Sheesh

It's already been 3 weeks since I last posted?!! I knew I was slacking but wow, that went fast. Jillian is now babbling a lot. She particularly does it when she has a rattle or her teether in-hand. She shakes her rattle and simultaneously babbles. It's like she singing to her rattle "music". She is continuing to sleep very well. Last weekend she slept 11-12 hours each night again with waking once around 5am to eat, then we all fell back to sleep. She's such a happy girl. She brightens our day and makes everything better. Jillian is now eating carrots, squash and sweet potatoes in addition to her rice cereal. She's had one jar of peas but doesn't care for them much. I mixed them with the carrots and she made a funny face but kept eating. She's catching on that with being put in her highchair, a bib put on, and mom getting out a small bowl, she knows she's about to eat. She zones in on me and has both of her hands on the tray in anticipation. She is a good eater. Daycare is now feeding her the cereal and vegetables in addition to bottles.

Jillian is still working on crawling. She has become strong enough to stay sitting up when we set her upright. She tries to sit up on her own but doesn't quite have the abs. We worked outside a lot this weekend and she continues to enjoy being outside. We set her in the Bob (stroller) and cruise around. I worked in the flower beds pulling weeds and got the bed just outside our back door mulched with mulch we had left over from last year. We haven't been able to buy more mulch yet so I'm trying to keep out those bad weeds as much as possible. Last year I could hardly bend over due to lack of lung capacity so the beds were quite overgrown by Fall. I'm determined to keep them in good shape this summer. Our day lilies and purple cone flowers have been growing. No flowers yet but the foliage is there. Garrett worked on fixing up the Deere and was able to mow the lawn for the first time. It looks very nice and it's great to see all the beautiful green grass. Now, if those farmers could just get that corn started, we'll have our own little oasis. The last average frost is May 9 and with all the rain we've had, they probably need to wait a while. It's supposed to rain more and the ground is already saturated along with giant puddles in the fields. I saw that southern MO is struggling big time with flooding. The Wabash (river) here is overflowing the banks.

A friend of mine had her daughter one week before we had Jillian. She has been using cloth diapers from the beginning and has been making new ones as her daughter grows. I've been thinking about them more so I started researching. I had no idea there are so many different "systems" and how simple or complex you can choose them to be. I have asked my friend to make us some to use when we have Jillian in the evenings and weekends. She is going to start them in the next few days and I'm so eager to try them. Jillian isn't having as many scary blow-outs anymore so it wouldn't be quite the mess to clean up as it was her first few weeks. I'll have to wash them daily and with a special detergent so the ammonia doesn't stick to leftover detergent residue but I'm excited to try. They will be a chunk of money up front, but then we won't have to buy diapers. We'll keep some disposables on hand but I'm sure we will still use them occasionally. I'll update you on that after trying cloth and let you know how it's going.

We hope everyone had a nice Easter. Sending our love!

Talker

I'm not sure if I'm if mentioned this in another post, Jillian is a talker. Either by herself or with Garrett and myself. She doesn't do it much with strangers and may not for a while but when she gets to hearing her voice, she continues for at least a good couple of minutes, usually longer. She is such a cutie. I'm posting a video of her making cute noises. She can be even more talkative than in the video but this will give you an idea.

Things are going ok. Very busy. Before we can finish one house project, another pops up. We're replacing the carpet in our living room off of the kitchen. With the work Garrett's been doing on the garage, we have been keeping Huntley in this room instead of his ~6X6 space in the garage. Therefore, it stinks. It more than stinks. Or should I say, DID stink. On Saturday Garrett ripped out the carpet and pad down to the concrete slab. It used to be the garage but the previous owners turned it into more living space during one of the remodels. Since the house was built in 1890, it's gone through a number of changes. Sunday Garrett spent most of the day tearing out and recaulking the upstairs bathtub and fixtures because it sprung a leak and we're hoping the new caulk fixes it. I made bread and carrot cake on Sunday so we've been staying very busy.

Above is a photo of Jillian sleeping. Friday, Saturday and Sunday she slept from ~8:30-8:30, and that's with me waking her. She is definitely growing and about to become very mobile. Garrett put the video of her eating on the harddrive and I keep forgetting to bring it to work with me. I promise I'll post it soon.

It's about time for me to pick up my girl. Hope everyone is well.