sisters

For all 3 of my pregnancies we decided to keep the gender a surprise (it was hard sometimes but overall I'm happy we waited each time).  With Kyle and Jillian I had absolutely no preference of gender for the baby, and more importantly had no inklings/suspicions/general feelings as to boy or girl for either pregnancy.

But with the third pregnancy I had both.  I had a strong feeling it was a girl...but kept it mainly to myself since I figured I was probably wrong!  I also really wanted the baby to be a girl.  And not because I think girls are better and I wanted 2 of them, my preference was purely based on convenience and economics.   With Kyle being 7 years older than the baby and Jillian only 3 years older, I felt a little girl would fit into our family better.  Economically I knew having a girl would be better with hand-me-downs.  What little of Kyle's clothing was able to be handed down (he was rough on clothes!) had already been given away to friends with younger boys.  Jillian's clothes however were all sitting nicely in bins in my basement!

For the longest time in our house I referred to the "big kids" and the "baby".  But over the past year or so that has changed.  Now it's Kyle and the girls.  Jillian and Leah play together quite nicely, um, well most of the time at least.  Let's just say Jillian can be quite bossy and impatient with her little sister at times, but overall they are good playmates and great friends.  They both enjoy playing with baby dolls, barbies and littlest pet shop...they both love arts and crafts...and Kyle is now outnumbered when it comes to choosing movies to watch (barbie and princess movies are often voted on 2-1!).

Having a little sister of my own (hi Chris!) has made me appreciate the relationship Jillian and Leah share.  I can only hope they grow up to be great friends as well.

Having a sleepover in Leah's room

The girls decided to dress up a gymnast pirates (I don't know what that is either, but they had fun jumping around and saying "arrrrrgh")

April 2004 - Jillian meeting Leah for the first time with a big smile on her face...she was so excited to be a big sister!