Big Day!!

Today is a big day! It's Jillian's first birthday! I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. It's also her first official day in the toddler room at daycare. She began transitioning two weeks ago, with spending as little or as much time with the big kids as she could handle. She had a couple of days that she became slightly overwhelmed, but never full out crying. She is playing very well with the other kids and loves going outside to the playground or for buggy rides. I made her a birthday cake this weekend and it turned out bigger than I planned. I'll post photos before, during and after the demolition.

Jillian saw an ear, nose, throat doctor last week and is scheduled to get tubes in her ears next Tuesday. She had the beginning of her seventh infection at the appointment so they prescribed antibiotics again. I don't think they are helping as she continues to dig in her ears and be fussy off and on. She also has horrible diaper rash that I just can't get to be any better. I'm calling the ENT today because the infection has to be gone before she gets tubes and I'm afraid we may have to have the antibiotic shots again. Poor baby. We are all ready for her to have relief from the infections and severe rash. She continues to be a happy, active girl regardless of feeling lousy.

Jillian is starting to say distinct "words" to describe things. Her words refer to the cat, dog, outside, mom, dad, and tractor. The corn around our house was harvested last Sunday so we took her outside so she could watch the combine. She loved it! She jabbered and jabbered to it, pointed her fingers and flapped her arms. Now when she hears a loud vehicle coming down our road she says her tractor word. She has begun asking to go outside by pointing and saying her word for outside. She loves it and it's easier on us because there are fewer things outside that we need to redirect her from than there are inside the house. She's our outdoor girl!

I continue to feel pretty good with this pregnancy. The little guy goes through spurts where for a few days he is very squirmy and gives me good jabs that are quite uncomfortable, then there are days where he doesn't move around much. With being so active with Jillian, I haven't gained as much weight as I did with Jillian. I am gaining exactly if not a little under what I need to but the doctors aren't concerned since I began at a decent weight. I've been eating, and eating, and eating it seems. I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts.

Garrett continues to work a little in the garage. Mainly trying to get things organized so we can put the cars in the garage with the cold weather approaching. We're getting ready to install the heater so he's been doing a few things in preparation of that. Otherwise, we're going with the flow of keeping up with Jillian and housework.

I'll get some new photos posted soon. Until next time....

Siding

Below are some photos of the siding finished on the garage. Great job to G and our friends that helped. This plant started growing where we'd had a large tree taken out last summer. I thought it was squash until a pumpkin showed up! This is quite far from our garden so not sure how a seed landed there but it's been fun to watch it. Probably an animal but we didn't even plant pumpkins this year. So the hummingbirds had flown south for the winter, so we thought. I had not seen any for about a month and hadn't taken down the feeder yet. I thought the leftover sugar water was just evaporating. Turns out, we still have a hummer!

Walking Outside

It's a Boy!!

This one is just for Daniel:

We found out we have a little boy on the way!! The due date is estimated to be Feb. 14, 2012 per the ultrasound. We are super excited that we'll have one of each. I went through Jillian's clothes up until now and pulled out the pieces of clothing that he will be able to wear. I went to the secondhand children's clothing store this weekend and found him a pair of long-sleeved onesies in the 0-3 month size. One is olive green with a fuzzy bear on the front and the other is olive green and brown striped thermal. They had plenty of other cute boy clothes but I resisted. For now.

Garrett started working on the siding of our garage this weekend. He is taking today and maybe tomorrow off to continue working on it while the weather is perfect. A friend of ours came out and showed us how to get started on it and he will hopefully be coming back out to help install some of it. I'm really excited about it and it's going to look so nice.

Jillian is in full walking mode. She gets excited and tries to start running but her feet aren't ready for that just yet. We are having lots of spills and tumbles but then she just starts laughing. She has two more teeth coming in around her bottom two incisors. It looks like she has skipped the top two incisors for now so she'll look extra cute until the top ones come through. She'll be extra cute anyway, just saying. She has taken to mouthing rocks. When we walk onto our driveway she leans way over while we're holding her to look down at them. If we're in the yard, she cruises over to the gravel. She is keeping us very busy.

That's about all for now. Enjoy some photos. The swing photos are of her first time in a swing. She liked it. She gets into her old bouncer and bounces on it. She typically stands on it, holds on to the back and bounces with her legs. She's a funny girl.