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.