More Milestones

Katherine turned 3 recently. We had told her for months that when she turned 3, she would no longer get binkies when she slept, because she would be a big girl, and big girls don't need binkies. She independently decided that she would bequeath them to Grandpa Jim, and would give one to Grandma Lyn. On her b-day, she got to have a special one-on-one day w/ Grandma Lyn, then Grandpa met them at our house before dinner. The hand-off went quite smoothly, but as expected, bedtime was a little bumpy. OK, a lot bumpy. I had the bright idea of doing a sort of "Binkie Fairy" thing, since she had just learned about the Tooth Fairy. We decided not to go the fairy route directly, but instead I went in and gave her one quarter to put in her piggy bank for every binkie she had given up. I told her that we could go buy something at the store soon with her quarters, but that if she kept fussing, I would have to take one away each time I came into her room. That worked pretty well. She's still having withdrawals a bit, but we're making it work.

Jillian is almost one. She's really starting to copy our words more and more. She said "Uh-oh!" for the first time the other day, and used it correctly. She loves saying "Hi, Daddy!" and "Hi!" in general. She's sort-of figured out "Who's/What's that?" and apparently said "Jillian" the other day (not when I was around). She's also figuring out to point at things. Her bedtime book ends with a page of stars, and we always say "Stars!" when we get to that page. I was reading it to her the other day, and asked her if she could point to some stars. To my surprise, she totally did it several times. Awesome! She has also learned "Gimme Five!" and "Gimme Kisses!" (complete w/ the "Mmmmmmmmmm-wah!" sound--so cute!). Her other big thing lately is dancing. She sways side-to-side or bounces up & down when she's standing & holding on to something or especially when she's in her feeding chair. We call it the chair dance. :)

My girls are getting so big! What a blessing they are, even when they drive me crazy. I love being their Mommy.