It's been a busy few weeks around here. God has totally blessed my bookkeeping business & I'm so thankful. It's tax season, so I've been busy preparing financial statements & organizing paperwork for my clients. I love it. However, Jada only takes one nap during the day, so I've learned to perfect my time management skills so as to accomplish as much as possible in that little time.

Jada is amazing. She loves to mimic our words, which makes it pretty easy for her to increase her vocabulary. Three days ago, she learned the word "up". When she would like us to pick her up, she says, "up" then signs "please". She also says "up" when she wants to sit on our lap to read a story. Reading is definitely her favorite activity right now. I have to admit, I absolutely love it. I love that she wants to just sit on our laps and point to objects to learn what they are. One of her favorite books is an animal picture book. She points to each animal then we tell her what it is. We're also trying to teach her what sounds different animals make (ex: a cow says "moo").

Gabe and I are so blessed.

Here's a little snapshot of a day in the life of Jada:

Jada has quite the sense of humor. She can tell when we make a joke, play around, or just smile in a funny way. She thinks it's hilarious. Yesterday, Gabe "bonked" his head with a pillow & she LOVED it. Tonight, she showed Gabe how she can bonk her head in the pillow too! Check it out!

This is quite possibly the cutest video ever. Jada loved playing Tug-of-War with Kaya tonight. Her laughs are simply the best.

One gift that Nana & Papa gave Jada this Christmas was an magnetic alphabet toy. All 26 letters of the alphabet are magnetically stuck to the fridge. She can select one letter at a time to insert into the reader device after which is says the letter name and the sound that it makes.



Well, this morning, she stuck the "W" into the reader then pushed it. We then heard, "W. W. W says "Wuh". She then looked up at me and said, "Wuh". Wow. I'm impressed. Thanks, Nana & Papa!!!

*** Side note *** Yes, the "Q" is missing. I will try to rescue it from under the oven during nap time. :-)



I thought it would be fun to post a few videos of our Jada Bear.

Before I started recording this first video, Jada was bringing me one toy at a time from her toy box. She would walk to her toy box, choose a toy, then walk it over to me. She did this a couple of times, then just decided to bring me the whole box. :-)

In this next video, Jada shows us how to eat turkey & mashed potatoes. After I stopped filming, she started flinging the potatoes in every direction. Oh my. We had mashed potatoes on the blinds and all over the bookcase.

Lastly, here's a short video of Jada's adorable laughs. I just love her huge, belly laughs. This is a new little game that we came up with a couple days ago. ha ha.

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. :-)