And she's off...

It is official... Jenna is now crawling. She has been doing one pace for a while now, but last night she did more consecutive steps. Then this morning it clicked for her. She realized that she can get from point a to point b on her own!

We had a fun night with her last night. Josh got home early and we were all hanging out on the floor playing with these little balls of hers that have objects floating inside of them. Josh would roll it to her and with my help she would roll it back to Josh. Josh is super excited with her hand-eye coordination as she would watch the ball rolling toward her and would reach out and stop it. Makes her daddy proud as he sees potential in her being an athlete. Even more fun for me was she was making a sound that was very close to "ball" as she was playing. SUCH AN AMAZING LITTLE GIRL!

Someone told me the funniest saying this week in regards to her crawling attempts. He said with your first you are so excited with every development and you encourage the crawling/walking. When the second one comes along and you notice these same things, you trip the little one to stop them from learning to crawl. By that point you realize how much things change once they can get around. Should make for some interesting stories to come.

A Tribute to all Mothers

So this week has been busy, tiring, and reflective. As I mentioned before Josh is out of town. One doesn't realize how much they need their partner until they are not there. Granted during the work week, I do most of the work with Jenna just because Josh is at work. But at least in the evenings Josh is usually here for a little bit of the time when Jenna is awake to help. Then once Jenna is in bed, my friend is there to talk with. So this is my little way of saying how much I miss Josh.

I digress though from my title. Here is my little tribute to all mothers and I reflected on this while taking care of Jenna. Yesterday, I was exhausted. It had been a long day, and I was counting down the minutes until I could put Jenna to bed. At 6:45 she was ready and I knew this because she was little miss cranky-pants. After an hour of sleeping she started crying out of no where. For some reason I didn't want to let her cry it out, so I went up to console her. When I opened the door to her room, Jenna was sitting up in her crib, tears were running down her cheeks, and she was just crying, "ma ma ma ma". I picked her up, changed her, gave her some Tylenol (she is cutting her second tooth) and sat down to rock her. Jenna snuggled into me and went to sleep. In that moment, I realized that regardless of how tired I am... how bad my day has been... there is a little person who just needs me. That my simple presence can bring comfort. That there is trust that I will be there for her no matter what. WOW! What a powerful moment. I realized that my mom, once upon a time did the same for me. Her mom did it for her. A mother's action are not always recognized nor appreciated, yet we continue to do them...because we love. Because we care. Because someone trusts in us. Because someone needs us. Because we are a mother.

So thank you to my mom for doing this for me. That you to Josh's mom for doing this for him. Thank you to our moms' and dads' moms for doing this for them. This circle of life is amazing and this is my brief moment to recognize, appreciate, and say thank you to it. Take care of each other and tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. Thank you for letting me be reflective.

Jenna Shea is 8 months old

Hi...I Jenna Shea...I 8 months old!

It is hard to believe that eight months have passed since Jenna was born. Even more amazing is how much she has developed. She is just about to crawl and yesterday was trying to pull herself up on the coffee table. We also played a new game when I went to get her out of her crib after her morning nap. She was just sitting up looking around. I would pop up from different sides of the crib and each time was greeted by a startle and giggle from Jenna. What a doll!

Josh has been out of town in Connecticut on business all week and I have been juggling Jenna and getting contract paperwork finalized with a client who lives 30-40 minutes South of us. A lot to juggle, but we are making it through.

A whole new phase...

(Here's Jenna at "The Motherboard"

also known as an exersaucer)

Well, we have now entered the next phase...Jenna can go from laying down to sitting upright all on her own. While this is amazing to watch her to do during the day, it was even more surprising Saturday morning to go get her out of bed and she was just sitting up babbling at everything in her room. Looks like we are going to have to lower her crib to the next setting. Before we know it she will be pulling up and standing in her crib.

Our weekend was great. We had a party Saturday night for Cinco de Mayo and Josh's colleagues. It was a lot of fun to all get together with everyone and their families. They all work so hard and it was nice to kick back. Good food, good drinks and good times. Jenna also was great. It used to be that Jenna would only let me hold her. While I love being a special part of her life, it is nice to see others get to enjoy holding her as well. She let Amy hold her the first half of the night. She ate dinner and then let Jenn hold her until it was bedtime. She is such an amazing kid!!!

Haley is her doggie and is one who can get giggles out of Jenna. Haley can sneeze, give kisses or hop around and Jenna just laughs. Our only challenge is that Haley sheds so much and Jenna doesn't understand that when she grabs Haley the consequence is a handful of hair. Ugh! This is part of why we are going to have Haley get a "summer shave". Should be interesting. I feel blessed to have 2 sweet girls!!!

The best Real Estate apprentice ever!

Jenna Shea Cowley is the best real estate apprentice ever. The past few weeks have been busy for me. I had 2 closings the Friday before I went out of town. Then last Wednesday I listed friend's home. Then Tuesday and yesterday, Jenna and I took a client (who we got as a referral from a friend of mine) out to look at homes. She is such a good sport and does so well when we are out and about. The ladies in my office think she is just the cutest thing and I have to agree. She even has good taste in homes as the only one she laughed in is the one my client just put an offer in on. I laugh that she will be the only kid in her Kindergarten class that will say. "Buy low. Sell high."