In a week this child has gone from creeping and sort of kind of crawling to all out crawling and now climbing and pulling up.
Oh look, stairs!
Not only stairs, but now the crib! I put her in it to put away some clothes and pull out something for her to wear. I turned around and here she is, grinning away at me!
What a little turkey! Oh and she has a tooth poking through now. 
Gillian is a busy little girl these days. She is just growing and changing right before our very eyes. She has learned to sit-up, although getting down to her tummy is sometimes more rough than others. She is so close to crawling. She has the moves, she just needs to coordinate it all together. I have seen her do it for a couple of lengths, but then she resorts to the army man crawl or rolling. She is getting more and more vocal - her latest is growling. It is quite humorous the listen to. She is discovering her voice and the volume that comes with it. She sometimes will squeal while playing or flat out yell. She is very happy and smiles and laughs quite a bit. She is getting much better at eating solids. She has 2 meals a day of fruits and veggies and also has been eating the Gerber Finger Food Puffs. Her hand-eye coordination is pretty good. .jpg)
Sitting and playing - it's a whole new world!.jpg)
We figured out we could put Gillian in her bathtub in the big bathtub and she and Alistair could bathe together. They have the best time. Alistair invites Gillian to take a bath with him whenever he is going to take one. She loves laying there and watching him. She kicks and splashes and laughs at him..jpg)
Almost there - crawling around the house is imminent!.jpg)
Gillian loves her big brother!
Our little ham. I was taking photos of them in their jammies and every time I raised the camera and said smile, she would flash this big, gummy smile. This photo makes me smile because not only is the big, gummy smile present, but she also tilted her head! She is a natural!
She is growing up way too fast! ):.jpg)
December 1st...time to kick it into gear. We headed out to Cox Tree Farm near NW Trek to get our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. As usual we all found our tree within about 20 minutes of getting there (well, maybe more like 30 mins). They have such a great selection!.jpg)
Our first family of four Christmas outing!.jpg)
Alistair "helping" Seth cut down the tree..jpg)
Nice job boys, now to get it back to the car.
At our picnic afterward, the kids got their Christmas ornaments and pj's from Nana and Papa. They both wore them that night. They look so snuggly and warm! Gillian loves Alistair! (:
We spent Thanksgiving Day in Olympia with the Hennessey Family. Jen's parents also joined us. It was a great day filled with lots of good food and plenty of entertainment provided by the kids!.jpg)
Food is served!.jpg)
Miss Gillian gets a seat near the table eating her Gerber Sweet Potato Puffs (as close to Thanksgiving food as we could get!) while we ate..jpg)
Katelin had her pretty dress on that Grandma made her. .jpg)
Gillian has a shirt on that accurately describes her - "My Little Turkey"
As we were heading out to Seth's parent's house to get our trailer, this is what we were driving towards. I have never seen the sky SO dark! Can't wait to go camping!
Gillian's first wine tasting. Part of the motivation for going camping was that it was a release weekend at the Westport Winery. Both of our parents are in the wine club. It was fun and they have very good wine. I recommend stopping for a tasting if you are in the area.
Gillian hanging out with Grandpa chewing on a package of oyster crackers.
It was a beautiful day on Saturday after a very wet and wild morning. We had thunder and lightening coupled with rain and hail. About 5:00 or so it clouded up and rained on and off all evening. We were able to get out by the fire a time or two though.
Our home away from home. It was very cozy and warm - even in the inclement weather!
Storms a-brewin' Saturday evening.
Foamy seas - fairly tall.
Halloween was a pretty fun time at the Hennessey household this year. We were home, after visiting a few of the neighbors, to greet trick-or-treaters. Alistair got into the spirit and put his costume back on to "greet" trick-or-treaters with a hefty "ROAR!". He actually scared some kids! I guess it was our trick! (:
My mom made the kids' costumes again this year and didn't disappoint! Miss Gillian was a little princess with the uniform to prove it!
Alistair wanted to be a red dinosaur, even though he was a green one last year! The tail was quite the attachment and required someone to walk behind him to carry it - almost like a royal detail! 
Earlier in the day we drove down to Tacoma to trick-or-treat at Ethan and Jen's. Katelin was Little Red Riding Hood and was very cute!
I was hanging out with the kiddos yesterday morning. Gillian was in the jump-a-roo and Alistair was running around yelling BOO! at her. She would giggle and he would make another lap. It was very cute, so I went to grab the video camera. I discovered it needed new batteries. While I was replacing them and figuring out how I was going to recreate the moment, I heard them both laughing away. So I checked to see what they were doing, without them seeing me, then started rolling. As much as I fantasize about going back to work, it is times like these that remind me of all I would miss and makes me thankful I can be home with them!
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We headed for Craven Farms on Sunday afternoon to gather pumpkins. It was a good time and a successful trip! We ended up with 2 orange pumpkins, a green one and 2 white ones. One white one has already been painted...orange. I think carving might take place one evening next week..jpg)
It was quite muddy from the monsoons that blew through the day before, but miraculously Alistair managed to keep his feet and stay mostly mud free!.jpg)
We had a few pumpkin rotations before we found the right ones for the take. Good thing we had Sherpa Seth with us to port our pumpkins around!.jpg)
One of the 2 ghost pumpkins Alistair chose. I believe this is the one he painted orange..jpg)
Family photo. Alistair DID NOT like the guy taking our picture. He wouldn't smile for the guy and in the second photo he took, Alistair wouldn't raise his head and is looking at the ground. Ah good memories for later! (: I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of getting his portraits done next month!
Gillian is now 6 months old. Hard to believe it has already been 6 months! She is now 13 pounds, 25 1/8" long and 16 3/8" head size. Respectively 5%, 25% & 25%. I just looked at Alistair's stats from when he was 6 months and they are relatively the same size. He was a pound heavier, but he also had a ginormo head and that is probably where the extra pound was! (: She is rolling all over the place. If you put her down, she just goes. I place things on the floor in different places and watch her make her way to each item. She is very adept at strategic rolling. 
She has started some solids. She seems to have a slow digestive system and therefore has to deal with some constipation. So we have laid off cereal and just do prunes, peaches and pears. She has also had pear juice to help with the digestive issues. She seems to enjoy eating solids, but we are still pretty messy at it!
Who could resist that??
Gillian loves her feet and toes. Anytime you take off socks and/or pants, she instantly raises her legs and grabs at her feet. Lately she has started sucking on her toes. I finally was able to catch her in the act! Anything she can get her hands on goes in her mouth.
Grandma H. made this sweater for Alistair, but it never fit him. It fits her and is just right for this weather we have been having! The blanket was made by Seth's aunt in Minnesota. On the backside is pink flannel with brown skull and crossbones with bows on the skulls! (:
For the most part she is an easy baby. She eats well, is generally happy and sleeps through the night. We have been having a bought of nighttime crying lately, but think it is coming to an end. She isn't a great napper per se, but does sleep in the car. So if nothing else she will catch some winks that way. She is still very much a mama's girl, although she is slowly starting to accept others!
On September 9th, the Mariner's had an afternoon game. We joined David for the game. It was Alistair's 3rd game and Gillian's first. We had a fun time. Alistair seemed to enjoy the game and sat still and watched it for the most part. His favorite parts were the Moose and the Hydroplane races on the big screen - he still talks about it!
Gillian did really well. I was concerned she may not like the noise and it got pretty loud after a while because the Mariners actually won, so people were cheering! (: She did fine and by the end was falling sleep!
After the game we decided to eat dinner outside the park at a sausage stand. A couple of the stands have 2 sausages for $5. So we got 4 sausages. We assumed they were just hotdogs or something benign. Seth and I ended up with bratwursts and figured that is just what they have. But after Alistair had a few bites of his hotdog, he handed it to Seth and said he didn't like it. Turns out Alistair was eating a hot link! After downing half of his lemonade, he finished that bad boy. We tried giving him one of our brats, but he wanted his. The other sausage was also a hot link. Seth and I shared it, it was pretty spicy! I am surprised Alistair liked it! We finished with some ice cream sandwiches and went home. 
