Jillian's Journal

Tigger really loves me. He follows me around all the time. I've learned from Tigger how important naps are, and how to appreciate the view from a window.

A recap of my communication progress at 17 months of age.
I can 'sign':
Daddy, kitty cat, apple, swing, thank you, down, yes, bird, grapes, milk, please, bear, pig, monkey, baby, shoes, ball, bath, tree, pear, pancake, thirsty, more, eat, water, banana, duck, and flower.

I can 'say' clearly: Mama and Dadda

Mommy and Daddy can understand but my pronunciation is still off:
kee kaaa(kitty cat), chsss(cheese), tinky (stinky), seeang(swing), liberry (library), Jeellan(Jillian), ksssss(trash), daa(diaper), peppaaa(pepper), maaau (meow), and I can 'bawk' like a chicken!

While we were eating supper tonight, Daddy winked at me...and I winked back!!! Yet another small skill that brings great pleasure to the grownups!! Yes, I'm still completely in control!

I played outside with Bailey, our neighbor’s dog. She is a BIG (especially to me, when you consider I’m only about 2 1/2 feet tall and weigh about 20 lbs.) Golden Retriever. True to her nature, she is a very gentle dog. I know this because I feed her crab apples from our tree and Bailey takes my whole hand in her mouth and with great patience uses her teeth and tongue to take the apples out of my hand with such gentleness that the only affect this has to my hand is a good soaking of slobber. I laugh so hard and then grab another hand full of crab apples and do it again! I’m not sure which part is more painful for Mommy and Daddy. My whole hand in the mouth of a dog that is standing face to face with their daughter, OR their daughter with a hand soaked with slobber proceeding to sign ‘eat’, which involves putting that same hand up to her mouth! (…and I sign ‘eat’, every time my hand comes out of Bailey’s mouth!)

I drew circles with my crayons today. Regular readers might remember my first crayon work was predominately jagged back and forth lines. You can review my post from May 14th. 2005 and see a sample of my early work. I spend a little time almost every day drawing with crayons. If I’m lucky I’ll inherit my Aunt Gayle’s and my great Aunt Lois’s artistic genes. Later this evening it started to rain and Daddy carried me outside. I looked up and let the rain wash over my face. It was great!

I surprised Daddy today. He was standing beside me when I signed that I was thirsty. Mommy was working on the computer, and I reached out my hand and called “Momma”. Daddy didn’t understand, after all, he was standing right beside me! Mommy said, “you want me to go with you to get your milk?” I signed, “yes”. So Mommy got up, I grabbed her hand, then turned around with my other hand and grabbed Daddy’s hand! I wanted them both to go with me to the kitchen! Sounds like an insignificant thing, however, it was the first time I dictated that both my parents walk hand in hand with me. It was kind of silly, us walking hand in hand all of 15 feet from the living room to kitchen, but Mommy and Daddy’s smiles couldn’t have been bigger!

I can say yes three ways now. I can say ‘yeah’, I can sign “yes”, and today I learned to nod my head up and down to gesture “yes”.

I played in a rain puddle today! It would have made for a great photo; however, Daddy has this thing about water and his camera. His camera must be afraid of the water.

Bummer, I got daddy’s cold.

I’m making strides on the verbal communication front. However, lately I’ll just grab Mommy or Daddy’s hand and lead them around from room to room. They seem to get a kick out it.