The Angry Yell

Jillian has a new way of expressing her displeasure, by yelling very loud and with a lot of anger. It's hard to describe, but when Daddy heard it, it was kind of chilling!! And for whatever reason, Jillian has only directed it at Daddy (either because she knows Daddy is a softy, or because she knows better than to direct it at Mommy). She has done it a few times now, mainly when Daddy doesn't let her do something that she wants, like playing with seat buckles. Hopefully, this is something that will move on soon.

Sweetie-Pie ... or Scary-Pie?

Jillian has raised her tantrum intensity to a whole new level. Grannie remarked that maybe she is starting her "terrible twos" early, after seeing her throw a couple of fits firsthand. Whatever the case, Jillian now cries louder and longer, collapses onto the ground faster and harder, and has developed a new expression for her unhappiness ... throwing stuff!! Oh, joy. Daddy also got to experience the new "Scary-Pie" when he took Jillian home after work. She wanted to play with her carseat buckles, but Daddy said "no", at which point she threw a little fit. Then, she wanted her bubbles, so Daddy got the bubble jug down for her. Apparently, she was still unhappy about not getting to play with the buckles, because she took a swing at the bubble jug, trying to knock it down. Daddy said "all done" and put the jug away, and then the (long, long) tantrum began. It took a while, but Jillian eventually regained her composure and became "Sweetie-Pie" again ... until Mommy got home from work, and then she came unglued again.

Here's a quick photo of our little "Sweetie-Pie".

Phone Conversations

Something changed recently, and now Jillian will actually listen and talk on the phone. This is a lot different from before, when she pushed the receiver away as soon as she heard something. Recently, we began using the speakerphone option, and at that point she would at least acknowledge us, or even wave or say something. Now, Jillian is much more comfortable with the phone, because she'll let us put the receiver next to her ear. She'll listen closely to what we say, and respond to it (usually by repeating one of the words). It's kind of like the beginnings of real conversation on the phone with Jillian, because it always starts with a "hi", a few words in-between, and then a "bye" at the end. And when she's done with the phone, she'll yell out a big "WO!" (meaning "work"), because she knows that Mommy or Daddy is calling from our work place.

Mommy's Little Helper II

This is one of Jillian's favorite things to do -- help Mommy water the plants. That's because it involves 3 of the things that she loves: water, outside and Mommy.

By the way, she doesn't usually carry "Baby" around while watering, but she had been away for the weekend without her baby, so they were inseperable for a short time when she got back.

Weekend at Andy's

It was a wild and crazy weekend up in Seattle this past weekend. Jillian went to visit her cousin Andy up at his place, and cousin Adam was there, too (along with Aunties Sheryl, Denise and Greta and cousin Meagan). The Peterson girls went shopping Saturday, and Daddy and Auntie Dee got to babysit the munchkins.

The first thing was for Andy to take his nap. In the meantime, Jillian and Adam got to play in the family room for an hour or two. There were lots of new toys to play with, but it seemed there weren't quite enough, as both of them wanted what the other had. So, Daddy had to play "referee" for a while.

When Andy woke up, we got ready for the water park. We didn't pack a swimsuit for Jillian, so she borrowed some swimwear from Andy, including the Elmo swim-trunks. We went to a cool little water park in Bellevue, that had lots of sprays and fountains. The kids loved to run around and get wet! Jillian got a little worried about some of the sprays, since they turned on and off, and she didn't want to get surprised with a face full of water. So, she waited until they were going, then jumped in and got soaked. Jillian's favorite feature was the frog that squirted water out its mouth ... she liked to stick her hand in the stream, just like she does when Mommy is watering her plants.

After that, we went back to Andy's house to have dinner. Jillian was worn out, so she took a little nap. While Auntie Dee cooked the spaghettie dinner, Daddy managed the mayhem of Andy and Adam in the downstairs kid's party palace. Jillian woke up an hour later, and it was time to eat. Auntie Dee put all the kids out on the deck on the kid's picnic table, and let them go after their spaghetti. The noodles were flying everywhere!

We all wound down in the evening, kind of. The kids kept playing until, one by one, they started wearing down. Daddy tried to get Jillian to sleep, but after an hour of tossing and turning, and a dozen readings of "Thomas the Tank Engine and the School Trip", we came back to the family room. Andy was in his crib sleeping, and Adam was sacked out on the couch. Jillian wouldn't go to sleep, and the Peterson girls came home at 11:00 pm to find her still awake. It would be a long and restless night for Mommy and Daddy.

We finished our trip with some breakfast in the morning, prepared by Auntie Sheryl. Then we packed up and headed home. Jillian had a great time mixing it up with cousins Andy and Adam!

Run Away

Jillian really likes this whole running thing. She uses it a lot. For instance, when she gets ahold of something that she's not supposed to have, and Mommy or Daddy sees her with it and tells her to put it back ... she takes off running. Fast! She's getting so fast that the only reason we catch up to her is because she runs out of room to get away.

Sighting No. 40

Another picture of our mischievous little Sweetie-Pie. She had asked Daddy to "come" over to the rock path by the garage, so she could see his reaction when she grabbed some rocks and quickly threw them into neighbor Jack's yard.

A New Stage?

We're not sure, but we think Sweetie-Pie has entered a new stage in her life ... something that resembles the "terrible twos". We've noticed that Jillian has tended to have a lot more tantrums, and, oh, the drama!! When she gets mad or upset, the head goes back, the eyes close and the mad crying / yelling begins. That's usually followed by one of two things: either she goes storming off, running into a different room, crying all the way (somehow she finds her way around despite having her eyes shut) ... or, she collapses onto the ground, laying on her back, and crying of course. One of the odd things about all of this is that sometimes we have no idea what the problem is. For instance, Daddy said to Jillian "let's get the mail", and when he opened up the drawer to get the key, that's when her world came apart, with lots of wailing and flailing. No clue what triggered it.

Speed Shopper

So, Jillian is not only running now, but she is pushing a shopping cart while she runs. She likes to grab hold of her little toy shopping cart and push it around the house as fast as she can. Here's a short video of her going just a bit too fast:

Word Strings

Jillian has started putting words together lately. For example, today she had a little run-in with Inky (Grannie and Papa's cat) ... and ended up with a scratch on her cheek. She then walked in and said "kitty, ow" to Grannie. Later in the day, she was Papa Woodruff's little helper, handing him screws while he built the backyard deck. When she was asked what she had done, she said "Papa, help".

Come With Me II

FYI to everyone ... this is what it looks like when Jillian wants you to come with her. We've been working with her to say "come" at the same time, so it's a little more clear what she's doing.

Upside-Down View

When Jillian was younger, she would do this little maneuver every once in a while. Lately, though, it seems like she's doing it a lot. She's strong enough now that she can stay in that position longer ... and when she's there, she'll usually say "hi" to whoever she can see.

Sliding

This is a quick little video of some playground fun. Jillian went with Mommy and Daddy to Skamokawa Vista Park for a Stephenson family campout, and enjoyed running around in the wide open spaces, and going down the playground slide over and over again.

Sighting No. 39

Sweetie-Pie is giving the camera a little smirk, after hearing Daddy reciting "Pat, Pat, They Call Him Pat", one of her favorite sections in the "Hop on Pop" book.

Spin Dancing

This video shows Jillian's new style of dancing, called "Spinning" ... following by falling down after getting dizzy.

Yup!

It used to be that Jillian would answer in the affirmative with body language, with waving arms and straightened back, and also by squealing. That told us that we got it right and she was giving us a yes. Well, that's changed, and now Jillian will say "yup!" for her yes replies. We're not sure where she got that.

Bee Sting

Jillian got her first bee sting today. She was going for a walk with Grannie out in the nearby woods, and Mocha (Papa's dog) and Sally (the Johnson cousins' dog) were tagging along. Sally decided to leave the trail, and Jillian followed after her. Grannie went after Jillian to stop her, but then stepped on a hornet's nest, and a bunch of bees swarmed her. She grabbed Jillian and took off out of the woods. It wasn't until they were out in the open that Grannie saw a couple bees buzzing around Jillian's head, so she swatted at them and drove them away. Jillian had only cried a little bit during this whole time, so it first looked like she hadn't gotten stung ... but later, when Grannie was tying up Jillian's hair into ponytails, she noticed a little bump on her head. So, Jillian had gotten stung on top of her head, but she had no reaction to it (yahoo!). Unfortunately, Grannie took the brunt of the bee attack with 5 stings.

Sighting No. 38

Here's a quick little photo of Jillian, taken with yet another new digital camera.

Running Wild

Jillian has shifted into a higher gear, and is now running, as fast as her little legs can carry her. She runs for just a short distance (as this video shows), before slowing down ... hopefully because she's trying to get herself back under control. With her new-found speed, she's been able to disappear from Mommy and Daddy's sight even quicker than before. What fun!

New Stuff IX

Lot's of new things to remember, all in a single post. That's partly because Daddy was too much of a slug to post them separately, and partly because there's just so many things ...

1. Boo-boo Kisses : If Jillian ever gets an owie, she'll now want a kiss on the owie. She'll hold out her hand or foot for us to kiss it, and not only us, but she'll then go from one person to the next to have them kiss it, as well. If she happens to get a boo-boo on her head, she'll just pucker up and look for a kiss on her lips.

2. "Shhhhh" : When it comes to talking about sleep or nap, Jillian likes to make the "shhh" sound, since we have been doing it when we get her ready for bedtime. One of the funny times she did this was during the houseboat vacation; Mommy tried to lay her down for bedtime, but gave up when she wouldn't go to sleep. When Jillian came wandering out the room by herself, Daddy asked where Mommy was ... that's when Jillian said "shhhh".

3. First, Last & Almost Done : One of the ways that we use to buy time with Jillian is to use the words "first", "last" and "almost done". For instance, when Jillian is eating dinner and she wants to move on to dessert, we will say "eat dinner first" ... and then she'll finish her dinner. If we're getting close to finishing a meal and Jillian is losing interest, we'll say "last bite" (even if there's several left) ... and then she'll eat the last couple bites. And we sometimes use "almost done", which satisfies Jillian knowing that she has just about finished.

4. "Pat, pat" : For whatever reason, Jillian likes to pat things or people. She'll "pat, pat" Mommy, Daddy, or anything nearby.

5. "That's for (insert name here)" : Jillian understands that if something belongs to someone else, then it's not hers to play with. We've used the phrase "that's for Daddy" or "that's for Mommy" a lot, and it's worked out pretty well; she spends less time messing with our stuff (though there are still the mischievous times when she gets into our things anyways). The funny side-effect of this is that now she constantly points at things and say who they belong to.

6. "Hot" : Jillian has gotten into the habit of saying "hot" when it's time to eat something, if she knows that the food has been cooked or warmed up. Then she'll make the blowing sound to cool off the food.

7. Translation : It's not always clear what Jillian is trying to say, so to help you out, here's a few of her words and their actual meaning ...
(a) "Sh-Ow" = Flowers
(b) "Suit" = Swimsuit
(c) "Dah-Doh" = Goggles
(d) "Bee" = Bug (of any kind)
(e) "Side" = Inside, or Outside
(f) "Eeee" = I Snapped the Buckles Together!
(g) "That" = That (usually said while pointing at something)
(h) "Sheet" = Sit Here (usually said while pointing at a spot)
(i) "Mil" = Milk
(j) "Wy" = Water

Houseboat Vacation

Grannie and Papa had their 50th Anniversary back in February of this year, and instead of a big party, they wanted to have the whole family spend a week on a houseboat together. So, this past week, Grannie and Papa rented a houseboat on Lake Roosevelt, and everyone (except Uncle Dan) made the trip.

Mommy, Daddy and Jillian carpooled with Aunt Robin and Cousins Ainsley, Tierney and William in the van for the 6-hour ride on Monday. Jillian loved sitting in the back seat with Ainsley and Tierney. We made two stops for Starbucks and lunch, and arrived at the Keller Marina at 4:00 pm. After loading up, Papa piloted the houseboat to Jones Bay and parked it on the beach. Then, everyone jumped into the water, because it was a roasting 100+ F! The water was really deep, so all the cousins enjoyed diving and jumping off the houseboat into the lake. There was even a slide from the top deck. This little photo shows Jillian (being held by Grannie) yelling with excitement as she watches one of her cousins go down the slide. And, yes, that's some seriously crazy hair that Jillian has tied into ponytails.

Jillian even went into the water with her new life-vest on, though she wasn't in very long before she wanted to get back out. This photo shows one of those few moments, with Jillian hanging out with Daddy on a floatie in the lake. She would end up spending most of her water time on the beach, splashing her feet in the water or playing with a spoon and cup.

Jillian got a special treat, sleeping with Mommy and Daddy at night in a small stateroom. The bad thing about the hot weather was that the rooms were very hot throughout the night, and the little fan on the wall helped only so much. So, the sleeping was restless. When Jillian woke up in the morning, the first thing she said was "Brah" (meaning, her cousin Brock). So, she went right out and got into Brock's face to wake him up. She would end up doing this every morning.

The Jones Bay spot was so good, we stayed there all of Tuesday, too. Here's a photo of Jillian with Mommy when they went exploring on the beach ... Jillian is giving her wink-and-a-smile for this one. On Wednesday, we pushed off and headed for the Grand Coulee Dam. By evening, we found a nice beach next to a boat ramp and close to the main road, so we parked there. We later walked 2 miles to the Visitor Center, and since it was getting late (~8:30 pm), Jillian was delirious and ran wild throughout the building with cousin Tierney chasing her. At 9:30 pm, we watched the laser light show, and Jillian somehow stayed awake for it. But then we had to make the trek back to the houseboat, up a very steep hill. Jillian was one very tired little girl.

By Thursday, Jillian was getting worn out with all the playing and restless sleeping nights, so she took lots of long naps during the day. We ended up moving the houseboat to a little island, but a big thunderstorm moved in, so everyone ended up staying inside for the evening. We headed back to the Marina on Friday morning and made the long drive back home, during which Jillian slept almost the entire way back.

Probably Jillian's favorite thing about the trip was being with all her cousins. She kept saying their names when we got home, wondering where they went.