Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Milestones...

I hadn't put much about what Gillian's up to these days, so I thought I would post again today and see if I can recap just a little bit of what she's been doing...

As anyone knows who has seen her lately, her favorite word is puppy. To her, everything that walks, breathes, sniffs, and pretty much exists, is a puppy. Hi and buh-bye are still pretty common words that she uses, but they've taken a backseat to puppy. She also uses the word baby rather frequently when pointing out that there is a small person nearby. She has a few other words that she uses, but those are her favorites right now....

A couple weeks ago, Gillian took her first unassisted steps, and is growing more independent by the day. Just yesterday, she took off for the middle of the floor without something to walk to, which was a first.

She loves to give kisses, and usually does so fairly indiscriminately. All you have to do is ask!! Right now, her favorite food is bananas. She must be Michelle's daughter. All of that late-night cantaloupe during the pregnancy must have morphed into an affinity for bananas!

Happy 1st birthday Gillian!!

Hard to believe, but Gillian Grace turned 1 last Saturday. We hosted a party with all of our closest friends Saturday to celebrate. A mid-morning thunderstorm nearly derailed our grilling plans, but we had a few people come through in the clutch to save the day. Eric (neighbor) loaned us his sun tent to put on the deck in the event that it would be 90 and hot. Well, that didn't exactly happen, as the skies opened up around 9:30 before the 11 o'clock party. As it started to rain, we were able to get the tent up and functional on the deck, so I could still cook lunch for everyone.

The party was just getting started....after lunch, Gillian had a great big cupcake and daintily picked at the icing (as any polite little girl should), before sticking her icing-covered hand into her hair. Expectedly, she was not too terribly interested in the cake portion of the cupcake...but moreso in the delicious frosting.

Thank you so much to everyone who attended, and for those that weren't able to join us, thanks for the warm thoughts. The first year of Gillian's life has been incredible, and Michelle and I continually count our blessings for all of our friends and family, and the impact you have had on our family.

Aunt Abby was able to get some great pictures of Gillian on Saturday, so I've put in 2 of my favorites. There are plenty more, but once again, I'm working on getting them all put together.

What's going on with us...

Over the weekend of the 4th of July, we hopped in the car and drove to Tulsa to spend time with Michelle's parents who (on July 6th) celebrated 40 years of marriage. After spending a couple days in Tulsa, we drove an hour and a half east to Ozark, Arkansas for my cousin Brad's wedding. He married Kendra Nelson on the 4th of July. Congratulations to them as well. I have pictures, but I'm working on organizing them, so I will get them up when I get a chance (seems like I always have something like that to say...) Every night after work last week, we worked on the deck so it would be done for Gillian's first birthday (I know, can you believe it??). When it came right down to it, I needed to take Thursday and Friday off of work so that I could get everything all finished up. In the end, it was all worth it, because I was able to get the deck all done before the big party.

I have pictures of the deck as well, but I'm saving the suspense of those pictures for later. It'll be worth the wait, I promise.