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".

Church Day

It was Bridget's first day at Grace Lutheran Church this past Sunday. She had a bath in the morning, and got dressed up in a little dress outfit. She did pretty good until we got seated in the pew, then she started crying. Mommy had to take her out and feed her at that point. Minutes later, Jillian got impatient, so Daddy took her to the nursery to play with the toys. Daddy sat through most of service alone before Mommy and Bridget finally returned at the end. Most everyone at church got to see her, and everyone remarked about her full head of hair. This photo is of Jillian and Bridget outside the church, before we headed home.

3 Weeks Old

Here's a photo of Bridget now that she's turned 3 weeks old. We've noticed that she is having more and more awake time, and that she likes to turn her head all over to see what's going on.

Lots of Games

Jillian has been to a lot of games this week to watch all the cousins play.  First on Tuesday, Jillian got to see Cousin Meagan defeat MM in 5 exciting sets.  Then on Wednesday it was off to the football field to watch Brock's 7th grade football team get their third win in a row, followed by Ty's game where he caught a pass for a touchdown.  Then tonight it was off to Kalama to watch Cousins Tierney and Macee defeat Kalama in 3 games.  I'm not sure how much she actually watches but at least once during each game she will point out who's playing and get excited.  Another bonus is that Adam or Rielee are at the volleyball matches.  But, there is more, because RA Long and Castle Rock play Saturday in the Lumberjill Invitational.  Bridget also got to come to all these games but she slept most of the time.  We're hoping all this exposure will motivate Jillian to be a volleyball player.

Our Little Baby

No, we're not talking about Bridget. Our newest little baby is Jillian. She really likes to pretend that she's a little baby. She'll ask us to wrap her up in a blanket, and then pick her up. Then, she wants one of us to "show" her to the other (i.e., she'll say to Daddy, "Show your little baby to Mommy"). So, we'll say, "Oh, she's so cute!", or "She has so much hair!", and Jillian will have a big smile the entire time. We made the mistake of saying to her once "She cries all the time", because now Jillian makes this fake-crying sound, trying to sound like Bridget.

Mommy is not too thrilled that Daddy is playing this up with Jillian, but it's still pretty funny to watch.

Natural Curls

After giving Bridget a bath, we found that she has naturally curly hair. This is something that she gets from Mommy. It hasn't been that noticeable since as soon as she wears her stocking cap, it gets flattened out pretty quick. But, it seems that her hair style will closely resemble her Mommy, while her hair color (so far) resembles her Daddy.

The photo on the left is actually an older picture when Bridget was less than a week old. So, we've included another more recent photo to also show the curls. This doesn't show as much of the curliness, but it's the best we've got right now.

Late Night Feedings

Bridget is still locked in to feeding at between midnight and 4:00 a.m, and we're not talking about one or two feedings in this time. She is usually awake for a good part of this time, and wanting to eat a lot through most of it. Even though it seems like she has had a lot of milk, she still wants more and lets us know about it. It's usually during this time that she gets the most upset and agitated. Mommy noted that she tends to get a little wild, thrashing around and yelling at us.

The New Park

For whatever reason, Jillian calls it the "pink park". It's the new playground that was just installed over at Lake Sacajawea, and it has a lot of interesting things in it. We've been telling Jillian all week that we'd go to the new park when it opened, so she has been asking about it a lot. When it finally did open up, we went the next day, and Jillian ran wild all over it. For about an hour, she never stopped going, as she ran from one thing to the next. There were a lot of challenging climbing things, too, and Jillian loved to try each one (like this photo shows).

2 Weeks Old

Bridget continues to grow and become more active and aware of what's going on. She's been having a lot more awake time, and will stare at people when she sees them. She's also pretty good and turning her head around to find people, or at least to look at whatever was making noise.

Unfortunately, she came down with a little cold in the past day or so, and she's been very sleepy, and crabby when she's awake.

Jillian School

Since school began Jillian has been missing everyone, especially Rielee who came every Thursday to play.  Jillian always asks, "Where's Rielee?", so I explain how everyone (Tierney, Cale, Ty, Brock) goes to school to learn to read, write, and count.  She says she wants to go to school too.  Lately, outside, she's been saying that a lady called her and said to come to school, so she jumps on her little car and zooms off.  So when Papa said he would do the ABC's on Starfall, she got a book bag (to her it was) with a handle and got on her Princess shoes and said she was going to school with Papa.  Of course school also has art, so when she finished with reading she got to do some water coloring.

2-week Checkup

The whole family (Mommy, Daddy, Jillian and Bridget) made a trip to SWMC to see Dr. Wheelock for Bridget's 2-week checkup. It was kind of a challenge, because Jillian was all out-of-sorts, and whined most of the time. She probably still wasn't feeling good.

All of us went into the examination room when they called us back. Jillian was really looking forward to seeing the doctor again, so she could tell him about all of her owies. We got Bridget stipped down to her diaper, while Jillian sat patiently in a chair. When the nurse came in, Bridget got naked and weighed in at 8 lbs 14 oz. So, she gained nearly a pound since the last checkup.

Then, Dr. Wheelock came in and checked out Bridget using the stethoscope and otoscope, which Jillian had read about in a Dora book, so she watched very closely. Eventually, Jillian got bored and started squirming, so Daddy gave his cell phone to her to occupy her time. At the same time, Dr. Wheelock was asking questions about Bridget and typing them into his laptop. So, Jillian started asking us "how old is the baby?", and then writing in the cell phone with the stylus.

Dr. Wheelock said that everything looked good, and to come back in 2 weeks for the 1-month checkup.