Stamps, stamps, and more stamps

Jessica loves stamps. After gym, music, and swimming, she looks forward to getting them on her hands, her feet, and even her tummy. She then likes to show everyone what she got. Recently, we got Jessica some stamps (small animals and a few Disney characters), so that she could stamp on her own at home. It took a while to convince her that she should stamp the paper rather than her body. Now she is really into doing the stamping herself too.

a trip to the duck pond yields an airplane show and beautiful sunset

Earlier this week, we went to the local duck pond to see the ducks and watch the sunset. It was a gorgeous sunset.





Jessica, however, had the most fun watching the planes land and take off at the local airport. It seemed one was coming in or going out every few minutes.

Jessica loves swimming lessons

Jessica hammed it up for the camera last night as Jim came to one of her swimming lessons.

She danced and sang on the mat and took many extra jumps into the water.



She took big leaps during her mat walk.



She zoomed down the slide into the water.



And, she even did a little swimming.

Jessica goes to her first circus

This past weekend, Jessica went to the circus. When you ask her if she had a good time, the answer is yes and she goes on tell you that she saw elephants, giraffes, tigers, horses, and clowns. There weren't any giraffes at the circus, but the rest of her list is accurate. She really enjoyed the pre-show animal open house. She alternated running between the zebras and the elephants (with all of us hoping to keep an eye on her / catch up with her).



The biggest excitement for Jessica during the show was the elephants. She liked them the best (or so we think as she screamed elephants at the top of her lungs whenever they came out). They were pretty spectacular.




And, we were one of those parents that bought their child an astronomically priced light wand during intermission. How else are you supposed to keep them entertained? I'm happy to say that she still plays with it at least.

Jessica enjoys her new school

Jessica has really taken to her new school. She loves painting and comes home with lots of artwork each day. This week, she also had fun doing dress-up and playing ring around the rosie with her friends.

Jessica draws things

Ever since Jessica started her new school, she has started to draw "things" when she colors. I think that this is because the older kids say they are drawing things, so she has started copying them. Sometimes they are people, sometimes they are animals, etc. This was a drawing she did tonight. It was our first family drawing (mommy, daddy, and Jessica). I can definitely see the resemblance.

Jim perfects his homemade pizza

It is yummy too!

Jessica loves her Play-doh

Jessica got a lot of fun Play-Doh items from her Aunt Jenny and Uncle Brent for her birthday. She absolutely loves playing with it. I think she likes it because she finally can play with a "knife".

got 3D?

Disney was full of 3D attractions. We could hardly get Jessica to keep the glasses on, but she sure looked cute in them.

Fun rides at Disneyworld

Jessica loved the rides at Disneyworld. Her most favorite rides were the horsey ride (i.e. carousel) and the Dumbo ride. We couldn't walk passed the carousel without stopping for a ride and thankfully the Dumbo ride had a very short wait so she could do it a few times.

lunch with the princesses at Cinderella's castle

At Disneyworld, Jessica had the chance to have lunch with the princesses at Cinderella's castle. Jessica's Mimi made her a special Sleeping Beauty outfit for her to have lunch in. It had a Sleeping Beauty top and a skirt with the three good fairies on it. Jessica sure loved to twirl around in it and she got many compliments.



When the princesses came out during lunch, it was almost as if Jessica was simply too shocked to say anything-- especially when her most favorite princess (Sleeping Tootie) came out.

Disneyworld (August 2009) - Character Bonanza

A good portion of our 4 days in Disneyworld was spent waiting in lines for Jessica to meet the characters. Luckily, there were multiple adults who could wait in separate lines and speed this whole process. This trip we had to focus on the character meet and greets as she recognized them and even asked to meet some of them specifically. We even did some of the characters twice. Despite her lack of smiling in a good portion of photos, she was excited to meet the characters. In the beginning, I had to get in the photos with her. That was exciting. Towards the end of the trip, she was doing it on her own, hugging the characters, and had even started to smile. One thing we discovered was that Jessica was into the autograph book and signing. She liked handing the characters her book and pen and demanded them from me as soon as we stood in a character line. I don't think that she understood the whole autograph thing, but she definitely wanted to do it too. Here are a few photos that the Disney photographers took.

Disneyworld (August 2009) - Welcome to Magic Kindom

After a few days in Captiva, we got up super early and drove to Disneyworld where we spent four days. We spent a good portion of the trip in the Magic Kingdom. These photos were from the first day at Disneyworld as we entered the park.




I have to say that I am shocked the photographer was able to get the Tinkerbell photo to work. They add Tinkerbell after the fact and Jessica had to hold her hands still in a certain position while the photographer got her picture. Jessica seemed to do it for about one second, but they still got it to work.

our captiva, florida vacation (august 2009)

Earlier this month, we spent a week in Florida. We were in Captiva for a few days (beach time) and then spent four days in the land of mouses and princesses (aka Magic Kingdom). In Captiva, Jessica really enjoyed the beach and the water. She loved wading and swimming in the water regardless of whether she was in a bathing suit or not, had fun doing bubbles on the beach, loved watching the dolphins swim (although we're not sure she actually ever saw the dolphins), and found that smashing sand castles mom had built was really fun. Here are some pictures from our trip to the beach.

Jessica's friend Isabella turns 2!

Today, Jessica's friend Isabella had her 2nd birthday party at her house. Jessica had lots of fun playing outdoors on the playset, hanging out with mom and dad, and finding ways to avoid Brent (in between and around mom's legs worked best). Jessica's male anxiety still exists in a very strong way.