Hapy Birthday Tom!!

Tom had his birthday this month! We celebrated by relaxing at home, and going out to dinner. I also made him a cheesecake, so we enjoyed that as well (I'm getting REALLY good at making cheesecake thanks to Tom!). He wanted to go to Garmisch for the weekend, but they were all booked up, so hopefully we'll be able to go at least once this winter to make up for it. He still has to try out his snowboard we bought last year!

7 Months

I'm WAY behind on my blogging, but this has been a very busy month!! I usually do a little setup to take Julia's pictures when she turns another month old, but not this time. She wasn't feeling very well on the day she turned 7 months, so I just got a few pictures of her in her jammies before we went to bed. She's been during really well, with the exception of being a little sick with a cough.

She's getting so strong and very explorative! She can stand without one of us helping her if she's holding on to something, and she's just now starting to crawl. She can crawl a little bit, but then usually flattens out to try and reach whatever she's going for, and if she realizes she's still not close enough she'll get up and crawl a little more. Julia can also climb in and out of things (notably the "ball pit" at daycare!!). She's also starting to eat solids about once a day with her lunch. She used to sleep all through the night, but lately she's been waking up a few times every night, so that's an adjustment for me too. The past few weeks have been really busy for all of us, since I started in a new position and my schedule changed, but she's been adapting really well to all the changes. Tom is of course still pretty busy in his job too, but in a week he'll also be changing positions, and hopefully his new job won't pull him in as many directions as his current one!

Play Time :)

Julia's personality has been quite present and apparent to us ever since she was first born, but it's coming out even more nowadays. She knows what she wants, and you better not be standing in her way! Her personality really comes out when she's playing too. She's started to get frustrated when she can't figure something out, or when she can't reach toys. If mommy's in the way, she'll climb over my legs, and "ranger roll" (as Tom calls it) her way to whatever she needs to investigate. Sometimes her curiosity causes Mommy to have a sore back and arms, but we just adore her desire to explore and inspect everything.

Seseame Street!!

Last week Seseame Street came and gave a show for all the families, so we got to take Julia to it. It was sooo much fun to see all the characters dancing and singing. I think Tom and I had more fun than Julia though! She didn't pay too much attention to the show, but was more interested in the people around us (she's nosy!). When I was pregnant, Aunt Athena sent us a Cookie Monster shirt for her, and then when we were in the States we bought her a Cookie Monster doll, so even though she doesn't know it yet, she's a fan of his!

6 Month Stats

Cuddling with Daddy

All ready for football season!

Sweet girl :)

Mmmmm, carrots!

"I love my 'big girl' jammies!!"

Julia had her 6 month check up today, and as usual, she's super healthy! She's 27.25 inches tall and 17 lbs 4 oz. The doctor said she's in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight, which I guess means she's a little skinny. Tom and I keep saying she's going to be tall since Daddy and both Grandpas are really tall! The way she outgrows clothes too makes sense, since they always get short, not really snug though. Some of her 9 month clothes are already too short in the sleeves!! I'm not worried about her weight at all, especially since when the doctor asked about feeding her solids and I said she doesn't really eat more than maybe a few spoonfuls a couple times a week, he said that sounded fine and wasn't really pushing it. She also did really well with her shots. She screamed at first, but she hasn't been fussy or anything, what a trooper! Here are some more photos of her too, enjoy :).

6 Months!

I've been really slacking on my blogging, but here are some recent photos of our baby girl. Julia is an expert at sitting up, has been trying lots of tasty fruits and veggies over the past few weeks, and is getting increasingly more active. She hasn't started crawling yet, but it's still a chore just to keep her in our arms! She's so curious and loves examining everything around her. She is starting to get some "separation anxiety" though, and fusses a lot if she can't be with mommy. It's very heartbreaking, but I try to make up for our separations with lots of cuddle time and play time! The other night she fell asleep really early, and I usually lay her down as soon as she falls asleep so I can get more chores done and get ready for the next day, but instead, I held her for a very long time and just watched her sleep. I know it won't be long before she'll be too big to sleep on my lap :(. She's already outgrown the chair we nurse in at daycare, so I have to sit sideways in it so she doesn't bonk her her head on the wooden arms. Her feet are almost hanging over the edge of her infant car seat, and when she falls asleep in our arms and we carry her to bed, her legs dangle over our arms. It's so fascinating to watch her grow and learn new things, and our hearts swell with pride when she masters another skill, but at the same time, I want her to stay little forever.

Big Girl!!

Sitting up!

She found her reflection :)

Playing like a big girl!

Reading with Mommy

First taste of banana, mmmm

Summer dress

Happy kiddo

Feeling Daddy's hair - oooo...

Ergo Daddy! I came home from work to Tom and Julia

using our new Ergo carrier, so awesome!

"Look what I can do Mom!"

Wow, so much has changed just since our last post! Julia had her FINAL hearing test to confirm that everything is perfect, thank you everyone for the prayers :). She's also started sitting on her own (with a few topples, but she gets stronger everyday!), pushing up on her hands and knees and crawling backwards (we're trying to work on going forwards), and she had her first taste of banana, yummy! We're thinking about doing a combination of purees and solids, but we tried giving just a chunk of banana to gum, and she was able to break off a couple small pieces of the banana and didn't handle it too well, so I just mashed it up and let her taste it from a spoon. I have some mesh food things though, so we might see if that's a little easier for her. It was very exciting though! She made all sorts of faces and wiggled a little bit too!