school and her sister but sure gives us a run for our money at home. She is so smart and knows how to manipulate us big time! Without a doubt our most difficult time of the day is bed time. She is a master staller as soon as we start our potty, teeth, and book routine. And once she is in her room she colors and writes and colors and writes for a loooooooong time before she decides she is ready for bed, which is normally between 9:30 and 10PM. This week we had our parent teacher conferences and Claire got an excellent report. Her teachers are impressed with her writing and her memory and have started working on initial sounds with her. They said she is like the big sister in class and helps to get all the kids involved and Claire loves to read and answer questions. And of course she is talking great. We asked them to stop napping her during the day in hopes that she will go to bed earlier at night - time will tell.

Happy Valentines Day!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!

Claire and Jenna both had little parties at school and then we had a little Bruno Mars dance party once we got home :-) Don't worry - Jennas arms are still attached !

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Picture Preview

You can check out our pictures here



The password is my last name and FamilySession. Keep in mind it was super windy during the shoot and Jenna wanted nothing to do with picture taking. She wanted out of the sun and wanted to take a nap. Nonetheless I think they turned out great and the more I see them the more I love them. Now to narrow down the choices.

Puerto Rico

Once again, we had a blast in Puerto Rico - 9 days of fun in the sun. It truly was a relaxing vacation, spending most days at the pool or the beach, the guys went golfing 3 times, Andrea twice, and one day Kristin, Andrea, Dan, and I took an adventure to go zip-lining. It was super fun and ended up being 4 hours of zip lining. There were 8 lines and one additional where you lay on your stomach and zip about a mile across the mountains. Andrea was a little worried about that one, but other than the take off it was awesome! We arrived a little late and missed out on the handing out of the water, which meant we almost lost Kristin waiting for the last zip line. She was wheezing a little from the hike up and then got super pale. There was a good amount of climbing involved and Kristin was feeling a little dehydrated (add in the sympathy pains from the hurting Grandma in our group). I have no shame and asked the couple behind us if Kristin could have some water and that did the trick. Good thing, because I'm not sure how she would have made it across the line.

Claire seemed the perfect age to enjoy the trip. She is still skeptical about the ocean and the waves, but at least she didn't scream when her toes touched the sand. Jenna on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the sand touching her feet or putting her toes in the water. It took her a little while the get warmed up to the idea of swimming in the pool, but she got it by the end of our trip. Claire kept getting braver and braver in the pool. We started with her Puddle Jumper vest and then she decided she didn't want anything on. Although she can't swim totally on her own, she is very very close. We asked someone at the pool to borrow their swimmies to see how she would do with just those and she was off swimming on her own and jumping off the side. She lost interest in those as soon as I bought her a pair and was back to trying to swim with no swimmies at all. I'll take a bet that she is swimming on her own 2 weeks into summer camp!

Jenna enjoyed her vacation, walks with Pipere every morning, and naps by the pool. She wasn't exactly herself while we were down there, had a slight fever on the way down and took a couple days to clear that up. I kept saying she must have been teething pretty badly and sure enough we picked her up from daycare on Friday and she had her two front teeth broken through the skin. She now has 3 teeth, which is so much earlier than Claire. Jenna also started cruising on the furniture while in Puerto Rico. I think it's time to slow things down a little - it's all going too fast.

I'll try to post pictures soon - we are still waiting on the proofs from the photographer we had come meet us at the beach. Should be interesting since Jenna was in absolutely no mood and it was super windy. Here's hoping she got some great shots - we had a blast working with her.

Claire at her best :-)

Hope this gives you a good laugh or two - the second video is by far my favorite, you can probably tell by my ridiculous laughing in the background.

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What Jenna is up to

The holidays have come and gone and I have been super slack once again. Jenna has been up to lots, but I feel like I am losing track of it all. Jenna started crawling in the middle of December - a few days after we realized she cut her first tooth on the bottom right. I had no idea she was even teething until I caught a glimpse of her tooth popping through the gums. At least I know it wasn't bothering her or keeping her up at night. The diaper rash on the other hand, was awful and now we know why. Claire was exactly the same with getting a horrible diaper rash right before cutting a tooth. But other than that, the girls are so different in their developmental milestones. Jenna sat up way earlier than Claire ever did and followed that up with crawling (do you remember that Claire NEVER crawled, only butt scooted across the floor?). Now Jenna is a crawling machine, getting into everything and putting everything in her mouth. She also started clapping and is making a whole lot more sounds - many of which sound like Mama and Dada although I don't think she has any clue what she is saying. At her 7.5 month check up for the flu shot, Jenna weighed in at 14lb, 2oz - 2.5 lbs less than Claire was at this point.

We were slow to get started on the food but she is now eating anything that is pureed. So far we have made sweet potato, squash, carrots, green beans, peas, pears, applesauce, and bananas. I think this weekend we might expand some more and see what else she can try - she is enjoying yogurt though, and Claire loves sharing her yogurt with Jenna. Making baby food is so easy and definitely cheaper than buying it. Daycare game me a thumbs up for making it :-) We tried the Puffs but Jenna does not like the consistency at all.

Jenna started her New Years off with a bang - literally! On New Years Day Claire, Jenna, and I were playing on the bed and next thing I know Dan was yelling an expletive as Jenna was falling off the bed. Lucky for us she only ended up with a tiny scratch/cut on her head and only cried for a few minutes, but it certainly scared us. The next day she got out of her Bumbo seat and crashed onto the hard wood again this time landing on her cheek. I'm sure daycare was happy to have her back in their care ;-)

Next Saturday we are off to Puerto Rico for a week of fun in the sun - and more family pictures!

Picture overload

**Don't forget to check out the pictures of the beach after reconstruction

Another catch up post from the Sniders. Daddy hanging out with his girls

Jenna trying to decide which sport she enjoys most - she was dressed up to support the Clemson fooball game, but she was enjoying playing with the basketball.

Hanging out at Thanksgiving with Great Grandpa


Showing off the hats they each made at school.

Saturday after Thanksgiving Jenna was baptized - it was a beautiful day and we were so lucky to celebrate surrounded by family and friends - thank you to everyone for joining us! Jenna was a little ham during the baptism and just stared at the priest as she was christened. Jenna's baptism gown was originally my grandfathers gown - 93 years ago! What an honor that she was able to wear the same gown, which I wore and Claire as well.

Once we got back from Thanksgiving, we took the girls to the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. Claire was so excited - we visited Daddys office and then headed over for a 5PM show. Claire was in awe and loved watching the dancing. Jenna fell asleep 10 minutes into the show and woke up when the music stopped playing at the end. Claire is still talking about it and loves running around the house kicking her legs.

Since the weather has been so nice lately we have been trying to get out to the park a lot. A few weeks ago, Claire took Jenna down the slide for the first time. Jenna seemed to love it - maybe she will be more of a daredevil than Claire is.

Andrea picked up this little diaper cover for Claire - it is sequined and says I <3 Santa. Of course I had this vision of putting her in it with little leg warmers so I went ahead and picked some up from Etsy - they might be the cutest little things ever - I think all little kids should sport leg warmer, especially with faux fur :-) Doesn't Jenna look thrilled? She might never forgive me for this one

This past weekend, myself, Dan, and Andrea travelled down to Birmingham for a friends wedding. We had a great time and from what I hear Claire and Jenna were pretty spoiled spending the weekend Nana & Pipere.

The pictures you've all been waiting for

It's kind of hard to believe

Catching up once again

Sometimes I feel like I spend my life catching up, but nonetheless here we go....

In October Dans cousin got married in Ohio so we took a trip to Columbus. It was Jennas first flight and she did great. She slept both flights and Claire kept the flight attendants entertained. She actually entertained the whole plane while we were boarding and she yelled really loudly - but Daddy the lady in front of me won't move! But that was better than when she asked a woman at the wedding if she had a baby in her belly...Anyways, Claire and her cousin Gretchen were flower girls and, besides looking beautiful, they did great!

Gretchen and Claire took different roles walking down the aisle. They both walked but Gretchen made it rather quickly and Claire took her time stopping at about every pew to hand out flowers. Dan eventually came behind to hurry things along, but at least they both made it down the aisle and no one freaked out. Jenna behaved herself and enjoyed her first time with a babysitter while we took Claire to the reception.
Meet the Snider grandchildren - Jenna, Claire, Gretchen (4), Benjamin (1.5 months), and Savannah (1.5 years)
While most people who read this blog spent Halloween trying to stay warm without power, Claire and Jenna got dressed up and enjoyed trick or treating. We went to a friends condo building and walked the halls which was nice because we stayed warm. Both girls had parties at school and got to wear their costumes there too - Claire is Belle and Jenna is a cupcake.
Jenna is getting bigger and bigger everyday. Not sure where the time is going, but she is growing up before our eyes. Developmentally, she is grabbing at things and rolling over from side to side. She doesn't like to play with any one thing for too long and she goes between her exersaucer, the bumbo, and playing on the floor. She has started making a lot more sounds and is generally a happy baby. She is taking (4) 6 oz bottles and sometimes a 4 oz bottle somewhere in the middle. The time change messed her up for a few days and I think she working through her tired period and caught her second wind once it was bedtime. We had a few nights where she didn't go down until after 9. Her normal bedtime is 8PM and she sleeps until I wake her up to feed her at 6 and then goes back down until Dan wakes her up around 7. Her napping is all over the place and she tends to take quick cat naps with the exception of one longer nap late in the morning. And while I'm rambling I'll add in that I believe Jenna will have Mommy's hazel eyes. Time will tell
One of my favorite things is watching Claire and Jenna interact. Claire listens to everything we say while tending to Jenna. She repeats it all in context and takes excellent care of her sister. Jenna watches every move Claire makes. She stares at her and just giggles and laughs. No one can make Jenna laugh like Claire can :-)
Daddy took Jenna for her 6 month appointment and she weighed in at 12 lb 10oz (below 5th %) and 24.5 inches (5-10%) She is very close to sitting up on her own - right now she stays upright for a bit before falling over - she is way ahead of Claire on this milestone. And can you tell Jenna loves the bath?
At 6 months the doctor gave us the OK to start rice cereal - Jenna is not so sure about it, but in the 3 times she has had she has gotten much better each time.
Now we are looking forward to heading to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. Please join us on Saturday, November 26th for Jennas Baptism. The baptism will take place at St. Thomas church at noon followed by lunch at my parents. We're looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

It's Friends and Family Time

We are Robillards and you know we love a good deal. It seems like this is the friends and family time of year so I thought I would share some of the coupons that are out there.

40% off Ann Taylor and Loft - November 10th - 13th
30% off Gap, GapKids, etc... - through November 13th
20% off Kohls - November 17th - November 20th
25% off Crazy 8 - through November 13th

Happy Shopping!!

Christmas?

Greetings from Sunny California!

In attempting to make travel arrangements and plans for the remainder of the year...has there been any thought as to when we are doing the Robillard Christmas?