As I write this Jeremy is in Ninilchik, AK, on a halibut fishing charter. We're hoping he catches a big one! :) Being optimistic, we bought a freezer yesterday to hold his catch. I put Jillian in the freezer and she was cracking us up dancing and stomping all around. We had to capture the moment.
Here is Jillian blowing kisses to her parents.
Here is Miss Jillian at the Pre Show and Shine car show at McDonald's a few weekends ago. Our friends, Tina and Bob, stopped by to say Hi and took this picture of our baby. Thanks guys!! :)
We went to 2 car shows last weekend. On Sunday, this nap came out of nowhere! One minute Jillian was having a fun time watching all the festivities and the next she was konked out. I promptly took her home where she (thankfully) finished her nap. Jeremy stayed to visit a little longer.
Jillian sleeps with the same blanket every night, it has become her favorite. She carries this blanket all around the house and sniffs the fleecy material. Its pretty cute. The blanket stays at home and there is no need to bring it on errands - thank God for small favors. I do like to bring the blanket on the long car trip to and from Cooper Landing (2 hours one way) when we go down to pick up my sister Allison. Car rides are not a favorite, but the blanket helps in a small way. I'm hoping her new car seat will help in a big way! She is still in her infant seat, but we ordered the new one and it should be in tomorrow. And Jillian is almost 20 pounds, once we hit that mark, we can turn her around facing front! Yeah! 
Miss Jillian is starting to be a bit defiant! Her new favorite cookies are raspberry fig newtons, yummy! Not too long ago, Jillian was eating a yummy newton and Jeremy started snacking on tortilla chips and salsa. Another snack favorite. Jeremy told Jillian she needed to finish the cookie before eating chips. So, she threw the cookie down on the floor. I don't remember what Jeremy said then - something like, you should not have done that. So, Jillian stomped and ground the cookie into the carpet. We were astounded, I can't remember our reactions and I can only hope that we didn't laugh. She catches us off guard with these curve balls - we wonder, did she intentionally stomp that cookie?
Jillian is having a rough time with her teeth right now. She only has 4, 2 on top and 2 on bottom. Her teeth have been slow coming in. Right now she has 2 on top working their way in, plus a molar and 6 more swollen bumps. We also think she is growing. All she does is sleep and eat. Poor baby! :)
There is a new game in the Withrow home: feed Athena as many cookies (dog bones) as possible. Jillian has discovered where the dog biscuits are kept and is having fun spoiling Athena - and Athena thinks this is pretty cool. Athena is gentle and always takes the bone nicely from Jillian, and everyone else for that matter. (Unless she is trying to steal food - like that chicken wing! - then she gets a little excited!) In the beginning Jillian would give the bone to Athena and then try to take it back mid-chomp. Athena has learned to eat quickly! And Jillian is learning to leave Athena alone. Now, Jillian has figured out that if she takes the dog bone and runs around the house, Athena will chase her. Great fun! Especially because Athena normally gives Jillian a wide berth. We think this is Jillian's way of forcing Athena to play.
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.
Welcome to the world Baby Jillian! Here in the hospital, on day #2, Jeremy is cuddling our sweet baby.
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!
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!
Second car show of the season today...Sam's hosted our Memorial Day car show. The weather was great, a little windy. The club did a BBQ to raise money for Seattle's Ronald McDonald House....many Alaskan children travel to Washington state for medical treatment. We ate lunch at the BBQ and it was so windy that Jillian's hot dog and plate blew away. Thankfully the cooks were kind enough to make her another one! Thanks guys! Jillian had a blast! She loved riding around in the stroller...
...and she loved running around the parking lot even more. As soon as she got a taste of freedom, nothing else would do. She did not want to be held, she was too busy exploring. Although, she cracked up when Jeremy held her over his head. I was lucky enough to get a great shot (top pic).
Jeremy and I had fun watching Jillian play in the car. Jeremy was a good sport to let Jillian play behind the wheel. Miss Jillian rides in the Corvette more than me! The car seats 2 and since our family numbers 3 (not counting Athena) it means that someone will always be left behind. Ahhhh, before you feel sorry for me - just think of all the things I'm able to do when Jeremy takes our girl cruising. Yep, bubble baths and naps and reading and sometimes even housework, but mostly naps.
The weather here in Anchorage is beautiful - warm (70's) and sunny! And for all you southerners - 70 is hot for us Alaskans! :) We are loving this weather!!!!!!! Jillian gets to wear cute summery clothes. Another biggie here where nice, warm days are not in abundance.
Happy Memorial Day to all of you! Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!
The sun was so warm on Saturday. While Jeremy was working on the shed, Jillian and I played in the yard and on the deck. She is so fun and cracks me up with the way she interacts with our lab Athena. Jillian giggles when Athena just looks at her.
On Sunday Jillian learned a new game. A few years ago, Jeremy built a display cabinet with a glass front to hold all of his diecast cars. On Sunday, Jillian walked over to the cabinet and hit the front with both hands really hard. It scared me to death thinking of the glass shattering all over her. I ran over, told her "No, Ma'am" and tried to distract her with a toy. It didn't work. She immediatley turned around and RAN back to do it again. Jeremy and I sat there and laughed so hard. Probably not the best response. I again tried distracting her; but, this time I couldn't stop giggling. She kept going back and hitting the glass - but, now she would hit the glass and turn around to look at us and smile. Oh No - a new game! She did this probably 4 times. Finally, Jeremy and I decided we should just ignore her. We were sitting on the couch holding the newspaper in front of our faces, trying to swallow our giggles, as our ornery daughter would run and hit the glass. After only one time of not getting the response she wanted, Jillian stopped hitting the glass. Hopefully for good.
The airport in Minneapolis has a "mall" with a fun GM store. During our layover when flying home last October, we found this super cute romper. In the picture above, I was trying to get her to crawl through the tunnel. She decided that she would rather lift it up instead. 
Here she is picking up a toy. Miss Jillian just won't quit growing....this is the last day she'll be able to wear the romper because she is too long. :) I am thinking about making it into a t-shirt, but then I'd have to cut off the cute "vrrooom" on her bottom.
Yesterday, we played outside in the grass and on the deck. The afternoons are finally getting warm enough to be outside....and then only in the sun. The shade is still chilly. Both the wood deck and grass must have felt funny to walk on because she was very nervous to walk alone and didn't want me to go far.
Yesterday was my birthday! :) Every Friday the corvette club picks a local restaurant to have dinner. Last night, Outback was chosen - yummy! We decided to join the group and Jeremy coordinated with club friends Dave and Margo and the restaurant to surprise me with a cake! I LOVE cake, I could eat it for every meal of every day. So, this surprise was especially sweet and loving! Thanks babe! :)
Look at these two cutie-pies! Miss Jillian looks so grown!! She ate too much frosting and was up most of the night. Super-fun. She also loves cake and frosting and everything sweet. She gets that from me.
Happy Easter! Hope everyone had a fun Easter weekend!! Miss Jillian had a very busy weekend, starting with attending her first Birthday party on Saturday. Mr. Zach turned one yesterday and his family celebrated with a friend party on Saturday afternoon. There were lots of kids and Jillian had a blast playing with everyone. She has no fear, a couple times she walked up to the bigger kids and took their toys away. We are still working on the sharing thing. The Easter bunny visited Jillian Sunday morning and she had fun opening her presents before church. Then Jeremy and I went to church and Jillian played in the nursery. The church we go to is HUGE with thousands of members, they have different nurseries for almost every age. Jillian was in the 12-18 month group. After the service, it took us a bit to get back to the room and when we arrived there was a line of parents picking up their kids. We could see Jillian standing at the gate looking for her mommy and daddy - it was so cute! We think they must have wore her out because we came home and she slept for 3 hours!! Joy, Josh and Luke came over in the afternoon to visit, play x-box and eat ham. Yummy! :) All in all, it was a wonderful first (technically, second) Easter for Jillian.
Last Wednesday Zach, Jillian, and I met Zach's mom to attend a music class - Kindermusik. (I hope I'm spelling that correctly.) We had a great time! I brought the camera thinking I would be able to take all kinds of pictures....we were so busy that I was only able to get one shot at the very end. We had so much fun that we plan on going again this week! :)
