I like to oat, oat, oat.. Opples and Bononos!

Since I could remember, Jayde's favorite song has been "Apples and Bananas." (I like to oat, oat, oat.. opples and bononos.) Who would have known that Jayde actually did in fact like, or should I say love, eating bananas! For the past month Jayde has been eating and enjoying oatmeal and rice cereal almost every morning. Today, as I was eating my own breakfast, I was starring at the extra ripe bananas that were on the table thinking to myself, "I should have eaten those while they were still good." (I don't like bananas once they ripen to a certain point.) Then I looked over at Jayde who was playing on the floor and had the perfect idea that would make her happy while not wasting the bananas. Jayde had her very first fruit puree this morning- bananas and expressed breast milk! It was actually really simple to make since bananas are one of the few things that don't need to be blended or steamed. I just mashed it up with a spoon until their wasn't anymore chunks, stirred in some breast milk, and then gave it to Jayde to enjoy. Usually Jayde is a little skeptical of what I'm feeding her at first, she will get a little cereal in her mouth and taste it for a moment before she decides to continue letting me feed her. Today was very different. As soon as the spoonful of banana went into her mouth, her eyes widened with excitement and she reached out at her spoon for more. She ate almost the whole serving that I had prepared for her, which was about half of a large banana. Now that I have introduced something new and exciting to her, I don't think she will ever go back to cereal. Let be honest, who would? So, for the next 4 days I will be feeding her banana to make sure she is not allergic to it, and then move on to other fruits and vegetables. I am so excited, and I'm sure Jayde is just as excited too!


             Jayde trying to get somewhere, but she hasn't quite figured out how:

Jayde has forever hated tummy time since the day she was born. I would put her down on her stomach and within a minute she would be screaming. However, the last past week she has loved tummy time. I started using the Boppy that I had used previously while breastfeeding to prop her up. Not only does this let her look around the room better, but it is suppose to help strengthen her arms so she will eventually be able to push up on them on her own to crawl. It also keeps her from rolling over right away. I know her rolling is suppose to be a good thing, but how is she suppose to get any tummy time in if she is constantly rolling back over onto her back? So, I use the Boppy for at least 10 minutes. I will then take it away and let her spend some time rolling and playing on the floor. I can see some improvement in her arm strength, but not too much. I know these types of things just don't happen over night and it may take weeks or even months to notice a big difference. But what I have noticed is that she is tucking her knees under her body and trying to push off from them while she is on her stomach. If she could get more arm strength and some coordination, I know she will be crawling in no time.

New favorite activity- eating her toes!

On Wednesday was the meeting with the agent, Shannon, from the modeling agency. She absolutely loved Jayde! When we got there she went over everything; the go-sees, the shoots, the pay, etc. She then gave us a contact to take home to look over, which made us think that they were already planning to sign Jayde before we even got there. Before leaving, she also told us that Le Top had requested Jayde to attend their Go-See on July 8th. I guess that Shannon had shown them the pictures that I had previously submitted of Jayde and then they wanted her to come! This doesn't mean that she is going to be shooting. This just means that Jayde, along with other babies, will be observed by the company so they can choose who would best work for them. Although I am just doing all this for fun, how awesome would it be to see her in an advertisement? I just need to sign all the papers and get Jayde her entertainers work permit before hand. Jayde is officially going to be a baby model for JE Model in SF, so look out world! I know you must be thinking, "don't do it, it's a scam." I think that is the first reaction I got from everyone. I do know that there are a lot of scams out there, but this is not one of them. It's not like I found the agency by some random person coming up to me on the streets telling me that my daughter was beautiful. I found and researched this agency before submitting and agreeing to anything. Also, they aren't having me spend any of my money. The only money they get is the commission from the shoots that Jayde will appear in. So thank you for your concern, but I promise you that this agency is legit.

After Jayde was born I applied for her to get Medi-Cal. The whole process was finally completed just before she turned 5 months, ridiculous right? Of course I still took her to her regular check ups and she still got her shots, but they were just through the county hospital while I waited for her insurance to go through. Finally, her medical insurance was all set up and was set to be activated on June 1st. After seeing this, I called Kaiser to set up an appointment with her pediatrician for her 4 month check up and the operator told me that Jayde didn't have coverage through Kaiser. After hearing this, I called Medi-Cal and got everything straightened up after they verified that I was covered under Kaiser as well. ( I guess you can only submit your child for Kaiser if your currently a member with them too.)Every thing was perfect. I took Jayde to her 4 month check up to get her shots, and then a week later I got a letter in the mail stating that her coverage with Kaiser had been terminated. When I saw this letter I was so irritated because this whole medical coverage thing has been so stressful. Why do they keep messing up Jayde's medical insurance? And why did it take them a whole 5 months to set up her insurance and then only a few days to terminate it? So, I called Kaiser's member service and they told me that I had to call Medi-cal because they were the ones who terminated it. So I called them and they told me that Jayde's membership with Kaiser was never set up.I was a little irritated because I was positive that I had already set it up previously. I gave them all my information, they confirmed I was a member with Kaiser, and then told me that they processed everything and that she now had coverage with Kaiser too. So, hopefully it stays that way. Otherwise I might just flip out!

Just when I thought that all the problems with Jayde's medical insurance was solved, it gets worse. In the beginning of March, Keith and I brought Jayde to the emergency room. ( It was something we thought we should worry about, but ended up being nothing.) At this time, Jayde didn't have Kaiser but we knew she would eventually and also knew that Medi-Cal would cover it once it eventually went through. They sent me one bill for $900 and another bill for $500, which in total is $1,400. (Holy shit, right?!) So I called Kaiser's financial service and told them what was going on and how she was about to get Medi-Cal and that they were going to be covering it. They then looked at their computer and said that the payments were actually all taken care of, so I thought that maybe they had already gotten into contact with Medi-Cal. They then told me that if I receive any further bills to just ignore them. So, I get more bills and like I was told I ignored them. I kept getting the bills so I thought that I should call just to make sure that it was taken care of, because it's better to be safe than sorry. I call Kaisers financial services again, and the woman I spoke to said that nothing was ever covered and that she didn't know why the last person would have told me that. I gave her my Medi-Cal number, and she said that she was going to send the bill over for them to take care of.  Today, I get this bill in the mail for $520 instead of $500. At the bottom of the bill it says that my account is past due. If I have to pay anything, let alone the extra $20 for being past due, I am going to be pissed. How is Kaiser going to tell me that everything is taken care of and then charge me extra for them making me think that everything is settled? Keep your fingers crossed that Medi-Cal takes care of everything and that I won't have to deal with any of this anymore!