HAPPY BIRTHDAY JADA!!!!!

Our Little Jada-Bean is now a laughing, singing, dancing, climbing and crawling 1 year old baby!


Jada opening her present, with mom's help


A very Pretty Jade Rose for our Jada Rose

She found playing with it more fun

A close up of the necklace.

Jada's Cake. We couldn't find a birthday candle, so used this.


Dad Had to help blow out the candle

She decided to forgo hands at all and just bite!

Yummmy!

We can't believe that it has already been a year! Time sure goes by quickly, and a lot of different things have happened in this year that we are glad for. Most of all that we have had a very healthy baby. I know that some of you think that Jada now needs a little brother or sister, but that will come in due time.

Lately Jada has discovered opening and closing doors (as long as it is not latched), opening and closing drawers, and pulling everything out. She is not so good at putting things back in, poor mom spends half her day putting things back into drawers. She has also discovered that she is part monkey, so climbs anything and everything that is in reach. She has climbed up to the top of her stroller seat, climbs up in the basket underneath, climbs up onto the couches (our bed and her pack n' play are a little high yet), climbs up our coffee table and tries to sit on the computer, climbs up onto the TV stand and shakes the TV around (it's a large flat screen, we don't want it falling on her, so have a plant and chair to block it. Good thing we don't really watch TV!), she climbs up chairs, and has also gotten from the chair onto the table once, and climbs up step-stools. Once she figures out how to climb something, she keeps climbing it, and gets faster and faster at it.

She is also good at climbing up playgrounds. Yesterday (on her birthday) we went to a friends house for a small potluck dinner with them and another couple. After dinner we all went outside to the complex park and playground. Jada had a lot of fun climbing up on the playground, and also sliding down the slide. When she slide down, she starting getting this big big smile and her hair was sticking up all over the place due to the static on the slide. We wish we had a picture of that.

Jada is also getting into a lot of things. Chelsey has to be careful when putting groceries away, because if they are in Jada reach, Jada will grab things and start taking bites out of it, even if it is something that she does not care for, like tomatoes. Several times Chelsey has turned around for just a second and then found several small bites out of different items. Once we bought some peaches, and in the time that it took Chelsey to put something else away, Jada had taken one bite out of two or three different peaches!

Jada for the most part is a well behaved baby. She is also very smiley. When I get home from work, or running some errands, and I walk in the door, Jada gets this ear to ear smile and starts making excited sounds. It is so cute!

Jada is interacting more and more with kids instead of watching them. About two weeks ago Chelsey had Jada outside, and Jada and another little kid her age were having crawling races and smiling at each other.

Perhaps it is just Chinese who can't tell, but about 90-95% of the time, people guess she is a boy and call her 'little brother'. Chinese people keep telling us to shave her head so her hair will grow faster. Chinese kids get their hair shaved at 1 and 2 months old. Perhaps they think that if her hair grows faster, it will be easier to tell that she is a 'little sister' not brother.

Jada, thank you for coming into our life. We have sure enjoyed this first year with you and you are a very special girl. We love you a lot, and wish you many many more years to learn and grow and have fun.