Hanging out at home

Today, mama and Julia spent the day at home (yesterday as well) because Stephie and her dada were unfortunately sick with a stomach bug :(

After Julia's dada got home from work, they spent some quality time together playing MarioKart. Julia had a great time pressing the buttons and causing him to veer off course, which she found amusing!



Here is Julia, standing again. As long as she is standing, she is happy! Forget about being on her belly...



The big news of the day is that Julia attempted to sign back for the first time! She tried to sign "more", "help", and "milk"!!! All in the same day!!! It's all thanks to her "Baby Signs" Baby Einstein dvd. She tried to sign "more" at the highchair after mama did it, and "milk" while drinking her bottle (also after mama did it). She attempted the "help" sign only while watching it being done on the dvd.

Yay Julia!

Eric and Lisa

You can always tell which friends of mama's have children and which don't. This is another one of mama's old friends (Eric) who seems a bit out of his element...

Lisa makes her 3rd appearance in the blog!

Also, not to skip over Christmas Day, Julia, mama, and dada went to dada's family's house for Christmas Day, but mama was so exhausted by then she completely forgot to take any pics. Also, Julia had a huge meltdown that day and ended up napping most of the afternoon away.

Tooth count: She now has 7 teeth!

Still not crawling, but finally rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, especially in the crib.

Christmas Eve part 2

Later on that evening, Jayden gave Julia some pointers on how to stand up



"It's all about the arm-to-leg balance ratio...watch as I practice with only one hand..."



Joni, Haley, Jayden, Peter, and mama enjoy laughs during the grab bag gift game



Uncle Chris, Auntie Kim, Paul, and Great-Grandma Travis. Note how Chris is holding onto the Breakfast Kit-"Just Add Water!" for his dear life.

Grandma Mary: "Well, Peter, I don't usually open bottles of wine for underage drinkers...but it WAS your grab bag gift..."

mama and Joni preparing some delicious desserts

Finally...dada, Julia, and mama at the end of the night

Christmas Eve part 1

In these series of pics, Julia is opening a present in typical Julia fashion...



Grandma, help...I'm stuck in my Christmas present!

Success!

Pre-Christmas pics

Here are a few backlogged pics taken in the last couple of weeks before Christmas. Mama has been crazy busy as usual and even more so around the holidays, hence the lack of posts as of recent. Above is a pic of Julia fast asleep while at Stephie's house. Visions of sugarplums dancing in her head? We may never know...



Mama's old friend Oliver and Julia at Starbucks on a cold December day.



Julia eating a Christmas card...mmm fiber!

Christmas Eve pics are next...

Random baby moments

Ok so mama didn't forget that she said she was going to update this daily...but she has been super busy and not very creative with pics! The pic above shows Julia last Friday out to breakfast with mama and Papa Ray. They gave her crayons and paper to color on. Mama doesn't understand why they always ask if she wants this..she is an 8 month old baby! They didn't even ask this time. Of course it went right to her mouth so mama quickly took this shot and moved the temptations far, far, far away from the grabby hands.



Julia's newest fascination is with standing. She can stand holding onto furniture, and she gets very excited to just stand by the table and pound on it with her hands for 10 minutes at a time. Who needs toys??



Mama, look what a big girl I am!



These last few were taken today. Here is Julia tickling Stephie. Stephie was giggling!

Babies have an endless fascination with ordinary objects, such as a ball and a bucket. They shake them, chew on them, throw them, pound their hands on them, put them on their heads, taste them again, and on and on. They are little scientists performing experiments of every kind. It's so interesting how fast they learn to manuever in this world. Tabula Rasa no longer...(at least now they know about balls and buckets)

Kitties, Liam, and baby...Julio??

On Friday, mama and Julia went to visit mama's friends Kristin and Dave and their son Liam. Julia had fun petting kitties for the first time, as she is only used to dogs so far.



Kristin and Julia



Liam, Kristin, Dave, and Julia



Julia and Liam (who is 19 months old)



Julia: "Hey, Liam...this is MY blog!"

Liam: "Maybe so, but I'm cute toooo!"



Airplane!

Oh, no! Julia decided she was sick and tired of pink and purple and wanted to try a new bedtime theme tonight. Baby Julio?? Well, nighty-night anyways!

Bedtime at Last

Mama is going to make it a point to update this blog daily from now on! Here are some pics of Julia at bedtime. You can see she now has 6 teeth! Oh and yes, that is leftover dinner by her right eyebrow. Dinnertime was a war that Julia won. Perhaps I will blog about that tomorrow...



Dada changing her into her comfy and warm sleeper. It will be 12 degrees tonight, but Julia will be as snug as a bug in a rug.

Ahhh. Time to rest after a long day of play. And yes, in case you were wondering...she IS a girl. Gotta love the 20 shades of pink and purple! I wonder what adventures lie ahead tomorrow...

Doubly Blessed on Thanksgiving

Julia and Great-Grandma Hunt (dada's grandma)

Julia is so blessed to have gone to Thanksgiving meals on both sides of her family today. Here are some more pics of Thanksgiving #1 on her dada's mom's side of the family:



dada, Julia, and Great-Uncle Rick



Julia and Great-Grandpa Hunt


Now here are some from Thanksgiving #2 with mama's dad's side of the family:



Julia and mama's cousin Tory

Julia and her cousin (3rd cousin?) Riley. They were born on the same day!!

Tracy (mama's cousin and Riley's mama) and her other son Quinn

Mama's cousins Peter and Tory, and Julia and dada just hangin' out!

Julia and Great-Grandma Travis

Julia and her other 3rd cousin (?) Jayden who is 15 months

and finally...dada, Julia, and mama

What a busy and wonderful Thanksgiving today!

Grandma and Grandpa Q

On Saturday, Julia went with dada and mama to meet her Grandma and Grandpa Q at a local Brazilian steakhouse (mmmm!). In the above picture, Julia sits on Grandpa Q's lap while he takes a phone call. Julia is wondering why he isn't paying attention to her for that one minute!

Here is Grandma Q with Julia. Julia was all ready for bed in her sleeper and very tired, so no smiles for the camera here!

Julia loves to see her grandparents and is looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Flat Top Grill and FINALLY on the belly!

Last night, Julia went with mama and dada and their friends Lisa and Tim to Flat Top Grill for dinner. It was the first time she had juice (diluted with water) and drank it from a sippy cup.



Julia and Tim. "Now, Julia, just because you drink from a sippy cup doesn't mean you are ready to make your own stir fry...especially not my patented super hot hot and sour soup."



Tim: "Don't turn away from me young lady, I am not finished talking to you..."
Julia: "All I hear is "waaa waaa waaa, waaa wa wa waaa."



Lisa and Julia. Julia is looking at mama like she is crazy for taking pictures of her after bedtime.

Today, Julia FINALLYYY at 8 months old realized that being on her belly was not in fact horrifically painful and hey, maybe she will stay this way for a few minutes and chew on a toy for a bit.

"You were right mom, this isn't so bad after all. Sorry I fought tummy time as hard as I could for the last 8 months. Now I will roll and roll and maybe even crawl soon!"

Andddd...

Last but not least, the latest tooth count is 4, going on 5. She has her two top and two bottom teeth in, and another bottom one is on it's way in as well. Not too bad in about a month and a half!