Family

Hello! Just wanted to comment a bit on Jill's talking. She's gone from saying one word, to two word phrases, to a few three word phrases over the past few months. Then, about two weeks ago she must have noticed that when we talk we use some smaller words in with our important words. So, at Jake's soccer game she said, "car?" "car?" and I ignored her because the game had just started and we had a long time to go before getting back in the car, but then she said, "do......you.....car?" It was so cute the way she asked! She was just trying out words and guessing if she said it right or not, but I knew what she meant and filled in the blanks for her, "No, I don't want to go to the car right now; we'll go after Jake's game." Then, a week later she did come up with a real sentence! On the refrigerator there's a picture of Jill riding on the giraffe on the carousal at the zoo. My mom stood by her and my dad took the picture (They took her to the zoo one Monday-she loved it, especially seeing her favorite animal-the elephants!) She comments 100 times a day on that picture "Jill giraffe" "Jill-Wheee" "Jill Myama (grandma)", "Pah picture", "round a round" "merry go round" etc, etc. But this day she said, "I'm going round!" I was not sure I heard her correctly and said to Wade, "I think she just said a sentence!" Then she said it again, "I am going round!" Turns out my mom has her repeat after her in the car whenever they are going somewhere, "I am going __________" (to school) (to the store), etc. And, I guess she transferred the 'I am going' to the picture of her going around on the carousal! The next amazing thing was tonight when I was pulling up pictures for our first post placement report (can you believe it's that time already?!) I pulled up a family picture and she yelled out while pointing at the computer, "Jill's family!" Wow! I know at school they do a lot with 'family'. Like we've gotten several projects where she'll for example glue on five teddy bears in a house and they'll label them with our family members names, or that they have a prayer book with a family picture of each student and they take turns praying for each family, etc. So I guess she is learning what family means because she didn't say that for any of the other pictures I pulled up, but said it again when I clicked on the one of the five of us! The social worker tonight asked me to tell a favorite memory of time with Jill and that's the one I picked-it brought tears to my eyes that she realizes she has a family, and seems to know what that means, and that our family is now complete because of her!

Jill at Soccer

Fall Leaves

Jill's First Halloween

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!

Family Photos!

We went to a great place called Portrait Innovations to have family photos taken last Friday. All together we had 88 pictures snapped! We ordered quite a few and were given a CD of all 88 shots. I asked if it was legal to post them on the blog and they said yes!!! So here's a sampling of how they turned out!

Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of Photos

Wearing her cool sunglasses holding her cell phone at Ty's baseball game.

Jill played her very first 'board game', Cootie, with Ty, Jake, and Mommy, and SHE WON!

The winner gets hugs and kisses!

Jake and Ty both love to spin her around until she's dizzy. She falls down, gets back up and wants to do it again, and again, and again, and again!!!

Story time in the laundry basket. Good thing Jake was willing to read because Mommy doesn't fit in the laundry basket very well.

All of her Band-aids from her shots and blood work. At least they matched her dress!

We don't have a baby stroller, so she uses her shopping cart. She loads up every baby doll she has and then walks around and around the house.

This was her first day playing in the yard. She ran, chased bubbles, and played on the swings and the slide!

Her first swimming experience in our friends' in-ground pool! She loved it! She called it a 'patsa' which is the word for bath in Russian.

She also loved the Drumstick our friends gave her after swimming!

She loves the play food and little kitchen. She fills up plates for us and for her dolls.

The sandbox is her favorite thing to play with outside. We have "gems" hidden in the sand and she digs, finds them and puts them in the pail, then lines them all up on the steps before burrying them again.