Randomness

 During Conference Rob was supposed to put Julie to sleep, not the other way around. I was able to listen to a lot more of conference this time than last time. It is a lot more difficult with a little one.What I did hear of Conference was awesome, I am excited to read and reread the talks when they come out.

Rob came home the other day and saw my tower I built with Julie. He didn't believe that Julie built it, come on, haha!She is funny, she would go up to it like she was going to knock it over, get her hand up there real close and then stop and look at you. She would just smile, she never would topple it over with her hands, she would just grab the book underneath.

 Here she is eating her green beans. She loves them, she loves eating with her hands.

 Here are some pictures of her cruising along the furniture, lately she will just use her stomach to rest against the coffee table or couch and then she will use both hands to play with whatever she is playing with. She is getting more daring every day.

  This is the first time that I went in to get her and she was standing, usually she is just kneeling, but she wasn't in her sleep sack so she was able to pull herself all the way up to her feet. She was so happy when I walked in.

And today I was cleaning out her closet, putting all her small clothes away and I pulled out all her 12-18 month clothes and hung them up. There were a couple capris that fit her perfectly so I better use those right now before it gets to cold. I still can't believe she will be able to fit into 12 month clothes. I hope they last her through winter at least.

Another Tooth

 Julie has got another tooth, I noticed it last night. It is also just barely poking through, and same as the last one, no red swelling gums, she is not cranky, just my happy little girl. She has been feeling it with her tongue a lot lately. It is right next to her other tooth on the bottom. 

As you can see from this next picture, we have yet to clear off our coffee table, she likes to get at everything. And since she is always at the coffee table I guess it is time for the clear all.

I just love sleeping babies, they are just so precious and peaceful. Lately she has been a little stink bug and  sleeping with her bum in the air.

My little Angel!

New Foods!

So, I decided to give Julie some new foods to try today. She will eat gerber green beans if they are mixed in with Sweet Potatoes or Squash, she will not eat them by themselves. She will however eat canned green beans. We had some for dinner last night and gave her some to try. We just left them whole and cut them into small bite size pieces and she liked them. 

And then she had some more for lunch today. I also gave her some rice cereal, but I did not add anything to it, and she ate that just fine. (I also wanted to hold off on giving her banana, since her poops are getting quite solid) I also gave her some prunes to see if she liked them, and what do you know, she ate that just fine also. So, hopefully she won't be quite so picky anymore.

Copy-Cat

Lately Julie has been copying things that we do. On Sunday at my parents, my mom would put her hands in the air and say "Way Up" and then she would clap her hands. After a few times of doing this, Julie started doing it as well. She did it over and over, and yesterday we caught it on camera. When I am feeding her in her highchair and I will sway my head back and forth, she will do the same thing. 

She is now climbing up to everything, the fridge, her crib, the coffee table, the couch, anything she can get at. This presents a little problem since she is not quite stable on her legs yet, or she forgets to hold on. The other day when I went in to get her after her nap, she saw me come in and started to hold onto the rails to pull herself up and she slipped and face planted into the bars. She was not so happy after that. She now pulls herself right up to her feet, she used to only go to her knees, but has found that she can get at a lot more things if she gets to her feet. Isn't walking after scooting along the furniture, we are so in trouble. We are still in the process of baby proofing for crawling NOT walking!

  When she is in her bedroom and we leave to go into another room, we say"Come on" and she follows us. She always stops where her car seat and diaper bag are and plays there for a while.

 My sister in law mentioned to mix her foods. She loves bananas, so I have been mixing rice cereal with bananas, and she loves it and will eat it just like she was eating banana. Yeah! We gave her some pasta the other day, something that she can pick up with her fingers besides puffs, and cheerios, and she quite liked it. So, yesterday at the store I bought a few new things to try in hopes that she will like some other foods. She also has eaten watermelon and enjoys that as well.

8 months!

What a cutie I have got!

 She is such a joy to take care of, and I just love watching her little personality come through. She loves to pull herself up to anything she can reach. She sleeps for 10 hours at night and usually will have three naps during the day around 1 1/2 -2 hours long. Even when she hasn't had her naps and is tired, she is usually pretty pleasant. She is just a happy baby and we love her!

I caught her sneezing and I just thought it was so cute, she is constantly on the move and I set her down to get her picture and she just wanted to climb off the chair!

Climbing

Wow, there is no stopping her, once she figures something out she moves right onto the next thing. We have not yet baby proofed very well yet. We still have cords around and we have put pillows or other things to keep her from getting to them. Well, that is not going to work anymore, she will just climb right over. She is pulling herself up onto most anything now. And just this morning I was just finishing getting ready, and I heard her wake up and she was just playing in her crib. Then I heard some pounding noises, which is not a sound I usually hear while she is in her crib. So when I heard it again I opened her door to see her grabbing the rails above the bumper and peaking through the slats at me. She was so happy.

 

We have yet to get a gate for our stairs(it is ordered but will not arrive until next week), so we have laid our table chair down at the top so she will not fall down the stairs. I still watch her very closely, and can't wait until the gate arrives. She is a mover and she has no fear. Gotta keep her protected. You probably will notice there is also one in front of the door to the garage as well. 

She still only likes sweet potatoes, squash, and bananas. Anything else and she will gag and make pretty funny faces.
She also as of today can go from crawling to sitting. I was in the kitchen making bread and she was around the corner looking at the sun shining on the tile and I looked to see what she was doing and she was just sitting there, so I didn't see her do it. And also as of today, she is now crawling using both arms, up on her hands and knees. Growing up too fast!

She is everywhere, AHHH!

Well, she is now into EVERYTHING, there is no stopping her now. She loves to crawl and explore. Those of you wondering when we were going to put all our NOT kid decorations up higher, we have finally done that. It was sad, but more fun for Julie to learn and explore without us constantly moving her somewhere else.

I was cleaning the other day while Julie was busy playing with her toys. She usually will end up making her way into the kitchen before long, but every time I glanced at her from the other room, she was happily playing with her books. She did this for the longest time.

Over the weekend we got this piece of furniture(not sure what to call it), and Julie has figured out how to climb on it and make her way to the back of the chair. She loves it when we act like we are going to get her.

She cut a tooth!

This past week Julie has taken off in the crawling world! She has decided that she wants to explore her world around her. This means instead of staying in one room, she ventures out the door and down the hall, into the bathroom, or the dining room. Wow, when she crawls she puts both arms on the ground and moves herself forward. Like an army crawl, but she uses both hands at the same time doing the same motion. I will say "I'm gonna get you" as she heads for the front door, and she will get so excited and turn around to see me coming and then bolt as fast as she can to the door. So much fun.
Well, her first tooth is barely popping through. I was on a walk with my mom earlier today and we got talking about teeth, and we looked in Julie's mouth and thought we saw a little white poking through. Then, when we were eating dinner I mentioned this to Rob, and he stuck his finger in her mouth and sure enough, there was a little sharp spot on her bottom gums. It is her bottom right front tooth. It wasn't swollen or anything and she has been her usual self. Hopefully they all come in so nicely.

She's Clapping

My baby girl is clapping!

She will imitate us, when we start clapping then she will start clapping. Or when we say "Yeah" she will start clapping. She has started to do it on her own now. In the middle of eating or playing she will smile and start clapping, and wait for you to clap back to her. She claps with one hand closed and one hand open. She is also starting to wave, using her whole arm to do so.

I just had to throw this next picture in here. Her hair is getting longer and starting to lay down. While she was playing I snapped a picture of her hair profile from the sun shining in the window. The back part is really the only part that sticks up still.

Random things

-If you hold out her bottle, she will get so excited and reach for it and put it straight to her mouth. She will then turn over and drink her milk. She has got it down pretty good! While drinking she will pull the bottle out and stare at the milk inside for a minute and then go back to drinking. I do nurse her, but occasionally I will pump and give her a bottle.
-Julie loves to feel things with her lips, I noticed this in the last week or so. We will giver her a puff and before she sticks it in her mouth she rubs it back and forth across her lips. She has a doll that has two little curly ribbons at the top for hair, and she will touch those softly to her lips. She also does this with our shirts or anything really.
-She also loves jewelry, she will play with my wedding ring and twist it around on my finger and if she sees my earrings(which are just little studs), she will reach for them. And if you have big dangly earrings(like my sister), well, you better watch out. I got some chewable necklaces online a while ago and she loves to chew on those.

-She lays on the floor and likes to have her feet resting against the couch or a box or whatever. Then she will just push against it and jabber away. And she can stay like this for quite awhile entertaining herself.

-She is getting so very active, she has the crawl down all except for her left arm. She is quite the little mover.

-She loves to crawl under the coffee table, which usually results in her konking her head. But her little head peaking out from underneath is so stinking cute.

-Rob got out his mini remote control cars the other day for his nephews to play with, and after they left we had Julie crawling after it. She was going everywhere and pretty fast after that little car.

-I got some new toys for Julie to play with on Friday and she quite likes them. She will sit and just play for a long time. Stackable cups and a bucket with shapes that you sort through the lid.

-She loves her books, she mostly likes to chew on the corners right now, but when I sit down with her and turn the pages, she loves it.

-We had Robs brother and sister in law and their kids stay the night with us, and it was such a treat. It is also a great motivator to get our house clean. Not that is was super dirty, but just things here and there that you were meaning to put away but just don't. So, thanks for coming over, we had so much fun visiting with you guys.
-And I got to hold my new nephew Sunday evening. Oh, he is so cute and soooo tiny, it is amazing how tiny newborns are. Julie never seemed like she was little for very long. Such a sweet little guy!
And we weighed her the other day(meaning I stand on the scale to see how much I weigh, and then I hold her to see how much we both weigh and minus the difference) and she came in at 22lbs. Like I say, don't know how accurate that is, but whoa!