Julia is 5 Whole Months Today!

With the end of 2009 comes the arrival of 2010 and the turning 5 month birthday to may baby girl. 7 more months and she'll be sitting in her high chair smashing cake!

Things She's Doing Now:

Sit up on her own for atleast 1 minute
Sit up and play with toys
Catch a ball when bounced to her
Pass object from hand to hand
Mouths objects
Roll over both ways
Plays with feet and hands
Recognizes her own name
Eating baby food - stage 1 only ate bananas but likes them
Push her self backwards while on stomach
Sleeping for 12 hours at a time Bedtime: 6:30ish
Jabbers vowel and consonant combinations
Laugh at strangers
Remember favorite toys or how to manipulate a toy
Intrigued with other babies

Who is this bearded man? Oh...it's Grandpa!

She's such an amazing baby. She's just so curious about the world and can be such a lil' clown at times. It's as if she knows she's amusing or entertaining you and will continue to make her funny sound or face. I am truly blessed.

Reflecting on 2009 and Looking to 2010

REFLECTIONS

This was quite a year for our family - we met our baby girl! The year started off with me pregnant in my first trimester and miserable but ends with me having to most precious gift in the world. She has become the light of our lives and the joy in everything we do. She is the first thing I think of in the morning and the last before I fall into slumber. She has made me a better person and helped me discover my true self in so many ways. She is the greatest blessing of my life.

I have become more content in my life and how I am valuable in this world. I see things in a more positive light although I do have days I falter back to Ms.Negativity but I'm only human.

2009 has to be up there with one of the most wonderful and most fulfilling years of my life. I am sure there is so much more to come in life but this will be one of those years I will refer back to in many years to come.

Jarred has become successful in the house flipping industry with flipping three houses in this year with his fourth already in the works for 2010.

LOOKING FORWARD

I have made the resolution to get back in shape...yadayadayada. Don't we all make that resolution? I have never made it before but considering I did have a baby five months ago, I need to do something to reboot my weight loss.

I have also decided to start considering a photography business as more of an option. I know I have a lot to learn before actually charging people for my services but there are 12 months in a year...that seems to give my many months to work on my craft and possibly turn my hobby into a moneymaker this year.

I want to focus on continuing to live life with intention and making the most of every moment. I want to continue to work on living in the moment and not worry about tommorrow more than I think about today. A dear old friend wrote this on his facebook page the other day and I want this to be my mantra for 2010:

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
~Malcolm S. Forbes

I want to continue to focus on the value and gifts that I have to offer this world instead of what I am not. I am who I am for a reason and by embracing that I will become the best mother I can possibly be and that is the most important thing I have to look forward to in the next year. and

Continue to be a supportive wife to my husband and be the best mother I can be to my beautiful daughter by supporting, loving and always encouraging her.

Our Lil' Pianist

Julia is just growing in leaps and bounds. Today she sat up on her own for atleast 15 minutes while completely engaged in playing her piano. Will she be a pianist? She really enjoyed banging the keys. It's just so amazing to watch her figure out that if I hit it there will be sound!

Who Needs Rice Cereal? Julia Ate Bananas!

So after four weeks of trying to get her to eat solids she did!! Three days shy of the official 5 month mark. A month of trying and success! I went ahead and broke out the banana baby food. She is still having issues with actually swallowing it all but she did swallow most of it and kept asking for more. Just watch the video....she's too cute!


Taken with my new Flip camera.

Christmas Day

This year we celebrated our first Christmas as a family and it was wonderful..minus my all day headache (thanks car accident). The day began with the smell of cinnamon rolls and Jarred pounding upstairs as he worked out. What a committment...the only thing I lifted was gifts and food.

We opened gifts after Julia's morning nap and she had a great time doing it! She loved the bows mostly and paper of course. She awed at the sparkly of her first Barbie but that was shortlived when she discovered the bow on the package was even more sparkly. She got really excited about her learning cube. Her big gift was the exersaucer which seems to be a hit. She was even curious about the exersaucer the minute I sit her in front of it. After we put her in the exersaucer it was all over. We didn't even get to finish opening her gifts. We are just going to open them when my parents come in on Wednesday.

As for Jarred and I, he gave me a set of beautiful diamond earrings which I will cherish always. He also gave me a Flip camera so I can always catch Julia in the act and share with everyone. He received from me a Bluetooth for his phone, wine chiller, some thermals (a bit dressier than his plain jane/rustic ones), an HD DVR and another gift that will arrive in the next few days.

After gift opening, I cooked the holiday feast. It was quite yummy and we even used the wine chiller to chill the wine. Dinner was followed by A Christmas Story and napping.

It was a wonderful holiday that we will always remember and cherish as it was our first as a family of three. We are truly blessed as a family.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve- our first as a family of three. It hasn't really felt like Christmas today...55 degrees and wearing shorts all day...hmmm. We stayed in town this year due to the Murano being in the shop and a rock slide on I40...who wants to drive 9 hours with a baby who has mastered the sound of squealing cats? I thought by staying here in our Chrsitmasy decorated home that it would feel like Christmas but I guess my memories will always be in Morganton. Julia's Christmas memories will be here in Nashville under our Nashville trees.

We did start the day off with a visit from Santa! Laura's Dad dressed up and played the part well. Maybe next year my Dad can do the job! Julia liked Santa and wasn't scared like I thought she may be. Instead she sat on his lap and told him what she wanted...in Santa/baby talk of course.

Santa I want...

Santa with Julia and her best friend Lilly.

She is really such a funny girl. I find myself laughing at her. She's always laughing and being silly. However, if you put an audience in front of her she tends to freeze. Atleast now she doesn't freeze in front of the camera lens. I guess after five months of having it in her face she is starting to warm up to it

Just being a silly girl before Santa arrives.

Tomorrow is the big day. It's what all the parties, shopping, planning, cutsie outfits and believing have led up to. The celebration of Christmas Day - the birth of Christ.

I am so blessed this year to be able to celebrate this day with my new family. This time last year I had no idea of the true blessing that was growing inside me. I had no idea of the beautiful life that would come with the arrival of my beautiful little girl - my sweet Julia. I am truly blessed and look forward to celebrating all of my blessings tomorrow.

Baby I'm Amazed

Sometimes I just love to sit back and watch Julia figure out the world. In her eyes and facial expressions you can see such concentration and focus...just trying to understand how something makes a sound and how to do it again or why does this butterfly sound crunchy and my other sings. She has a butterfly she hits on one toy and it lights up and sings but on this it only crunches. So she is always hitting this butterfly in hopes that it will make a sound. Amazing. She's only 4.5 months but her mind is growing by leaps and bounds with each engagement or interaction with the world. I love to site and observe the wonderment that goes on in my beautiful Julia's mind.

Julia's First Trip to Wait in Line to See Santa

On Friday Jarred took a half day to accompany Julia and I to see Santa. What a disaster! First off it was pouring the rain and here we are in our piece of tin little Kia Forte rental car (Murano is still being fixed). Once we fought through the Green Hills traffic we searched for a spot to park for atleast 20 minutes. I got to Santa around 1:30 but he was going on break at 3 and we would be the last people.

Waiting on Santa

Their camera tore up and 30 minutes passed with no line movement. Then we were informed that at 3 Santa was taking a break regardless and we may not be see him but he would be back at 4. Santa was a member of the Santa's Union. We finally got up to Santa and was one person away. He stood up and walked off his mall set. No Santa for Julia. However, lucky for us she is only 5 months and could care less about the white bearded man in red. I was set on getting a picture of some sort so instead we sat her on Santa's green velvet chair. She loved it. Then Jarred posed with her. So we may not have seen Santa this year but we made a good memory.

 Who Needs Santa When You Have Daddy?

Sleeping Beauty

Absolutely precious baby girl. Julia was in the middle of her second nap of the day.

20 weeks already...isn't that 5 months old?

Things She's Doing Now:
Sits up momentarily without support but catches self with arm
Laughs and smiles at people other than Mom and Dad
Rolls over in both directions
Passes objects from hand to hand
Babbles consonants and vowel combinations (starting to sound like words - dadada, i love you, hi, yeah)
On a schedule
Responds to different primary colors - loves reds, oranges and yellows

Goes to bed at 7pm - Waking up at 4am but going back to sleep til 7:30am

Self-soothing with hand

Sticks almost anything in mouth

Still rejecting solid foods on a spoon but will take some from my finger

Sitting up so proudly!

Julia Rolled Over!!!

On Saturday December 12, 2009 Julia rolled over from back to stomach on her own!!!! (She rolled over from stomach to back months ago.)We have been working with her for weeks and even Lilly tried to help her out the other day when Laura watched Julia. Well, all the hard work has paid off. She was playing in her crib and Jarred was reading in the nursery chair. He looked up and waaaala! She was on her stomach. Since, she has done it a few more times. She's growing up so fast! Before we know it she will be crawling around the crib.

Christmas and Cocktails 2009

Saturday night we had our first party (excluding our rehearsal dinner) at our home. It was our first official party as a party of three. Hopefully it will turn into an annual event. Julia slept for most of it but put up a fight to go to sleep and did not go back to sleep after her bottle. She just wanted to enjoy the festivities I'm sure.

The Christmas Cosmo was a hit!

The dynamic of a party completely changes when you have a newborn. There were three infants and a preggers woman there so we didn't get too wild...not like our Florida parties although I don't remember them getting crazy. Maybe I'm remembering college and well I'm not 21 and neither are my friends so I guess those days are past. We did have a great time and hopefully some new friendships were made.

Note to self: Next year be more specific with the Dirty Santa. I'm thinking wine exchange????? I have 364 days to decide.

Jud is a Dirty Santa!

Miss Personality

So Julia is really developing a personality and letting me know what she likes and doesn't. I do think she is going to be a silly and happy girl that isn't shy. I believe let us know what she wants and doesn't want quite easity but be an overall easy to please llittle girl. We'll just see.


LIKES
Loves her Mommy and Daddy!
Her Bumbo - so she can see the world (watches us eat at dinner, make her bottle, cook)
Loves smiles, sillyfaces and silly noises that we make at her - laughs away
Sticking her tongue out
The twinkle of Christmas lights and glow/flashing of the fire
Holding my finger when she feeds
"You are My Sunshine" sang to her at anytime
Staring at her mobile when in her crib
Paci's and her hand in her mouth - she's definately learning how to self soothe
Staying on her schedule - she does  it naturally so when she misses naps - Dear God!
Making noise with her rattle
Yelling - she loves to hear her voice right now.

DISLIKES
Being hungry - she lets us have it! She can go from super happy to po'd in 1 second flat!
Removing the bottle from her mouth to burp her
Hates her swing if she isn't sleepy - it's reserved for nappy time only!
Lying flat for too long....she wants to see the world!

Frazzled and Dishoveled Me

So I have always been a highly organized and scheduled person. I'm a note taker and check list maker. I love post-its and highlighters. I like bins and nice neat rows. I go through spells where I have to clean clean clean. Then there's the creative side of me. I like to make messes but clean them up afterwards. I love projects and things where I can see progress if not over a few hours but atleast a few days. I loose interest in things easily if it takes too long. Soooooo here I am now. I am still trying to do all these things as a new mom but I feel like I'm becoming a bit dishoveled at the same time. Julia is by far my number one priority now and so what if I don't clean one day - she held her bottle! So what if my craft room has turned into a junk room - Julia is laughing and babbling consonants. So what if I haven't straightened up the cabinets - Julia is holding herself up with her hands! Well it's catching up with me with our upcoming Christmas party. I have food to prepare, a house to clean, gifts to wrap, a white elephant gift to find (what was I thinking), cocktails to concoct, and who knows what else to do by Saturday all with a splitting headache that comes and goes as it chooses. There's a small person in me trying to arrise saying "you can do it all! Take on all the responsibilty you can!" but then the other small person is yelling "you have a baby!"

 I'm not complaining by far, I love my life and all the blessings I have. I acknowledge that we are blessed enough in this recession to be able to throw a party for our friends and celebrate Christmas and our blessed life. I'm blessed to have a tree filled with gifts for family and friends. However, I just find myself not as put together and organized as I used to be. That's been hard for me to accept considering the old me - that's pre-baby me. A baby really does change your life in every way but for the better. Maybe my physical appearance isn't as great and my mind is a little bit wishy-washy due to lack of sleep but when I walked in the door today and Julia laughed at me....who cares what I look like or that my brain is jibblejobble right now. It's okay I know because I am doing the best I can and it shows in my daughter and marriage.

Why blog about this because I'm not asking for advice?? If Julia reads this entry when she becomes a mother one day, I want her to know that it's completely normal for her Type A personality to let go a bit and embrace motherhood. I finally have even though I may look a bit dishoveled in doing so.

Julia Held Her Bottle (On Her Own)!

Today Julia held her bottle on her own! She is getting so big and so much stronger by the day.  Jarred has been working with her when he feeds her. He always positions it so it looks like she's holding it and maybe it gave her the confidence today to do it.  It started out as our normal 2:00 feeding. When there was about 1 oz of formula left in the bottle, she started to move both her hands to the top of the bottle (towards the nipple). She grasped it and I let go. She finished off the rest of the bottle with no problem. She was completely holding it on her own.

Hopefully her next feat will be rolling over from stomach to back. She is really curious about it. During playtime 90% of the time if I lay her on her back she starts to attempt to roll over but just can't get her leg over. I'm giving her two weeks and she will be doing it effortlessly.

18 weeks...

She's so silly and just brightens my day with her smiles, laughs and oh so funny faces. Maybe she'll be a funny girl always being silly....

...and she's discovered a way to self soothe - her hand in the mouth. She can almost get the whole thing in. How impressive Julia! Should I encourage this "talent"? ....

...but when things start to go south, this is the result. Her screams are louder than ever. She's become so vocal and loves to hear her voice. I do love to hear her babbles. The picture is cute without sound!

Miss Lilly's December Photoshoot

I am starting to love editing. I know there is so much to learn and with each new photo I learn something new. Thanks to all my guinea pigs and especially Julia I am getting some great practice.  People keep saying I should do it to make money and maybe in a year or two I will but right now I just want to enjoy my time with my baby girl. Right now I can take her along and she just chills in her stroller. Well see what direction all this goes in.

Last week I took pics of Miss Lilly again. This time the photo shoot was held indoors in Julia's nursery. Lilly is such a laid back baby...atleast when she's around me. According to Laura she can be a handful at times but I don't believe it! Laura entertained Julia while I snapped away at Lilly. She loves the camera lens!

New Mommies Party

Tonight was our 1st Annual New Mommies/Expectant Mommies Christmas Party. I must say without these ladies, pregnancy wouldn't have been so easy. It was a really good time considering the Christmas music was covered by a baby crying most of the time. We exchanged gifts white elephant style and Julia ended up with three Sarah Boynton books which she will love in the future. She was already trying to hold it.

We even let the husbands come...I guess they did help make this all possible.

Our sweet babies in order by age.

Piper (4 weeks), Jacob (6 weeks), Claudia (8 weeks), Julia (4 months)

Our First Attempt at Eating Solids Unsuccessful

So after Julia's 4 month visit I was given the go ahead to start her on solids. Since she was slow to gain weight I wanted to wait until I got the ok. I had bought the rice cereal and some baby food a while back but just kept it in the cabinet not ready to move on. I have even assembled the high chair but Julia's bum has yet to set in it.

Today for her 2:00pm feeding I started the big transition - solid foods. I hate to call it solids because once I added the formula it was a globby mess that resembled poorly mixed intant mashed potatoes. I sure didn't want to eat it and..... neither did Julia. My first attempt I put her in her Bumbo and the minute she tasted it - Waaaaaaaaaaaaa! So I picked her up set her on my lap and we attempted it again with her in a "safer" place. She was curious and took some in but then started making her sad face. She didn't cry but pushed it out.

We stopped. After a few minutes I put her back in the Bumbo and thought I would try one last time. No crying this time but just pushing it out of her mouth.

However she is intrigued with the spoon. She kept taking the spoon in with food on it but just pushing the food back out. I let her suck on the spoon with nothing on it and then it turned into a toy....not sure if that's a good thing but this is my first time around the block with this solid food thing. Atleast she has really great fine motor skills developing!

4 Month Visit, Shots and Skinny Bi!C#@&

Tuesday was Julia's 4 month check up. My baby is already 4 months...wow.

Weight: 13 lb. 12 oz  50 percentile for weight

Height: 24 in.  50 percentile for height

Head Circumference: 16 " 30 percentile - she gets her small head from Jarred I guess

Doctor said "she's just perfect".

She was in her normally happy mood when we got there. There was another woman there who had a baby about 2 months old and a 5 year old boy...maybe 6. He was running around the waiting room saying he can't wait to get his shot. I assumed he was on crack because what child....wait what human can't wait to get a shot.While I'm talking about this crazy child, let me explain that his mom was already back to her skinny prepreggers body. Who does that after have a baby 2 months ago???? No one that I know or that I like. (There is actually a girl in my bootcamp who had a baby 7 weeks ago and is SKINNY and complains about her weight. SHUT UP! I don't talk to her.)I secretly laughed to myself as she struggled to keep her 2 children quiet and under control. She may be skinny but her kids are crazy. Here's Julia so quiet and entertained by her little zebra and me with my 20 lbs to loose. We're calm and quiet enjoying our day. Then there's her. All skinny and dolled up but kids screaming and going wild. Granted I only have one baby and who knows how life will be when we have a second one but I wanted to find something wrong with her since I still have a Michelin tire to loose.

Julia had to get a shot so she got her shot, gave a squeal, I put her paci in, picked her up and the crying stopped. She's such a well adjusted and happy baby. Who knows how long this peaceful shot receiving will last but lets hope always.

This brings me to wild child boy that was in the waiting room. He was next door. OMG! You would have thought they were giving him electroshock therapy in there. He was screaming for 20 minutes and I am not exaggerating. The whole time we were at the doctor he was next door. He was screaming "please help me. Someone help me." You could hear his mom trying  to calm him but with no avail. He was screaming and screaming and his help me screams turned into "Oh my booboo....ooooohhhhhhhhhh".

Dear God,
When Julia is that age please, please, please let her know it's just a shot and that the world is not coming to an end. If you could make her not cry then great!
Sincerely,
Amanda

Shot days are spoiling days. No rules or restrictions and I will always be that way. Hopefully it will allow her to not be so anxious and crazy when it comes to getting a shot. I have heard plenty of babies/kids get shots at this point but none as crazy as this boy. Usually it's crying and stops. When I left this boy was still going on. They are probaby still there. God bless. That's what she gets for being so skinny already;-)

Julia's First Tear

Julia cried her first tear today. First off it was shot day so she was already in a fussy mode. We were eating dinner and I kept making funny faces and noises which made her laugh. Then Jarred tried...must have scared her because she stuck out her lip and began to whimper. As I went to pick her up a tear rolled down her left cheek. I immediately snuggled her up. It broke my heart. I even thought about skipping bootcamp tonight (which I look forward to) because I didn't want to leave her. I know it's just developmental with the ability to make tears and this crying today is no different than it was last month after her shots but today it came with a tear and that is hard to handle.

The Mobile - The Best Babysitter

This mobile is the absolute best thing in my whole bag of baby gear. Granted it is not as high tech as it's modern day cousins with their batteries and self spinning (mine requires the fan to spin) and it's also created from fishing line and colored foam circles, but it entertains Julia like no other. It beats out the entertainment her Boppy floor gym gives her and none of her toys can get her this excited. This mobile is the greatest babysitter. She even chats to it and I'm not sure if talking to inannimate objects is good but I don't care at this point. I can shower and get ready while she is engaged in this spinning world of circles. I used to listen to the ipod while I got ready but now I listen to this joyous sound. It just delights both Jarred and I. Enjoy!

I had the webcam on the corner of the crib so she was completely alone while I got ready for the day. We now have to trick her to get pics of her smiling, laughing...she freezes at the sight of a lens.

Troy Stackhouse

Troy works for my husband here in Nashville. He's a young professional that loves music and a good time...I sound like a singles ad. He recently signed up with Team in Training Nashville to run the Country Music Marathon. He recruited me to take pics of him for his website. Julia accompanied me as I shot his pictures on the downtown  Riverfront. I was pleased with the photos considering my 50mm is doing some funny things apeture wise...still investigating. Anyhows, he was another great guinea pig!