This 'n That

This past weekend, we took a road trip about 3 hours north to upstate NY to visit Brian's parents. It's really really cold up there. Funny thing is, they have less snow on the ground than we do!
Julianna got to see Grandma & Grandpa S ... and Grandma & Grandpa F. Everyone got their Julianna fix! Julianna got some nice Easter outfits from Grandma F and 2 nice books. She also got to play with the new puppy named "Bailey". Bailey was pretty crazy but nothing Julianna couldn't handle. She is used to Pepper licking her like a Popsicle. Grandma S gave Jules plenty of attention and hugs, kisses & snuggles!

Julianna stayed on schedule all weekend and we even got to do a little shopping at H&M. I love their organic cotton onsies there. They fit really nice... but we don't have H&M kids here for some reason. So when we go up there, I try to pick up some goodies for Jules. They have the cutest dresses too. I could buy her a zillion outfits!

Julianna does this funny thing now - whenever she is thinking or trying to figure out something, she sticks out her tongue... it's pretty funny. Something else new -  I tried to feed Julianna some yogurt (Yo-Baby) but after 2 spoonfuls, she decided she didn't like it. I tried to get the 3rd spoonful in, but she gagged a few times and I thought for sure she was going to hurl all over me. Lucky for me, that didn't happen. But she made it clear we were done with yogurt for the night. I'll try again but maybe next time, I'll mix it in with some fruit.

Not much else to report this week....
Here are some pictures from this past weekend below. We took several pictures with her new headbands on. Julianna tolerated it for a little while then yanked each one off I tried to put on. She did that with her hats all weekend too. She never minded wearing hats before. Now, I put a hat on her head, and off it comes. *Sigh*

I do love this blue flower on her!

Surprised! 

Investigating... "What's this piece of dust here?"

Julianna trying to get away from cute little Bailey. Hahaa!  

Look Daddy, I can stand! 

Another headband mom? Really? 

I know I can crawl... I just have to figure it out somehow! 

Chillin' 

I get soooo excited over the empty paper bag - heee heee heee heee!! Wave my arms - Wave my arms!

A girl has to get a good night's sleep to look this cute! 

I'm excited... let's wave my arms ... and stick my tongue out .... heeeee heeeee heeeee!  

Wordless Wednesday {Almost}

A few weeks ago, I won a very nice giveaway from Kelsey over at Letters From Home Blog.
She sent me some lovely headbands for Julianna. Of course I had to pop them on Julianna's head and snap some pictures of her right away. I got a few pics that were nice, but this one below is my favorite!

Check out Letters from Home when you get a chance...

Baby Time Link Up: Food

Jansen Family Adventures has posted a fun topic this week - Food.
What do your little ones like to eat? Or do while they eat?  Have they ever fallen asleep in their food?

So here are my answers:

What do your little ones like to eat?

Jules is still eating pureed foods for her meals. We tried some lumpier stuff (like stage 3) but she wasn't into it. So those went to the back of the shelf until she is ready for them They have kind of a 'stew' consistency.
Julianna's favorite food {right now} is applesauce - hands down. She also likes kiwi, mango, pears, blueberries, & apricots also. She does not like bananas and peaches. But that can change. I'll try again with the bananas soon.

Julianna likes any veggie we have given her - peas, green beans, mixed veggies, corn, sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, carrots, etc...   She also likes the mixes such as: Chicken and sweet potatoes, Turkey & Sweet potatoes, Chicken with apples. I know - pureed meats - gross. I will say when you open the ones already blended with other stuff, it's not too bad. I mean, the chicken & sweet potatoes is exactly what it says it is. Chicken, sweet potato & water. It doesn't even smell half bad and Julianna likes it, and she gets her protein!

I really do want to venture out and have her try other foods that are not in a jar - like some of what we eat... but she has no teeth, so I am nervous about that still. Besides, it's not like I can give her Spicy sausage with Rigatoni like we had the other night - haha!

Snacks: Gerber puffs, Yogurt Melts, Mum Mum crackers {favorite!}, water

Or do while they eat?
Sometimes Julianna loves to wave her arms in the air and pant {like a dog yes} and laugh when she gets excited while the food is coming closer to her mouth. Most times, she is a very calm eater once she starts eating. She opens her mouth like a little baby bird and waits for mommy or daddy to feed her a spoonful. She does try to grab the spoon sometimes - but I am not into having the food go all over the place - so I nicely push her arms down and she gets the hint & stops. So far, we have done a nice job of keeping food time pretty clean. (Yup, I'm anal lol!)

Have they ever fallen asleep in their food?
No. Not once. Too much excitement around eating. But if she does, you know I'll be all over that with the camera snapping away!! haha!

OK well. that's it here.
Go to Jansen Family Adventures to check out other bloggers "food" link ups!

When a cough is not a cold ... ...Or anything else!

So I reported a few days ago that Julianna had a cough that was getting worse. She has not been sick yet and I knew I would dread when the day finally came when did get a cold.

Well... turns out she is OK...kind of. She seemed to be getting worse on Tuesday night, so I took her to the pediatrician as a precaution on Wednesday. She was not stuffed up and did not have a fever... but I took her anyway... just in case!

The pediatrician said Julianna's nose, ears, and chest were crystal clear - and since there was no fever, she was not concerned at all. She said it might even be spring allergies (I have allergies & just getting over a sinus infection myself). But obviously she said to keep an eye on things and if she gets worse, let her know.

I have had the humidifier cranked up in Jule's room every night and put Vick's baby rub (non-medicated) on her chest and back before bed - and she seems to be better. She barely coughed at all last night and this morning. So whatever it was seems to be dissipating. Knock on wood. I think we dodged the bullet here. No cold. No flu. Nothing worse.

So do I count this as her first time being sick? Or do I wait for her first cold to hit - and count that as her first?

Have a very nice weekend everyone! Thank goodness it's Friday! I had to post this cute picture below - It was taken with my blackberry (hence the graininess) - and I just love those purple argyle baby legs!

Julianna is 10 months old today

Time is just flying by...
Julianna is 10 months today. Sooo close to 1 year! Wow! She changes every day and has such the personality now. I can't wait for her birthday party. I better get hoppin' with the plans since it's only 2 months away.

Here are some of her 10 month old traits:

Curious - She is so funny when Daddy is doing something, she watches with such intensity and you can see her little mind going a mile a minute to try and figure out what he is doing (Something so simple like heating food up in the microwave). When we are in a restaurant, she watches the waiter's every move. She turns her head to watch everything he or she is doing and why are they coming to our table?! So inquisitive.

Demanding - The minute she sees her bottle or food dish, and she's hungry... LOOK OUT! Wahhhhhhhhh! She wants it now! Scream, cry, tears - the whole nine yards... until she gets that food in her mouth! Pigggy!

Snuggly - She is only snuggly on HER terms. She will snuggle when she wants to, not when Mommy or Daddy wants to. That's what Brian and I always joke about. Everything is on her terms because she is Miss Independent.

Scheduled - She knows when it's her nap time or time to eat. I can set my watch to it. There is never any mystery as to when she will be taking her naps or eating. Makes life so much easier.

Beautiful - This little girl of ours is just so beautiful and amazing. I look into her eyes and I can see her soul. She is full of innocence and love. Can I bottle this up and keep her like that forever?!

Playful - Loves to play. All the time. She loves waving her toys in the air and making this funny face & panting. Too funny! She loves shaking her noisy toys like Moroccas & laughing. She is open to any new toy we give her, especially one she hasn't seen or used before.

Happy - Giggling ... Laughing ... hysterical laughing ... squealing... screeching ... She is happy all the time and always making some kind of laughing noise. We drove home from dinner the other night and she was in the back by herself giggling up a storm. At what, I have no idea since it was dark out!

Excitable - Daddy knows how to get Julianna super excited & riled up! He holds her up in the air, or kisses her belly, and she laughs hysterically. It's so funny to watch. He calls it the Giggle-monster!

Hungry - Only in the mornings & night. She is not a good daytime eater. She is a ravenous little piggy at night and in the morning. She loves her applesauce. That is her favorite! She will eat any veggie or fruit (except peaches or bananas). We are still trying to branch out with 'normal' food. We want to start mashing up some of our food for her- but she has so far rejected anything lumpy. Purees for now. Baby Steps. Getting there...

Good Incredible Sleeper - No matter what kind of day Julianna has had... when we put her down for bedtime at 8pm, she goes right to sleep - and we don't hear a peep from her until the morning. We have never had to go in and feed her or change a diaper ever since she has been sleeping through the night. I think alot of it has to do with the fact we never co-slept with her and she was in her crib from day one. She loves being in her crib and knows Crib = sleep.

Other stuff -
She is very good at picking up small things & transferring from one hand to another. She says DaDa all the time- and talks so much baby talk... almost sounds like a real language - so funny! She puts her hands out and gestures when she wants something. She can put things into a container and take them out...

Crawling - No go. Not yet. Soooo close but yet so far. My kid is just slow. That's the way it is. It will be on her terms like I said above - haha!
She IS however able to sit herself up from a laying down position.. this is new for her (yeh yeh I know, she should have been doing that already but she is slow!! LOL)

Teeth - No go. Not one. We joke that she will be eating pureed steak when she is 18 yrs old.

Julianna can wave bye bye now ... and shake her head NO. Sometimes, I'm not sure if she means it but she likes to shake her head no when she is done eating or when you talk to her. It's clear she doesn't want something when she does that. Pretty funny!

Jules loves our dog Pepper. She pulls Pepper's ears, tail, feet... anything she can get her little hands on... and Pepper just sits there and looks at her. Pepper is a good sport. She is even better than we thought she would be with Julianna. But... Pepper does get her revenge. I see her lick Julianna's face from chin to forehead. Jule doesn't like it much ... but hey - if Julianna can pull Pepper's tail, then Pepper can get a good wet baby lick in from time to time.

On a side note - The blogger spell-check sucks ass. It hasn't worked in a couple weeks. I apologize for any spelling errors but .... hey, that's the way it is. Maybe it will be fixed soon..

And with the 10 month blog post, comes the 10 month photos...

Pondering life...  

Julianna loves to roll around on Mommy & Daddy's unmade bed! 

"This is wayyy softer than my crib!"  

Julianna and Pepper hanging out together...  

Happy Spring!

Well it's finally here. Sort of. Spring arrived. It was 70 on Friday and still pretty nice the rest of the weekend... I'll take 55 and sunny. And happy first day of spring! Bring it on... I need warmth. I can't wait until it's nice enough where we can bring Julianna to the park or to the pool. I can't wait to see green grass and flowers.

Friday night, we went out to dinner with Aunt Michelle & Uncle Matt... to the Wearhouse Grill on Lake Hopatcong... I had some real good Shepards pie. Yum. There was a little boy about 2 years old with his mom and another lady. They had a DVD player on the table for the boy {to keep him busy while they ate?}- I am thinking if your kid can't behave and you need a DVD player to keep him from acting up while you're out at a restaurant - then you probably shouldn't be bringing him out to eat with you. Just my opinion.

Julianna and Baby Jake went to Story Time at Barnes & Noble on Saturday. It was a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" Story time. Julianna had fun I think. After the story, we got to sing some songs and do the hokey pokey - and some other kiddie dances that I clearly need to learn. After story time, we went to Panera with Baby Jake and his family and had a fun time!

After lunch, we did one of my favorite things to do in the world - SHOPPING! We shopped for and bought most of Julianna's 18 month wardrobe for summer. She fits nicely into 12 months now... so we figure it will be 18 month for summer. We got some great deals... We hit the Children's place, Baby Gap, Carters, and Gymboree... and I had coupons for all of them. We got some very cute dresses. Oh they have the sweetest baby girl clothes! Really! The only thing she needs now is a couple of bathing suits and a beach coverup ... and a couple lightweight jackets. I'll hold off on buying those for now.

Sunday we did some errands, had a late lunch at Chiles and then food shopping. Thrilling huh? Try to control yourself with the excitement.

I think Julianna might be coming down with a cold ... she was coughing all day (that raspy cough!) - and she sneezed alot. She also wasn't very hungry for solids today...and her naps were all off. It's the cough that concerns me. Well, she's 10 months old on Wednesday and has NOT been sick yet. I guess she is due. It was bound to happen. Let's see what happens tomorrow when she wakes up. We put her down for bed at 7:45 - and not a peep - not a cough out of her. Maybe it's just the change in the weather and not a cold. How nice would that be if I beleived that statement.

Some pictures from this weekend.

Julianna learning to clap with Daddy.

Giggling and having fun!

"Oh... my life is so stressful."

Snuggling with daddy.

Sundays are for snuggling.

Diva.

Cutey Patootey.

More daddy time.

"Tired from having my picture taken too many times!"

Giggle monster!!!

Baby Legs

The last couple days have been especially nice here in NJ. It's going to hit 70 degrees. We haven't seen that since October. So I put a nice springy dress on Julianna this morning ... and some Baby Legs. Let me tell you how much I love those little leg warmers!

What a great invention. She has been wearing them since the fall but now it will start getting warm, and I can take advantage & use them more (like under a dress!). I have 3 pairs and want to get a few more springy designs. They are just too cute... and they make diaper changes much easier. I still put a onsie on under the dress because I don't like the diaper to be out in the open lol - yeh go ahead and laugh at me. I'm a freak like that.

Germy Baby Gym - Dislike

Monday night, I took Julianna to a free "Trial" class at the local Baby Gym. I won't mention any names since I am not going to speak that nicely of the place. Baby Jake and his mom Nicole also signed up with me. We had talked about possibly enrolling our munchkins for a 10 week class this summer so they could get some socilaization with other babies, and have some fun while we're at it. So we went to our trial class {luckily free!} on Monday night.

We got there and it was rush rush... get in the class... take off your shoes, and oh yeah, leave your stuff in a pile on the floor or wherever... rush rush ... and oh yeah, are you going to sign up with us? Are you going to enroll? (What? Let me take the class first - sheesh!).

So Nicole and I ripped off our shoes, took off the baby's shoes & socks ...then with my coat, purse & baby bag dangling off my arm, we ran into class. I ended up throwing my 'stuff' on the  floor in the corner. (Where was everyone else's stuff?? Apparently they knew to leave it all in the car!).

The instructor was maybe 18 years old. Terrific. We sat in a circle and sang a song, and the babies got to play with some toys out of a bucket on the floor. We did some quick excersises with our babies and walking/crawling in a circle. Oops, Julianna doesn't walk or crawl. I felt like a moron standing her up and trying to force her to walk. She looked at me like "Mommy, what are we doing??". {Note: I was told when I called originally that she would be fine in this class even if she didn't walk or crawl yet}

The instructor had us move from excersise to excersise. Now, granted my daughter is just under 10 months old. I don't expect her to go do a a blanace beam routine... The class age was 10 months to 18 months. So the other kids were clearly more advanced than her and were running circles around her literally. Baby Jake is very advanced too and is crawling and pulling himself up to stand. Yayy Jake! Then there's Julianna. She plops down on her butt and observes the other babies quietly. I knew she wouldn't be able to participate in some things, so that part of it was not really a surprise. I was able to have her stand up and hold herself up (for a few seconds) on the bars. She also stood on the balance beam with my help... and she was able to hold onto the uneven bars. I felt totally lost during the whole class... I felt that the instructor did not guide us very well at all. Good thing this was a free trial class.

Then I noticed it. (I think Nicole took notice long before me) - the kids were mouthing all the equipment (normal of course).... but then I thought "Gee, I wonder if they sanitize anything here?" - and I noticed there was food crumbs on the floor and it was not very clean actually. MASSIVE GERM PIT. YUCK. And then my thought was "Wow they get $30 for one 45 minute class here?"

At the end, we sat in a circle and each baby got to choose a  toy out of the same bucket from the beginning of class. So let's see... My kid gets to lick some other baby's germs & drool off the same toys used earlier. YUCK. So as all the babies were sharing germy toys, I got grossed out and took Julianna's away and that was that. I was done. Luckily, it was then time to go - and we got rushed out of the room like a flock of sheep. I hadn't even stepped 2 feet into the lobby and I was being asked if I was going to sign up. Uh yeh ok. Then I noticed the next class was hurried into the room (glass walls) - and look at that - NO sanitizing of any toys or mats or anything in between classes. GROSS. Sorry but that is just nasty. As soon as I got Jules home, I used sanitizing wipes on her hands & feet. UGH! Maybe I am just one of "THOSE" moms but I really don't want my kid sucking on a toy that 19 others just licked in the last day. No way.

I was talking to a friend the next day, and she said the place she to goes sanitizes all the toys, equipment & mats in between classes - and they have an area where  you can clean off the children's hands & feet (like a wash station). This place did not have that - it was highly recommended and a national chain. I was disappointed.

The kicker is - the next day, I got a call from one of the 18 year olds at the front desk asking if (you guessed it) I was going to enroll Julianna in a class. HA! As if! I told the girl exactly why I would not be enrolling Jules and why I would not be returning there... and suggested she let her manager or the owner know. So after I told her all this, she said to me, "OK, well sorry to hear that, we hope to see you soon" - WHAT? Did you not just hear anything I said about your germ-pit gym? So I'm pretty sure that complaint will go nowhere -

On a brighter note- I did some research and found a really neat place about 15 minutes from my house - It's
"Open Play" all day and you pay $10 and stay as long as you want. I talked to the owner, he is a toy inventor and said he is focused on making the best indoor play area for kids, and he even has a full time cleaning staff to ensure he place stays safe & clean. Babies have their own area so they don't get trampled by bigger kids... and they have all healthy snacks/food there. There is a cafe' where you can have lunch and chill out with your kid or while your kid plays (once julianna is older). We are hoping to check it out this weekend. That beats having to pay for a membership & weekly class at a Baby Gym place! Much cheaper and you can come & go as you please. SOLD.

Regardless of how the Monday night class went... I did get some cute pictures...

(I appoligize for the blurriness and the random body parts in the pictures)

Sitting patiently with Baby Jake in the beginning of class

Waiting for Mommy to take off her shoes

Bubbles... Julianna (back of head shown) was terrified of them.

Julianna playing with the dirty ball.

Jules on the bar trying to show her arm strength. Mommy having heart attack watching.

Jake & Julianna playing on the mat

Jake's had enough of Julianna - LOL

Julianna just playing by herself.

Observing

Awwww

Holding onto the bar with mama's sausage arm balancing her

Observing the other babies on the bars

Runners stretch

Jake & Jules hanging out on the mat together. He's telling her quite the story!

Oh Observant one