Oh, Jillian. She's been so sick! It seems like she picks up everything that's out there. I swear I haven't allowed her to lick the shopping cart. On Friday, I took her to the doctor because she was on day three of a fever. She was super pathetic but didn't have any other symptoms. At the doctor, her pulse was high so they ordered an EKG and chest x-ray to make sure the virus she had wasn't affecting her heart (ah!). I'm not sure they could have freaked me out much more. Luckily, the tests came back and everything looked good. Owen was with me for this two hour visit and he did so well. He was covered with stickers from the nurses for being so patient. Jillian's fever finally broke on Saturday and she started to act more normal - crawling around and playing. It was so good to see.

To add to her discomfort, Jillian's second bottom tooth broke yesterday - yay! I was sure it would come in weeks ago. She seems to be a very slow teether. Her gums swell up and and are bumpy for weeks before the tooth breaks through. Then, it takes a long time for the tooth to push up. Her first tooth still isn't all the way up.

Mike took this photo of Jillian a few days ago. Isn't she gorgeous?



Owen alternates between being the cutest thing ever and being super challenging. I've been reading a book, "Your 3 Year Old - Friend or Enemy," which comforting and familiar. This in particular is exactly what we're experiencing right now:

Three-and-a-half attempts to control his environment in way that will, perhaps, make him feel more secure, more sure of himself. 'Don't look," "Don't laugh," "Don't talk," he commands those around him.

He was yelling at Jillian in the car yesterday, "STOP MOVING!" and he often tells me to "STOP TALKING!!" or "NO SINGING!". Oof.

On the bright side, Owen has quite the imagination and has been making up lots of names, songs, and doing lots of pretending. It's awfully cute!

This has been the longest winter I can recall. Too much snow, too cold, and way too many illnesses. Jillian has been sick off and on for over a month now. I feel so bad for her! She had a fever last week on Wednesday but it went away on Thursday. Then she had a GI virus Saturday and Sunday. We ended up taking her into the ER because it seemed like she was having stomach cramps and that can be a sign of something serious in children her age. Fortunately, she was fine. Yesterday, she started to develop a fever at music class and it continued through the night and has lasted all day today. She seems clingy and grumpy but there's no other symptoms right now. I wonder if it's teething but a temperature of 103.2 seems high for teething. Here's hoping Jillian feels better soon and stays healthy for a long stretch!

In between fevers, she's a goofy as can be!



Today was St. Patrick's Day! We celebrated with Shamrock jell-O jigglers, rainbow crafts, and green milk. I told Owen that people wear green on St. Patrick's Day and if you don't, you might get pinched. He said, "I don't want people to bite me!!". Ha!



Tomorrow, we're planning to have friends over for a corned beef & vegetable dinner. Hopefully they won't be scared away by Jillian's fever or else we'll have a TON of corned beef to eat!

I have so much to write about! Let's see...

First of all, Jillian is crawling! Our friends, Karin, Julian and Eli were over on Monday and Karin asked if Jillian was crawling yet. I said that she isn't but she's very close and started to walk away. Karin said, "she's totally crawling!" and I looked back and Jillian was crawling! Go Jillian! She hasn't done a ton of crawling since then but I've seen her practicing!

Jillian also has a new goofy smile. She loves to do this with her Dada at dinner.



Yesterday was Paczki Day! I love my paczki and so does Owen! Mike and Owen have to fight over the raspberry. I like raspberry too but I let the boys have them because they REALLY love raspberry.



Yesterday after dinner I said something about how we should get another dog to do the clean-up under the table. I was joking. Owen said, "Maybe we should go get Murray back! What do you think of that? Should we do that?" I think my heart broke in half. I don't know if we'll get another dog. It will probably be a few years before we seriously consider it. I miss Murray like crazy and I'd love for Owen and Jillian to grow up with a dog but there's no way I can take care of two small children and a puppy.

I was feeling motivated yesterday and took a shower and got dressed before Owen got up (Jillian was up). Owen did not like that I was already dressed by the time he got up. He was super irritated about it and said, "I don't like your shirt. I can't see it. It's too white." Okay then!

Because of "the plague", we've missed at least two music classes. I was all excited for music class today and then I realized that Jillian felt warm. She had a fever. Ugh! It's hard to know if it's teething or illness but because she had a fever right then and was so unhappy I decided we should stay home. Serious bummer! Then, Joe, Katie, Alexa & Melina were supposed to come over for dinner tonight but are going to play it safe and stay home. I'm so ready for spring and so sick of germs. Maybe it's just teething but how would I know? The kids often start off illness with a fever so I'd hate to risk it and infect a bunch of other kids.

She may be little, but Jillian is starting to give Owen a run for his money.

Jillian and Owen both had a hard day. Jillian's teething is bothering her and she doesn't want to be put down much and Owen was grumpy and defiant. Oof. It's amazing how quickly the days go and how little we get done! Ah well, there's always tomorrow, right?

I was talking with Mike this morning while holding Jillian and he said, "stay right there" and he grabbed the camera and took our photo. I said "my hair isn't right and I have no make up on!". He said it was better that way - apparently we looked cute!

Jillian has her first tooth - the bottom left center one! Well, you can't see it yet, but you can feel that it has broken the skin. The other bottom one is about to come in any minute, too. Yay for teeth!

Today I volunteered at Owen and Jillian's "Friday Morning Out" program. I have volunteered in most rooms but had not had the opportunity to volunteer in Owen's room until today. It was really fun to spend time with him in a school setting and meet his "friends". His regular teacher wasn't there today which was a bummer because I would have liked to see how she does things. Owen has been saying that he's "shy with Teacher Rae". I was talking to him about it yesterday and got a little more out of him. Apparently she said "something rude" but Owen couldn't remember what she said. All he could remember is that it made him "feel mad". I think it may have happened when I brought cupcakes for his birthday and maybe he was feeling shy when the sang happy birthday? Who knows. Poor little guy.

Owen really loves temporary tattoos so I put the Cake tattoo that came with my new CD on him. It's a huge wasp that says CAKE. Pretty cool, dude.

Jillian is 9 months old! How did that happen?! To celebrate, she had her 9 month well child visit today. She now weighs 22 lbs 10 oz (95th percentile) and is 28 1/8" long (75th percentile). The pediatrician asked if she's always so easy going (mostly) and said that she looks great. He confirmed that her two bottom teeth are about to cut through her gums (yay!) and asked about our family's head size because apparently her head is pretty big (as are all of ours).

Jillian has been doing really well with feeding herself. I gave her kiwi for the first time this morning and she gobbled it up. For dinner, I strained our corn chowder and gave it to her and she devoured it. She's also been sleeping longer stretches at night. Yeah! Still no proper crawling but she's crawling backwards really well!



I think Owen is happy to be back to his social life. Our friends Karin, Julian (2.5) and Eli (11 months) came over last night for pizza and a movie. We all had a good time. Yesterday morning, cousin Alexa and Uncle Joe came over for some playtime, too. It had been so long since we've played with friends - it is so nice to socialize again!

Today, Owen had a haircut. He loves to get his haircut. It's funny though, because he's in a complete trance during the haircut and is so shy. But it's all he can talk about before and afterwards! After the haircut, we went to get him a hot chocolate that he earned for his poop chart (yes, he has a poop chart).

Tonight Mike is working a double back which means he works evening shift (home at 11:30 PM) and then works a 6:30 AM shift. I say that he might as well sleep at the hospital. Anyway... I asked Owen to be extra helpful for me and he really was. He helped clear the table, load the dishwasher, and sweep under the table. It was so helpful and lovely.

We've started a tradition of telling a "little Owen bear" story before bed. They're always about something that really happened but we tell it about "little Owen bear". I don't usually do Owen's bedtime but tonight I did so I had to come up with a little Owen bear story. I'm not always very good at coming up with them on the fly. But, tonight I told a story about how little Owen bear went to visit Nana and her fish and her cats. Owen seemed to approve of the story. Telling the stories is fun and it's amazing what he remembers. He'll interject his memories into the story as it's told.

I completed it awhile ago, but here's Owen's dino hat! He loves it and I'm pretty darn proud of how it turned out. And, to clarify, this is his own "pose". I can't get the kid to just look at the camera these days!