For Anyone Who Hasn't Given Up on Checking This Blog...

Hello! Sorry it has been so long! Just as we all got settled in, school started and I was back to planning lessons, grading papers, attending school events as well as all the extracurricular activities the boys are in and helping them with their own homework and tests-I just haven't sat down to type! So....

Jill is doing great! She started school the Tuesday after Labor Day. I peeked in on her a lot the first day. It was funny when I heard the teachers say, "If you are a boy, I want you to line up behind Miss Carol; if you are a girl, I want you to line up behind Miss Connie." She had no clue. I was afraid she'd get teased for not knowing if she was a boy or a girl. But, the teachers helped her out! They say she follows along well. She is always proud of her projects. Her first one was two handprints with a poem underneath. When I pulled it out of her bag she got SO excited and kept saying, "Mama-Hand-Push!" over and over demonstrating what she did to make it. We do the sign language sign for I love you with her and one day another preschool mom came in and told the teachers that her son had come home and showed her that sign. He told his mom that Jill had fixed his hand like that for him, but he didn't know what it meant. They told her it meant "I love you." How sweet. She really likes that little boy, and his mom says he likes her too.

She was baptized on September 7th. It was so special for so many reasons. It was Wade's birthday, it was also my brothers baptismal birthday and he is her Godfather, my mom made her dress, and it was the day of the All Church Fair, so we had a big celebration afterwards. She just stepped up onto the stepstool and didn't flinch or anything as the pastor baptized her. She looked so sweet, and so did the boys as they watched on. At the fair she played a few "duck pond" type games, but then she went in the 'bounce house'. I was a little nervous about it, but she LOVED it! Afterwards she kept pointing to it and asking, "Jill jump?" So we let her back in it three more times!

Her birthday was September 15th, so now she is four! We had a small party with mostly adults. Because they also celebrated her birthday in preschool, she can sing happy birthday pretty well, she also picked up on how blow out the candles very quickly. We had Elmo plates, napkins and an Elmo cake which she loved; especially the Elmo and Big Bird characters that came off the cake to play with! She got lots of baby doll things. This was also the day she said her first three word phrase, "Jill like baby". She's gone from saying words, to two word phrases and now sneaks in a three word phrase every once in awhile!

She had a cold a few weeks ago and was wheezing. Luckily we have a nebulizer for the boys' asthma, so I got it out and filled it with the capsule of albuterol. I was prepared for a lot of screaming and fighting to keep the mask on her face, but instead she helped me put it on and started breathing in an exaggerated way like she knew that is what it was for! I flipped on the switch and the noisy machine didn't bother her one bit. She just sat there and breathed it all in (while watching Sesame Street). Then, when I turned it off, she took the mask off, held it out to me and said "Thank You!" So, I'm pretty sure she must have used one of these over there-but they didn't tell me that! What if I wasn't experienced in wheezing and/or didn't have albuterol or a nebulizer? I would have been in a panic!

We ordered an Abby Cadabby costume, the fairy that's friends with Elmo, off the internet for her to be for Halloween, so I'll post pictures of her wearing it after Halloween! It's her favorite character now, she likes her even more than Elmo!

That's about all for now! I'll try to update and post pictures after Halloween!