Jillian is really growing up fast. Amber keeps turning to me with a sad look in her eye and saying things like “She’s turning into a real person”. And she’s right. Jillian is going from tiny baby to toddler. She is at that stage where her personality really develops and she starts to show off all the things she’s been practicing. Just in the last few weeks she has started:
- Using baby signs. She is using “please”, “food”, “more” and “milk”. I’m really excited about this. It made life with Wesley so much easier, so much more rewarding, and lots more fun when we could really communicate with him. It takes so much of the guessing and stress (for both parent and baby) out of the equation.
- Eating everything in site. I would say that right now string cheese is her favorite. She uses her “food” and “please” signs copiously if she runs out, especially if she can see more on the table out of her reach.
- To drink milk from a cup. No more breast for J. She now lets out a scream when Amber tries to breastfeed her. Janette says she probably wants to be just like her big brother. She’s probably right.
- Go all night without eating. This is related to the no breastfeeding thing. She still wakes up, but usually only once and then we just rock her back to sleep (this makes it sound easier than it actually is).
- Cruising all over the place. She isn’t walking, but she is cruising and standing for long periods. Sometimes she plays a game with herself where she pulls herself up, lets go and then sees how long she can stand up. I’d say the record is close to 20 or 30 seconds.
- Saying “uh-oh”. This goes hand-in-hand with discovering how much fun it is to throw stuff off your tray and have mom or dad pick it up. It is even more fun the 100th time.
- Climbing the stairs. She can fly up the stairs. The downstairs gate is now closed all the time. She can go down the stairs too, but like Wesley refuses to go anyway but frontways. So she kind of thumps down one step at a time. Not very safe. I keep demonstrating the sliding down feet first on your belly way of getting down things, but so far she isn’t catching on.
Tags: Baby Signs, Jillian