Almost Crawling

Julia,

You are almost 7 months old...and you are almost crawling!

You've pretty much mastered sitting.

Learning to crawl is really a long and involved process. But the way you like to pull yourself to standing on everybody, though, sometimes we think you're trying to skip crawling and go straight to walking. But for now, your preferred method of mobility is rolling everywhere.

You roll here:

You roll there:

You get to where you want, or you get to where you are stuck and then it's back to start!

But wherever you're rolling, you normally wind up on your belly.

And then, you normally tuck those knees up and under you...

Push up...

Surprise yourself...

And then...quite rightly...you get really proud of yourself!

Once there, you kind of rock a little bit and try so hard to go somewhere, but mostly end up falling back down, and rolling away, which is totally acceptable.

After all, learning to crawl is serious business. But, it looks good on you.

..And it'll really tire a growing girl out.

Solid 6 (and a half) months old

Julia, back on April 11, 2013 you turned 6 months old. We were still in New York City on that day, and then I didn't get home until the 15th or so.

So your 6 month pictures are more like your 6.11 day pictures but, in the grand scheme of things, I think they still count!

You're a solid 6 month old little girl. You love to roll all over the place, you can sit up (when placed in that position) and stay there until you're done, or until your brother "helps" you lay back down. You reach for toys and stuffed animals, and really like to chew on your brother's water bottles. But, you don't really have a favorite toy or item yet. Unless that item is called 'Mommy.' You certainly do loves you some Mommy. But, even though we were forewarned about a Mommy-only stage, you still seem pretty in to me. Unless I'm wearing a baseball cap (which I do rarely)...in that case you just start crying...probably because you don't recognize me. This is odd, because when I accidentally shaved my beard off the other day, you still recognized me...but add a baseball cap atop my head, and I'm a stranger worthy of crying and big crocodile tears.

Aside from that (and one incident in the car in New York), you don't really cry much. You're pretty much a happy camper.

Your brother makes you smile and giggle an awful lot. It's hard to tell him "don't do that Aidan, you're going to hurt her" when all you do is giggle and laugh when he tickles you and holds your hand. He's pretty gentle though.

You've started sleeping on your tummy and side and seem very happy about it. Lately you've been taking some extra long naps, so perhaps your growing even more.

But, you already seem pretty big, especially compared to baby Asher who was just born! Yay Baby Asher! You guys will be fast friends, I'm sure. But for now, you didn't really seem to notice he existed.

You're chewing your 'cud' constantly, and trying to nibble on toys, books, fingers, arms, hair, spoons, pretty much everything that comes your way. Teething ain't fun.

Sometimes your teeth bother you so much that you lose your smile. But, don't worry, you've got clearance for 1/2 tsp of infant tylenol, so that eases the pain of teething. And, we haven't had to medicate you too often. You always seem to find that smile again.

You also got approved for up to 3 solid meals a day. So, you're enjoying a bevy of new foods, including plum banana rice (which I had the pleasure of feeding to you over the weekend).

You're just a solid, happy six month old little girl. And we swear, it looks like you're about ready to figure out crawling. From a seated position, you lean over very far to get something out of reach and those legs are twitching to start moving you.

For now though, you like to roll and sit and smile and all three humans and two dogs in the house like it too: you lighten up our days.

You're now 16 pounds, 13 ounces- which puts you at 50-75th percentile for weight; and 27 inches tall- which puts you at 90th percentile for height.

You talk a lot, too. You seem to be telling all of us what you think. Soon enough we'll understand your words, but for now, body language seems to tell the whole story.

Happy 6 months to our beautiful, baby girl.

The Princess is Three Months Old

Julia,

Last week you turned three months old! I know, I know, I always say this kind of stuff, but I have to reiterate. I mean, just the blink-of-an-eye ago you were nothing but a growing belly bump:

And then you were here! A lovely little newborn babe, completely dependent on us for everything. So sweet, and calm, and warm. Well, now that you're 3 months old, you're still sweet and calm and warm (most of the time, unless it's cold in the house). And you're still lovely and little (though not AS little)...but now, you're not really a newborn anymore! You're a little lady, a charming baby, full of personality and light in your eyes.

You smile great smiles!

You giggle, you 'talk', you laugh!

You grasp items with your hands. You sit in your Bumbo chair, sit in our laps and hold your head up wonderfully! Your neck strength and muscle control has gotten so good! All that tummy time has really paid off! You're a sturdy little girl now.

You 'play' with your brother and seem to really be developing a relationship with him. You light up when he's around, smile at his jokes or when he's being silly and try to eat his nose!

You are such a precious, precocious little girl now, and while we can't wait for the next step, your mother and I both are thoroughly enjoying the three-month-old you (even with the occasional clawing and screaming, which is totally natural for a baby with sharp fingernails and a slight aversion to bedtime).

You are sugar and spice and everything nice, handing out smiles without restraint. You're Three months old now, and look how far you've come!

I mean, just look at that face! Those cute little eyes! That smile! Sorry, I'm biased. But, c'mon. You're just a peach of a little girl, my Princess Jules.

And everyone seems to know it! Even 'the boys' couldn't stay away from you during your all-important photo shoot!

It's amazing how far you've come in such a short time. And whether I want to believe it or not, it's happening all too quickly! It seems like we've never been without you, little daughter of mine, yet every minute that your with us (yes, even the slightly loud ones) seem like a new, amazing gift in our lives.

Happy 3 Month-versary, my Princess Jules!!

Ramp Up to Month 8: The Baby Sitter

Leading up to your 8th month birthday you are really kicking it into high gear as far as becoming smarter and more mega-awesome!

On Saturday, your Mom and I put you down in your crib -which we had fortuitously already lowered down to the lowest setting because of you clunking your head while making your early-crawling moves- to play for a second while we were doing something.

So, you were playing in your crib, we did adult stuff like take out the garbage really quickly or something.

And then I walked back into your nursery and -low and behold- you were sitting up! Just sitting there in your crib!

I called to your Mom: "Holly! He's sitting up!"

We couldn't believe our eyes! "How did you get like that?" We asked. But you just smiled at us and then flopped back down on your side to keep playing.

Then a few moments later, I returned to your nursery and we saw something very similar to this staring back at us:

You did it again! You were just sitting there in your crib!

You've been able to prop yourself up on one arm like a kickstand for a couple of weeks now, and been able to stay in a sitting position when we put you in it for at least a month. But we never thought this monumental day would happen so quickly.

Finally we caught you in the act to see how you were getting into a seated position. And it was pretty awesome. You just got into your arm-as-kickstand position and then just slowly leveled out and balanced. And, voila, you were a baby sitter!

You love doing this now! Every time you're free to move around, you get into a seated position.

In fact, you love it so much that it sometimes gets you in trouble. On Sunday night you were trying to fall asleep in your crib. We heard you make some of the usual little cries and moans as you talk yourself to sleep-- but then the crying got louder and more intense. Something was wrong.

Your mother went to check on you and the sad-Aidan noises stopped a few seconds later.

She came back upstairs and told me that "It's hard to fall asleep when you're sitting up!"

She had laid you down and you fell asleep instantaneously! Apparently you'd gotten into a seated position and couldn't figure out how to sleep that way. So, sitting isn't always a plus. But it's definitely super cool!

We even have a hot-off-the-presses video of you doing it. Granted, you're a bit pissed in the video..but, as you can see, the urge to sit conquers all!

Sitting is definitely one major step forward for you, young Master Weinstein...but wait til you see what else you've been doing this week!