Happy 8 months to my Beautiful Belle

Julianna is 8 months old - well, she will be this Sunday, but since it's not likely that I'll be blogging during the Packers or Jets game, I'm doing it today.

This has been a great month of firsts and new things! Julianna is really becoming such a big girl and she is changing so much. She is doing tons of rasberries lately. And I am talking about serious Razzzzberries where spit flies everywhere (take cover!) and she thinks it's sooo funny! Every day she does something new that we just can't believe. She is getting so strong too, like being able to sit up from an almost laying down position.

And yes, I am already thinking obsessing about Julianna's first Birthday Party. I decided (with Brian's approval) that we are going to do a Hungry Caterpillar theme for her Birthday Party. She seems to love that book when we read it to her, and hey, we like it too! I found so many great ideas on the Internet and I can easily make the Hungry Caterpillar from Cupcakes. I saw that on someone's blog not too long ago - I wish I could remember who it was so I could credit them. I did a google search on the Hungry Caterpillar and there are hundreds of ideas out there. I can't wait!! (I'm a dork, I know!)

I am not what you would call creative at all.

However, if I see something in a photo or online, I can

probably figure it out & copy it. Here are some ideas that I like:

Hungry Caterpillar pizzas! Love it! Easy!

Hungry Caterpillar Party Favors!

One big first that I am particularly tickled about is Julianna's ability to drink out of a sippy cup. We are trying to get her to drink just a little water every day from her sippy cup so it's easier to wean her off the bottle when she hits a year old. She has been doing it for a few weeks now - I hold the bottle for her and she drinks. (She still has not attempted to hold her formula bottle yet- what a diva!) It's pretty cute to see her bird mouth open up for it. She got the hang of it pretty fast- maybe a week. But today we had a very special thing happen!

See the riveting sippy cup adventure unfold below:

This is usually how it goes. We hold the sippy cup and the little princess opens her bird mouth so she can drink from it. If we give the cup to her, she usually plays with it and then loses interest.

Today, when we gave her the cup ... Holy Cow! She put it in her mouth like she wanted to drink from it. She didn't realize she was only getting air at this point (It needs to be turned up Jule!) 

Then ... wonder of all wonders... she leaned back and

figured it out. "Oh, I can get water this way!" 

"Ooooh yeah! This is great! So this is how it works?"

suck suck suck ... Totally getting the hang of it ...

"I'm loving this! Can I have some more?" 

Well... no sooner than she sat up, she barfed water up all over her pants and playmat. Not so fun. Guess her little belly wasn't used to all that water. Guess Mommy & Daddy should have taken it away sooner but we were so overjoyed she figured it out on her own, we got lost in the moment!

And here is a random picture of our dog Pepper. I had to lure her with a treat, and even then she was quite suspicious. It's not often we get a decent picture of Pepper, since she is scared terrified of the camera. The minute she sees us reach for the cam-corder or camera, she slinks into the bedroom and hides. Silly sketchy Jack Russell.