Upward Mobility

Things have really changed around the Winn house in the last few weeks, and I’m not just talking about Alixa’s continued weight loss. Jenna has gone from being a sedentary, easy-to-take-care-of, pleasant baby to a mobile, curious, get-into-things-and-cause-problems nightmare. Her transformation began slowly, as she learned to crawl but would only utilize that talent in short bursts to get things that she wanted, like a wallet or a binky or a cellphone. But last weekend we got some more visitors. This time it was Jason and Annie and their three smallfries. The youngest of those three is Luke, Jenna’s older cousin by five days. Luke has been crawling since the age of 2 weeks, give or take a few days, so he is pretty much a pro. And he thought it would just be heee-larious to show Jenna how to capitalize on her movement by getting into everything. In return she taught him how to sit up, a skill he now uses to watch his favorite shows.

Jenna, getting into stuff and not taking her nap

Jarom has been working a lot of odd hours the past few weeks, including the occasional overnight shift. It has been a good experience and he is learning a ton on the job, but it has caused some marital strife to seep into the home. You see, Alixa is under the impression that if Jarom isn’t at work, he is at her disposal. Ordinarily this is not a problem, but sometimes he gets sleepy and wants to take a nap if he was up all night working. She either doesn’t understand this or simply doesn’t care. But the end is in sight and soon enough he will be back to a regular 8-5 workday.

Lix has been quite a workhorse of late, finishing up her crown molding project in both the living room and dining room, and it looks great. Jarom has imposed a 30-day hiatus from other projects, so that the house can catch its breath. Next on the list is a paint job for the dining room and new vanities for the upstairs bathrooms.

Lix gave Jenna a ponytail. Jenna took it out, and then looked a little like Ace Ventura

Other than that it is a lot of silly baby stories around here. Alixa is becoming more and more of a mom, and has even started using the diaper bag as her “purse.” She was walking out the door the other day, leaving Jarom and Jenna behind and she had it draped over her shoulder. Jarom figured it was just habit, so he reminded her that she wasn’t taking the kidlet. After she told him it was her purse, he laughed and laughed, and made her feel very self-conscious about it.



Jenna amazes her parents every day with how smart she is, and seems to absorb everything around her. She is great at doing tricks, and can clap on command, give hugs and kisses, and Jarom’s personal favorite, play her “belly drum” anytime her bare midriff is exposed. Yesterday she surprised us with a new trick. Jarom has a putter and a golf ball that he often plays around with while watching TV. Jenna has apparently observed this and figured out that the two things go together, because whenever you give her the ball she will crawl to get the putter and then hit the ball with it. It amazed Jarom that she had made that connection and it is also pretty cute. He was lucky enough to get a decent video of it. Hope you like it.

Real Crawling

Some people said Jenna's last crawling video was not real crawling. Well, we

have been working on it, and its still a bit wobbly, but here you go. Jenna's "real"

crawling.

Pooday

This post is about poo. You have been warned...

Thursday morning started out like any other day in the Winn household. Jarom got up early and went to work, and Jenna and I got up around 8:00. We played for a little while, and then Jenna ate some breakfast. Then we played a little bit more and I decided, rather foolishly, that I would give Jenna a bath a bit early because we both weren’t feeling well, and I was hoping she would take a nap early so that I could also take a nap. We both have been suffering from colds lately, and I take any opportunity I can to sleep. Anyway, I usually wait until after Jenna’s morning poo to put her in the tub because it is just a good segue, but today I wasn’t thinking and put her in early. As I have mentioned before, Jenna is on a very regular schedule, and this includes all aspects of her life, including her poo schedule. So, I put Jenna in the tub and she is having a grand old time splashing and making a general mess of the bathroom when she gets real quiet and her face turns purple like she is pushing real hard. This alone is sign enough that she is working on something and then I see little bubbles coming up from her bum. I think, oh crap, she is pooing in the tub again. I hate cleaning poo out of the tub because it is so annoying to clean and disinfect everything. So I try to distract her so I can at least get her out of the tub but no such luck. Little floaters have already appeared. So I pull her out real quick, drain the water and put a diaper on her so she can finish her business. After she was all dressed for the day, I went back to clean up the mess. I pulled out all the poo and disinfected everything and I thought I was done. So I walk back to Jenna’s room to play with her when I noticed something didn’t feel right on my toe. Well, I guess I must have dropped a piece, or Jenna had a dangler or something, because there was poo on my big toe and I hadn’t noticed and tracked it all down my brand new white carpet. I was so ticked and by this point Jenna is getting fussy. So I shove a binky in her mouth and start to clean up the hallway too. Well I get it done and think about how my day had been super eventful and it wasn’t even 9 am yet. But it was done and I continued on with the rest of my day and everything went normal again…

Until around 3 in the afternoon when I caught Jenna doing her purple face grunting thing again. So I picked her up and went to her room to change yet another poopy diaper. Well, this one was a bit runny, so it went up her back. I didn’t notice it had gone up her back and I laid her on her changing table, which has a cute little cover for the pad. It got poo all over the pad and all over her clothes. I don’t know if any of you have ever tried to take care of a poo up the back diaper by yourself, but it is hard. You have to juggle the baby, getting the clothes off without getting poo everywhere, get the diaper off, and wipe, all without letting anything poopy touch anything else. Anyway, I failed miserably. So I get everything off, but now I have poop all over my hands and a poopy diaper that didn’t stay in the diaper to dispose of and poo on the changing table and I didn’t know where to put the baby while I was taking care of all this. Oh, and I hadn’t put a new diaper on Jenna yet, because I had poo all over my hands. So I stand her up holding on to some furniture while I wash my hands. I had just finished when I hear something wet hitting the brand new white carpet. That’s right, Jenna had peed all over. That one was my fault for not putting the diaper on her, but I really had poo everywhere. So, I put a diaper on her, get everything cleaned up and took a deep breath. It’s a good thing she is so stinkin’ cute, otherwise I would not love her anymore.

Parting Ways

This weekend two hospitals in Richmond went live with the electronic medical record system that Jarom has been building at work, so he hasn’t been around much. Ordinarily this would thrill Alixa, but she and Jenna have both been quite sick, so it hasn’t been the happiest week ever. But there were some significant events. On Saturday the family took a trip to Lowes (I can’t remember the last time Saturday happened without a trip to Lowes. Or Friday. Or Wednesday. You get the point.) This time they came home with a shiny new red lawnmower. This was long overdue, as the lawn was in dire need of a mowing. And by lawn I mean the dandelion patch where our house was built. But hey, weeds need to be kept up too, right? Unfortunately, they had a little trouble starting it after getting it out of the box. As Jarom always does when he has a question about something mechanical, he called his second dad, Jimbo. Not only was Jim able to diagnose and solve the problem in about two seconds, he was also able to do so within sight of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, where he was conducting some business (Jim sells small arms to international terrorists.) It was pretty cool to hear, and made Jarom more than a little jealous as he surveyed the meager boulders in his back yard.

Assorted pictures of Jenna

Even though the yard was seriously overgrown, the real reason that they had to buy the mower was that Jarom needed a new shiny red thing to replace his beloved motorcycle Roxy. That’s right, after four years Jarom finally parted ways with his long-time primary mode of transportation. Now that we have two cars, it just didn’t make much sense to keep it. It was a tough decision to make, because he really loves riding it, but with all the home projects Lix has on her list we could sure use a few extra bucks. The most unfortunate part of it all was that Roxy’s new owner is a girl. Sadly, Jarom has been riding a girl bike. It isn’t that he didn’t know that the bike was small and a starter bike, those are the reasons he bought it in the first place. But it still hurts the ego a little bit.

You will be missed

The other big event of the week was Jenna’s decision to finally start crawling. This is long overdue, and I am almost embarrassed to even mention it since her cousins of the same age are basically already driving and doing advanced mathematics, but the video that Lix shot of it is pretty cute and I wanted to put it up here. We don’t think she is going to crawl very much though, because she already seems reasonably close to walking, and she is far more interested in practicing that by walking around the coffee table than she is in crawling on the ground. I guess this goes back to her snooty attitude. She also won’t feed herself. In fact, if you put food in front of her and she is hungry, she will hand the food to you and open her mouth, waiting for it to be shoveled down her gullet. Maybe she has learned how to read the sign that hangs above her crib and really believes that she is a princess. I’m sure it will only get worse from here.

Jenna waving to the camera on one of her laps around the table

I think it's cute that she tries to clap for herself afterwards. Even her clap is prissy.

The Others

It’s been a few weeks since my last update, but I swear I have a good excuse – the house has been overrun with visitors and I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything. But the dust is finally settling, so I’ll recap.

The craziness began the Sunday before Easter with the arrival of Alixa’s family, who came to town to celebrate spring break (Woohoo!) with Mikah and her new boytoy Sterling. After church Jarom swung by Nate’s house to pick up their inflatable mattress and set up Jenna’s room and my room for guests. Jenna had to return to her pack and play at the foot of mom and dad’s bed. The visitors got a late start and didn’t arrive until the wee hours of the morning, at which point they all stumbled to their assigned sleeping places and crashed. Monday morning Jarom headed off to work while Alixa and Mario began their family-bonding project, which consisted of installing crown molding in the living room. This was a first for both of them, and there was some confusion about the size of the nails used by the nail gun, so it was slow going at first. Jarom got home around 5:30, and the room was roughly 20% completed. After a few more hours of work, the decision was made to expand the project to include the dining room. This meant a trip to Lowes to get more crown molding. Fortunately, Tuesday went much faster, thanks to some appropriately sized nails and the experience of Sterling, who wasn’t around on Monday. The crew finished the living room and dining room in just a few hours, leaving Alixa with enough time to take Jenna to the doctor for her nine month shots before hitting the road northward to visit the nation’s capitol.

Jarom left some Chipotle chips out for the neighbors. Of course they loved them. Who wouldn't?

Alixa was born outside of DC and lived there until age 7, which means that there are people who live there that are good friends with her parents and vaguely remember her. Nobody wanted to carry Jenna (who now weighs around 20 lbs) around DC all day Wednesday, so Gramma Nancy agreed to drive to Baltimore and pick her up for a 36-hour babysitting session. In keeping with the tradition of giving Jenna to Nancy in all of the worst conditions, the little girl was miserable from her shots and a little bit sick. She seemed to do okay, but did not get any good naps or sleep much Tuesday or Wednesday nights.

Sterling and Bogan

Jenna making friends with the Pit Bull

The Hegewalds

In Washington, Lix and family got to see all of the sights, including a sighting of the Obama motorcade and a VIP tour of the Capitol building courtesy of cousin Kyle. The cherry blossoms were in bloom, which made for a wonderful day that everyone enjoyed. That evening Jenna was retrieved and Jarom’s girls got back around 11:00 pm, which is just a tad past Jenna’s bedtime. Thursday was a short day at work for Jarom, because it was Good Friday Eve and he works for a Catholic Hospital. He took advantage of this free time and went to play nine holes of golf with Mario and Lix. The weather was perfect. They put Jenna down for a nap before they left at 4:30, giving PJ instructions to feed her dinner when she awoke. She never did. Apparently she decided that she wanted to catch up on all the sleep she had missed, so she snoozered right on through til morning, when she got up at 8 for breakfast, and then promptly when right back to sleep until 11:30. That’s right, she slept for 19 hours, with about a 30-minute pit stop in the middle.

Asian Jenna vs. American Jenna

On Good Friday the Hegewalds all went to Williamsburg, where they were charmed by the quaint 1700’s era village and got to witness several reenactments of various historically significant events. They also found a teahouse where they could enjoy scones and other such pastries while drinking and pointing their pinkies. The overall review was that it was neat, but maybe not worth an entire day. I think they were all a little tired of walking tours by the end of it. Jarom had been there several times as a grade-schooler, and decided that he would rather hang out with his daughter all day, so he stayed in Richmond. They slept in together, and then ran some errands, which were highlighted by the four donkeys that they found at a local church. They stopped to see them and Jenna was beyond excited and very curious about what must have seemed like the biggest, furriest dogs she had ever seen.

You are not allowed to leave Williamsburg without this picture

I guess parade security in the 18th century is pretty lax

Enjoying some tea, and apparently champagne

Saturday morning began with a round of golf for Mario, Lix, and Jarom. While they were gone there was an emergency involving Mikah, Sterling, and PJ all being unable to figure out how to assemble a bottle for Jenna (Answer: start by matching up the brand names that are on the bottle with the one on the nipple.) Saturday afternoon everyone took naps, and in the evening they played some tennis and went to Applebees for some eatin good. Alixa cooked up a wonderful Easter dinner with her mom, highlighted by a Honey Baked Ham. After they left there was some vacuuming, 6 or 7 loads of laundry to wash all the sheets and towels, and a boatload of dishes to be done. Jenna went back to her room, and the house was quiet once again.

She likes to burrow, and LOVES her white doggy (as yet unnamed)

Until Tuesday morning. That’s when Nancy, Jamie, Haley, Loni, Alli, Madison, and Taya arrived. So Jenna was back in with mom and dad, I had to share my room again, and Jarom returned to Nate’s to once again borrow the air mattress. The sheets and dishes piled up again, but it was fun to have the families around to play with and enjoy the nice weather. Mario was in charge of doing the crown molding with Alixa, and Nancy had a job to do as well. Together with Lix she painted Jenna’s room and made it into a very respectable nursery. I’m told that they painted three walls “Brittany’s Bow” and one wall “Heart’s Desire”, but I’m fairly certain that it is pink (3) and red (1). But it looks great. The Winn contingency only stayed for two nights, and it is once again quiet and the house is free of air mattresses and my room is free of guests. It is sure wonderful to live close to family, but I sometimes think it would be even more wonderful if they would space their visits out just a hair.

This is in the Capitol building. Kyle said that he wanted it up. My money is on that snake.

Tomorrow Jarom starts working 12-hour shifts at the hospitals that are implementing the electronic medical record system that he is building, so he’ll be even more of an absentee father than he usually is. Enjoy the Masters.