Thursday, June 29, 2006

Twizzlers are the best!


We don't eat an extreme amount of candy in our house - unless its Easter or Halloween, and Holidays don't count - but, Jeremy and I do have our weaknesses. Personally, my downfall is anything chocolate. Jeremy on the other hand LOVES strawberry twizzlers. He can eat an entire bag in one sitting or one car ride. He eats them until his jaw is sore from too much chewing. Hee Hee. :) Jillian needs to try everything we eat. So, if its something she can't have, we can't eat it in front of her. The other day she wanted a twizzler, after seeing Jeremy chow down. Of course, he gave her one to try and she LOVED it!

I had to grab the bleach because after her twizzler snack, Jillian's white shirt was covered in red drool! :) We love to capture her facial expressions when she is truly enjoying something - she is so expressive. And we can tell she completely enjoys the twizzlers. Too cute.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

I Love you, Daddy!

Welcome to the world Baby Jillian! Here in the hospital, on day #2, Jeremy is cuddling our sweet baby.

The first man a girl falls in love with is her Daddy. Jeremy, thanks for being such a great Daddy for our baby girl! Thanks for being my partner in raising our daughter. Thanks for all the diaper changes, bottles given and meals fed, baths, stories, and car rides. Thanks for getting up with Jillian at 3 am to watch the military channel and lulling her back to sleep. Thanks for being so wonderfully you!


Miss Jillian getting ready for her first Corvette ride - don't worry the front air bags DO turn off! In this picture, Jillian is just 1 month old. Jeremy took Jillian in to work to meet everyone. I stayed home and took a nap, it was glorious!


Jeremy and Jillian in Oklahoma City at 3 months old. Jeremy had to leave to attend a 4 week class for work. Jillian and I flew down to spend the last week with him. Jeremy's Mom and brothers drove down for the weekend to meet Jillian. We had a fun week! Jeremy was worried that Jillian might forget him - no way! Everytime Jeremy walked in the room, Jillian would laugh and smile. She was so happy to see Daddy!


Jeremy and Jillian cuddling before bedtime, Jillian is 5 months old here. We love this picture! Jillian loved eye contact and returned every smile! :)


Jillian is 6 months old in this picture. She is fascinated by Jeremy's hats - and he is always wearing a hat! She takes them off and now she likes to wear his hats!

Jeremy and Jillian swimming at the local YMCA. Jillian is 7 months old. As soon as she was old enough (6 months), I enrolled her in swimming lessons. We had a blast. Jillian is definitely a water baby. Jillian is wearing a onesie - the water is freezing and the extra layer helps (some).

Go Ohio State! Jeremy's family are big fans of OSU. Jillian is 8 months old in this pic and she is wearing an OSU cheerleading outfit from Aunt Peg and Uncle Dave. (We added the jeans because it is so darn cold here in Alaska!)

Nine month old Jillian is resting after the rough hike up to Diamond Head on Waikiki. Jeremy carried sweet thing the whole way up and down. I'm just kidding, that hike is not too bad at all - its almost easy. And I am not a hiker. I was super paranoid, trying to make sure Jillian got enough water and that her sunscreen was always freshly applied. Another thing us Alaskans take for granted. (Julie, with 104 temps, I imagine that sunscreen is always nearby!!)


Merry Christmas Little One! Jeremy and Jillian decorated our tree this year and they did a fabulous job! Here is another 9 month old picture, its very sweet. On Christmas day, we wanted to video the opening of presents (of course - we video everything). And I wanted to look not quite so scary for the video, so I made everyone wait to open presents until we all had showers and were dressed for the day. By that time, Jillian needed a nap. We did not open presents until after 1 pm! Thats very late for us! We are morning people, and we normally have the presents opened before breakfast around 9 am. Jeremy laughed and said that this will probably be the only year that Jillian will allow us to wait so long. I'm sure he's right.

At 10 months old, we took Jillian sledding for the first time. We went on a weekday and the park was deserted, thankfully. It was cold, but we all had a fun time. Jillian was a trooper and never complained. I'm not sure she enjoyed the experience either, though. Maybe next year she'll fully appreciate the speed and wind and snow.

At 12 months old, Jillian is the apple of her Daddy's eye. I would say thats still true today, at 15(!!!) months old. Jeremy adores his daughter and I can tell the feeling is mutual.

Jeremy; Jillian and I (& Athena & Zorro too!) are so thankful for you! We love you, we love you, we love you!!!! Happy Father's Day!

Friday, June 02, 2006

World's Worst Mommy Award

Miss Jillian has learned how to crawl into the dishwasher. I was doing dishes one evening and turned around (from the sink) to see her sitting on the lid. I thought it was so cute I had to get some pictures. But, I don't think that she should do this very often - I'm afraid the door might break!


OK....so I had a very bad Mommy day last week. Jeremy was traveling (of course). It all started when I stayed up later than normal working on a sewing project. Normally I get in bed about 9:30 or so and read for a bit before falling asleep at 10. On this particular night, I didn't get to bed until 11 pm - and I know that's not terribly late; but, between 11pm and 6am (when Jillian woke up for the day) Jillian woke up 4 times!!!!!!!!! I have no idea why, but she just kept waking up crying and I needed to go in each time to soothe her back to sleep. By 4 am I was exhausted and when I put her back to bed, I forgot to raise the side of the crib. I am just tooooo short to lay her down with the crib rail all the way up. She woke me up at 6 by throwing everything - her teddy bear, blanket, mattress pad, pacifier and a few toys - on the floor. Thankfully she didn't fall out....it would have been so easy. It gets worse. Later in the morning, I take her downstairs so that I can check e-mail. She left the computer room and after a moment I notice that all I hear is silence. I know that can't be good, so I go on a search. I find her in the living room surrounded by my sewing pins. She found my pin cushion and had removed all 50 pins- they were on the floor all around her. Then I notice that she has a pin IN HER MOUTH! I picked her up and said a quick prayer thanking God that Jillian wasn't hurt. When my uncle was a young boy he swallowed a pin. The Dr. said he was lucky in that the pin did not cut anything in his digestive tract. Thats all I could think of. It gets worse. At bathtime, I took Jillian to her room and get her undressed and tell her its time to take her bath. Like normal, I set her down and she runs ahead to the bathroom where the bath is waiting. I am a few steps behind her and when I get to the bathroom, I scream when I see that Jillian has found the can of comet I left on the floor earlier that day when I meant to scrub the tub and didn't get a chance. Jillian does not have access to the bathroom - only at bathtime does she spend any real time in there. I had forgotten about the cleaning supplies on the floor. She didn't have time to eat much - but, she did get some. She had comet around her lips and was coughing like "gross!" I immediately called the poison center and was told to clean out her mouth, give her something to eat and drink, and to keep her up for at least another hour to monitor her signs. She was fine and enjoyed the extra playtime.

On this night when I put Jillian to bed, I was thankful she was still alive and uninjured. I did so many things wrong - so many things that could have had tragic outcomes. I am so thankful God was watching over our little girl on this day!