Welcome to our blog (internet slang for web log). If you haven't ever visited one, it's in reverse chronological order. Our blog was started a few weeks prior to my traveling to Kazakhstan to meet and bring home my daughter Jiana. I posted several entries from Kazakhstan and there are also guest posts from my friends Delilah and Nanci who both spent time with me there.
Pictures of Jiana and our adventures in Kazakhstan can be viewed on the following websites:
https://genicejacobs.tripod.com/babypics/
http://www.delilahlah.us (Delilah's site)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ntucker123/my_photos (Nanci's site)
We have now been home for around 6 1/2 weeks and we are just beginning to settle into a schedule. I've taken time off from working to bond with Jiana and we are having so much fun getting to know each other. I love being a mom. All and all, Jiana has proved to be a really easy going baby. She eats well, sleeps a good 10 hour stretch and is generally pretty cheery. she is smart, curious, outgoing, assertive and funny as can be. And I happen to think she is the most gorgeous child on earth.
The going to bed thing was bit a dicey for a couple of weeks as I tried to transition Jiana from sleeping with mom to sleeping in her own room, and just getting her to bed period. My darling daughter is a fireball of energy and like her mom doesn't want to miss any of the fun. Last week, I went over to my travel partners (the Amani's) house and saw that they had babyswings to put their babes to bed. I high tailed it to Babies R Us and bought one. It's been a great success in getting Jiana to bed at a respectable hour.
Jiana is making great strides on all developmental fronts.... but slobbering is her specialty. She is very talkative and seems to have has a lot to say. But, mostly blaa, blaa, blaa, gaa and kit ca. She is quite fond of her kitty cat brothers, and spends a good deal of her day pursuing them.
Jiana has a pretty varied diet at this point, including formula, organic baby food, as well as tofu, pasta, bananas, avocados, and cherrios. My little gastronome is also showing increasing interest in everything I seek to put in mouth. So more and more, I'm having to learn how share. Fortunately, I think I can still justify not feeding her Indian food.
She seems to have become very attached to me... in fact she never wants me to stray more than a few inches at any given time. Her favorite pastimes include dancing, mouthing all manner of things, fondling cat food, sticking her hands in my mouth and yanking on my curls (ouch).
Just this week, she seems to have officially entered the getting into everything stage. She has proven her ability to clear off the coffee table and climb halfway up the stairs (yes, I am aware that this is an extreme falling hazard and I have gates installed)... now I really have my work cut out for me.
Since arriving in the US, Jiana has gained US citizenship, obtained health insurance and a social security card and is soon to open a college savings fund. Now all she needs is a job.
Well that's about all for now. We'd love to have some more visitors. So please call us at 510-530-6687 if you want to come over.
Love Genice
Posted by genicejacobs
at 10:02 PM PST
Updated: Saturday, 12 March 2005 7:27 AM PST