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I want to take a few minutes before Jillian turns 11 months (in just a few days - WHOA!) and write down a few things that she does at 10 months. She is changing so fast!
Getting around - Jillian started crawling at 7 months, about a month later than her brother, but it didn't take her long to learn how to pull up and cruise around the room. She still holds onto furniture or toys to get around for the most part, but in the last month she has started taking 1-2 steps at a time. She CAN walk, she just doesn't seem to see a purpose in it yet. She can crawl SUPER fast (almost faster than I can walk!) so walking just isn't effecient for her yet. Yesterday I actually saw her take 2 or 3 steps around Drew while she was playing with him, but I don't even think she realized she did it. So she is CLOSE! Drew walked a little over 11 months, so she will probably around the same track. She will however be standing in the middle of the room, bend down and pick something up and get right back up and sometimes even do a little dance.
Food - Jillian has NEVER been a fan of baby food. Baby cereal is supposed to be introduced from 4-6 months and I tried on and off from 4 months and she was a good 6 months before she was even willing to try and then she wanted it mixed nice and thick. The only jarred baby foods she really cares for are peas and green beans. (preferably beechnut brand peas - they are thicker!) She does not care for fruits and especially not baby bananas. With that said, she LOVES real food! She loves pieces of chopped up banana, beans, rice, potatoes, yogurt, cheese, vegetables, pancakes, and so much more! Her appetite for REAL solid foods just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She usually eats what we eat for dinner and if it is something she can't mush, I usually put it in a food grinder and spoon feed it to her. If it is something like pizza that I don't want her to eat, I will give her a stage 3 jarred dinner. She prefers the chicken noodle dinner if she has to have a "baby food" dinner. I had entertained the idea of making her baby food, but she just doesn't care for purees. When I use the grinder I only do the current meals food and just enough for her and it is still really thick, just mushed - just the way she likes it!
Playing - Jillian loves her toys and she loves to play with them - and correctly at that! It amazes me how she plays with toys and knows what to do with a lot of them without me even showing her. She loves loves loves Dolls! Anything with a face just intrigues her and she gets all excited. She also loves babies and other kids. It is hard to not compare kids, especially some of the things that other people may take for granted. It was years before Drew even noticed or cared that there was anyone else around, let alone look at them or try to play with them. Jillian LOVES to play with other little ones. She loves to laugh and giggle with them, follow them around and play. It is so much fun to watch her and her friends! I love it when she will initiate play herself. Yesterday she wiggled down off my lap and crouched down in front of the couch and the stood up and repeated over and over again, playing peek a boo!
Wrestling - I am seperating this from playing. We are currently trying to reach the balance of tough enough but not too rough. Having a BIG five year old brother that plays a little rough can be a problem for a sweet little girly girl, but Jillian can hold her own! Almost too well at times.
Personality - Whoa! This girl is full of personality! One of the nicest things is that just about every where we go, people comment on "what a good girl she is" she is quiet and happy just about anywhere. It always cracks me up, because chances are wherever we are she screamed the WHOLE WAY there in the car. She HATES the car, it is just awful. She stops crying when we get to a stoplight or a stop sign, but then starts up crying again when we go. I think she thinks she is going to get out when we stop! Sometimes I pray that I hit green lights all the way home, because I just hate to hear her stop and start, I just want to GET THERE! Drew was the exact opposite, he would cry when we stopped and was happy when we moved! Other than that she is mostly happy and sometimes just wild! She will not hesitate to cry or whine when no one is paying attention to her and then just smile when you look at her. She likes everyone to know she is there!
Communication - Jillian has a few "words" and signs and just amazes me! She says dada, mama, and darooo (drew), hello, and I think there are a couple more, but these are ones that she says on her own. Imitating she will regularly say, i-laloo (i love you), awe-da (all done) and it seems like just about anything else that we repeat to her multiple times! She babbles and makes noise just about all of the time and just has a good old time! She independently signs: more, all done, want, food, and is starting to do thank you. She is so much fun right now because she loves to imitate and will imitate just about any sign you try to get her to do! When she is eating and starts to get disinterested, you can ask her "Jillian, all done or more?" and she will answer by signing one or the other! And then other times if you are being slow to feed her or her plate is empty she will sign 'more' to you.
Sleep - Ugh.... She slept through the night until she was around 6 months and then it was over. Now we are lucky to get 3 or 4 hours in a row. Her sleep is weird though. She sleeps all night, but she sits up, tosses and turns and all while keeping her eyes closed. The problem comes when she sits up (or sometime stands up) and it is like she gets freaked out because she doesn't know what is going on and starts crying and screaming. If we get to her before it escalates she calms back down and goes back to sleep, but it goes on ALL NIGHT.
Growing - I don't know exactly how big Jillian is now. At her 9 month check up she was around 19 pounds, so I am assuming around 20 pounds. She is really just average, not real big and not real small. She was in the 50 percentile across the board at her last checkup. This is so funny for me since Drew was (and still is) always in the upper 90's. She is wearing 12 and 18 month clothes. She needs 18 month for length for her legs, but in dresses she still needs 12 months, at least until she starts walking because the skirt gets caught when she crawls. It is so hard to look ahead to what size she will need for the future because she has been wearing these sizes for so long. Drew was always 6-12 months ahead (at least) on clothes so he was easy to predict. Jillian is wearing a size 3 or 4 shoe, depending on the brand and thankfully doesn't appear to have a wide foot, so it is much easier to buy her shoes (and CUTE ones!)
Teeth - Jillian has her two front teeth on the top and bottom and her 2 top ones to the sides of her front ones have cut through this week. Those bottom two are real close too. So now, she has 6 teeth and I anticipate we are really close to 8! She didn't get her first two until 8 months and it looks like the rest are going to come in really fast!
Girly Girl - If it is pink or sparkles, then she is after it! She is all girl and there is no doubt! She will pick up a telephone and say hello and she loves her dolls. She is even "trying" to put clothes on already. Sometimes she will go through the clean laundry and try to put laundry over her head and one day even managed to get a pair of my underwear over her head and one arm through a leg whole! Won't be long until she is playing dress up!!
Trouble - I have to end with Trouble! Even just while typing this up real fast she keeps crawling down the hall. She keeps trying to touch the carbon monoxide detector and when I get close to her to try to redirect her, she stands up, takes a step, falls, and tries to run away! This is such a game for her. She is going to be a handful!
I should have made this into multiple posts, but if that was the case it wouldn't get done, so here you have the novel! LOL :-) I know so much will change in the next couple months and life is keeping us exceptionally busy and sometimes I don't have the time or patience to update the blog. Sometimes I need to keep up with life in the moment and don't have time to record all of the memories, the way I would like. The stomach bug hit our house this week and I am recovering and trying to rest today, which is why I had a few minutes to sit down today. I will try to upload more pictures soon!
Getting around - Jillian started crawling at 7 months, about a month later than her brother, but it didn't take her long to learn how to pull up and cruise around the room. She still holds onto furniture or toys to get around for the most part, but in the last month she has started taking 1-2 steps at a time. She CAN walk, she just doesn't seem to see a purpose in it yet. She can crawl SUPER fast (almost faster than I can walk!) so walking just isn't effecient for her yet. Yesterday I actually saw her take 2 or 3 steps around Drew while she was playing with him, but I don't even think she realized she did it. So she is CLOSE! Drew walked a little over 11 months, so she will probably around the same track. She will however be standing in the middle of the room, bend down and pick something up and get right back up and sometimes even do a little dance.
Food - Jillian has NEVER been a fan of baby food. Baby cereal is supposed to be introduced from 4-6 months and I tried on and off from 4 months and she was a good 6 months before she was even willing to try and then she wanted it mixed nice and thick. The only jarred baby foods she really cares for are peas and green beans. (preferably beechnut brand peas - they are thicker!) She does not care for fruits and especially not baby bananas. With that said, she LOVES real food! She loves pieces of chopped up banana, beans, rice, potatoes, yogurt, cheese, vegetables, pancakes, and so much more! Her appetite for REAL solid foods just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She usually eats what we eat for dinner and if it is something she can't mush, I usually put it in a food grinder and spoon feed it to her. If it is something like pizza that I don't want her to eat, I will give her a stage 3 jarred dinner. She prefers the chicken noodle dinner if she has to have a "baby food" dinner. I had entertained the idea of making her baby food, but she just doesn't care for purees. When I use the grinder I only do the current meals food and just enough for her and it is still really thick, just mushed - just the way she likes it!
Playing - Jillian loves her toys and she loves to play with them - and correctly at that! It amazes me how she plays with toys and knows what to do with a lot of them without me even showing her. She loves loves loves Dolls! Anything with a face just intrigues her and she gets all excited. She also loves babies and other kids. It is hard to not compare kids, especially some of the things that other people may take for granted. It was years before Drew even noticed or cared that there was anyone else around, let alone look at them or try to play with them. Jillian LOVES to play with other little ones. She loves to laugh and giggle with them, follow them around and play. It is so much fun to watch her and her friends! I love it when she will initiate play herself. Yesterday she wiggled down off my lap and crouched down in front of the couch and the stood up and repeated over and over again, playing peek a boo!
Wrestling - I am seperating this from playing. We are currently trying to reach the balance of tough enough but not too rough. Having a BIG five year old brother that plays a little rough can be a problem for a sweet little girly girl, but Jillian can hold her own! Almost too well at times.
Personality - Whoa! This girl is full of personality! One of the nicest things is that just about every where we go, people comment on "what a good girl she is" she is quiet and happy just about anywhere. It always cracks me up, because chances are wherever we are she screamed the WHOLE WAY there in the car. She HATES the car, it is just awful. She stops crying when we get to a stoplight or a stop sign, but then starts up crying again when we go. I think she thinks she is going to get out when we stop! Sometimes I pray that I hit green lights all the way home, because I just hate to hear her stop and start, I just want to GET THERE! Drew was the exact opposite, he would cry when we stopped and was happy when we moved! Other than that she is mostly happy and sometimes just wild! She will not hesitate to cry or whine when no one is paying attention to her and then just smile when you look at her. She likes everyone to know she is there!
Communication - Jillian has a few "words" and signs and just amazes me! She says dada, mama, and darooo (drew), hello, and I think there are a couple more, but these are ones that she says on her own. Imitating she will regularly say, i-laloo (i love you), awe-da (all done) and it seems like just about anything else that we repeat to her multiple times! She babbles and makes noise just about all of the time and just has a good old time! She independently signs: more, all done, want, food, and is starting to do thank you. She is so much fun right now because she loves to imitate and will imitate just about any sign you try to get her to do! When she is eating and starts to get disinterested, you can ask her "Jillian, all done or more?" and she will answer by signing one or the other! And then other times if you are being slow to feed her or her plate is empty she will sign 'more' to you.
Sleep - Ugh.... She slept through the night until she was around 6 months and then it was over. Now we are lucky to get 3 or 4 hours in a row. Her sleep is weird though. She sleeps all night, but she sits up, tosses and turns and all while keeping her eyes closed. The problem comes when she sits up (or sometime stands up) and it is like she gets freaked out because she doesn't know what is going on and starts crying and screaming. If we get to her before it escalates she calms back down and goes back to sleep, but it goes on ALL NIGHT.
Growing - I don't know exactly how big Jillian is now. At her 9 month check up she was around 19 pounds, so I am assuming around 20 pounds. She is really just average, not real big and not real small. She was in the 50 percentile across the board at her last checkup. This is so funny for me since Drew was (and still is) always in the upper 90's. She is wearing 12 and 18 month clothes. She needs 18 month for length for her legs, but in dresses she still needs 12 months, at least until she starts walking because the skirt gets caught when she crawls. It is so hard to look ahead to what size she will need for the future because she has been wearing these sizes for so long. Drew was always 6-12 months ahead (at least) on clothes so he was easy to predict. Jillian is wearing a size 3 or 4 shoe, depending on the brand and thankfully doesn't appear to have a wide foot, so it is much easier to buy her shoes (and CUTE ones!)
Teeth - Jillian has her two front teeth on the top and bottom and her 2 top ones to the sides of her front ones have cut through this week. Those bottom two are real close too. So now, she has 6 teeth and I anticipate we are really close to 8! She didn't get her first two until 8 months and it looks like the rest are going to come in really fast!
Girly Girl - If it is pink or sparkles, then she is after it! She is all girl and there is no doubt! She will pick up a telephone and say hello and she loves her dolls. She is even "trying" to put clothes on already. Sometimes she will go through the clean laundry and try to put laundry over her head and one day even managed to get a pair of my underwear over her head and one arm through a leg whole! Won't be long until she is playing dress up!!
Trouble - I have to end with Trouble! Even just while typing this up real fast she keeps crawling down the hall. She keeps trying to touch the carbon monoxide detector and when I get close to her to try to redirect her, she stands up, takes a step, falls, and tries to run away! This is such a game for her. She is going to be a handful!
I should have made this into multiple posts, but if that was the case it wouldn't get done, so here you have the novel! LOL :-) I know so much will change in the next couple months and life is keeping us exceptionally busy and sometimes I don't have the time or patience to update the blog. Sometimes I need to keep up with life in the moment and don't have time to record all of the memories, the way I would like. The stomach bug hit our house this week and I am recovering and trying to rest today, which is why I had a few minutes to sit down today. I will try to upload more pictures soon!
He had a GREAT time dancing with his cousin and needless to say he slept very very well that night!
My handsome little man! He was pretty much done with pictures by this point!
