We interrupt your regularly scheduled vacation photos...

For a ten month update!

The kiddo is ten months today, and I know actual writing on this blog has mostly given way to photos, but I'm still trying to do a monthly update on Julia.

She is so big! And she's on the move. She's getting better at walking every day. She'll careen all around our house, although she's quite a bit more timid when we're out and about. Today she was standing, bent down to pick up something off the ground (trash, of course), and stood up again all without using anything else for support - I didn't even realize that was a milestone until I saw it on a list at the doctor's office. She's also getting better at falling and catching herself when she does lose her balance. I still can't be too far away but she's almost to the point where I just need to be in the room to keep an eye on her instead of following her around in case she takes a spill.

She's still sleeping through the night pretty well. Thankfully - with the exception of the week we were on vacation - that's been a consistent blessing. Her naps used to be pretty regular, at 9:30 and 2:00, but these last few days she's been protesting them mightily so I'm not sure where that's going at the moment. She's eating a solid foods breakfast, lunch, and dinner, taking two bottles of formula, and nursing three times a day. I think she's getting ready to drop a nursing session but I'm starting to worry about supply issues so I'm not going to push that. I'll let her do that when she's ready.

Otherwise, as long as she's not sick or teething (seven teeth now), she's delightful! She smiles and laughs and plays games with us. She loves investigating everything and getting her hands on and in everything. She basically just wants to explore and be loved all day.

Which is great and all, but she's also getting to be bossy and starting to try to exert her will on things. So, she's delightful as long as she's getting her way. My goal for the next month is to gently teach her that no one gets their way all the time, and sometimes you're not perfectly 100% happy and that's okay. Without it becoming a power struggle. Good luck with that, huh?

Other little things - she's very focused right now on turning pages of books, and she loves books with flaps or things to touch. She knows that the remote controls the television and can somehow tell the difference between the "real" one and the (identical!) broken one without batteries that we let her play with. She's big into eyeballs right now, and shoving her fingers in her nose and ears. (I had a dream last night that I pulled a whole string cheese out of her nose and honestly that's probably not that unrealistic.) She still seems to prefer me but playing games with R can keep her attention when nothing I do can. She giggles like crazy when we get down on the floor and crawl after her really loudly and "get" her tummy with kisses. And she always gives herself away during hide-and-seek because I can't say "Where's Julia?" without her giggling or shrieking.

We don't have a special photoshoot for this update, but we went to the park this morning and got a few cute shots.

She also loves wheels that she can spin.

Dislikes hats. I know the strap isn't the cutest thing ever but it's necessary.

This expression cracks me up. I think we have a 6-weeks-old photo with this same expression.

Do you know how hard it is to get a photo, in focus, with a smile, while a baby's on a swing?

Focus isn't great here, which is a shame. She LOVES the swings. She giggles and giggles.

This looks like I photoshopped Baby on a Swing onto a park background, doesn't it?

Loves sticks and rocks.

Laughing at me because I don't want her to put it in her mouth - "Oh Mom, you're not the boss of me, remember?"

"Fine then. You're boring Mom. I'm outta here."

Watching the big kids play.

Looking for doggies.

And she's sick of sitting around. Let's go!

Outdoors in CA

We went to Point Lobos State Reserve to see the sea lions. It's a state park that starts out in the forest and ends up on a rocky beach/cliff. We did the easy, scenic hike.

My buddies!

Black sand beach.
(I'm pretty sure it's all rocks down there and not black sand but doesn't it sound fancy?)

The view up. This photo doesn't do it justice. It was really beautiful; the fog covered up the horizon so it looked like this could have gone on forever.

Sea lions on that close rock. They looked like giant slugs.

Family + giant slugs.

Showing Julia the ocean.

Whole family.

More sea lions on that far away rock.

The rocks all had amazing texture, as weird as that sounds.
I'll spare you the 823498137 other photos I took of rocks.

In the far distance, on the left, is Pebble Beach.

Slugs.

Way cuter than slugs.

Cutest of all?

Vacation Photos Part 1

So this is the blogging equivalent of making you sit there and look at all my vacation photos, but we just got back from a week in northern CA, and I have hundreds of photos to sift through!

Here are a few of us around downtown Carmel so my family can check them out - more to come later.

Aww. There's nothing sweeter than your dad and your baby smiling together!

"C'mon Granddad, let's go! I'm ready!"

We don't have the Superman Pose down quite yet.

But she's a pro at the Windpipe Crush.

"Yeah I know you think these plants will interest me...."

"But what's really awesome is DIRT!"

"I have DIRT!"

"DIIIIIIIIIIIRT!"

Walking!

I'm way excited. She took one step. Then she took three. Then she took eight in a row. Then she clapped for herself.

This was yesterday. I can't wait to see what she'll do today!

She IS communicating!

Took this this morning. You've got to pay attention for all the sounds, but they're there!

And ignore that she's chewing on a diaper, k?

Because this is more fun than doing the dishes...

Not much to report today. I bought some clothes for me, which was cool. I've been looking at my closet and realizing the last time it was summer and I wasn't pregnant, I was working at the law firm. And my law firm clothes, while adorable, aren't exactly grubbing-around-on-the-floor-all-day-with-a-baby clothes. So I've been slowly trying to work in some comfy t-shirts and cute shorts. So that was fun.

The other cool thing: Julia was playing around with the tv remote today, and changed the input or something so there was just static on the tv. I go, "Julia, that's static. It goes whooosh whooosh." And she looked right at me and went, "Sssssshhhh sssssshhh." I've never even heard her make that noise before! (Although it was pretty quiet; maybe she's been practicing and I never realized it.) It was cool. She kind of barked back at our neighbor's dog too. Maybe now that she's getting really good at walking, she's starting to focus on communicating with the rest of the world around her.

Anyways, these are the only two photos I took of her today. Nothing special but she's always cute.

She's... communicating?

Big moment of the day:

I was holding Julia and R was tickling her. She would giggle a little every time he did. Then he tickled me, and of course I don't think it's giggle-worthy, so I go, "Ahh ahhh ahhh!" Then R tickled Julia again and she made the EXACT same "Ahh ahhh ahhh!" We did this a couple times so it wasn't a fluke! She's been imitating my "Hi" for a few weeks now but I figured it also sounded like cooing and wasn't very distinctive so it could have just been coincidence.

But she's definitely imitating sounds now. And this is the clearest example she's given us yet. It was really cool and hilarious and adorable all at the same time.

And of course I don't have a video of it or a photo of the babe, so ya'll will have to settle for Scrappy in our backyard, digging a hole to China after a chipmunk.

"I'm an awesome digger! I can get my whole body into this hole!"

Tuesday pics... Brought to you by things a baby probably shouldn't be playing with

Just some miscellaneous so I can maybe get back into the habit of blogging again on a regular basis.

I bought a camera strap off of Etsy and I'm completely in love with it (from here). It even has a lens cap holder sewn in! I'm probably more excited about it than I should be. We have a trip coming up and I know I'll take more photos since I won't have to physically hold my camera anytime we go out.

And my baby is adorable. We've been having a good week. That sixth tooth finally popped through and a mysterious rash on her leg cleared up, so we aren't teething, we don't have any rashes, we're getting back on track, sleep-wise, and the princess is a happy little one lately.

So serious....

And then she cracks a smile!

Robert says it doesn't count, my mom says it does. But today she "took her first step" by herself! She was standing up, I let go of her, she took a step, and she fell down on her knees. And then she did it a few more times later in the day. I'm not sure if it counts as a first step when you faceplant immediately afterwards, but regardless, it was pretty neat. She's so good at walking when we're holding her hand that she's almost trying to run sometimes, so she'll be all over the place before I know it.

So she'll be able to make her very own piles of diaper inserts.

Maybe even sort them herself.

She'll be able to reach for Mommy's camera...

Chew on electrical cords.

A lot.

Eat toilet paper.

And play with all the dog toys.

I can't wait.