Julianna's new favorite thing

Now that Julianna is kind of extremely mobile {Super Army Crawling} - she is exploring many new things.

She trashes our CD tower any chance she gets (which is getting packed up and put in the basement anyway - it's not like we've touched those CD's in years lol).

Julianna loves pulling everything off the shelves and then throwing 'stuff' all around her.
She also made it up the step in the dining room into the kitchen. How? I have no idea but she did because when I turned around, she was trashing a pile of work papers I had on the floor that were ready for the shredder.

She is eating everything she can get her hands on lately too. This kid is hungry all. the. time.
Not sure if it's making up for her lack of appetite when she was sick - or if it's just a major growth spurt?!

Weeeeeeeeee! Paper Frenzy!

"I think I'll listen to some Sting"

"Yup, this is the CD I wanted"

Tuesday evening at the Park

We have a really nice park called Modick Park, about 2 minutes drive from our house. It's nice because it overlooks our lake(Lake Hopatcong) and has some walking paths and a big playground. They even have a designated playground for babies & toddlers. The bigger kids get their own playground. Nice concept.

We went to Modick Park on Tuesday night since it was so nice outside. We took a walk and then went into the baby playground... Julianna loves when we push her in the swing. We sat her down in the wood chips (that layer the playground floor) and she was so fascinated by them! She could have sat there for hours feeling them and putting them in her hands.

Modick park overlooking the Lake

Looking up from the bottom of the park

Julianna let us put her sunglasses on and she wore them for a few minutes before taking them off

Fun on the swings - Jules loves to stick out her tongue ALL the time!

Tongue out again

Weeeeee!

Wood chips.... Mmmmmm!

Looking out at the park with Daddy

 

My first time

Julianna is 11 months old ... and I am finally getting around to making some homemade baby food for her. I had all the best intentions of doing it before now but I could never get motivated enough - and truthfully I am totally comfortable with jarred food. It is still pure as long as you read ingredients and buy wisely.

About 2 months ago, I got this baby cookbook named "The best homemade baby food on the planet".
I read the book and had every intention of making great baby food, but I kept putting it off.  I even bought the little babyfood freezer containers.

Then last weekend, I was in the food store, and I saw the best invention in the fresh foods department. They actually sell cubed fresh veggies. They sell cubed Sweet potatoes, Acorn squash, Butternut squash, and some other great veggies! I bought some cubed acorn squash ... and decided it was time to try my hand at homemade baby food!

I spread it out on a baking sheet and baked it for 30 minutes @ 400 degrees. (It was 20 oz total).

I let it cool down & pureed with 7-8 tbsp of Apple juice (You can use formula or water too).

I also pureed an avocado since I had the food processor going & was on a roll!

I looked around for some other stuff to puree and decided to puree some bananas & strawberries. 

And did this with the avocado pit. My grandmother used to do this - and grow a plant. It would never sprout avocados (too cold here!) but it was cute that she used to grow a plant from the pit. 

I distributed the purees into my baby food containers and kept a couple in the fridge for

eating in the next day, then put the rest in the freezer.  

Update - Julianna hated despised her freshly pureed squash. She wanted nothing to do with it. My husband thought it was too thick for her. She just does not like thick or lumpy food yet. (It's going to be a long time to get her off of purees.) So... we tried to thin it down with water... No go.

Kick... flail... scream... screech... Not having it.

So tomorrow... we will try to thin it out {a lot} first and see if she'll eat it.

 I'm crossing my fingers. Mommy worked hard on that stupid puree!! It's weird because she loves the Gerber & Beechnut squash. It has the same ingredients (Squash - water!). What gives?!

Wordless Wednesday {almost}

Discovering wood chips at the park ...

Baby Love Photo Challenge

I couldn't help but enter the Baby Love Photo Challenge contest hosted on Love, Luci's Blog.
There are some amazing entries already ...

From Love, Luci's Blog: To celebrate her twins' first birthday, she wanted to hold her first photography challenge...the topic is ALL THINGS BABIES! She wants to see all your cute babies and your great captures. The only rule is that it be a photo that you took.

Here are my entries ... wish me luck! This contest runs until 4/27 ...
There is still time for all of you to enter ...
It's something fun to do! Why not !?

Green Grass

This weekend, we actually had a sunny day and warm weather. Only for a half day. Lucky us. This is like Seattle weather. I need sun. Soon.
We went out to the front yard with Julianna and put her in the grass. As soon as we sat her down, she lifted her feet off the grass and she just did NOT want her little tender bare feet touching the grass. She started crying to get her off that grass NOW.  And when we picked her up, she was suddenly fine.

When the grass wasn't touching Julianna's feet, she was happy. So funny. I guess she wasn't used to the new texture touching her bare skin! Aww!
We were sitting outside for a while & taking some pictures... towards the end, she got used to it and was "ok" with touching the grass. Progress.

Seriously pondering this grass under her feet...

My honey's - I'd be lost with them

I tried to put Julianna down in the grass but she stuck hands down on the ground, and stuck her butt in the air to lift her feeties off the ground. They mustn't touch the grass!

Happier hanging out in Mommy's lap playing with a blade of grass

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter
from Julianna's family

Julianna is 11 months old !!

To my dear sweet Julianna.
You are 11 months old today. You are almost one year old. That is unbelievable to think that you were born 11 months ago today. You have learned so much in 11 months and given your daddy and I so much joy. We love you more than anything!! You are such an incredibly happy baby and you laugh at everything! We love to see you smile. I guess that means we are doing something right!

Some highlights from the last month:

In the past 2 weeks, Julianna figured out how to "army" crawl on her belly across the floor. She also got up on all fours and shimmied and started to crawl - a little bit. She's a bit late with crawling - but hey, that's ok!

Julianna is quite agile now - she can roll, sit up and flip over and army crawl all in one movement. No real crawling yet. {Yes she is late with everything it seems!}. When we come into her room in the morning, she is often sitting up and playing with a toy quietly. Such a good little girl!

Jules is getting so smart with putting toys in buckets, and figuring out things. She loves her shape-sorter toys more than ever- she tries to get the shapes in the right holes. So amazing how smart they are! She figured out how to rip up her floor mats we got for her - she disassembles it and plays with the individual tiles. Funny!

She claps both hands together when we clap and she does high-five with us!

Jules is becoming quite the imitator. She tries to imitate anything you do. It's pretty darned cute!

Let's talk teeth - As you saw in my Teething 101 post, she is sprouting teeth like crazy! About time! :) Daddy & I are thrilled to see cute chicklet baby teeth in her mouth. We can start giving her some chunkier foods - and some adult foods soon. (She didn't want anything to do with chunky foods so far).

Eating- She is doing good with eating full meals and her formula. We are at kind of a holding pattern right now until she can take some chunkier food with more texture. I am sure having her new teeth should help.

Talking- She is saying Da-Da all the time and some other words that we can't quite figure out what they are. No "Mama" yet. She says Di-dee alot. We can't figure out what it means either.

Julianna loves to give gifts now. She likes to give her Binky to me or daddy. I know how important it is to treat that as "exciting" - so I tell her "THANK YOU!!!" and then i give her the gift back and she takes it. It's a game. So cute. NOT cute when she gives the dog her Binky and the dog takes it. NOT CUTE AT ALL.

For Mama's with Babies and Pre-toddlers:
I just downloaded a great book to my Kindle - It's called "On Becoming Pre-Toddlerwise". I LOVE IT. It talks about how to transition your child from "baby food" to table food ... self feeding, daddy involvement, challenges you will run into with your 12-18 month old, and how to develop table manners... etc... I love it!! What great information for this first time mama!!

I read the Original "On becoming Babywise" book {for newborns/infants} to get Julianna on a schedule and to sleep through the night. HUGE Fan of Babywise!! Anyone I know that has used Babywise, has loved it & swears by it. I tell everyone that is having a baby to check it out. It's not for everyone ... but it DOES work. It simply explains how to get your baby on a schedule and how to get them to sleep through the night. Jules has been sleeping through the night since 7 weeks old ... and we haven't looked back since!

"On Becoming Pre-Toddlerwise" book is great. Check it out if you have a baby just reaching one year old or a Pre-toddler! :)

I must share this

I read Ashley's post  on Tuesday, and was instantly taken over by emotion. I felt the need to share this story with everyone. The short of it is: A widowed father wrote a book on his experiences on raising his daughter without his wife. His wife died the day after giving birth to their daughter. What an amazing story he has to tell. It's full of emotion, love, & laughs.

Check out Matt Logelin's blog to learn his story -  I'll have you know within 3 minutes of reading his blog, I ordered & downloaded the E-Book to my Kindle. I read 1/2 of the book on Tuesday night & finished it off since then. No lie. It's freaking wonderful and inspiring.

Here is the direct link to the book: Two Kisses for Maddy

Let me know what you think if you decide to read it. It's a very emotional & excellent read.
I thank God for my daughter and my husband every day. I couldn't ever imagine going through what Matt went through. It's yet another reminder that life is short and make each day count.

My two loves!

Teething 101

Brian and I got a Crash Course in Teething since last Sunday!
You don't know how your child will react to teething until it happens...

Last Sunday (4/10), Julianna mysteriously had a bottom tooth pop through with no warning. There it was, clear as day while I was feeding her breakfast on that fine morning. She was smiling. We were smiling. Life was dandy. And the best part was - No pain!!

Then she started coughing really bad... like a raspy congested evil cough. We had to bring her to the doctor the following Monday morning. I won't go into that since I mentioned it last week. Well the doctor points out "Oh she has TWO teeth" - WHAT? Two? She only had 1 yesterday! The 2nd tooth popped through at some point since Sunday night and Monday afternoon. Again, other than being cranky from being sick, we had no warning.

This was going to be a piece of cake right?! 2 teeth... no warning.... no pain...no problem!
We did have to give her Tylenol for her fever from her cold & asthma ... so perhaps the Tylenol helped mask any pain from the teeth.

The doctor also said, "Oh... she has FOUR teeth coming down on top - and going to poke through any day now" - WHAT? Four more? Is this kid a freak of nature or what?!

So as the week went on, she was cranky and hurting between her cold and the 3rd tooth (eye tooth!) popping through up on the top. These suckers aren't wasting any time are they?
Then last Friday or Thursday, a 4th tooth started making it's way through. It was just below the skin. It looked sooo painful!

Saturday was a bad day for poor little Jules. She was miserable. Tylenol wasn't helping. She just needed to be comforted and held. And talk about clingy! She did not want to leave our arms all day! She just whined and moaned and cried all day. She wouldn't let us near her mouth either. We tried to get some Humphrey's and orajel in there. We had to sit on her to get it in her mouth. Not fun. She was just hurting so much for a few days total. Poor baby.

Julianna wouldn't chew on a teether, cold washcloth, teething biscuit... nothing. She chewed on her hand. Whatever makes you happy my child! She had ZERO appetite, which I have to tell you I was so freaked out. She wouldn't touch any solids... and took half her formula. It was freaking me out. She was starting to go back to normal around Tuesday. Phewww!

Finally on Sunday night... we turned the corner. By this past Monday, she was the closest to normal we had seen in a week. She was getting her appetite back too. By Tuesday, she was about 95% back to normal. I guess it was so bad because of so many teeth coming through at once.

I am so happy there is no more pain for my little baby. But I know that 5th tooth is going to wreak havoc any day minute now... and oh yeh, the 6th one too. For now, we will enjoy the happy child with her new teethies!

Teethies!

We went through a rough week of teething (that's a whole other post for another day!) - and Julianna has 3 that came in and 2 more right below the skin ready to make their appearance any minute now.

I finally got Julianna to cooperate and let me take a picture of her 2 bottom teeth! It's not the best quality picture but ... at least I got something. At 11 months old, my baby finally has some teeth! Yay!

LOOK!

NOW LOOK CLOSER!

2 CHICKLETS!

 

Cherry Blossoms

This past weekend, Julianna was still sick and teething really bad. My husband started to come down with a sickness too. Ugh! I guess the fact that I sanitized the entire household last week did not stop the germs from attacking my husband! Julianna was doing a bit better on Sunday.

Since we were cooped up for a few days and the weather was decent, we decided to head out and get some air for a few hours. So we went to the Cherry Blossom festival about 45 minutes from our house.

The Bloomfest was very crowded and not as nice as I thought it would be - but at least I got the 2 sicklings out of the house for a few hours. And I got to take a few nice shots of the pretty Cherry Blossoms. We were supposed to go to a friend's house for dinner but we had to cancel due to Julianna being so miserable the day before.

Here are some shots I got of the flowering trees. They are so pretty and colorful - Only for a few weeks out of the year - so you have to catch them right when they bloom!