Still Catching Up

While Jillian is rocking with Grandma, I will continue to bring things up to date.

Amidst our fun Thanksgiving week, we had some very sad news. Great Grandpa Bennie passed away last Saturday, before Jillian was able to meet him. He was a sweet kind man--Daddy was very close to him and Mommy really enjoyed the time she spent with him, too. Jillian would have loved him as well. He lived a long, full life and we're thankful he isn't sick anymore.

On Monday, Jillian and I had our first real 'test'--Daddy was on call for 24 hours, which meant it was just us girls, all alone. Our day went quickly, and we enjoyed a visit from Beth (thank you for the frozen custard, the support, and for holding Jilly Bean so I could shower!) and Enrene, who brought us a delicious dinner. Jillian was really pretty good overall, but we did have a 'party' from 2-5 a.m. Not what Mommy wanted to do at that hour, but we did just fine. Mommy couldn't help but feel a bit victorious that both she and Jillian made it out of the test unscathed :)

On Tuesday, Daddy was post-call so we had the day together. Daddy said he got more sleep at work than he's been getting at home lately. We decided to go out to lunch and then all drive up to Minneapolis together to pick up Grandma from the airport. She was flying in from Maryland. Jillian ate well and then fell asleep, so off we went. She stayed asleep all through a lunch at Chipotle, the hour drive north, and for an hour walking around the Mall of America. She woke up to eat and then we went to the airport, where she proceeded to scream for a long time, eat a bit more, and then scream again. She managed to settle for a few minutes to meet Grandma in a good mood before screaming again in the car. She did finally fall asleep and then slept the whole way home. We've been having a great visit with Grandma and really appreciate her help! We'll have lots of pictures to post and things to share.

A couple of milestones to share....
Thursday night Jillian slept from 10:45 to 4:30, which really thrilled me (but then was soured by her not really sleeping again until 7). Last night (Friday--I realize this post will be dated Friday, but it's taken me two days to write this!) was remarkable--after a very fussy evening, she slept from 11:30 to 6:15!! I was overjoyed. But before you get too excited and think we have the best 5 week old sleeper ever, I should tell you that we do still let her sleep in her cradle swing. Bad, I know, but we're working on it. One thing at a time. She did get kicked out of our room, though. Moved her into the room next door (the office) as a step toward her room. She's just too darn noisy to keep her with us b/c I lose a good 2-3 hours a night. And lastly, this morning, at 5 weeks and 3 days old she gave me her very first REAL social smile! I got 3 of 'em, and yes, I cried.

Finally, a video to share of our active child. She loves to kick. Here she is last week listening to one of her baby CDs just kicking away. Enjoy!