Category Archives: Jillian

Spun

Jillian went to the eye doctor today. She will need glasses, and in the words of the doctor she needs them “like, yesterday.” This is not a surprise at all. The only time we had a problem was when he put the drops in to dilate her pupils and she looks like the world’s tiniest rave kid now:

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I’m a winner!

I’ll be the first to admit that I have odd hobbies. I like to peel the dead skin from my feet, for example.

I’m also approximately 8 years old in my head, so I have a thing about scratch-off lottery tickets. I love them. LOVE THEM. So I have a thing that I do – whenever I find money on the ground (this happens a lot, actually), if it’s less than $20, I buy instant lottery tickets with it. Whatever I win, I buy more tickets. Sometimes I only win a couple of dollars, but no matter how much I win, I only buy the $1 and $2 tickets because MORE FUN!!!

So the other day, I was down to my last $4 of winnings (got a whole batch with no winners, what a bummer). I bought 2 tickets for $2 each and won $8. Put those back in and got the same kind of tickets and won $39. OF COURSE it all went back in. $19 that time.

Today out of the $19 worth of tickets, I have already won $21. Woo!

I’m weird. This should not be news. Plus, Jillian LOVES to help.

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Filed under Jillian, Me Me Me

Confident!

Jillian has been practicing making letters for the past couple of days. She likes to make P for Piper, and will happily draw the letter P for hours and hours. I asked her to make a J for Jillian and was informed “no, Mama. I will learn that at school.”

Okay, then.

Apparently, school is too far off in the future so she decided to draw a J for me today. In fact, she made five of them. I said “Jilly, those are really good! You’re getting good at making letters!”

She said “I know. I’m amazing at this.”

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Lazyblogger Photoparade!

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Lazyblogger Photoparade!

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We call her “The Terminator.”


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Baseball in October? What’s that?


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She’s just…so…tasty!


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Someone we met at the Dog Park.


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At the neighborhood party.


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Slimy pumpkin guts!


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Further proof that she’s got Diroll genes. Grandma would be so proud to know the “cheese” smile is going strong through another generation.


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She’s So Unusual.

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Filed under Jillian, Piper

Method

People sometimes ask me what I do with Jillian that resulted in such a happy and well-behaved (so far) kid.

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Happy Birthday, Jillian!!

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Day One

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One year

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Two years

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Three years

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Lazyblogger Photoparade!

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Sunset and chocolate


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Puddle dancing


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“This is what I’m talking about!”


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Pink and pink


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Bathroom gnome

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Things I’ve been doing

1. Listening to Thriller. I revisited it as a tribute to Michael Jackson and I am amazed at how well it holds up. Amazed. It’s excellent music for cleaning the house, too.

2. Not writing blog posts (duh). I have come to the realization that although my life isn’t boring to live, once I start writing stuff down… whoa. BORING. It’s boring as hell to write about, so I can only imagine it is at least twice as boring to read about. However…

3. Gardening! Well, not so much gardening as much as ‘sticking seeds in the ground to see what happens.’ The lettuce was pulled out weeks ago because it bolted a lot faster than I expected it too. Oh well. The scallions are just hanging on, so we’re about at the end of that. I planted peppers, which are… slackers. I’m not sure how well they’re going to do. But the tomatoes… oh the tomatoes. We’re going to have a lot. 38 plants and they’re all THRIVING. I also have cucumbers. I’ve never grown them, so I am not familiar with how they grow but… I have a few that are as big around as my daughter’s entire body but they’re only about 4 inches long. Weird.

4. Beer. Our first batch of homebrew came out AMAZING. So the second batch was brewed last Thursday and we’re hoping our beginner’s luck holds out for that. We have decided that we need a boiler for outside though, because the house was stinky for four entire days. This will also help when the tomatoes arrive, because the thought of canning tomatoes in my sweat lodge of a kitchen makes me want to cry.

5. Potty-training. Jillian is getting the hang of peeing, and the pooping is coming along as well. I can’t get her to dress/undress herself yet – she is content to let me do it. Hmm. Still, not having to change diapers except for naptime/bedtime is a wonderful thing.

6. Knitting. I’m working on Preppy Sock #2, which is almost done. I turned the heel the other day and now it’s just a matter of getting to the end. I started this pair way back in March, so it’s about time. Then I can move on to something else, like…. more socks. Actually, I’m going to knit a new sweater for Jillian who refuses to stop growing and has outgrown the one I made for her two years ago.

7. Party planning. Jillian’s 3rd birthday is at the end of this month. I am gobsmacked that she’s already three! In one sense, it feels like she just got here, but in another, it’s getting difficult to remember what life was like without her. She’s talking (constantly) and growing (constantly) and learning stuff and just being delightful.

8. Working out. Because $40/hour for a personal trainer is a bit expensive, we have acquired a lot of the tools I was using at the gym and can work out at home. We have BodyBars, medicine balls, resistance bands, and sometime in the next week or so, we’ll have dumbbells. I also have a treadmill and a stability ball, so there is no excuse at all, ever, for me to not be working out. I worked out in the backyard with Freddie on Saturday and I’m pleased to note that 2 days later, he is still hurting a bit. Story of my life – I know what I need to do… I just need to do it. I’m trying to build up my running stamina and I’m planning to start working with a swim coach…. and Freddie wants to buy me a bike because he thinks I’m going to be ready for a triathlon next year. Errrrrr….. I’m not so sure about that. There is one at Cedar Point that I would LOVE to go to, but I was thinking more along the lines of Freddie doing it. Turns out he thinks I should do it. I suppose it would be fitting. There are few places on Earth that I love the way I love Cedar Point.

9. Maybe getting a dog. We have been talking about getting a dog for awhile now, and we finally found a few that we like on Petfinder. The application process is interesting – it’s no wonder people just go out and buy dogs because it seems like there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get one through a rescue. It should be the other way around, i think. Still, we’ll see. The dog we’re interested in is a Border Collie/Whippet mix, which translates into HIGH ENERGY OMG! But I have a three-year-old, so they will match up well.

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Filed under Garden Adventures, Jillian, Knitting, Me Me Me, Music, Stuff

Catching

We are potty-training Jillian. She is in underpants most of the day (aside from naptime and bedtime and if I’m at the gym, since the gym’s babysitting service doesn’t mess with that). Pee accidents have been minimal, and we have had a few successful poops in the potty, but for the most part, she waits until a diaper appears and unloads into that.

Usually.

Yesterday, she actually announced that she had to poop, so I put her on the potty. Ten minutes later, nothing had happened so I took her off. I was on the phone trying to schedule an inspection for the car and Jillian disappeared for a bit. Pretty much as soon as I hung up, she reappeared, all upset because she’d gone in her pants.

Sigh.

I know it makes her uncomfortable because she was really upset, but she won’t calm down enough for me to get her undressed in such a way that we don’t get poop EVERYWHERE. Including in my hand.

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