Monday, May 5, 2008

Finally the day has come!

It's official. Jillian is a walker! Last Monday she really started walking around by herself today. She kept doing it all day. She'd walk from the couch to the entertainment center and then over to her car or to one of us. It's very exciting to watch her just take off on her own. It was only 4-6 or so steps at a time to begin with, but it's such a milestone for us. Now, she's up to several steps (like 10-15 easily) at a time and loves doing it! You can set her down on her feet and she balances very well, then will start walking away. Jilly is getting proficient at turning, stopping and starting, and catching her balance. She's able to bend down and pick things up, then stand back up with only minimal support. We're so excited she's finally getting the hang of this! It's only taken a full 17 months but we're finally here. The best part is that she has as much fun walking as we have watching her. I'll try to get it on video as soon as I can. She's very impressive and we are so psyched she's finally there. She's totally a toddler now.

Snow Day

A few weeks ago, it snowed like crazy here! Steve picked me up from work, we got home at like 5pm, and by the time I left again just over an hour later, it had snowed over an inch!!! Did I mention this was April 18th?! And that one week earlier it had been 80 degrees?! Psycho, I tell you. I went to a Stampin' Up party in the U-District (thanks again Cami), where there was nothing. When I left, a few hours later, there was a teeny bit of snow on my windshield, but nothing anywhere else. The farther north I drove towards home, the whiter the sides of the freeway became and soon enough the road too. When I reached home, there was over 4 inches on the ground!! I couldn't believe it. I was so afraid it was going to melt overnight, that I took pictures of it there.


This is a parking curb. I dug the snow away from it a bit, to show the scale. As you can see, the snow is at least as tall as the curb, if not taller.


My foot practically disappeared in the snow!

But luckily, I was wrong and the snow did not melt by morning. In fact, it snowed a little more! Steve went to the temple for an early morning Priesthood session so I was waiting and waiting for him to get home. I badly wanted to take Jilly out to play in the snow. You know, she was born during a snowstorm, came home from the hospital in the snow and ice, but we'd never taken her out in it.

First we had to get all bundled up.

Finally! We were able to use the hat and mittens that Granny knit, to match the pretty coat. Jilly wouldn't keep them on at any other time, so we'd given up on them. But she kept them on for our entire snow adventure. Hooray!

We walked out to an undisturbed patch of snow, by the Apartment Cabana/Office and set Jilly down in it.

She was too freaked out by it to sit down! I think this was the longest we'd ever seen her stand on her own up until that time.

Mama made a little snowman and had Daddy take a picture of it with Jilly.

Then I made a snow angel. I wanted Jilly to help.

Lastly, I wanted a picture with all three of our footprints. It's not the most artistic but it's fun nonetheless. Especially when you consider that Jilly and I were in tennis shoes (none of us have snow boots) and Steve was in flip flops! Crazy man!

Jillian was really not too impressed with the snow. She was quite grateful to go back inside. I don't think she liked the cold and wet. But it was a successful little jaunt for our family and we're not likely to forget our April snowstorm any time soon!

P.S. Funny story about Steve going to the temple. When his alarm first went off, he decided not to go. He even texted his friend he normally carpools with and said he'd be staying at home. A little bit later, Jilly woke up and would not be quieted. She was really fussy (darn molars coming in) so Steve finally brought her to our bed. She promptly rolled over and went to sleep. But not before nuzzling right into Steve's back and slowly but surely pushing him out of bed. He eventually decided to stop fighting her and just get up and go. She slept peacefully for 3+ more hours. Sweet! What a good baby, encouragaing her daddy's temple attendance! :-)