suddenly 7 months!

I named this post "suddenly 7 months!" because it seems like in the past 30 days a little tiny helpless baby has become anything but helpless! When I wrote last month's post (which was even a little late) there was no news of how Jillian was sitting up, definitely not crawling! And now look at this sweet girl...

She is not only sitting up, but she is crawling! Agh! It's like all the sudden she's become a big girl! She is just the sweetest ever and her big smiles melt my heart. Other than that, here are a few things our jillibug has been up to this month:

-She said her first word...and hasn't stopped saying it because it makes her favorite person as happy as he can be...can you guess what it was? Of course it was..."dada." And she knows it's his name, she looks at him until he looks back and then stares at him and says it..."dada" and then they both just beam with pride. It's stinkin' adorable.
-She is eating lots of good stuff now...bananas, apples, broccoli, rice cereal; we tried avocados today for the first time, but she is not too keen on them yet! She looooooves to eat and cries every.single.time. the food is gone! Like a mad cry, like a starving cry.
-For over a month now, I've been expecting a tooth to pop up. She's been so slobbery and chewing on everything, but so far--no teeth in sight.
-She loves to see her grandparents on skype and they get some of the biggest smiles.
-She looooves to jump in her johnny (or should i say jenny) jump-up!
-She is still not sleeping through the night...it makes me sad that she had it down at 6 weeks, but hasn't quite gotten into her groove after the trip back to Tanzania.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month of our big girl!

half of an entire year!

Jillian is now 6 months old (well, I'm a little late on this post, so even more than that!) I absolutely cannot believe it. She is the sweetest little girl and I've really noticed that for whatever reason, I am making sure I take in every precious little moment with her. Maybe with Zoe, I was stressed as a new mom--not really knowing what I was doing. Well, I still don't really know what I'm doing. I just know that Zoe is on her way to being 3 years old and I need to make sure I am treasuring each and every second with my precious girls! They are such an amazing blessing to me!

What is our little j-bug up to these days?
-On the day she turned 6 months old, she had her first solid food. Poor little girl...she was more than ready. She had reached the point where she was actually crying and screaming out of jealousy every time she would see Zoe eating. She was watching every single morsel of food from the plate to Zoe's mouth and she KNEW that we were holding out on her. There was more than just milk and she wanted it! So, she has been eating rice cereal. She, of course, loves it and I'm sure she will love whatever we give her from this point on. She has never spit out, drooled, or dropped anything from the spoon...it's precious to her. Her thighs are the proof.
-She is trying hard to get moving! Much like her older sister, she is not happy to just lay or sit around. She wants to move! She is getting up on her knees and rocking a little, but hasn't put it all together yet. I'm sure it won't be long. Although, to be honest, I won't mind if it takes her a while!
-She is almost sitting up by herself. Well, she can, she just tips over eventually if left to herself. She hasn't quite gotten the idea of spreading her legs out to balance herself. Almost though.
-She is smiling and giggling at us lots. She thinks we're funny!
-She is wearing 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.
-I'm pretty sure she is teething. I can't feel anything at the moment, but she has all the signs and is not happy unless she is chewing on something.
-She is in loooooove with her daddy still. She watches him wherever he goes (even when she's nursing). She needs to have her eyes on him and when their eyes meet, he gets the biggest smiles!
-She is also so happy watching and playing with Zoe, and Zoe could not be any sweeter with her. She comforts her if Jilli is crying, she brings her toys, talks to her, hugs and kisses on her, and encourages her in whatever she is doing. I hope she acts like that forever! It's amazingly sweet.

Here is the video of her first solid food and some of my favorites of my little 6 month-old pumpkin....