Jessie at daycare and on Halloween as a ladybug.

laundry

Today Jessie was helping me do laundry. She was rolling around in the pile of white clothes I had made. I heard a funny noise, and looked at her. She was blowing her nose in the laundry!

Well, I just laughed because it was so funny. By then, I had emptied a laundry basket, and she loaded the dirty whites into a basket for me. How helpful!

This morning, she tugged a bag of dirty diapers to the kitchen for disposal. It was pretty funny, because it was heavy, but she just put her head down and tugged and tugged and tugged until she got it to the kitchen.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Monday morning

Jessie was fine Monday morning. She must have had a one day fever reaction to her flu shot 10 days prior. They said she might do that. She's been fine ever since.

It was so sweet last night....Holly was on call and didn't get home until around 11pm. But Jessie sat in my lap perfectly content and peaceful for an hour while we watched Andy Griffith. She seemed like she was really into it. Great moment. Too bad my hunger got so bad I was getting lightheaded and nauseous. I had to get up and spoil the moment in time.

LC

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Jessie may be sick. She has been very fussy today, not eating terribly well. Tonight, we were leaving some friends' house, and she threw up as I cinched her into her car seat. When I got home, I was dressing her for bed, and she felt warm in the torso. Holly checked her temp...102.4, but she was still playful, somewhat.

Oh well. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow. Hope she gets better soon.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

One of Holly's coworkers has a son who also attends Jessie's daycare. After the Halloween party last Friday, the coworker asked her son if the other kids came through trick or treating. The son replied that they did. She then asked if any of them were cute. He said, yes, there was one dressed like a cow that was cute. Guess who that was!

I don't know how old the boy was, but apparently only 3 or 4 years old.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Gaga's gonna throw me in the ocean!

Just wanted everyone to wake up to a couple of cute pictures to make your day.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Hugs!

Jessie has learned to give hugs! See picture. Now, she is stingey with her hugs and kisses, but they are grand when you get one!

On Halloween (or its events that week), she was a ladybug, a cow, and/or a duck. I thought the cow was the cutest, but daycare had already taken them all out of their costumes when I arrived for the party. But the ladybug was awful cute too!

Jessie got a good report at her 15 month doc visit. She is in the 65th percentile on weight, and has moved UP to 94-95th percentile on height!!! Daddy needs to learn some things about basketball.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Monday

Today Holly, Jessie, and I went shopping at outlet (haha) stores. We
bought my BD gift...a running gear bag from Samsonite. Has some neat
features.

Mom Tate has had tummy troubles all day. I think she's better now, but
we've hung around most of the day in hopes she'd get better.

Saw another beautiful sunset tonight. Really pretty.

We are about to go out to eat, but not sure where.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Saturday

We arrived in Destin safely about 11 am yesterday. I had a little
accident (not auto) but too complicated to explain here. I also had a
severe headache last night but I'm better today.

We saw 2 weddings on the beach, from our balcony. Jessie hasn't been
to the beach yet, but watched the weddings, as seen in the picture.

Stay tuned. I'll try to blog daily while on vacation.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Camping!

We went camping at Deer Run RV Resort near Crossville, Tennessee, this weekend. We had fun. A little warmer than we had anticipated, but had fun anyway. We got to use Jessie's new bicycle trailer, which I had the pleasure of towing her around the campground with my bike. Good leg workout!

Jessie is getting better at not eating everything, including bugs, dirt, and gravel. She likes to pick up things...well, everything, and bring it to you. It is kinda cute, but you can amass a pile of stuff if you are sitting outside!

As we sat outside this weekend, she would wave at people walking/riding by. We got a lot of laughter from that. The walkers/riders liked it too. She did the same at the restaurants we ate at this weekend, too. She loves going to restaurants and sitting where she can watch people and wave at them. Of course, we facilitate that by choosing our seats around a table and facing her a certain way.

Jessie was teething this weekend so we missed quite a bit of sleep. Sunday night, she awakened several times, and wouldn't go back to sleep. We think she had a belly ache to go along with the teething.

We fed her eggs this weekend for the first time. She loved them, but MAN does it make stinky poop! Even for two experienced nurses, our eyes watered a bit!

The first picture is of Jessie eating from the Cumberland Mountain State Park Restaurant buffet. She ate nearly a whole plate!

The next two pictures were possibly the sweetest thing that happened this weekend. Unless she has been in a swing at daycare, she experienced swinging for the first time! She was quite tentative at first, but soon started laughing and having fun while swinging. That's what the other two pictures are about.

Then, after swinging, she walked with one of us on each side, holding our finger. First time for that too! She's always been too independent to want to hang on to us. However, she had never walked on uneven ground like we were on, so I think she liked the stability/security of holding on to us.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

been busy

In the picture above, Jessie and I are enjoying her fire truck. She likes to get into the storage under the seat.

Well, it has been a busy month. For just about anyone reading this blog, we all know why. But we are tickled as pink as punch to have Dad back to good health, or well on the way to good health. So Pops, if you are reading this, you are doing well, and we are proud of how hard you are working to get yourself better!

Jessie has reached an important milestone. She has learned to pick her nose. Much to our chagrin. But I figured she'd do it eventually anyway. Oh well.

A couple of weeks ago, in the middle of Andy's sermon, during one of his pointed points, he paused to take a quick breath, and Jessie let out a quick, but LOUD "Meh!" Andy immediately thanked her for her support and Amen. Said something like, "See? She agrees with me!"

Jessie's eating a lot of big-people food now. She eats green beans, carrots, pancakes, and even some meatballs and spaghetti. One string of spaghetti lasted about 5 minutes with her because she couldn't figure out how to get it into her mouth...and stay. It was pretty funny.

We are going camping this weekend, so we should have some pretty neat pictures next weekend. It is at a campground to which we've never been, but it looks and sounds nice.

Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Teeth brushing

For the past month or two we have been teaching Jessie to brush her teeth after dinner. She sits in my lap and chews on her toothbrush with fruit flavored paste (really gel). She smiles as she does this new acquired task. Tonight was so darling as she tried numerous times to butter her own toothbrush with the tube. She definitely has been paying attention to what we do. This gives a whole new meaning to the saying "Little eyes are watching you". She also helped Mommy fold laundry tonight. She loves to puts items out of the basket and swing them around at her hips looking up at me with a huge mischievous grin. She then rolls around on the floor and hides amid the piles of laundry. What a big help she is!

Love,
Mommy

DoodleBug takes a sippie cup

Sweetpea is also being dubbed Doodlebug because of her high energy level nowdays.  She is extremely active and especially at church.  Jessie enjoys Sunday School nursery class with Mrs Denise Johnson and Mrs.Leesa Wood.  They are so great with her and the other little ones as they also teach at the Berry's Chapel preschool.  Jessie goes into the auditorium with me and Larry on Sunday nights. She always loves to walk holding onto the back of the pew and smile at everyone in the back of service.  Thre always seems to be someone that returns her smile and picks up a game of peek-a-boo.  She made her way to Mike Newton's arms and enjoyed sitting in his lap for the last half of service. I couldn't tell who had the better time of them.  Mike and Jeannie have two great Christian teenagers they adore, but aren't quite ready for grandchildren.  They had me and Larry over for dinner  a few years ago and shared alot with us about how having children was
wonderful.  They painted a very realistic picture and gave us a lot of encouragement of raising them in the world, but not of the world.  Thanks to them for talking with us.  It sure is neat to look back and see how God can work through others.
I don't know if I had mentioned before how Jessie loves the water.  (So much so that she will splash her hands in the toilet) Larry and I try to keep all the lids down and bathroom doors shut. If she does join me she is content to make a toy out of anything.  She'll pull the toilet paper and be so delighted.  She then proceeds to shred one square into hundreds of little pieces.  I don't mind as long as she doesn't try to supplement her diet.
We took her for a stroller ride last night and she just kicked back watching everything with crossed ankles.  Here bedtime seems to be getting later and later because she'll nurse in the den rocker and then get down to play.  Larry and I put her down to bed at 7:30 instead of her 9:00 chosen time.  She cried (hollered) for 15 min and then silent slumber occurred.  SMILE  Larry worked on our DVD player for the camper and I worked on her birthday party supplies.  We all rested quite well. 
Jessie is starting to get the concept of a sippie cup after 2 months of practice. YEAH!  Next Thursday she turns one and the pediatrician says that whole milk comes in a sippie cup --not a bottle. I 'll still nurse her at bedtime for a little longer, but not during the day.  Hope all goes well. She has gotten to where she does a complete 360 turn on my lapwhile trying to nurse.  She just doesn't want to miss a thing.  Hmmm---kinda sounds like someone else! 
The invitations have been sent out for her Big Birthday Party!  Larry and I are so excited that our lil' Sweetpea is turning one.  WOW !!  God has blessed us tremendously.  We thank Him everyday.  Hope everyone is as excited as we are and will attend.
Love,
Holly
(DoodleBug's Mommy)

Jessie had a ....screaming...weekend. She may have learned it on her own, but we think she picked it up at daycare. She can scream a loud, happy scream, but this weekend, she was unhappy about something. Possibly her ears. I think she's got ear infections again; I'll take her to doc (again) tomorrow. Holly is taking her to ENT next week for ear tube screening.

Anyway, she has learned a scream when she's mad, that will thump your nerves! It hurts. Holly and I had headaches and frayed nerves this weekend. I guess it isn't that bad in the whole big picture, but that doesn't help in the middle of a good scream.

Anyway, she is stumbling right along, not afraid to jump up and practically run. She even "runs", which I think is more of a little stumble, but she is good at catching up with herself to avoid falling, which makes her little legs run. She is very proud of her ability to walk. Of course, she has gotten into more stuff as a result. For instance, yesterday she got a screwdriver out of a drawer, and I thought she was going to kill/maim/blind us both before I got it away from her (Yes, you can laugh now...It is a funny image). I then had images of Holly coming home (she was at the hospital on call) and finding her hubby and daughter maimed/blinded. Guess who would have borne the brunt of that!

Good night...I am very sleepy. I took a Benadryl 2 hours ago.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Jessie's walking!

Well, what fun we had this weekend camping! We were able to add another state to our map of "Camped-In" states. Believe it or not, it is the state closest to us....Kentucky! (other than Tennessee, of course). We found three fairly easy-to-get-to Corps of Engineers campgrounds up there.

Jessie has been toddling a little bit for a little over a week, but I think we can truly say she is walking/toddling now. She was in our camper Friday night and walked several steps to get to whatever it was she wanted, which was probably Holly. What a grand moment it was: Our little Jessie walking for the "first" time while we were camping!

She was pretty irritable this weekend, but we think it was because she is teething her upper teeth which are peeking through. She needed a lot of attention, including a 530am campground stroller ride, so that one of us could sleep. Later, the other one got a nap too.

Jessie wanted to help us in the kitchen again, so she got into the fridge and made herself at home. Enjoy that picture.

Ma, I figured you'd really like the dress picture. Although you didn't make that particular dress, it is purty, and the big butterfly shows up well!

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

11 months old!

Jessie is 11 months old today! Wow! How time flies.

And my mom and dad are celebrating 45 years together. Congrats to them. I was going to call you both today to congratulate you, but I left my phone at home, and I don't think Tristar/HCA wants to pay for a call to you for a "Happy Anniversary." So, in case you read this before I call you tomorrow, "Happy Anniversary!"

Jessie went swimming on Sunday. We floated her around for 30 or 45 minutes, after slathering her with sunscreen spray. Her floaty toy also has a shade on it too. She enjoyed it. Holly even dunked her a few times (blow on face to make her hold breath, dunk, bring her up). She handled it pretty well. She even clapped a few times, after getting the water rubbed out of her eyes.

This is a picture from Memorial Day weekend (I think) when Dad got up early and fed Jessie before I took her to daycare. Wait, no, it wasn't Mem Day weekend if I was taking her to daycare. It was the middle-of-the-week visit they did recently.

Gotta go to bed. I'm exhausted.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Jessie has figured out how to open up the drawers. She sat in front of
this one and opened it, and shut it, opened and shut it, countless
times. Of course, she doesn't know how to gently do it, so it was
open, BANG, open, BANG, over and over. It was cute the first 30 times.

I'll be taking Jessie to the doc today for a follow-up visit, as today
is Antibiotic Day 10, final day. Hopefully things are clearing up, and
we won't have to do the antibiotic dance. However, we will be taking
her to an ENT for possible ear tube placement.

Holly has some cute pictures to post...I'll leave them to her, and
remind her to post later today (probably tonight). I'm just up because
I can't sleep, for some reason. Don't know why.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

ear infections...again

Jessie has bilateral ear infections...again. We took her to the doc on Saturday. She now meets criteria for ear tubes, so we will be seeing an ENT for her to get them placed. She ran a pretty good fever Friday and Saturday, and even likely some Sunday. She felt hot all the time, and was pretty irritable. But, she'd get playful and play for a while, too.

I "jogged" her to daycare yesterday. Holly and I got her ready, but Holly had to leave pretty quickly, because Jessie actually slept till 630am, and I decided to let her sleep until she awakened. After I made a small bottle of milk with some antibiotic in it, I ran to put my running clothes on, loaded her stroller with the daily items for daycare, and we took off. It is 0.7 miles through a couple of yards and over a downed wire fence, but it was neat. I dropped her off, and BOY the stroller is a lot easier to push when it doesn't have a 20# baby girl and a 6 or 8 pound (?) diaper bag in it!

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

visions

I had visions of a Caribbean Fireman with toilet paper, when I saw
Holly's title to her entry. How funny a vision that was!

As Holly alluded, Jessie likes Mr. Squirrel. Matter of fact, I can
just say, "Jessie! Mr. Squirrel!", point to the door, and she looks in
that direction, often crawling wildly to the door to look outward. The
other day she reached for the doorknob, attempting to go AWOL. But we
have the safety doorknobs, and she's not quite tall enough to do
anything with them yet anyway.

At the IHOP the other day, not only was Jessie melting firefighters'
hearts, she had the IHOP staff lining up. Our server said that they
were all asking one another, "Did you see that little girl on Table
51?"

Getting so much attention has also taught her that she knows she can
get it. We have had to pop her little bottom a time or two when she
would holler or fit-pitch for no reason, except that she wasn't
getting attention at that moment, or was not doing what SHE wanted to
do.

I have no idea where she gets her strong will.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Carribean Fireman with toilet paper

Oh Wow! How quick I can get behind in blogging.  Friday, Jessie was standing in the den with me and Larry and she took her first witnessed step.  It was a kind of a twist-turn-step-fall.  She doesn't seem to mind all the falls. I guess the Good Lord gave her plenty of padding. (Smile)  Saturday, she followed me to the bathroom and had so much fun pulling the toilet paper off the roll and tearing it into many tiny pieces. She was excited at this new found skill, although she didn't seem to like that it got cleaned up as soon as it hit the ground.
Saturday we all went to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and ate stuffed french toast with strawberries, eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon.  Jessie was all bright eyed and waving to everyone that walked by our table.  She and we loved the sweet attention.  She is such a Social Bug!  There was a table of Nashville firemen eating when we arrived.  As they walked by our table to leave (Jessie being seated in a highchair in the aisle), she reached up and grabbed the first firemans arm. He was startled and thought he had accidently brushed up against her and stopped to apologize.  When he looked down at her, she was smiling wildly. It was a sweet site to see a fifty year old stranger man in a macho profession to have his heart melted so quick.
She still loves watching Mr. Squirrel everyday. She gets the biggest 2 teethed grin and crawls as quick as she can to the den window/door. This is all fine until she gets overcome with excitement and bangs hello on the glass with her head and hands. Of course, Mr. Squirrel gets scared and runs away to the rooftop or pool below.
Jessie used to not like fruit and gag at the first or second bite.  Now mommy puts it in rice cereal and she loves most flavors.  Her favorite so far is apple-strawberry-banana. She tried a new fruit ---mango..  She loved it so much that I think she is practicing eating like she is in the Carribean. I told her that Gaga eats stuff like that on his business trips.  Maybe she can go there someday with Nana and Gaga.
Love,
Holly

A Very Clean Baby!

Cute picture, huh? A very clean Jessie! Holly had put her in there,
because she was trying to do some work in the laundry room, and Jessie
kept crawling to the toilet or being underfoot. So, Holly put Jessie
in the washer tub, which occupied Jessie happily because of the tub's
movement back and forth (NOT on a wash cycle, but just the natural tub
movement, obviously).

Also tonight, Jessie fell asleep while Holly was feeding her. It was
the cutest sight!

Go back a couple of days. I have updated the blogpost to show the neat
picture of Jessie and Dad that I had previously mentioned.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Stunt Baby

On Memorial Day the three of us enjoyed an early breakfast at our favorite place, Cracker Barrel. Larry and I are fond of this particular location because we ate there the night before Jessie was born. Jessie and I had a grilled bacon and cheese sandwich, corn, and an apple brown Betty. The manager talked to us that night because we helped down the restaurant. He still remembers us and enjoys seeing lil' Jessie grow. He has two children of his own.

After breakfast we returned home to meet Sheila to help clean our home. What a great job she did as I definitely need help with this. I can now enjoy spending time with my family and not worry too much about those other tasks. My first order of business will be to teach Jessie safety. Yesterday she had so much fun playing. She hopped up on her rocker/rider that plays music and teaches numbers, alphabet, etc... Normally she won't sit on it. She likes to stand beside it and steer the wheel to play music. She not only straddled the seat and rocked, but she stood up on the seat like a motorcycle stunt driver. I guess she likes living on the adventurous side like us. Pre-Jessie, Larry and I would ride 4 wheelers. She must get this adventurous side honestly!

We tried to go for a swim and got rained out earlier in the day. Jessie and I tried again that evening while Larry grilled this great chicken dinner. Jessie would only put her feet in the pool, but not her legs. She kept drawing them up to her chest as the rain water had cooled the pool too much. We retreated to a warm bath and played in there.

Holly

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was great (except for my illness, but that's another story). My Mom, Dad, and sister Diana came up Friday and spent two nights with us. Jessie had great fun being watched because she loves to put on a show! Everyone got to play with her quite a bit, and we were even able to get her into the pool. She loved it, and flipped water on Diana, Holly, and myself!

They also went to worship with us, and Jessie wore the outfit that Mom made for her. I think she stayed in it all day (i.e., no poopie on the clothes).

I got a great picture of Jessie and Dad looking out the window at a squirrel. Their "real" selves were just back silhouettes from the sunlight, but I could see their front reflection in the window. Really neat picture. Enjoy the picture!

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Where did she learn this?

I came home at around 8pm last night, after another long day at work.
I quietly came in, expecting Jessie to be in bed already. When I
opened the door from the basement to the kitchen, what did I see?

I saw plastic bowls and lids EVERYWHERE. I caught a glimpse of Jessie
in the den, and said, "I wonder who could have done THIS? I wonder who
did THIS?" She looked up at me and grinned so big; it looked like a
mischievous grin, but I doubt she really understood what I was saying.

Turns out, Holly said she designed the kitchen that way. The cabinet
with the plastic bowls and lids isn't locked/difficult to lock, so
that's the one that Holly chose to put the safe stuff in. Isn't she
the smart one? :)

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Squirrels and Photos

Larry put a wooden bird feeder with seed on our deck railing just outside the den glass door. This has caught Jessie's attention when a squirrel visits for a snack. Jessie starts snort-giggling and crawls to the door as quick as her little legs and hands will take her. She enjoys staring and smiling at the bushy tailed creature. This lasts until she can stand the excitement no more. She stands up against the glass door banging to say a happy hello to Mr. Squirrel. Then he of course runs away. Jessie winds up retreating to her den floor of toys and continues to play.

Today I took Jessie over to Jennifer Jackson's home for her 9 month pictures. Jennifer let me take a peak, and I must say they are going to be beautiful. Jessie is definitely not shy of the camera. She is all smiles most of the time. I was a little concerned how the photo shoot would turn out as she had only taken a 30 minute nap at daycare. By that time in the day she would normally have had 3 naps. Surprisingly, she did great. She is presently conked out in the carseat while I'm typing this on the computer. I have learned NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY!!!!! Great words of wisdom.

I look for her to pop out another tooth soon. She has been irritable the last few days and last night she was polishing her top gums with the soft rubber top of her vitamins bottle. I keep these in the bathroom and give them to her during bathtime as they are kind of messy. I can usually give them to her in a surprise attack mode while she's playing in the bathtub and her not disagree too bad. The 1st time I tried to give vitamins to her she wretched and turned all shades of red. Aunt Diana gave me the great idea to have the pharmacist flavor them and add a bitter decreaser. This worked great. She now licks her lips after I give them to her. Thanks Aunt Diana!

Holly

Good night (for Jessie)

I didn't get to see much of Peanut last night before she went to bed. I took her to bed as soon as I got home. It took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home last night because of a wreck on the interstate. Don't think that it crossed my mind a couple of times to see what the 4x4 in my truck would do. But I resisted. :)

It has been great that Jessie sleeps so well in the nighttime now. But an unexpected "side effect" is that she wakes up a little cranky...not as happy as when we'd feed her in the middle of the night. I guess when she wakes up, she is ravenous, and thus, not happy. It's worth it though, not having to get up during the night.

I think she's also a little more happy in the afternoon, but she is usually anyway. Depends on how hungry she is. She's just like her daddy: Her tummy bone drives her happy bone.

I've got a little throat thing going on, and that's why the title is "Good night (for Jessie)". I didn't sleep well, but that's OK. I guess it is just the DayCare Crud again that Jessie so happily brings to me every now and then!

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

DaDa

For a few months now Jessie has been saying MaMa in response to our verbal prompting and sometimes just on her own. That certainly has put a huge smile on my face and heart too! We have been trying to teach her to say DaDa which she just mastered last Tuesday. Now for some funny reason when I try to prompt her to say MaMa, all that seems to come out is DaDa. I have to laugh because Larry has been such a good and patient sport waiting for his DaDa moment.
Yesterday Jessie was extremely irritable during the day so we did not do our pictures. Today was much better. She was so happy when I got her home from daycare. We played, ate dinner, played in the bathtub and nursed for bedtime. I'm glad to see that she was feeling a whole lot better today. I'll be off from work early tomorrow and have rescheduled for her 9 month pictures with our up and coming photographer friend, Jennifer Jackson. She took Jessie's 6 month pictures and did an excellent job. She is so talanted at this hobby of hers that she is starting a new career and had asked if she could use Jessie in her portfolio. Of course, Larry and I were honored and agreed.
Tonight I transitioned Jessie into her first pair of 2 piece footed Jammies. She was sooooo cute in them. They were lavender and snapped together at her pudgy waist. I hope they are comfy for her tonight. We'll ask her opinion in the morning. Sleep tight doodlebug!!!

Holly

near walking?

We were worried that Jessie was getting sick again yesterday, because she was unusually irritable and attention-seeking both Sunday and especially Monday. But by Monday evening, she was much better and playful, and enjoyed some time with her Nana and Gaga. We had them over for supper, as I had cooked a scrumptious pork roast in the crock pot. Very tender and delicious!

She slept well all night, but I think I slept with one eye open, thinking she wouldn't. Maybe she was just wanting attention, but not getting sick after all!

Yesterday, she did push her fire truck several steps, which I don't think I have seen her do before. So, walking may be just around the corner.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Oh yeah...

You can look at the blog and comment on it, and see all the entries in "storybook" fashion at:

http://jessiegc.blogspot.com/

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

a little less sleep

She had been doing good all week, as indicated in previous entries. But last night, she cried for a couple of hours. We're not sure why, other than lack of attention, but we have another idea or two, but those details you probably aren't interested in. :)

Holly plans to get 9 month pictures taken tomorrow (yes, we know...It's almost 10 months). She gets tomorrow off because she helped someone out by taking their call tonight from 7p to 7a.

We did a li'l movin' and shakin' tonight in the basement to make Jessie a play area down here. When the carpet was replaced at our old house, we had them save her nursery carpet, since it was only a couple months old. We spread it out down here in the basement to have a nice clean area for her to play on. Got me a little writing area looking out a window as well, on the carpet, so I could do a little writing in my bare feet.

She was quite irritable and hyper today. Again, not sure why, except for maybe disturbed sleep. She got a REALLY good nap just before worship, so I guess she was energized just in time for worship. I believe the little dumplin' woulda swung from a vine if there had been any in the auditorium. Guess I'm getting my raising back, huh, Ma?

Oh yeah...she started saying "DaDa" much more clearly today than in the past few days. She said it (unclearly) on Tuesday, but it is much better now!!!

If the attached picture works, it was taken on Easter.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Another good night

Jessie slept all night...again, and even slept till about 530am. Highly unusual for her to sleep that late. I told Holly that maybe...just maybe...we could sleep late on the weekends. We were making a lot of noise getting ready for work, so we are hoping that's why she awakened at 0530.

Not much else going on with her. I didn't get to see her much last PM because I got home from work late. She was just her usual playful self before bed, and settled down to sleep before I could even walk to the other end of the house, after I put her down.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Better night

Last night was much better. Jessie went to sleep after only a couple of minutes of crying after I put her down. She awakened at midnight, and cried for a minute, but (apparently) went back to sleep. I say "apparently" because Holly and I didn't hear anything after that! For all we know, she might have cried for two hours, but we were worn out. I doubt she cried longer than what we heard.

Even Jessie must have enjoyed sleeping all night long. We had a hard time arousing her this morning, 30 minutes past her usual self-wake-up time. And she was pleasant all during the diaper/clothing stage this AM, although that isn't terribly unusual.

Hope Jessie has already learned the art of self-soothing, because I told Holly this morning that I could get used to sleeping all night again!

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Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Long night

Well, last night was a bit long. I didn't feel it until late morning when I started dragging pretty bad. You see, we are trying to teach Jessie to self-soothe, and go back to sleep. Our pediatrician has advised us that she should be sleeping all night, and gave us tips on how to make that happen.

Last night, she went to the crib, but cried for about 38 minutes (but who's counting?). That wasn't so bad, as Holly and I finally had a little time together, and enjoyed watching some television and talking.

We went to bed, and around midnight, she cranked it up again. She cried for nearly two hours; only 10 minutes of that two hours was quiet. Twice we thought she had gone to sleep, but she woke up. I did go back once or twice and just reassured her that "we were there," and hadn't left. But I didn't pick her up. I wanted to, but I didn't.

So now, Holly and I are pretty tired. Hope tonight is better, especially for Jessie. She wasn't too happy with us this morning, but oh well. Life's lessons are sometimes hard, Jessie.

On a side/personal note, I saw an old friend for the first time in a long time. Won't put his last name on here, but it was Daniel. Enjoyed talking with him. He and his wife may move from their current home to our area, maybe a little south. So, it was great to talk to him.

--
Larry Crockett
Franklin, TN
Run with whatcha brung, and hope you brung enough

Mother's Day

Today was our first Mother's Day, with an actual child in our arms. We did celebrate last year, but Holly was about 7 months pregnant. But this year, we were able to give an actual gift from Jessie (a hat with Jessie's handprint on it...really cute), and I gave her a homemade card and a corsage. Holly didn't want a gift, or so she says, so I hope I stay out of the dog house!

We ate at The Catfish House in Springfield, TN, with all the other mothers of Holly's family. Nice day. Turned off cold, but we had a good time.

Jessie wore her lavender dress today, which is my favorite on her.

Also, at worship this AM, she and Jack McMillan flirted a little bit, as Jennifer and Kevin were seated directly in front of us.


Larry