11 Months

Is it really possible that our little girl will be a year old in one month?  People always warn me how fast time will fly and how you "blink" and they're grown up... well, it's true!  Julia's not grown up or anything, but she sure has changed a lot and I feel like just yesterday she was just a tiny little newborn.  I really hope this time doesn't go too fast and that I will just keep enjoying her more and more.  She truly is a gift from the Lord!

I got back a week ago from Northern California where I was babysitting my brother's kids while he and Jaime were in Congo adopting a little boy.  Matteus is officially adopted (yay!) and Phil stayed in the country to finalize all his paperwork so that Matteus can come home to his new family.  I can't wait to meet him. 

I will post a picture of him soon along with my other nephew who should be born any day now (to my other brother and his wife, Jen).  Wow, I get two new nephews in about a week's time!  Pretty exciting.  Can't wait to meet both of them.

It was quite an experience for me to be in charge of 5 kids.  It gave me a deep appreciation for mothers out there with more than one child.  With one child, it can be hard to get things done around the house, but it is still possible, especially when she's napping or playing happily by herself.  With more kids, there is constant activity and many times where I need to step in to help solve problems...  It was hard to get anything done and the house was constantly getting messy...  I really cherished the evenings when all the kids were down for the night.  I found myself staying up really late, just to have time alone, even though I knew I would regret it the next day when I had to be up early for the kids...  :)  I bet that sounds familiar to many of you moms out there.  Anyway, I'm so glad I could be there for my brother and sister-in-law while they were gone.  It was fun to get to know my nieces and nephews better and it was really good for Julia to be around other kids.  She really enjoyed it.

The 5 kids I was in charge of for about a week... Adam, Annalee, Georgia, Ella, and my Julia

Annalee and Julia

Julia loved playing with their toys. However, it was not always appreciated by Adam when Julia would take apart his "train" or whatever he was making with the big Legos.

Georgia and Adam making a giant tower with Legos.  I remember building towers with my brother Mike when I was a kid!  So fun.

Julia likes being home with her daddy.  By the way, notice how in this picture Julia is pointing?  Julia loves pointing at things and saying, "duh!" 

Julia has 3 teeth.  If you look closely at this picture, you can see them.  All 3 came in in about 2 weeks.  There are two on the bottom and one on top. 

She is officially "crusing" now.  She's getting pretty sturdy on her feet and loves to pull herself up on anything she can.

Say what?

Ok, maybe it was because I was a teacher, but it still melts my heart everytime Julia opens up books as if she is reading them or looking at the pictures.  I hope she will love books!

My sweet girl, making a mess wherever she goes.

Doesn't she look a little chunky here?  She still has a little frame, but her belly is getting quite large.  She has a good appetite for such a little thing.

Julia said her first word today - "All done!"  She repeated it after me several times and did the sign with it.  The first time she said it, she said it so clearly that I was kind of shocked and wasn't sure if she had really said the word.  So I got my camera out to see if she would say it again and this is what I got.  You'll hear her say it 3 times, the second time being the clearest (too bad I was saying something at that moment so it is hard to hear). 

I love hearing her laugh...  Excuse her runny nose in the video; she is recovering from a yucky cold (her first cold, amazingly!)

 

Play Dates and More

It's been awhile since I have posted. Julia is growing way too fast!  She's 11 months in a week. 

She started pulling herself to a standing position and this has made it possible for her to explore more which she really enjoys. However, she does get more bumps and bruises, which is hard for mommy sometimes! I know it's just part of growing up, though...

She finally sprouted her first teeth (on the bottom). The top one is getting ready to come out, also.

The newest thing she does lately is point to everything and say, "duh." When I go to get her after her nap, the first thing she always does is to point to the fan and say, "duh" as if she's telling me to turn it off. :)

I've had a few fun playdates with friends lately:

My friend, Susan, came over to my house with her son, Andrew. He is about 1 month younger than Julia. It was so cute to see them together. Julia really enjoyed having him around, until he started making loud noise... She would cry every time he let out a loud grunt like a typcial boy. Ha, ha. She is quite sensitive to loud noises but I gotta toughen her up! 

 

Another cute picture of the duo

I went over to Angie's house recently. Joshua was taking a nap when I first got there, so the 3 girls played together. Julia was so cute and just loved watching what they were doing and playing with some new toys. Both girls were very gentle with her and were happy to share their toys.

 

Julia rode a "bike" for the first time. She did quite well. I pushed her and she stayed balanced, mostly, on her own. She even was able to reach the ground with her feet at one point and pushed herself a little bit. She really enjoyed it.

 

The 3 girls playing together

Julia meeting Joshua, just after he woke up from his nap.

I love how Julia's smiling at Joshua! So cute. :)

 

All 4 kids

 

Julia and I met my friend, Kristina, at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast one morning. This was right before we left. Can you tell it's close to nap time? Julia sucks her thumb when she's tired. But, what I think is cute is how she sucks her thumb with one hand and then uses her other hand to hide it.

 

Aunt Lisa, teaching Julia how to walk

Julia, curious about her Aunt's new little puppy, "Honey."

I am currently in Northern California, babysitting my cousins while my brother and his wife (Phil and Jaime) fly to Congo to adopt and pick up their son, Matteus. Check out their blog if you're interested in what's the latest with them: http://lifeatthelaytons.blogspot.com/

Julia loves her cousins. She smiles and giggles when they play with her. Here's a picture of Georgie dressing Julia in some dress up clothes.

Crazy Geogia :)

Aunt Jaime holding Julia

This is just as Phil and Jaime were leaving for the airport. Ella and Annalee were staying with some friends that night.

My parent's visit over Labor Day Weekend

My parents were able to spend Labor Day weekend with us.  It was such a treat to have them here.  They were our first overnight visitors.  :)  Julia warmed up to them quickly and enjoyed all the extra love and attention from her sweet grandparents.

Julia with her Lolo and Lola

So sweet

Grandpa with his granddaughter

My dad took a family picture for us on Sunday after church

We love giving our girl kisses (even though she tries to squirm out of them!)

Julia just started doing a few new things:

1) waving - she first waved at me when I was coming down the stairs and she was sitting down at the bottom of the stairs.  Later that day, Ethan and I were going on a walk and she started waving to strangers in the distance.  Very cute.  She doesn't wave often, but it's so fun when she does it.

2) signing "all done" - I've been trying to teach her a few signs.  She just started signing "all done" but doesn't always do it in the right context. 

3) teething - my pediatrician said it looks like her top teeth will come in first.  She has been showing signs of teething especially over the past few days and I'm pretty sure her top right tooth is getting ready to come out.  Poor thing.  Thankfully she's still sleeping well at night (which I'm so very grateful for!), but does have trouble at naps.

4) pulling herself to a standing position using our hands as support - she loves doing this and her legs are getting so much stronger.

Crawling everywhere

This was so cute - she was turing the pages on her own and feeling the "fur" on the puppy and other textures on the animals in the book.

"Reading" (Wow, she's amazing.  She can read upside down!)

My girl loves shoes... which I think is great until she sticks them in her mouth!

When Ethan gets home, she loves playing with his lanyard from work.

Playing in the recycling basket

One of my absolute favorite pictures.

Gotta love the grumpy face...

This is Julia's version of signing "all done/finished."  It almost looks like more of a wave.

Waving

Our Girl is already 9 Months Old

I can't believe we have been in our home for almost 5 weeks already.  Time has flown by.  I am so thankful for our home.  I love it so much and it is a joy to be home with Julia here.  It's getting organized, little by little.  I wish I could do everything much faster but as you know, with an active little one you can just do a few projects each day.  The downstairs is almost all organized.  Also, our bedrooms are in pretty good shape.  I haven't done much decorating yet, so I'm looking forward to doing that soon. 

Some of the things I love most about our home:

1) Washer and Dryer!!!  No more quarters and lugging big laundry baskets.  Also, our washer & dryer is upstairs so that is a blessing.

2) Big kitchen with an island

3) Gas stove!  (I've been using an electric stove for the past 8 years and I much prefer gas)

4) Much more space (double the space of our apartment)

5) Beautiful neighborhood (I've been taking walks in the mornings and sometimes again in the evenings with Ethan & Julia)

6) A yard (Our yard is nice and private with no rear neighbors, just a hill.  So peaceful...)  We often see rabbits in our yard.  The other day I even saw 2 road runners in our yard.  They look just like the cartoon...



We've had a few friends over.  It is so fun to have people over, especially since we have a patio set behind our house (given to us by friends from our Bible Study) and we can eat dinner and relax outside.  It's great to have a yard and a bigger house to make entertaining so much easier and fun.

Cameron & Joanna's family were the first guests who Ethan fired up the barbeque for.

Enjoying eating outside

Ethan's brother's family came over and we ate pizza.

Aunt Lisa holding Julia (Julia was sucking her thumb - she always does when she's tired)

Julia loves hanging out with her cousin, Ava.  It's so cute because Ava can make her laugh like nobody else can.

Eric hanging out with Julia while Ava runs off some energy in the yard  :)

Our sweet girl is over 9 months now.  I had her 9 month check up last week and all is well.  Here are her stats:

Height: 27 1/2 inches (49th percentile)
Head: 17 1/2 inches (64th percentile)
Weight: 15 pounds 9 ounces (5th percentile)

It cracked me up that her head is in the 64th percentile.  When I look at her I don't think she has a particularly large head...  As far as her weight, it's funny because she is a great eater and eats ALOT of solids.  People are always surprised how much she can eat.  Still, she is quite petite.

I really enjoy having such a little girl.  She is still wearing her 3-6 month clothes (and can still wear a few outfits size 0-3 months!).  I am getting much use out of her clothes which I hear isn't always the case.  Many babies outgrow their 0-3 month clothes quickly.  Not our girl!  :)

Since my last blog post, she has really started crawling alot (now on her hands and knees rather than dragging her body with her arms).  She has also started pulling herself up on furniture.  She can go from a crawl to a sitting position.  She is making sounds like "Ma-ma" "up" and "ba-ba."  She has started returning kisses by opening her mouth really big, leaning toward me, and slobbering all over my cheek.  It's so sweet.

It seems like every day she starts doing something new...  I love it.  I am so happy that I get to be home with my sweet girl.

Here are a few recent pictures of Julia. 

Crawling!

And pulling herself up!

Yikes!  She wants to start climbing.

I think it's so cute how babies just love playing with things they discover around the house and can stay entertained for a long time...  She played with this Sprouts grocery bag for about 15 minutes...

And like all babies, she loves my keys...  Notice how she's sitting.  She often sits like that.  Future chearleader?  :)

And this is one of her favorite spots in the house.  She loves hitting the vent and hearing the sound of the metal.  Also, there used to be a door stopper on the wall but she kept pulling it off, so we have found a new place to store it for now...

She loves pulling books off the shelf.

Just a cute picture of our girl

This picture is for all you "LOST" fans.  :)  My friend, Caroline, made this for Julia (before she was even born) when she hosted a "LOST" finale party.  It finally fits her.  So cute.  :)

It's Official... We've Got a Crawler!

So, some excitimg news on our end is that Ethan and I just purchased a home!  We're so excited.  We still can't believe that this is our house.  We are loving it more and more and really appreciate the neighborhood.  We've been enjoying our walks after dinner in our quiet and beautiful neighborhood (very different after apartment living).  It's wonderful having a backyard, also!  :)  God has blessed us incredibly and we are so grateful.  I promise to post some pictures as soon as I have the house a little more in order.

Before our move, I could tell that Julia was getting close to crawling.  She has been rocking for about 1 1/2 months or maybe more.  It seemed like she wanted to crawl so badly but always pushed herself backward.  Well, last Friday she discovered a way to pull her body with her arms.  Then, on Saturday she added her legs so she was able to move forward much faster.  The fun part was that Ethan was home and got to witness her crawl for the first time.  :)  She loves her new ability and is so curious about the world around her.  This is motivating me to get our house set up at a much faster pace so that she can safely explore!  So, at almost 9 months, Julia is a crawler.  Hard to believe that some babies WALK at 9 months!  I'm kinda glad she has taken her sweet time, especially with packing up our apartment, moving, and now unpacking...

Julia started making the "b" sound a few weeks ago.  So she'll often say, "Ba, ba, ba" over and over again.  Also, yesterday on the changing table I was saying, "Mama" to her and she actually said it back to me.  I thought that maybe it was just a fluke so I tried again and she copied me again.  She kept saying it over again - very cute.  I know she doesn't know what it means yet, but it's still fun to hear her say it.  :)

We are enjoying our sweet girl so much.  God has truly blessed us!

Here are a few pictures and videos of her.

On the day before we moved, we had someone come to professionally clean the carpet and tile.  I was over at the house, but had to go outside when he was working on the tile.  Unfortunately, it was Julia's naptime.  But, she was such a trooper and was able to fall asleep outside in her pack n play (with an umbrella to shade her).  It was really sweet.

I love this picture of Julia.  It is a face she makes so often.

She has such a sweet smile.  :)

Just a cute video of Julia vocalizing

Julia getting close to crawling

Crawling  :)