For the Love of Kitties

Jessica, like many of her young friends, is enamored with cats. I see from her photos and videos as a baby, we only encouraged that love by owning such a soft, friendly, pretty, entertaining animal like our Smokey.

Jessica sure is a bald, cooing, adorable six-month-old chunk of baby goodness as she feels kitty kisses and grabs his tail.

And here, at ten months old, Jessica laughs like a maniac at Smokey trying to swipe a toy.

If Jessica's attention gets to be too much, Smokey hides, boxes her, or gives her a warning nibble to stop her from smothering him. Sometimes she acts like she's learned her lesson, sometimes she just asks for it. (Here, Jessica is using Smokey's favorite sleeping chair to watch cartoons, so I'm pleased they're sharing.)

That's where stuffed kitties come in: they can take all the toddler love and never complain. Like 'Alice', a mechanical kitty Jessica got when she was 2 months shy of her second birthday:

Just last Thanksgiving at Dave's parents house in Houston, she discovered 'Baby Kitty'. She carried it around so much, Grandma Robertson gifted it to us. I named him Jellybeans, after his nose and his plastic bean stuffing. She was three months from her third birthday. On the way home we entertained ourselves by photographing Baby Kitty in funny poses.

Baby kitty was her newest favorite stuffed friend. 

Jessica's birth mom Tegan crocheted this kitty, named 'New Year's Kitty', 'Daddy Kitty' or 'Snowball'. Tegan has a soft spot for felines, too, so Jessica was doomed through nature and nurture to be partial.

For her birthday Grandma Eyring gave her 'Alby' (left), which she renamed 'Twilight' after a friend's cat, who is the grandpa in the kitty family. She spent her gift money from her Robertson great grandparents on 'Sparkly Kitty' aka 'Crazy Eyes' aka 'Mama Kitty'. We gave her the vet kit to care for all her growing menagerie.

So for her third birthday, what else could we do, except throw her a kitty party? I burned a whole CD of cat songs I entitled "Kitty Ditties" for her, which she loves to listen to, the most popular numbers being "Cat Flushing a Toilet", "Smiley Cat", "Meow Meow Ringtone", and "Kitty in a Basket".

Her newest hobby is using my camera to take pictures of her cats, at her desk, sleeping in her bed, and

apparently, showing solidarity in sickness and health. Jessica woke up with a sore neck one day, and spent 3 days watching a lot of movies and drinking cherry-flavored pain-killer. One time I found she had put little fuzzy hairbands around the necks of her plastic kitties, so they could match. Silly, silly kitty-crazed girl!

A Whole Month's Worth of Posts

I've been busy working with my congregation for our 3rd annual Nativity Experience for the community (nativityexperience.blogspot.com). I work on it every day, so I'm behind on Jessica's blog. So I'm warning you: this is a long entry.

This October, with high temperatures still in the 80's, we got a visit from Dave's old lab buddy from University of Texas and his new wife. They had just finished a cruise, and since one of their adventures got rained out, we went snorkeling here in Jupiter. 

I drug Ruth along for some letterboxing, since there are 2 hidden near the inlet. (One I still can't find.) Jessica played and napped, and Dave kept his cell phone out of the water.

Apparently it was jellyfish day at DuBois Park. About 7 people were stung by some bad, unseen jellyfish, including a little kid all over his body (he was OK after a vinegar spray), and Dave and Jay got a little zapped when they were snorkeling in the inlet.

There were also some harmless comb jellies, less than 4 inches long. They have rainbow lights along the edges and we picked some up in our hands. If you look close you can see tiny orange, green, and purple lights.

On Conference weekend, Jessica went to the hospital. She had had a 102 fever for a week, and the doctors decided it wasn't teething, ear infections, or viral, so they took some blood and urine tests and gave her antibiotics. The next day her white blood cell count was HIGHER, not lower, so they sent her to the hospital as a precaution and for more tests. Her only other symptom was sleeping more, and probably peeing less, although we didn't notice it.

It turned out all she had was a urinary tract infection, but those results didn't come for days. In the mean time, the hospital came up with all sorts of creative tests to figure out why her white blood cell count was higher than a UTI would indicate.

We were just along for the ride the first few days. We found out Jessica's veins are hard to tap, and I couldn't stand to see her hurt, so Dave held her. She didn't like her left arm tied up to an IV, but she figured out how to wriggle some fingers out of the tape and use just her right hand. She perked back up with fluids and antibiotics, and soon acted like she was just there for fun. She had a hightech crib and a gold star helium balloon and lots of attention. Dave and I stayed with her 24 hrs for 4 days, until the last night, when she was back to her 12-hr sleep schedule: we broke down, went out to eat, then slept at home.
  

By this time, to make a long story short, we were getting tired of waiting, testing, and the parade of doctors. A misdiagnosis of pneumonia didn't help. They wanted one more test, but I wasn't buying it. I stayed up two nights for hours reading medical information online, and we discussed it. We decided to check her out. And she is just fine so far--happy and healthy. We learned a LOT about when to trust the doctor and when to trust our instincts. We appreciated the attentive care she did get and the blessings of technology.

OK, back to the fun stuff! Jessica, in the last month, has learned a lot. After self-feeding only crackers for 2 months, she finally figured out pincher grasp and started getting Cheerios in her mouth. Hooray for self-feeding babies!

She can't pick up those slippery fruits, so we tried this game one day:

She also likes to try drinking from a cup (no love for the sippie, yet)  . . . 

. . . and last week I came in after her nap to see had she sat up on her own. 

She gets on her knees sporadically, so this is my best picture. We cheer every time she does, so she knows she's doing something good. Now if she's on carpet, she can move forward to get toys. It's more of a kneel-flop forward-kneel-flop forward procedure so far. She can sit up and lay down at will now, and we are so proud. 

She is wandering farther from where we put her down, and so pleased with herself!

She's learned to drum, and babbles all the time. She says "dadadadada" all the time, occasionally says something with "k" when she sees Smokey, and knows how to say "MA!" randomly, but we're not counting anything as words yet. She knows when we ask her a questions she's supposed to say something back, and when we are telling her the name of what she has in her hand.

A friend of mine watched Jessica while I did the sound checks for Nativity. Jessica  babbled "dadada", and their family dog ran to the door thinking that their "dad" was home from work!

But she has her bad moments. She's learned to pitch fits: throwing her head back, leaning to the right, grabbing her right ear, and wailing like she's dying. But you put Cheerios on her tray and the tears suddenly evaporate. She poops in her bath, pinches us, and tries her best to jump from high places. But not too often. It all melts away when she leans forward to kiss us without being asked.

Here's a clip of me trying to secretly film her doing her new "evil laugh". I was trying to only video her from the waist up since she was taking her bath. (Now we know why she does that evil laugh in the tub!) The bathtub surprise we caught on tape made me laugh too, but disgusts Dave. We've talked seriously about early potting-training techniques . . . 

Dave is training Jessica young to root for the family alumni college football teams . . .

and Mommy spent several hours sewing a biblical costume for Jessica's first Christmas.

And there's lots of time for laughing; at anything that comes near her chin:

And the cat, of course:

Jessica Lately

I apologize for the big gaps between posts. We traveled a lot this summer, and are looking forward to a lot of time at home for the rest of the year. I have so many things I want to do, and there are so many pictures it's intimidating to tackle.

Jessica turned six months on Aug 28, 2010. She is bigger than 97% or more of her peers for height, weight, and head circumference. And on Sept 14, with a runny nose and a smile, her first tooth appeared. I was at the church with some other women, setting up for sewing night (for our Nativity pageant in December). I stopped to feed her some squash & oatmeal for lunch, and I saw she had a little tooth peeking out of her lower gum, and another about to come up next to it, and I flipped out! She runs her tongue over it, and of course, chews on everything.

It's hard to see her tooth in this picture, but it's the best of about 50 pictures.

Jessica is getting much better about sitting up. And she still loves baths.

Most evenings, Dave still pops her in the umbrella stroller for a walk . She tans nicely. This night though he took her swimming.

After working 40 extra hours last month, Dave took Friday off before Labor Day weekend. He was so excited to play with Jessica in the water, he forgot about the cell phone in his pocket. Oops. Good thing it was old. We were in too good a mood with a 4-day weekend in front of us it didn't "dampen" our spirits. And we actually caught this moment of brilliance on camera:

I'm just as glad his brain got a rest--he works so hard. Below is a non-swimming visit to the beach a month ago.

Jessica stares at us when we eat. She and Smokey are good beggars. Dave wants to feed her everything, and I spoil the party. "No toast; it has butter on it." "No box rice; too much salt." I'm fairly certain he slips her a lot of food when I'm not looking. She can hold her own bottle, and gnaw on biter biscuits, but she can't pick up Cheerios yet. That's another milestone I'm looking forward to.

Dave is excited for college football season. He insisted getting both BYU and Univ. of Texas longhorn baby clothes, which I'm sure will get good mileage with future kids. I asked him, "In 2011 when BYU & UT play each other, will you be rooting for the Lord's school or worshipping the golden calf?" We laughed. We like watching sports--we enjoyed watching the US Tennis Open this weekend.

She still gets called the Gerber baby once a week, and her fat cheeks and thighs attract lots of attention, with reassurances it will come off as she grows. I love dressing her. Thanks to all those who donated to this cause: after 10 years of waiting, clothing and caring for this little doll makes me terribly happy. And when she's cranky, I'm terribly happy I've got a husband who loves her too.

This is by far her girliest outfit, and although I got some good smiley pictures, I want to include some realism. "Darn prickly grass! Church was fun, but I need a nap! Pick me up now!" "Gladly child. I want a nap too, and it's too hot outside to take pictures."

And she is getting AROUND. She rolls and reaches and rolls some more. When she cries, I know it's time to rescue her because she's scooted backwards, away from her toys, and underneath the furniture where she can't roll over. She is so wiggly she needs a toy to distract her during diaper changes, and loves rough-housing and happy screaming. When I push her in the shopping cart, she can raspberry so well she sprays me with spit, even at arm's length. I'm bad because I encourage it; it is funny.

She likes it when I play with her ears or sing her favorite songs. She likes other people and loves little kids. She opens her mouth like she's singing opera when we she sees a spoon full of food. She loves paper, fuzzy and noisy toys, books, and especially our kitty. She gets the giggles when she sees herself in the mirror or dogs, which always gives her hiccups. What a goon.

I had a happy realization a few days ago when I saw her on her stomach, reaching for something higher than her head. It was a precursor to pulling herself up on furniture, then walking. I've seen her figure out lots of things, and reach all these milestones, and it culminated in this thought: "This girl can learn. She is going to grow up and have a happy, normal childhood, and life." I figured that before, but now I am just really happy for her.

What a good kid. That's all for today.

Too too fun

Jessica and Smokey have discovered each other. Here Smokey is purring up a storm, and Jessica giggled while she pet him, but I just couldn't get a video of it. Smokey loves licking Jessica's oatmeal off the floor, and she'll watch him walk around now.