Happy Birthday Julia: 4 months!

 Julia is the most adorable baby ever.  Just look at these smiles!  She never stops smiling.  All you have to do is look at her and she grins. 

 She's starting to explore EVERYTHING with her mouth lately.  Especially her hands (and little bits of food anna tries to feed her).

 She loves to roll onto her tummy.  Almost as soon as you put her on her back she gets into this position.

 What a sweetie!

 She can entertain herself for long periods of time.  She's happy just laying on the ground rolling around, but her favorite thing is the jumperoo.  She'll spend as much as a 1/2 hour in there.

I love you to pieces julia!  Thanks for letting me be your momma!

a normal week in the summertime

I've found that staying busy means that I don't spend all day cleaning up messes after anna.  And its fun to get out and see the beautiful world we live in.  I failed to take a lot of pictures this week );

MONDAY: play with friends in the morning, i already don't remember what we did in the afternoon
TUESDAY: storytime in the morning, play with a friend in the afternoon
WEDNESDAY: washing the car (this is a fun thing for anna) and wilsonville storytime and waterpark in the morning and berry picking in the afternoon
THURSDAY: Out for a jog and storytime in the morning, dorothy's in the early afternoon, playing at sherwood water park with friends in the evening
FRIDAY: Running around the bridges in downtown portland, OMSI with friends in the morning, to a play in the park in the evening
SATURDAY: Anna didn't leave the house ALL DAY!  It was great.
SUNDAY: church and friends for dinner

Julia

4 months already!

Julia is a fantastic baby.  Starting out she slept like a champ.  I didn't even feel like a new momma.  She's been a talker from the start, lots of gooing and gaaaing.  I guess I make them that way.

She just started to roll last week!  Everytime you put her down in her crib (swaddled or not) she rolls on over to her tummy.  Crazy girl.  We just put her in the jumparoo last week and she LOVES it.  She jumps like crazy.  She's so small in there too, I wonder what she thinks of it. 

We also just gave her a first taste of real food.  She's been eating rice cereal a few times a day.  The ole myth about rice cereal making your baby sleep through the night is FALSE.  Because Julia used to sleep through the night and she doesn't anymore.  It's horrible.  She wakes up every 1-2 hours.  Last night was the first night in a week where she only woke up twice.  Ug.  This has got to stop.  Today she has no voice, so I think she must be sick.  But she's just so HAPPY you would never guess it. 

Oh Julia we love you.  Please sleep through the night again.

who's who?

robin hood parade

Another fun filled saturday!  Picked 30 pounds of blueberries, went to this parade (sort of lame but everything is more fun with anna and julia), attempted to take a nap (but julia is too excited about life to sleep), ate a nasturtium salad, colored a giant box house for anna, went to bob's red mill, went swimming at the Y, now hoping that julia will sleep through the night.........we love saturdays!

the rest of our day

 Anna wakes up about 2:30.  She and I finish chores (folding laundry, working outside) until Julia wakes up at 3 ish.  Then we feed JUlia and read.

 Often times a friend will pop by to play or we'll go over to someone's house to visit.  Today JJ came over.  Trina had to run somewhere so I took JJ and Anna and J for a stroller ride.  On our ride I saw our neighbor Dan.  He was pulling beets from our garden and gave us some.

 When we got home from our stroller ride we cleaned the beets and cooked them for dinner.

 Dinner took a long time to cook so Anna and dad watched some barney while waiting.

 After dinner its bath.

 then jammies.

cleaning the room.

 brushing teeth.

 julia just plays.

then bed.

 hugs and prayers

 tuck you in!  goodnight!

whew.  the days are long but the years are short.

She's 2

2 cute!  2 funny! 2 silly!

I've loved seeing Anna grow into a little person this past year.  She is just a sweet heart - a bit volatile at times, but a sweet heart.

Lets see what do I want to remember about Anna being two.  Hmm.  Well I'll just write down the things she loves and does and that will sum her up.

She loves to say "MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU" when she wakes up the morning.
After we get her out of bed she says "where baby at?"
She likes to climb into her chair by herself.
She pours herself a glass of milk more often than I would like (i try to keep cups up high now).
She eats like a champ, loves blueberries
Still afraid of anything hot.
Often has meltdowns while waiting for HOT things to cool down.
Likes to lay by her little sister and sing her action songs while moving her hands (a bit dangerous).
Is afraid of cars in the street and will say "cars dangerous"
knows what is going on all the time.
Likes to GO GO GO.  Gets bored at home.
Likes the idea of movies but usually only watches about 5 minutes before getting bored.
Barney is her favorite.
Likes to color, knows all her colors
Likes to count:  1,2,8,10 !!  8 is her favorite number.
Knows shapes: circle, triangle, rectangle, square, diamond, star
Can draw circles (by accident usually, but the points them out to us).
Calls mountains volcanoes whether volcanic or not.
loves omsi.  Associates big cities with OMSI.
has meltdowns when leaving places she loves (OMSI, library, friends houses)
Likes to play with cousin Amber
Is ALWAYS dirty.
Always has a runny nose with snot crusted on her face because she wont lets us wipe it.
Went through a phase of sleeping on the floor, then a pack and play, and now back to bed.
Still poops in a diaper, but will tell you that she can go on a train ride when she poops in the potty.
Still cries and fights diaper changes (why? why? why?!!)
Loves to take baths.
Hates having her hair washed.
Often asks for a cookie randomly throughout the day.  Otherwise we've stopped the snacking habit.
If given chocolate and lima beans, will finish her lima beans and only take bites of chocolate.
Runs with her arms really high like.......well i dont know what.
One leg has a prominent roll.  The other leg is straight.  weird.
Loves to eat hot dogs, or anything with dip.
Likes to help put things on the conveyer belt at the grocery store.  Its a pain.
Loves to fold laundry.  Will often ask to fold laundry if she's bored.
Still takes all the clothes out of the drawers, has now started doing it to julias clothes too.
Likes to help put groceries away.
Rarely plays with her toys during the day, but reads books several times per day.
Loves her baby sister.
Likes any form of being silly.
Yesterday showed some serious self restraint: We were making cookies.  I let her help dump everything in and mix.  Then she helped form balls.  I told her no eating the dough.  She didn't put one bit in her mouth.  There was a few times when she got a little on her finger, looked at it, and started to cry.  Talk about being torn!  Wow, what a tough girl!

hmm this is long - richard??  Anything to add?

a day in the life

I often wonder where the time goes.  So - i'm documenting my day.  I think it's fun to look back.  We wake usually to one or another crying baby at 6:30 ish.  Lately its been Julia (who decided to stop sleeping through the night when we got back from the trip).  We start with breakfast.  Oatmeal every morning.  sometimes with PB, usually plain or w/berries for me.  Lately with blueberries for everyone.

 We read scriptures while eating breakfast.  Rich and I usually fight over who gets to read and who gets to listen (neither wants to read).  After rich leaves (8 am), Julia goes down for a nap.  Anna has ROOM TIME.  At first she would always try to escape, but she enjoys it now.  She runs into her room and slams the door in my face (see below).  Some days she'll play for an hour, most days 15 minutes signals the first whine for "momeeeee".  But I always get at least 30 minutes of free time in the morning (usually spent cleaning).

After room time we pack up and go out for a jog.  sometimes we do a 5 mile loop, but usually we just run errands and head to the library.  The trick is to get Julia in the stroller without waking her up (she'll nap until 9:30).  And the other trick is to feed her wherever we are at 9:30 (usually a park) without exposing too much mommy body.

  

Today we went to the post office.  Lots of blue and yellow. 

 Then kept with the blue and yellow theme at the park.  I love living in a place where I can actually "run" all my errands by actually running!

 We end each tuesday/thursday outing with the library.  Here she is being shy.  There is a librarian named Sue.  She's very kind.  She remembers Anna and always tries to get Anna to say hello.  Today she had brought bubbles from home!  Even that didn't get a smile or look in the eye from this shy cookie.  Come on Anna!

 Of course, the library isn't just for books.  It's for toddler time.  Here Anna is trying to get Avrie to dance with her.Julia gets passed from Mom to Mom depending on who is melting down or running away.

 Listening to a story from Mrs. Teresa.

 Holding hands with friends for the last song.

On thursdays we also go to babytime for Julia.  Here she is looking at the bubbles. She's just starting to wake up and see the world.  She holds her head up and looks around and grabs onto things and puts them in her mouth.  Time is FLYING!

 Time to go home now and eat some lunch.  Most days anna sits happily reading books we check out.  Somedays she screams THE WHOLE way home.  That makes it a really long mile.

Lunch - usually beans or tuna and bread or tortillas.  Fruit is usually involved.  Oh - and science experiments with open cups.  naughty naught - i often have to remind anna: NO SPILLING NO SHAKING.  This girl eats her food - but she makes a heck of a mess getting it in her mouth!  I am usually feeding Julia while eating my lunch and monitoring Anna.  It's a busy 1/2 hour of life.

After lunch We read stories on the brown couch while I nurse Julia if I don't do it during lunch.  Most days I can get both down for a nap at the same time:  1:00.  This is the holiest time of day.  Don't be surprised if I don't pick up my phone during this hour - or answer the door if you come by.  I often indulge in a nap myself - but most days I read, garden, do yoga or clean.  I never fold laundry at this time because I don't think Anna would forgive me if she knew I folded laundry without her...........anyways........story to continue in a few hours when the second holy hour commences: bedtime.