Bottle-free

We had a big milestone this morning – I put away or got rid of all of Julia’s bottles!  Lucky for us she has never been attached to her bottles and she hasn’t had one in several weeks so we’re on to cups only! Yayyy!

New Foods

This was the scene at lunch today:

Can you tell that Julia really likes black beans?!?!?

She also polished off an entire order of edamame on her own last night at dinner.  Other foods that have been recent hits include steel-cut oatmeal, Bhutanese red rice (really yummy actually – a new one for all of us), grapefruit, hummus, lemon chicken and pasta (the more lemon-y the better!), fruit juice gelatin (still doesn’t like juice though – not even a drop mixed with her water), strawberries, and most important to Andrew, pizza. :) 

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that she remains a good eater! 

Off to Florida

Well we have completed another wonderful vacation, this time to Florida to visit Grandma Susan and Grandpa Herb.  We set out on Friday with a car trip to the airport, a flight to Orlando and another car to Vero Beach.  It was only Julia’s second trip on a plane and she did great!

On our first full day we headed to the beach to watch Julia play in the sand.  It was a blast watching Julia play in the sand and chase the seagulls around the beach.  She even crawled for 20 feet, further than either Alyssa and I had ever seen.

From there we headed off to the pool.  We were not sure how Julia was going to like it after our past swimming adventures.  But she took to it like a little minnow.  Apparently the water just needs to be warm enough.

Altogether we had a wonderful five days hanging out with the Grand Parents.  And a special thanks to them for letting Alyssa and I sneak off for a night where we got to do some quiet reading around a pool on our own. 

I think Alyssa and I both wished we could have stayed in Florida longer.  But at least we have another vacation to look forward to at the end of the summer.

Back from Hiatus

Things are slowly getting back to normal in our house.  The last few weeks have been challenging for us but all the help, love, and support of family and friends has helped tremendously.  One of the most amazing things to me has been how well Julia has handled everything.  While there was a bit of an adjustment period after I came home from the hospital as she became confident again that Andrew and I weren’t going to just leave her, overall she has shown us that she is a very flexible and easy-going kid.  And she has loved all the extra attention she has gotten from grandparents and Auntie Lyndsay. 

So we have some serious catching up to do… first and most important is that Julia turned ONE!!  It was an incredible year and I feel so lucky and grateful that I was able to spend it home with her and got to witness all the little steps (literally and figuratively!) that she took.  She has turned into a true toddler with definite opinions that she is not shy about sharing!  As for her likes, at the top of the list is Dad - she is definitely a “Daddy’s girl” and is his little shadow whenever he is home.  She also loves all green vegetables including peas, broccoli, and best of all, edamame, as well as tomatoes, most types of meat, pasta, yogurt, cheese, and fruit (particularly oranges, apples, and bananas).  She is not the biggest breakfast eater but will happily eat whatever is on Mom’s plate!  She is still napping twice a day and hopefully soon will be moving on to whole milk from formula.  She had lost a pound at her 12 month check-up so the doctors want to make sure she’s not allergic to dairy, soy, and wheat (besides the egg and peanut allergies that we already know about).  I highly doubt that she is allergic to any of those three – particularly as all of them are in her favorite foods (see above) and she has been eating homemade yogurt and bread since she was six months old without issues!  But we go for the blood tests this week and then should have clearance to move on to milk.

On the playing front, her favorite game is peek-a-boo and she loves reading books and racing around the house.  She goes non-stop pretty much from the time she gets up until she crashes at night (this is why I suspect she lost a pound!).  She has started to develop attachments to some of her stuffed animals and seems to be leaning towards a stuffed bunny (the one from Goodnight Moon) as her “lovey.”  She also adores Sesame Street and all those characters especially Elmo and Abby Cadabby. 

She has said a few words (mama, dada, diaper, apple, and puff -for the pom-poms that she got from my craft supplies and plays with constantly!) but does not use any of them very consistently – probably because she can get her point across perfectly well by pointing and grunting/squeaking.  But I’m fully expecting to her to just start coming out with sentences one day because she just seems like that type of kid!  ;)

We have managed to take some pictures over the past month and here are a few of my favorites:

Our snowbunny:

 

Coming to get me!

  

Eating Broccoli!

The Valentine’s Girl:

Shoe Shopping

Julia and I embarked on an important adventure today – we went to buy her first pair of real shoes.  She has been wearing soft-soled shoes for quite awhile as that’s what is now mostly recommended by doctors to be best for kids feet while they are learning to walk (I’m sure this recommendation, like all others, will probably change by the time we have to buy shoes for our next child).  But we’ve had a couple of warmer days and I’d like for her to be able to play outside so it was off to the shoe store – Stride Rite, of course.

I’ve actually been looking forward to this because as most people who know me know, I love shoes.  This is an inherited trait from the Nadeau side of the family and while my shoe shopping has definitely been curtailed in the past couple of years due to budget constraints and just simply not having places to wear different shoes, it’s still one type of shopping I actually like to do.  And, just in case anyone is wondering about my claim that this is an inherited trait I will offer this – my Dad has no less than 15 pairs of just sneakers.  Who knew there were so many a person had to have?!?  So not only is it inherited, it is also a gender-neutral trait!

Okay, back to Julia.  We go into Stride Rite (after she has had a long nap and eaten lunch) and start looking at shoes.  That goes fine; we’re having fun pulling shoes off the shelf and tasting them, seeing how tough they are by throwing them on the floor, etc.  Then it comes time to measure her feet and there is NO WAY that she is putting a single toe on that measuring device.  Not happening.  There’s a calming down period, some watching of other kids getting their feet measured, and then attempt 2.  Again, not happening.  She climbed into my lap and clung to me like I was a tree and there was a wolf trying to eat her.  I calm her down again and then basically end up forcing the child to stand as the clerk measures her feet with lightning speed and determines she needs a size four.  Okay, great.  We pick out the shoes, get them on and they seem to fit.  Hopefully they do, because we each got a half a millisecond chance to push on the toes to see if there was some room!  After that we were out of that store as fast as possible.

Bottom line is that I think our days of fun mother-daughter shoe shopping trips are a ways off.  But she did prance around happily in them once we got home so I think she might have gotten the shoe gene too! :)

11 Months Old

Julia is 11 months old today!  She celebrated by dancing.

A Vacation of Firsts

This is my last night of vacation and that is a little sad.  However it was a wonderful week and half.   It was great spending so much time with Alyssa, Julia, and the rest of family in RI.

Julia had a great time too, she learned to wave good-bye and now enjoys doing it all the time.  She also has said her first real word (other than ma-ma and da-da)….any guesses…its one she hears all the time time.  That’s right its diaper!!!  I was folding her diapers and I said ‘diaper’, Alyssa then looked at me and said Julia just said ‘diaper’.  I thought she was just making it up.  So I said it again and clear as day Julia said ‘diaper’.  It was very cute.

Julia also corrected us on the sign for ‘more’.  We have been trying to teach her to put her hand to her mouth when she wants more.  But the other day Alyssa noticed every time she said ‘more’ Julia would put her hands together making a circle.  Pretty much just like this.  So Julia taught us the correct sign.  Thanks!

Here is a small selection of holiday pictures.  The first is a gift from Kate, I am sure Julia will enjoy the humor of it as she gets older.

It looks like Julia can’t wait to start cooking.  Although I think she needs a lesson on how to use the rolling pin.

Alyssa sure is excited to have this level, Julia needs convincing though.

Julia received her first gift from her cousin Alex.

All in all a great time!

Happy New Year everyone.