Jillian At {Almost} 13 months

I haven't really done a check-in post lately (or any posts as several people have pointed out - sorry!). Here is a little bit about Jillian JoAnn Lewko:

• At her 1 year appointment she weighed 19 lbs, 11 oz. (25% percentile). She is in the 50th percentile for height (enjoy it while you can, sweetheart) and the 25th-50th for head circumference.
• She still isn't walking. She can take 3-4 steps but then stops and sits down or pitches herself forward and falls. Mama is still not in a rush.
• She says and signs so many things! She likes to repeat words once you say them and so it is hard to tell the words she knows. I try to only allow them to the "list" when she will say them without prompting. Signs she knows/does: More, Eat, Milk. Words she knows/says: More, Mama, Dada, Balloon, Up, Cheese, Hi. She is practicing more and more everyday.
• Her beautiful, glorious, wonderful habit of sleeping through the night has been interrupted for the past 2 weeks or so and she has had frequent night wakings. Bummer for her and for us. She usually only requires our attention once during these wakings. Often she'll toss and turn for a bit and then fall back asleep. I really want her to go back to the wonder of 10+ hours of continuous sleep!
• She is learning to climb. First the stairs. Now she is working on her little chair, the couch and the dishwasher, which as you can see, she has mastered. I actually took this when I was at home by myself with her one weekend. I was doing dishes at the sink while she was playing with the detergent tray of the dishwasher. I look down at her and she had climbed up onto the door. So funny. Jason came home at that moment and I called him in right away to look at our silly girl.
• 8 (?) teeth and counting. We can't really tell how many teeth our girl has. As far as I know it is 8 but about a month ago she was pretty fussy and drooling and we thought for sure new teeth were coming. Not that we've seen or felt. But you do risk amputation by putting your fingers in that cute little mouth.
• We are still having so much fun with her. I am struggling to be the best mom that I can be while balancing work, my marriage and life in general. It doesn't always (or often...) work out the way I imagine or idealize but I am working on accepting the joys life brings and not trying to make myself and others something we are not.

Riding on Her Car

Jillian loves her new ride-on car. She can even make a car noise, though in this video it turns into raspberries. She is so inquisitive and it is amazing to watch how her mind works.

Jillian's First Birthday Party

Jillian shares her toys with her guests.

We held Jillian's 1st birthday party about a week ago at my parents' house.

We invited some of her friends. Here she is with Ava Yates.

Emma Stephens, Jillian and Ava play with giant legos. All three girls played great together.

Mama and her baby girl.

Sarah made all the desserts.

Yes, all the desserts.

She is very talented. Jillian is very lucky to have such a loving aunt!

Contemplating her cake while we serenade her.

Really digging in.

Jillian Turns One

Our baby girl turned one today. Can you believe it?

She tried her first cake (and probably her first refined sugar). She was very ladylike but started shoveling it in as she got the hang of it. She actually didn't dig into it like we thought. We broke it apart so she could taste some of the cake. She was eating all of that pink frosting.

I can't believe that one year ago I was giving birth to this sweet baby. Our lives have changed so much over the past year. Jason and I can't imagine our world without her. Happy Birthday Baby Girl.

Jillian Loves Balloons

Jillian loves balloons. She gets super excited when she sees them and she loves to play with them. Here's proof!

More, Please

Jillian has been "talking" on and off for awhile. And yes, a "Dada" and "Mama" has come out. I was denying that she was actually referring to us until she did it in front of a third party who said,"Oh look, Jillian can say Dada." This was a couple months ago. Then she had a brief period where she was saying "uh oh" when she dropped something or knocked something over. That wasn't consistent and so I still had my doubts. But now, there is a new one. MORE. We have been working with Jillian on sign language and have been doing the sign for "more" and saying it at the same time. Well knock me over with a feather she started signing it back and saying it! I have been trying to capture it on video and I finally did!

And a special thank you to my loving husband who bought me my brand new computer that I am typing on! It is gorgeous and I am so excited to have a laptop that doesn't die the second I unplug it!!!

A Slightly Different Halloween

Many of you know that I ordered this Alice in Wonderland costume online and was disappointed by it. Well, overall, I think my daughter is adorable and she rocked this uber polyester thing. We debuted it last week at the Peregrine company picnic with the headband and tights but yesterday I was in a fog and didn't get it all together. Plus, it was too hot for tights.

We made a trip to the Canfield house for pumpkin carving. Jillian loved the feeling of the pumpkin guts. She carried around a chunk of pumpkin as we finished up.

An expensive knife is no match for a strong pumpkin. The secret is to use a drywall knife.

I took longer than the others to complete my pumpkin. I thought the pattern I used was too intricate and took forever! It was only rated two pumpkins out of four but my spiderweb had so many cuts!

Here are our pumpkins. From L-R: Dad, the scary clown; Mom, howling at the moon; Jason, laughing skull; Kristyn, spider and web.

We ended up going home after pumpkin carving, putting Jillian to bed and watching Nightmare Before Christmas. Next year we'll take the 'bean trick or treating.