Curly Straight

TJ loves this baby. He's definitely getting used to her, though.
I'm going to try to put her down now and hope for the best.
Last night I went to bed too late and she was up from 3 a.m. until about 8 a.m. UGH.

She is so cute. I swear she smiles.

She loves being with us.

We are all in love with her.

What I did today, while my husband took a much deserved nap:

Cleaned kitchen, emptied and filled dishwasher, picked up living room and dining room. Entertained, played, watched Letter Factory dvd, drew pictures of Pooh Bear, Eeyore and Tigger and made puzzle with two year old. Made a batch of cinnabons. Ate three of the cinnabons. (Before the night is even over, I have completely finished them all. Note: don't buy cinnabons anymore.)

Did all of this while nursing J.

Now she is finally asleep. Just in time for us to be up all night. Hey, we forgive her. She's only five days old.

I thought girls were supposed to be made of sugar and spice but so far it's looking more like pink and fuzzy and mostly bunnies.

I just tickled Juyaya and I swear she smiled. Big.

Things are crazy when it's just me and the kids. This is definitely an adjustment period. Trying to give extra love to T, but I can tell he's a little jealous and frustrated and is taking it out on me. Right now he's sleeping, so of course, I'm totally in love with him, but as he's acting out it is a different story. It is a phase, and it will pass. That's what I have to keep on telling myself.

Juyaya is already a month old!

7 weeks old and she's figuring out that nighttime is for sleeping. PHEW!!!

We think Julia's eyes are officially going to be brown. We thought maybe green but they seem to be getting darker. She's got some lashes, too. Whatever color they are, beautiful. Alert and bright.

Julia has found her thumb and sucks as if her life depends on it. It's really quite endearing.

Yes, I'm going to talk about poo.

Julia slept for about 12 hours last night, from 8ish to 8ish this morning. Woohoo! She was saving up her energy for the poo that she has been holding in for three days.

You know how they talk about poo changing? The little baby poo is not stinky and as time goes on, it gets worse> Well, she has certainly affirmed that the stinky rite of passage happens just around the 3-month-old mark.

Wooowee.

So many clothes for this little girl!

Getting rid of anything that says Princess.

Keeping anything with ruffles on the bum.

I could start our own clothing store.

Seriously. I am never going to have to buy clothes for her until she is about 2 years old. Yay!

Just cleared out most of the newborn to 3-month-old stuff. A little sad. I found a whole drawer of stuff that we didn't even touch.

Julia has been sleeping since a little before 10 pm last night. It is now 11:08 am. We keep on checking on her and she's just chilling out, sleeping away, sucking her thumb.

3-months-old so may be going through a growth spurt?

Juyaya rolled onto her belly today in her crib!!

She also did this move the other night where she was gazing up at her daddy, craning her neck, looking at him with love in her eyes.

When he was a little baby, we never let TJ sleep with us and it turns out that he's not so good at it now the few times we have tried to bring him into our lair. Limbs everywhere. Feet in our stomachs and our faces does not make for good sleeping.

Julia sleeps in her own crib most of the time. We put her down for the night around 9ish or so, sometimes earlier. She wakes up to eat in the middle of the night and I bring her into our bed. I know this is totally going to mess everything up if I continue, but I really like having her there.

I put my arms around her and make sure she's safe while we both sleep. In the morning, she looks into my eyes and smiles. How can I resist that? It's a memory that will always be precious to me.

I don't write much about Julia yet because she is just so chill. It would say "Julia Rocks" each day. She's that good.

Her and TJ LOVE each other so much. She gazes at him with such love in her eyes.

She really is a great baby. Smiles and coos and makes squee noises. Rolls from back to belly. Likes to put both fists in her mouth. Went swimming with Mama and her little legs were moving all around.

Rough couple of nights. Well last night was good. Night before not so much.

The babysitter said that she (Julia, not the babysitter) only took two 45-minute naps which is not much, considering how much she usually sleeps.

Well, she must have been overtired as she DID not sleep at all during the night. Yuckamucka!

Got a big ole belly laugh out of Julia today in the store with a blue stuffed bird. She thought it was so funny.

TJ of course, has adopted the stuffed animal and calls it Polly. He's napping with it now.

She's still like jello when you try to get her to sit up. Everything else (rolling over, making noise, tracking things with eyes, eating, sleeping, height, weight) is right on track. 15.9 lbs and 25 3/4/ inches today.

Lady at party: Oh, she's young to have two teeth, isn't she?

Mama: No, she only has one.

Lady: Pretty sure she has two.

Sure, enough, Julia has another tooth that popped through! Must have been today or yesterday because Friday at the doctor she only had one.

She can put her feet in her mouth now.

So talented.

My little Julia sleeps when she is supposed to; cries when she is hungry, wet or tired; smiles at me when I smile at her; loves to be kissed; loves to play; loves to make noise. She is a perfect, dreamy, happy, chunk of love. Oh and did I mention the giant eyelashes?

Mum mum mum mum.

She's totally saying that.

Aw. The love.

Actually, soon to be seven months.

I was cleaning out some of her summer clothes, the 3-6 months ones and it seriously kind of hurts my heart to see how fast she is growing.

Julia has started expressing herself through loud angry, although still really really adorable, yells.

She sometimes does it when she's going to the bathroom, which is especially ladylike.

We really couldn't ask for a happier, more well-behaved baby.

The "New Baby" is almost 7 months old.

TJ and I fed her puffs today in the side yard. She made some funny faces, but all in all, seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience, as she does most of her eating experiences.

She's working on picking up her own bottle. Still doesn't quite have the concept completely mastered yet, but definitely working on it.

Julia can stand!

She holds on to her piano and totally supports herself for a few minutes.

YAY for the sweetest baby!

One of my favorite things about my very well behaved, sweet little baby girl is the fact that she is a good sleeper and so easy to put to bed.

We have always been big believers in the routine...music, stories, blankie, bed.

With Julia, putting her down is such a pleasure because when I put her down she makes me melt with the following actions.

I put her into her crib, on her back. She looks up at me.

As I put the blanket over her - and it is always some little super-cute, hand-knit colorful blanket - both of her chubby little legs immediately stretch up, WAY up into the air, and her hand grabs the top part of the blanket as she pulls it toward her face.

At the same time, while still holding onto the blanket, which is really close to her face at this point, her mouth opens, she inserts thumb into mouth, and sticks her other four fingers straight up into the air.

I need to get it on dvd because it's not going to last forever and it's just a very sweet, tender, innocent baby moment.

I gotta say, one of my favorite things in the whole world is rubbing Julia's little bald, soft head. Sometimes I use my hand, sometimes my cheek. It is so soft and fuzzy and cute and lovable, I am in no hurry for her to get lots of hair.

My little Bomb Diggity of a baby, my little 9-month solid chunk of love, is getting her 8th tooth. Bottom right (her right), which will make 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom.

I'm blowing raspberries at her right now and she is CRACKING up. She's not hard to please.

Julia is the bomb. She is getting big. I just bought her the bigger car seat today, which is crazy. She has her 8th tooth coming in and loves to laugh. She is bald and I love her little round head. She breathes heavily when she sees something that excites her, which makes me love her even more. She uses her right arm to drag her body all over the house, which reminds us of Sweet Pea from Popeye. She is such a love.

TJ was pissed that his present wasn't a Pooh Bear camera, which is what he's been asking for.

I better get on that.

Julia was none too happy to hang out with Santa for the second time this year either.

I didn't mean to have Celine Dion's "Miracle" playing on loop for two hours straight during your nap.

It is a beautiful song and all, but there is such a thing as Celine Dion overdose.

I blame it on TJ. He must have hit the "loop" button when I wasn't looking.

Aaaaah, suddenly my sweet little girl is getting into EVERYTHING!

Opening drawers, pulling the blender out from the cabinet, closing doors, eating everything in her sight, messing with wires.

She LOVES paper and cardboard and wants it in her mouth.

And she's not even officially crawling yet. I am not sure she will, I think she's going to continue with the right armed low crawl until she walks. I'm predicting (hoping) 13 months.

When Julia gets sleepy, she shows very obvious signs - yawning, eye rubbing, thumb sucking (if she's really exhausted). She's been sleeping straight through the night without waking up even once for a while - the last month or so for sure.

She goes down, sometimes around 6:30, sometimes 7ish and sleeps through for about 12 hours. Sometimes she wakes up early, like 6 a.m. (like today) and wants a bottle. She cries until I grab her and we sit in the chair. She cuddles up and she sucks it down like it's gonna get away from her.

When she's done,I put her back into her crib, she grabs her blankie and inserts her thumb into mouth and crashes out for a couple more hours.

She is such a superbaby. It really does amaze me. Lucky us!

Julia's FAVORITE thing in the whole world is, by far, paper, in any and all forms. She will crawl with her one armed low crawl to far away lands to get her hands on a piece of paper or cardboard or a napkin, if she spots it.

Imagine her excitement, right now, as we speak. She has a roll of wrapping paper in one hand and just discovered a full ream of Office Max printer paper.

Baby Happiness!

Julia just low crawled FAST across the floor because she saw the cat's tail hanging down in between the curtains.

I'm pretty sure she says "cat" and definitely "dog" and means it.

She is 10 months old today!

Ten months ago, a little bundle of joy arrived in our lives.

Really, we could not have asked for more. She's just right. In every way.

102.8 temp.

No food in this house yet for Christmas dinner.

John's working today and tomorrow.

I wonder if they would mind mac and cheese instead of turkey and lasagna.

Probably wouldn't be a big hit.

All I really care about is getting her feeling like herself again.

Everything else will work out just fine.

Julia has a not-so-subtle way of letting us know when she is done with her bottle.

She slaps the bottle away from her.
It's a big THWACK with her hand, and there is no doubt she is saying she is done.

She CAN hold her own bottle, however, she prefers kicking back in our laps, with her hands usually balled up into little fists, sucking it down as we hold it for her. Who can blame her, really?

My little Chunk of Love is starting to stand, she kind of pulls herself up if something is there to support her.

I'll stop calling her category New Baby once she turns a year old in a couple of months. Sniffle.

Julia has a mullet.

Julia is going to have the sweetest voice ever.

Julia is just starting to do sign language. She has "dog" down pat and does it all the time, along with saying dog.

She also uses the dog sign when she sees the cat, but she says "cat."

She also has a sign that she created on her own.

She's pointing, but uses both her thumb and her pointer finger and almost always says what sounds like "What's Up?"

We can hear and watch Julia on the video monitor.

Right now she is alternating between sucking her thumb and blowing raspberries.

Hearing Julia's deep, steady, strong breathing through the baby monitor as she sleeps makes me happy.

I am sorry to report that at almost 11 months, Julia seems to be transitioning out of her morning nap.

My little chunk of love is 11 months old today!

Where does the time go?

She's wearing 12 month clothes, sometimes 18 months when she's going for the baggy look. We love to put her in footed pajamas, that's how she seems coziest.

She is still doing the "low crawl" all around, using her right arm to propel herself around the house.

I put her down on the floor on her belly and look at her a second later and she'll be sitting up. She pulls herself up to her knees, but doesn't really like to have weight on her feet for some reason, so won't stand up. No problem for me, I am not quite ready to have her walking. She's my last baby so I want her to stay a baby for as long as she wants.

She does sign language, but I'm sorry to report, not very well yet. She started off with the sign for milk. She did that for everything for a couple of weeks. John walks into the room. Milk. Dog walks by. She would say "dog" but do the sign for milk. Cat walks by, milk. Mommy? Milk.

Now, she is finally starting to grasp it. Cat is even being done up by her face now, rather than down by her waist, dog looks more like dog. Daddy is father, and Mommy is mother, although the thumb is more near her ear than her forehead, but we get it. Milk is milk.

She's still very chill and relaxed. She loves sleeping while snuggled up with her colorful rainbow blanket, with her thumb in her mouth. That's the only time she sucks her thumb.

She seems to be very aware of what's going on and doesn't miss a beat. If something out of the ordinary is happening, she will look at it, then look at me, like "Mama, are you getting this?"

If there's a noise, or something unusual, she notices. She will turn to see what's happening. She loves other people but does have a small case of stranger anxiety.

She puts up with lots of physical activity from her brother. Sometimes I catch him trying to get onto her back, or use her as a jumping obstacle. Not good since she weighs about 21 pounds and he's about 35. She holds her own.

She doesn't look right in ruffles or bows.

She is beginning to not nap in the morning anymore. She stays in her crib and yells and chats.

Even though we don't really believe in crib bumpers, we had to break down and put crib bumpers in her crib, because she thrashes around so much, she would bang her head on the wooden slats. Now instead of that, she tears down the crib bumpers.

Her hair is getting long, but mostly in the back. She has a full mullet. I miss rubbing my face against her bald head.

The love I have for this little girl makes my heart full.

I have been trying to get Julia to sleep all afternoon.

She just ate a big dinner and is in her crib, snoozing away, at the EXACT time I should be leaving to go pick up TJ.

Julia at Texas Roadhouse tonight, took the packet of sugar, gave it back to John about 20 times. Then he hid it in the menu, she opened it, found it, and gave to him about twenty times.

They will be the brains. I’ll be the brawn.

I have read Julia a baby word book twice - it's a book with photos and a word under it. Tonight I had it out to read it to her as her bedtime book, and she points at the pictures the same way I do and waits for me to say what it is before she points to the next one.

Julia is still not standing up, but sometimes she drapes herself over objects, like the toy box and that entails stretching her legs up. It's really awkward, but so darn cute.

She has something against putting her feet flat on the floor. Apparently, it's not for her.

One of my favorite things that Julia does right now is point. She points like she means it. She'll point at you, then at herself.

She'll point at the pictures in books, repeatedly.

My all time favorite is her baby gang sign, where she takes her finger and points it down with her thumb sticking out, almost like she's doing a gun, but she points her index finger down. Each time she does it, I cannot resist saying Whassup.

You would too.

Julia waved and said "bye bye" to an old lady at Newport Creamery today!

She said it about seven times, so there was no doubt.

She also did her sign for dog, which is the sign for cat, when she saw the cow.