Squeaky Squeak Squeaker Squeaken

Jenna can rarely be seen these days without her bunny hat and mittens.

There is a new sound around the Winn household: squeaking. Recently Alixa and Kenz took the kiddos to the children’s museum and saw a little girl there wearing some shoes that squeaked when she walked. This reminded Lix that she had purchased a pair of these shoes some 6 months ago. At the time they were far too large for little Jenna, and actually scared her when they squeaked and made her cry, but Jenna has grown up a lot since then so she pulled them out to give it another try. This video is basically the first time that Jenna tried them on.

You might think that she would get tired of the novelty of the squeaks, but you would be wrong. Every time Jarom and Lix let her wear them, Jenna makes every step as deliberately as possible so as to get the maximum volume out of her shoes. She also has no concern for the feelings of those around her. So when baby Bo had a craving for PF Changs the other day Jarom had to make sure and carry her to their table so that everyone else’s dinner wouldn’t be interrupted by the sounds of little squeaker.

This was Jenna's first car cart experience at the grocery store. She loved it and it prevented the other shoppers from wanting to throw her shoes away.

We did have a few days of beautiful weather last weekend, with temperatures climbing up into the 60’s and 70’s. So Jarom got to go play a few holes of golf and Jenna got to spend more time running around outside. Perhaps in part because of her new shoes, Jenna has taken to jumping everywhere she goes, instead of walking. She also enjoys narrating it as she goes. So in case the repetitive thumping coming from the other room doesn’t give it away, you will also hear Jenna saying “jumping, jumping, more jumping!”

Sadly, the warm weather has left us, and when the chilly temps came back so did Jenna’s sniffles. She’s had a little bit of a fever and it has made it tough for her to sleep well at night. The family took a trip to Sam’s club to get some groceries, and as they were walking around Jarom noticed that even her squeaking had become sad. The poor kid just didn’t have the energy to put any emphasis on her steps. But I’m sure she’ll be back to her old self in no time. But for the moment, we are trying to be extra nice to her, increasing her daily allotment of The Lion King from half a movie a day to the whole thing. She sure loves her Siba.

Lix had an experience with Jenna that she wanted to share, so I’ll let her wrap this post up-

Jenna is a very picky eater. She likes maybe five real person foods, and still eats baby food for at least one meal a day. I think she just cant handle new textures. I blame this on the fact that she has never put anything in her mouth. Even when she was a baby, nothing went into her mouth. I thought it was great then, but I have realized this is how babies eat new foods. She also has a VERY sensitive gag reflex, and just putting something foreign in her mouth makes her puke. Not just gag, but puke. It is a disgusting mess.

Well, the other day, I was talking to my dad and he said that we needed to be better about getting her to eat better foods. He said to bribe her with something good to eat. Now, I have read that this is bad, but I decided that he is right. She is 20 months old and at this rate will be eating baby food in preschool. So last week, we started. We told her she couldnt get up from her high chair until she had at least one bite of what we were eating for dinner. She was doing so well! You may have read about the meat loaf. That was very exciting. She also had some chicken and stuffing on Sunday and was doing very well. It was still only a bite, but she was trying it and not puking. So, we tried again last night. I found the smallest blueberry I could find and cut it into quarters. We are talking the smallest bits of blueberry you have ever seen in your life. We told her she couldnt get up until she had one bite. Well, she sat there for about 20 minutes and didnt even touch it. We tried singing, we tried bribing with oreos and peanut butter eggs and every other good thing we could think of. But nothing. Then she started to cry, but this was not a battle I was going to lose. So she sat sobbing in her high chair for another 25 minutes while I did the dishes. I kept telling her she could get up as soon as she ate just one small bit of blueberry. I even tried putting her in front of the tv to watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse to maybe distract her. But she just watched and cried and ate no blueberries. Finally, I decided to sneak one in while her mouth was open. Big mistake. I guess maybe because she was still crying and so upset she immediately spit it out and still puked! Just the thought of having it in her mouth made her throw up. So then I gave up on the blueberry. By this time it was her bed time but she hadnt had any dinner yet. So I tried to give her her noodles, but she wasnt having any of that either. So finally, I broke down and gave her some baby food. I may be a mean momma, but I'm not heartless. I wasnt going to make her go to bed hungry. She immediately opened her mouth and ate all of her baby food saying "yummy" after every bite. She was so worn out from 45 minutes of sobbing about the stupid blueberry, she went down extra easy for bed. The next day she woke up with a fever and was sick, so now I am thinking maybe that was the problem. Maybe one day she will eat real food, but I'm not holding my breath.

Jenna's sad puffy face after the blueberry incident

Mr. Fox

Most people do not like aging. Well, that’s not entirely true. Most people wish that they were older until they reach a certain age, usually somewhere in the low to mid 20’s, and then spend the rest of their mortal existence looking back longingly on the days when they were fit, strong, full of energy and life, and with a world of hope and promise laid out in front of them. Well, Alixa just keeps distancing herself from that point in time. On Groundhog Day she began her 27th year. For her birthday dinner Courtney Bleyl offered to babysit both Jenna and Kenna so that all four parents could have a nice meal at the Outback, one of Alixa’s favorite places. That night her mom arrived. She had decided to visit to celebrate Lixi’s birthday and attend the baby shower that the nice people in the ward were throwing for her. The weekend was filled with lots of eating out and getting presents, and little Bo now has more clothes than he’ll be able to wear for the first few months of his life.

Jenna made this arrangement of her animals. You can tell that Alixa took the photo because the camera strap is in the frame. Ansel Adams she is not.

Jenna also seems to be aging at an unbelievable pace. She has started walking up and down the stairs “big girl” style, which means not on her hands and knees. And she gets very upset if you try to carry her up or down, going so far as to insist that you take her back so that she can do it herself. She has also progressed significantly in her talking, and now strings sets of words together. She is getting better at speaking clearly, and is quite patient when her parents don’t understand what she is saying and she has to try and explain it to them. She very much enjoys practicing, and will repeat things that people say, especially in songs. Lix takes her and Kenna to a singing group every Tuesday and they are both learning the words to lots of songs.

As you watch this video, keep in mind that we are still working on her counting ability and request that you be patient with us.

There was also a small milestone in Jenna’s eating today. Lix made some meatloaf for dinner and Jenna was told that she could not leave her highchair until she had a bite of it. It took about 20 minutes, but finally she wanted to get down so bad that she decided to try it. She seemed to like it, but not enough to take another bite. Alixa could not have been happier.

We also had our first experience of “trying to teach your kid a word and it comes out as profanity” today. Jenna has a puzzle with a number of barn animals on it, and outside of the hen house there is a fox. X is a hard sound to make, because you have to combine the K and the S sounds into one. So I guess Jenna just decided that once she makes the K sound she is done, saying fok instead of foks. I am sad to say that as soon as Jarom realized what was happening he began laughing hysterically, which only encouraged Jenna to repeat the word over and over. For the moment, fox seems to be one of her favorite words and we have irrefutable evidence that Jarom is a bad person.