Jiana's almost one
It's been a while since I last posted as it's been a whirl wind since we got home. The first couple months were an adjustment for me, but now we are in a pretty good groove. I'm even up to showering every day now.

Jiana is absolutely amazing and gets cuter and cuter by the day. I don't even think it's possible and then the next day I wake up and she's even more adorable than the day before. Jiana is very close to walking now, and cruises around the house holding herself up on furniture and able bodies. She's also very vocal and has a diverse baby talk vocabulary. Her most decernable words are "mama", "baby', "cat??", "that" and "uh oh". "uh ho" is by far the cutest as she purses her lips on the "oh" part.

Jupiter and Sunkissed are still amazingly tolerant. Although, I think she may be getting to the end of her "honeymoon" period. Jupiter has found her crib to be especially cozy. Jiana really gets a kick out of her brothers and they are constantly bringing her to a giggle.

Little by little, we are getting out for various road trips and social activities. It's been really fun. last Saturday, I took her to the beach for the first time.

As for the practical side, Jiana is still eatting and sleeping very well. Like her mom, she loves food and is not a picky eater. She also sleeps well, both in her crib and occassionally with me.

As for me. I'm back to work. I've been doing a combination of contingency search, executive search and contract recruiting. It's been working out ok. Although, I'm sort of ready for another career change and am flirting with a few different ideas. So, what else is new. My other challenge is that I find I can manage to get to the gym with baby, or juggle taking care of baby and working. I haven't yet figured out how to combine baby, working and making it to the gym. So this is my next hurdle.

What's next... Wednesday is Jiana's first birthday and we are planning on going to the zoo for her first time. This should be a lot of fun.

Well gotta run now and catch some zzzzs.

Cheers to the cutest (and I'm not bias) baby in the world.

Love Jiana's mom

Now that we are home 6 1/2 weeks
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, putting all manner of things in her mouth, fondling the cats' food, sticking her hands in my mouth and yanking on my hair.

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... now I really have my work cut out for me.

Becoming a mom has really been this amazing journey for me... I am not generally inclined to fall in love at first sight... I am much more pragmatic than that... And I've really come to love Jiana more and more everyday. At this point, I'm completely head over heels over her. It's amazing how much we've both transformed... I now don't think twice about wiping off her face with the sleeve of my shirt, and I shower just a little bit less often. And now that we have had a taste of summer weather and I have a new lot of baby clothes to choose from, I now have to suffer the closet stare for two females. No wonder it takes an eternity to leave the house.

Well that's about all for now. We'd love to have some more visitors. So please call us at 510-530-6687 if want to come over.

Love Genice

6 1/2 week home
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, putting all manner of things in her mouth, fondling the cats' food, sticking her hands in my mouth and yanking on my hair.

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... now I really have my work cut out for me.

Well that's about all for now. We'd love to have some more visitors. So please call if want to come over.

Love Genice

Welcome to my blog (an internet term for web log). If you haven't ever visited one, it's in reverse chronological order.

Pictures from our trip can be viewed on the following websites:

genicejacobs.tripod.com/babypics/
www.delilahlah.us (my friend Delilah's Peace Corp site)

Welcome to my blog (an internet term for web log). If you haven't ever visited one, it's in reverse chronological order.

Pictures from our trip can be viewed on the following websites:

genicejacobs.tripod.com/babypics/
www.delilahlah.us (my friend Delilah's Peace Corp site)