Spoon Skills

We've been working on using a spoon all by ourselves...

Breakfast 11/19:

and
Lunch 11/21:

Jam Session

Julia & I enjoyed a mini jam session this morning. Hope you enjoy as much as she did. ;)

Happy Halloween

We had a wonderful time giving out candy to all the kids that came by our door tonight. Julia was ready to greet everyone in fine Halloween style.

Catching up

I've finally uploaded several videos that we took over the last couple of weeks. For you viewing pleasure....

Julia getting ready for her big KY trip:


Playing with her Uncle John:


Having a blast in the KY kitchen:


And her most recent walking progress report:

KY 2010

A few shots from my sister, Jennifer, during our recent fabulous trip to KY. Enjoy!

KY 2010

And the ones Alec & I took:

KY 2010

First Steps

After we got Julia all sugared up on Aunt Ursula's wonderful biscotti this afternoon, she took her first steps. In a rush of hyperactivity, as she stood at her Busy Zoo



she turned, threw both of her hands up into the air, let out a yell & took 2.5 steps towards the coffee table.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the video camera out at the time. However, we did spend the ensuing moments trying to get her to do it again. Although not nearly as dramatic as the first time around, here's what we were able to capture.

My little monkey

Our nanny, Karla, took this video of Julia monkeying around with her favorite monkey - Mikey 2 days before her first birthday. It's amazing that she made it to the big 1! The video is fuzzy because this was taken with the camera with the broken lens (broken by little miss monkey, herself, by dropping it on the tile floor at Nonna & Grampa's house).

Julia's First Birthday!

Happy Happy Day! We had fantastic weather for a fun celebration for our no longer so little girl. Sniff! I can hardly call her a baby anymore. She's swiftly turning into a toddler. Fun was had by all, including little Charlie (11 mos.), Finn (8 mos.) and especially the birthday girl, Julia.

Pictures can be found here:


And here's some video for your viewing pleasure, as filmed by her super awesome Uncle Chris:

Crawling is boring

After a couple of days worth of advanced level crawling, Julia decided she'd had enough:

Crawling!

She doesn't go far, but it's a start....

Snack Time!

Julia must get her joy of eating from her father.


afterwards, a little teething relief...

Wave Bye-bye!

I thought I might have seen Julia wave goodbye to Alec this weekend - so he will get the official "first wave" - but I wasn't certain at the time because it was fairly subtle. But now I'm sure she's starting to wave bye-bye. As Karla was taking her out for an afternoon stroll, she told her to wave bye-bye & her little arm went up & down. We both got excited & told her to do it again & sure enough there was our little missy waving back at me. :)

I'll try to get a video of it & post it shortly.

Busy Week!

Julia got an international postcard this week from Nonna & Grandpa in London. We're expecting to talk to Nonna & Grandpa later today & are very excited about that!




She's been super busy working on pulling herself up, so we got her a new toy to help her with that. You can see how excited she is - watch closely & at one point you can hear her make a breathless sound, which is what she does when she's most excited:



We're going to need to lower the crib mattress this week. I'm going to try to do that later today after she wakes from her early afternoon nap.

Finally, she had her 9 month checkup on Wednesday & passed, with flying colors - as we all knew she would. I was concerned that maybe I was feeding her too much solid food, but Doc said it's OK. She's an eating machine & I hope that her willingness to eat a large variety of foods sticks with her. She got a follow up vaccine shot for HepB & a blood test - which required a prick to her little finger. She took the shot & the prick in excellent fashion. However the blood collection was a bit tough as they had to squeeze her poor wee finger to get enough of a sample into the collection tube. It probably only went on for about a minute, but it seemed to take forever. :(

Here are her stats from her visit:

Weight: 20 lbs, 5 oz (75%ile)
Length: 28.25 inches (75%ile)
Head Circumference: 44 cm (50%ile) - they obviously don't measure cheek chubbiness or she'd break the scale!

Basically, what this tells us is that she's gotten a little longer & leaner over the last 3 months.

Double Fisted

I was complaining to Chuck & Carol a couple of weeks ago that Julia will pick up everything & stick it in her mouth - that is, everything EXCEPT food!

Today Julia changed her mind about that.

Happy 8 months!

When I told Julia that today was her 8 month birthday this is what she did:

Illiterate

but terribly cute!

From Julia

From Julia

Cutiepie

Julia's hair is finally thick enough to hold a barrett! :)

From Julia

Sitting Pretty

She may not be the best at rolling over, but she rocks at sitting up! ;)

Drum roll please...

The moment(s) we've all been waiting for... (these are actually 2 different events & not just one video that's been edited)

Short version, for you "cut to the chase" viewers:



Longer, cuter version for the grandparents to enjoy:

Fun with babies

Blame the nanny!

Roll over dammit!

Julia has decided that she's going to roll over when she's good and ready...


Any time now....

Carrots!

We tried out our new Beaba Baby Cook machine today. (Thank you, Nonna & Grampa) Julia's first foray into real food was a bowl of pureed carrots. She not only ate them but demanded more!

We made it through

The last couple of weeks have been pretty tough. It started out with restless nights due to teething & went straight into Julia's first head cold. Luckily, the head cold, despite coming on fast and furious, left just as abruptly. Julia's still teething, but after being sick, it seems to have put things in perspective for her & the teething isn't bothering her nearly as much - for now....

After catching up on some much needed rest, I've finally gotten around to uploading a few more of Julia's latest pictures. They include last week's visit from Nonna and Grampa, cheering for the Jets with daddy during the play offs, wearing one of the outfits she got for Christmas & some pictures of her sleeping in the boppy pillow that I found to be especially cute. Enjoy!

From Julia

(hint: click on her name above to see the full album)

Teething!

So, if you're wondering why I've not written in a while... it's because Julia has been teething. She's been very fussy and not sleeping AT ALL. So, mommy's too tired to write! I think we're on the far side of it for now. Let's hope the lull lasts a while.

Workout!

Julia's latest physical feat involves baby crunches. She does these all day long & in her crib at night, too! I don't know how she does it.

MARS NEEDS MOMS!

We have a nighttime routine for Julia for putting her to bed. The last bit before I rock her to sleep is to read her a bedtime story. Unfortunately, as soon as we sit down in the rocking chair, she usually starts to fuss & will have nothing to do with the story. I usually try to persist & see if she'll take to it. This usually ends with her crying & me nursing her to sleep - which is a habit the pediatrician wants me to cut down on, as it will cause cavities when her teeth come in.

Anyway, tonight, we sat in the chair with Mars Needs Moms by Berkeley Breathed.

Image from Bob & Rob Professional American Screenwriters

She fussed. I persisted. Next thing I knew.... she was smiling & giggling at me, apparently enjoying the emotions in my voice as I read her the story. She's too young to understand what it's about, but she listened to the whole thing. Trust me, this is a MAJOR milestone! After the story, she fussed a little, I gave her her binky & she settled down & I rocked her to sleep. Sooooooo Thank You Auntie Jennifer & Uncle David for your wonderful story.