Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day. Bryan brought home flowers and when I came downstairs from my shower Sunday morning, Jill and Bryan were shut in the dining room together. Bryan called out, "We'll be out in a minute!" Then he opened the door, whispered something to Jill, and she came twinkle toe running toward me with a present in her hand. It was like something out of a Kay Jewelers commercial, but she was so cute. She said, "Happy Birthday, Mummy!"

We went to church (Jill was really good there!) and then drove up to my sister's house for brunch. Becky cooked us an awesome breakfast with eggs, homefries, fruit, and coffee. Then Bryan, Becky, and the girls played tennis on the Wii. Jill was so excited cheering for her dad and cousins. She kept jumping around shouting, "Missed the ball! Yay!" regardless of whether the player or the computer won the point.

We left around 12:30PM and I had to turn around in my seat, singing and playing "the claw" (a clawed hand crawls over the car seat and tickles Jill) to keep her awake on the drive home. If I stopped tickling Jill at all, she would turn her head to the side and plug her thumb in her mouth. To which I'd say, "No, no, no! Don't fall asleep, please!"

We made it home and put Jill down for her nap and Bryan and I immediately starting working on some projects around the house. We have so much to do to get ready for Peter's arrival. We're having the house painted and some trees removed this week. We'd like to get the backyard fenced in so that Peter and I can sit on the porch while Jill plays outside this fall. That's my idyllic vision of how it's going to be. I'm sure it's pretty unrealistic!

Jill's favorite song this week is,
"Sing, sing a song.
Make it simple to last your whole life long!
Don't worry if it's not good enough for anyone else to hear,
just sing, sing a song!
La la lalalala..."

I've always liked that song so it's great when she belts the whole thing out and hits the high notes.

Another skill Jill has recently picked up is familiarity with some of our driving routes. If we get off 495 at Rte 28 in Andover, which is the way we go to church, she immediately says, "I see Cole?" Cole is one of her friends from the cuddle corner. If we exit 95 at 286 (which leads to the beach and Nana's house), she says, "Where's Nana? What happened to Nana?" And finally we got off 495 in Amesbury last Saturday morning and she immediately said, "Toast? I have toast?" She was right, we were on our way to our favorite breakfast spot.

Jill's legs are covered in bruises and scrapes. She's gotten really brave on the playground. A few weeks ago she would cautiously go across the bridges and tunnels and make sure we were waiting for her at the bottom of the slides before sliding down. Now she runs up the stairs and across the bridge, slides down the slide backwards, forward, and on her belly. She leaps off the bottoms of the slides and off of the stairs. As a result she's constantly tumbling into the dirt on her hands and knees. She talks about her boo-boos a lot but they don't seem to bother her.

While she's no longer afraid of the playground equipment, she is pretty cautious around the other children, especially the boys. If a boy approaches the equipment she's using, she quickly retreats. One little boy wanted to chase her last week, and she kept running to me hugging my legs. I can't really blame her, that guy had that crazy X-factor that made him a little scary. Today though, there was a three year old girl blowing bubbles and Jill had the best time chasing bubbles and smiling and laughing with the little girl.