Preschool Grad!

Jillian graduated from 3-year-old Preschool today! There was a program put on by all the kids and teachers in the class, and lots of family and friends came to watch Jillian, including Papa Ken, Auntie Karen, Beverly, Papa Bob, Grannie, Mommy, Daddy and Bridget. The program started with some songs that included sign language, but Jillian didn't participate in any of those, preferring instead to wave at people in the audience (Mommy figured this would happen, since Jillian didn't want to practice signing at home). Eventually, there were some songs that involved lots of movement and dancing, and Jillian was totally into those. The video below shows one of those (called "Toody Tah").

After the program was over, there was a reception. Jillian and Bridget immediately bolted for the snack table and grabbed the M&M-topped cookies and started chowing down. We did manage to snap a photo of Jillian in her pretty blue Easter dress, surrounded by her teacher Mrs. Elliott and teacher's aide Mrs. Scarborough.

Pre-school Celebration

After a cute program at the end of pre-school we took Jillian for a treat at Sweet Spot.  She had chocolate yogurt covered with big spoonfuls of chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, mini M & M's, and other sprinkles.  I'm not sure she ate any of the yogurt.  Then she finished off her treat with a hot chocolate with chocolate whip cream from Starbucks.  I think we returned a hyper girl to her parents.

Beach Get-away

Mommy figured it was a good time to get away and relax for the weekend, so we headed for the beach. Due to the weather, it was kind of a tale of two trips: one sunny and one rainy.

Before getting to the beach on Saturday, we made a stop at the Astoria pool, where Jillian was so excited to get to wear her new monkey swimsuit. Mommy and Daddy were really happy that the activity pool was warmer than usual (while the wading pool was actually chilly?), so we stayed for a long time. Bridget is still fearless in the pool, walking out from the shallow end on her own until her mouth is just above the water line. Jillian did well, and only had one oopsie when she visited Daddy who was in the spa (which was hotter than usual), and slipped and fell in and went all the way under ... not a happy girl. After swimming, the girls were ready to eat, and they ended up eating practically the entire fish basket we got from The Bowpicker. We finished it off with ice cream at Custard King.

As soon as we got to the cabin, we went right for the beach, since it was sunny and warm, and very little wind. Jillian wanted to go right down to the water, so we spent the first part of our visit doing some wave jumping. Wow, the water was cold! Bridget did some wave-jumping, too (of course, she always has to do what big sister does), and for the most part thought it was fun ... until a bigger wave soaked her shorts. That was the end of that, so we headed for the warm sand to build sand mountains, followed by the dunes to roam around. The day ended with some pizza and Redbox rentals.

On Sunday, we woke up to rain and cold. No beach visit this time, though we did manage to get out for coffee at Adelaide's, and some fun and games at Fun Land. We also tried going into Marsh's Museum, but Bridget wanted to touch everything, so we made that a short visit. Most of our day was spent relaxing in the cabin, where Jillian and Bridget found lots of things to play with and lots of books to read. We ended this day with toasted cheese sandwiches, soup and more Redbox rentals.

Monday was a quick wake-up, clean-up and head home type of day.

Mayhem

The twins came down to play with Jillian and Bridget.  It was exciting because Ava and Harper didn't know how to drive and Bridget had just learned and they couldn't steer so we just sent them in circles.  When both vehicles were going it led to a few crashes like this one about to happen.  Usually both Dianne and I were following one vehicle or the other.  They all took turns riding with each other in the jeep. Jillian entertained herself by riding the balance bike and following behind the wild drivers.  They had a great time.

Crazy Drivers

Bridget learned to drive the jeep today.  She has to sit forward in the seat and reach for the pedal but she wanted to do it bad enough to make it work.  She is a little jerky because her foot comes off the pedal sometimes.  She doesn't steer yet so we crank it right and she goes in circles but we have to follow her since occasionally she will jerk the steering wheel around.  Jillian got on her balance bike and they had fun riding around with Jillian following her, staying out of her way since the jeep is pretty powerful.  Bridget is one focused girl on the jeep.

Cousin Fun

Wow, was it hard to get 5 kids this age to look at the camera and smile.  They are too busy playing to sit still for a minute.  We were at Tierney and Macee's softball game against RA Long.  The kids had a fun time playing and deciding who was going to hold the babies (mainly between Bridget and Ava and Harper).

Today I put water in the water play area, so between the sand box and the water there was mainly wet sand in the water area.  After dinner when we were sitting on the deck, Dan came up to ask Papa something.  Bridget was by the water area and she put a gob of wet sand on top of her head.  Dan laughed at her so she promptly put a couple more gobs of sand on her head (thanks Dan) until Daddy stopped her.  Bridget loved it since she was the center of attention.  A bath followed not long after.

Hammock Fun

Yesterday we put up the hammock with the sand box and water play area.  Bridget loved the hammock but she wouldn't go on it alone (Jillian was at pre-school) so Papa volunteered to go with her-wonder why?  Then today Jillian and Bridget got on it together and wanted me to swing them.  I asked if I had to do that all day because they never wanted me to stop.  Then when Daddy came to pick them up he had to take his turn on the hammock with them.  The sandbox was the other big attraction that they played in for a long time managing to move most of the sand to the water play area. 

The Brown Rock

After every bath, we find a "brown rock" laying on the bathroom floor. Nobody has any idea where it came from, or how it got there. Mommy and Daddy will look at it and say "What is this brown rock doing here, and where is our Sweetie-Pie?" Oddly enough, sometimes the brown rock will talk. It will say, "Remember, you're supposed to throw the rock into the garbage!" And if we pick up the brown rock and move it somewhere, it will miraculously grow legs and run around. Bridget often looks at the brown rock and wonders what is going on.

Tent Fun

Jillian and Bridget decided to put up the tent on the front deck which is great as it is self-enclosed.  They put pillows and blankets inside and Jillian pretended they were hamsters in a cage and tried to escape.  Even Sophie joined the merriment inside the tent.

They didn't have long enough naps before it was time to go to the softball game at CR.  Bridget fell asleep on the way so Papa watched the game from the car but Jillian was awake so got to play with the twins (She was great entertaining them.) and then Rielee came later so she had a fun time.  After the game Daddy put hot water in the cool pool so Jillian got some use out of her new swimsuit that she wore all day.  Bridget joined in the pool fun.  They were very tired girls at the end of the day.

New Stuff XLX

Together, Jillian and Bridget are able to come up with twice the new stuff!

1. Battles Royale : Bridget knows how to push Jillian's buttons. Her typical method is to watch Jillian playing with something, and then when she looks the other way ... grab it and run! Jillian just about loses it, and the battle begins. That's not to say Bridget is always so stealthy; sometimes she just walks up and takes something from Jillian, which also ends up in a fight. Unless she gets hurt, Bridget seems to think it's pretty fun ... Jillian, not so much.
2. Buy It : It's hard to take Jillian to the store without her wanting something and saying to just "buy it". When we respond that we don't have any money to buy it, she tells us to go to the bank.
3. Bringing School Home : Jillian has learned a lot at her pre-school, and we find this out in things that she says to us. Lately, we've heard a lot of "That's one ...", meaning we're being bad and on our way to the count of three, which would mean the "Thinking Chair". Another one we've heard is "Raise your hand if ...", and then she'll call on us if we raise our hands. We just have to make sure not to wave our hands, or she'll remind us to have "quiet hands."
4. "Draw" : Bridget has a large Dora coloring book that she loves to color with crayons. If someone's in her room, she'll yell at them "draw!", and then grab the book and crayon bag and expect us to sit on the floor and color with her. Part of the fun for her is throwing the crayons all over the room.
5. "Read" : More and more, we hear this from Bridget, as she has her own little library of books in the play kitchen. Her taste in books is pretty much all over the place, with her current favorite being "Clifford's Easter".
6. Everything's "Mine!" : Other than "No!", this is probably Bridget's favorite word. She especially likes to say it to Jillian, even if the thing that she's talking about is not really hers.
7. Fun in the Dirt : Outdoor time with the girls usually means getting dirty. Our landscaping is pretty much in an unfinished state, so there's lots of dirt, which the girls love to dig in. When we go outside, they immediately retrieve their buckets and shovels, and bring them to the front of the house where there's dry dirt to scoop and spread all over the place.
8. Petco : A trip to Petco with the girls has been a popular (and cheap) activity, so much so that we go there about once a week. They love to look in all the cages at the different animals, but by far their most favorite animals are the mice. Jillian likes to talk about buying a mouse someday (see No. 2 above). 
9. "No way!" : If we ever say something to Jillian that she doesn't want to hear, she responds with this.
10. Fun in the Car : This is currently the girls' most favorite activity. Daddy parks his car in the front driveway, and the girls love to climb in and just play around for quite a while. Usually, Jillian likes to pretend to drive, and Bridget is happy to crawl around. They know where most of the buttons and such are, so we'll often see the hazard lights on, or hear the horn.
11. Poop Talk : That's one thing about having a big sister ... Bridget picks up on some of the silly talk that she hears from Jillian. So, we get to hear a lot of "poop-" this and "poop-" that from her.
12. "Bad Da-da" : Bridget probably picked this up from Jillian, too. So, when Daddy does something that Bridget doesn't like, she'll say this.
13. "Nothing ..." : Jillian is like any other kid going to school. As soon as we ask her what she did in school, she says this ... and that's it.
14. "I have bad news ..." : A new sentence started by Jillian.
15. The New Swim Suit : Here's a bonus entry, since a photo is included. We went to Costco, and since Jillian had outgrown her old swimsuits and summer was on the way, we picked up a new one. As soon as we got home, Jillian changed right into it, complete with flip-flops. Then, she and Bridget pretended to go swimming in Bridget's crib.

Art Day

Jillian wanted to do water colors and of course Bridget wanted to also.  Jillian worked hard on her picture while Bridget drew with the washable markers.  I didn't feel Bridget was ready for the paintbrush and water although later I would dip the brush in the watercolor and give it to her so she could paint too-my mistake.  After quite awhile Jillian got some paint on her hand and decided to decorate her hand pretty.  And right before that I had given Bridget the watercolor brush so she also painted her hand.  We must keep up with sister.

Visiting the Twins

While Jillian was at pre-school, Bridget got to go visit Ava and Harper.  At first she was shy but soon joined in playing with dolls.  They had goldfish crackers and Ava and Harper shared very well.  Bridget didn't talk at all until halfway through the visit.  Then she was all smiles and charm, on her best behavior.  Later they had crackers with peanut butter but Bridget just liked the crackers.  Right before we left Harper had an accident and was on the potty when Bridget left.  When we got home all Bridget could say over and over was "Harper (pause) poop." or "Harper (pause) diaper." or "Harper (pause) potty."  She was so serious trying to tell me what happened.

Girls' Pics

A little while ago, we took the girls in to Sears to have Bridget's 1-1/2 year photos taken. We figured it was a good time to also have some photos of the Jillian and Bridget together, since we hadn't done that yet. These photos shown here are Mommy's favorites, and the one's that will be framed and put up in the house.

Both girls did pretty good posing for photos. Almost all of these photos, and several other good ones, were taken right at the beginning of the session, when they were both unsure about the photographer. But once they warmed up, they were all over the place. Jillian started getting silly and wanting to play. And Bridget just took off running, usually into the next room to check out some other babies who were getting their photos taken. At one point, the photographer decided to just let Bridget roll around on the floor and play, and she ended up getting some decent shots there.