Longhorn Tailgate

Mom and Dad came into town last weekend. They picked up Willa and then came to pick up Jillian and I and we headed down to the tailgate. James had a training all day so he was not able to join us for tailgating.

Jillian arriving at the tailgate - all ready to go in her longhorn gear

Jon & Willa - Jon being a protective big brother

The whole gang

Dad was doing a great job on baby/kid duty. He was really proud of himself - by the end of the day he had put all 3 kids down for a nap even with all the chaos and people around. Jillian went down first.

Then she played with Granny

Then Grandpa went walking with Willa and she was out

Jon just wanted to sit on Grandpa's lap. He said he wasn't tired! Look at those eyelashes - don't we all wish ours looked like that

James picked us up from the tailgate and we headed home to watch the game

The next day we went to Chris and Jennifer's to celebrate mom's birthday and the kids helped blow out the candles.

Babbling

Jillian has started babbling! It is fun to listen to her "talk" and she can get quite loud at times. Her favorite sound is definately ba but we have been working on the ma and da.

Pulling Up

I'll apologize in advance for all of the naked baby pictures on this blog. We all survived our first round of sickness at our house. Jillian started it when she got sent home from daycare with diarrhea and then James and I got the stomach virus as well. So lets face it, Jillian spent a lot of time in just a diaper. As you can see from the pictures she remained relatively happy even though she wasn't feeling very well.

This is Jillian's new smirk. It is now difficult to catch her with an open mouth smile but I think this smirk is pretty adorable.

She ventures into the kitchen quite frequently and has made her way to the dog bowls. I didn't quite catch her in time on this one and of course instead of cleaning it up I ran for the camera. Bandit thought it was cool and just ate his food off of the floor. He surprisingly didn't get upset with her being too close to his bowls because when the cats get too close, he sure does growl at them.

Playing in the box from our delivery from Diapers.com - I love this site by the way!

Jillian is now pulling up on everything and is quite proud of herself when she does it!

Weekend Fun

Here is a few random shots - if you look real close, you can see Jillian's teeth

She loves playing in the kitchen now. I've been trying to catch her little standing position but it is really difficult.

Jillian also loves playing with the baby gates. We usually have them propped open with a can of Bush beans and she loves playing with the can, which closes the gate. Then she gets mad because she is stuck outside the kitchen when we are inside. Help, please let me in!

We went to Hallettsville this weekend and Jillian enjoyed playing with Jon and Willa.

We went to the picnic on Sunday and Jillian and Willa had matching dresses

Jillian was a little fussy at the picnic and Grandpa thought her teeth hurt and you know Grandpas will do anything to make it better. He especially bought this beer for Jillian and supposedly he got it from the place where the beers are colder because they are kept on ice.

Waiting for the train

Finally getting to ride. She rode twice - 1 time with Granny and 1 time with Amaris

6 Month Update

It is hard to believe that Jillian is already 6 months old! Time has sure flown by! We took Jillian's 6 month pictures a couple of weeks ago before I went back to work. She did great and it was difficult to pick out which pictures to order because she looked so cute in all of them. Here are the ones we selected.

We had Jillian's 6 month check up this week and the doctor says she is doing great! Jillian weighed 17 pounds, 12 ounces and was 27 inches long. The doctor said we should start her on more solids so we will be moving up to 3 meals per day. She really loves every food we put in her mouth even those nasty green peas that her mommy and daddy will not eat. She also has 2 teeth already. The first came through at exactly 6 months and the 2nd one a few days later. The doctor said she would like her to be "talking" more but I just think that is because Jillian doesn't talk when she is at the doctor - she talks plenty when she is at home.

We have been adjusting to getting back into a routine around here with school starting. Jillian is doing well and daycare and Mommy is doing well now. The first day was really bad. Right now she is still not coming to school with me as planned because the portable buildings were not ready in time for them to get the daycare set up. She has been going to a school that is a few miles away from my office, which isn't too bad but makes for an extra trip in the mornings and afternoons. We were told on Friday that they are hoping to have us moved in some time next week so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Jillian is definately a busy body! She is into everything now and it is very fun to watch her learning new things. She now does not like it if you give her a few toys out of her basket to play with. She wants the whole basket! She tips it over and pulls all of the toys out one by one and tosses them to the side after playing with them for a few minutes. She ends up being surrounded by her toys.

She also likes to play on the floor and crawl over and stand up by Mommy and Daddy. We have resorted to moving the coffee table out of the room because it gives her more room and we don't have to worry about her hitting her head. We also like it because we like laying on the floor.

Did I mention she is into everything! Here are a few examples...

Jillian is also now officially crawling - the real way! We have been trying to get a good video but this is the best I could do. This one also shows how she tries to stand up while she is crawling. Oh, yeah, she attacks the camera in this video so look out for very close up Jillian!

She is starting to get into some trouble - just while I was working on this she crawled over to the cat bowls, which are supposed to have that gate covering them so she (and Bandit) do not eat the food. She pulled the gate down on top of herself and then was trying to crawl away but the gate was stuck on her foot as evidence.

Moving & Talking

Jillian has perfected her army crawl and can move pretty fast when she really wants something. Of course the things she is really into are the TV remote and Mommy's cell phone. She actually went pretty far last night because Mommy was being cruel and every time she got to the phone I would move it farther.

Jillian has also been very talkative lately. She has this new raspy screaming thing. When you hear it, it sounds like she is really mad but she isn't she is just talking - and doing so very loudly! It was funny because of course she was doing this in Church on Sunday and afterwards a lady came up asking if she could touch our beautiful baby. She said her and her husband kept laughing at her when she would get mad and yell. I had to explain that she wasn't mad just very vocal. I'm sure my SLP friends will tell me that this isn't good for her voice but for now it is cute (at least when we are at home and not at church).

As you can see, she is also starting to try to crawl over and pull up on Mommy and Daddy. I have been enjoying laying on the floor and playing with her this week. She will pull herself up to stand with her arms leaning on me. I sure am going to miss playing with her all day when I return to work next week.

Jillian's latest

Jillian is beginning to enjoy her walker and has finally learned how to use the toys on it. It is still a little tall for her but occassionally she gives a big push and actually moves. Here is the first time she wore a bow in her hair. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not but after seeing the picture of course I think she looks adorable!

Jillian has been eating more foods - she is definately a big eater! She eats cereal in the morning and fruit and veggies at night. So far sweet potatoes are her favorite. She is not a fan of the green beans but we are still working on it. She is a messy eater like her daddy - James can't eat anything without getting it all over him!

She is on the move and will move to what she wants by rolling or scooting. She gets up on her hands and knees at times but doesn't seem to quite know what to do once she is there. She is also very close to being able to sit up from laying by herself.
Jillian attended her first Bunco night so here she is with some of her cousins that were there.

She also made a trip to Dallas to see Tamara. Luckily we had Granny with us because we would not have been able to make that trip alone. Apparently her limit on sleeping in the car is 2 hours and after that she needs to be entertained or she cries the entrie time.
She was so exhausted from all the fun she fell asleep sitting up with her head on a pillow - it was very cute - she fought sleep for the longest time but sleep finally won out!

Jillian has also become more interested in both of the cats and I guess they have finally noticed her. They like to rub against her now desperate to be pet. I don't trust them completely yet but so far they have been good with her.

Jillian has also started to play more in her crib when she wakes up instead of crying. We like it because it gives us a little time to wake up before we have to go rescue her.