Jan and Jillian

Jillian switched to a different swimming teacher a few weeks ago. At first I felt a bit offended at her teacher's suggestion to pass her on, because I observed her became frustrated by Jillian's activity level on more than one occasion. I soon got over my sensitivity (read: Matt reminded me that I am too sensitive) and realized it was for the best. We lucked out and were able to get in with Jan Larson, a beloved swim coach here in Rochester. She has been doing this a very long time, and she is just the right mix of business and love. Jillian responds well to Mrs Larson, and has made a ton of progress in just a few lessons. I love to hear Jillian tell Mrs Larson that what she is asking her to do is "hard", yet she remains engaged and pushes through to the goal--it's not often that we find the "just right" challenge for her. Proud of you Jiji! Here is a clip from yesterday's lesson.

13 Months

Princess Adrienne is 13 months old today.

 Her personality continues to charm our socks off, and she is picking up new skills faster than I can record them. Recently, she has begun telling us animal sounds--she is fairly consistent with puppy and kitty, and tries her hardest to make an elephant sound when I am reading one of her current favorite books (it happens to be a book I apparently loved as a baby--Baby Animals by Gyo Fujikawa). She is also getting pretty good at identifying body parts, specifically nose, head, and ears.

She added a new word to her vocabulary today at nap time when after our usual books and singing, she reached up and said "tiss" before planting a wet one on me. She didn't wait for me to ask for one this time. I love it when routines start to click for kids, especially when they involve unsolicited snuggles. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Dorothy and The Fawn

The Olmsted County Fair has been going on in Rochester this week, and Matt really wanted to take Jillian. He said he found it puzzling that I didn't already have plans to go with friends during the day, which I found truly amusing. Seriously? My interest level for a hot afternoon with multiple kids at a dirty fair with a bazillion people was at an absolute zero. No way. Much like the circus, a fair seems like it's daddy's territory! So, Matt excitedly loaded up an equally excited Jillian last night and they were on their way. It is noteworthy to say that they left at Jillian's usual bath time (which precedes her 7 p.m. bedtime by about 15 minutes). It is also noteworthy to report that I was unsure if I should send out a search party when I climbed in bed to read at 10:15 and they were not home yet. At 10:45 they came barreling in, and Jillian was dying to show me "a big surprise". Here is my overstimulated 3 year old, with fire still in her eyes, presenting me with said surprise.

Meet Dorothy, her very first pet--a real, live goldfish (for now) that Matt "won" for her at the fair. Jillian cleverly named the fish Dorothy after Elmo's pet goldfish. I tried to contain my excitement (you can imagine how excited I am about caring for this fish...) and show appropriate enthusiasm for this very special milestone. I informed Matt that animals (like plants) fall under his domain--I care for and feed the humans in this home, and he has to tow the line elsewhere. Regardless of my pet hesitation it was pretty darn cute to see her bursting with glee over this. When we finally got her in bed (at 11:30 p.m.!!) she told Dorothy to go to sleep, and then looked at us and said, "Why isn't she going to sleep? How does she lay down?"
Surprisingly, Dorothy survived her first night in our home, and Matt decided we should buy a small filtered aquarium to improve her chances of a longer life, and to reduce the cleaning efforts at home (I was all for that). So, she now resides on the sink in the girls' bathroom in a cute little tank with hot pink rocks and a hot pink lid. I am certain that Dorothy will give us very good cause to have a discussion the cycle of life in the near future.
I asked Matt this morning how Jillian liked the fair, and if they spent time in the baby animal exhibit that everyone had been raving about. He said he tried to get her in that building, but she just kept pleading to "go back to the fawn" so she could ride some more rides. Fair, fawn, tomato, to-mah-to....

10 Minutes

Jillian can cover a lot of conversational ground in a 10 minute drive home. On Tuesday, I picked her up from preschool camp, and here is what we discussed in a short few minutes  (and in this order)....

We started talking about toys, then the conversation shifted to how she had too many toys and she remembered that I have told her more than once that we need to box some up and give them to kids who don't have any, and the conversation continued...
J: "Mom, they might not have a family. They didn't have a family. What are they going to do??"
M: "I'm not sure, what do you think they will do?"
J: "Well, they could just ask God to help them. That's a great idea."

Adrienne suddenly shrieks and giggles
J: "Mom, A is crazing me out!"
M: "What?"
J: "She is really crazing, Mom. I'm crazed out"

A new song comes on the radio:
J: "Mom, what's the name of this song?"
M: "We Are Young"
J:, "Well, I was young when I was a baby. Right Mom?" then quickly changes the subject...
J: "You know, if a dog is nervous you ask to pet it".
M: "Yes, that's a good idea. Who told you that?"
J: "I know it myself. You know some dogs are nervous, like a dragon, a lion, or a hippo. You can't pet a hippo, Mom"
M: "Oh really? Why?"
J: "Because they roar like a lion"

J: "I don't want to be a police when I grow up, I just want to be a mommy ice skater. Is that ok?"
M: "Well of course. You can be what you want to be"
J: "I just don't think I like police, so I don't want to be one"
M: "OK, but why don't you like police?"
J: "Mom they will take you away. They take you to jail".
M: "Yes, they take people to jail when they do very bad things, but they also help people"
J: "That's right. And I like police girls better than policemen. They are prettier".

And just like that we were home! Whew!
 

Just Us Girls

The girls and I took our first solo road trip over the weekend, and headed to Des Moines to see Grammy and Grandad for a few days. Aunt Mal had Friday off, so she met us there as well. Matt stayed here to work ridiculous hours catching up on some research and presentations so that he can feel more relaxed about our upcoming anniversary trip.
On Thursday, I picked Jillian up from camp and we hit the road. Adrienne unfortunately fell asleep on the way to get Jillian, so had trouble going back to sleep once we were on the road. Jillian watched some shows on the iPad, Adrienne looked at some books, both slept here and there, and they ate a snack. I put the pedal to the metal, determined not to stop, and we made it in exactly 3 hours.
On Friday, Jillian had a special afternoon with Grandad and Aunt Mal at a local water park. She had the time of her life splashing, floating, and sliding around the park.

When they returned, she took a little rest on the couch before dinner--you can see she was pretty much toast!

On Saturday, we headed down to the Des Moines farmer's market. It was by far the best farmer's market I've seen, with blocks and blocks of ethnic food, fresh produce, music, and handmade goods. Adrienne took it all in via stroller as Grandad pushed her among the crowds.

Jillian tried her hand at hula hooping, made a "grass buddy" at the Pioneer craft station, and cautiously checked out an enormous "puppy".

 When we were sufficiently hot and hungry, we stopped at one of G and G's favorite downtown lunch spot--a German brat haus. Grandad didn't mess around and enjoyed the foot-long brat.

We headed home so the girls could rest, and then Aunt Mal and I went out shopping together for the afternoon.
On Sunday, the girls enjoyed lots of time playing in the sprinkler and baby pool, and we enjoyed a great steak dinner. Adrienne became hooked on a post-dinner popsicle treat during our visit, and I took a couple cute video clips of her excitement.

We loaded up on Monday at nap time, and though the girls never napped at the same time (or for very long), we still managed to make it home without stopping and without much drama in the back seat. I'm so proud of them, and appreciate that they made the trip easy on me....we just might do it again sometime!

Before I forget--here are a few funnies from Jillian over the weekend:

-As I tucked her into bed the first night, she kept telling me she was scared, and was a bit reticent about going to bed in general. I reminded her she had her "friends" (the 2 stuffed animals that made the cut), and then told her that God was watching over her to keep her safe at night. She said, "Does God live here, Mom? I thought he lived at school". Me: "Why do you think God lives at school?" J: "Because the teacher said I was in God's house!" (preschool is in our church :) )

-Grammy and Grandad graciously let me sleep in each morning and took care of the girls. On Friday, Jillian determined I had slept too long when she said, "How was your day, Mom? You've been sleeping all day:" When you are up before 6 most days, I guess 8 a.m. really is sleeping the day away.

-After I put Jillian in her bed one night, I went back in the room to get my stuff to take a shower. She said, "Mom, you need to leave. I need my quiet time alone". Hmmm....wonder where she's heard that before??

-Jillian enjoyed reading some of our old books while she was there. One of them was on having good manners. At the end of the story the author asks if you can think of how to have good manners. Jillian promptly says, "Be Politeful".

-And my favorite...as she ran in front of a fan in the hallway to head down the stairs, I heard her casually say,  "Excuse me, wind".

12 Month Stats

Adrienne had her 12 month appt with Dr V yesterday. She was her usual charming self, only breaking character for about 20 seconds after her three shots (MMR, Hepatitis A, and Chicken Pox vaccines). Dr V could not get over how pleasant she was during the exam, and the nurse could barely keep her focus on updating computer forms because Adrienne was so engaging. Here are her stats, and some current developmental highlights:

 Height: just shy of 31 inches (88%)
Weight: 22 lbs 7 oz (66%)
Head: 89%

Adrienne crawls fast, cruises on furniture, climbs up stairs, pushes her doll stroller around, gets up from the floor and stands alone, and will even do some squats. She has done everything but walk. With some prodding, she will move one foot forward and then sit. The ability is there, she just has to decide she isn't scared to take her first real steps. Adrienne is also starting to climb. She is close to being able to get up on the couch, and I have caught her standing on an overturned plastic container trying to escape the "baby jail".

Adrienne has a lot of teeth. I have stopped counting because she seriously looks like she has a mouthful, and where there are spaces left, I can see white lines beginning to appear. Her left bottom 1 year molar is fully present, and the right one popped through this week.

Adrienne is able to use a pincer grasp to pick up small objects (and she can find whatever minuscule object you missed when "Adrienne proofing" a play space), points to people and things with her index finger and loves to put objects in containers and take them out again (over and over and over).

Adrienne is quite the talker these days! She has such inquisitive facial expressions and intonation in her voice. She can pretty much get her point across with hand gestures, sounds and facial expressions, and I witnessed her use this method to tell her dad to go get the book she had in the other room the other day. She was quite clear--I heard "buh" (her word for 'book') as she pointed to the door of our bedroom, then back at herself, and repeated it until he said, "Oh, you want me to get the book?". She giggled hysterically. Adrienne does have several true words and approximations:
-Jiji (Jillian's nickname. I can even say, "Let's go get your sister from school" and she gets excited and shouts, "Jiji"!)
-Moh (more)
-Muh (milk)
-Mama
-Dah-dee (daddy)
-kee (kitty)
-buh (book)
-ber (diaper)
-wah (waffle)
-soo (shoe)
-baaa (bath)
-cheezzz (cheese!)
-nana (banana)
-nigh nigh (either in reference to her lovey, or "good night")
-bye bye (almost always accompanied by a wave)
-no (when pointing to her nose, it means "nose", otherwise, she screams "NO!" and she means it!)

Adrienne is a great eater overall. She has started to limit her preferences as toddlers often do, but for the most part, she is pretty agreeable. She prefers fruits over vegetables, and like her sister, has an intense love for dairy products. She is not a meat eater, which doesn't surprise me given that we haven't been eating much meat at home in recent months (and when we do, I'm not inclined to share my steak with her just yet!). She did try some of Jillian's cheeseburger last week, but the experience wasn't met with much enthusiasm. She loves noodles of any kind like her 'ol mom, and is especially fond of pesto. She is starting to want to use the spoon to feed herself, and can drink out of an open cup with a little bit of help. As of last week, she is fully weaned, and only drinks whole milk out of the sippy cup. As an aside, I wasn't prepared for how sad/emotional I would feel when she was done nursing. She looked at me like I was crazy and then giggled when I tearfully said, "I guess we're done, huh?".  She really is a big girl now.

Adrienne is finally sleeping well at night. She goes to bed easily around 7 after bath, a couple books, and our usual song (always giving me sweet kisses as she says "nigh nigh"), and usually is up between 6-7 a.m. She is pretty much down to one 2ish hour nap per day, but if we are home and she got up early, she will take a short morning nap as well. When I pick her up each morning, she always wraps her arms around me tightly and gives the nicest heart-melting hugs.

In short--we have ourselves one delightful, charming, sensitive, snuggly, happy, social, intensely sweet one year old. What a doll.

Sing A Song

Jillian learns lots of songs at her preschool camp and sings them often. She has never, however, let me record her in concert until today. Unfortunately, she refused to put any clothes on besides the underwear she was wearing after she changed out of her swim suit. So, here is an underwear-clad Jillian singing her heart out. You just have to take what you can get, people. Enjoy!

Lately

I've been a bit disconnected from the blog in recent weeks. We've been enjoying summer, a first birthday, and hosting company. I'm going to attempt to catch up in this post by providing a rundown of what we've been up to lately.

Jillian and I have been enjoying "special time" at the RAC outdoor pool about once a week. We check A into the Kids Club and head outside for a swim and a treat. She tried her first Bomb Pop last week, which seems like a rite of passage.

These two are really into "playing" with each other. It doesn't last long, but it is cute when it happens. A little monkey-see, monkey-do with some buckets was the game of the minute on Friday.

Testing the limits of space and motor ability

 The garden is going great guns. I am almost giddy, and look forward to heading out to check the progress with Matt each night after the girls are in bed.

My fairytale eggplant plant is dripping with these lovely miniature eggplant. I am in love with their adorableness. Almost too cute to eat. Almost.

Finally! Our first tomatoes were ripe tonight. We've got about a hundred green ones still holding out on me. I hope they don't all turn at once.

I am over zucchini. I have roasted it, sauteed it, fried it, baked with it, and grilled it. It is still coming. We picked our first two cucs and two measly beans on Thursday.

Jillian is enjoying Kingdom Kids camp at her preschool two mornings/week. She made a cowboy hat last week during craft time, and I caught her jumping on her bed in her skivvies before bath one night shouting, "Howdy Partner!".  Have I mentioned I am nervous about her teen years??

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed a Fourth of July lunch at the Taunton's. It's so nice to have good friends who are also without family to spend holidays with. Jillian proudly displayed her patriotic wear

And Adrienne looked ridiculously adorable in hers. I was happy she fit in Jillian's first fourth of July dress!

Adrienne is trying lots of new foods. I am excited about the fact that she is crazy about pasta with pesto. My basil is also out of control, so pesto is on the menu regularly these days.

It's rare to say that we would choose to stay indoors in the summer in MN--but it really has been hot, so we've had to get creative at times. I made Jillian's day when I decided we were going to have a "race" to see who could blow the cotton balls across the floor the fastest using a straw. I still am an OT, after all.

Adrienne's birthday present finally arrived, and she is pretty proud of her new personalized big girl chair. She spends lots of time climbing in and out of it, and loves to read books. She is currently obsessed with three of them--Barnyard Dance, Goodnight Moon, and Dimity Duck (in that order)

Thanks to Shannon's advice, we are learning to care for Jillian's curly hair so that we can spend fewer painful moments trying to style it in the morning. Conditioner and finger styling have replaced detangling spray and a comb. Much, much better.

Adrienne can often be found pushing her stroller around (usually empty, but in this case, the doll actually got a ride)

I brushed off my cake decorating tips and decided to decorate A's smash cake. It was my first time decorating anything in almost 2 years, and I think it turned out pretty well. I forgot how fun it could be--and I'm already looking forward to tackling a cake for Jillian's birthday.

Reading bedtime stories from Jillian's children's Bible. I love this picture because you can see how concerned she is about "Go-ly-et (Goliath) and what a mean "monster" he was. She was relieved to learn about David's victory.

I spent a recent Saturday shopping in Minneapolis with a great friend. We left the kids at home with the dads early in the morning and didn't come home until after a leisurely dinner. It was bliss. I find it amusing (and sweet) that the dads spent most of the day together, too--they met at Oxbow, went out to lunch, and then reconvened after rest time for a dinnertime BBQ. They quickly figured out how us moms make it through the day--with the help and support of friends.

 We've spent many evenings outside on our deck. We finally bought some patio furniture, and it is so nice to have a place to sit and admire mother nature's handiwork

We are west-facing so shades are required. Thanks to J's friend, Malea, Matt found some fun ones to wear after A's party

I love this cool sunset--you can see beams of light fanning out above the clouds. Have I mentioned I really like living in the country?!?

Evidence of the busy summer. Jillian is zonked at night. She continues to fall out of her bed, and often stays put for hours (or until I go up to adjust the thermostat and discover her).  I never cease to be amused by this sight.

Cousins

Cousin Jack (and his parents, Aunt Meggie and Uncle D) came up to MN over the weekend, and it was so fun to see the kids get reacquainted and spend time together. Jack had grown so much since Christmas and really is turning into a little man, which is a good thing because his little brother will be arriving in November. We are so excited for another cousin! I contemplated sending all my baby girl clothes home with them (because they didn't know they were having another boy until today), so I am glad I didn't make them haul the bins home unnecessarily.
We spent the weekend mostly wrangling the kids and ensuring they got to bed on time (or early, if possible) so that we could spend the evening chatting outside on the deck chatting the night away. I always feel a little sad anytime either of my sisters depart, but I felt more so that way this time in relation to the kids. I wish circumstances were different so that we could be closer and have our kids see each other frequently, help with childcare when needed, and experience daily joys/frustrations of child rearing. Maybe someday.
Thanks for coming to visit, Jack Robbers (what Jillian calls Jack Robert), we love you bunches!

Jack and A...a little water play on a hot day

Jack and Uncle D on the trail at Oxbow Park

Sisters in the wagon at Oxbow Zoo

Jack and A loved riding in the wagon together. They went on several "safaris" with Matt around our property, and spent most of their time at the zoo riding in it.

We babysat Jack while his parents enjoyed dinner out for their 5th Anniversary. He didn't look thrilled about the pink bib I put on him at supper...sorry, buddy, pink is all we know around here!

Celebrating A

We celebrated Adrienne on her actual birthday, with an afternoon ice cream social and water play. I wanted her party to scream summer fun--sunshine, casual conversation, cool treats, and bare feet. We kept the guest list small and preparations to a minimum (Matt might argue with the last part, but really, I did work hard to keep myself reigned in). I made some homemade ice cream sauces, baked/decorated Adrienne's smash cake, and rolled cake pops for Aunt Mal to dip and decorate when she arrived. Other than that, I focused on creating an ice cream dream for the kids--sprinkles, whipped cream, cones, etc--so that they could create whatever their little hearts desired (and it WAS fun to see what they came up with). Matt and Uncle John blew up the kiddie pool, we pulled out a couple of sprinklers, and I set out a bunch of bubbles. The kids came up with games in the water (my favorite was Jillian and Isaac's "cooking" game of making "chocolate mac and cheese" with some water, sand, and wood chips), the dads threw the football around, and we all sipped cold drinks and did our best to find any bit of shade in our sunny back yard on an unusually hot (for MN) summer day. At the end of that day, I felt grateful that the day was just as I imagined it would be. Tonight, I realized it was even better. You might recall that my dear friend and roommate from OT school, Shannon, drove all the way from KC when Adrienne was born to document our homecoming. Well, she did it again. She selflessly left her 4 sweet kiddos in the care of her very capable husband and headed up to share her talents with us. That in itself is no small feat, and as a fellow nursing mom, I appreciate that effort more than I can express. I am once again blown away at what she was able to capture, and am overflowing with thankfulness for the blessings staring back at me in the images--the moments big and small, the people, the relationships, and the memories we will always treasure. Thanks to Shannon, I can relive this special day anytime I want---AND, as a bonus, be reminded of all the sweet moments that are present (and sometimes seemingly hidden) within what Shannon calls "a real day".
I will share my favorite images within a blog post when I get the CD for purposes of documenting for the blog book, but for now, enjoy Shannon's blog post ( "happy birthday squeaks", dated July 9th)--you can read it here and watch the slideshow here