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.