Crazy for Starfall

Everytime Jillian comes she must play Starfall, a computer game that Aunt Dianne used with Rielee. She can't work the mouse yet so usually Papa sits with her and does it once a day, which isn't enough, she thinks. Poor girl was down with a head cold and a little crabby until she took her nap and then was ready to play. Of course, she had already done Starfall and wanted to do it again and neither Papa and I would give in, so when we were out of the computer room for a minute she jumped up there and decided to do it herself. She put on my glasses (don't know how she could see the screen then) and worked hard on getting the mouse to work. I relented and brought up Starfall but said she would have to do it herself and she managed to bring up a book with lots of concentration on moving the mouse and lots of clicking. All in all, it kept her busy for awhile.

One-Eyed Smile

Here's the usual photo of Jillian ... with one eye shut (and sometimes both eyes shut). To get a photo of her with her eyes open, we have to be a little sneaky.

New Stuff XIX

A little post-Christmas fun, courtesy of our little Sweetie-Pie:

1. ABC Song : We've sang the ABC song to Jillian enough times that she tries to sing it herself. It goes something like this: "A, B, C ... X, Y, Z ... Now A, B, C ... Next time X, Y, Z". It's kind of the quick, abbreviated version of the song.

2. "No" : Jillian has been able to say this for some time, and we've heard it a lot. But now it seems like we hear it all the time. That makes sense, since she's almost 2.

3. Drawing Faces : Jillian has a couple of drawing tablets (the magnetic kind), and she loves to draw on them and then erase. She's watched Grannie draw countless people faces, including Dora, and now she does her best to draw faces, too. She draws a circle, then does a bunch of dots (for the eyes), then a scribble inside the circle (for the mouth), and a scribble on top of the circle (for the hair). She'll even throw in a scribble on both sides of the circle (for the ears).

4. Super-Fast : It's always been hard for us to keep Jillian's socks or shoes on; she can easily take them off by herself. And with all the times that we've tried to stop her, she's learned how to take them off super-fast! It happens in the blink of an eye, now, so it's not even worth trying to stop her. One nice thing, though, has been that she likes to try and put them back on herself, and she's usually pretty successful.

5. "Feety-Fie" : Jillian can't quite say her "sw" sound, so when she says her knickname (Sweetie-Pie), it comes out with an "f" sound.

Sighting No. 46

A recent Jillian sighting! This one is compliments of Grannie Woodruff a short time ago, when Jillian had some braids ("pretties") put into her hair.

New Jeep

For a little Christmas fun, here's a video of Jillian in her new Jeep that she got for Christmas. Cousin Brock is giving her a ride. Jillian says that he goes "fast".

Christmas No. 2

Jillian's second Christmas was quite a day. She made trips to 4 different locations throughout the day, and held up really well. For sure, she has a better handle on opening presents, but her favorite part of the whole day was seeing all the family and friends again.

The day started off at 7:30 am, when Mommy and Daddy woke her up. She was still pretty tired after an exciting Christmas Eve, but she got right up when we said that she could open presents. The first thing she saw was the Strider balance bike (from Santa Daddy). Then, she opened up a big present to find a Radio Flyer tricycle (from Santa Mommy). Mommy and Daddy had wanted to buy separate Santa gifts for Jillian as a surprise, but we might have to change how we do that. After a few more presents and stockings, we got dressed and ready to go.

Our next stop was at Scott & Cindy's, where we also saw Dany & Jason, Mckenna & Lindsey, Helen and Brandon. There were lots of gifts going around, and Jillian was getting warmed up on the opening side of things. One of the gifts she received was a stepping stool from Scott & Cindy. Now she'll be able to see what's happening on top of the counters. Through the flurry, Jillian did slow down for about 30 seconds to read a page or two from "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with Scott.

We then took off for Castle Rock to see Grannie & Papa and all of the aunts, uncles and cousins in the Woodruff family. The present opening started right off with some Dora stuff, so that got Jillian all worked up. Then, she opened the big present from Grannie & Papa ... an electric Jeep. The fact that it had a carrying capacity of up to 130 lbs meant that Ty and Brock were also very excited. They both took Jillian outside to play in the Jeep, and Jillian was perfectly content to go along for a "fast" ride.

We went back to Longview in the afternoon, going to Uncle Clark & Auntie Greta's house, where we saw all of the aunts, uncles and cousins in the Peterson family. It was a whirlwind of present opening, and we worked hard to keep the room clear of all the wrapping paper so we wouldn't get swamped. Jillian got tons of new clothes, and was very excited about it all. She also liked to check out all the toys that Adam and Andy got. By the end of this round, both Jillian and Adam were very tired, and they laid down on the floor together to catch their breath.

The final stop was Uncle Dave & Auntie Charolette's house for a Christmas dinner, where we also saw Jim & Michelle. There was lots of good food, and we enjoyed a relaxing end to the evening. The kids kept on going, though, right to the very end. Believe it or not, we had a hard time getting Jillian down to sleep that night, maybe because she was still on an adrenaline rush. But, she ended up sleeping in the next day until 10:00 am!

Night Before Christmas

We spent this year's Christmas Eve at the Piercy family party in Castle Rock. It was hosted by Aunt Julie and Uncle Kevin this time around. Lots and lots of Jillian's relatives showed up. And Santa made an appearance, too!

Jillian wore her pretty Christmas dress to the party, though it wasn't long before the sweater came off. She was working up a sweat running around with Rielee and others. While playing downstairs, we heard a knock at the door and all of the kids screaming. We ran upstairs to find that Santa had arrived. Just like the first two encounters, Jillian didn't want to get anywhere close to Santa. She preferred to watch him from a distance. But, she did get a present from Santa ... in fact, she got a candy cane from him, so maybe she thought that he wasn't all that bad?

Then it came time to open presents from under the Christmas tree. One of the things that got Jillian really excited was a big box of princess stuff from Cousin Rielee, which included several pretty princess dresses. Jillian immediately stripped her clothes off, and started yelling for us to put her into one of the dresses. Even later after we put jam-jams on her, she still wanted to wear one of the dress-bottoms over the top of her pants.

Jillian received many cool presents, and she really got into tearing the wrapping paper off each one. She's old enough now that she gets pretty excited when opening presents, knowing that there's something new inside. All that excitement wore her out, because she was deliriously tired at the end of the evening.