First Pumpkin

Here's a photo of Jillian with her pumpkin ... it's the one with 2 little bottom teeth that she's holding onto. And there's Mommy's pumpkin at top right, and Daddy's pumpkin at the bottom.

Standing

Jillian is really making the effort now to stand up without holding on. She likes to grab onto something (like her toys) and then pull herself up to standing position ... and then let go and play with both hands. Her balance is much better, so now she can stay up for several seconds before either grabbing onto something again (like this video shows) or falling onto her bum.

Power Squats

A new trick that Jillian has been using lately is the "squat". From her typical standing position, she'll hold on with one hand and lower herself slowly until she is sitting on her heels. While she's there, she'll explore from this new height and grab whatever's available. When she's done, she'll stand right back up again. Here's a short video of Jillian exploring the changing table:

Tough Cookie

There have been lots of thrills and spills for Jillian ever since she started climbing things and standing up all the time. It seems like she has a big crash every day or so. Even though she might bonk her face or head on the floor or against some furniture, her crying is short and to the point ... it sounds like she's just mad and wants to vent a little. After about 10-15 seconds of crying, she shrugs it off and gets back to exploring or playing. It looks like Jillian is going to be a tough (and fearless) little cookie.

Anniversary Day

Jillian made a trip down to Southwest Washington Medical Center tonight, to visit Mommy on her dinner break and to celebrate her
Mommy and Daddy's 2nd Anniversary.

With all the photos taken of Jillian, she now smiles whenever a picture is being taken. When she sees the camera, she looks right at it and smiles as big as she can (like this photo shows). We end up with a nice shot of her 2 teeth and her chubby little cheeks.

Chugging Along

It seems that Jillian is getting this crawling thing figured out, since she has started keeping her left knee on the floor more ... anything to make her move a little faster. Here's a little video of her latest moves.

High School Memories

In just the past week, Jillian has gotten to witness some of her cousins' memorable high school events.

On Thursday, she went to watch her Cousin Ainsley (pictured here) and Cousin Emmy's final volleyball match on the Castle Rock court, during Senior Night. Jillian has always loved to watch volleyball, and once again, she watched the Rockets win another match ... so, she is retaining her status as a "lucky charm".

The next day, she went to watch her Cousin Emmy represent the CR senior class as a homecoming princess at the high school football game ... and then she got to see Emmy be crowned the queen. We have a feeling that Jillian will enjoy hearing bedtime fairy tales that end like this.

Letting Go

When Jillian has been standing while holding onto something, there have been many times over the past few days that she has let go completely ... and stood there on her own! It doesn't last very long, and it's not too stable looking; there's still a bit of bobbing and rocking going on. But, she likes having both hands free to grab onto and play with things (such as banging toys together), so she keeps letting go, if only for a second or two.

Bye-bye

The next time you wave goodbye to Jillian, she'll probaby wave back at you. She does it in a big way, too, by waving her whole arm! Here's a short video of her waving "bye-bye" (... after Daddy had just waved goodbye to her).

One-hand Stand

With all the standing-up practice that Jillian has gotten, she's good enough now she only needs to hold on with one hand ... that way she's got a hand free to grab things, and even to reach out to hold onto something else. This photo is in her room, where she likes to climb up the rocking chair and show off some daring maneuvers.

And after plopping down hard on her bottom from the standing position many times, Jillian has decided she doesn't like that so much. So now, when she wants to get down, she will hold on tight and slowly lower herself to the floor ... the whole process takes a while (about 10-15 seconds) -- it's almost like she's moving in slow motion. But, she has a nice soft landing in the end.

Spooked

It's almost trick-or-treat time, so that means Halloween decorations at Grannie's house, including the big, scary black spider. It hangs between the kitchen and living room, and drops suddenly if there is a loud noise such as a clap. Jillian happened to be right under the spider when someone made a loud noise, and the spider dropped down right on top of her. It spooked her enough that now, whenever she's at Grannie's, she knows exactly where that spider is and always keeps an eye on it at all times ... Jillian has a long memory for those kinds of scary things. Here's a little photo of her (reluctantly) making nice with the spider.

Toe Fascination

Other people's toes were a little scary at first to Jillian. It started with cousin Michelle's toes while staying at Auntie Charolette's house ... she saw the toes wiggling and had a very concerned look on her face. Then she saw Mommy's toes at home, and gave the same concerned look and whined some about it. It wasn't but a day or two later, though, that she was more curious about toes than anything ... now she'll go after people's toes, or at least get up close to them to watch and wait for them to move.

Learning "No!"

The time arrived for Jillian to begin learning what "No!" means. It all started on the changing table, where she has been a handful, squirming all over the place and making it difficult to change her diaper ... and there was also the danger of falling off the table. So, Mommy finally gave a firm warning, saying "No!" to Jillian. That led to some (mad) crying and tears from the sweetie-pie. She learned her lesson, though, because the past few days she has been laying nice and still for Mommy on the changing table.

Jillian also had to hear "No!" from Daddy, this time when she was climbing the TV console to get to the DVDs. After several of the "No!"s and being moved away from the TV, she let loose with some (short-lived) crying and tears. Again, she figured it out, because she didn't get into the DVDs anymore ... at least for the night.

Sighting No. 18

Here's a photo of Jillian on a Saturday afternoon, holding onto the ottoman while practicing her standing. She's still got a cold, but she's still been a happy little girl.

Jillian the Destroyer

Very soon, Jillian will also be known as "Jillian the Destroyer". Like every little kid we know, she enjoys knocking things down. In this video, it's her blocks which Daddy had stacked up. She laughed every time she knocked them over, and eventually she could hardly wait for Daddy to stack them ... she just started swinging at every block she could see. And laughing while doing it, of course.

3-point Crawl

When Jillian crawls (and she can go pretty fast now), she does it while keeping her left knee off the floor. So really, she's on "threes" instead of all fours. We think she's doing it this way because that how she started out crawling in the first place ... by rocking forward with her left leg up. Now it just stays up, at least for now. Here's a little video of Jillian crawling.

Lotsa Action

One of the things Jillian loves to do is to watch Adam go, go, go! She has always gotten excited seeing him run and tumble around ... probably because she can't wait to join him. Here's a typical scene on them together, with Adam running circles around Jillian.

CD Toys

Even though Jillian is still a little under the weather with a cold, she has enough energy to crawl around and get into anything she can find. Her most favorite target is Mommy's collection of CDs, which sit on the floor next to the television. She enjoys pulling them out of the basket, looking at them (or biting them), then tossing them onto the floor. Here's a photo of Jillian getting caught in the act.

A Little Bug

The cold bug finally caught up to Jillian. Her nose is running like a faucet, so we are constantly cleaning her up with Kleenex. And all the congestion means that once in a while, she'll cough or gag ... and that makes her spit up (unusual for her), like she did last night and this morning. It also means a pretty restless night of sleep, for both her and Mommy and Daddy, though she has been catching up on her sleep during the day with lots of naps. Despite being sick, she is still our little go-go girl ... she is getting better (and faster) at crawling, and she even managed to make a mess of Mommy's CD collection today.

Crawling

Today was the first time that Jillian crawled! Here's a little video of some of the action. She was sitting on the living room floor, and was determined to get to the houseplant that sits on the floor next to the fireplace (she has been slowly ripping all the leaves off of it whenever she has been close to it). She moved on her hands and knees, scooting her legs under her as she moved her arms forwards ... and it got her to where she wanted to go. Watch out, all you houseplants!

J & A, Part II

Jillian and Andy caught up with each other again yesterday. Here's a photo of them sitting together. Mostly, they just enjoyed looking at each other ... until they started practicing their WWF wrestling moves on each other. The first time, Jillian grabbed onto Andy and thought she could climb him ... that one ended up a body slam as Andy fell backwards with Jillian landing on top. Andy would get his turn later, though, latching onto Jill's onesie and tossing her around.

Kickerfish

Just like she was taught to do in swim classes, Jillian practices her kicking while taking a bath in the sink. As she gets bigger, the splashing gets bigger ... and Mommy got soaked yesterday.

The Clapper

If something good happens, or she hears a "Yay!", Jillian might clap her hands for you. This is a new thing that she just learned. She picked it up after sitting on Mommy and Daddy's laps and holding onto our fingers while we clapped our hands. She always liked that, and now she's figured out how to do it herself. Here's a real short video of her clapping her hands.

Pirates Fan

Jillian was a big fan of the Pirate Volleyball team this season. She attended nearly every match, either watching her cousins Tierney and Macee play, or catching up on her sleep with a nice, long nap (despite the all the loud screaming in the gym) . She even got to wear her own team shirt that Grannie made for her (as shown in the photo). Jillian helped to cheer on the Pirates to an undefeated season!

NOTE: Thanks to cousin Emmy for showing me how to take photos with this cool color accent feature!

Ma-ma-ma

Jillian has gotten a lot of practice with saying "Ma-ma-ma" over and over again. It will only be a short while before she's yelling out "Mama" to her Mommy. Here's a short video of some new talking.

Jillian Rising

One of the big moves that Mommy and Daddy have been waiting for is finally here ... Jillian can now go from laying down to sitting up, all on her own. No more getting stuck on her back or tummy and then getting mad about it. She can now push up from her tummy to her hands and knees, then shift to her side and push up from there to a sitting position. Yippeee!

Fearless

We have to watch Jillian closely when she climbs up something and stands up on her own. She has been a bit of a risk-taker lately, because she has been letting go with one hand and try standing there with only one hand holding on. She's not quite stable or strong enough to stay up yet ... more often than not, this ends with a big crash to the floor; but she keeps trying to do it.

Baby in the Mirror

... or, in this case, in the oven door. We often put Jillian on the kitchen floor to play, and she always notices her reflection on the glass oven door. She'll talk to (or sometimes yell at) the baby, and reach out and try to touch her.

Pearly Whites

Jillian's two new teeth continue to poke up and are showing real good now. Here's a little photo for everybody to see them.

Vroom, vroom

Her engines are starting up, and she's about to take off! For this video, Daddy put the telephone on the floor, just out of Jillian's reach; this is her attempt at getting to it. Eventually, when she got close, she lunged forward onto her tummy and grabbed the phone. Victory was hers!

Pull Ups

Those are pretty strong arms that Jillian's got, because she's now able to pull herself right up to a standing position (like this video shows). Yikes!

Games We Play

Jillian and Daddy have a couple games they like to play. The first is a laughing game, and we usually play it on the changing table. We'll both start laughing, and then we'll both stop and wait quietly for 1 or 2 seconds, and then we'll start laughing again ... Jillian thinks it's hilarious, especially because of the anticipation while waiting. The second game is kind of like peek-a-boo, and we play this one while she's in the crib and Daddy is on the computer. While Daddy is looking at the monitor, Jillian will just stare at my back ... and then after a few moments, I'll quickly turn and look at her and laugh, and Jillian cracks up! She laughs and kicks her feet, and then goes right back to staring and waiting. We play both games until she loses interest, or I'm exhausted from all the laughing.