Ups and Downs

Today the moms group got together at Emily's house for a Halloween party. We brought the babies' costumes.

Then we traumatized the babies by trying to get a group shot in costume. We tried downstairs on the floor first, and the babies scattered. So we tried confining them to the couch upstairs. This was the result. Apparently the best seats were the end seats, and Jo and Jack are clearly nonplussed.

I think we made up for it later though, with a trip to Red Robin for dinner and we brought home Jillian's first balloon!

Cat-In-The-Box?

There's one being in our home that loves boxes more than Jillian, and that's our cat Gus. This was a double-treat for Jillian...a box AND a cat!

Completely unrelated to boxes and cats, we picked up Jillian's nine month pictures at Target today and they came out great. I'm going to put one of each pose on my Facebook page, but here's my favorite pose. (I sort of cheated and didn't pay for the cd with the digital pictures - I just took pictures of the pictures!)

Jill-Y-Lantern?

It's a little blurry - but there they are - all 6 of them!

Oh What Fun!

When you're a baby, even the simplest things can be exciting!

Jillian loves the new "sippy" cup (with a straw) I bought her today.

This evening Jillian helped me clean out the laundry basket in which I used to keep our "essentials" when she was a tinier baby. We found some toys and books that we hadn't seen in a while.

Jillian proceeded to empty the basket and climb right in.

Then she settled down with a good book.


And one last thing - if you're interested to see what's been going on in our "grown-up" world, check out my husband's most recent blog post for information on our new company. It's official - we're small business owners!

Sunday = Playday!

After our rainy adventure yesterday, we decided to lay low after church and just hang out, watch some football, and play.

I have no idea what she was doing here!

Those top teeth of hers are getting big enough that you can see them when she makes certain faces. Of course, catching those faces with a camera is easier said than done. I sort of cheated here.

We got our new Usborne books from our book show yesterday. I put a couple aside for Christmas, but Jillian is enjoying a few new additions to her collection.

Eeyore got hugs...

...and carried around by his tail.

She's ready for her close-up!

Valuable Lessons About Mother Nature

Today Jillian and I were out running some errands, and I noticed that the trees are getting prettier and prettier. The weather around noon was warmer than it's been and breezy. So we went to Centennial Park. I sat in the car for a few moments, debating whether or not a walk was wise, since it was supposed to be raining.

Well, we chanced it. As I snapped a couple pictures of the fall colors, the sky became more and more ominous.



Then I looked across the lake and saw a wall of rain headed our way. Needless to say, we got wet. Very wet. And there's really no way to walk with an umbrella and a stroller, and besides, the umbrella wouldn't cover both me and the stroller. So we walked in the rain. I stopped for another picture when the rain let up (for a brief moment). I couldn't pass it up, since it's a very rare shot at Centennial Park that there is no one else on the trail. Note however, that we were NOT the only crazies out walking in the rain.

Not the most flattering self portrait, but I wanted to capture the degree of wetness that we experienced. Jillian learned a valuable lesson about Mother Nature today (and maybe about her own mother...that perhaps she's a little out of her mind sometimes!).

The Times, They Are a Changing

The other evening when I got home from my "girls' night out", Jillian had woken up and was playing. Since she has such a love for my laptop, I went ahead and closed all that I was working on and opened up a blank Word document for her. She's a natural! What a different world it is from when I was her age - I wonder at what age I first laid hands on a computer keyboard (or typewriter!)? Elementary school, I believe. WOW.

Modesty?

It may seem at first like Jillian has acquired some shyness...


But alas, that is NOT the case. Today met up with Denise and Jo at Arundel Mills and did some shopping. Here's Jillian modeling her new hat and SnackTrap.

Then Jillian did some climbing. This time, she climbed onto her activity table while the top of it was still on! I thought it was too high for her, but apparently I've underestimated the little daredevil.

Then I grabbed a couple moments with the baby to try out the self-timer on my new camera. Well, she's kind of looking at the camera...

Jilly-Cow!

While we didn't make it to Clark's Elioal Farm this morning with the moms group, Jillian and I did get up there this afternoon.

What do you mean we missed our friends?!?

Jilly picked out some pumpkins to decorate our front steps.



Lookout pumpkins...it's a Jilly-Cow!

Then we walked around and checked out the Enchanted Forest stuff.

Jillian greeted the bear.

Then I let her do what all girls should get to do...crawl around in the dirt and leaves and get dirty!


We crawled around the Crooked Old Man with the Crooked Old House.

Jillian explored Willie the Whale.

And I think her favorite was Jack & Jill.


Bye Bye Clark's Farm - we'll have to come back and play on the slides and bigger kid stuff soon!

Upside Down and All Around

Jillian has this new thing where she likes to flip things over and push them around the room. Earlier in the week she did it with her 'sport center' and I thought it was a one time thing. Apparently not.



Then, the daredevil was up to her usual tricks. After taking the activity top off of her activity table, the table was a low enough height for Jillian to climb up on it. She sat on/in it, stood up in it, and then tried to climb onto the window sill from it.

Diaper Box Derby (well, sort of)

A couple weeks ago, Emily issued a challenge to make "Diaper Box Derby" cars. While I'm not terribly uncreative, all of my creative supplies are in storage since we're trying to sell the house. So as far as this project went, I had two options: 1) wrap the box in Christmas wrapping paper, or 2) sew something. Obviously, I've been putting it off, until....

Last night I was getting the trash ready to go out and I had a couple broken down boxes to get out of the kitchen. I was about to trash this one until the light bulb went off! This is my "diaper box"!!! It is perfect for this time of year. So I didn't do much decorating - it's already awesome, but I did put Jillian in her black cat shirt for the pictures.

Jillian giving it her seal of approval.

And we're off!

She waves to the crowd...

This is the tricky part...

Oh, no! Turn 4 is a doozy!

Luckily, both driver and "Trick or Treat" bear were unharmed.