There will be lots of cousin time for Jillian and Bridget over Spring Break. Here Jillian is ready to dunk the basketball over Brock with a huge advantage thanks to Daddy. Then they would switch sides and defend the basket. Sometimes Jillian would think the target was the overhead light. There was mayhem and balls flying everywhere. Cale, Tierney, and Bridget would jeer on whoever had the ball. Bridget would think everything was hilarious. 
Putting Bridget on the floor in a sitting-up position only leads to her trying to lean out and move to get to other toys. We always put a bunch of toys right in her lap to play with, but she manages to throw them just out of reach, and then she's leaning out on her arms to get close. At this point, she just ends up doing a belly-flop when she gets too far out.
This is one of Jillian's favorite things to do outside this Spring. She always wants to be pushed higher and higher, but she hangs on tight. She will swing until her hands get tired and then she takes a break for awhile. Notice the colorful outfit. As soon as she gets to Grannie's she wants to get on the tutu dress and the sparkly headband. She loves the headbands because volleyball girls wear those when they play. She has to wear pants and a jacket outside which lead to some very unusual looking outfits.
Ainsley is home on Spring Break and she came up to visit. Jillian corralled her to play so she proceeded to decorate Ainsley with a fancy hat and lots of ribbons and bows. Ainsley was very patient with it all. Then Ainsley asked Jillian if she'd like to have a fancy hat too. Jillian sat very patiently too for a long time-surprisingly, while Ainsley put bows and ribbons all over Jillian. Later they went into the bathroom to do hair decorations but I never got to see the results of those creations. They both have very long hair to work with. Bridget just sat there very interested in what was going on.
Both Jillian and Bridget got all dressed up for church on Sunday. Jillian wore her favorite pink polka dot dress (that she tries to wear all the time at home), and Bridget wore her flowery dress that Jillian picked out for her.
Jillian loves her puzzles! This photo shows her putting together her "God Puzzle", which is a big floor puzzle of Noah's Ark. It's 42 pieces, and she can pretty much do it all herself, though her challenge is always staying focused until it's finished. She got her start doing Grannie's puzzles, which are 24 pieces, and she got pretty fast at putting them together.
Bridget turned 6-months-old today! As usual, she was a happy little girl for the photo, and she's so close to the point of being able to sit up without a spotter. She must be growing, too, because she drank 9 ounces of milk this morning.
Bridget has gotten a lot of practice at sitting up in the last couple weeks, usually with Mommy or Daddy holding her up or placing her between their legs. Plus, she's spending more and more time in her activity center, which is close to the same thing. Now, when we put her on the floor by herself, she's usually good for about 30 seconds to a minute before she loses focus and tumbles this way or that. She's taken a few tumbles on the carpeted areas, and cried a little bit ... but she's like her big sister -- she's pretty tough and shakes it off quickly. Most of her spills come because she wants a toy that's out of reach, so she just tilts in the direction and falls to the floor. She has been learning to catch herself with her arm, though.
Ever since Jillian birthday she always wants something to wear with sparkles. I had a skirt that she likes with ladybugs but nothing sparkly for a top so she finds the swimming suit top that is like a tank to wear and it is very shimmery. She also wanted her hair up with a hair band and pretty clippies. Then she proceeds to dance all around. She is growing into a little girl too fast.
Here is Papa in his favorite babysitting role. Whenever it is time for Bridget's nap he volunteers to do it. I wonder why.
It was finally nice enough for Jillian to play in her new turtle sand box. Brock and Jillian played Pirates and looked for buried treasure. Water and sand is always a big hit with Jillian.
Bridget loves her walker now and she usually goes backwards but today, as she wanted to get to the back door window, she went forward. At first she would sit in it for a maximum of 5-10 minutes but now she plays for quite awhile throwing all the toys over the edge or moving around as long as you're near enough to smile at her so she doesn't feel alone. She was miss congeniality today, so happy and smiling all the time. Bridget is getting to the easy stage of being able to entertain herself for awhile.
A little more mobility for Bridget ... she can spin on her tummy. She has been using this technique to get a little closer to objects that are within her grasp. She did a little 180 degree turn tonight on Jillian's floor (since there are so many toys laying around).
In just the last week or so, Bridget has turned into a "wild girl". She tries to grab everything in sight, and she's very squirmy. Holding her has become a challenge, since we're never sure what's she's going to do next.
Bridget has been trying really hard for the past couple weeks to pull her feet to her mouth, and she finally did it. Now that she can do it, it's been a struggle on the changing table, since that's all she wants to do.
It wasn't enough that Jillian has lots of Barbie dolls to dress up. Last night, she grabbed one of her own pretty "skirts" and Bridget's little pink shoes (that Jillian thinks are like ballet slippers) and put them on Bridget. Despite how Bridget looks in this photo, she actually didn't mind the dress up time, even laughing at the silliness. Jillian is always telling us that Bridget will want to dress up and dance with her when she gets bigger.
Since Rielee goes to all day kindergarten she doesn't get to come and play with Jillian as much as before, so today was a treat as Rielee was off for winter break. They had a great time on the new trampoline Jillian got for her birthday that has a safety handle and is big enough for both of them to jump at the same time. They did it together for awhile and then took turns, then did it together for quite awhile. Finally Rielee said she was really tired so they settled down and Rielee showed her new reading ability by reading several Bob books to Jillian. I thought that it would inspire Jillian to get going on her reading but not much luck today. Bribery didn't even work.
Bridget has liked the rice cereal ever since we started feeding it to her. She eats it right up, and is still wanting more after she's done. It's been a couple weeks of rice cereal, now, so Mommy got out something different ... winter squash. Bridget's first taste of it led to a concerned look, like this photo shows. She wasn't a big fan of the winter squash; we'll try sweet potatoes next time (Jillian's favorite when she was a baby).
Here's a photo of Jillian out in the snow, courtesy of Grannie Woodruff. This has been a decent year for snow. Jillian had several opportunities to get outside and play in the white stuff. Plus, she has some nice snow gear for it (her purple coat and brown pants).
This is what Daddy gets when he tries to take a photo of the girls together. Bridget was putting her fist in her mouth (which is typical) and Daddy would pull it out before taking a shot. Jillian decided that it would be pretty funny if she did the same thing. The rest of the photo shoot consisted of Daddy trying to get both of them to pull their hands out of their mouths ... as might be imagined, there were no good photos from this point on.
