Rock Mover

Rocks don't stay in one place for long when Jillian is around. This photo is of the downspout on the side of the house, with the drywell full of rocks underneath ... Jillian saw this today, and decided that those rocks should have a new home -- the neighbor's yard. She picked up one at a time, and dropped them in the next door lawn. After doing this for awhile, she decided to do a mass-relocation of the rocks (as the photo shows) and scattered them all over the driveway. She also put some rocks into the downspout (as the other photo shows).

Apparently, Jillian does a lot of this same rock moving at Grannie's house, where there are lots of rocks to choose from.

Good-bye Kiss

For a while now, we have been asking Jillian for kisses. There was a time when she wasn't much interested, and would turn away, but these days she humors us by leaning in for a kiss when we ask for it. There's no puckering, but she at least understands that a kiss is on the lips. This morning, when Daddy gave Mommy a good-bye kiss before leaving for work, Jillian looked up at Daddy, waiting for her kiss. This was the first time she actually looked for a kiss.

Sighting No. 33

Jillian took a fraction of a second to look at Daddy for a photo, giving a bit of an introspective look. It was actually a pretty up and down day, much like yesterday, due to the new molars coming in ... runny nose, drooling and all-around crabbiness. We even had a major meltdown tonight.

So, these photos were taken during a pretty happy time; and when Daddy tries taking photos during the good moments, then Jillian usually comes up with the silly faces, before taking off to get away from the camera.

New Stuff V

More new things about Jillian to share ...

1. "Eat" : If we say this to her, she knows exactly what it means ... that it's time to eat! And then she'll say it over and over herself.

2. "Sah-ee" : The Johnson cousins have a little puppy named "Sally", and Jillian loves to follow her around. When she sees Sally, she'll yell out her name.

3. "No, no, no" : Jillian has gotten very good at saying this now, and she likes to say it a lot. A lot of times, she'll say it to Mocha (because of all the licking). But most of the other times are when she looks at something that she knows she's not supposed to touch ... she'll just walk by it saying "no, no, no".

4. (Take it, Bring it, Give it) : If we say any of these things, Jillian understands what they mean and she'll do them ... we better enjoy that while it lasts!

5. "Wow" : Which means water to her; she says this whenever we start filling up her sippy cup with water.

Girls' Weekend

It was a power-packed weekend, as Mckenna and Lindsey came over for a sleepover with Jillian on Friday and Saturday. Sweetie-Pie was very fired up about having someone to play with all that time. The girls all had a good time with all the toys and the kitchen appliances ... all of Jillian's things have never been organized so well, thanks to Mckenna.

One of the other things Jillian loves is waking up to visitors, and since Mckenna and Lindsey stayed the night, she gave them a big smile in the morning. After getting some breakfast, we took off for the playground at the Lake, and played around a little bit, but the cool weather drove us back home. So, we went swimming at the YMCA. Jillian hadn't been to the pool for a while, and when Mommy took her in, she started whining and making faces. This went on for some time, letting us know that she wasn't so sure about this. We're thinking that part of it may have been the loud crowd of people. After a while, Jillian got a little more comfortable, and started doing what she loves best with water ... SPLASHING! She got everyone very wet. Meanwhile, Mckenna and Lindsey had a very fun time with the noodles and squirter fish.

A Love for Glasses

Jillian loves to put on glasses, and she's actually pretty good at it. She grabs them by the arms and opens them up and slides them right onto her face. She'll sit them up on her nose, and then leave them there for a moment, before taking them off and putting them back on again. Grannie has a lot of reading glasses at her house laying around, so no doubt that Jillian loves to get a hold of them and put them on (as this photo shows).

Jillian also loves to put on sunglasses, probably because she's trying to be like her Mommy, who wears them a lot. She'll even walk around with them on, and everyone will tell her how cool she looks. This photo shows her wearing one of her own pair of sunglasses.

Sighting No. 32

A second molar has come through on the other side, too ... which is why Jillian is always sucking on her lip (like this photo shows), when she's not biting on her fingers and anything else she can find.

Bad Night

Monday night was very long and not very fun for Jillian. It started when Daddy got her ready for bed with a bottle of milk ... after only drinking half of it, she pushed the bottle away, and then promptly spewed all of it (and then some) back up all over herself and Daddy. After getting cleaned up with some new pajamas and relaxing for a few minutes, she had another big hurling episode, again covering herself and Daddy. This was repeated a third time not long afterwards. After that, Jillian and Daddy put down a big towel on the bed and tried to snooze there ... and Sweetie-Pie's tummy still gave her trouble for hours more. Eventually, Mommy showed up from work at midnight, and knew right away that someone was sick. By that time, Jillian was starting to wind down, being soooo tired. Her and Mommy stayed out on the sofa for the rest of the night. When morning came, Jillian was feeling better, though very tired and very crabby. We think it might have been a 24-hour flue that hit her, combined with the new molar coming in.

New Molar

This is the first of the big ones! Jillian has a molar coming in on the upper right side ... we can feel the ridges poking through. Grannie found it on Monday, after looking around. She was tipped off that a new tooth might be in by the fact that Jillian was very crabby and wanted to be held all day.

More Razzing

Jillian's latest thing is to make a loud razzing sound. The funny thing about it is that she'll do it over and over for a very long time. The not so funny thing is that she spits all over herself.

Scooting Down

Since she could walk, it's been adventure when Jillian comes to the edge of some stairs. She would either stop with her toes right on the edge, or she'd just go ahead and step off the edge ... fortunately, someone has always been there to catch her (and she probably knew that, anyways). Now, when she wants to go down stairs, she'll sit down and scoot forward, like this video shows:

Boo-boo

Jillian took a little tumble at Grannie's house today, and got quite a bump on her lip. She was playing with her toys, and lost her balance, falling head-first into the toy box. She smacked her lip on the edge really hard, and ended up cutting the inside of her mouth (probably with her sharp little teeth) ... it looked liked it hurt, and it was Tierney who saw right away that there was blood. Jillian cried and cried while we cleaned her up, but then once she forgot about it, she got right back to playing again, as usual. Now, she has a big purple bump inside her lip, which she likes to suck on.

Easter Sunday

This was Jillian's second Easter, and this time around she was old enough to cruise around and enjoy it. It was also a very busy day ...

We started off the morning with Jillian being the Easter bunny and handing out the baskets to Mommy and Daddy that they had gotten for each other.

Then, it was time to get ready for Easter service at Grace Lutheran. Jillian got to wear her new Easter dress that her Auntie Sheryl picked out for her. Everyone at church loved it, and thought she was so cute. Even though the service was short, Jillian still couldn't stay corralled in the pews, and had to be taken out a couple times to run around; she also made her presence known by practicing her new sound, which one lady said sounded like a duck's "quack".

We then went to the Red Lion for a brunch buffet with the Peterson family, including Grandpa Ken & Beverly, Uncle Clark & Auntie Greta, Cousins Meagan and Adam, and Uncle Richard. Everyone had a very nice time and ate a lot. And Jillian loved having all the room to run around with Adam. She just wasn't so sure about the giant Easter Bunny.

Finally, we took off for Castle Rock for the Piercy family Easter party at Grannie and Papa's house. Nearly all of the cousins, aunts and uncles were there. This must have been one of the most rainy and windy Easter days in a long time, which meant we had the egg hunt for Jillian inside the house (even though the older kids braved the outdoors). Jillian walked around, finding and picking up eggs ... but instead of putting them into her bag, she opened each one to find out what was inside. After the hunt, the long day had taken its toll, and Jillian had a meltdown from lack of a nap. But all in all, she had a very good time.

Sharing a Ring Pop

Here's another guest video sent in by Aunt Dianne, this one of Cousin Rielee sharing her Ring Pop with Jillian at the Easter party at Grannie and Papa's house.

Six-Pack

We're not sure why, but once in a while, Jillian will lift her shirt up and pat her tummy. It was tough to catch this on film, which is why this video is so short.

Name Speak

Jillian continues to try to say things, in this case her cousins' names. The one she can say really well is "Ty" for her cousin Ty. She continues to work on cousin Tierney's name, saying "Tee-Eee". And the new one she has been working on is "Bruhh", for her cousin Brock. We're working on all her other cousins' names (and there are a lot!)

Car Seat Obsession

Ever since Jillian could crawl, she has been obsessed with the straps and buckles in her car seats, which sit in the living room floor when not in the car. The car seats have provided her with hours and hours of entertainment, and she still loves to dive into them head first and play ... we think it might be because she is trying to figure out how to work the buckles, so she can escape when we buckle her in.

Future Farmer

Jillian got a special treat today at Grandpa's. He got out one of his kid-sized tractors and let Jillian ride it in the backyard. Here's a little photo that Grandpa took ...

Finally, A Post

Things do get busy, and it gets hard to keep up ... especially with Jillian being the little go-go girl that she is now. But here's a little photo for now, of Jillian giving a big cheese just before going to her cousins' volleyball practice. She's getting to wear her new spring-type clothes these days with the sun coming out lately.

New Stuff IV

And a couple more we should mention ...

1. "Mine" : Here's something we'll be hearing a lot in the days to come. A couple times in the past week, when Jillian has got a hold of something, like a sippy cup, she's yelled out "mine!".

2. "Nana" : Mommy heard Jillian say this today when she got out a banana for her to eat.