Birthday Girl!

Back in April, our sweet little Jillian turned 2!  We are so grateful for the day she came to join our family.  She brings so much joy and laughter into our home.

I didn't have to do any decorating for her birthday.  Vivian took care of everything in that department.  She made the streamers and everything!  On the left, she wrote some things about Jilly.  The signs read:

"Cute baby girl"

"So silly and loves Shaun the Sheep"

and, "Snuggles a lot with others"

She sure loves and knows her baby sister!  Vivi was especially glad for the day Jilly was born, after begging for a sister for years.

We had a homemade mac and cheese dinner and cake and ice cream over at grandma and grandpa Stock's house with everyone.

This was Jilly trying to blow the candle out.  She had her lips pursed tight and would try to blow through them.  I think a sibling ended up helping her out. ;)

Yay!  Wow, I forgot just how dirty her clothes were that day.  Ah well.

That's some serious static electricity!

Opening presents.

She thought her new dolly needed a taste of her lollipop.  Such a good sharer!

The balloon launch.  Jilly was so excited for the "doons", as she calls them.

Hooray!  Jilly kept saying, "Bye doons!"

The whole fam damily.  We were so happy that grandma Chapman was in town and could celebrate with us.  We were glad we were still in town too!  Our original move date had been April 8th.

A little fun in the back yard together.  We decided to ditch Jilly's clothes since they were so filthy.  She was much happier running around practically naked anyway.

Jilly is the most loved little girl I have ever known.  Her older siblings are always there loving on her, and they all help to take such good care of her.

So Jilly has had a few fetishes in her life.  Her first was her belly button.  She loved to dig in her belly button for the longest time!  If she had a onesie on, it drove her crazy because she couldn't get to her 'belly butt', as she called it.  Next was her nose.  She had her finger in her nose an awful lot for a while there.  Then it was her eyelashes.  She would, ever so softly, rub her fingertips along her eyelashes when she was tired.  Lately, it is her nipples.  The second you take her shirt off, that is right where her hands go.  I won't even tell you what she does when you change her diaper.

There she is again, hands to the chest.  This girl is a crack up!

Here are a few things about our little Lou:

She is so gross!  When Colson was in preschool, there was another mom I had gotten to know pretty well.  She had a daughter that was in Colson's class, and boy did she have some stories to tell about her little girl!  She had been dubbed with the nickname of Poocasso because she loved to make lovely art creations on the walls with her poop.  At the time, I remember thinking, “I’m so glad my kids don’t do gross stuff like that".  Eight years later, that thought has come back to bite me in the butt.  While Jillian hasn't resorted to drawing on the walls with her poop, she does like to dig around in her diaper.  I have just been lucky enough so far to have caught her in the act, and it has gotten no further than her hands.  I also had to buy a garbage can with a lid that locks, and not because she would throw everything away in it.  It was because she kept pulling things out of it to eat.  I think we have finally gotten through her toilet obsession.  On more than one occasion I have either found her playing in the toilet, or drinking out of it.  Ick!

She says “Hi mama” in the sweetest voice you have ever heard when she knows she is about to get in trouble.  And then guess what?  She doesn’t get in trouble.  Because it is so cute and so sweet, it melts my heart like butter, and there is nothing I can do except mug on her.

The other day she started saying, "Happy day!"  Except she says it like it's all one word.  "Happyday!" And now all of us go around saying, "Happyday!"

She has the best belly laugh ever.  I have several sound clips of it recorded, and if I'm having a down day, all I have to do is listen to that, and I can't help but smile and laugh.

She is very sweet, but she also has quite a bit of spunk and sass in her.  I’m telling you right now, you don’t’ want to cross her!  She has recently figured out how to stick her tongue out, and she does exactly that to anyone who is doing something she doesn't like.  Either that or she'll blow raspberries at you.  Little stinker!

She gives the best snuggles.

Her favorite thing to do at the park is swing.  The slides are a close second.

I love how she says please.  It's not just the word please.  It's, "Please, yeaaaaaah".  And she signs it as she says it too.  I hope she never stops saying it like that!

She loves her books.  Especially "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and "Moo, Baa, La La La" by Sandra Boynton.

She has the cutest, biggest, bucky beaver teeth!  I love to see her smile!

Her favorite show is “Shaun the Sheep”.  This show is my saving grace.  It is the only way I can get things done some days.  You know, like taking a shower and maybe getting dressed.

I am so glad we had her.  There was a lot of debate whether we should have baby number five.  And Trent and I were never on the same page about it. Either I was ready and he wasn’t, or he was ready and I wasn’t.  Until one day, we were both ready and we both knew it had to be then, or never.  When we first told the kids we were going to have another baby, Trenton said, “Another one?”  He was less than thrilled.  But by the time we had her and he came to the hospital to visit us, he was a changed boy.  He sat down to hold her and said, “I wish I could hold her forever!”

I can’t imagine life without her.  She completes our family and has brought all of us closer together.  Every one of her older siblings dotes on her.  She brightens our world in a million different ways.