Yes, I am feeling anxious to get all these little posts about my children done. I've got just over 9 weeks until my due date and plenty of things to do. Plus, I am wondering if we'll be moving before the baby comes or what in the world is going to become of us. I feel like I'd better wrap up my loose ends, especially since the end of a chapter in our lives for the last few years means the end of one of my books and the beginning of another. I'd better get it all in before the new book starts! But I am glad to write about my children. They are treasures. :)
My little Jill just turned 4. On her birthday my visiting teacher showed up at the door with two hand-me-down dresses. She didn't know it was Jill's birthday, and the dresses are both size 3, but Jill was thrilled. I am struggling because this particular dress in the picture looks so cute on her, but I never can decide how I feel about that kind of sleeves (i.e. just a ruffle and an extra large arm hole. Why do they always have an extra large arm hole with ruffle sleeves?) I am the sort that insists upon sleeves. I can't decide if this counts. But she does look mighty cute. I think my dilemma will shortly be remedied, though, because the dresses are both too short. I do think that I will pass this one along. Maybe I should make her a better one with similar fabric.
Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Jill, but so far I've only talked about myself.
Jill is the princess. Everyone takes care of her. But she's also a little nurturer and likes to take care of people too, so it kind of balances out. One of her favorite things to do is pretend to be a mommy. Sometimes she's the baby, though. She and Michael have a lot of fun with that. Lately I really wish she had a little sister. Her brothers' interest in dancing, playing dress-up, and watching Barbie movies only goes so far. (Though I have to add a plug here for one of Jill's Barbie movies. She got Barbie in The Twelve Dancing Princesses for her birthday. It was her Papa's idea. After that Fairytopia one I was quite hesitant to get any more Barbie movies. Gag. Plus, I already knew that they had ruined a classic fairytale with this new one. But I actually like it quite a bit. It does have its obligatory cheesy Barbie moments, but it includes a lot of music, which, I believe, is all Mendelssohn. And the coreography is actually quite good. In the credits it lists the New York City Ballet. Jeremy thinks they did one of those video capture things where you grab the movements of real people and transfer them to cartoon. I think that's probably true. The dancing is quite lifelike. I think that in most cases they try to make Barbie seem plastic, so her movements aren't that great, but the dancing in this particular movie is quite good and I enjoy watching it very much.)
Jill has been really interested in my changing shape lately. One day a week or two ago she told me, "Mommy, you're getting fat." I chuckled and said, "Yep, baby Brom is getting big." I think she realizes that someday she's going to be shaped something like me, so she asks me questions that I'm not quite sure how to answer sometimes. She also is kind of fascinated by the fact that baby Brom is in my tummy. She was telling the lady at the fabric counter about it the other day. She isn't interested in feeling him move except when she tells me that he is moving. (Every time she says that he isn't.) But there was one time she said, "I want to wake up baby Brom." And then she shook a rattle by my tummy. I was surprised that he actually did start moving around! And every now and then when we're talking about baby Brom I'll lament that she doesn't have a little sister. I really was hoping that this baby would be a sister for Jill, and I didn't want them to be so far apart in age that they never really get to play together. Now I kind of wish I were having twins because I don't want to trade baby Brom, of course. ;) In these moments Jill will tell me either that Brom is a girl or that she has a baby girl in her tummy. Oh, goodness. Soon enough, little darlin'. Let's not rush that. ;)
Jill loves all things pink, which is funny because she lost her favorite pink headband at Walmart the other day and didn't bat an eye. She likes her long hair, but lately she also likes to cut it. She never cuts very much, but I keep telling her it's never going to grow out if she keeps cutting it. One day she caught on and cried, "I don't want to look like a boy!" But, of course, a few days later she had snipped away a little more. It's alarming how hard it is to keep scissors away from little hands! (Speaking of which, for some reason Michael also joined in the hair-cutting fascination. He cut a big chunk out of his bangs. It's cut pretty close to his head. I guess he's just going to look funny for a while. I'm not about to cut it all off.)
And also speaking of Jill's hair, it seems like I should give her some bangs so I don't have to do her hair all the time. We'd been using these little black rubber bands, but she likes to take them out by herself, and when she does it she pulls out a clump of hair. Gah! If she had bangs I wouldn't have to do her hair to keep it out of her eyes. But I don't like bangs on little girls. They look silly and 80's-ish if you curl them, and if you leave them flat they look, well, flat. So that's out of the question. No bangs.
I took her to the store and we got a bunch of clippies and a few headbands, along with some rubber bands that are gentler on her hair. They don't hold their place as well, but they don't rip out as much hair if she takes them out either. That's a win. She actually likes to wear the headbands for longer than she used to. Progress!
And now she has been showing an interest in doing my hair. She climbs up behind me where I'm sitting and fluffs my ponytail over and over until she's satisfied. And then she has me tie a ribbon in it. The other day I got home from the store and realized that my helter-skelter ponytail still had a helter-skelter ribbon in it. People must think I'm a weirdo.
Jill has always like to have her hand held. Ooo I should post a picture from when she was a baby. Here we go.
I have been kind of lazy about teaching Jill little things like her name, I'm afraid, but she knows what a J looks like, and she thinks it's her name. She likes to go through the blocks until she finds the one with the letter J on it, and then she gets pretty excited and tells us she found her name.
Jill has been sleeping in her own bed a lot more often lately. She's actually been staying there the whole night the majority of the time. But a few times she's come to me at odd hours of the night or early morning asking for strange things. One morning she woke up early remembering that I had told her she could have juice in the morning. She came and asked if she could have juice yet. I said it was still sleeping time. I pulled her into bed with me and she fell asleep again. Another morning she came and asked if she could have some peaches. And late last night she came to me all worried, telling me about the storm. I think she was afraid of all that lightning.
I love watching the cute relationship Jill has with her Papa. It is so sweet! She likes to have him lay beside her as she falls asleep. She likes that he'll let her steal his iPad. She likes to sneak into our bed at night and cuddle him right off the bed. And he loves her anyway. In fact, I have the sneaky suspicion that he may even lover her more for it all. :)
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