Teething?

Something's going on to make our little Jillian a very crabby-patty. For half the day today, she was in a foul mood, fussing and crying even though she was fed, cleaned and rested. We were thinking that maybe she had started teething ... so we cooled off some of her teething rings in case. Grannie took a look and thought she saw something coming in on the bottom. We'll just have to wait and see.

Undecided

Mommy continues to feed a little bit of rice cereal to Jillian every day. She's still undecided about whether she likes it or not ... she usually eats a couple bites, but then fusses. So, she's probably not quite ready for it. But, we'll continue trying until she changes her mind and gobbles it down.

Hand & Eye

As soon as Jillian started getting grabby, she really got better with her hand-eye coordination. Now she can usually grab something with one hand or the other, or both, on the first try, and bring it to her mouth. And she'll hold a toy in front of her with one hand, and touch and pull at it with the other hand. This new skill has meant that Jillian can entertain herself even more with her toys (like during floor time or sitting in her bouncy seat) ... though she'll still yell at us for attention when she gets bored with the toys.

One other thing this morning ... Jillian woke up with her thumb stuck in her pajama sleeve (Mommy and Daddy watched her on the Q-See monitor). Instead of just putting up with it, or crying to us to help, she tried to fix it herself. She stretched out her arm with the stuck thumb, and tried pulling at the sleeve with her other arm. And she eventually got it!

Funny Stuff

Jillian let loose with lots of little laughs tonight. When Daddy made some funny faces and noises, she busted out with some pretty funny giggles. Here's a short video clip of some of it:

Yummy Rice

With Jillian being almost 4 months old, it was time to introduce rice cereal! Mmmm, yummy! Mommy mixed up a little bit of the rice cereal with some formula, then spoon fed it to Jillian while Grandpa Peterson held her. Jillian kind of pushed out the first little bit with her tongue, but the next few spoonfuls, she smacked her lips and tongue as she tried doing something with it ... either play with it or eat it, we're not sure. Eventually, she got tired of it and started fussing. But, she did a great job for her first time with semi-solid food and eating from a spoon.

Bumbo

Daddy couldn't help it ... he just had to buy the Bumbo for Jillian. It was too cool looking. So now, Jillian has a seat that she can sit up in, especially since she is holding her head up so well. Here's a little photo of Jillian in her jammies, sitting in the Bumbo.

Scratchy Sounds

Heather noticed that Jillian has started liking the scratching sound of her fingers when she is touching things; she'll reach out and move her arm around trying to get some noise out of it. She has been scratching the wall whenever she's on the changing table, and she does the same to her playmat in the living room. Those fast-growing fingernails are coming in handy!

1/2-Roll

During floor time, Jillian now spends a good part of her time on her side. She likes to grab both of her knees (like this picture shows), pull them up towards her, and that tends to make her roll to her right side. She'll try to grab things while she's there, or just check out her new perspective on life ... and when she's done, she'll let go of her legs and roll to her back again.

Grabby Hands

In just the last week, something clicked ... and now Jillian is trying to grab everything in sight. Her favorite things to grab, of course, are her rings and book (the toys that go everywhere with her). But she also loves to grab paper, especially if it's red (like at Macee and Rielee's b-day party). She'll try to grab your face if it comes close enough. And she'll even try to grab the wall when she is on the changing table.

Sighting No. 12

Here's another happy Jillian photo. As she has gotten older, her emotions have gotten more expressive ... like when she's happy, she let's people know it with her big, toothless grin.

The Voice

Jillian went to the morning service today at Grace Lutheran Church. Mommy went up to do the scripture reading, while Daddy held her. When Jillian heard her Mommy's voice over the speaker system, she started looking around for Mommy. She continued looking for her until the reading was over, then went back to playing.

First Swim

Jillian got her feet wet in a pool for the first time during Kid's Day at the Beach this past weekend. One of the traditions for Kid's Day is to go to the Astoria Aquatic Center to play in the pools, so we got Jillian dressed in her little swimsuit and took her into the wading pool. The Center was having problems with their boiler, so the water temperature in the big kid pools (including the hot tub) were a little on the cool side ... so all the cousins joined Jillian in the wading pool. Jillian had fun sitting in the water, and she liked having all the cousins there to look at.

Kid's Day

It was the annual Kid's (Cousins') Day at the Beach this past week, and it was Jillian's first time to be part of it. Even though one of the rules for Kid's Day has been "no parents", a special exemption was made for Jillian's Mommy and Daddy, since Uncle Rick has always been going, and tradition is very important to all the kids.

Here's a photo of all the cousins at the beach, including Ainsley, Tierney, Cale, Ty, Brock, Emmy, Will, Auna, Macee, Parker, James, and Jillian.

Jillian may be a little young yet for most of the Kid's Day traditions, but she did go to the beach (it was a little too windy to stay for long), she went to the Astoria Aquatic Center for a swim (which she liked a lot), and she watched See Spot Run (for about 5 minutes). Probably Jillian's favorite part of the beach trip was being around the cousins ... it was non-stop entertainment, and constant attention.

Giggles

Jillian had her first really big laugh today! Jillian was happy that Mommy had returned home from shopping, and while Daddy was making faces, she let out some big belly laughs several times. She had been letting out a short little "Ha!" for the past week whenever she thought something was funny ... but these "Ha, ha, ha, ha ..." giggles were long and loud. It made both Mommy and Daddy laugh, too!

Sighting No. 11

Here's a happy Jillian photo, wearing another summer-type outfit. Jillian loves to give everyone big smiles, especially when she sees someone smiling at her.

Feeling Better

After a miserable Sunday, Jillian got a good night's sleep ... despite still being congested and having trouble breathing. She spent Monday at home, relaxing and resting, and wanting Mommy to hold her all day. Jillian got a lot of needed sleep, and the fever seems to have passed. Now it's just time to get through the runny nose.

Daddy's Day

It was a special treat for Daddy to spend Father's Day with his daughter Jillian for the first time. She did really well for not feeling very good.

Mommy got the morning Starbucks, then took us all out to Pancake House for brunch with the Peterson family. After Daddy and Jillian took an afternoon nap together, we went to Castle Rock for dinner with the Woodruff family. Jillian got her Daddy a very nice card and two new shirts. Daddy is very lucky to have a daughter as wonderful as his "sweetie pie" Jillian.

Feeling Blue

It's been a rough day for Jillian. She woke up this morning coughing and congested, and it only got worse from there. She was feeling warm, so we took her temperature and it was a little over 99 degrees F. It was making for a very cranky baby. Heather made several attempts to phone the on-call doctor at SWMC to get their recommendations for medicine, if any, but after getting no answer for a couple hours, she talked to an RN at Providence, who recommended no Tylenol until the temperature went over 100 degrees F.

Jillian is proving to be a tough little girl ... most of the time, she is still happy and smiling. It's just the congestion that really bothers her. So, there have been a few tears shed throughout the day. Though, on a light note, when Jillian coughed tonight, Daddy coughed back at her. She thought that was funny, so she tried to do it herself ... by sticking her tongue out and saying "Ah, ah!"

Crib Time

Jillian got to sleep in her crib for the first time last night. And she slept all through the night!

The little munchkin wasn't little enough for her bassinet anymore ... she was constantly banging into the sides of it. So, Mommy cleared out the crib of all her stuff, and gave her lots of room to stretch out and relax. Plus, we think it really helps Jillian to not hear us toss and turn at night.

Here's a little photo of a happy little girl, just waking up from a nap.

Cradle Rocker

The bassinet in our room is the rocker-type, so that we can give Jillian a little rocking to help her get to sleep. Jillian is now big and strong enough that she can rock it herself. When she starts to stir or wake up, she tends to thrash her head back and forth really hard ... this makes the bassinet rock really far, even farther than we would push it. It can end up making a loud racket in the middle of the night, which has made Mommy decide that it might be time to move Jillian to the crib in her own room.

Moving Up

Here's a photo of Jillian sitting up (with Mommy's help).

If we grab onto Jillian's hands when she's laying on the floor, she'll immediately scrunch up her shoulders, knowing that she's about to be pulled up to her sitting position ... she does a great job of holding her head steady when we do that. And she really likes sitting up (for a short while), since it gives her a chance to turn her head around and look at everything. Though, if our fingers are within striking distance, Jillian will sink her gums onto them.

Crunches

Jillian is no longer content to just lay back while being held in our arms. Now, she uses her little tummy muscles and bends forward so she can get her head up to look around. Which means that she can be quite the squirmy worm when she does that.

So, we spend a lot more time holding her in front of us, and slightly leaning her forward so she can have a better view (and work on holding her head up).

Sighting No. 10

It's another photo of our little hunny. Jillian is growing up fast, and all of the changes in her are difficult to keep up with. New things seem to be happening every day.

Stopped Up

For the last many days, we've been giving formula to Jillian at least 1 feeding a day. It has had the unpleasant side effect of making her a little stopped up. When she does have a dirty diaper, which has been about once a day, it's overpowering (compared to when she was breast-feeding).

She went almost the last 2 days without a dirty one, and we were prepared for the prune juice feeding. But, while sitting with Mommy, Jillian put a determined face look on her face, gave a big grunt, and then gave a sigh of relief.

Tongue Speak

In Jillian's on-going effort to come up with new sounds, she's decided to try using her tongue to see what happens then. Here's a short little video clip of some more talk time, with an added (tongue) twist:

Smackdown

Jillian's bouncer seat has an attachment that has little stuffed (and jingly) bears hanging from it. She usually sits in the bouncer when Mommy has things to do like cook or clean up. So, while she sits there, she likes to smack the bears around a bit, either boxing or kicking them. Maybe it's a chance for Jillian to vent some of that anger that we get to see every now and then.

Fighting Bedtime

She has it figured out already. When it gets around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m., we start getting Jillian ready for bed. Then, we walk her. But she now knows that if she's in a dark or dimly lit room, it means that we are trying to put her to sleep. So, she'll start getting angry or crying, until we walk into a room with some bright lights on, and then she calms down. And if we walk her into the dark room again, she starts crying again. It looks like we've begun the age-old battle of putting a child to bed.

Heads Up

Jillian has gotten much better at holding her head up during tummy time, as this photo shows. She's had enough practice on her stomach, as well as just holding her head up while being held, that she's much stronger. Plus, she's learned to arch her back to help things out. Now, she doesn't mind tummy time (for at least a couple minutes) until she gets tired or bored, or starts spitting up the meal she just had.