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.

Halloween

I know I've been a bad blogger, but it just seems that life has gotten in the way. That's one thing I often struggle with--whether I should be spending time documenting life, rather than just living it. And lately, we've been doing a lot of living, but not much documenting. But, that's about to change. I'm making a pledge right now that I am going to attempt to blog every day between now and Christmas. I have no doubt that the content will be mediocre, at best, but at least I will have a record of what's been going on. Because, I really do love going back and reading my old entries, particularly now that Julia is the same age as Will was when I was first blogging. So, go ahead and take guesses on how many days I will miss, but I'm going to give it a shot! (And, if you ever read and wanted to comment, that would really give me some motivation!)

ANYWAY...onto my first post in my blogging blast...Halloween 2009! Will was a knight (complete with a black and blue and bloody eye) and Julia was a butterfly. They were too cute! We went over to Norman for trick-or-treating over there (the Petreys were in town and Will couldn't wait to hang out with Coleman), and then came back to our street for a little partying with our neighbors. Will really understood the concept of trick-or-treating this year, and he LOVED all of his candy. Julia kept up for a while, but then was content to sit in the stroller and eat a sucker (and go to bed early when we got home). Here are a few pictures...only two weeks late:

This was as long as she kept the hat on all night.

Vicious Knight

Social Butterfly

Ring Pops

What a Day

It all started Tuesday night. Zach and I went out and left the kids with a new babysitter, who was great, except that she forgot to put a pull-up on Will when he went to bed. So, around midnight, he woke up and was soaked head to toe. Zach went upstairs to sleep with Will in the guest bedroom, and we thought all was well.

But no. At 6AM on Wednesday, I heard Julia waking up (a little later than normal!), and I went to get her. When I walked in her room, I was overcome by a horrible smell that I couldn't fully identify, so I groggily handed Julia her cup of milk, which she proceeded to chug. At this point, I'm waking up a little more and realize that the smell is due to the throw up covering everything in Julia's crib, including her. And, the incident hadn't just occurred, which means that at some point during the night, she threw up everywhere, and then went back to sleep IN THE THROW UP! This horrifies me on many levels (and confuses me--I mean, the child wakes up and screams if bunny is out of place, but when there's 5 gallons of throw up emanating from her body, she doesn't let anyone know?!). So, we put Julia in the bath and start the process of washing everything in her room (and everything in Will's room, due to the bed-wetting incident). We then all went downstairs, and Julia eventually throws up again (see cup of milk, above). Clearly, she's had to stay home. But, we got Will off to school, Julia took a good nap and seemed to feel better, and we thought all was well.

But no. That afternoon, Will got home from school and was outside playing with Charlie, as usual. All of the sudden we heard screams and ran outside to see what was wrong. Turns out that Charlie had thrown a frisbee that accidentally hit Will square in his left eye. He was obviously in a lot of pain and wouldn't open his eye, but when he did, we saw that the white part of his eye was filled with blood. This FREAKED ME OUT (but I did try to remain calm for my child's sake), so we called the doctor, who sent us to the Eye Foundation Emergency Room (since it is of course after normal business hours). We got to the ER, got checked in, and Will calmed down a bit. Again, we thought all was well.

But no. While we're in the waiting room, Will started throwing up--apparently he contracted his sister's bug. So, he threw up about 8 times while we're waiting for the doctor--in the waiting room (all over himself and Zach), in the hall, in the bathroom, in the exam room. Let me tell you, the people there LOVED US! But finally, we saw the doctor and found out that Will's eye injury is not very serious. It looks worse than it is, but should completely heal in a few weeks. We got a prescription for some eye drops and instructions on what to do next, and we headed home.

Even I am tiring of this story at this point, so let me just finish it up for you: Will threw up again at midnight, so I went up to sleep with him in the guest room. He coughed all night, and each time he coughed, I worried that he was going to throw up again. So, I got about 37 minutes of sleep all night, but fortunately there was no more throw up. In the morning (Thursday, in case you're keeping track), I decided that Will needed to go to his regular pediatrician just to touch base about everything and make sure the cough was nothing serious (like the pneumonia he had this summer). Well, the cough is no big deal, but he does have a raging ear infection! I had asked him point blank if his ear hurt, and he looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "No, Mama. My EYE." So, he never mentioned anything--I guess he was too busy with all of his other ailments.

It is now Friday. We have been vomit free for over 36 hours. Both of the children are on antibiotics (Julia is on her third round--she's had an ear infection for five weeks that she just can't kick). Both children have had the throw up bug. Will looks like he got in a bar fight and sounds like he's been smoking for 25 years. But, things are looking up. Both children are back at school today, and we have a fun weekend planned. Of course, almost anything will be better than the past few days!

Fall Fun

This past weekend we took Will to Old Baker Farm, which is a working farm about 30 minutes from Birmingham that has a pumpkin patch and hay rides. Sunday was a beautiful day, so we met some of Will's friends from school out at the farm, and they had a blast! It was very idyllic...the bright blue sky, happy children running around, bales of hay, fresh pumpkins. Will went to the petting zoo, climbed the hay bales, and even rode a horse! He also loved the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch and had a great time picking out his own pumpkin (although he kept changing his mind). Here are a few pictures from the gorgeous day--it was such a fun time.

She's No Dummy

Tonight I put some strawberries and green beans on Julia's tray. Now, strawberries are her favorite (ok, really, her ONLY) food to eat, so she was thrilled to have those. But, before she would take one bite of the strawberries, she systematically picked up each piece of green bean and threw it right on the floor. When I tried to put one directly in her mouth, she stuck out her tongue, grabbed the offensive bean, and threw it on the floor, as well.

I'm going to put a positive spin on this and say that she just really knows what she likes.

Wednesday Will-isms

"Mama, who is God?"
"Well, God makes the world."
"No...that's Santa Claus."
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"Daddy, I need some whipped cream on my bottom!"
"You mean diaper cream?"
"YES!"
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I recently took a trip to New York, and when I got back, Will had only one question: "Mama, did you see Alex, the lion?" (the lion from Madagascar who lives in the Central Park zoo in the movie). I had to tell him that sadly, I did not see Alex, the lion. Suddenly, my trip wasn't so cool anymore.

Thoughts by Will

"Stinker bottom. Daddy is a stinker bottom because he toots. A LOT. He toots a lot. He's a tooter man. He toots all the time! And he's old."