Crocodile Rock!

The best part of my day by far today was singing and dancing with Jenna today after lunch. For some reason she has been digging our old Elton John CD. From "Rocket Man" to "Tiny Dancer" she will sing the words with me, but her favorite so far is "Crocodile Rock" with the la-la-la-la-la part being her favorite line. Today we sang and danced around the family room to this and it was the best part of my day! She is so much fun these days.

Just to catch you up on things

Here's Jenna in one of her favorite bathing suits, or should I say "Babing suit".



We have now entered the age of bubble baths. Let me tell you that California Baby Bubble bath for Overtired and Cranky kids is amazing. The product is completely natural with no harsh chemicals and it smells great. Once this kid hits a bubble bath she is a new girl. Just what the doctor orders for a cranky kid!

We now have now discovered the simply delicious sloppy joe! (We do use Manwich as the sauce, but it is more fun to say sloppy joe.) Every time we have them for dinner, mommy sings the line from Adam Sandler's song "Lunch lady land" that refers to sloppy joes.

Where to begin since it has been a long time since I last posted...

The weekend of July 12th Josh & I traveled to Savannah to be a part of Josh's best friend Keith's wedding while Jenna stayed with my folks. Josh served as best man and did a fabulous job despite all of the mishaps. You know the old saying anything that can go wrong will....that was the motto of this wedding weekend. Even with all of the challenges it was nice to be able to share this special weekend with our good friend.

The next weekend I got together with 6 of my college friends, Cameron, Margaret, Amy, Adriane, Jackie, and Elizabeth, to meet the latest addition to our crew Caroline Penelope Harkness, who is Margaret's new baby girl. It was so great getting to see the girls, talk and spend time together. It is crazy that we have now known each other for 12 years, but amazing that we are all still close 8 years after graduation.

We have since been juggling life and Jenna who is getting even more active. She is really into running these days and will just run everywhere in addition to saying "Daddy running" or "Mommy running" as her way of telling you to run with her. She also has been into singing and dancing lately.

A special dedication

It never cease to amaze me how much technology can keep us connected. First email was a great thing because you could quickly and easily email friends and family to stay in touch. Now there are blogs. They are such a great way to keep connected to folks and know what's going on in their lives. I use them to stay connected to friends and their families. I know that our family uses ours to keep up with our antics. I think it is so neat that my grandparents all the way in Oregon check in on our blog to see what we are up to. This entry is a special dedication to them. They just sold their home and are exploring options on what type of place they want to move into next. Even with all of the craziness in their own life, they still keep up with the Cowley blog.

This post is to say that I love you Grandma and Grandpa. I wish we saw each other more, but I am glad you get to watch Jenna grow up through this blog. Mom told me about how you have been thinking about all of your great grandchildren. Your head count was up to 13 but then it moved up to 14 since my cousin Mark and his wife are having a baby in October. Then the count moved up to 15 since Clay and Nicole are expecting a baby in January. What a blessing to have such a big family and that you have taken the time to meet all of your great grandchildren. Well, I was running through all of the great grandkids in my head trying to count them and I think the count is 16. Yes, I think it will be 16 because JOSH and I ARE HAVING A BABY TOO!!! We're pregnant and expecting our little addition in January. So were are bumping your total up to lucky 16! I was trying to think of a way to share the exciting news with you and thought this might be fun. I am not sure when you will read this but I am excited for you to read it.

To all of our other readers, we're pregnant. I know you just read that, but I wanted to share it with you too. I am 12 weeks now. Our due date is January 17th and this pregnancy is nothing like the last one. I have had morning sickness in the form of nausea since week 5. I have also actually gotten sick numerous times with the last time being this past weekend. Not the best way to spend the 4th, but worth it when I think of the end product.

Love to you all and keep our growing family in your thoughts and prayers.

What a fun night!

These days little Jenna makes us laugh with the things she says and does. Her vocabulary gets larger everyday and it is so much fun to listen to. Last night there were multiple things that made us laugh....

We had our first bubble bath and it was early in the evening since she wore her spaghetti dinner. (While a first bubble bath at almost 2 might be crazy for some, I just hadn't wanted to expose her to the harsh chemicals in some of the bubble bath solutions and just found one that is non-toxic and natural made by California Baby). She was so excited to have her first bubble bath and kept cheering for her "Bubble Bafe", putting her face in the water and sticking her tongue into the bubbles (another reason I was glad I got the kind I did).

After bath time, Daddy came home from the gym and work and ate his dinner. Jenna cheered him on to eat so they could both eat MONKEY MUNCH!!!! (Jenna cheers for this stuff now. I heard about it on my new favorite show Jon and Kate plus 8. It is Chex mix that is covered in melted chocolate and peanut butter and then tossed in powered sugar.) Jenna and Daddy sat and ate their dessert together. While eating Josh was describing something to me and using hand motions. Next thing we knew, Jenna was imitating her daddy the best she could with both words and motions. It was hilarious!

The funniest thing of the night though was Josh told Jenna he would give her money if she did something (her daddy is always willing to bet money). Jenna screamed out "five dollars!" Where her love of five dollars came from I have no idea, but I remember my niece going through the same phase. Here is how the conversation went:

Jenna: Five dollars!
Mommy: Did you just say five dollars?
Jenna: yes.
Daddy: How much do you need Jenna?
Jenna: Five dollars!
Daddy: What do you need five dollars for?
Jenna: Bubbles.
Daddy: where are you going to buy bubbles?
Jenna: store.

It was the funniest conversation we have had to date!!! A little girl who already likes to shop and knows what she wants to buy. We have joked that we should start paying her a nickel every time she helps feed Haley to learn that she can earn money for doing chores. Never thought this would start so early.

A new love of the water

Our little Jenna now has a love for her "babing suit" and pools. After an episode in NJ where I made her slide down a slide and she went under the water, we had fears that she wouldn't like the water. Wouldn't you know that getting her neighborhood friends to get in her new pool at home made her find a new love of the water. The first day she would only put her hands in the water and even went so far as to step into the pool with both feet. She immediately got out but that was a start. The next day she was in the water kicking, splashing, and loving every minute of it.

Jenna and Kristin also had fun trying to drink the water from the slip and slide.

While Jenna's pool was fun for her it wasn't fun for her daddy as it made some of the grass turn brown. So we have now agreed to keep the pool in the driveway or swim in big pools. This leads me to Jenna's real love for pools. We took her to my folks' place to swim a couple of weekends ago and Jenna had a blast. This kid is fearless. Her daddy was tossing her into the air and every time her caught her, Jenna would squeal, "More! More!" The little girl would even put her face down in the water. We have since taken her to swim at Grandma and Grandpa's pool again as well as our old neighborhood pool to swim. She just loves it, but we have had to buy a life preserver since she just walks right into the water.

A Worn out mommy

So Friday night we took Jenna to Birkdale Village to play in the fountain as I mentioned in the previous entry. Well...it seems that the little miss got water in her ears which led to an ear infection because she had a burning fever on Saturday afternoon. This led to a rough night for mommy as she kept waking up in pain, burning up, and wanting to be cuddled. All day Sunday mommy nursed her on the way to recovery, but we made the mistake of taking her out for dinner. This led to another rough night. At 1 am I was exhausted and yanked the mattress off of the guest bed and slept on the floor in Jenna's room. Monday was a little better, but today has been not fun.

Jenna has cried and screamed a bunch, didn't take a good nap today, is tired of being around just her mommy, PLUS mommy has been sick all day. This doesn't make for a good combination. While motherhood is one of the most rewarding jobs, nobody ever tells you that it is especially challenging when you don't feel good yourself and just feel like you need to rest. Thank goodness Jenna is so cute.

A time for firsts

So much has been going on and I apologize for not posting anything lately. We have been dealing

with a couple of firsts for Jenna Shea, but then again every day is like a first with her as she is discovering the world and who she is every day. The day before we left for New Jersey, Jenna took her normal afternoon nap in her crib. She woke up and started to stir, but I didn't go get her right away. Part of me was hoping that she would go back to sleep. Then this is what I heard..."This is mine"...pause...thud...scream of pain. I ran upstairs to find Jenna standing outside of her crib with a look of wonder and fear. So we finally realized that she would have to be ready for her big girl bed as we didn't want her to continue trying to climb out and get hurt. She has been sleeping in her big girl bed now for over 2 weeks and has been doing great. She thinks it is so much fun that she can a) climb into her bed on her own. b)Mommy can climb in next to her. c) she has covers like mommy and daddy now. Of course puppy and doggie have to sleep with her every night too. We are so proud of her.

We are also slowly working on introducing the potty to Jenna. We got her a little potty that we have sitting in the family room. We are working on getting Jenna comfortable with just sitting on the potty with no pressure. Once she is completely comfortable with this stage we will then work on letting her try to sit on the potty for real. As for now, she has fun showing us how she can sit on the potty like a big girl, close the lid, and flush the potty. While I am thrilled at the idea of no longer changing diapers, I am a little nervous to start potty training, because I don't want Jenna to be scared or nervous about the whole thing. She is the type of little girl who wants to do everything on her time not ours. So we will see how this all pans out.

Mealtime is also an adventure since you never know what will happen. Some nights Jenna eats fine and other night she is picky. The funniest thing we have learned about Jenna is that she doesn't always eat what we put on he plate, but after watching daddy or mommy eat the same thing she will want ours. Her is a classic example and a first. Jenna had fresh corn on her plate which I cut off the cob for her. She ate some, but once she saw daddy holding the corn, Jenna had to hold the corn too. Her she is having her first taste of corn on the cob. Too funny!!!

We also had our first experience at the fountain at Birkdale Village which is a neat outdoor shopping and dining area near our house. In the center of the development they have a fenced in area with a fountain so kids can run through the water and be safe from running into the street. Friday night,we went out to eat, got gelato (my favorite) and went to see how Jenna would handle the fountain. Our initial thoughts were that she would be overwhelmed by the water, all the people, and all of the kids. To our surprise and delight, Jenna LOVED it. She would run up to a water stream and get soaked and then run back to me laughing to wipe her face everytime. Her clothes were drenched and she was tired by the time we left. Next time we will let her have a bathing suit so she can really enjoy it.