Oh Christmas Tree!

Since we came home from Louisiana with a few days left of Dan's vacation, we decided to decorate for Christmas. Let me just take a minute to tell you that Christmas is my all time favorite holiday of all times. Ever. So I'm super-excited that December is here. Back to the story! First stop: getting a tree! This is the first year we decided to get a real tree since Dan and I have been married. Let's see... that's, er, 6 Christmases of fake trees. Both of our families had real trees growing up and it's a tradition we'd like to begin (as long as we're going to be home for Christmas, anyway). It was a pretty chilly day up here in Lexington and we selected our tree as quickly as we could, put it on top of the car, and drove that baby home. I seriously have no idea what kind of tree it is, some type of fir, I think. We let it sit in the garage most of the day and brought it inside before the girls went to bed. We awoke the next morning and began the fun of decorating. Julia found it to be a boring task not worth missing a nap over. Ellie actually stayed focused and strung lights, beads, and ornaments. She must be a Christmas-lover. Is that sort of thing hereditary? Time will tell. Here's a funny: Ellie picked up one of the plain shiny glass balls and looked at me and said "Dis a bouncy ball? bouncy, bouncy, bouncy?" Thank heaven she didn't just slam it on the floor before she asked. Hah.

I'm about to get all exclusive...

Hello All Tiny Raz Readers! I just want you all to know that in a few days (or this next week) I'm about to make this blog an invitation only blog. I have NO issues with friends and family viewing our blog, but I realized that in this "day and age" you can never be too safe. So, in efforts to keep our family life a bit more on the private side - versus the "hey everyone on the internet" side - I'm going to restrict the access. Please please please leave me a comment with your email address if you want to keep viewing the blog! Thanks for understanding and I'm sorry to have to add this extra step. Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Anna

Julia 3 Months!

Julia is 3 moths old! Of course, we can hardly believe she's already been here for 3 months (can you?). Here are a few fun facts about Julia. Most of it I've written because I don't really write this stuff down any more because it's all on this blog.

Temperament:
Julia seems to be quite an agreeable baby, seldom crying. She is flexible and enjoys being wherever I take her (unless she's tired or hungry, but that's normal). We have a wiggle worm on our hands and are very careful not to leave her unattended on any surface other than the floor. Laying down seriously cramps her style and her preferred position is to be sitting up. If - rather when - she falls over, she face plants and then brings her little arms around and has tummy time. She cries mostly when she's tired, hungry, or confined in her carseat (which she's getting used to and finds the car bearable only when her big sister is sitting next to her).

Sleeping:
At this point in her life, Julia is a pretty darn good sleeper. As long as you don't wait too long to put her down, she'll usually fall to sleep on her own after swaddling and placing her in her bed. I can't complain. Then again, we have loosely followed the Baby Whisperer's recommendations since she was about a week old ("start as you intend to go on"). Julia is also not quite as predictable (or anal) as Ellie was, but I attribute that to the personality difference.

Schedule:
4:00/5:00am - Wakes for a morning feed
7:00/7:45 am - Wakes for Breakfast
8:30 am - down for a nap (this is usually her long morning nap of almost 2 hours)
10:13 am - up to eat
11:45 am - down for a nap (probably a short one of 45 minutes)
1:00 pm - Up for Lunch
2:15 pm - down for nap (this is either long or short depending on if we were out after her 10 am feed)
3:00/4:00 pm - up to eat, usually lots
4:30/5:00 pm - down for a nap (lately this has been a long one 2 hours)
6:00/7:00 pm - eating dinner, getting ready for bed
7:30-ish - Bed time!
10:30/11:30 pm - eating while she's sleeping before I go to bed

The Video:
It's been difficult, but I've caught Julia being her cute little self on video a few times. She's not into performing, so every time I get the camera out she stops talking and laughing and stares at it. So. It's a long-ish video (about 2 minutes)... so here she is!

Baby Legs

Have any of you seen those Baby Legs? I admired them when I had Ellie, but her chunky thighs didn't agree with them (they were more like sausages legs... sorry Ellie!). Julia has inherited the homemade baby legs I whipped up for Ellie - I chopped off the foot of a tall pair of Old Navy socks. They seem to fit her quite well so I hacked up another pair of my socks and made these cute pink one's Julia is wearing. Now I just need to finish off the bottom and we'll be all set!

Haircuts all around!

So I decided that Ellie needed a haircut. She had been looking a little scraggly with all of her fine blond hair. Last week sometime after her bath I gave it a pretty big trim. Some people say it was a bad hack job (one side being longer than the other) so I had to straighten it up. And then the other side needed to be straightened, and then the other side looked too long, and so on.... Needless to say it ended up being shorter than I originally intended. That same week I also had a haircut that was pretty bad. So bad, in fact, that I called the salon back and asked them to fix it (I don't usually play the diva, but this time I had to). Aparently the salon/spa owner does all of the cutting that needs "fixing" and not only is it a good business move, but it was a good "hair move" for me. He did a great job and I think I'll use him exclusively from now on. Consequently, Dan also had a haircut the same week. Julia, who has hardly any hair, chose not to participate in the family cut.

Look who's wearing cloth!

Coming down the catwalk we have the lovely Juuuuulia! Julia is wearing the Thirsties diaper cover in periwinkle. Julia enjoys swimming, kite surfing, eating and fly fishing.

When Ellie was about 3 months old I began using bum genius all in one pocket cloth diapers and loved them. She wore them right up until the time she was potty trained, just as they advertise. A fantastic investment. What they didn't advertise is how the elastic was going to stretch out so dang much that little babies would no longer be able to wear them. So. I began my search for a solution. Replacing the elastic in my entire stash of bum genius wasn't an option. After consulting my cloth diapering friend Elizabeth, I decided to purchase some Thirsties covers from this awesome site (free shipping!). I also held off on buying any pre-folds and opted to use the microfiber insert that came with my bum genius. This has been working really well with the only hang up the fact that the inserts are a bit too long, but I just fold them over. Voila!

Stuck...

Do these pictures make anyone else nervous?? Ellie and Dan were playing some game they made up this weekend and got the crab stuck in the light fixture by the stairs. Apparently Dan couldn't reach it, so he had to have Ellie's help! Of course I photographed the stunt without spotting (what kind of mother am I??).

Trick or Treating

Our mall has trick or treating up here... weird I know. But it was pretty cold and rainy on Halloween night, so we decided try it out. It was somewhat of a mistake. I think everyone in Lexington had the same idea. Ellie isn't exactly fond of crowds so it was a bit much for her and there was NO way Julia was going to sleep through all the hubub (but I thought she would and it's the only way she got out of wearing her little blue cowgirl bandanna). Next year I think we will just go door to door!

Happy Fall!

It's officially Fall here in Lexington and we've got the leaves to prove it. Ellie and I went for a walk a few days ago and these are some of the leaves she collected on her walk. The pumpkin actually came from a Halloween party a while back.