New Stuff XLV

Late ... but better than never. Jillian and Bridget actually have been up to things:

1. "Milly Bedillaly" : Like a lot of things, Jillian makes up her own pronunciations. In this case, this is the new book that she got, Amelia Bedilia.

2. "Precious" and / or "Darling" : These are Jillian's latest adjectives that she uses frequently.

3. Pointing : This began many weeks ago, but Bridget started using her index finger to point at things. She likes it when we tell her what she's pointing at, or ask her "Is that ...?"

4. More Sign : Bridget learned this from Mommy a little while ago, and we saw her use it a couple times (she did it the same as her big sister ... pointing at her open hand). For whatever reason, though, she has stopped doing it, and won't do it when asked.

5. Hugs : Bridget is used to hugs, because her big sister is constantly giving her big ones. So, with all that experience, Bridget gave a little baby (8 months old) a big hug, too, and scared her to tears (mainly because it was like her big sister's hugs ... aggressive with lots of yelling). We'll be working on gentle hugs, now.

6. "Keylish" and "Mike Menadinga" : Though Daddy can't recall if this has been posted before, "Keylish" and "Mike Menadinga" are Jillian's made-up names. When Grannie got the new puppy for Jillian, she wanted to call her "Keylish". Daddy responded by saying that the puppy should be named "Mike Menadinga" (which got a lot of laughs out of Sweetie-Pie). This went back and forth for a while, before Jillian settled on the name "Sophie". But, Daddy still likes to kid her with the "Mike Menadinga" name.

7. Opening & Closing Doors : This is actually pretty recent -- Bridget enjoys opening and closing doors (mostly the interior doors).

8. Knock-knock Jokes : Jillian was telling knock-knock jokes to Cousins Tierney and Brock the other night. They went like this: "Knock-knock", (Who's there?), "Banana ... ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!!" Jillian thought it was hilarious, but no-one else got it. We eventually figured out what she was doing when we saw a Backyardigan's episode that had this joke, although there was a lot more to it ... Jillian just wasn't telling the whole thing. But, she thought it was funny anyway.

Penned Up

Ty has the right idea how to watch the munchkins.  Really, this is all they wanted to do.  Jillian thought it was a great place to play with Sophie and Bridget would go in the door, close it, then come out again, and repeat over and over. 

Bridget got in the little car today and saw that she could make it move, mainly backwards.  She would make noise the whole time but I don't know if it was car noise or just her making noise.  From  the look on her face Mom and Dad better watch out when she's old enough to drive.

Sophie

Jillian has wanted a puppy for a long time so Friday she got to go with us to get her "Rescue" puppy.  She was so excited and the puppy slept happily on her lap on the trip home from Portland.  At first she wanted to call the puppy, original name Velma, Keylish but the next day she settled on Sophie.  Sophie is a mini-schnauzer and Chihuahua mix so she will stay very small.  She is 4 months old.  On Saturday she carried the puppy all over, and the puppy was great with that, but finally I had to convince her that Sophie needed a nap in her little kennel.  She has accepted the fact that Sophie will need to stay at Grannie's and she gets to come often to see her puppy.  One happy girl!

Thrill Rides and Dirty Feet

Jillian had a good time pushing Bridget around in the car.  Bridget just loved the adventurous rides that Jillian would give her.  And I get good exercise running beside the car just in case. 

They like to go barefoot outside and the blacktop makes their feet black and on Bridget that includes her hands, knees and elbows.  No complaints from her though.

Food!

It was cute today as Ty and Brock were here having a snack, Ty gave Bridget a lick of his gogurt.  He had a new best friend!  Bridget followed him around giving the sign of "more".  I had to finally give her a gogurt in the high chair to give Ty some peace.  Bridget knows what she wants and goes after it agressively. 

Pretty Hair Day

I had just finished Jillian's hair when Rielee came so she wanted hers the same.  They like the curly additions it seems.  They go through quite a few activities when they're together, getting quite creative.  First it was Doctor time so they each had a cast, then they went to being a princess and the evil step-sister, then it was on to traveling to catch an airplane.  It was interesting because they took mainly food for their trip.  Then it was outside to ride on things.  Rielee gave Jillian a thrilling ride on the jeep.  In this picture Rielee is yelling for Tucker to get out of the way.  You can barely see Tucker's tail in the picture.

Waterslide

Jillian and Bridget had a big water day between the water slide and pool.  Bridget would have nothing to do with going down the slide because of the sprinkler on the side that was cold.  But she kept trying to reach for the sprinkles.  Jillian went down once holding my hand and then was content to send her dolls down the slide.  After awhile on this they loved the warm water in the pool  Jillian spend most of her time in the pool laying in the warm water watching Bridget.

Mariners Game

Jillian got to go to her first Mariners game this past weekend. She went with Daddy, his friend Steve, and Steve's son Sam. We went up early and had a chance to get into the ballpark when the gates opened up. The very first place we went was the Children's Playfield. Jillian got to run around and play with lots of other kids. She had been looking forward to this, because whenever we had talked about going to the baseball game, she was not too thrilled ... but she got very excited to hear about a playground at the stadium. After the Playfied, we went to our seats up in the 300 level, and stayed there for all of about 1 inning before Jillian got restless. So, off we went back to the Playfield. We split the rest of the game between the Playfield and walking around the concourse (we never returned to our seats). It was a good game, as the Mariners beat the Red Sox 5-4, and by the end, Jillian was delirious since it was 10 pm.

Water Makes Her Happy

While Jillian is napping Bridget can spend a lot of time playing in the water.  It was cute today as the water wasn't deep enough for her to splash to get all wet so she found a way to get wet anyway.  She would dip the boat in the water and then hold it up high so the water would run down her arm and get her all wet.  She got a kick out of doing it until she was soaked as she would laugh as it ran down her arm.  Later she got in her swim suit and joined Jillian in the pool.  She doesn't mind getting drenched as they both splash a lot.  As soon as Jillian would start to splash, Bridget would join in, furiously splashing too.

Pretty in Pink

If it's pink and sparkly Jillian will want to wear it. The tutu dress has sparkles on the top and the flip-flops also have sparkles.   I love this picture as Jillian looks so pretty, as she is.  It reflects her mood as she was very subdued all morning, doing puzzles and having me read to her.  She even mentioned she was hungry for lunch at an early time as she knows right after lunch and a cartoon it is nap time.  She crashed right away.  While she was sleeping I filled the pool so when she woke up she got on her swim suit right away and split her time between the pond and the pool.  She loves the pond as she finds pretty rocks there.  Then Bridget joined her in the pool and they had a wet splashy time.

Visiting

I'm borrowing from Dianne's blog as she was quick with the camera.  Jillian went up to visit the twins and had a great time with them in a borrowed swimsuit in the pool.  Harper jumped in with Jillian and got all wet too.  Bridget came up later after her nap and got to watch and get soaked in the process.

Jillian enjoyed the hammock with the twins and Auna, who is so good at entertaining the little ones. Later Bridget would get two more changes of clothes as she loves to splash wherever she can find any water.                                     



Bridget's Growing Up Fast

It seems that as soon as Bridget started walking, she started doing a whole lot more things. Here's just a short list of some observations that we've made. There's probably more ...

1. Bridget has become much more vocal. Her volume has gone up, as well as how much she talks (or rather, yells). We think she has decided that to be heard in this house, with Jillian around, she has to be super-loud. So, if both of them are yelling, it is deafening.

2. She has become more expressive, and lets us know that she doesn't appreciate some of the things that we do (like take things away from her). Of course, she lets us know her displeasure by yelling (see no. 1 above).

3. She has gotten more aggressive, and is not afraid to use her new-found walking speed and her considerable strength to get what she wants. Usually, those things are Jillian's things, and Jillian is still faster and stronger, so Bridget tends to lose those battles.

4. She is trying to say words, specifically "ma-ma". This has typically come out while she's crying and walking over to Mommy.

5. WARNING! She is now opening up cabinet doors, especially those in the kitchen, to get to anything that's inside. We've pulled her away from them, and told her "no", more times than we can count. And Bridget just laughs and tries to get back to the cabinets.

6. She has started waving to people, either hello or good-bye. It's kind of big, wild wave of her arm, but it gets the point across.

7. She is pretty tough ... she takes quite a bit of rough-housing from Jillian (picking her up, dropping her, pulling her around) and doesn't cry much, until she gets frustrated with not being able to go where she wants.

8. She can give kisses, if asked. But watch out ... these are the big, wet, open-mouth type of kisses.

9. Crawling is mostly a thing of the past, as Bridget has figured out that walking is faster. This is especially true now, because she is very fast and speeding up every day.

10. She displays a bit of shyness around people she hasn't seen much, usually by hiding her face.

Outside Play

 Bridget kept very busy during Jillian's nap by first playing in the water play area.  Of course she needed a change of clothes after that.  Next she would go to the sandbox and play with all the toys there.  She loved kicking her toes in the sand and throwing sand out of the sandbox.  These two areas were great entertainment.

It was pool day today.  We made the water pretty warm so when Jillian went in at first she treated it just like swimming lessons.  She would sit on the edge, put her hands over her head and say "beaver dive", and pretend swim to the other side of the pool.  She would climb out walk around to the other side and repeat that.  After awhile she practice pushing off from the side so she could do her back swimming.  Soon I had to get a swimming suit on Bridget too.  It didn't take her long to get wet and have a great time.  In this picture Jillian is trying to squirt water on Papa while he's taking the picture.