Dear Jillian (11 months)

Dear Jillian, 

You are turning out to be quite the diva, my dear. We still love you to pieces of course, but my oh my do you require much attention! I think it's because you've been going through a heck of a growth spurt lately. 

You are so FAST at cruising! You're also getting much braver- you'll let go of something and then reach out and lean towards the next piece of furniture (or wall) to walk along. But, you still have no interest in doing it yourself. I try to get you to walk with your little musical push walker, but you refuse and sit down. Silly girl. Sometimes you'll only hold one of my hands and try it for a few steps that way. You'll get there. :-)

You FINALLY started to clap your hands and it's downright adorable. I'll sing "patty cake" to you and you clap with me and throw your hands up at the end.

Lately you've been trying to mimic words we say! The other night we were at our neighbor's for dinner and they have a dog. I kept saying "dog" to you and you would say "daw daw" when you would look at it. You've also done the same thing with the words shoes ("shs"), all done ("da un"), yay ("aay") and snack ("nanc"). I can't wait until the first REAL word pops out of your mouth! 

Your motto lately has been "early to bed, early to rise." We don't mind the early to bed part (between 6-7pm), but waking up between 5-6am is starting to take its toll. If only you knew the beauty of sleeping in...

Despite a bucket full of toys, your favorite things to play with are my computer (especially when I'm trying to use it), Aunt Michaela's iPhone, and keys.

You're all TEETH! You have a total of 5 now, the top two are both in! Another one on the bottom just popped through and there are two more coming in at the top (which will make for a grand total of 8!) I can tell it hasn't been fun for you getting three at the same time. I don't blame you. 

I think your absolute favorite thing in the world is being around other little kids. You think you're one of them and you get so excited and just want to be on the move. You're not that interested in kids your own age (or younger) than you though, unless you get to hit them in the head, you do like that.

I love that you are starting to understand a lot of what we tell you. You look for things when I say, "Where is your ___?" You always look at what I'm talking about! You also listen when I tell you to sit down in the bath tub or come here. We're still working on "no" when you get into something you shouldn't. When you start doing that, sometimes I make a loud "ah ah ah" sound to get you to stop, but the other day you did it right back to me! Silly stinker.

The other night I was holding you in the rocker and couldn't believe how BIG you are getting. It made me a little sad to think that I won't be able to rock you in that chair much longer, when you're officially a "big kid". But it's so fun watching you grow!

I couldn't love you anymore!!!

Love,
Mom