Wet Noodle

Part of Jillian's newfound ability to throw a little mini-tantrum is her new maneuver called the "wet noodle". When she has her mind set on something, and then we (or anyone else) tries to pull her away or pick her up, she goes all limp. A lot of times Jillian will arch her back and throw her head backwards, but at the same time, she'll get all floppy in her arms and legs, which makes holding her pretty difficult. And of course, she's yelling and crying while she does this. If we don't hold her up, she'll end up laying on the ground. We actually thought it was kind of funny at first ...

The Nurturing Side

In between rambling around like a wild girl, Jillian will show us her nurturing motherly-side. She'll lay (or toss) her baby onto the floor, and then lay a blanket over the top of baby. Here's a little photo of one of those times.

Helping Hand

Used to be that Jillian would walk right up to some stairs, and then step off on her own, expecting someone nearby to catch her. Nowadays, if someone is close, she'll reach out her hand for help getting down. She seems to be getting used to the idea of hand-holding, because if we grab onto her hand in a parking lot or a store, she'll go ahead and hold on.

Hurricane Jill

The stitches haven't slowed down our Sweetie-Pie. She is right back to her "destructo-mode", making the house look like a hurricane ran through it. Here's a photo of Jillian going through her clothes drawers ... unfortunately, she just couldn't find a thing to wear.

(By the way, Jillian had yet another crash this afternoon, falling forward and hitting her head on her blocks ... she ended up with a nice bruise just above her right eyebrow. As if Mommy's nerves weren't already frazzled enough!)

First Stitches

Jillian received her first stitches today ... and she's only 14 months old. If she's anything like her Mommy, there will probably be many more stitches to come.

This morning, while playing around in the living room, Jillian decided to climb her toy refrigerator. She reached up to the top shelf and pulled herself up, only to slip and smack her mouth on a lower shelf. Mommy saw the whole thing happen, and as soon as Jillian hit her lip, it started spurting blood everywhere. Mommy immediately put pressure on it to stop the bleeding, and then got her cleaned up. Jillian was very upset! Mommy knew it was a pretty deep gash, so she called Daddy at work to ask for help driving Jillian to the urgent care clinic in Vancouver. Daddy came home and we loaded up for a quick trip.

When we got to the clinic and while Mommy was checking in, Jillian ran around with her split lip, exploring and having a good time in the waiting room. It was like nothing had even happened. Eventually, we went to our examination room, and when the physician assistant came to visit, it took only a moment for her to look at Jillian's lip and decide that she would need stitches. That's when she went to get someone else to help out (with holding Jillian down).

The nurse came in, got out a heavy blanket, and wrapped Jillian in the "burrito-wrap" ... and just like when she was a baby, Jillian got very mad!!! She doesn't like being confined! Mommy and Daddy helped hold her down while the nurse held her head, and the PA injected saline solution into her lip. Then she quickly put in 2 stitches. Jillian screamed the whole time, but once it was over and she got out the blanket, she was OK again.

On our way home, we stopped by Burgerville and picked up a vanilla milkshake. It was kind of like how Mommy got a soft-serve ice cream after one of her owies. Jillian slurped down the shake, and was in a much better mood afterwards.

Pretty Flowers

No flower is safe from Jillian ... she loves to pick them! Mommy has many flowers in front of the house, and when Jillian goes outside, the flower bed is the first place that she goes. Her favorites are the little purple flowers (like the photo shows ... she had just picked one). The others that she likes are the tulips. The only problem is that she tries to eat the flowers every time; though she doesn't care much for them, since she spits them out.

Pretend Cooking

Now that Jillian has some cooking-wares (pots, pans, dishes and utensils, compliments of the Paul's), she has started playing make-believe with them. She likes to pretend that she is stirring a pot with a wooden spoon and then eating the make-believe food. The other thing she does is hand us a pan, which we reach into and grab the make-believe food and then eat it ... then she'll do the same.