And So It Begins . . . Upright Mobility!

You've been asking if Julia is walking yet and the answer has been - well, she takes a step or two, but it doesn't really count. Well, now it counts. Last Thursday (6/10/10) she took six steps in a row before deciding to sit down; two days later, she took nine, but would not repeat what she had done no matter what we said or tempted her with. Today, however, Julia decided that it was time to walk and she has been walking about all night (with a few crawling stints in between). The following are some photos and a video of our little zero to 60 girl, doing her thing!

Sweet 16

Dad unit here. Julia just turned 16 months last week, and we are having so very much fun. Julia has begun to say a few words, although nothing consistent. We tend to play a game where I swear she'll say something to one of us but she'll not repeat it to the other. Words we "think" she is saying include" light, hat, down and fan. I also maintain that Julia said "Addy," meaning "daddy" the other day, but Wendy says it doesn't count!

Julia is developing a very sweet personality. She loves to gently put her nose to your nose and then sometimes give a kiss. Very tender. Of course, she also has been exerting her independence, and our quiet baby has her moments of making herself known. But that comes with the territory.

As for this daddy, I couldn't be happier. We have a wonderful little girl!

Quick Update

The last post said something about Julia not talking - well, that's MOSTLY true, but there is an update.  See, she babbles a lot and had things she "says" that are super close to what she's pointing at, but not quite there.  She knows what we're talking about when we ask her where, say, the clock, fan, light, or whatever is - she'll look right at it, but won't say it.  She also likes to fool with us.  The other night she stood straight up on the bed while playing with Kennedy and I, pointed at the light overhead and said, very clearly, "light".  Now, do you think she'll do it again?  Nope.  And not in front of her dad, either.  She does the same thing with her Nana - they'll spend the whole day playing and naming things; when we pick Julia up, Nana will swear that Julia has been saying all manner of things, but she simply will not do it in front of us (and the same story visa versa).  Here's what I think: she is just trailing us along until some undetermined point - let's say a few months or so down the road - when we think she hasn't been paying attention or whatever, and we're standing in front of someone we would lilke to behave in front of (can't think of any good examples . . .) and she'll either come out with a doozy of a word we would rather she not say, or she'll rattle off a full sentence.
Anyway, to date she can say "uh-oh", which Steven doesn't count as a word, and she will say "hi" on occasion, but never consistantly which seems to be par for the course.  :-)

15 Months!

Fifteen months is a big deal - especially when you're on the receiving end of some more shots (this is what Julia tells me anyway). Though not as many as at the one year checkup, she was not a happy camper about the three she received (and one hurt her quite a bit, I am sad to report). On the brighter side, she is now nearly 31 inches long. She's still on the light side (19 pounds), but that's not a big concern considering that she's had a continual ear infection since February - she finally beat it by the end of April after the third round of antibiotics, and guess what?? We discovered as a result that she has an allergy to some types of antibiotic - it involved a lot of vomiting, which we erroneously attributed to her having tried a new food - no dice; it was the drug. In other medical news, the nurse mis-measured Julia's head so the doctor now thinks she has a little bean - he was talking with us about "small computer running super well compared to a big computer" - whatever. She is a "peanut", but at this point, we don't see any issues with her development - she's achieving all the normal stages and shows no signs of lagging, so we're not worried in the least. As you will notice, in the above photo, she is figuring out how her highchair belts buckle - honestly, she does know and helps get in and out of her seats.


Is she walking or talking? No. Could she if she wanted to? Yep. Julia is babbling a lot. She "says" things that are awfully close to the word we think she's saying, but we have yet to actually call her official first word. We think we've heard "da-da", "ma-ma", "that", "hi", "clock", and a variation of "sissy" but since she won't repeat it when we say the word, it's a tough call. I think she's being elusive on purpose, just to keep us going. Which leads me to the walking part - she has taken a step, but it's always when she's preoccupied with something she's carrying and seems to forget that she's not holding on to the couch or whatever. She prefers tearing around the house on all fours (or a variation of all fours), cruising the furniture, or (more likely) fussing to be picked up. Spoiled - you bet.


Julia has a tremendous sense of humor - she laughs easily at things that are genuinely funny. Like farts. And super fun games of "where's mommy?" and hide-and-seek where mommy or sissy jump out at her. She is also a fan of roughhousing a bit and still enjoys "baby hat". What has really picked up in the last month or so is her enjoyment of reading - or more specifically, us reading to her. Steven, Kennedy and I have read some of her favorite books hundreds of times; those titles would be: "Green Eggs and Ham", "Bears on Wheels", "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb", "Dr. Seuss' ABC's", "Old Hat, New Hat", "Curious George's Flap Book (or whatever it's called - actually a good flap book)", "My First Animal Board Book" and "Peter Rabbit's Sleep Book". These books are on a list of "do not read ever again" when she outgrows them . . . LOL!!! Actually, it's great that she loves reading so much - Kennedy was a lot the same way (as were Steven and I), so it's good to have another reader in the family.



So, there you go - another month, another update; hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be more on the ball with updating!!

Almost 14 Months

Julia has had a few more milestones in the last two months - the two videos above show you a little of what she's up to right about now. The first video is of her mastering stair climbing, which this particular video is her fourth trip up (the first two had pauses and a stop, the third trip was about 30 seconds before this one and she went straight to the top - no pauses). Coming down . . .we're not to that point yet, but that is ok. You will notice that at the top of the stairs she stretches out and peeks around the corner, very cautiously, This has a lot to do with Kennedy and I playing chase and hide and seek with her and jumping out when she rounds the corner - of course, she thinks it's funny as all get out, but is still prepared for the surprise.
The second video is of Julia doing what she's been doing for awhile - walking with her hand on something. In this particular shot, she's being very cavalier about it, nonchalantly stepping around the exesaucer and talking to herself. You will also note that she gets close a few times to taking a step without holding on to anything, but (as usual) she then drops down and takes off in a crawl. The final thing to notice is that she completely ignores me when I ask her what she is doing while tearing apart the DVDs; this is not an accident - she has already learned to tune me out! :-)
Otherwise, Julia's fighting a double ear infection that she's had for three weeks now; the first round of antibiotics didn't work, so we're onto round two. She's holding on ok, but it's tough to see her have to deal with it. In other news, she now has at least three more teeth, including her third molar, that I discovered last night when she allowed me to examine her gum and then bit me (ha ha - I guess I should have known). She's a toothy one! She also is very funny, finding humor in many things (oh, like farting, weird screeching, people pretending to fall down - stuff like that); she has wonderful laughs, including the evil little laugh she uses when she splashes me with bath water.

A Trip to the Zoo

Yes, I've been a bit behind in making the updates - so to placate those of you who are coming back frequently to check, here is a video from yesterday of Julia at the brown bear exhibit. She was having more fun chattering (or singing) than watching the bears fight (which was pretty cool, actually).

More to follow soon!

One Year Old - Birthday, Checkup and Party!

Julia hit the big YEAR ONE on January 28th . . . believe me, I was remembering what was going on one year ago - on our way to the hospital at 3 in the morning during an ice storm! Fun times. But seriously, the year has gone by so fast; it seems like only yesterday and yet she's grown and learned so much in that amount of time. It's been a wonderful time for us (and hopefully her as well)!
The birthday proper was on a school night (ok, work night - geez, picky), so the festivities were low key. Steven had to work late that night, but Kennedy and I spent the late afternoon picking Julia up early from daycare, where she had a great day and shared her birthday treat with those who could share - mini Nilla Wafers (awesome stuff!), then made cupcakes and pizza. Pizza is a food item that Julia mooches from us, so we figured, why not? Somewhere on the site, you will see that she was enjoying it (actually, she was sucking on it, but she got some in there, I guess). Cupcake was a new venture. I can't say that it went over well, which had me a bit nervous about her birthday party. She would have rather had her Nilla Wafers. I didn't think my cooking was that bad! He he
The next day was a trip to the ol' doctors for the one year check up. Boy, what a day . . . five shots!!! Julia was not especially happy about the shots and neither was I, seeing as how she was staring at me the whole time with this "why?" look on her face as she squalled. But, while she was busy screaming and I was trying to hold her down and comfort her at the same time (awkward) I noticed she had sprouted another tooth - a cuspid! The five shots were a combo of seven inoculations, including her second H1N1 and the seasonal flu. She is still sporting the teeny holes and bruises from where they went in - I feel so bad. Size-wise, Julia is 29 inches long (50% percentile) but is only 17.7 pounds (5% percentile); she had lost a little weight over the last few weeks with the most recent virus she'd caught - it seemed to take away her appetite (Steven had it, too, and he wasn't much into eating, either). Overall, the doctor was not concerned; developmentally, she is doing great, so he said to ramp up the table food and we'll see where she is in the 15th month. Right now she's into pointing (a lot) and can point to things that she's really interested in when we ask (or when she's in the mood - at the very least, she'll look at what we're asking about); she will point to the clock, the fan, the light, and maybe mommy, daddy and sissy, if the mood strikes; she is very, very close to saying her first word - we thin kit will be clock.
Julia's birthday party was today - it was a day brought to you by the letters C and H put together. Hee hee She loves her Cookie Monster stuffed toy, so we had a little fun with that - couldn't find Cookie Monster stuff by itself, so instead we had food that she likes and thematically around the letters' "CH" - Cheesy Poofs (Cheetos), which are her favorite, chips, chili and cheesecake. In attendance were Steven, Kennedy and I (of course), her gramps and nana, uncle Eric, aunts Kim, Renee and Deidre, and cousins Andrew and Nathan. My parents were in attendance via Skype, which Julia thought was the bees' knees (mostly because she likes to play with daddy's computer). Everyone seemed to have a good time, most importantly the birthday girl, who scored clothes and toys, cheesy poofs whenever she pointed to them, and seemed to thoroughly like her cheesecake (YAY!). She is now tired but very hyped up on the attention, the sugar, and the iced tea she drank. We are hopeful that she goes down at a decent hour tonight!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Today is Julia's first birthday! It was pretty much a day like most others: get up, go to school, etc., but today mommy and Sissy picked her up early from school and made cupcakes and pizza for her birthday (for the record, cupcakes were new and not received overly well, but pizza is something she mooches from us all the time, so it only made sense to have it on her birthday!).
Tomorrow, Julia goes in for her one year checkup and her birthday party with family is on Sunday, so please stay tuned for more info and PICTURES!!!!

Eleven Months Old and Her First Christmas

Yesterday Julia hit the 11 month mark, just 31 days away from her first birthday!! In the last month, she's experienced a lot:

• She now sports two teeth - both bottom incisors, of course. They are sharp. Ow.
• Julia received her H1N1 shot. The significance of this was that she now knows what's about to happen when they swab her thigh with rubbing alcohol and gets right upset about it. Never the less, she gets over it pretty quickly and with no ill effects.
• She also had her second significant illness - the croup, which is a royal pain in the kiester when you have to give breathing treatments to help with the coughing at night.
• As you can see from the photo above, she is very adept at standing up, even on things that aren't the most stable, which leads to her balancing on her own two feet - the precursor to walking! She does 'cruise' a bit along the couch, coffee table, or in her crib, so we don't think it will be long before she tries to take a step on her own.
• She now is a little shadow, following us all around the house with maddening crawling speed; sometimes it's on all fours, and other times it's with her one foot in an almost walking pose.
• Eating - she has recently expressed a real interest in what we're eating, so with a few exceptions, she gets to at least try it. To date she's tried: bagels and lox, pizza (especially pepperoni and sausage), fried plantains, gryos, turkey, pulled pork, pancakes, gingerbread waffles, French toast, bacon, french fries, tandoori bread, cheese balls, Cheetos, sweet red peppers, lemon wedges, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, dried cranberries . . .there's more, but that's been in the last week or so!
  
• Julia seemed to enjoy the holidays - lights were very cool, wrapping paper was fun, and 'Jingle Bells' seems to one of her favorites. She got into opening presents pretty quickly, but mostly to play with the ribbons and paper! She scored some pretty cool gifts - learning toys, stuffed animals, books, and clothes! YAY!

Now for the final few weeks until Julia turns one . . .what will she do?

For those of you on FaceBook, friend Steven or I to see more photos of Christmas (or ask one of us to e-mail you a link, if you aren't on FB)!
See you next month!!! And have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Ten Months Old and More Milestones

It was Julia's first Thanksgiving! You might be asking: what did she think of the food? Well, seeing as how she's a very finicky eater, still doing cereal with fruits or veggies mixed in and despises finger foods, I'd have to say her opinion was rather biased toward the negative. She did try some of her sister's home-made bread (passable), mashed potatoes (blech), stuffing (plooey), and baked squash (double blech). Other than that, it was just another visit to grandma and grandpa's . . . or was it?
Julia spent the two weeks prior to the Thanksgiving holiday sick with some kind of virus she couldn't get rid of - coincidentally, but not necessarily causitory, she had started going to her new daycare just three days before she became ill with what started as a stuffy nose, then progressed into daily fevers which lasted for a week and a half. Due to the fevers, she could not go to daycare and was out for two weeks total, with Thanksgiving at the tail of it. Being sick that long, she was in and out of the doctor's office several times, which ended with a trip to the lab the Monday before Thanksgiving for a urine and blood draw - this was Julia's first encounter with catheterization as well as having blood drawn, and not a nice little draw from the heel, either; this was a full-on, needle to the inner elbow extravaganza. Mommy and daddy were traumatized as much (if not more) than she was! The whole point, from the doctor's explanation, was to eliminate any possibilities for illness aside from garden variety virus. The very next day, her fever broke and she was on the mend - we were happy, but perplexed as to why it went for so long; the day after that, her results came back as all normal. So that's the good news. The bad news is that she had to go through all the testing and the sickness. Booooo!
The Thanksgiving trip to grandma and grandpa's (to continue the story) was a great time - since she's crawling now, she introduced herself to my parents' cat, Smokey, who learned very quickly that he was not fond of babies. Julia, on the other hand, discovered that she is very fond of kitties and chased that poor cat all over the areas of the house she was allowed to get to. Smokey figured out that she was somewhat limited and used that knowledge to tease her mercilessly by sitting juuuuuuuuuuust outside of her boundary areas and watching her while in full view.
Also at the grandparents', Julia took her first major fall, taking a dive off the bed while dragging along some pillows, placed to help fence her in, but which facilitated her fall by being covered in slippery material. It was quite a scare for her and all of us - her daddy was right there, but just couldn't get to her fast enough (that says something about her crawling speed!). In the end, after hours of observation and reading every scary thing we could find on the internet, Julia came through with hardly a bump. The lesson has been learned by the parentals, but she seems hellbent to try again.
And for the big announcement . . .drumroll, please! Julia's first tooth erupted on the 28th - her 10 month birthday!!!!!! The lower left incisor was noticed by me when we were out doing a little shopping Saturday. It's really hard to capture in pictures, so imagination will have to suffice - still, it's as cute as teeth get!

Nine Months and Super Milestones!!

Apologies for the delay - I had only planned to wait a few days after Julia's 9-month birthday to include data from her check-up and that turned into a week! But what an eventful week!!

Vital Statistics - Julia weighs in at 16 pounds 14 ounces and is 27 inches long. The physician's assistant called her a "peanut", but she is growing normally, even if she is a bit small.



New Tricks - These started the day after her checkup . . .

• On November 3rd, Julia officially crawled! She has been toying with it for the past several days, but finally took more than one "step" forward and now, after a few days, is very confidently moving across the floor (and into places she's not allowed, therefore getting into trouble)
• Then, on November 4th, she was hanging out in her crib for a moment and . . .pulled herself up into a stand! Now, she is pulling herself up using the couch, coffee table, Nordic Track (don't ask), and anything else she can find. She is also already doing one-handed stands (meaning that she is cockily letting go with one hand and turning her body around to look at things)
• Although not really a new trick, Julia is so well behaved in restaurants that she's sitting very well in the high chairs they have and amusing herself during dinner. We'd been reluctant to use the chairs before because they seemed so easy to slip out of (especially as little as she is) - well, why were we worried? She sits like a pro and proceeds to throw bread bits on the floor. At least the staff makes over her and we do clean up after ourselves, so no one has complained so far.
• Holding the bottle herself - not perfectly, mind you (as evidenced by the photo above), but she likes to do it herself (even if the carpet does get quite damp).

Julia is growing more hair, but still no teeth. She has a devilish side to her (hmmmm - wonder where she gets that?) and a bit of a stubborn streak, but it all revolves around discovery and exploration. She delights in taking off daddy's glasses and grabbing the paper to "read". She does love books (to read as well as eat) and enjoys bouncing in her Exesaucer.
More photos will be on the side which will include Halloween and some of her new skills.
Stay tuned for more next month!!

Eight Months - Such a Big Girl Now!

As Julia grows, we are amazed almost daily at what she does - she picks up new skills so easily and then acts like she's done them for months! She is also growing very much like a weed;
.just the other day I came home from work and could have sworn she grew and changed in her face Don't ask me what her measurements and weight are because I have no clue, but I can tell you it feels like she weighs a metric ton :-)
What she's doing:

• Laughing spontaneously at things she finds humorous, including but not limited to: zerberting being done to her neck and belly, daddy bobbing his head and making weird noises, mommy shaking her head and screeching, tickling, other people laughing, being "baby hat", and "getting" sissy.
• Rolling over and doing a strange Jane Fonda-esque pose a la aerobicising (or whatever Jane was doing in legwarmers in the 80's), holding her foot in the air. She's also big into her feet. And ours, which makes me crazy because I have a thing about my feet.
• Getting herself into a nearly-seated position, all by herself.
• Sitting up with some assistance and maintaining it for a bit. Eventually she does fall over, but we've made this as non-traumatic as possible.
• Getting up on her knees, then to her hands and knees. We're still not moving forward, but at least we're up - she can sort of go backwards and today we helped her move forward, much to her delight, but she needs to practice some more.
• One day two weeks ago she looked square at me and said "mama"but she has not done it since. She'll babble ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, na-na-na and variations on those themes.
• Leaning towards what she wants while being held - this includes going to daddy, mommy and sissy.
• Grasping things using more refined fine motor skills - she's getting pretty good and picking things up, using pinching to grab things she wants, and manipulating things in her hands.
• Growing hair. It may not be as evident in her photos, but there is a healthy patch of hair coming in on her noggin. She gets "Alfalfa" hair in the morning or after her bath, which is adorable. It's still light brown with some reddish tints from what we can tell when she's in the sun, but we still don't know what it'll be.
• Starting to get upset when she realizes we are not in her immediate vicinity. Separation anxiety is starting to rear its head and she has begun to demonstrate favoritism towards us when she's in certain moods. For example, right this minute she's daddy's girl curled up on his chest taking a nap, but last night when she wasn't feeling well and she was tired, she was mommy's girl.
• Expanding her interest in toys and activities. Some things she was introduced to earlier may not have tripped her trigger, but now she is into them - like her caterpillar, Pooh and Piglett toys, blocks and exesaucer. She also likes books, but more for touching and turning the pages. She is a very tactile child and spends a lot of time touching and scratching at things. This includes our skin.
• Eating more solids. She's done great with cereal, but does not enjoy much else unless it's mixed into her cereal. She goes ape over cereal mixed with prunes (yeah, I know but she doesn't poop nearly as much as you might think) and does quite well with pears and squash in the same manner. This week, Steven says he'll try cereal with green beans or peas, since we tried beans on their own and it went over something like a lead balloon. She will try things is we put it on our fingers (or hold it) - like the caramel apple smoothie I had last night, some guacamole from one of our favorite local restaurants, and home made bread. Sometimes it goes over well (bread), sometimes it doesn't (smoothie and guacamole), but she tries it.

Now She's Seven Months Old - Growing So Fast!

Every day is an adventure with Julia and the time is whipping by so fast; it seems like yesterday when she turned six months and now all of the sudden it's seven. Since last we wrote, she has gotten taller, heavier and more expressive. She also can now not only roll back to front, but front to back and is scooting all over the place - next step is purposeful rolling and getting up on her hands and knees; she does one end and the other at different times, but we're anticipating the coordination of both really soon!
She definitely loves to laugh and we love to hear it! The video is a sample of just SOME of the amused (and amusing) sounds she makes - the one variation that is missing is the "pterodactyl" noise she makes by taking in air and making a noise at the same time - very funny and very cute; I'll try to get it, but she can be an elusive little beast when she sees the camera . . .
More photos have also been added, including the gratuitous naked baby photo. As you will see, she is now fully into cereal, but not so into sweet potatoes (didn't get that reaction, but it truly was a Kodak moment).

Hey! She's Six Months Old!!

Yesterday Julia turned six months - it just doesn't seem possible; heck it's only been a couple weeks since she was born, right?
Anyhoo, at six months, she is constantly changing and developing - just recently we have seen her:

• recognize the sound of her big sis as she came down the stairs and then giggle when she saw her
• reach for toys, grasp them, play with them, and ostensibly chew the dickens out of them
• respond to her name
• scoot all over her play mat and twist her body into crazy angles to reach for toys (or the carpet, which she loves to scratch at)
• laugh and laugh and laugh, which she has been doing now for about six weeks
• stand with support
• squeal and scream - both done as a way to get attention as well as to practice her vocal range. She babels and is seeming to use certain consonant and vowel sounds to express feelings or wants (ah-niy-niy-niy seems to mean she doesn't want what is happening while ah-mahm indicates a desire for mommy to feed her).

Every day is a joy with her - except for last week when she was going through her fist cold; not so much joy and we were very worried about the possibilities of worse things, but it turned out fine. She got through it, gave it to Kennedy, and aside from a lot of lost sleep, Steven and I have been fine.
So there you have it - half a year old! And at the last doctor's visit, 14 1/2 pounds (no wonder my arms get sore!!!)!