New Stuff XII

The new stuff just keeps on coming, so here's what's happening within the last week or so:

1. "I want ..." : This has become a popular phrase used by Jillian. No more one-word demands like "drink" or "that"; now she makes her demands by saying "I want drink" or "I want that".

2. New Books : It didn't take long before Mommy and Daddy got tired of reading the same books, again. So, we got some more books at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Right now, her favorites are "Thomas & Friends: May the Best Engine Win", "Clifford's First Autumn" (because it has pumpkins in it), and Little Critter's "All by Myself".

3. "Watch" (usually preceded by "I want") : Whenever Daddy pulls out the camera to take a photo, Jillian immediately says "I want watch", which means that she wants to look at replays of the old pictures on the camera.

4. "I do it" : Our little independent girl has started verbalizing her independence with this sentence.

5. "I love you" : Mommy worked with Jillian on this one, and she'll say it (sometimes) if we say it to her. Of course, she won't say it on-demand. But, we really like this one, so we're always trying to get her to say it.

6. "In ..." : Jillian has really gotten into using the "in" preposition instead of just the one-word. For example, she used to say "car" or "house" if she wanted to go into either of these; now, she says "in car" or "in house".

7. "Hold me" : Instead of saying "up" like before, now she holds her arms up and says "hold me" when she wants to be carried. The curious thing is that we don't know where she learned this, since we haven't said it to her.

8. Lost in Translation : Jillian used to have a certain number of words that she always said, so it was easy to know what she was saying, even if it didn't sound perfect. Now, because her vocabulary has expanded so much, and because she's learning new words every day, that we are having a difficult time understanding some of the words. A lot of times, she'll say a word over and over (looking at us like we're supposed to understand), and we'll have no clue what it is.

9. "M-i-l-k" : We don't dare mention "milk" at night before it's warmed up and ready. If we let it slip accidently, then Jillian immediately runs for the kitchen and grabs the towel, yelling "towel" ... which means that she wants us to dry off the sippy cup with milk that (should be) warming up in the sink. If it's not warming up, then she starts yelling "milk" over and over, which is usually followed by lots of crying, until we finally get it ready. When it comes to "milk", Jillian is not very patient at all.

10. Night Owl : It's becoming very obvious that Jillian is going to be a "night owl". She wants to stay up as long as possible every night, and throws a huge fit when we put her to bed, even when it's really late and she's practically falling asleep. It looks like Jillian is going to take after Mommy in this way.

11. Little Miss Helpful : Part of being able to do things herself has meant that Jillian likes to help if we ask her, or even if we don't. If she finds some trash laying around, she'll go ahead and pick it up and take it into the kitchen, so that she can throw it into the trash. If she finishes drinking from a sippy cup, she'll go into the kitchen and throw it (literally) into the sink. And, if we are putting away dishes from the dishwasher, she'll grab the silverware and throw it (literally, again) into the drawer.

12. "I'm fast" : When Jillian runs around, this is what she says now!

New Car Seat

Jillian finally outgrew her original carseat ... the one she came home in after she was born. Actually, she outgrew it a while ago, since her legs have been scrunched up in order to fit in it. It's been a good little carseat for the last 20 months, but it was time for a bigger one. Mommy bought another Eddie Bauer version today.

When Daddy took it out of the box, Jillian was delirious with joy. A new car seat to play in!!! She said "new seat" over and over. She would end up spending the next hour or so playing in the car seat, trying to "click" the buckles.

Pumpkin Patch

It's only a week until Halloween, which means it was time for Jillian to pick her pumpkin. Jillian had been seeing pumpkins at Fred Meyer whenever we went shopping there, and she saw pumpkins in several of the books that she has at home ... so she knew what they were, and she always yelled out "Puh-kin" when she saw them. So, we headed out to Willow Grove and went to the Youngquist Pumpkin Patch. There was a big field filled with hundreds of pumpkins, and Jillian was very excited to see it. She wandered around the field and touched every pumpkin she walked by. Eventually, she found the pumpkin she wanted. Here it is in this photo. Jillian says that it's "heavy".

Black Eye for Mama

We knew that Jillian had a big head. Mommy found out, in a very painful way, that Jillian also has a hard head.

Last night, Mommy was relaxing on the sofa, and Jillian was laying on top of her. Jillian is very restless when it's bedtime, so she tosses and turns a lot. This time, she sat up and turned over, and then dove back down head first, hitting Mommy right in the cheek. It hurt a lot, and a bump immediately popped up. It turned into a black eye by morning.

Pig Tails

Here's a little photo of Jillian with her pig tails. Grannie likes to put them into her hair. And Jillian likes it when Grannie puts them in ... she sits patiently while they're tied up, and then she'll leave them in for the rest of the day.

The New "Baby"

When Jillian says "baby", it sometimes means something different than before. The name "baby" has always been for any of her little dolls that are hers. But recently, she started getting into the "Rhyme Bible" that the Paul family gave to her. It contains a couple stories of Baby Moses and Baby Jesus. She'll say "Baby!", then grab the book and carry it over to us (while saying "heavy"). Then she'll keep saying "baby", so that we'll read the stories that have babies in them.

Dancing Girl

The dancing has definitely picked up with Jillian. Anytime some music comes on, Jillian starts showing her fancy footwork. She has a lot of moves, including "The Twist", "The Spin", "The High Kick", and "The Tippy-Toes". This first video shows her getting down to some music from (appropriately) Dancing With The Stars.



This second video is in her room, be-bopping to her little entertainment center.

Peeking In

Jillian doesn't like it when she gets locked out of the bathroom while someone is in there. So, she'll lie down on her tummy and try to look under the door. Then she'll call out to us, saying "Mama" or "Dada". And sometimes, she'll stick her fingers under the door. When we come out of the bathroom, she's still laying there, waiting for us.

Climbing Higher

It's not surprising anymore to find Jillian halfway up the furniture, or on top of something up high. If she can climb it, she'll do it. Here's a photo of Jillian climbing up her crib, just because she can (not because she wanted to go in it).

First Fender Bender

Don't worry, Jillian is perfectly OK. We just had a little bump out in traffic.

While we were in Portland on the highway heading towards Beaverton, Jillian was asleep in her carseat. It was very rainy and the road was very busy. We ran into some traffic and had to come to a stop. Unfortunately, the person behind us didn't stop. We heard the squealing of tires, and then felt the impact that gave us a jolt. When we looked back at Jillian, she kind of woke up a little bit, but then drifted back off to sleep. She would keep on sleeping through all of the information exchange with the other drivers. We are very thankful that she came through it OK, with nothing more than a little lost sleep.

(By the way, the car damage wasn't too much. Just a little bit of cracking in the rear bumper.)

New Stuff XI

It's the latest round of new stuff, courtesy of Jillian:

1. Word Strings : The vocabulary keeps on growing, and the fun part has been to hear Jillian string the words together. Some examples include "all done", "last one", "thank you", "good night", "sit up" and "bite nana" (bite banana).

2. "Me, Mine, My, I" : Most of the word strings that Jillian uses involves starting with "me", "mine", "my" and "I"; there's no particular reason for which one she chooses to use. Some examples include "my baby", "my water", etc.

3. Nose Blowing : Jillian has seen us blow our noses enough times, that now when she has an itchy nose, she'll grab a tissue and rub her nose with it.

4. "Wash" : She yells this at us when we're washing our hands, because she wants to wash her hands too. So, we get her hands wet, add a little soap, rinse her hands off, then dry them with a towel. Afterwards, she'll yell "soap".

5. "Brush" (or "brush teeth") : Jillian yells this when we brush our teeth, because she wants her own toothbrush. So, we give her a little toothbrush and some toothpaste, and she works at putting the paste on the brush; then she chews on the brush.

6. Pull your pants up! : We have to say this often to Jillian, because lately she has been pulling her pants down a lot. She pulls them down and says "potty"; the problem then is that she can't quite pull them back up over her diaper, so she walks around with her pants halfway down.

7. "No" (?) : Jillian is very quick to answer "no!" these days ... she says it pretty much to everything we ask, even if she really means "yes". So, we ask her a couple times to give her a chance to answer differently.

8. Bare Foot : It's all we can do anymore to keep Jillian's socks and shoes on. She looks to take them off at every opportunity. We can usually count on the socks and shoes coming off whenever she's in her carseat.

9. "Sit Down Da-Da" : This is Jillian's latest sentence. She yelled this at Daddy while she was sitting down, and wanted him to sit with her.

Saying Grace

When we sit down at the kitchen table, and we are just about ready to eat dinner, Jillian immediately folds her hands together and looks at us, waiting for us to say grace. She calls it "pray", and she knows that we always do it before eating. And when we're done, she starts clapping.

Dora Fan

Grannie just bought Jillian some new Dora the Explorer boots, and she was so excited to show them to everyone. She'd try lifting her boots up in the air to let us see, and nearly fall over doing it. She has been getting more and more into Dora, possibly because she's been sneaking a peek at the cartoon every now and then. Here's a photo of Jillian modeling the boots.

Church Happenings

Jillian has a lot of things that she likes to do when she goes to church on Sunday. She remembers very well what those things are. Just for our own memory:

- When we enter the church, she heads right for the ushers and reaches up for a program. They give her one, and she brings it back to Mommy or Daddy. She repeats this until we all (including Jillian) have a program.
- During the greeting, Jillian goes up to as many people as she can find, and reaches her hand out so they can shake her hand.
- In the pew, Jillian immediately grabs the pencils that are in the little holders on the backs of the pews. Mommy and Daddy stop her and put them back, then try to find something to distract her, like 1) giving her some Cheerios to eat, 2) giving her juice to drink, or 3) letting her draw or color on the programs.
- Once the service starts, it's a challenge to keep Jillian occupied during the singing and such. Sometimes she's a wiggle-worm. Sometimes she's a Chatty-Cathy.
- During Kid's Church, Jillian walks up to altar with Mommy. Then, they sit quietly on the steps and listen to the message. Jillian does very well at folding her hands to pray at the end. When it's over, she walks (and sometimes runs) back to her seat.
- This is about the time that we take Jillian to the nursery. If she doesn't want to stay, then we end up in the narthex, hanging out while she runs around, either 1) going up and down the stairs to the balcony, 2) getting a drink from the fountain, 3) going to the chapel and looking at the pretty colored window, 4) spinning the spinner rack, or 5) running down the hall to the nursery or fellowship hall.
- When the service is over, we let Jillian go out on her own. She squeezes her way out through all the people in the greeting line and either waits for Mommy and Daddy, or takes off.

Sighting No. 42

Most of the "sighting" photos of Jillian are happy, smiling photos. So here's a more introspective photo, just for a little change of pace. Either Jillian is deep in thought, or she's tired of Daddy taking pictures of her.

The Lumberjack

Jillian spent all day Saturday at the RA Long gymnasium. Cousins Meagan, Tierney and Macee were playing in the Lumberjill Volleyball Tournament for their varsity teams, the RA Long Lumberjills and the Castle Rock Rockets, respectively. The Peterson and Woodruff families all came to watch, so there were lots of familiar faces. But the most energizing part of the day was the fact that Cousin Adam, Cousin Rielee, and Millie (a 2-1/2 year old niece of a Lumberjill player) were all at the gym.

Jillian didn't bother watching much volleyball. The few times that she did, she'd just say "boom!" and swing her arm, because that's what volleyball means to her ... lot's of spikes! Most of Jillian's day was spent running all over the upper walkway in the stands. She and Adam and Millie would "run, run", as she likes to say. Back and forth they went, with an occasional stop in the concession area where Jillian and Adam would entertain the people inside by spinning around until they were dizzy. After a lot of running, Daddy took them downstairs for a drink of water from the fountain; and then it was back to the running.

The thing that Jillian will most remember, though, is the big Lumberjack wood statue that stands in the corner of the RA Long gym. She always liked to run to spot where she could look at it and point at it. When Daddy carried her to a better view of the statue, she started shaking and saying "no". No matter where she was in the gym, she always knew where the Lumberjack was. It kind of reminds us of when she went to Wild Waves and was freaked out by the giant pirate head.

We brought home a tournament program that had a team picture on the front. Jillian immediately saw that the Lumberjack statue was in the background. Now, she constantly carries the program around and points out the statue to us.

New House

Monica and Dave (Auntie Sheryl's good friends) gave Jillian a very big gift this past weekend. Their daughters Allison and Selena had outgrown their Barbie Doll playhouse. So, they passed it on to Jillian. Daddy set it up in the backyard, and when Jillian first saw it, she went right in and closed the door. Then, she picked up the little play phone (by far, her favorite feature of the house) and started talking into it. Here's a photo of Jillian and her new house.

Tongue Gash

This latest boo-boo of Jillian's ranks right up there with her split lip that needed stitches. She was at Grannie's house, and went into the computer room while Daddy and Grannie were talking. Just a couple moments later, Jillian was crying. Daddy went to get her, and found that her mouth was bleeding. After cleaning her up, the bleeding stopped shortly afterwards, and we were able to see that she had cut her tongue. We didn't know exactly how it happened, but we think she might have fallen and bitten her tongue. A day later, the gash is still pretty obvious. Daddy is having flashbacks, remembering when he gashed his own tongue when he was little, and having to get stitches when it didn't heal by itself. We're watching Jillian's cut closely, and hoping that the cut will heal up soon.

Combining

During Jillian's visit to North Dakota, she got to ride a combine with Grandpa Peterson. She rode on Grandpa's lap as he made a pass through the Cousin Steve's wheat field. She wasn't afraid at all, and she watched closely what was going on. She even grabbed the wheel and jerked it around. Here's a little photo of them sitting in the combine together, and as a bonus, here's the video of them combining the field.

Surfing the Web

Daddy had been working on the computer at the dining room table, but then left to take care of something else. When he got back, he found Jillian sitting on the chair, with her hand on the mouse, staring at the computer screen. It was another case of Jillian copy-catting us. Nowadays, she is always trying to get up on the chair to play with the "tv" (her name for the computer).

Tinkle Time

It was a big moment at Grannie's house today. Jillian has her own little potty seat in the bathroom, and she likes to sit on it and pretend. Today, she wanted to not only pull down her pants, but also pull off her diaper and sit on the little potty. The first time around, she sat for a little bit, then decided she was done and cleaned things up. A little bit later, she wanted to sit on the potty seat again, so she pulled down her pants and Grannie take off her diaper. She sat on the potty ... and went "wee-wee"!! We don't know if she totally understands what happened, but at least she's willing.

North Dakota Trip

Jillian went on a big trip to North Dakota this past weekend with Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa Peterson and Beverly. Mommy's Cousin Steven had gotten married to Lizzy in England a short while ago, and they had a big reception for the newlyweds in their hometown of Cavalier. As Jillian now says, "party, party".

Everyone took off from the Portland Airport on Thursday afternoon. Jillian liked being on the plane, mostly because it was something new, and because there were lots of people. She made sure to say "hi" to everyone. There was so much going on, that she didn't take a nap during the entire 4+ hours we were in the air. That's a long time for Jillian to not be able to run around, so she did get a little crabby at times, but most people on the plane thought she behaved very well. We landed in Fargo late that night, and were picked up by Aunt Doreen. We stayed at her and Uncle Doug's house for the night. Also staying the night was Cousin Andy with Auntie Sheryl, who had flown in just after us.

We woke up the next morning to see Jillian's new Cousin Mariah (9 month's old at the time), who is Cousin Lexi's daughter. They both played with the toys at the house, especially the hopping Tigger, but Jillian's favorite toy was Mariah's car-seat, of course. In the afternoon, we all took off for Grand Forks to visit Mommy's Aunt Elvina at her apartment. All the kids (Jillian, Andy and Mariah) played and played some more. Then we packed back up and took off for Cavalier.

Aunt Karen and Uncle Alan's house was our destination, and where we would stay for the rest of the trip. When we arrived, Jillian ran around all over the house; it had lots of room to explore, and there were lots of new toys to play with. Her most favorite thing to play with was the little drawer box that held some spools of thread. She was always pulling this out, and emptying the spools everywhere. Jillian also adopted a couple new "babies" that she found, so they had to go to bed with her at night. For dinner, we headed out to Cousin Steve and Lizzy's farm house, where a lot of the Peterson family had gathered. Plus, there were a lot more kids there to play with. After getting a ride around the farm on a golf cart with Uncle Alan and Cousins Jenna, Justine and Kara, it was time for Jillian to go to bed.

Saturday was the day of the party. We paid a visit to Cousin Jay and Julie's house down the road, and Jillian got to play with her kid cousins some more, bouncing on the trampoline, rocking in the hammock, and playing with stroller buckles. Then we headed out to Cousin Steve's wheat field that was being harvested by Grandpa Peterson and Uncle Alan. Jillian got to ride on the big combine with Grandpa, and she even grabbed the wheel and jerked it around. All of the excitement during the day must have been too much for Jillian, because she refused to take a nap all day long. By the time of the party at 7:00 pm, she was delirious, running and crashing. We went to the Cavalier American Legion Hall for the reception, and all Jillian wanted to do was run to the coat room and play with Mariah's car-seat. So, Daddy loaded her up in her stroller and took her for a walk; it was just a short time later and she was sleeping. We let her sleep for a while during the party, and the loud music from the band didn't disturb her. Eventually, Jillian woke up, but she was still so tired that she just wanted to be carried. So, Mommy, Daddy and Grandpa Peterson took her out on the dance floor and carried her around while they danced.

Sunday was a sleep-in day after the fun party, and Jillian slept in 'til 9:00 am. Then, it was a very crowded house, as dozens of Peterson family came over for breakfast and lunch, and a Vikings football game. This ended up being another play day for Jillian with all of the kids who came to visit. Here's a photo of Jillian with (l to r) Great-Aunt Karen, Mommy and Great-Aunt Elvina.

We finished up our trip on Monday, hanging out at Aunt Karen and Uncle Alan's house. We had a very nice brunch with Cousin Steve and Lizzy, and then packed up and went back to the Fargo Airport. The flight home was a little easier, because we had an empty seat next to us that Jillian got to sit in all by herself ... so she occupied herself for a long time with the seat belt. She would eventually fall asleep on the flight.

It was a very fun trip for Jillian, and we look forward to going back next summer, when Jillian will be 2-1/2 years old.

Bike (i.e., Motorcycle)

Cars and trucks aren't all that interesting to Jillian. She'll see them and say "car" or "truck", but that's about it. Motorcycles are a whole different matter.

Jillian loves to look at motorcycles, either when they're parked, or moving down the street. When she sees one, she'll yell out "Bike!". She also likes to ride on them, if she can get up onto the seat; she does this often with Papa Woodruff's scooter. And somehow, she can hear the difference between motorcycles and any other vehicle. If she just hears a motorcycle passing by (not even seeing it), she'll yell out "Bike!". It must be those loud pipes that tip her off.

Uncle Richard is sure to be very proud of his little niece.