18 Month Pictures

Includes Thanksgiving and getting our Christmas tree

Playing with her teapot

Julia loves to play with her teapot. It plays a song and says things when you open the lid. In this video she is dancing to the music while sitting down in her big chair.

One more accomplishment

Forgot to mention something else Julia has learned lately that we are very proud of. When I have to get in/out of the oven, I ask Julia to "stay safe." I help her find a place to sit, and she stays there until I close the oven door. Then she jumps up and runs over to get a hug because she knows she's been good.

17 Month Photos

Seventeen Months(!)

Julia is 17 months old today! Only one more month until her next half birthday. Where does the time go? Julia continues to be a rambunctious and vivacious toddler. As I think I've said before, as fun as it is to continue to watch her physical development, it is even more exciting to watch her cognitive and personality developments. We love her more and more each day and are so grateful for the blessing of being her parents.

So what's new with Julia this month?

1. Julia officially has a new word: EEEWWWW!!! Ever since she learned "eeww" while cleaning/carving pumpkins (see the previously posted video), she now refers to all pumpkins as "eeww." She's very proud of herself! I'm sure she has lots of other words that we just haven't picked up on yet. She still babbles ALL THE TIME, and her babbling is starting to sound a lot more like real words and syllables. Sometimes she (understandably) gets frustrated with us when we can't understand what she thinks she's telling us. She's always been very clear, however, about what she doesn't want by shaking her head no! And now she asks us to read for her by handing us the book, nodding her head, and saying "mm, mm" (and usually then trying to get into our laps).

2. Going along with the babbling, just over the past week, Julia has started "reading" books. She's loved to look at books and magazines for a long time now, but now she has started to "read" them aloud, especially to her baby. Oh, and so far it's only been two specific books: an Amelia Bedelia book and "Blueberries for Sal." See the following video:

3. Peek-a-boo has been a favorite game for awhile, but now Julia has learned how to cover her own eyes. Super cute. Another new game for Julia is stacking objects, usually our plethora of spice jars. We got her some blocks for Christmas, but they may come out early. Her "jelly ball" is still one of her favorite toys. And Julia got her first balloon this month (at an amazing store that Julia's aunts and Marmee would go nuts over!). She was completely fascinated with it the first night… and then was very much mystified by it the next morning (since it had lost its helium).

4. In addition to Julia's high chair, she has a booster seat that we have used for travel. Over the past month or so, she has occasionally been asking to sit in the booster at the table instead of her high chair. She seems to like sitting at the table with us, but unfortunately, in her continued attempts to learn to use silverware, most of the food ends up on the floor. :-( So I think we're back in the high chair for awhile.

5. Julia continues to be quite our little helper. She helps with the laundry, empties the silverware, and cleans up her toys. She also likes to throw things away (thankfully so far only at Mommy and Daddy's direction), including her dirty diapers. And after we go to the grocery store, she loves to help us unload the groceries and put them away.

6. Now that summer and the lawn mowing season has come to an end (sniff!), we cannot fail to have mentioned Julia's boyfriends somewhere in these Chronicles. All summer, she has been fascinated with watching her "boyfriends" mow, etc. She stands at the window and stares at them, and they usually wave to her.

More Autumn Adventure Pictures

Added pictures of Julia and Jonathan carving pumpkins to this album.

Julia cleans a pumpkin

"Eeeew!"

16 Month Update

Here are some of Julia's latest accomplishments and interests:

1. Julia loves to sit in our laps. She will sit on our laps when we ask her to and of her own accord. She's always very proud of herself when she comes to sit with us. So sweet. She also loves to sit on blankets spread on the floor, especially her Marmee quilt. For some reason, she also really enjoys sitting on her shopping cart cover spread on the floor.

2. Julia LOVES the phone. Especially because it's usually Daddy calling. She doesn't always like to talk on the phone, but she does like to "give kisses" to the person on the line. She puts her mouth on the speaker part of the phone and makes her kissy sound ("mmmmm").

3. Speaking of kisses, Julia is learning to blow kisses. She has thought it hilarious to receive them for quite some time now (especially when Mommy says goodnight from the bedroom door). To blow kisses, Julia puts her hand over her mouth and puffs (either with or without her kiss sound).

4. Julia's vocabulary has not expanded much beyond "mama," "dada", and "hi," although she continues to babble in many and various forms. However, her repertoire of animal sounds is quite extensive. She has mastered the dog, cat, polar bear, brown bear, lion, duck, and cow. She is currently learning the frog and the monkey. It's quite hilarious. I did get one video, but it wasn't very good, so we will keep trying.

5. Julia continues to wave "hello" and "good-bye." When she can tell Jonathan or I are getting ready to leave, she will start waving (which is very bittersweet for me when I'm leaving for work). She will also wave to people when we are out if they say hello or good-bye to her so that despite her shyness she comes off as quite a charmer.

6. Over the past month or so, Julia has started to show an interest in feeding herself with silverware. She's very good at getting the utensils into her mouth, but not so much at getting food onto the utensil and repositioning it as necessary to be able to put it in her mouth. She is doing a fabulous job of learning to drink out of a regular cup. Speaking of drinking, though, she's still not sold on milk (unless it's been on her cereal first).

7. Teeth and tantrums… another hallmark of the past month with Julia. She started getting her bottom molars a couple weeks ago, and they are almost completely through now. The top ones are just starting to cut through. It's been a pretty traumatic experience for her (and for Mommy and Daddy, too) that included hunger strikes, napless days, lots of tears, runny noses, and things not decent to put into print. Poor bunny… And tantrums… she's definitely not afraid to express her displeasure! She will scream, throw herself on the ground, and cover her face with her hands. Quite dramatic! (hmm, wonder where she gets that from?) Anyways, thus far, ignoring the behavior has been a quick fix… hope it stays that way for awhile.

8. We just started up Kindermusik again. Julia was rather shy the first day back, but she's been warming up to it again. Today was our third class, but although she was a little clingy, she did seem to have a lot of fun dancing, laughing, clapping, playing the instruments, etc.

9. Julia is just starting to take a real interest in coloring. She has a little trouble knowing how to hold the crayon or marker but she's getting the idea. She has a couple different colors and makes a point of rotating through her selection as she's coloring.

10. As you can see in some of the pictures, Julia finally has enough hair for barrettes! This has been especially exciting for Mommy, who had to wait over a year to start doing her little girl's hair. She looks so precious and grown-up with them in. We call them her "pretties" and she helps pick one out in the morning and put it away at night.

11. Julia got new shoes! She outgrew her old soft soled shoes, so we got her a new pair of soft soles to wear around the house. They have flowers on them, and Julia loves them very much. And for outside, in Hansen and Wessler family tradition, we took Julia to our local Stride Rite store and bought her first pair of sneakers. These shoes are also very well loved by Miss Julia. Ask her about her "new shoes" and much excited babbling will ensue.

12. And finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning some of Julia's favorite toys and pastimes. Perhaps the most beloved are her two free American Heart Association calendars. She loves for us to look at and talk about the pictures with her (about 20 times in a row). She continues to enjoy books in general. She also enjoys snuggling with all her pals in her big girl arm chair (that she can now get into herself thanks to the ottoman). And for some reason she is obsessed with her pals (or us) kissing her feet. She will hand us a stuffed animal and then hold up her foot to be kissed. She also loves to play ball and still spends a lot of handing us books, toys, pictures, coupons, etc. and then taking them back. We did get her some new big girl toys, including a little kitchen, a shape sorter, and a ride-on horse, all of which she enjoys playing with. And she has developed a new love for driving her doll stroller around. What's hilarious is that she will push it around the house, but when she's done with it, she will pick it up and carry it back to where it goes (rather than pushing it back).

Julia's Autumn Adventures

Jonathan had his Fall Break from school the beginning of the month, and we spent some much needed family together enjoying autumn. We had been talking to Julia about pumpkins ahead of time, so she was very excited to visit a pumpkin patch and pick out her very own pumpkins. She also enjoyed picking and eating apples. After our trip to the orchard, we spent the afternoon at the mall (the highlight of which was visiting the Stride Rite store). We also spent a morning at the zoo, which Julia enjoys more and more each time we visit.

16 Month Pictures

15 Month Pictures

Playing with yogurt

Over the past couple of weeks, Julia has shown interest in trying to feed herself. Here is Julia trying to feed herself some yogurt. Towards the end, she even says "hi," though it really doesn't qualify as her first word, since she really doesn't know what it means yet. But it's cute, and it gives you an idea of what her voice will sound like once she starts saying words.

First Word?! and (lots of) other Julia news

So it appears that this poor blog hasn't been updated with text since sometime in July! Some of Julia's milestones and achievements have been documented in video, but here's a (probably long) summary of what's been new with Julia:

1. Julia talks A LOT. Has been for awhile now. Not necessarily intelligible words but definitely purposeful "babbling." Sometimes she seems to be trying to repeat words that we say. But a week or two ago, she very clearly started saying "hi." We weren't sure at first if this was just another random sound or if she actually understood what it meant. At any rate, she now seems to understand what it means (and that she's adorable when she says it!). We'll get a video up soon. In addition to "hi," she definitely has some other consistent "words:" ma-ma (mostly when she's upset and pawing at my legs); da-dye-yah (daddy); ba-oomba-oomba-oomba (not sure what this means... she used to only say it when she was upset, but now she will randomly say it or repeat it if we say it to her); a-goonga-goonga-goonga (in a really high-pitched voice is how she "sings"); and a high-pitched scream, both spontaneous and echoing us (it's the "Wessler sound" -- anyone who knows Jonathan and his dad should know what this means!).
2. In addition to "words," Julia is quite an excellent spitter and is learning to make animal sounds (most of which are some variation of a growl, no matter what kind of sound you're trying to get her to make). She also says "aaaaahhhhh!!!" whenever she gets her nose wiped (interesting... not exactly sure where that came from)
3. As far as more gross motor skill development: as a walker, Julia keeps getting steadier and faster. Sometimes she goes so fast, you expect her to do a somersault (such as when she runs to the door when Mommy gets home from work). She also has a love affair with any stairs she meets. We now have to take the long way to the mailbox so that she can go up the steps on the sidewalk. She also loves to dance (a combination of bouncing, rocking back and forth, and clapping/waving her hands around)... she will dance to her music or if she hears the word "dance." And we finally taught her the arm stretch "sooo big!!!" which she loves.
4. Over the latter part of the summer, we've had the opportunity to explore some of the area's playgrounds and spray parks with her friends from Kindermusik and with some of my fellow nurses who also have young children. Julia is definitely a fan of the slide (and the steps to get to it) and definitely NOT a fan of the swings. Her opinion of the spray park was more mixed. The water pressure/temperature and the other crazy kids were intimidating, but she loved trying to grab the water and running in/out of the spray. She was soaked from head to toe and didn't seem to mind (and of course, this is my child who sobs hysterically at the sight of the bathtub).
5. One of the neatest parts of watching Julia develop right now is seeing how much more aware she is of herself, her surroundings, and things in her surroundings on more than just a basic level. Some of these ways are: Learning her body parts -- Julia is now able to identify on herself and others: arms, feet, toes, head, hair, nose, ears, and tummy. Speaking of hair, Julia knows what a brush is and how to use it! Whether it's her brush or Mommy's, she will brush her own or her Baby's hair. Julia is becoming quite affectionate -- she will give kisses spontaneously and to request, give hugs, and do "pat-pat" where she very gently pats us or her stuffed animals. She still loves books, and likes to be read to and read them herself. If we start reciting a book from memory, she can usually go and identify it. She also knows that "Goodnight Moon" is her bedtime story and always picks it out at the appropriate time. And she still loves her Kindermusik CDs. We imported them onto the computer (since the speakers on our computer are now better than those on our CD player!), and when she wants to listen to a CD, she will bring us the case of the one she wants as her way to tell us to turn on the music.
6. Julia is quite the busy bee. When we ever happen to see her doing something sitting still, it's a Kodak moment! Some of her current favorite activities include: Looking at her books. Playing with her stuffed animals -- for the past couple weeks she's been in a phase where she carries a stuffed animal under each arm and walks around the house with them, giving them kisses and "pat-pats." She's also discovered how to get up onto one of our arm chairs via its ottoman. It's her "big girl seat" and she loves to sit up there with a book, her pals, or a snack. She's starting to learn about "pretend" play, which right now usually consists of "drinking" tea out of her tea cups and sharing tea with Mommy, Daddy, and her stuffed animals. She still spends a lot of time looking out the window (probably wishing she was outside), and she loves to watch dogs. She definitely has a "dog" sounding word that she says whenever she sees one. Oh, speaking of dogs, if you ask her what a dog says, she will pant! The other thing she likes to watch is... herself. We set up a screensaver for the computer that has all of our photos, and she loves to stand and watch it, especially if she's listening to her music at the same time (and will protest when it turns off!). And Julia is a very good sharer/helper. While playing, she likes to give her books and toys to us (and take them away from us) in (to her) a very specific manner. And she LOVES to help around the house. Laundry is now a joint task for Julia and me. She hands me the laundry out of the hamper when we sort it, and then she hands me the clothes to put into the washer. She also likes to help empty the dishwasher and pick up her toys. And she puts my shoes away for me if I've left them out. She likes to empty out her dresser drawers but at least she also likes to put everything away again.
7. Julia's eating habits continue to be an up and down adventure. What she loves one day, she hates the next... typical toddler behavior. Even her beloved yogurt and cheese have been scoffed at somewhat recently. Still loves blueberries and strawberries. And finally has a favorite green veggie (thank goodness!): broccoli (aka "flower"). She's also learned what "snack time" means (and will go to the cupboard where her snacks are kept if you happen to say the word), as she slowly weans herself from nursing (just 3 times a day now). Although nursing less, she HATES MILK. We're giving a rest right now since she does eat a lot of other dairy foods. On a semi-related note, her 8th tooth just cut through, and she seems to be working on at least 2 more.
8. She's transitioned herself to one nap a day. This was traumatic at first (especially for Mommy), as she went from 4 nap hours a day to 2 in one fell swoop. Since she's lengthened her afternoon nap to 3+ hours, life has gotten better. And she's definitely become a creature of habit, at least in regards to her bedtime routine. Get pajamas on, take her vitamins, brush her teeth, read a story, kiss Daddy good night, nurse with Mommy, and sing her bedtime song/say prayers... she will lead you from step to step in order and gets very frustrated if you don't keep up!

We visit the Finger Lakes, Iowa, and Niagara Falls

Here's a number of photo albums from this summer that I hadn't had a chance to post yet:

Sharing and picking up

Julia has become quite a lovely little lady. She shares everything she can get her hands on with her parents. Here's a video of Julia sharing books from the bookshelf with Mommy:



And Julia also has learned to pick up after herself. Instead of just creating humongous messes, she now attempts to clean them up after creating them:

Julia goes to the zoo

It was fun to see Julia able to take more notice of/interest in the animals than our last trip to the zoo in May. Jonathan was the photographer, so this is an wide assortment of pictures of the animals and especially of Julia looking at the animals

13 Month Photos!

Fourth of July Photos

We celebrated the Fourth a day early with a Rochester Philharmonic concert at CMAC in Canandaigua.

Julia and iPods

This was Julia a few months ago:

However, Julia is no longer a FUTURE Mac user... she's a CURRENT Mac user!

Julia has developed a deep love for Daddy's iPod Touch (affectionately christened "Gizmo")

She learned how to unlock it a long time ago, and she loves to swipe in between screens, press the home button, search for random letter combinations, and occasionally send spam email. She particularly enjoys swiping through the photo albums and looking at the pictures (especially if they're of her). So brilliant is she that she has been known to become very angry when looking at pictures on Mommy's iPod Nano, which does not have a touch screen and therefore, no matter how hard she tries, she cannot change the picture by swiping her finger across the screen.

What a smart baby!

Here, no particular order, are all the ways that Julia has more (or less) been amusing us over the past couple months:

1. WALKING! Definitely the highlight of the last month or so! Julia had been cruising along the furniture almost as long as she'd been able to pull herself up (since mid March or so), but she was completely uninterested in trying to walk with help. If I held her hands and tried to have her stand, she apparently thought we were playing and would just go limp and giggle. When we were in Peoria, Julia had birthday pictures taken at the Botanical Gardens (happy birthday from Jonathan's parents). During the photo shoot, we were standing on a path, and the photographer asked Jonathan and me to each take one of Julia's hands... and she just took off! We walked down the path, and she didn't want to stop! After that, she was more than willing to walk holding hands, and taking an evening walk became a family ritual (and she always screams bloody murder when we have to come back inside! She still LOVES the outdoors... Jonathan says she gets that from me!) Julia had also been standing more and more on her own, but as soon as she realized it, she would sit down or grab onto something for support. Somehow, on June 25, we convinced her that "standing up like a big girl" (see a previously posted video) was really cool, and she was SO proud of herself. In addition to being able to stand up and stay standing up without any support, she also took her first steps (to fall into Mommy or Daddy's arms) later on the same day. So, in her typical fashion, she mastered a two new skills at the same time and has never looked back. Each day after that, she could take more and more steps at a time, is now able to carry objects around with her (which she LOVES), and each day she is more and more steady on her feet. So fun to watch!
2. Julia and I are almost finished with our summer Kindermusik class, and then we are off until October. Since starting to walk, Julia has particularly enjoyed walking/dancing portions of the class. And, of course, the baby massage and anything involving balls are still a big hit. It has been neat to watch Julia and her classmates develop from "lap babies" to "walkers" since February. Also fun to see Julia become more socially interactive (sometimes). One of the moms is going to organize a playgroup so we can still get together until class reconvenes in the fall. Julia also continues to especially enjoy listening to her home CDs. They have definitely been known to help her calm down either at home or in the car.
3. Eating and Julia have been an interesting adventure for sure. She is more picky about textures than tastes (seems to prefer either extremely smooth or super chunky/crispy) and what she loves one day she may hate the next day (and vice versa). The wise have assured us that this is typical toddler behavior. Sigh... Consistent favorites are pretty much any kind of fruit (current absolute favorite is blueberries), yogurt, sweet potatoes, avocados, and most meat (especially chicken) and baked goods (muffins, breads, etc.).
4. Perhaps Julia will find more textures palatable as she gets more teeth. Her sixth tooth is almost in (3 on top, 3 on the bottom).
5. What Julia lacks in the eating department, she makes up for in the sleeping. She continues to be a great sleeper... bedtime is around 9, and she will usually sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning. Depending on when she gets up in the morning, we sometimes eliminate the morning nap, but she always takes at least one, if not two, good long (1 1/2 to 2 hours) naps.
6. A random cute thing Julia does is ask to go outside. She will walk over to the door, stick her fingers between the door and the frame, and make cute noises (that quickly becomes fussing if we don't go out). Going along with that, don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but Julia continues to love to get the mail with me. She holds the key, gives it to me when we get to the mailbox, and holds out her hand to take it back after I close the box.
7. Julia LOVES BOOKS (still). I don't think her favorites have changed much from our previous post of her favorites. Now that she can walk, she loves to carry her favorite books around. And now she can bring us the books she wants... she'll either hold the book up to us or just plop it on our laps, depending on how impatient she is!
8. Other random things Julia has learned/likes to do: She's been able to shake her head "no" for quite awhile (usually while in her high chair, of course), but recently, she's started nodding her head "yes," often when I will say the word. It's very slow, deliberate, and super cute because she always has a very silly smile! For some reason, she's also discovered a love of "standing" on her head: she will bend over and rest her head on the floor and just stand like that. Pretty hilarious. Even more hilarious is her occasional habit of walking around holding her head and saying "aah, aah, aah"! Speaking of her head, she's finally realizing that she has (some) hair and likes to touch and pat it.
9. Julia has learned to point at the things she wants (especially at the dinner table), which can become quite a fun (or not so fun) game. It is neat that she is starting to have ways of communicating to us specifically what she wants.
10. It's also amazing how many words and phrases Julia recognizes. But that's another post...

Julia walking!

Julia can walk! Here's a video of her walking with a Cheerios box:

12 Month Pictures and Julia's First Birthday

These are a few of my favorite things...

Ok, I know we owe everyone a real 12-month update and pictures, but I was watching Julia play this morning and thought that in the meantime I would write a quick post about some of Julia's favorite things:

1. Baby (of course!)
2. Orange block (Julia got a tractor with Mega Bloks for her birthday from Cousin James, and for some reason, she's developed a special love for the orange one)
3. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (we read this book at least 10 times a day... how can you say no when she walks up to you and hands you the book?!)
4. Tea set (especially opening and closing the lid [there are sound effects], pretending to eat treats and sip out of the cups and putting the treats inside the tea pot)
5. Beach ball (loves to throw, kick, roll, and carry around)
6. Books with textures (especially the dolly book and the big textured book she just got from Uncle Dan and Aunt Molly)
7. Bee bath toy (Julia's favorite bath toy... the bee floats inside the toy when you fill it with water, and she likes to push the bee up/down in the water and hold during her bath)
8. Kindermusik CDs (likes to open/close the cases and just learned to take the CDs out of the cases; also LOVES to listen to them, even when she's crabby [sometimes even fixes the crabbiness])
9. Post-it notes (for some reason, Julia is fascinated with post-its... she likes to take the pads of notes apart, carry them around, share them with Mommy and Daddy, and take them in/out of the end table drawer)
10. Turning pages (while this is not exactly a favorite item, it is most definitely a favorite activity, especially if it's a "big girl" book, such as her scrapbooks and Daddy's organ music)

Taking steps

Here's Julia standing on her own and even taking a step or two!



After the video ended she even turned away from us and took a cautionary step or two in the other direction! Things are getting exciting around here!

Learning to walk

She can't push her baby stroller without help from her parents, but she can push a box all by herself:

More of what Julia does

This video was taken on March 30, and it shows, in no particular order, Julia waving, smiling, saying "ya-ya-ya," displacing objects, crawling over things, kissing her monkey, flipping through her birdwatching book, standing up, looking out the window, overturning the trash can, rolling a ball, and attacking the camera (of course). If that's not a teaser, I don't know what is!

What Julia does

This video is a good summary of what Julia does all day. You will see her waving, cruising, babbling, sneezing, dancing, and just being cute.

11 Month Photos

Just one more month until the big day!

Julia is 11 months old today! How the time has flown! Updates on Julia's development this past month:

New things she has learned:

• Clapping! Julia clapped for the first time during an organ recital on Sunday, May 2. It was actually during a piece (Mendelssohn's fourth organ sonata, to be precise), but by the time she attended Jonathan's improvisation class recital the following Tuesday, she had figured out she was supposed to clap during the applause. Whenever she claps, she is SO proud of herself. She will randomly clap, or clap when we clap, or clap whenever Jonathan and I say "Yay Julia!" And if she is standing up and wants to clap, she has to plop down on her butt so her hands can be free.
• She continues to be more and more steady on her feet. She can crawl very quickly when necessary but is starting to show more of a preference to cruise from piece of furniture to piece of furniture whenever she's able. Although we have tried to hold her hands and get her walk with help, she's just not interested yet.
• How to dance. :-P If you stand her up in front of you and tell her to dance, she will bounce her butt up and down. :-P
• Nothing new to report in the new words category. She will sometimes say "num-num" in regards to food. She does seem to be putting a lot of thought into what she's going to say and will string multiple syllables together in a very deliberate way.

New foods she likes:

• Not too many new foods this month, although she has tried apricot puree, cherry puree, and Cheerios (the Cheerios being her favorite of those three). Still loves yogurt, puffs, and yogurt melts. In fact, if you give her a bowl of puffs and yogurt melts, she will dump it on the floor so she can more easily pick out the yogurt melts to eat first.
• She definitely prefers finger foods. She will frequently shake her head "no" and gag on foods given to her on a spoon, even if she likes the food in question. She'd just rather feed it to herself with her fingers. We haven't tried getting her to use a spoon yet... we'll get there.
• She's really learned to drink well from a sippy cup (water or [very rarely] diluted apple juice). Her "Julia" cup from Grampa is her favorite.

New places she has gone:

• We took Julia to her first Rochester Philharmonic concert at the Eastman Theatre. She heard Corigliano's Gazebo Dances, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganinni, Schubert's Symphony No. 8, and Elgar's In the South. She actually sat through the Corigliano, but Jonathan had to get up and walk with her during the Rachmaninoff (she must not really be my child!). She just doesn't like to be still! Fortunately, the level of the theatre where we like to sit is very conducive to walking with a child and still being able to see/hear everything. Julia fell asleep during the second half and Jonathan and I were able to sit and enjoy the end of the concert together.
• The zoo! Julia and I went one afternoon with two of her friends from Kindermusik and their moms. Julia seemed indifferent to most of the animals, but she was particularly taken with the seals and the sleeping rhinos. And of course, she enjoyed being outside immensely, as she always does.

New favorite activities:

• Julia has really started to take an interest in books (I guess that makes up for the not liking Rachmaninoff thing). She loves to take a pile of books (either hers or Jonathan/mine) and flip through the pages. She is especially interested her puppy book, the books Marmee made her, the Beatrix Potter series, and her Eric Carle board books. We read a story together before her naps and at bedtime, and at naptime I let her have the book in her crib with her, and she will sit and look at the book with her baby.
• Speaking of her baby, she LOVES her baby. I think she may say "baby" before "mommy" or "daddy." Baby goes everywhere with her, and she loves to give Baby hugs and kisses. She puts her hands around Baby's neck and squeezes her and holds her close to her. It's so sweet!
• Looking out the window! Our patio door and front windows are at a right angle to each other, and she enjoys going back and forth between the two and watching the world go by. Loves all the birds that come to her feeder, cars, dogs, and the "dancing" leaves.

We are so excited that we will be with many of you this time next month! We can't wait to see you all!

Another one!

Well, Julia is not wasting any time adding to her tooth collection! She has been a little extra cranky the past couple days, and this afternoon as we were changing her diaper (up to size 3 now, by the way) we realized that she has a second tooth almost all the way in next to her first one! Just checked the other day and saw/felt not much of anything, so this one is coming in fast! Glad to have an explanation for our little honey's crabbiness... poor little dear! On a side note, she was able to devour her first burger off the grill this evening.

Tooth pictures

We finally managed to get Julia to open her mouth long enough for us to grab a picture of her single tooth! Here it is:

And here is the same picture cropped and enlarged to make the tooth more visible:

Julia's Ten Month Pictures

Somehow it's already been 10 months since Julia arrived...

... and we sure don't know where the time has gone! Here are some of the milestones from the last month:

• Waving "hello" and "good-bye" is one of Julia's latest accomplishments. She's been working on developing this skill over the past month or so. At first, waving her arms was not exclusive to saying "hi" and "bye-bye" but now if she even just overhears Jonathan or me say it, she will start to wave. It's so adorable!
• Julia is becoming super affectionate! She will kiss her stuffed animals (especially Jamaica Monkey, her puppy, and "Rosebud Bear") and then bury her head in them and go "aaaaaahhh" and "mmmmm." She will sometimes hug and Jonathan and me and she loves to give us "kisses," which means opening her mouth up wide, smearing her slobbery mouth on us and going "mmmmm." It's the most precious thing ever!
• Julia's new tooth is coming through more and more. Hoping we can get a good picture soon. Hard to tell if anymore are on the way. It feels like there might be another one on the bottom, but she doesn't let you feel for long before she starts biting (and boy can she bite! I'm so glad she hasn't taken to biting me while she's nursing!)
• Despite her lack of many teeth, Julia is doing a lot more "chewing" rather than "gumming." She loves eating pieces of ground meat and cut up pieces of what Jonathan and I are having. This past weekend, I made beef stroganoff in the slow cooker, and Julia devoured it every night. Still loves puffs and applesauce, adores her Yo Baby yogurt, and pieces of banana are probably her favorite food right now. She's also finally developing a taste for peas and enjoys them as a finger food. Julia's also starting to learn to use a sippy cup. She had a hard time figuring it out at first, so we took the valve out of the spout and let it just pour in her mouth. Now she has learned to suck out of it and will drink at least some water with each meal.
• After Julia not being a good sleeper for so many months, it still feels so surreal that she is such a great sleeper now. Ever since she started sleeping in her crib back in February, she has been sleeping 8-10 hours every night and usually goes right back to sleep if she wakes up. There have only been a couple of times we've needed to go get her because she wakes up so sad and upset and she always settles right back down. She also continues to nap 2 times a day for 1-2 hours. Pretty amazing.
• Mobility: This kid doesn't know the meaning of still! Diaper changing and "after bath time" has become a wrestling match. Of course, the only time she's ever still is after we're done... then she just sits and looks at you! LOL She can crawl REALLY fast, but you always know she's coming because she makes this adorable panting laughing sound as she goes. Wish I could describe it better because it is so heartwrenchingly adorable! She also stands up on everything she possibly can (furniture, fireplace, refrigerator, patio door). She's also learning to cruise. Her favorite place to cruise is around the coffee table.
• By far, her favorite activity is "displacing objects," whether that means pulling everything off of a piece of furniture or pulling all her toys out of the basket. It's hard to get her to actually play with her toys most of the time. She has learned how to play "roll ball" with her little balls from Great Grandma and Grandpa Wessler -- both with Mommy and Daddy or chasing after them herself.
• Spring is finally thinking about coming to Rochester, and Julia loves it! She likes having the windows open and being able to go outside. She enjoys her daily stroller ride and it's even been warm enough to sit outside on a blanket, watch the world go by, and discover the wonders of grass. It is so fun to watch her seeing so many things for the first time. She's seeing flowers, green grass, the leaves coming out on the trees, and the many birds coming to her bird feeder (from Marmee and Pops). So neat. :-)

That's everything I can think of, and she's about ready for her lunch. I will plan to post pictures later this afternoon (if I can remember how to use Picasa!). Otherwise, I will get Jonathan to help me when he's home for dinner.

TOOTH!!!

News Flash! Julia Elizabeth is now the proud owner of a brand new VERY SHARP tooth!

We could really start to feel it coming through the middle of last week, and it finally cut through completely on Friday. It hasn't popped up enough yet to get a good picture, but we will post one as soon as we get one.

It was about time, kid!

Nine Month Updates

Hi everyone! It's so hard to believe Julia is already 3/4 of a year old! It has gone by so fast, and it's fascinating to look back and see how much she has changed and developed. We have loved (almost!) every minute of it. :-) I think we've kept you updated with the big updates for this past month, but here's a recap:

1. Definitely the biggest updates for Julia this month are the changes in her mobility! It's hard to believe she only started crawling last week because she has gotten so much better (and faster!) at it already. She sure thinks it's quite a hoot that she can follow us around. She will start to fuss when we leave a room and then she will get a big smile, give a little cackle, and take off (with this hilarious panting laughter as she goes). She's also discovered how much fun it is to climb up on and crawl over Mommy and Daddy. She's getting much better at pulling herself up, too... the world is now just one big jungle gym waiting to be discovered!

2. Play habits: Well, up until a week ago, Julia's favorite way to play was to sit under/by her rainforest jungle gym and pull all the toys and books out of their plastic storage baskets. Some of her favorite toys/books are her Super Yummy and triangle (from Aunt Molly and Uncle Dan); a plastic ring that's supposed to attach to a toy but Julia prefers to carry it everywhere and gnaw on it occasionally; her plush puppy (that she adopted from Mommy); her puppy book; and her Valentine's Day card from Mommy and Daddy. However(!), now that she's MUCH more mobile, it is so much more fun to practice standing up/down, turn on the radio, pull blankets out of the basket, and get into puzzle boxes (now banished). She particularly loves to stand up/down at the chair at the computer when Jonathan or I are working there (like right now!).

3. Still no teeth.

4. Other new skills: Julia's learning to give (very wet) kisses. She especially loves to give them to her puppy and her baby and (sometimes) Mommy and Daddy. She's also learning to wave "hello" and "good-bye."

5. Yay spring: Our weather has been almost spring-like the last couple days, and yesterday, Julia took her first stroller ride outside since the fall and liked it immensely. She still LOVES the outdoors just as much as she did before. When she and I get the mail (now that it's warmer), she looks around and makes these cute little sighing noises the whole time. Hope the weather will stay nice soon, so we can continue to enjoy the outside.

6. Musical activities: Julia has had the opportunity to attend several of Daddy's recitals on the Italian Baroque organ at the Art Gallery and at a community recital. She seems to enjoy the music, but at the last art gallery recital, we had to go into an adjacent gallery because she cried because she couldn't get to Daddy! Julia and I also continue to attend Kindermusik, which she enjoys very much. She's still somewhat shy and undemonstrative at class, but she seems to like the class anyways. At home, she LOVES listening to her CD, and she always has to look at her Kindermusik flowers poster over her crib when she gets up from her nap or in the morning. It's also been fun for both of us to have songs and motions that we get to do together at home. One of the songs has even become part of her bedtime routine.

7. Sleeping habits: Speaking of bedtime, Julia's sleeping habits have improved dramatically. She'd been napping pretty well for a month or so in her crib in her room, but she was not sleeping well at night in our room (up 1-3 times a night and not going back to sleep well). On a particularly frustrating night, out of desperation and on a whim, I put her down to sleep in her crib, and she went right to sleep. Since then (about 2 weeks ago), she has slept through the night almost every night, and when she has woken up, she has either gotten herself back to sleep or has gone right back to sleep after I feed her. Thank goodness! Jonathan and I are really loving getting a good night's sleep again! We've also been able to develop some naptime/bedtime routines, which involve reading a story, saying prayers, and nursing (at bedtime). Her current favorite stories are "Goodnight Moon" and the following Eric Carle stories: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," "Polar Bear, Polar Bear," and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

8. Julia continues to do very well with solids. She went through about a 1 1/2 week phase where she refused anything but applesauce and avocado, but she is definitely over that now! Despite the lack of teeth, she has done very well with chewing pieces of hamburger, ground chicken burgers, bread, green beans, avocado, and pear. She always enjoys either ground-up or cut-up samples of Jonathan and my food (including risotto and tuna casserole). At her nine-month check-up, we got to ok to feed her most things, including some dairy, so she has very eagerly inhaled some yogurt the past couple days.

9. Speaking of the dr's, her current height is 28 inches and her current weight is 17 lbs., 10 oz.

10. Julia made her first road trip since the Grand Tour. We took an overnight trip back to South Bend for the funeral of Gail Walton (wife of Craig Cramer [Jonathan's organ teacher at Notre Dame]). It was a very sad occasion to go back to SB, but it was good to see many of our ND friends and introduce Julia to Craig. Julia did pretty well, although she did get very tired of being in the car after 8 hours (but who can blame her). Her favorite part of the trip was definitely meeting and playing with the daughter of one of Jonathan's former classmates. Adelyn is just 2 weeks younger than Julia, and it was a lot of fun to watch them play together.

Well, those are all the updates I can think of, and it's time to go read a story and put Julia down for a nap.

We also hope you like the new picture format. The old way of importing photos into the blog was really slow and painful. Since this way is much easier and faster, we can upload more pictures, and it should be easier for people to leave comments.

We love you all and look forward to getting to see many of you in a just a couple months!

Julia and her triangle

Before the nine-month update, here's an older video from a few months ago: Julia playing with her triangle (from Aunt Molly and Uncle Dan). It's a good example of how she has been able to move around the last couple of months. The profuse spitting was only a bit abnormal.

Julia's nine-month photos

Here are Julia's nine-month photos, brought to you in a format that will make everything easier. Enjoy!

If you want to see the album and explore the photos on your own, just click right on the slideshow.

Another Milestone!!!

So this morning I was sitting at the computer checking my email and suddenly I felt someone touching my back. I turned around, and there was Julia standing up behind me holding onto the chair! She was quite pleased with herself... apparently it wasn't enough of an accomplishment to just start crawling yesterday.

(In other exciting news, Julia has pretty much been sleeping through the night for the past week or so. She just made the transition to the crib in her room [which she has been napping in but she had been in her pack'n'play in our room at night because she was still up so much] and apparently it agrees with her.)

Here are two pictures of her standing up:

Huge milestone!

Julia crawled for the first time today! She has been able to get around for a while now through a combination of rolling over and pushing herself backwards and sitting up and turning around (an adorable video of this is coming soon!).

Here's the story: Julia and Mommy had just brought in the mail and it was lying on the floor. Julia was sitting a few feet away from it. She decided she wanted it, so she just went and grabbed it! Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, we set her up a few more times with other objects and she crawled to them too! Here's a video we took that shows her crawling:

Mommy and Daddy are so proud!

Feeding herself

Another Julia update:

Over the past couple days, Julia has been learning to feed herself her little puff cereals. Before, when I would give her a puff or put some on her high chair tray, she would just play with it or hold it in her fist (which was icky because it melted in her hot little hand!). If I would try to help her put the puff in her mouth she would get mad at me. Now, she will pinch it between her fingers (usually her right hand) and shove it right in. Then we cheer for her and she gets really excited. :-) She's also pretty good at manipulating pieces of bread, and today, she even handled some pieces of banana without mushing them too much. I've found, though, that I can only put one puff on her tray at a time... otherwise, she thinks they're just to play with... not sure about the logic on that... Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. :-)

Na na na!

As Joy mentioned, several weeks ago Julia was in a phase where she said "Na na na" over and over, especially when we egged her on to do so. Here's a video of the above taken in the middle of dinner (hence the messy baby):

(Note from Joy: She's crying in between saying "na na" because we wouldn't let her play with the camera)

Eight Month Updates and Pictures

Julia is (already!) 8 months old today! Here's some of the updates I can think of:

1. She can be quite the chatterbox. She went through a stage a week or two ago when she continuously said "nah nah nah." And she would say it back to us if we said it to her. Absolutely adorable. I will get Jonathan to upload a video. Now this past week or so, she has shown more of a preference for exploring the many ways she can scream and yell. It's quite charming.

2. She continues to be an excellent eater of solid foods. She is doing a good job of starting to move from purees to small chunks. And she loves pieces of all things carbs (that's my girl!): coffee cake, scones, bread, even a ladyfinger cookie. And she simply adores her "puffs" of cereal in various flavors that dissolve in her mouth. We also got a little food grinder to grind up some "big person" foods, and so far she has enjoyed (read: inhaled) turkey soup, rice, rice pilaf, chicken, and peas.

3. She loves being able to sit up and for several weeks absolutely loved sitting on the floor playing and watching Jonathan and me do things. Now when we sit her down on the floor, she usually will go immediately onto her tummy and try to crawl. So far, she has gotten pretty good at scooting backwards but cannot really go forward any significant amount (much to her chagrin). Nevertheless, she can cover a pretty decent amount of ground with a combination of scooting and rolling over and twisting around. She has very good upper body strength, and she can lift her butt up, just not long enough to try to crawl. I'm sure it won't be much longer though... and then Lord help us!

4. Julia and I are taking a Kindermusik class for babies. Today was our second class, and she is enjoying it so much (as am I). She loves listening to the music and particularly likes playing with scarves and the rhythm instruments. It's also really cute to see her watching the other little ones in the class. Going along with that, she continues to like "finger games" like "If you're happy and you know it," "the itsy bitsy spider," "this little piggie," etc.

5. She enjoys scratching at things and exploring their textures.

6. My mom and sister (Marmee and Aunt Jocie) were just here for a week, and we loved having them! It took Julia a little while to warm up to them (she's been in a mommy-possessive phase), but she decided they were pretty special people after all (especially because of Aunt Jocie's glam and Marmee's excellent rendition of the itsy bitsy spider).

Those are all the biggies I can think of right now... here are some pictures!

You can always tell when Julia is fast asleep... she tucks her hands under her head:

I'm the best toy in the box:

Demonstrating her backwards scooting abilities:

Peek-a-boo:

Exploring Marmee's face... she loves faces!

What did we ever do to deserve that look?!

Sitting pretty:

Getting her pedicure:

Aren't they purty?

She was blissfully unaware of the proceedings:

The tablecloth at Biaggi's was the canvas for her first "masterpiece":

She sat in the highchair the whole time... I was so surprised and proud of her!

Aunt Jocie and Julia expressing their "inner kitty":

The lovely handmade hat/sweater from Great-Aunt Cheryl:

The exhausting process of trying to obtain the 8-month monkey picture:

Still squirmy-butt:

Watching Daddy instead of the camera:

"Official" 8-month photo:

Love this face :-)

Seven Month Photos (Including Christmas)

Here are Julia's seven month pictures, which includes pictures from Christmas and New Year's. I think we are now finally caught up!

Julia's love affair with any rippable material continues:

Smiling at Daddy (this was sitting up with support... with Daddy ready to catch her when she wobbled):

Loves her baby:

Christmas Eve before church:

Sherri Long gave us this ADORABLE outfit:

Checking out the surprise in her stocking on Christmas morning:

Fascinated by the pictures in her bird book from Marmee and Pops:

Christmas dinner... rice cereal and sweet potatoes, yummy!

Happy family :-)

Getting reacquainted with Grampa:

And Gramma:

Sweet expressions:

Eatin' my yummies:

Can't believe she ever used to hate tummy time!

Loving the box our AWESOME Grandma Wessler gingerbread house travelled in to NY:

Happy New Year!

Julia at midnight on New Year's Eve:

I have this picture on my desktop and Julia is enthralled with it... talks to and tries to pat it:

It was that time again:

"Official" seven-month picture with Jamaica Monkey: