Fourteen(ish) Months!

I missed the thirteen month mark. And, now she's been fourteen months for almost ten days. So, I think it's high time for an update on Julia! First of all, there are no more pink chair photos. I'm so glad I did it through a year old, but now she squirms and tries to dive out of the chair, so we've put an end to that. In fact, it's difficult to get ANY good pictures of her now--she is constantly on the move, so I mostly have pictures of the back of her head.

Julia has grown and changed SO much over the past two months. At about twelve and a half months, she started walking on her own, and hasn't stopped since. She is so independent, and doesn't care what anyone else is doing, except maybe Will. She's become a little speed demon, and she loves to attempt to follow Will around. Unfortunately (for us), she's fearless, so she's constantly trying to climb the stairs or just generally get into whatever she can. The pantry at our new house is her favorite play space--she loves to pick up granola bars out of the basket and put them in random places throughout the house. A fun game of hide and seek for mom and dad.

Julia's learned several new words in the past few months: 'nack' (for snack--really means ANY food item), milk, book, eyes, mouth, more (she can also do the sign), hi, bye-bye, night-night, Mama, Dada. She LOVES books and is always requesting that you read one, even at 4:30 AM when she thinks it's time to wake up for the day. Lately she's really been enjoying books that have some sort of activity--something where you lift the flap or something like Pat the Bunny. She also loves snacks and milk--I guess she's learned the words she really needs! She also knows the word "dog" and if you ask her what a dog says, she says "ooh-OOH, ooh-OOH" and it is too cute. She adores almost all animals, but seems to have a particular love (and absolutely no fear) of dogs. There are two huge (and very sweet) dogs across the street, and Julia constantly wants to go see them. She just walks right up and gives them a hug. In fact, if she sees a dog in a book, she gives the book a hug. She's a very affectionate little person!

One of my favorite things about this phase is the way that children pick up on all sorts of habits--things you don't even know that they're learning. If you give Julia a hairbrush, she tries to brush her hair. If she sees anything that resembles a phone, she picks it up and holds it by her ear, often with no hands--just the way I do it! If you ask her what's in her mouth--a favorite activity these days is picking up miniscule pieces of anything on the ground and putting them in her mouth--she will stick out her tongue and say AHHH.

Julia is such a delight (despite the early wake-up calls), but the one troublesome thing we've been dealing with is her ears. She's had an ear infection for seven weeks straight at this point, and she's on her fourth course of antibiotics in a row. I'm getting concerned as to why this isn't getting resolved and worried that more action is going to be required. But, she always seems so happy, regardless! Each time we go to the doctor for a recheck, I always think it will be resolved, but it never is. We're going back next Monday, so I'm hopeful yet again. She also seems a bit bothered by her teeth (it's always difficult to know what the actual problem is), but now she has at least two of her molars in, and so the teeth seem to be somewhat better. Possibly due to the new teeth, but possibly due to the steroids to try to clear up the ears--Julia has been on an eating BINGE! I was a bit worried for a while because all she would eat was strawberries (literally), but now she seems to eat anything and everything in sight. Tonight she had goldfish, peaches, dried fruit, turkey, a bit of santa fe soup and rice, and then some blueberries to round out the meal! I think this is possibly also a growth spurt, so I'm sure I should be thankful for the eating now, as in a week or two it will dwindle.

I know I'm missing so many things about little Juje, but since I will be posting every day now, I can write them as they come to me. She's such a funny little thing with such a big personality, and we are enjoying watching every minute. I can't WAIT to hear what she has to say as she starts talking more...no doubt she will have an opinion on everything.