New Hope PA

Last weekend, Brian and I met up with one of my friends from a long long time ago. Stacia and I used to be neighbors when we were 5 or 6 years old in Pennsylvania (we lived there when I was in kindergarten). We kept in touch when we were very young but then lost track over the years. Well - thank goodness for Facebook, right?! I have reconnected with a few of my long lost friends that way!

So we met up at a central location for both of us - New Hope NJ - it's a pretty cool town with antique shops, craft shops and everything in between... and tons of restaurants. We had lunch & walked around. We are thinking of going to Philly next time or maybe Sesame Place... 

It was nice to see Stacia and meet her husband and their daughter Hope. Hope is exactly one year older than Julianna, and Stacia has sent us Hope's old clothes in the past. It worked out perfect for both of us! Here are some pictures from that day-

 

Julianna is 17 months

Time flies. I know I say it all the time. But it really does. Julianna was 17 months old yesterday.
I remember when she was a teeny little peanut only a few days old... I miss when she was a bitty little baby. That seems like it really was yesterday.

Last night, some very good friends of ours welcomed healthy & beautiful Baby Benny into the world. Benjamin Carter. He was 7 lbs 8 oz's and 20 inches (I think I got that right!) He was 3 weeks early too! God bless him, Mommy & Daddy! I can't wait to see him & hold him tomorrow night... I know I'm going to have baby envy big time. I am going to want another one. I just know it. Watch out Brian.

Benny's mommy & daddy told us that Julianna was their 'inspiration' to have a baby. They love how she slept through the night so early and how well behaved she is/was. She really is such a happy kid {so far}. I feel like we must have done a decent job if someone else wants to have a child just like Julianna! :) It makes this mama proud of my little girl, but maybe Brian and I will take a little of the credit! (And I will give credit to BabyWise as well!)


Julianna's 17 month milestones

Words: Mama, Daddy (Dattdee), Hi, Ut-Ohh, WeeWee (binky), and  we think she says other words too but we can't be sure since she only says them once. She still babbles in her own language a lot.

Points to everything. Birds, ceiling fans, balloons, pictures in her books, dogs, cars, and anything else she wants. Including our food.

She can point out certain characters in her book - like baby bunny, grandma bunny, colored chameleons. She can point out yellow, green and red in her books. She loves for us to read to her now. She also likes to nose-snuggle with the characters in her book.

Julianna listens to everything we tell her to do, and she does it. We tell her "Go get pillow pet" and she runs to get him, and snuggles with him on the floor. We ask her "Where's your {insert toy here}?" and she looks around the room, and runs to get it for us. Pretty bright this little one is! We say "Go snuggle with Teddy" - and she runs to find teddy, and snuggles with him. She is fascinated with stairs now. If she sees them, up she goes.

When you ask her to, Julianna can point to her hair, her nose, her belly, and her feet.
She can also throw her ball overhand.

This kid can eat. Everything. She has a great appetite. The only things we are not giving her yet are peanuts, sugary junk food & fruit juice. She loves chicken, pasta, turkey, any kind of fruit, cheese, yogurt, milk, water, snacks of all kinds, pizza (hehe! our favorite!), squeeze veggies (she has boycotted all whole veggies right now for some reason), and the list goes on and on...

She loves to take a book, sit on the floor and flip through the pages... and then point to the animals or the characters in the book.
Julianna can brush her teeth (all 12 of them including 4 molars!) - she also knows to put things where they belong - and can remember where something was left earlier.

And the best is - Julianna laughs ALL the time. Giggles. Laughs. Squeals. This kid is just too funny!

Here is a collage I made for my SLR class - It was "My day in photographs".

After a long day of playing & visiting... Julianna loves snuggling with her Giraffe.

 I just love this goofy kid to pieces!

Recently

So I mentioned that Julianna is finally walking. Well she walked for a few days, then went to running - haha! I love to see her drunken looking run! She still falls alot ... but hey, don't they all?!

FYI ... I found a nice collage maker and it gives you a bunch of options! It's through Picasa (Google). I like it better than Piknik and BigHugeLabs collage makers! Just thought I would pass that on ... Oh and it's free. Free is good.

Julianna loves Daddy's IPhone. She walks around talking on it. She has full conversations ... We tell her she has a call, and she takes the phone and walks around with it to her ear like it's real. Too funny!

 Goofball Kid!

Hmmmmm. I think I need my Binky.

Walkin' in the fall leaves...

This is a collage I made from pictures of my friend's baby shower this past weekend.

Enjoy your day!

At the Zoo

A couple weeks ago, we went to the Bronx Zoo. This is one awesome zoo! It is so huge, it could easily take 2 days to get through every single exhibit. Julianna liked the Wallabies, the birds and the sea lions. I can't wait until she gets a little older where she can really learn about all of the animals! Brian and I are such huge animal lovers, I know she will be just like us! She slept through our favorite part of the zoo - the Giraffes! We did get her her very own stuffed giraffe - she loves "Giraffe" (yeah, real unique name, I know).
Anyway ... better late than never, so here are the pictures from the zoo!

Sea Lions talking to the crowd!

Lego Gorillas! Pretty cool!

Lego Flamingos!

Pink Ibus {?}

Flying Sea Lion

Julianna sitting in a birds nest (yeah she has her binky, she needs it when she is 'unsure' of things LOL - or maybe mommy needs it)

I forget what kind of birds these are, but they were really pretty with their red beaks!

Peacocks roaming around everywhere

Love this Giraffe! Too bad Julianna was sleeping and did not get to see him!

Riding on Daddy's shoulders!

Julianna loved the peacocks and the wallabies. You can kind of see them up in the corner there.

I've been ...

I've been MIA kind of. I'm lucky if I get to blog once a week lately. Bad Skye! I've been so busy. Each weekend, we have been doing fall stuff like apple picking, pumpkin picking, fall festivals, etc.... and my husband's birthday is coming up this weekend! Ohand let's not forget full time job thrown in the mix too. I've also been taking a Photography class for the month of October over at Faith-Simplicity's blog. I highly recommend taking her SLR class if you can. It's very informative and you get critiqued on your photo submissions. I am learning a lot.  I am also attending a monthly *free* photography workshop given by a local photographer. That is turning out nice. Next week, he is bringing in some professional lighting, and we get to take some pictures and learn about lighting. I think I might bring Julianna as my subject.

I also bought Adobe Lightroom - I have used it before but my trial ran out and I never purchased it until now. I love Photoshop but Lightroom adds something else unique to your editing that you can't do in PS. I might be addicted.

We are also coming close to peak season with the leaves changing... so I want to squeeze in some time to go take some photos of our area soon. I love taking pictures of the trees and nature around our lake here in northern NJ.

Julianna is getting so big too! Almost 17 months! She is a full time walker - finally. She is trying to run but her feet get all tangled up, and down she goes - Boom! She is talking up a storm too - I love when she has a full conversation with Pepper (the dog) or with her stuffed animal - but none of the words make sense. So cute!

Julianna is really loving us reading to her lately. She will actually sit with either me or daddy on the sofa and let us read to her. And she doesn't try to rip out the pages or squirm away. She is also pointing out characters in the book. We taught her (for instance) who baby bunny & grandma bunny is in Goodnight Moon. We also taught her "kittens' in the book. We ask her "Where is baby bunny?" And she points to him in the book. So cute! We have another book called The little lamb (my childhood fav!) that she rubs her nose on the picture of the lamb in the book like she's snuggling with it. It melts my heart how cute it is! She snuggles with all her stuffed animals now including her new pillow pet. She is becoming a big-time snuggler {finally}! She is even snuggling with Daddy & me! We loooove that!

Brian and I were debating what to do for Halloween. At 16 months, it's not like Julianna's going to appreciate Halloween and I am not really a big Halloween person. It's a holiday that I really don't care about (boo hiss boo - i know!). But since everyone wanted to know what she is going to dress up as, we caved in and bought her a costume. She is going to be a Giraffe... and we plan on bringing her to a couple friend's houses.... then to Nana's to trick or treat. Which will consist of her being scared of the pumpkins she sees (b/c they are like balloons) and us holding her going from door to door. No way will she walk around in that big Giraffe get up LOL. And Did I mention, Daddy and I will then eat the child's candy once she goes to bed. Haha.

Random pictures....

Picture from my class that I submitted (indoor beauty around the house)

Julianna taking a break in the pumpkin patch  

Stop and smell the flowers

 John Deere tractor on the farm ...

Scarecrows

Julianna with her new pumpkin shirt on - ready for daycare!

Fall Means... Pumpkins

This past weekend Brian, Julianna and I had so much fun! We went to the historic town of Chester (NJ) where they had a fall festival and a Halloween Doggy parade on Saturday. Then on Sunday we went pumpkin picking. Grandma & Grandpa were visiting for my husband's birthday and enjoyed spending the weekend with Julianna.

 Grandma bought Julianna new shoes for fall...

 

 

 

 Julianna's First Pony Ride

We took a hayride out to the Pumpkin Patch and Julianna helped pick out pumpkins

 This one ought to do fine ...