Jillian's Birthday Party

Miss Jillian will be three on the 28th but this Saturday but we had her party yesterday as it was more convenient for all involved. She is very aware that she isn't three quite yet but she was more than willing to have the party a bit early.

My cousin Tanya started sending Jillian a birthday dress on her first birthday and now she sends both girls dresses this time of year for the party. I managed to get them to stop bouncing off the walls long enough to pose in them:


That Jillian is such a ham.

She loved that dress. She loved that if she twirled it would go up and out a little bit and she insisted I take pictures of her twirling. Here she is mid-twirl:


Back in November, right after Claire's party, Jillian decided that on her next birthday she wanted a Mickey Mouse cake. Luckily for me, I was able to borrow a pan from my friend Kate's mom (thanks a million Joan). Here it is:

I'd love to take all the credit for making this reasonable facsimile of Mickey Mouse but really, I was more the sous-chef than the big kahuna in this endeavor. Kate has some mad cake decorating skills and she was kind enough to come out and join me in the festival of frosting. We didn't finish the decorating till 1 AM and were both so full of icing we were sort of jittery. Goooood times. Here's Kate enjoying her customary Daniel squish:


The birthday girl was really delighted about Mickey:

I still can't believe she's three. Where'd that time go?

Her favourite two presents were the pyjamas with the panda bears on them (to replace her beloved 24 month size 'whale' pyjamas that I was having to squish her into nightly) and her Melissa & Doug slice and bake cookie set. She played with it from the time she opened it till she went to bed. I 'ate' so many wooden cookies that I'm lucky not to have splinters in my lips (not really...the pieces are very smooth). Here she is taking them out of the 'oven' (aka 'box'):


Here she is serving them up:

The toy is really neat because the pieces all have velcro so if you stick the doughs together the child has to cut it apart with the little wooden knife and then put them on the pan. They stick to the pan with velcro and the icings velcro on. It takes just the right amount of strength to scrape them off the pan with the spatula. Loads of fun.

She also got a sandwich making set (also Melissa & Doug) and Claire made a sandwich with all the toppings to eat. My flash failed when I took this picture and this was the best save I could get without too much thought:

She got another really cool present from Anne but I have to take pictures...wait till you see what she came up with!

Even Mr. Daniel had fun hanging out with the celebrities:

Yet another birthday come and gone. The years keep rollin' by....

Conversations in the Doctor's Office

Yesterday, I took Jillian for her three-year check-up. She is, as we expected, healthy as can be. We had a very personable resident do the examination instead of our regular doctor and Daniel, of course, was along for the ride. While we were there, I was party to not one but TWO noteworthy conversations:

#1:
Doctor: So...what's your name?
Jillian: I'm Jillian! This is my brother Daniel and that's Renée...but call her "Mommy".

#2:
Jillian (thinking she has to have a medical issue to be at the doctor's office): My foot hurts.
Doctor (playing along and noticing a little chaffed spot from those too-tight shoes she insists on wearing): Oh yes. Look at that! Does that hurt?
Jillian (big dramatic pout): Oh yes!
Doctor: Do you need a bandage on that, you think?
Jillian: Oh yes! My other foot hurts too...
Doctor: Oh my. There's a little mark on this one too. Does that one need a bandage too?
Jillian: (still with the pout) I think so.
Doctor: Ok...so there are no issues with her verbal skills...
Me (laughing): Nope. Not a one.
Jillian (realizing the attention has shifted from her): Ohhhhhh...my arm hurts toooo!
Me: Jillian - your arm doesn't hurt.
Jillian: My leg hurts.
Me: Enough Jillian. Nothing on you hurts.
Jillian (to doctor - her eyes as wide as saucers): My sister? She HITS me!
Me: Uh huh...tell him the whole story.
Jillian (busted - now gazing at lap): Ok...I hit her too.

I'm not sure where she came from but she is headed straight for Broadway!

Forget the Solstice...Summer is Here Now!

I don't care what you say - THIS is the first day of summer. I have evidence to prove it:

A kid eating a quickly melting fudgsicle on the back patio.

I recently found a really great new thing called a Dripstik. They hold popsicles and ice cream cones and have little bowls around them to catch the drips. I bought one for each of the girls and they work really well. However, Jillian decided she really, really wanted to turn her treat sideways and ditched the Dripstik. By the time I figured that out, this was how she looked. I couldn't stop her. She was having too much fun and was already about as dirty as she could get.

Believe it or not, Miss Jillian will be three years old next weekend. I don't know where those
years went. We are having a very small party for her this weekend and she's very excited.

May as well update about the other kidlets too...

Here's Claire at the park:

I have noticed a huge change in Claire from last year in terms of her behaviour at the park. She's more fearless and does a lot more climbing and jumping and swinging than before. It actually seems like she gets a bit of exercise when we take her to the park now. Before it was just an outing.

Some of the things Claire says these days are amazing. We never know what's going to come out of her mouth. Yesterday, for example, I sat down to do her hair before school. I got out my big black paddle brush to brush her hair and she told me she wanted me to use a wimpy pink comb she found. I told her no and kept going with the reasonable brush and she got sort of mad at me.
To distract her, I asked how she wanted her hair done. She didn't answer me. I repeated myself. Again, she didn't answer me but she did poke her index finger into one temple and then the other. I asked what she was doing and she repeated her actions. At that point, I gathered that she was trying to tell me that she wanted a ponytail on each side of her head but was too mad with me to talk. Well, I wasn't about to go along with THAT so I told her I had no idea what she was getting on with but if she didn't use her voice I was going to choose her hairstyle for the day. At that point she sighed heavily and said "Mommy. I was using body language to tell you that I wanted a ponytail on each side". At that point half of me wanted to laugh my head off and the other half wanted to sell the kid on eBay. Instead, I explained that body language is a lovely thing but in this situation words would have been a better choice and besides - body language plus words is the best solution of all. Body language...sheesh.

Here is sir Daniel enjoying his new favourite hobbies a) the fisher-price aquarium bouncer and b) creating a beard of bubbles:

Wow...we really lucked out with this guy. He is such a happy, mellow baby. He almost never cries and now that he is learning to smile and giggle and coo, he's an absolute delight to have around.

About a week ago, he started putting himself to bed at night. Honestly! In the evening, he will start to fuss and none of the regular things (nursing, a ride in the swing or face to face time) will soothe him. At that point, we wrap him up tightly in his blanket, pop him into bed, put his lullaby CD on, and WHAM off to sleep he goes. If we don't recognize the "I wanna go to bed" fussing for what it is, he will ramp up and then we end up walking the floor with him until he gives up and goes to sleep (this was easier when he accepted his soother but his love of his tongue and bubble blowing mean that he won't tolerate the soother anymore). We also started to notice this self-imposed bedtime getting earlier and earlier. First it was around 9:30...then 8:30 and now it seems to have settled at around 7:30. AND - if all that wasn't enough good fortune for one woman - he started sleeping for longer stretches every night. Last night he slept for 11 hours! I am hoping and praying that he keeps this up. The unbroken sleep is wonderful and I've been a much happier person to be around.

Ok...it has taken me all day to write this. Time to hit publish and get away from it!