New Stuff XLV

A bunch of stuff accumulated over the weeks ...

1. "You're welcome, sir" : This is how Jillian likes to respond to a thank-you, even to Mommy.

2. "You're kidding me!" : There's really no particular time that Jillian likes to use this phrase. The funny thing is, she knows how to emphasize the "kidding" part just right.

3. "Bridgy" : Jillian calls Bridget by her actual name much of the time, but sometimes she likes to use this, especially when she's the coddling big sister.

4. "Big Sister" : If you say this to Bridget, she immediately starts looking for Jillian.

5. The Growler : It's one of those low growly sounds that Bridget makes, when she's not happy or wants something and is not getting it.

6. The Climber : A while back, Bridget figured out how to climb onto Jillian's bouncer. After Mommy and Daddy pulled her off of it many times (since she's had a few falls from it), she now thinks it's pretty exciting to make a mad dash for the bouncer, laughing all the way while Mommy and Daddy are saying "no, Bridget" and chasing her.

7. Turning into a "Puff" : Bridget routinely eats rice puffs at the dinner table, since it keeps her pretty occupied while everyone else eats their dinner. Jillian likes to say that, because Bridget eats so many puffs, that she's going to turn into a puff ... and of course, she laughs at her joke.

8. Chores : Setting the table is one of the first chores that's been given to Jillian. She does pretty good at it, putting the placemats in the right spots, along with napkins and silverware. Staying focused and finishing the job is always the hard part.

9. Stair Climber : Bridget likes Auntie Greta's house, not just for all the fun things to do there, but also because there are stairs. Bridget likes to climb them all the way up, and if she's taken back down, go right back up again.

10. "Disgusting" : For a while, this was Jillian's favorite word. It usually went like this: "You know what I call dirt? ... I call it disgusting."

11. Circles : Jillian really got into identifying circles, and on one trip to Seattle, it was a non-stop circle hunt. Jillian would say "I just remembered, a (blank) is a circle". You can insert anything that resembles a circle into the (blank), such as a wheel, hole, ring and on and on ... even a circle itself.

12. "Can Ainsley eat ... ?" : This is one of those repetitive question games that Jillian likes to play, asking the same question with different endings over and over. Most of them were silly, like "Can Ainsley eat a car?", but she'd change it up once in a while with something reasonable to keep us guessing.

13. "Libarium" : Jillian likes to pretend to be a librarian with all of her books, giving them to us to check out.

14. Ballet Lessons : Jillian just got done with ballet lessons that were given by the City of Longview Parks and Recreation. They were a week long, and followed her swim lessons at Briarcliff, so she was usually a little loopy and ready for a nap by that time. But, she did a good job, learning a couple ballet moves that she's shown to us.

15. Three and Four Steps : Bridget is now up to at least 3 or 4 steps, though she takes them very quickly and ends up diving forward at the end. But, she's pretty stable, and can step once and stay up.

16. Hiding : Jillian does not like scary things, so when she sees something that scares her (cartoons, people, etc), she'll cover her eyes or duck her head behind something.