Christmas is Over

All the decorations are down except the tree, so Jillian was looking around for them.  So sad...  But then she decided she would arrange the ornaments left on the tree so she proceeded to do that for a long time.  (Christmas wasn't completely gone.)  Then she asked for The Grinch Stole Christmas for a story before nap time and that was packed up too.  For her, saying that Christmas will come again in a year means nothing.  Since all her new toys are at her house, a few months ago I packed a bin with toys she hadn't played with for awhile and when I got that out she was absolutely thrilled.  Although yesterday was so nice, but so cold, that after she was bundled up Tierney took her for a long walk outside.

Belated Wishes

Merry Christmas from Jillian and Bridget!



Christmas Day

Christmas Day started at about 8:00 am for everyone. It actually started much earlier for Bridget and Mommy, due to the early morning feedings. But, we all were up together to check out what Santa had left.

When Jillian walked into the living room, she headed straight for the Christmas tree and looked at the plate and glass, and said "The cookies are all gone!". After that, she saw that there were presents in the stockings. She was very excited to find all kinds of her favorite things, including Dora and the princesses. Then, she opened up one of her presents and found a baby and a bottle, just like she had asked Santa. Yay!

Bridget was in her usual happy mood, and with Jillian helping to unwrap presents, she received a new playmat. This was great, since in just the last week, she had turned into a wild girl, rolling around and grabbing & hitting things. We put her on the mat and she went after it.

Next, we loaded up and headed over to the Scott and Cindy's, where we also met up with Jason, Dany, McKenna and Lindsey. It was another high-energy present-opening time, and Jillian left a lot of wrapping paper and bows in her wake. Once again, she received a ton of super gifts, and she was very excited to play with them, and to play with everyone there. Bridget managed to sleep her way through almost the entire time at the Stephenson's, though she did wake up in time for some photos at the end.

Finally, we ended up at Papa and Grannie's house, where we saw Uncle Dan and Aunt Robin, Cousins Ainsley and Tierney, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Julie, and Cousins Cale, Ty and Brock ... and Mocha, of course. Jillian got recruited to hand out the presents this year, with Aunt Robin's help, and she did a great job, saying "Here {name}, this is for you" every time, and then jumping and flapping her arms after handing them off. Bridget watched as Jillian opened many more presents. Then, it was time for some serious play time. After a good nap for Jillian in the afternoon, we finished the day off with some pizza.

We all had a great time with family and friends .... and we were all exhausted at the end and headed right for bed.

Christmas Eve

As mentioned in the previous post, the girls got all dressed up for Christmas Eve. The whole family (Daddy, Mommy, Jillian and Bridget) headed over to Uncle Clark and Auntie Greta's house for the party. We were met there by Cousins Adam and Meagan. Then, Grandpa Ken, Beverly, Auntie Sheryl and Auntie De, and Cousins Andy and Karlie showed up. The kids were more than ready, so they got right into the present-opening. In no time at all, everything was opened up. Jillian is now at the age that she can open presents up all by herself. And, she's pretty quick at it. She also helped to open up Bridget's presents. There were so many cool things, and the girls will be outfitted very nicely for the coming year.

The kids got a little time to play with their new stuff. We also tried to get a cousins photo, and most of them did pretty well ... Bridget is the one screaming. Then, we were off to Grace Lutheran Church for their Christmas Eve service. Bridget got pretty fussy, and had to be rocked to sleep out in the foyer. Jillian managed to do well in the pews, listening to the songs. When it came to the candle-lighting, she was very excited to hold a little candle (with Daddy's help). Her favorite part was blowing the candle out.

By the time the service was over, the girls were ready for bed. Jillian helped Daddy get a plate of cookies and a glass of milk ready for Santa. Then, she listened to "The Night Before Christmas" book before turning in for the night. Bridget was already sound asleep.

Chrismas Dresses

Both Jillian and Bridget got all dressed up for Christmas Eve. Mommy had picked these dresses up a little while ago. Jillian was very excited to wear hers. After she put it on, she would yell excitedly to everyone she saw "Look at my pretty dress!". When it came to posing for a photo, though, she wouldn't have anything to do with it. So, this is the best we could do.

Bridget posed nicely for the camera, giving lots of smiles and laughs. Anymore, she's always holding her hands together, like this photo shows. Also, she's still drooling pretty good, so that by the end of the night, her dress was soaking wet.

Cookies for Santa

Jillian helped Mommy make cookies for Santa this evening. Mommy rolled out the dough into balls and put them onto the pan, and Jillian pressed the Hershey Kiss onto the dough ball. She did a very good job, though we had to keep telling her not to eat the chocolate. Throughout the cookie-making, she kept saying "Santa will love them!".

Eventually, she put so many Kisses into her mouth that Mommy said she was all done with making cookies.

Tummy Time

Bridget had a little bit of tummy time a couple days ago, and did pretty good. She was on her tummy for about 30 seconds, but she never fussed at all. From the photo, she actually liked looking around and checking things out.

New Stuff XXXV

Just in time for Christmas, here's what's going on with those little Woodruff girls:

1. Chipmunk : Jillian has gotten into a habit of storing food in her cheeks for long periods of time (say, about a 1/2-hour of so). We have to constantly remind her to chew / eat her food.

2. Half-roll : Bridget is oh-so-close to rolling onto her side, at least consistently. She can draw her feet up and turn most of the way over, but can't quite make it all the way. She's working hard at it, though.

3. "You can't go to the ball!" : We've been reading so much of the Cinderella book these days, that Jillian likes to play-act the parts in the story. Funny thing is, she likes to play the part of the mean step-sisters by telling Daddy that he has to stay home and do his chores, and that he can't go to the ball.

4. Tickle Spot : An easy way to get Bridget to laugh or smile is to tickle her. We found that she is ticklish around her neck, and she thinks that it's pretty funny.

5. Swiper the Fish : Jillian didn't come up with any different names for her new fish, so the fish's name is officially "Swiper". Amazingly, the fish is still alive.

6. Christmas List : Jillian has her own version of the family Christmas list. So, if you ask her what everyone wants for Christmas, she'll say that Mommy wants 2 breakable things, Daddy wants 2 shavers, and Bridget wants a binky.

So Tired!

Jillian was so excited about having a slumber party after all the kids watched "Elf" with Rick.  Mommy and Daddy went home and then Tierney was so tired she headed for bed about 10:30 PM.  Jillian climbed in bed downstairs with her but then Tierney wanted to turn out the light and not read her a story so Jillian decided to climb in bed on the futon downstairs with Ty and Brock-kicking Brock out to the end of the bed, since they were watching "Rudolph" the movie.  After over an hour later I checked to see if she had dropped off to sleep and she was half sitting up to keep from falling asleep and you can tell from the picture how tired she looked.  After another 20 minutes she abandoned the movie and came upstairs to sleep.  Getting to bed about midnight made for one cranky girl the next morning.  That led to an early nap and then a happier girl, mainly because Rielee could come play.

Fist to Mouth

Bridget has definitely found her fist, and can put it into her mouth anytime she wants. These days, her fist is in her mouth all the time. Mommy thinks that maybe Bridget is getting a new tooth already.

Blanket Buddies

If Daddy is taking a photo of Bridget laying on a blanket on the floor, Jillian is more than ready to lay down next to her to get in on the action. It's one of the few times that Jillian will actually allow a photo to be taken of her. In this photo, Jillian is holding a little ducky that she swiped from Adam, and Bridget is chilling out, wondering why her big sister is laying next to her.

First Pet

Jason, Dany, Mckenna and Lindsey stopped by this morning before church for a visit. They said they had a surprise for Jillian. In a bag, they had some fish food, bowl cleaner and a net. Hmmmmm! What could it be? Then, Jillian went out to their car and saw her early Christmas present ... a new blue betta fish in a bowl! Jillian was very excited, as this photo shows. She immediately grabbed the net and wanted to get the fish. It looks like we'll be teaching some lessons in pet care pretty soon.

Adam & Bridget

Saturday was "Santa Cookies" at the Verd house, with all of the Peterson girls continuing the Santa cookie tradition. It was also a houseful of kids. Cousin Adam loves to hold Bridget, and is always wanting to sit with her. Here's a photo of the two of them of them together.

Tough Lessons

If there's one thing that gets Jillian into trouble more than anything, it's being tired. As soon as nap or bedtime starts approaching, she starts getting out of control and doing things that she shouldn't. Yesterday afternoon, she was playing with Cousin Adam in his room. Adam came down the stairs and said that Jillian had popped him on the head. When Daddy quizzed her about it, she said "yes" to the popping (as she always does ... we've found that she doesn't lie about these things). So, Daddy put her in timeout. Jillian then began screaming at Daddy. Mommy said that she needed to go home and take a nap, since it was past that time and she wasn't being a nice girl. When we packed Jillian up to go, she cried out "I want to be a nice girl!", and she continued to yell that all the way home. It took a while for her to stop yelling that and settle down for nap time, but eventually she nodded off. When she woke up many hours later, she was ready to go back to play with Adam, and this time she did play nice.

Making Christmas Presents

Jillian worked hard today making presents for people.  She was quite proud of her creations too.  She would scribble who it was to and then sign her name but we made some headway today because we have been working on J.  So on some she would put a straight line with a hook at the bottom, not always the right direction, but it's a start.  I cautioned her to not tell what was inside the presents but she told Brock anyway but she didn't tell anyone else.  Then she helped me decorate the tree-the speed version.  She unwrapped and then had me hang each one and she was faster at unwrapping than I was at hanging.  Finally she hung a few on the tree.  She was so busy today that she hardly had time to take out many toys to play with.

Getting Tree #2

Being retired we can pick a time to get our tree and it seemed like it took a long time to quit raining. Jillian didn't want to go at first because she said it would be too cold but we said there wasn't a choice so we went.  Once she started walking around she was picking out trees for us, usually the very tallest ones and it was warmer than last Saturday.  She picked up a stick so she could chop down the tree and willingly held branches out of the way while Papa sawed away.  I told her she had to yell "Timber" when the tree fell and she did.  Then she took a nap so we haven't decorated the tree yet.
     She got her candy cane but dropped it on the way to the car but was happy with just a little piece.

The Christmas Tree

We picked one of the rainiest days to go find our Christmas tree this year. All of us (Daddy, Mommy, Jillian and Bridget) drove up to the Miller Tree Farm at Silver Lake to pick out this season's tree. Jillian was pretty excited on the way there, but that ended as soon as we got out of the car. It was pouring down rain, and a little cold, too. Bridget stayed dry and warm, as she was sitting in her little Euro-pack with Mommy, who had an umbrella. But, Jillian didn't bother staying under the umbrella, so she got wet, and her hands got very cold.

We found our tree in record time, since Jillian was pretty miserable and letting us know about it. Bridget was happy the whole time, looking around at all the trees.

Things got better when we bought the tree, as the owner gave Jillian a candy cane. She ate the whole thing on the way home. When we arrived home, we put the tree up and let it dry out before putting on the lights. Mommy got out the ornaments, and gave Jillian some of the unbreakable ones to put on. She did a super job of hanging them on the limbs.

At the end, Jillian was very excited to put the star on top of the tree.

New Stuff XXXIV

It's a quick little pre-Christmas version of new things going on with Jillian and Bridget:

1. "LOOK AT ALL THESE LIGHTS!!!!" : This is in all-caps, because Jillian yells it out really loud. Whenever Mommy or Daddy drives Jillian somewhere at night, when she can see all the Christmas lights, she yells this out for every single light she sees. Even a short string of small lights has her yelling this. Then, when we drive home, she asks us to sing Christmas songs (usually "Deck the Halls").

2. Doctor Jillian : Maybe it was one of Jillian's books that got her into it, but playtime in her room is usually about "playing doctor". Sometimes she is the patient, and sometimes one of her stuffed animals is the patient. First thing that she (or Daddy) does is tap the owie with her hammer. Then, we rub the owie with a ruler. This is all followed by some additional rubs with a baby's hat and some taps with her Dora figurines. At the end, the patient feels all better.

3. Mommy's Girl : It's becoming more and more obvious that Bridget is a mama's girl. A couple days ago, Daddy got Bridget out of the crib when she woke up. She screamed and screamed for no apparent reason, since she had a clean diaper and had been fed just recently. Daddy tried walking her and bouncing her, but she kept screaming ... until Mommy showed up. Then, Bridget immediately calmed down and was a happy girl ... all because she knew Mommy was close by.

Jillian the Builder

Perhaps she is getting her building skills from her Papas, Uncle Dave, or her engineering skills from Daddy, but she is enjoying building with her Dora lego set.  Sometimes I will help her with the top part since that is a little tricky but she will work hard on putting in a gate, fence, stairs, a bridge, and a room for all the Dora characters.  She is always quite proud of her creations and doesn't knock them down like she does when I build something with blocks.  Usually she calls you to come see what she has done.  She will also add her own creative touch like the bow on top of the tree.

Sighting No. 56

Since it's been awhile, here's the latest photo of Bridget, hanging out on the changing table. She's now almost 3 months old, if you can believe that. Now the fun begins!

New Stuff XXXIII

Daddy's been sick with the flue for a while, so the postings have been pretty slim for a while. But, they're back now, with just a couple observations:

1. "Because I'm not listening?" : When Mommy tells Jillian that it's time for bed, this is her response. Since she doesn't like going to bed, she usually thinks that bedtime means she's being punished for doing something bad. Her other response has been "Because I'm being crabby?".

2. "When I was a little girl ..." : Jillian has turned into the a little storyteller. We already knew she was talkative, but when she gets going, she can spin some pretty good stories. This is how she sometimes starts her storytelling.

3. Crunches : Bridget is no longer satisfied to just lay around and look up at us. Now, she curls up her tummy muscles and tries to sit up all by herself so she can look around. It makes it a little more challenging to hold her, since she squirms around more trying to see stuff.

4. Pre-rolling : If we lay Bridget on her back, we've noticed that she's pulling her legs up more and arching her back. It's a bit of a pre-cursor to her soon-to-be rolling over.

5. "I think you're tired" : When it's Jillian's bedtime, she says this to us, hoping that we'll lay down next to her.

Decorating

Jillian woke up crabby today-probably too much Thanksgiving excitement so I was going to put her down for a nap about noon.  That was when I started to bring out the Christmas bins to begin decorating and she was so excited to unwrap everything in the bin to see what it was.  When I got the big lighthouse out, she was fascinated by all the drawers.  Also at that time I got out the little reindeer so I explained how I hide it every day for the kids to find.  I forgot to mention that it was hidden in plain sight.  So she decided to hide it while I was taking the picture, pulling out one of the drawers all the way and putting it clear inside the lighthouse.  I would never have found it there. 

Finally about an hour and a half later she took a nap.  While she was asleep I put the Christmas village in the window but waited to put the snow on after she woke up.  She was really fascinated with all the people in the village and enjoyed seeing the snow fall to cover the village.  It was easy to relate to because of our recent snow.  Christmas will be very fun time this year for Jillian.

B & K

When Cousin Karlie came down to Longview for the baptism, they hung out at the Verd house the night before. They both laid on the floor on a blanket together, and posed for some photos.

SNOW!

Jillian woke up to about 2 inches of snow this morning and wasn't sure if she wanted to go outside, but when I dug out the Dora hat and mittens, she was ready to go.  She was very fascinated walking in the snow and having it land on her as it continued to snow.  I climbed up in the shop to get the sled and at first towed her around which she thought was very neat (tiring for me).  Then I took her to a little hill and let her go down it alone which she didn't think was fun at all.  When I asked her if she wanted to ride with me, she was all for that.  We worked our way up to the long hill at Julie's and she thoroughly enjoyed every ride down the hill.  She always wanted me to pull her back up the hill, but on that long hill I made her walk up all by herself.  After the sledding I showed her how to roll a snowman which she helped very little except to hunt for rocks for the eyes.  By then she was shivering and we went back inside to get warm.  After her nap she insisted on going out again but by then it was too slushy so she had to watch from the window while her snowman melted and his head fell off. 

Bridget & Karlie's Baptism

There was a lot of family gathered at Grace Lutheran Church today for the baptism of Bridget & Karlie. Both of the girls were dressed in their finest white baptismal dresses. They were also both very good girls throughout the service, hardly making a peep. The baptism was at the very start of the service, so the other kids (Jillian, Andy and Adam) were able to stick around long enough to see it.

Bridget ended up being awake for a good part of the baptism, and didn't get upset at all. Her godparents Dany and Jason Paul attended with her, with Dany holding her throughout. This photo shows Pastor Donnan pouring the water on her head.

After the service, everyone went to the Masthead for the after-party. The service was less-than-acceptable, but we managed to get through it with some good food and some nice visiting time. The older kids got a little crazy, but Bridget and Karlie were pretty tired from the whole affair.

2-month Check-up

Briget turned 2 months old yesterday, which meant it was time for her 2-month checkup at the doctor. Mommy took Bridget down to SWMC in the afternoon, and had a very long wait. Eventually, they went in to see Dr. Reid, who we had met at the Family Birth Center when Bridget was born. The nurse did the measurement thing to find that Bridget weighed 12 lbs 2 oz and was 23 inches in length. We weren't surprised that she had grown so much, considering that our shoulders and backs were sore from carrying her. Dr. Reid checked her over, as well as checking her breathing, since she had a cold the past few days. Everything looked good.

The appointment ended with Bridget getting her shots: DTAP, Hep-B, Pertussis. She also got an oral vaccination (can't remember the name).

Fun Day

Rielee had early release from school this week so she got to spend the afternoon with Jillian.  They did play-doh, dressed up with wigs on (a first time for Jillian trying out the wigs I bought on sale after Halloween), played outside, and took the tent downstairs and read books inside it.  Rielee called me Cathy every time she needed something and then I heard a loud "Caffy" and it was Jillian calling for me.  She called me that the rest of the day even after Rielee left.  Hopefully, she'll go back to Grannie soon.

Jillian's New Bed

For the past 6 months or so, Jillian has had a large queen bed in her room to sleep on. Actually, it's just our big inflatable mattress, but she loved it because it was big and bouncy. Unfortunately, it developed a leak (no surprise there) and was slowly deflating. So, we went to Fred Meyer and picked up some foam pads to make a new temporary bed. It's a little smaller, but Jillian still thought it was pretty cool. She immediately started jumping on it and rolling all over it (like this photo shows).

Little Cold

Bridget caught her first cold these last few days. She's actually had a bit of a runny nose for a while, but then it turned into full-blown congestion. When she breathes, it sounds like a little snore. Mommy has tried to suction it out to give her some relief, but it's mostly way back in her nasal passages. So, we are just waiting for her to get over it.

Meanwhile, both Jillian and Mommy are sharing this little cold, as well. We've got a bunch of sick girls in the house right now.

Too Many Leaves

I never have my camera when I see something so funny that Jillian does.  Today we were outside walking and went down the path where there are a lot of maple leaves on the ground.  She said, "Look at all the leaves."  Then she said, "I need to put them back on the tree."  So she proceeded to pick them up one by one and set them on a low hanging cedar branch.  I guess she finally realized the futility of that project and proceeded down the path.

State Volleyball

     Jillian with Mommy at the 1A state volleyball tournament.  We would box Jillian in with 2 or 3 seats in between so she could play with her sack of toys.  Rielee usually joined her and they had a good time coloring or playing store with the cash register.  One time the coach's daughter, Kinzie, joined them so it was a lot of fun for Jillian.  But the last game of the last day she crawled on my lap and promptly went to sleep for the whole 4th place game.  That meant she could stay awake for the whole ride home from Yakima watching videos and playing with Tierney.  I think she had enough volleyball for awhile. 

     Bridget either slept, ate, or was held by Julie or Mommy.  She was a super traveler on the trip over and back-sleeping all the way.

    

Cheering the Team

I had to add this one of the whole group (minus those taking pictures or video) as Jillian is deciding on whether she wants to do this or not, wondering who are some of these people.  Rielee is in the lavender coat in the foreground.  Jillian did end up having me hold her and she did wave to the vans as they passed by. 

Little Talk

If you get Bridget on the changing table, odds are good that she'll do a little bit of talking, like this video shows. Sometimes she works herself up to it pretty good. She gets a little red in the face, and scrunches up her nose, then lets out a big "oooh" or "aahhh".

Future Cheerleader

Thanks to Billie Allegar for this photo! Grannie Woodruff took Jillian to the send-off for the Castle Rock Volleyball Team, who were heading to the state tournament in Yakima. We're certain that Jillian loved waving the pom-pom!

New Stuff XXXII

It's a bunch of fun and cool things from our two favorite little munchkins:

1. The Negotiator : If Jillian wants something, or wants to do something, and we say "no", she immediately goes into negotiating mode. She responds with "No, no, no, I just want one more", or "No, no, no, just a couple more minutes", etc. And, she's very firm about it, not backing down.

2. Sleeping In : Thankfully, Bridget is sleeping more these days. We've seen her sleep time stretch out to 4 or 5 hours at a time, so Mommy is feeling much more rested.

3. Post-Halloween : Even though Halloween was a week ago, Jillian still remembers it very well, and talks about it all the time. She likes to talk about her princess costume, and saying "trick-or-treat", and she especially likes to ask for some candy from her candy bowl (mostly the suckers).

4. Silly Girl : Jillian's silliness comes out a lot, because she likes to try and make us laugh. Usually, she just ends up making herself laugh. Her silly things are to attach the words "in the world", "cheese" and "summer" to the end of songs and stories.

5. "Don't be sad ... be happy" : Daddy was telling Jillian not to do something, and Jillian responded with this.

6. The Looooong Bedtime Delays : Bedtime is not one of Jillian's favorite things, so she makes every effort to prolong the inevitable. Once she lays down, she immediately starts coming up reasons to get out of bed, including "I need a drink", "I have to go potty", "I need a tissue" (to blow her nose), "I'm hungry", and on and on.

7. "Stay Out!" : It's the privacy thing, again. Jillian yells this at us when she goes potty. Only after she's done will she let us into the bathroom.

8. Little Giggles : Bridget is not only smiling, but also breaking out with some little laughs.

Buckle Up, Barbie

If you look into the backseat of Mommy's car, you'll find a Barbie doll buckled into the middle seat. Jillian learned from her Dora videos to "buckle up, so we can be safe". So, she made sure that her doll was safe, too, by buckling her in.

Smiling Girl

More and more, we are seeing Bridget flashing big smiles, just like this photo (see Ty, she does smile!). In this case, she had been fed, changed and rested, so she was in a happy mood. Plus, she was on the changing table, which is one of her favorite places.

Last nice days and early release

The kids got outside to enjoy the summer-like weather and the last days of early release.  Right after this picture was taken they got in the "bouncer" for a rowdy game of wrestling with Jillian holding her own by tackling the boys.  Tierney was content to hold Bridget and just watch.  Bridget really enjoyed being outside a lot today and hearing new sounds and seeing the colors of the leaves.  Jillian was also delighted that Rielee had early release that day and could come play. 

Early Halloween

Mommy took Jillian and Bridget to the Fibre Federal Ops Center on Friday to do a little early trick-or-treating. Jillian got all dressed up in her pretty princess outfit, complete with a crown, slippers and "magic wand". Bridget wore her My First Haloween outfit. They met Uncle Clark and Cousin Adam, who was dressed up as a pit boss for Lightning McQueen. Uncle Clark did the heavy lifting, carrying Bridget around in her carseat, since she was asleep the entire time. Auntie Greta's floor was dressed up in the graveyard theme. Very scary! The kids trick-or-treated in all the cubicles, and they got lots and lots of candy! On the third floor, where the workers were dressed up as famous people from the past, they continued getting more candy. Everytime Jillian would get candy, she'd start shaking and yelling "Look, Mama, I got candy!!!"

When Jillian got home, she was so excited to show Daddy her candy, yelling "I got so much candy!!!" and shaking, of course. She pointed out each piece of candy, saying "look what I got!". Several times, she was so overwhelmed with excitement, that she gave Daddy big squeezes.

Feeding Baby

Jillian has watched Mommy feed Bridget for a long time now, so she knows how it's done (kind of). So, she got her little Apple Dumplin' on her lap and proceeded to feed her. As you can see in the photo, she got a little pink spoon and scooped "food" (or milk) out of her tummy, and fed it to her baby.

Frizzy

Bridget took a bath the other day, and when she was done, Mommy decided to dry her hair all frizzy-like. We knew she has a lot of curly hair, but this is something else.

Halloween Spirit

It's getting close to Halloween and Jillian is getting in the spirit.  She now uses the broom to ride around like a witch and sometimes she will put on the witch's hat.  We keep persuading her to be the "good" witch.  Today, when Mommy picked her up, she got to wear her princess outfit as they were going trick or treating where Greta works.  Mommy curled her hair and she was so excited to wear her costume.  In the picture she doesn't have her crown on yet.

Girls' Shopping Day

Today, the girls and I loaded up in the car and headed to Jantzen Beach Mall to do some shopping.  First of all, I quickly realized how much work it is to load and unload two young children in and out of the car.  Note to self, condense your number of stops.  However, Jillian was a very big girl and stayed close to Mommy and never ran off in the store.  Bridget slept most of the trip to the mall.  She did wake up once, and after eating she was back to being in good spirits.  Jillian and I found a wand and a crown to finish off her princess look for Halloween.  We also found a cute outfit for Bridget to wear too!  All in all it was a successful trip without any meltdowns.

Wild Day

After breakfast of sausage and waffles, Jillian was excited to take her bath.  We start with the tub empty and let the water run as she fills up her play glass over and over or plays with the bath animals.  She starts off calling it her bath as it fills and then when it reaches the top it becomes her pool.  This was about a 40 minute bath (At least, I have that time to give the rest of the bathroom a good cleaning.)  When it's her pool size she likes to pretend to swim around.  It's still this fascination with all things water. 

And speaking of fascinated with water, soon after the bath I showed her the new boots to go with her umbrella and she immediately wanted to go outside.  (This was the first time she would consent to me taking a picture so like Rick says it is getting easier.)  The weather was so wild today that soon after we went out, the sky cleared and we got some sun.  So we explored all over making sure to stomp in each puddle.  One thing she usually does is want to save an animal like the Wonder Pets do.  Today, the Puma was in trouble and we had to go in to the trees to save it, but she got distracted and decided it was more fun to play hide and seek behind trees. 
The kids have early release for the next two weeks so they were all at the house and ready to eat and play and Jillian had a great time joining in all their silliness.  Sometimes they would even play hide and seek with her.  This picture shows them having Papa's smoothies and eating and eating.  Tierney's arm, Brock, Jillian, Cale (2 smoothies), and Ty are in the picture.  Cale couldn't sit since Brock knocked his juice all over the chair earlier. 

Riding Jazzy

Jillian found Mommy's hat in the closet, and immediately latched on to it. Now, whenever she goes for a ride on "Jazzy", she puts on Mommy hat. She's looking more and more the part of a cowgirl. And funny thing, too, is that she is getting to like posing for the camera.

Feeding Time

For a long time, Jillian has been asking us if she can feed Bridget with a bottle. Well, this morning, Mommy was out for a little while, and Bridget was hungry, so Daddy got a bottle of Mama's milk ready. Then, Jillian got ready on the couch and Daddy placed Bridget next to her. Jillian did a very good job of holding the bottle, and Bridget was very hungry, drinking the whole thing. Jillian was so proud, and ran to tell Mommy when she got home.

New Stuff XXXI

Both Jillian and Bridget are weighing in with a couple things this time around:

1. "Just for a couple minutes" : Jillian has started trying to negotiate with us, saying this whenever she wants to do something and when we reply that we can't do it right now. And she's relentless, letting us know that it will only take a couple minutes, so how can we resist?

2. Tongue Twister : If you watch Jillian, you'll notice that she can now "twist" that long tongue of hers into a spiral shape.

3. Early Smiles : There have been a couple instances lately where Bridget has flashed a little smile, usually when she's having some quality face-to-face time. When that happens, we can really see the dimple on her left cheek.

4. "Coo" : Bridget's first sounds, other than crying, has been a little bit of cooing.

5. "It's OK, Bridget" : When Jillian is sitting in her carseat in the backseat, and Bridget is next to her, crying and screaming, this is what Jillian will say to Bridget in trying to calm her down, since she doesn't like to hear her cry. She's heard Mommy and Daddy say this many times. Sometimes, Jillian will follow that up with "We're almost there."

6. Gym Runner : One of Jillian's favorite things about going to volleyball games is when they're over. That's when she gets to run wild on the court. At that time of night, she's usually delirious, anyways, so it's a good time for her to run it off before bedtime.

Note: Daddy typed nearly all of this with one hand while holding Bridget with the other hand. She's been a very restless sleeper today.

Rashes, Fits and Other Stuff

Bridget has developed a bit of a rash on her face, neck and back that Mommy calls "baby acne". It's just a bunch of little bumpies. It has us wondering what is causing it. Mommy thinks it's either the soap she's being washed with, or maybe something she ate.

Evening time has proven to be Bridget's cranky time. About 5:00 pm, she starts crying and screaming and getting red in the face. And there's not much that will console her. We try feeding her, changing her diaper, rocking her, etc., but it's just a matter of time before she gets worn out and goes to sleep. Jillian usually just watches and tells us "Bridget's crying."

Bridget hates wet or dirty diapers, and she lets us know, very loudly. She doesn't like it even for a minute, so it's easy to know when it's happened so we can prevent a breakthrough.

Too Quiet

With Jillian, when it's quiet it's time to wonder what's up.  We were watching TV last night and Jillian had just gone into the computer room.  Almost always it is to get something to play with since she always wants to be in the same room as you.  It wasn't very long and I remarked, "She's too quiet!", so I went in to the computer room and she had found a big bag of glitter and was sprinkling it all over the room-I supposed it looked like fairy dust in stories.  No sooner had I walked in the room and she grabbed the swiffer duster and got busy trying to clean it up.

1 Month Old

Here's Bridget's 1 month photo. She was a good girl all day (after a long, sleepless night).

Big Girl Sleep Time

Ever since the time that Jillian began sleeping in a bed, we have been laying down with her to help her get to sleep. When she was tired, it didn't take long. But, when she wasn't tired, it could take a long time, even up to an hour before she went to sleep. Mommy said that wasn't going to work anymore now that Bridget was here. So, a couple days ago, we made the switch. Daddy got Jillian into her bed for night-night and read a story to her. Then, he gave her a hug and kiss and told her she needed to sleep by herself like a big girl. Jillian immediately started crying and yelling. It wasn't but a couple minutes after Daddy left her room that Jillian came walking down the hallway, saying "I need a tissue" (since she had been crying). After blowing her nose and being put back to bed, the whole process repeated two more times. Finally, Daddy said "no more tissues". Jillian cried a little bit more, but then it got quiet. When we checked about 15 minutes later, Jillian had fallen asleep.

We've done this a few more times since, and though there was a little battle, Jillian has gone off to sleep on her own each time. Mommy and Daddy are happy about this change.

The Flood

It was a near-disaster this afternoon. Jillian was playing with her little pumpkin in the kitchen while Mommy was busy feeding Bridget and Daddy was cleaning the house. Jillian decided to give the pumpkin a little bath by shoving it into the refrigerator water dispenser. It got stuck, and water starting pouring out all over the wood floor. Jillian ran down the hall, yelling "the water is coming out", and we could hear water hitting the floor. Daddy ran in and removed the pumpkin, and gave Sweetie-Pie a little scolding. There was quite a bit of water on the floor, but it dried up quick with the help of three bath towels.

Good Humor Girl

  Since Jillian didn't have a nap yesterday, she fell asleep in her car seat when Heather brought her to Grannie's.  That was about 7:30 PM and she fell back asleep when they came in.  So I laid her on the couch until about 10:30, put her jammies on and she still didn't want to wake up. Then she slept in until 8:00 AM this morning and was in a wonderfully cheery mood.
      After breakfast we headed up to Dianne's to see the twins. Jillian had come out of the playroom carrying two dolls that the twins wanted so she was very nice and gave them to Ava and Harper.  But most of the time she was busy entertaining herself with all the unfamiliar toys. 
     After that she had fun playing outside while it was still nice, but sadly all the water toys are put away.  Somehow she still manages to get wet-this time at Robin and Dan's pond.  After lunch she went unprotestingly down for a nap and after two hours I decided to wake her up.  Brock, Ty, and their friend Mason were here, so she had a great time with them.  She learned how to use the Dora bouncing ball so Ty sprayed the driveway with water and Mason used the giant bubble wand to make really big bubbles that would land in the water and Jillian would hop around on her ball and pop them. 

      I didn't hear any whiny girl today until we took her home and she immediately began whining about something to Daddy.  It reminded Rick and I of how Julie's boys would be good all day, until Julie got there, and they went from good to whiny and demanding in minutes to get Mommy's attention.

Morning Snuggles

Jillian was watching some morning cartoons on the couch, and Daddy was holding Bridget who was having some awake time. Jillian asked if she could hold Bridget, so Daddy laid Bridget down next to her. Jillian did a very good job of not moving for the next ten minutes, and eventually Bridget fell asleep. They both snuggled on the couch for a while after that.

New Stuff XXX

It's the latest edition of new stuff. For now, it's still all Jillian, but we're sure Bridget will be coming up with some stuff soon, too.

1. "I'm uncomfortable" : Pretty much we can count on Jillian saying this as soon as we put her into her carseat; it's usually because she wants the air conditioning turned on to cool her off.

2. "Camilla" : This must be her imaginary friend, because she mentions her every now and then.

3. "You can use one hand, Daddy" : When we're driving with Jillian in the carseat in the back, Jillian will ask for help with something. When Daddy replies that he can't help because he's driving, Jillian will respond with this.

4. "Shoes off!" : It didn't take long for Jillian to learn that the carpeted rooms in the house were no-shoe zones. So now, when we're about to go into a carpeted room, she'll yell this at us as a reminder.

5. "Daddy asked those questions already" : When Daddy picked Jillian up from Grannie's house, he asked her about her day and what she did. And Jillian will usually give me a detailed story of her day. Later that evening, when Mommy asked Jillian about her day at Grannie's, this is how she responded. Apparently, she only wants to tell a story one time.

6. "Sweetie-Pie Baby" : This is the one thing that you don't say around Jillian, unless you really want to take care of her as a little baby.

7. "Holy Cow!" & "Holy Smokes!" : These exclamations have become a regular part of Jillian's vocabulary.

8. "Yup, I do" : This is a standard response from Jillian.

9. "She wants your milk, Mama!" : If Bridget is crying, this is what Jillian starts yelling immediately. She keeps yelling it over and over loudly, because she doesn't like to hear Bridget cry.

10. "I'm not doing anything" : If we ask Jillian what she is doing (whether we can see her or not), she'll often respond with this.

Guess Who?

Here's another instance where our daughter (this time, Bridget) looks very much like someone else in the family. Can you guess who this is?

Well, this photo is of Cousin Cale (way back in 1995) when he was a little baby less than a month old, just like Bridget. Notice that he had lots of dark hair, just like Bridget. There's some similarity, too, in the facial features. When we showed this photo to Cale and asked him who it looked like, he said "Bridget".