Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Check out some of Jillian's first steps! She is so proud! I know she is not properly clothed, but she started doing this in the middle of getting her ready for bed. She was having so much fun taking her couple steps and then clapping for herself I was afraid that she might lose her mood for performing if I made her get dressed first.

She was so cute - after she saw how excited I was, she was all about trying again, so she started it back up with one giggly step, stopped, looked at me and then clapped for herself, reminding me why she was doing all of it!

So there is lots of me clapping and cheering her on in a voice a few octaves higher than you probably want to hear, so sorry about that! :)

Is it something she cooked?



Jillian....how did you get an orange tongue?

Oh, I see.
Silly girl!
Back to her cooking....who needs a step stool when you can just stand on the oven door?

Friday, March 19, 2010

Picnic Dinner

Tonight we headed out to the park to take advantage of a beautiful night for a picnic! Neal packed us some sandwiches and chips, we grabbed a blanket and headed out. The girls were loving it but they were both quite anxious to just get to the playground!
Look who is excited!
Jillian loved her first taste of Cheetos. Her little face was a beautiful shade of orange after just one. And then she attacked us for the bag. Hmmm too bad I can't get her to get this excited about food with any sort of nutritional value.
This little girl loves to slide! Once she can climb up and put herself on it, I know I won't be able to stop her!

Beautiful Day at the Zoo

This week we got to head back to the zoo now that the weather is finally starting to get really nice here (as I write this, there are reports of snow for us tomorrow, but I am going to keep thinking good thoughts and hope those reports turn out false!!) We went just a few weeks ago, but we had even more fun this time - especially Miss Jillian. This was her first trip to the zoo in the wagon and she was definitely excited to take in the sites in her fancy transportation instead of riding all cooped up behind big sis in the double stroller! Luckily, Gigi and a few of my friends were there too because she was also very excited to get to be held up very close to the action as much as possible! I think I will have to take reinforcements all the time now.


Jillian loved being able to face her sister, where she would laugh and laugh and do everything her sister did - her favorite was when they would kick their feet and make great noises on the floor of the wago.
Jillian loved the flamingos - Meredith did at this age too, I guess their bright colors and LOUD noises help!
The Giraffes were another big hit for Jillian. One came up the closest I had ever seen one get to us at the zoo, so that was extra exciting!
I can definitely track Meredith getting older just by her love of having her picture made with the Baby Elephant!
And you can't miss out on the newer kangaroo statue too!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Jillian is 11 months old

The one month countdown is on until we celebrate when this little cutie turns one! I am at the point now where I am really clearly remembering the final preparations I was making this time last year and all the emotions I was feeling waiting for her to finally be here! And now, here we are with this perfect and beautiful, spunky little baby who is quickly becoming a little girl.

This past month, Jillian is becoming more and more independent and maybe a touch strong-willed! She loves to stand all by herself and has even taken one step a few different times. Mostly, though she would prefer to just stand and laugh because she is so excited she is doing it! Then she will either lunge for one of us or just lower herself ever-so-carefully back to the safe floor. She will challenge herself by twisting in place, clapping, or throwing her hands up in the air. Her balance amazes me! I am positive she could run if she would get up enough courage to try it out based on how well she can stand alone.

Her new favorite things to do are to play "So Big" (see my last post), and to point at just about everything. We went to the zoo for the first time that she was really able to appreciate it and I swear her finger was just out and swinging from animal to animal the whole time. But she does that at the mall, at the park, at the house, wherever and then loves to "talk" about whatever she is pointing to.

She still likes to give me fits about what she eats (or the lack of what she eats, I guess I should say!) I struggle to find something that will always please her, but it really doesn't seem to affect her much, so maybe I should just stop worrying!

Jillian seems to be the true definition of a baby, meaning that we finally baby-proofed our house. We really have a whole set of baby proofing stuff in our cabinet that we never even pulled out to use with Meredith because she just left everything alone, but Jillian's favorite past-time while I get ready in the morning has been pulling out every bottle of old shampoo, etc from under the sink. So, in an effort to keep her from ingesting some pills or soap, we finally locked up our cabinets, and I am guessing there is more to come in that arena!

I have also been so proud of her this month, as she quickly follows us from room-to-room she has let me teach her how to go down our step into the living room without falling every time. I worked with her several times, showing her how to turn around so she could slip her feet down to the floor (instead of her head!) and after just a few lessons, she got it and does it very gracefully now! This helps her keep up her speed in racing off to find out what big sister is up to or to try to sneak away to hopefully find the bathroom door open to see what she can get into! :)

Friday, March 12, 2010

How Big is Jillian??

So Big! And so very proud of her new game too!

Best Dressed List?

This weekend was the second annual Hanks Family Oscar party! We eat some pizza, make some brownies and let the girlies dress up just like the movie stars on the red carpet. Last year that was a princess dress for Meredith and this year, Meredith and Jillian were really trend setters by sporting tutus.

Hmmm - not thinking this would have been at the top of the "best dressed" category, but would have gotten lots of talk the next day! :)

Yee Haw!


A few weeks ago Meredith's class had Cowboy day complete with a cookout over a "campfire". To fully appreciate this story, you have to know that for the past several months, Meredith has been adamant that she is going to be a firefighter when she grows up. She wants to drive the truck and have a fire dog. She has even decided that Daddy should be a firefighter when he "grows up" too so they can live at the fire house together. So, when we started trying to put together her outfit, Meredith told me, "Mama, I don't want to be a cowgirl. I want to be a firefighter when I grow up!" I told her that she could still be a cowgirl for the day if she wanted, to which she replied "But there is going to be a campfire, so I will be the firefighter to put out the fire!" I gave her points for creativity, but convinced her she could be a firefighter cowgirl. She gave in and let me dress her in boots, a hat, and a new bandana (green of course!) On the way to school, I told her she was a super cute cowgirl, to which she said "Yeah, but I still want to be a firefighter."