Little Sweethearts

When I look at these pictures I am reminded at how sweet my little girls are. Here's Julia donning a few necklaces she found (one of her favorite things to do is put on a necklace), unloading a baggie of Ellie's silly bands, and crawling over to the window to climb the stool and look down and shout at Levi outside. She adores Ellie and wants to be near her at all times. And Ellie who is so patient with Julia. I tell her all the time what a great big sister she is. She brings Julia her very own toys, sits by and says "oh that's so cute" when Julia hugs her babies, gives lots of hugs and kisses, and honestly loves her little sister. They're not perfect, but they're perfect. Just saying.

Mom will you...

... take a picture of me and Julia drinking?

Hike a Leg Up

I have no idea why, but Julia has started to lean back and throw her leg over the side of her little chair when she's done eating. Hm...

Outdoor Circus

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We have been outdoors a LOT lately because of some beautiful Fall weather! However, as I am writing this, it's probably 90 degrees outside and miserable compared to the amazing weather we've been experiencing. It's hard to believe it's Fall in Kentucky when the Fall weather disappears. But anyway. That being said, last week was amazing and we were outside a whole lot.

When we go outside Ellie and Julia both head straight for the swings. So first we swing and then Julia decides she wants out of the swing (about 5 minutes later) and Ellie follows suit. Julia makes a beeline for the their clunker of a cozy coupe and practices getting in and out, in and out, in and out. All the while Ellie repeats the phrase "it's my turn... it's my turn.... Julia, it's my turn!" With a little persuasion from me, Julia decides it's time to go play on the big slide and she tries to climb up and slide down on her belly. Ellie decides that looks like fun and begins the sliding experience as well. Julia soon tires of the slide and heads back to the patio either for the cozy coupe or to play in the flower pots of tomatoes. Julia spotted a ripe tomato on one of our plants and got pretty excited. I picked it and let her have it... she dove right in and actually ate some of it. Very impressive for two bottom teeth.

Ellie enjoys "going to the store" while on the patio and has been to Target, Whole Foods, Sams, and the grocery store several times. (Can you tell where we shop?) She'll say "Mom, where do you want me to go?" And when she gets there she asks where I think she should park. It's cute. All the while, Julia is following her around or pushing the car and making all her errand-running difficult.

During our trip to Louisiana, the girls great grandparents gave them some garden decorations that I put in the tomato pots we have on the patio. Try as I might, they both won't leave those little things alone and shaking them is one of Julia's favorite things to do on the patio. Shake shake shake, stick them in the dirt, shake some more, stick them back in the dirt. Repeat. Ellie likes playing with them too, thank heaven we have two of them. Now we just need another car!

If all of this sounds like a circus... well, then perhaps you should pray for me and my sanity. Dan has been working in the PICU this month, with a lovely week of night shifts, 12+ hour work days, and two energetic daughters anxiously waiting for him to get home each evening. He's exhausted, I'm exhausted, and the girls are missing their Dad. October should be a better month for all of us.

Legacy Trail

At the horse park about to turn around and head back.

After the ride while loading up in the car:

So the World Equestrian Games are to be held here in town in only a matter of days (for those of you who don't know what that is, as I didn't before moving here, it's a huge deal. The games are like the Olympics for horses and have never ever been held outside of Europe until this year). The city has been working nonstop getting things ready and one of the best things they did (in my opinion) was make a biking/walking trail from downtown to the Kentucky Horse Park. It's 12 miles long and absolutely awesome. It cuts through some beautiful farms and weaves under a few highways straight up to the horse park. Last weekend was the official opening of the Legacy Trail, as it's called, a fact that we were totally unaware of when making the decision to take advantage of the fairly cool and absolutely beautiful Saturday weather by biking the trail (was that a run-on?). After lunch we drove to a half way point, parked, and got on our bikes for a ride. About a mile into the ride, we ran into tents, chairs, and a band doing sound check. Oh, and a whole bunch of granola bike-riding folk. :) It looked like fun, but we kept riding and made it to the horse park, turned around, and rode back. I was pretty amazed at how crowded the trail was. I was also amazed that even though I was riding a commuter bike and pulling the Burley, I still managed to pass a LOT of riders. Hm. Next time I will put sunscreen on the girls.

Pink Bubbles

The other day Ellie was looking at my Better Homes & Gardens and said:

"Mom, I gotta get me some pink bubbles like this"

Nice.

Spoon Fed

Another one of those things I'm not sure why I allowed Julia to try at such a young age is: feeding herself with a spoon. We were sitting at the table and Julia was trying to grab the spoon from me, as usual. So this time I just let her have it. She was absolutely thrilled and to my shock and disbelief, she was getting a fair amount of food in her mouth. Then she would get so excited that she'd sling the spoon... but she ate the rest of her bowl of applesauce with a death-grip on that spoon.

Julia the Artist

So Ellie decided she wanted to color.

"That's great!" I say, wondering how I'm going to distract Julia long enough for Ellie to get some good coloring done.

Before Ellie and I sat down at her table for coloring, I set Julia up with an activity of her own. It lasted maybe 2 minutes before she came fast-crawling towards the table. She knew I had tried to distract her with an inferior form of entertainment, and the real deal was with Ellie and I. So without much thought, I put a crayon in Julia's hand and paper in front of her. I was completely shocked when she knew what do to with the crayon. Not sure why... don't most of us learn from observation? Anyway. This was Julia's first time to color and she filled up her entire little yellow sheet of paper.

Front Yard Tea Party

Ellie decided that we needed to have a tea party in the front yard a few days ago, so we did. I had just finished running, the girls were still in their jammies, and Ellie served very watered-down juice. We were visited by an escaped dog which was about all the activity our street could muster. Sadly, there was no good people-watching. Much to my surprise, Julia didn't try to crawl off and totally enjoyed our front yard tea party experience. Probably because she had her first taste of juice. Hm...

First Day of School

Oh my, we've started another year of "school" already! This year we had just come home from Louisiana the night before and Ellie was ready to go the next morning! Auntie M was in town and snapped some pictures of Ellie - and even one with the 'rents outside of the school. Ellie was very excited to see her best friend Asher, but sad that her old buddy Naomi didn't return this year. Her teachers Ms Jackie and Ms Karen both said she had a fantastic first day and that she was quite the chatterbox. A HUGE change from last year. This year she'll be going on Mondays from 9-12 and Wednesdays from 9-2 (as opposed to last year when she only went on Wednesdays). There are 8 kids in her class and two teachers, we love it!


Just for kicks, here she is last year before I took her to school while Oma babysat 3 week old Julia.


Here she is two years ago on her very very first day of school ever:

One Year Stats

At a year Julia is quite the character! We just LOVE having her in our family and are all very excited about her recent one year birthday.

Here are some bits about her:
- Julia can walk assisted, with either a push toy or a willing (back breaking) participant with steady fingers to grip.
- She can say "mama" and "dada" and just lets out a good "euhh" for Ellie, she calls Levi "d-d-d" and a book "b-b-b"
- Likes to read a feely book (definitely a texture child), but nothing with too many words or it gets shut quickly. She really likes her "How Big is Baby" book.
- Gives kisses with her mouth wide open and tongue stuck out. :)
- Julia will crawl over to Ellie when she's upset and give Ellie a big hug - basically throws her body on Ellie and burrows her head. It's quite sweet.
- Dan and I both like the way Julia grabs hold of your shoulder when she's being carried around, she's got quite a grip (a dear-life kind of grip).
- Can climb the stairs in less than 2 minutes, but not if she's smiling and looking around to see who's watching...
- Loves loves loves to be outside, stands at the door and beats it hoping someone will just let her out. She can reach the handle with the tip of her finger already.
- Julia will put a purse on her shoulder, a necklace around her neck, a headband on her head, a brush to her non-existent hair, lip gloss to her lips, lids on jars, shirts on her head, babies in their beds (and bottles to their mouths).
- Cries at the drop of a hat if something is taken from her. Several times a day we have to pry (fun) things like markers out of her hands.
- Seems to enjoy coloring and will draw on our mini and regular size etch-e-sketch for a good while. Instant gratification, baby.
- At her one year appointment she weighed 19lb 14 oz, is still breastfeeding just before bed (soon to stop completely),
- Foods she likes: anything and everything that can be mushed! She still has only two bottom teeth and anxiously awaiting more in order to eat a wider variety of foods :). Julia eats a healthy vegetarian diet (almost vegan, actually - with the exception of yogurt, occasional cheese, and has eaten eggs once). She loves a green smoothie (will drink 10 oz in a matter of minutes), whole wheat pastas, all veggies, most all fruits (not a fan of mango), drinks mostly water and a bit of soymilk.

Hm, I'm sure there's more to our girl Julia, but for the moment that's all I can think of. Now that you know more about her, don't you just want to squeeze her through the monitor!?

Picnicing

So we finally got some great Fall weather here in Lexington! Woo woo! The girlies and I took our lunch outside and enjoyed a pleasant 10 minutes until the flies tried to carry our food away. Julia kept imitating me waving my hand over the food trying to keep them away. I'm guessing it was probably Julia's first outdoor lunch. Yep, I think it was! We were stubborn and finished our food and didn't give in to the fly-swarm, and then some swinging was in order!

Wall frisking and door opening.

Only a year old and already trying to get out of the house! hah.




Wall frisking is a recent favorite activity for Julia, she's learned it's a pretty good way to get around... without actually having to walk.

Go Round

I do my best to rotate out our toys here and there since Ellie seems to tire of them (and I guess what kiddo doesn't?). We got out the little spinning toy a few weeks ago and I was humored by Julia's reaction to it. She was mesmerized by it and wanted to participate in all the fun Ellie seemed to be having. Fortunately, Ellie was just as excited to teach Julia how to use it as Julia was to receive her lesson. They both had a knee-slapping good time. Nowadays, Julia tries to stand up on the base and wonders why it moves and she falls. Good times.

The Poop Incident

So I haven't exactly posted in a while - more than a month! Dang it. For a few weeks I was sewing in every spare moment, then I was planning for Julia's first birthday party, then I was packing for a trip to Louisiana, then we went to Louisiana for a week, and when we got back Auntie M was visiting until this morning. Whew!

So what should my comeback blog be about? After about 5 seconds of deep thought, poop seemed like the perfect eye-catching "welcome back" topic! Yep, poop people.

A few weeks ago I left Julia in her bed after she woke prematurely from her morning nap. I decided to leave her in the bed hoping she would go back to sleep. Weeeeelll, she didn't. Instead, she found a way to take off her cloth diaper which she had recently pooped in (probably what wore her). By the time I realized she wasn't going back to sleep and went to retrieve her...

I actually left her in the bed to grab my camera and take pictures. There was poop above her eye and on her nose in these pictures and she is quite proud of herself.

I haven't left her in the bed without only a diaper and a shirt since.