6 Month Old Julia!

Here's a bit about our 6 month old Julia:

- Just got her first diaper rash when she got a bit sick (that dang rashy-poop)
- Can SIT UP on her own now! In fact, she prefers to be sitting up rather than on her belly right now. Of course, if she starts looking back or up it's very likely that she'll fall down in slow motion on her noggin.
- Julia is still very interactive, smiles TONS, loves Ellie and wants to be big enough to play play play.
- She has no teeth or signs of them
- Eating cereal very well, thank you, and just about to start a veggie. Probably sweet potatoes. Then bananas. I'm making her baby food again and haven't actually started it yet, so I'm the hold up here.
- Loves her Daddy! He makes her smile and wiggle. Apparently cute baby girls have the ability to make their Daddy dance and sing.
- Drum roll please... she now has a schedule! I hesitate to even write that statement, because as soon as I write it, she'll change! But here's her schedule:
7:00am Up & Nursing. Cereal or veggie about an hour later.
9:00am Nap 1
10:30/10:45 Up & Nursing
12:30/1:00 Nap 2
2:00/2:30 Up & Nursing
4:00 Nap 3
5:15 Up & Eating cereal.
6:15 Nursing, then getting dressed for bed.
6:45 To Bed
10:30 Dream feed

Julia's First Burley Ride

Last week the weather was niiiiiiiice. So nice, in fact, that a burley ride was in order! Dan took the girls out for a spin around the 'hood and Julia absolutely loved it! I had to run dinner to a friend who just had a baby, so I didn't get to participate. There will be many more similar rides this summer, I can't wait! Man how I miss last weeks weather. It was 30 degrees today, yuck.

How Julia Sleeps

Julia isn't one to mess around when it comes to sleeping. The key to a nice long nap (this has changed weekly over the course of her short life, and could very well change tomorrow), is to make sure she's good and tired - but not too tired. Right now she is staying up for about 2 hours, sometimes she can go 2 and a half before falling out. She's not much for cuddling either, so our routine is as follows: First I lay out her blanket that Oma made because it's still the perfect size. She watches me lay out out and fold one corner down and starts to get excited. Then she get swaddled tightly in it, I pick her up, and she leans towards her bed while I sing a song before placing her in it. Once she's in her bed I have about 3 seconds to cover her little body with her minky blanket before she gets upset. She then pulls the minky blanket up over her eyes and munches on it and falls fast asleep without a peep. Sometimes she varies it up a little by rolling to the side with the minky in her mouth. If she falls asleep in the car, she'll pull her lap blanket up over her eyes (if she can). So I'm guessing it's her favorite way to tune everything out. When I go in at 10:30 each night to give her the dream feed, I always have to pull the blanket off of her face, so apparently she just leaves it there once she falls asleep. It sure is cute!

Balloons!

We had some Valentines waiting in the mail when we got home from skiing. One was from the girls great grandparents and they each got a balloon. Ellie's was purple (perfect) and Julia's was pink. Dan filled them with air and he and Ellie started playing with them immediately. He figured out that if you created enough static in the balloon, it would stick to the ceiling. Ellie thought this was hysterical and gave it her best effort to remove her balloon from the ceiling with her golf club. Sometimes it worked and most of the time it didn't.

These balloons lasted for a few days more, and Ellie created all sorts of little games to play with them. More than once I walked into the girls room to put Julia down for a nap, and one of the balloons would be wrapped up in a blanket in the crib. Apparently the possibilities for air filled plastic are endless for a 2 and a half year old.

All good things must come to an end, however. Eventually Ellie sat on Julia's pink balloon and it broke. History repeated itself (as it often does) and the next day Ellie sat on her purple balloon and squished it with a bang. Bye bye balloons, how we will miss you.

Julia's First Flight

We got up at 4:15am to get everyone ready and out of the house... Ellie was not ready to get up when we came in her room.

Traveling to Colorado involved a plane ride or two for our family. Since this was Julia's first time traveling by plane, we had to take a few pictures (of course). She didn't seem to care one bit that we were going up and down and in and out of the sky. However, Julia would NOT fall asleep to save her life if anyone was holding her. If she fell asleep on the plane it was because I fed her. So, she stayed pretty wound up both of the days that we traveled... but she was still smiley! She also didn't nap well while we were gone, so since we've been home she's been a champion napper. Woo woo!

V-Day

Julia enjoyed her very first Valentine's Day while on our ski trip. Her Daddy picked out a little lady bug card that he thought suited her. She showed her approval by chewing it up in less than 20 minutes.

Ellie received an Ariel card and a movie (Madagascar 2), but she was being a booty that morning and did get very excited about either. In her defense, we had a busy day of travel the day prior to Valentine's Day.

The girls gave out Valentines to those on the trip. We made them before we left for Ellie's class, but thanks to the snow (canceling schools up here), our family got to enjoy them instead of Ellie's classmates. :)

Ski Trip

I didn't get to bring my big camera on our recent trip to Crested Butte because we were packing lightly. So lightly, in fact, our family of 4 fit our clothes, ski clothes, child necessities (for a 6 month old & a 2.5 year old) that included a toilet seat, extra shoes, baby food, medicines just in case, and even 12 valentines into 2 carry ons and 3 personal items. Roll that up and smoke it like it's hot. Boo ya. The only one who ran out of clothing was Julia - turns out I was right that she still spits up most every day and dirties her clothes, should have packed her one more thing. Sorry Dear.

The trip was mostly for us tall people and the short people enjoyed the vastness of the living room in the monstrous house we stayed in. There was much running, dancing, laughing and probably some fit-pitching I wasn't told about :). Dan skiied every day but one afternoon and I was able to ski a LOT of the time, taking breaks to feed Julia every 3.5 hours or so. Our girls have superb Great Aunts (Leslie & Deanna) a long with their G-parents (Oma, Opa, Pop, & Tudi) who gave Dan and I the freedom to fully enjoy skiing - not to mention not having to be parents for a while.

We rented Ellie her very own pair of 2' long skiis for one day! She refused to wear them after Dan and Opa took her to get fitted, so they sat on the table for most of the day. Then after her nap, Ellie played in the snow with Dan (while Julia was bundled up in Oma's arms just a watching) for at least an hour and then abruptly decided she wanted to ski. So, Dan carried Ellie and her skiis up the hill to the lift area just as I was skiing down. Perfect. We got her to strap the shoes and skiis on, Dan helped her around for a bit and I actually put her between my skiis and scooted around twice and she was done. Stick a fork in her because she'd have no more of it. Not wanting to push it, we just un-hooked her and went home!

We are going to start a family share site with all of the pictures from the trip. If you would like to receive an invitation to view the pictures, you must email me and I'll send you the link!

Yackady Yack - an update

Here are some things Ellie has been saying lately... wish I could remember all of them, but this sampling will have to do!

Said while handing me the phone: Here, it's your parents.

Monsters Ink. I like that one. It's so scary but it's so funny.

What Happened? - I cannot tell you how many times a day I hear this phrase. If I even mutter "ouch" Ellie asks me what happened. If some thing falls, if there is a noise made, if I drop something... Ellie will stop what she's doing and ask "What Happened??" It showcases her keen and waaaaay overdeveloped sense of observation (for a 2 and a half year old, anyway).

You got peanut butter on your bluejeans or somepin? - Or Some-pin (something) is a phrase Ellie enjoys tacking on the end of a phrase or question.

I want the yiddle one. (little)

Me: Ellie you're a smart cookie
Ellie: I not a cookie.

My bo-bo is better! It melted!

Gus is widdle like Juwia... he can't ski yet. (fav stuffed dog)

I'm about to play some catch up, folks!

The title pretty much says it all. I've got a LOT of catching up to do, so hang in there and I'll be updating very very soon. We left town last week to go snow skiing in Crested Butte, Colorado and I have been sick since we returned home. SO. I'm going to post a lot of back topics, including about a months worth of weekly activities. Soon, very soon! Thanks for your patience!
Anna

It's Snow Fun

Making a snow castle, sorta.

Snow sampling

I must pause for a moment and tell you about Dan's tongue. It's long. There, now... did you get it? Dan has a long tongue. And it's apparent that Ellie has inherited her dad's tongue.

I have allowed myself to get SO behind on posting that it's tempting to leave out a few things that have been going on here in our Kentucky home for the past few weeks, but I just CANNOT leave out a post about playing in the snow! Ellie absolutely LOVES the snow.

When we get a nice cover of snow here, Ellie requests that Dad take her outside so they can play in it! And play they do. They play with Levi, with soccer balls, they make snowcastles, snowmen, walk around the block, make snow angels, and the latest fad is the snow roll. View it below (I cannot make the pictures scroll any faster, but imagine they are moving fast!).

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Julia Live!

Ok, so not live... but here she is! One thing, this is a 3:30 video, so get some popcorn before you start.

Wessle

"Daddy I wanna go wessle on momydaddy bed"

Ellie now requests to "wessle" with Dan when he comes home from work. It's hysterical. Julia will just sit and watch and wiggle with excitement (she wants to join in SO badly). Ellie and Dan make up these games and it's a mystery to me exactly how they came up with them, or exactly what the game even is in the first place. If she ever asks (more like demands) that we play one of them, I am simply dumbfounded and have to tell her that's a game mommy doesn't know. Yeah, that's right. I have now drawn a line in the sand and I stand as the non-wessling mom.