I know...sorry we've been busy!

Ok - so I'm slacking. Sue me! April was a crazy crazy month and I am just now starting to relax...only to gear up for July and August which will prove to be chaos - but super fun. Anyway, I digress. On to the important stuff.

Jensen and I went to California for Easter and had a great time. Jensen met all of Grammy's friends at work, saw a bunch of relatives, and got to play at a super cool park. Oh yeah - and she got some early birthday presents.



Once we got home we were in birthday mode. Jensen had a fabulous birthday party! She had all her friends and family here and of course lots of cake!



Now we're just settling down from a very busy April. This past weekend was Mother's Day and Marc and Jensen spoiled me rotten. They got me a beautiful necklace with a charm with Jensen's name and birthday. I'm soooo lucky to have such a wonderful family.

Well, sorry it's been so long...hopefully I'll be back soon with walking news!

11 months

We've got a stander...and soon a cruiser! A few days after her amazing feat in the bathtub Jensen figured out how to stand EVERY WHERE! She pretty much does it all the time now and LOVES it! ha ha! She's also starting to get brave enough to move around. Especially when she sees mom's cell phone on the other side of the table. Talk about motivation!

Still working on the top four teeth...they come down, then go up, down and up. I hope she gets them before we leave for California but I am not holding my breath. I am sure she'll cut them on the plane and scream miserably the entire flight. I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst so that when we land I can say, "Oh, that wasn't so bad!"

I shall keep you all posted...but pray for us Tuesday evening!

Standing room only

She stands...or she did once and now still hasn't figured out how to do it again. Jensen has been trying to pull herself up on things, but is pretty much satisfied when she gets up on her knees and can see. However, yesterday during her bath (of all places) she figured it out and she was standing.



As you can see she was pretty proud of herself. Davis and Aggie were rather impressed too! She hasn't matched the feat yet but she sure is trying. She has been hampered by her growing upper teeth though. They have been bugging her all weekend and are slowly making their appearance.

But for now, we're biding our time until we're in for it. Soon she'll be walking...and then running - just in time for summer :)

Getting pretty good with this video stuff.

Here's another video for you all. Jensen and I were playing after dinner the other night and thought we'd share. I am thinking one of the next videos will be of her standing. She's starting to "crawl" in a downward facing dog position...hands and feet on the floor. She finds it very entertaining.

But for now you just get peek-a-boo with the curtains. Fun times at the Goodell house! I missed getting her royal fit on tape from the other night. I was trying to get some photos of her for her birthday invitation and she was NOT having it! She threw herself around and cried actual tears! Poor baby. She went down for a nap shortly thereafter! ha ha!

My baby is so smart!

"So, I know everyone says their kid is gifted...well I know that mine is." This is a Real Housewives of NY reference...not sure if y'all get it! If you get a chance to check it out on Bravo - Alex is a piece of work...especially how she feels about her kids. Anyway, Marc gets it. Ha ha. But it is the premise of my story today.

But I was amazed this morning about how much Jensen is understanding these days. She's really getting the "No" concept down which is great. But beyond that she knows what's going on. This morning we were playing and she started to rub her eyes so I asked her if she was ready for her bottle. She quickly looked to the couch where her bottle was in the cup holder, and then back at me. I said, "Let's have your bottle. Go get it." So she crawled over to the couch, got on her knees...realized she wasn't close enough to get to the bottle, got down crawled over a little and then got up again. She grabbed her bottle out of the cup holder and tried to put in her mouth. She was thwarted however by the top, but I was still so proud! She knew exactly where it was and how to get to it! She's a genius I tell you! Just kidding! No genius here, but definitely a little girl that's absorbing EVERYTHING around her!

TEN Months!

Wow. I know, I know. I keep saying how fast she's growing but it's so true! She's becoming a little girl...and it makes me long for her newborn days (not the 3:00 am feeding though!) when she was so soft and alert and was just discovering things. Of course, she's still discovering many things...like how to get herself unstuck from the bottom of her exersaucer, but you know what I mean!

We all got hit this last week and a half with daycare germs! Yuck...Jensen brought home a very nasty cold that we are all finally getting over. She is back to normal and Marc and I are almost there. Hopefully by this weekend we'll be as good as new.

Jensen is waving all the time now. In fact, she loves to wave to herself in the mirror in the car. She gets SO excited when she gets in her carseat and sees herself in the mirror. She starts to laugh and wave frantically. I don't think she realizes she's waving to herself but it gives her so much pleasure why burst her bubble?

Video!

Well time is going by so fast...it's unbelievable. We've just had our first Valentine's Day which was lovely and our first piece of cake. Which Jensen thought was most likely the most delicious thing she'd ever eaten! She demolished it...like mother like daughter huh?

Jensen is getting stronger every day - today she tried to pull up on the couch to get to my coffee and Saturday she mastered the task of going from crawling to sitting. Such a wonderful skill. So helpful in fact, it helped her hit her head on the coffee table at daycare :) I think we're going to have plenty of bumps and bruises for a while.

Anyway, I'm attempting a video today. I know I've promised for months and months but I finally did it. I loaded the correct software to my laptop and figured this out. This was taken last week of Jensen crawling through the house saying her most favorite "word" - "aga". Enjoy!

9 months...where did the time go?

Ok, so I didn't realize that I hadn't updated this in a while. Sorry! So we've got a lot to catch up on. Jensen is crawling...EVERY WHERE! She's on her knees and elbows but she jams! This morning she got on her hands and knees and actually moved forward a bit before face-planting into the carpet. So I think soon she'll be really crawling and I'll be burning more calories than ever! ha ha!

She's also gotten TWO teeth! She cut her first one about two weeks ago and is cutting her second right now. I actually think it broke through yesterday but she won't let me in there to see. But it feels like it. I can't believe she has two teeth!

AND, she's getting more hair. Now I know you will all think I'm crazy, but it's true. It's starting to grow in and I've actually had to brush it after baths because if I don't it dries funny. So there! Hopefully by her birthday you'll actually see it! I don't think we'll have a pony tail but at least we'll have a little to show off.

Last, but certainly not least...we think she's starting to talk. Now she babbles all the time..."mama" and "dada" and "baba" and whatever else crosses her lips are now being projected very loud (especially when she's not happy) all the time. BUT the past week or so we've noticed that she says "aga" when she sees Aggie (our dog). We thought it was a coincidence until last night. She was in her highchair and kept saying "aga" and looking down for the dog. I got her out and she started chasing Aggie around the kitchen yelling "aga! Aga!" It was crazy! I couldn't believe it. The amazing thing was that she didn't chase or call Davis "aga". Weird. So I called Marc and told him, we were so proud. Then this morning Marc runs into the bathroom and states "I swear, I walked in to get her and she said 'Hi Dada'. I'm not kidding!" He was SO excited! Now we shall see...I mean we've only just gotten her to wave bye-bye and hi but who knows! It's so exciting! I can't believe how big she's getting. These past few weeks (which you can obviously tell) she has developed so much and started doing more and more. What an amazing journey to watch.

So I put her new photos up although I think that everyone who reads this is also bombarded by the monthly email. Don't worry, those will subside at a year :) Then you'll have to read the blog...bwahahahahaha!!

We've got ourselves...a scooter!

The past week and a half Jensen has been working very hard on crawling. Up on the knees, get those arms up and then the minute she's ready to launch forward...face plant. So she's taken to the time honored army crawl. She is slithering around the house with great speed these days. It's so fun to watch her move around. She'll spot off-limits items such as a cell phone or a laptop and then there's no stopping her. She will do whatever it takes, scooting, half crawling, rolling, whatever to get there!

Of course this is a big change for me. I can't just put her on the floor and know that she'll be in that vicinity in 5 minutes. Nope. In a matter of one minute she could be in the next room! It's amazing how fast that little one gets around. The house is slowly being baby-proofed.

The magazines are now put up, the plugs covered, and the baby gate installed. Davis and Aggie aren't too pleased with the new found skill...not only are they now fun moving targets, but the baby gate is a little intimidating. Aggie, for one, thinks it's going to eat him so he runs through it at lightening speed. Davis is a little more relaxed about it, but still gets scared when it closes, hides his tail and goes running. We'll see how they really react when Jensen is even more mobile and their sanctuary of the couch or their beds is not an option any more! Bwahahahaha! They'll be in for it!

Happy New Year

Phew...man it was a lot of work getting through the holidays but here we are on the other side. 2009! I cannot believe it! It seems just like yesterday I was ringing in 2003 with my girlfriends - dancing on the bar and having a grand old time. Or ringing in 2004 with Marc and friends on the boat in the Bay. Now here we are...trying to make it until midnight! AND NOT EVEN DOING IT! We tried, we tried hard. But after a martini and sharing a bottle of wine...11:30 was just fine! We had a nice night in, and wanted to celebrate with Jensen at 6:00 pm but she slept through it, woke up, ate and went back to bed! Apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it??

Saturday night Jensen got to spend some time with Katie, who watches her during the day, while we went out on the town. It was Judy's 60th birthday and Rich got a limo and treated us all to a nice dinner. It was so fun! Of course the no driving for anyone helped with that! We had a great time until 7:15 Sunday morning when Jensen was up and ready to go! ha ha! But it was all worth it to see Judy's face when we presented her with her gift - 4 days of vacation this summer in beautiful Sun River! She was so surprised and so excited. We can't wait...although with the cold and the rain 6 months seems like an eternity!

Jensen is getting VERY close to crawling these days. Yesterday she managed to get on her knees and elbows for a bit and she even propelled herself forward! She is getting very frustrated that she can't move and flaps her arms and legs when on her tummy when she wants to get some where. Sooner or later she'll figure it out. In the mean time, we are putting up baby gates and removing some breakables from low reaching places. As much as I want her to crawl I know I'm going to be in a whole different world chasing her around. It's nice that I can let her down and know she'll at least be in the vicinity (she rolls and scoots to get around). But soon she'll be off and I'll be sweeping and vacuuming all the time!

Here are some photos from that last month. We had a fun month with Christmas in Pleasanton and getting everything ready. Jensen had a great time too. On New Years Day Santa visited her again giving her a new play house to play with. She finds it rather cool and is eager to crawl through the door...but right now she just swings it open and closed. We'll take what we can get I guess!

http://picasaweb.google.com/MarcandAmber/Jensen8Months?feat=directlink

You can also see them in the slide show on the left!

Happy New Year! Many wishes for a prosperous and happy 2009!