AHHHH! Baby on the move!!

Jillian crawled last night! It was nearing bedtime and she and I were playing on the floor in the living room. I had eaten some fruit snacks and set the wrapper next to me. Apparently that wrapper was very interesting to her! She got onto her knees from sitting, started rocking, and moved each knee an inch or so. Then she sat back down. She did that two more times, then didn't stop for a good 3 feet! By then she had reached the wrapper so I sat her back a few feet. I was in shock. I could hardly believe I'd just seen her crawl. She did it again, and again. I could hardly contain myself due to excitement so she and I went out to the garage to get Garrett and he came inside and saw her crawl. I was able to get it on video and will get that posted as soon as possible. I think she was excited because then she didn't want to just sit like she has for the past few months. For the past week or two she'd been trying to go from sitting to standing so I thought she would completely skip crawling. She has been pulling up on things from sitting to up to her knees for about a week. So, today over lunch I drove over to Walmart and bought a couple of gates to go at the top and bottom of the stairs. It has a swinging door so we won't have to take it down repeatedly. Oh my, the exploration has begun! When I picked Jillian up from daycare last Thursday, one of her caregivers predicted she'd be crawling by Monday. She was very close! Not by Monday, but ON Monday! I'm curious to see how she did for them today. It's so exciting, but oh am I nervous now!

Jillian has been eating lots of baby food! She has been eating 3 jars each day in addition to rice cereal and milk. She's also been taking good naps and sleeping most of the night. I think her napping pattern may be changing into a short 15-20 minute nap in the morning and around lunch time, then a longer 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. She seems to only take the longer nap if she and I both lay down together. She doesn't nap much at daycare other than a couple of 20 minute naps. She continues to grow so fast.

So far we have 3 hummingbirds from what I can tell. We hope to get more but we sure have a lot of other birds. We've seen robins, cardinals. indigo buntings, the goldfinch, cedar waxwing, and some kind of thrush that we aren't sure about. The cedar waxwings are so soft looking. We only saw them for a few minutes one day last week. It was a breeding pair.

On Saturday I was outside walking in the yard and heard a crazy, loud animal noise coming from the crazy neighbor's yard. We left the house later that day to run an errand and saw they now have a donkey. I never realized they were so noisy! Such a big noise coming out of a little animal! I'm guessing they got it to protect the goats (from coyotes). Yikes!

For our 5 year anniversary on June 4, Garrett surprised me with a Kahr K9 pistol. I was totally surprised and excited. We took it out to the range a few miles from our house and put some rounds through it. It shoots very nicely. Jillian had fallen sleep so we parked the car and checked on her every couple of minutes.

We had talked about returning to MO in July but we decided to postpone the trip since most people were going to be busy. We'll try again, just not sure when.

Keep in touch,

~Chris

Growing Girl

Hey everyone. If you have a hard time reading what her shirt says in the second photo, it says "My dad's a geek." Garrett's friend Nate bought us that onesie before Jillian was born. We thought it was quite funny.

Summer is in full swing in Indiana with the growing corn and beans around our house, our growing tomatoes and peppers in the garden, the increasing humidity (blek!) and our growing Jillian! She is so close to crawling I can see it. In the past few days she has been able to keep her knees under her for a good 15-20 seconds. We've seen her also try to get right up to her feet. She pulled up for the first time on our ottoman Sunday, attempting to chew on Merlin. She has been crawling backwards and then gets upset because she's only getting further away from what she wants. She loves hearing stories and looking at books. We're starting to get into a good bedtime routine, which includes reading at least one story before bed. She goes through a stage after being hyper to sitting still but not wanting to close her eyes just yet. That's when we read to her. She pays attention throughout most of the book(s).

Jillian is eating her vegetables and fruits very well. I bought a butternut squash, sweet potatoes and pears and blended them separately. She's been eating so well that she has been less interested in nursing during the day. We still are but I can tell that she isn't craving it as much.

Yesterday she "helped" daddy mow the lawn. She really enjoyed sitting on his lap holding the wheel. We didn't even put her hands on it! She immediately grabbed it and didn't loosen her grip. Garrett moved the mower forwards and backwards very slowly and she just smiled the entire time she sat on his lap. It was adorable.

It's a good thing Jillian is quite crawling just yet. Over a month ago I weeded the flower beds a good bit before having mulch delivered the next week. Since then, my right knee would ache for an hour or so at different times of day, every few days. Well, last week it became constant discomfort/pain so I had an appointment today with the same orthopedic doctor that Garrett saw for his shoulder. I have patellofemoral syndrome. In short, my femur is rubbing on the back of my kneecap tissue and continuously irritating it, causing swelling and pain. He prescribed physical therapy 1-3 times a week for two weeks and the therapist will decide how often after he sees me at my initial visit. I made the appointment for next Monday. If the physical therapy doesn't seem to help, I will go back and get xrays. I sure hope it helps.

For the past few weeks I've been working on validating a method so we can begin production on a new project. It is very tedious work and I'll be happy when I'm done, which should be tomorrow given that the results from my work today looks good. Garrett hasn't talked about any new things going on with his work so I have no news to report.

Two weeks ago we stepped out the front door one morning and found a baby skunk just off of the porch. It didn't have it's eyes open and was just growing fur. It wasn't able to walk yet but Garrett gave it a tap and it wiggled so still very much alive. Where it was laying gets full sun all day so Garrett got a dustpan from the garage and scooted it a couple of feet under a bush. When we returned home that evening it was gone. We are guessing that the mom was relocating the babies, probably under our porch. A few days later, I woke around 3 am smelling the horribly strong skunk scent. We think it sprayed under the porch, as we couldn't smell it anywhere outside the house. After getting ready for work, we were more than ready to leave the house. When G stepped out he saw an opossum with a baby on her back so perhaps the two mommas found each other. We haven't seen either creature since but I'm sure they are around.

Garrett's been working on the garage electrical. He wired to the locations we're going to have lights on the outside, he installed a fan and has been running additional wire for 220 outlets on every wall. He's been working very hard. He thinks he can start putting up the insulation in the ceiling this week. He's tired of working on it and I miss him with him being out there so much. So, Jillian and I venture out to visit for a while.

I'm sure there's more to talk about but I need to get ready to go home. Take care everyone.