"Show Your Teeth"

We can no longer say "smile" or "cheese" when taking a picture of Jillian, because she'll half-close her eyes, give a little smirk and turn her head. Instead, we now say "show your teeth", and Jillian will give us a big, cheesy smile. Here's a photo of one of those times, when Daddy and Jillian were out walking the lake with their hats on.

New Stuff XVI

Continuing with the weekly updates on what's new with Sweetie-Pie:

1. "Fix it" : If we tell Jillian that something is "broke", she'll tell us to "fix it". We've usually had to say this about some of her books, that have had pages ripped out of them.

2. "I'm OK" : When we ask Jillian "Did you poop?", she'll reply "I'm OK" ... meaning either that she didn't poop, or that she doesn't want to be changed.

3. Sympathy : One way to get Jillian to give us a hug or kiss is to play the sympathy-card. If she sees someone crying or sad, she'll run over and give them hugs and kisses. So, we'll pretend cry whenever Jillian refuses to give a hug or kiss when we ask for one.

4. "I'm happy" : When we were out walking the lake, and Jillian had collected a bunch of leaves, she said "I'm happy" with a big smile.

5. "I'm big girl" : There's no particular occasion for this one. She'll say it whenever, then stand up and stretch real big with her head up high.

6. "Throw it out" : After a diaper change, Jillian immediately starts yelling "throw it out", meaning she wants it thrown into the garbage. Of course, she also yells "I do it", because she wants to throw it in the garbage herself. Sometimes we let her do it for the wet ones, but not the dirty ones.

7. Mommy's iPod : It didn't take very long for Jillian to figure out how to turn on Mommy's iPod that's docked in the Bose speaker. When she wants to listen to music and dance, she goes right up and presses the big button. Then, she keeps pressing the button and saying "new song".

Restaurant Meltdown

It's like times years ago when we went to a restaurant, and there was a family with a child that cried and screamed and made us wonder "what's the problem here?". Well, it was our turn on Wednesday, when we went to La Hacienda for dinner. Jillian was acting kind of fussy and squirmy when we got there, and by the end of dinner, she was in a full-out meltdown ... crying and yelling. She was so worked up, that there was no calming her down. So, we paid for the meal as quick as we could and got out there.

New Stuff XV

The weekly update on Jillian happenings, all new and fun:

1. Short Trips : Jillian likes to say "bye-bye" and disappear out of sight for about 1 or 2 seconds, then reappear and say "I'm back". She usually does this with her shopping cart when she goes "shop, shop".

2. Elmo Diapers : The diapers at home have Mickey Mouse on them, which apparently doesn't excite Jillian as much as Elmo diapers ... the Elmo diapers are at Grannie and Papa's house. Whenever we change her diapers at home, she starts yelling "Elmo".

3. Dishwashing 101 : Jillian likes to unload the dishwasher. She started helping Papa Woodruff at his house. She grabs the spoons and forks and throws them (literally) into the drawer. Sometimes they end up all over the place. Papa Woodruff is hoping this little-helper phase passes soon.

4. Book Throwing : It's not only silverware that gets thrown. Jillian has also started chucking the books at us when it's time to read. She gets a running start with the book behind her head, then flips it at our tummy. The paperbacks aren't too bad ... it's the huge Rhyme Bible that hurts.

5. Early Reader : If Mommy or Daddy is busy, sometimes Jillian will read a book out loud to herself. It sounds like a bunch of words we can't understand, with the occasional "Thomas" or "Elmo" thrown in.

6. Last Molars : Those final teeth way in the back must be coming in, because Jillian constantly has her fingers jammed into the back of her mouth.

7. Hide-and-Seek : Jillian does NOT like the hide-and-seek game. When we try and play it, she refuses to wait for us to hide; she runs after us. And if we do manage to hide where she can't see us right away, then she starts crying.

New Favorite Baby

The little Cabbage Patch Doll has been Jillian's favorite baby for the longest time, and it's showing some wear, but it's still holding up. A while back, Aunt Julie found a little knit doll for Jillian and gave it to her. Jillian played with it once in a while, but stuck with her Cabbage Patch Doll for nigh-nigh and snuggle time.

Recently, Jillian decided to make the new knit doll her number one baby ("Baby" is the name she gives all of her dolls). When it's bedtime, that's the doll that she always wants to sleep cuddle with and sleep with. And of course, it's the baby that plays blocks, dances and such.

Daddy's Hat

Jillian actually likes to wear hats, including Daddy's baseball cap. Here's a shot of her looking tough.

New Boots

It's a little hard to see the boots in this photo, but you can see the rest of the outfit that Mommy put on her for church this morning. Jillian definitely loves her boots (just like her shoes)!

State Volleyball

Jillian made a big trip to the other side of the mountains to watch her cousins Meagan, Tierney and Macee play in the volleyball state championships. Meagan's R A Long team was in the 2A championship at Kennewick, and Tierney and Macee's Castle Rock team was in the 1A championship at Yakima. So, Jillian got to spend some quality time in her carseat on trips back and forth.

The Castle Rock team took 4th place, and Jillian had a great time at the SunDome. She spent a lot of time playing with her cousin Rielee wherever we could find some open areas for her to run around. Aunt Dianne made a red and black skirt with rhinestones for Jillian to wear at the games, that matched the one cousin Rielee wore.

The R A Long team just missed out on the trophy round, but still had an excellent tournament. Once again, Jillian had a great time at the Toyota Center, running around with her cousin Adam the whole time. Since CR and RAL had similar team colors, Jillian was able to wear her skirt to the RAL games, as well.

By the end of the weekend, Jillian was one very tired little Sweetie-Pie.

New Stuff XIV

These summary updates are the way to go. There are so many new things, it's about impossible to list each in its own post. So, here's the latest:

1. Little Miss Social : With Jillian talking a lot these days, she has started talking to other kids. Usually, these kids just look at us and ask "what did she say?".

2. Straight Arms and Bent Legs : When Jillian doesn't want to be picked up, she holds her arms straight down at her sides, tight to her body, so that we can't get our hands under her arms. If we do happen to pick her up, she'll pull her knees up. This is all helping Mommy and Daddy with their exercise.

3. "ABC" : Jillian is learning to sing the ABC song, which she has called "A-C". If we sing it to her, she'll watch our mouth, and try to (silently) mimic the sounds herself ... we can see her lips move the right way, so she'll probably try singing it soon.

4. The Blame Game : If Daddy asks Jillian who took something, she'll say "Mama", even if she didn't take it. When she's at Grannie's house, she'll blame "Papa". When Daddy says "She / he didn't take it", Jillian will smile and say "noooo".

5. Empathy : On a couple occasions, Jillian has cried when someone else has gotten hurt. Grannie took a tumble a week or so ago, and while she was on the ground, Jillian started bawling, and wouldn't stop for quite a while. Recently, Daddy cut his finger, and when Jillian saw it, she started crying and whining; then she wanted a bandage for her own finger.

6. Snuggle Bunny : If we take Jillian outside when it's cold, she buries her head next to ours, and tucks her hands underneath herself, while saying "cold".

7. "Wa-hoo" : This is something that Jillian says when something cool happens.

New Stuff XIII

More and more, in a big bunch again (long work hours and being sick has limited the number of posts by Daddy the past couple weeks):

1. "How about ...?" : Jillian has been saying this for a little while now. It's one of the many phrases that she has picked up and repeated.

2. Early Riser : It used to be that Jillian would sleep until we woke her up in the morning. Now, she has been waking up very early, sometimes at 5:00 am or so when Daddy gets up for work. And when she wakes up, the first thing she says is "milk".

3. A Little Bit of Separation Anxiety : This wasn't much of a problem up until recently. When we take her to the church nursery, she won't stay, even with all the toys around ... unless there's another kid there. If she sees either Mommy or Daddy leaving the house, she says "I go" and then cries if she has to stay.

4. Name Dropping : Jillian has gotten good at attaching our names to the end of her demands, such as "Lay down, Da-da" or "Come, Ma-ma".

5. Blocks, Revisited : There's been a change in attitude with the blocks. It's not just about destruction anymore. Stacking has become the thing-to-do. She's doing well at stacking them up several levels high.

6. "All Done" : If we're not paying attention to her, Jillian will say "all done" and pull out of our hands whatever it is that we're holding.

7. The "Hi, Baby" Game : Jillian likes it when her dolls talk (even in Daddy's voice), so the game she like's to play these days is the "Hi, Baby" game. Two of her babies face each other and talk, and when music is playing, they dance and jump. Then, they high-five each other and Jillian, and give hugs and kisses. Finally, one of the babies helps Jillian build with the blocks, saying "heavy" when carrying the heavy blocks, and naming the colors of the colored blocks.

Colors & Numbers

These are 2 things that Jillian has been learning lately. She's learned her colors mostly by doing lots of coloring with her crayons. She can now identify brown (of course), yellow, red, green, black and blue. She can even say these colors, with a little help. Her counting range has gotten bigger, since she can now count from 1 to 7. This is all good, as she'll be prepared for "Grannie's School of Torture" in a year or so.

Jumpin' Jilly-bean

Jillian is figuring out how to jump! She can now get both feet off the ground, if only a very small bit. Her vertical is probably about 1/2". She started getting interested in jumping when she'd be standing on a small step and wanted to jump the rest of the way down. Now, she likes to do her jumping in her room when the music on her entertainment center is playing; she has a specific song that she likes to jump to (as heard on this video). In the video, after one of the jumps, she says "big jump".

Halloween Days

It was a very busy Halloween for Jillian this year.

She started it off in the afternoon by going up to the Castle Rock American Legion with Grandpa Peterson and Cousin Meagan, along with Cousins Adam and Andy. They played games and got lots of candy, and got to see Beverly in a Tigger costume. Jillian even had a little butterly painted on her face, as this picture shows.

When Jillian got home, it was time for a nap, because she was soooo tired. It would end up being a short nap, though. We woke her up early (which led to a tired and out-of-sorts little girl), as there was much trick-or-treating to be done.

Our first stop was the Street of Screams at the Three Rivers Mall, where we met up with Adam and Andy to go through the twisty maze. There was lots of candy being handed out there, so Jillian got more than enough on just this trip alone. We had taught her how to say "trick-or-treat" so that she could get candy, and when she said it, it came out at "teet-teet". That was close enough for everyone to know what she was saying. Here favorite candy that she got, by far, were the lollipops ... she held onto those tightly, and wouldn't let Mommy or Daddy carry them for her. She did get kind of spooked once, when she went up to one of the windows and someone was wearing a scary mask; she stumbled backwards with big eyes, and then started crying. She was a little more cautious in the maze after that.

Next, we went home real quick and went to our neighbors' houses. Jillian liked knocking on the doors, after which she would get all tense and start shaking with anticipation, knowing that someone was coming out. When the neighbors held out the candy, Jillian always went for the extra handfuls, grabbing candy until the bowl was pulled away.

We then took off for Castle Rock, stopping at Grannie and Papa's house first. Jillian was very excited to get a new pair of "cow" boots in her bag. But she was even more excited to do some coloring and listen to books (her usual things to do there). We made the quick rounds, going to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Julie's house (where she played with their keys), and then to Uncle Dan and Aunt Robin's house (where she played with their drawer of cups).

It was very late, so we made one last stop at Cindy and Scott's house, where it was a party with Wyatt bouncing a balloon all over the house. Jillian was a very tired and delirious Sweetie-Pie, and when we got home, she was ready for bed.

Jillian the Tiger

Courtesy of Cousin Rielee and family, Jillian got this tiger outfit to wear for this year's Halloween. Mommy got a black top, tights and shoes to go with it. When we put it on Jillian, we worked with her on what a tiger says ("Rooaarrr!"). She learned how to let out a little roar, though sometimes she just liked to say "meow" instead.

Jill-O-Lantern

It was pumpkin-carving time, and Mommy, Daddy and Jillian moved their pumpkins into the kitchen and got to work. Daddy got the tops off, and started removing the "guts". When we tried to get Jillian to reach in and pull the insides out, she wanted nothing to do with it. The most that she would do is pull out one little pumpkin seed. She didn't like it when she got pumpkin-stuff on her hands ... she wanted it wiped off right away.

Eventually, we got the faces carved on the pumpkins, and put them outside on the front steps. Here's a little picture of Jillian cozying up next to them. Jillian's pumpkin is in the middle, with Mommy's up top and Daddy's on the bottom.

Sighting No. 43

Here's a photo of a very excited Jillian, probably because Halloween is just around the corner.