As I was making dinner tonight, Jada was on her own little mission in the kitchen. She walked straight up to the oven, pulled open the drawer that's located under the oven, pulled out the roasting pan, set it on the floor, then just sat in it. She was totally content to just sit in the roasting pan. She is so entertaining.

Jada visited Dr. Knapp yesterday for her 12 month well-baby check-up; she is doing very well. She is currently 22 lbs. 13 oz (75th percentile) and 31 inches tall (95th percentile). She is running all over the place; she rarely crawls anymore now that she's discovered that she can move much quicker by running.

She can say 8 words (Daddy, Mama, Wow, Amen, Jada, Hot, Baby, & Home)and can sign 3 words (Drink, All-Done, & Please). She can point to Mommy and Daddy's nose when she's asked, "Where's ____'s nose?" and we're currently working on her being able to point to eyes, mouths & ears. She can follow one or two step instructions like, "Can you go get baby and bring her to me?". Also, when I tell her that it's time to put her shoes and socks on, she grabs them and tries putting them on her little feet.

I absolutely love watching her learn new skills and concepts every day. Jada is such an incredible little girl and I am SO blessed to be her mommy.

Of course, eating is still one of her favorite activities. Here's our messy girl in action:

Jada turned one year old last Sunday; she had a fabulous day. She woke up to Daddy & Mommy singing "Happy Birthday" to her, which she thought was pretty cool. Next, she played with her friends at church, then came home for a nap to recharge. When she woke up, she ate a quick lunch then the party got started...

Our friends came over to celebrate our baby's first birthday. The afternoon was filled with happy kiddos, new toys, and even a monkey birthday cake. What a perfect day.











Jada & Rowen had a blast playing with Jada's new Dora the Explorer toy together. Here they are in action.



After everyone left, Jada decided to show off some of her incredible breakdancing moves. ha ha. Could it be a sugar high from the birthday cake? Or perhaps she was simply celebrating her special day. :-)

Jada had fun playing dress up in her princess dress a few days ago. This is actually the same princess dress that she wore for her 6-month pictures. It's fun to compare those pictures with these ones; she's so much taller now, but has the same beautiful smile!

Side note: Happy Birthday to our blog! One year ago today, we started this blog. I got off work early due to "inclement weather", so I decided to spend my afternoon setting up a blog. Three days later, in the midst of "Arctic Blast 2008", our baby Jada was born. :-)

Jada usually calls me "Mama", but this morning she pointed at me and said, "HOT!". Why, thank you, Jada. That comment really made my day. :-)

Just to keep everyone up-to-date, these are the words that Jada can say now in the approximate order that she said them for the first time:

Daddy
Mama
Wow (my absolute favorite word of hers)
Amen (pronounced "MEN!" after we pray)
Jada (pronounced either "Day-Duh" or "Duh-duh")
Hot
Baby (she's only pronounced this correctly a couple of times. Usually it's "Dee Dee")

Yesterday I asked her, "Who's my pretty girl?". She smiled, then loudly answered, "Day-duh!". She knows she's my pretty girl. I love it.

Here's a video of her running down the hallway with her little lawnmower toy. Usually she places her little "Dee Dee" (her doll) in the front of the lawnmower and pushes her around throughout the day. Hopefully she'll get a little stroller for Christmas so that Dee Dee can ride in something a bit more suitable for a baby. :-)

Papa, Nana, & Aunt Mariah came up to our house this Thanksgiving. Nana brought a fun, pink bonnet and a beautiful, black jacket for Jada. Here she is modeling her new accessories. :-)

Jada's new favorite toy... a box. She was totally content sitting in the box and riding along the floor.

Spending time with Aunt Mariah.

Mmm... candied yams, butternut squash, cranberry jelly, turkey, & rolls.

And, of course, Baby needs some food too...

Here's an awesome video of Jada copying my sounds. Listen carefully for "Daddy", "Mama", & "Wow". :-)

Jada is now 11 months old, as of this past Friday. Cruising is her preferred method of moving around even though she can take a few steps on her own. Once she gains a bit more confidence in her balance skills, she will be running around without holding on to furniture in no time!

She now has all four of her front, bottom teeth and two top teeth (her incisors, not the front ones) are about to cut through. These top teeth have bothered her much more than the bottom teeth. She's been a tough little trooper, but boy does that Tylenol work wonders!

Gabe & I went out to a dinner auction for his work on Friday night and Nana & Papa stayed the night to watch Jada while we were out. It was the first night that Mommy & Daddy weren't home for her bedtime routine. She did extremely well, though & went down without a fuss. I'm so proud of her. It was very fun for me to dress up & go out to a nice dinner with Gabe, too. :-)

Jada loves giving kisses. She gives kisses to Mommy, Daddy, and all of her babies. Even pictures of babies, actually. She looks at the dolls & pictures of babies, says very compassionately, "Dee Dee" (her word for "baby"), then gives them a kiss. It's SO adorable. Here's a short video of her picking up her baby & giving her a kiss.

Jada's third word is "Wow"! Considering it was preceded with "Daddy" then "Mama", I'm going to consider the progression to be a compliment to us... "Daddy...Mama...WOW!". Ha ha ha. She said "Mama" for the first time last night then "Wow" this morning. Last night, Jada was feeling tired and was ready to go to bed. She deliberately looked at me and said, "Mama"; it made me melt. My baby calls me "Mama". :-)

This morning as she was climbing on her walker (one of her favorite activities, might I add), I was talking to her and commented on something that she did. I said, "Jada, wow!". She looked back at me and repeated, "wow". We then went back and forth with our "wow"s.

Here's a little clip of Jada practicing her new word. I love her enthusiasm; that's my girl!!!

Four is a big number is Jada's life right now. She has four teeth (all on the bottom!) & has officially moved up to size four diapers! She's growing up so fast.

Here's a cute picture of our Jada Bear all bundled up to run errands on Saturday (cute beany courtesy of Lisa Brown; check out "Clackamas Crochet Chick" on etsy.com if you want one for yourself!). She's such a cutie.



Jada definitely loves adventure. She loves climbing on anything and everything. Here she is playing on (yes, I said ON) the dishwasher.



Although we run through the house (while she holds on to my fingers) and are physically active throughout the day, she seems to have crazy amounts of excess energy. According to Nana, her daddy was the same way when he was little (& at times, still is). Here she is burning some energy after lunch by kicking in her highchair. :-)

Jada took her first steps tonight (11/4/09)! We are so incredibly proud of her. I am SO happy that Gabe & I were both able to experience this together; what an amazing blessing. A couple minutes after she took her first steps, we tried again with the camera and were able to capture some more steps to share with everyone... Enjoy!



Earlier today, Jada & I met up with Becky & David in downtown Hillsboro for an awesome afternoon of pumpkin pie lattes (for the mommies) & playing outside! We had a fabulous time enjoying awesome company, crisp fall air, and the beautiful outdoors. Here are pictures of the kiddos in action...









On a separate note, Jada's 3rd tooth came in yesterday; it's the bottom tooth to the left of the two middle teeth. What a busy week!

For Halloween, Jada dressed up as a disciple. Daddy even tied a little, plastic man to a stick with fishing wire, so that she could be a "Fisher of Men". Yes, quite cheesy indeed, but so very cute. :-) We headed over to the Canby Conference Center for Athey's Harvest Festival. There were fun booths with various games to play, a bounce house (she'll LOVE that when she's a little older), and even a short skit. Jada was actually pretty entertained with the skit. :-) We had a fabulous time.

Jada said "Daddy" today! For the past couple weeks, she's been pointing to Gabe saying "Dadada" or "Day-day", but tonight she articulately said, "Daddy". She crawled over to his chair, climbed up, smiled, and proudly called him "Daddy". What an exciting day!

Nana & Papa came over this afternoon to spend some time with their incredible little granddaughter. They gave her an adorable ballerina dress that I immediately wanted her to try on. Here are some pictures of our gorgeous, smart, baby girl.

Last Saturday, we headed out to McMinnville to spend some time with the Hatch family and the Duhrkoop family. We drove to a local pumpkin patch to choose the perfect pumpkin and shoot fun pictures. :-)

Jada is 10 months old now. Wow. She's as busy as ever and VERY mobile. She's getting so close to walking. As long as she's holding on to our hands, she can run down the hallway. After we work on her balance a bit more, she'll be walking on her own. Here's a video of her standing without holding on to anything with her hands; she's leaning back on the couch for support instead.



This morning, Jada started waving "hi". I was able to capture this on video while she was eating breakfast in her highchair. You can actually see her concentrating on opening and closing her hands. I am so blessed to be able to see her learn new skills everyday. What an amazing girl.

Jada's friend, Tymon (12 weeks old), came over to play today! Not only did Daddy enjoy playing with Tymon's daddy, Jeff (you can hear them playing FIFA in the background), and Mommy enjoy catching up with his mommy, Christina, but the kiddos played with each other too! It was SO adorable to see them smile and talk to each other. We were able to capture a little on video - Enjoy!



Jada loves eating in her high chair. She still enjoys her pureed fruits & vegetables, but now also snacks on finger foods. In this video, she is enjoying some delicious steamed, sliced carrots, shredded mozzerella cheese, & small pieces of bread.



Here's our little messy girl after some oatmeal, pureed carrots, & bread.

Every day I think to myself, "This is my favorite age" (in regards to Jada). Then the next day I think the same thing. Every day is truly amazing. Jada is learning new concepts constantly. What an honor it is to see her little brain developing as she tries climbing, high-fiveing, pulling, talking (kind of), walking (almost), crawling (extremely fast), and many other various activities.

Right now, looking at pictures is one of her favorite activities. When we're close to the refridgerator, she points to the pictures (she started pointing with her index finger!) and says "Day-day". I'm not sure if that's "Daddy", "Jada", or "David" because they all sound similar and she says it when she points to any of them. Becky brought up a good point re: this... Jada has a limited vocabulary so it's only logical that one word could have multiple meanings. Very good point. :-)

Our little monkey is very into climbing. She started climbing onto her walker yesterday. Instead of pulling her off, I decided to just watch her to see what she would do. Well, take a look for yourself...









Becky & I met up at Cedar Hills mall yesterday so that the kiddos could play together on the little play structure. Here are some cute pictures taken there.







Here's a video of Jada playing in her room before naptime this morning.