Christmas and Winter Fun

Julia and I had to find a variety of things to do this weekend while Mike worked. The end of the year is extremely busy for Mike and they have a deadline of December 31st to get all the auditing done for Best Buy, Corporate. So, I had to think of some fun things to do with Julia. On Friday and Saturday we did some errands and then went to the local libraries (two different ones on different days). Julia loves going to the library and walking through the aisles and reading books. For some reason she is very comfortable there and will wander everywhere without being scared of being away from me. Of course I have to follow her, but I am glad to see she is happy. On Saturday, Julia and I baked Christmas cookies. Of course, I didn't have any intention of making a lot, but just a few cut-out sugar cookies to give Julia some experience with the baking fun. She helped with cut-outs, but started eating the dough eventually and I had to end it there because there is raw egg in the dough. She didn't mind stopping because I think she was getting bored. Today Julia had her first snow experience. It took about 15 minutes to get her bundled up in her snow pants and other winter attire only to have her cry and scream once we started playing in the snow. She didn't enjoy it at all. We made a snow angel and that is about as far as we got. She did like watching daddy shovel the driveway as long as mommy was holding her.

I know I said I would never dress Julia in pink or a dress or put a bow in her hair, but those notions are completely gone. She is just to darn cute in the fashionable, girly clothes!
Ready for church in my cute dress, new pink shoes and pretty bow.

Snow fun? Maybe not!

Our few minutes of playing in the snow

Rolling out the dough for Christmas cookies

Cutting an angel and a stocking

Our cookie-making mess

This was from a few nights ago. Julia is fascinated with the dishwasher and loves to pull things out and now climb in the door when it is open.

St. Lucia

Mike and I took a long trip to St. Lucia, W.I. (West Indies-not Wisconsin) from December 9 to December 13th. Though I missed Julia terribly while she stay with my parents at our house, we had a great time enjoying the warm, 85 degree, sunny weather. Of course, the best part was watching Mike's brother, James, get married on December 11th to Julia's now aunt, Beth! Here are some photos. I don't want to depress anyone with the photos especially if you are dealing with cold and snow right now.

Tropical flowers

Beautiful ocean and white sandy beaches, palm trees (we thought maybe the yacht in the distance was Tiger Woods...probably not though)

Sunny swim up bar

Crashing waves...

A view from our room balcony

Playtime....or not.

On Friday Julia and I joined a few of the mom's and kiddos from our MOPs church group for a playdate at a local community center's open gym for parents and tots. They had lots to do with balls, hula hoops and other gym toys. I thought Julia would love this outing since she is walking all over the place now and trying to run without falling. Well, Julia's shy side came right out as soon as we walked in the doors. I put her on her feet and she wanted nothing to do with running in the gym or playing with the toys. She sat by mommy the whole time watching all the other kids run around chasing balls and hoops. After a while she warmed up a little and was rolling a ball back and forth to one of the little girls in our group. Julia was probably one of the youngest kiddos there amongst a sea of toddlers and preschoolers, so I could understand the intimidation and hesitation to run and play.

Some of our group's kiddos running on their hula hoop "path"

Julia's idea of open gym...sitting in mommy's lap people watching
Big smiles at home

Getting into things...

Now that Julia is walking, she is climbing and exploring more than ever before and she is quick about it! I caught Julia climbing into one of our bathroom cupboards the other day. She loves to rummage through it and pull out all the tampons and crinkle the paper in her hands. Thank goodness I have many more years until I have to explain what they are for!

Don't worry, the toliet bowl cleaner was put away high up on a shelf after this incident...

Thanksgiving

This weekend we were at Grandma and Grandpa Mock's house for Thanksgiving. We of course ate way too much, but had a great time. Julia didn't want any part of the Thanksgiving feast, so she ate mostly puffs, milk, corn and some fruit. She still doesn't eat meat; but we tried to get her to eat turkey.

French toast breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa

Walking around in mommy's shoes

Enjoying some cheerios with Grandpa

Close up with mommy

Hanging with Aunt Beth

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This weekend we dug out the Christmas decorations and "decked the halls" of our house. Julia had a great time going through all the bins of decorations on her own little treasure hunt. Since we only put up the Christmas tree last year and no other decorations due to being new parents and the lack of holiday spirit and exhaustion after Julia's medical issues and my own, Mike and I (OK, maybe just me) had a great time discovering all the cute decor we did have stored in our basement. There were things I totally forgot about and many little gifts, silk flowers and other Christmas items that I always purchase after the holidays when they are on super clearance (like 70-80% off) to get great deals and decor for the next Christmas. I guess I had my own little treasure hunt! We put up the tree, decorated the mantle, hung stockings and put some other decorations in the kitchen, bathrooms and outside. We got a beautiful Christmas wreath from a nurse I work with whose son was selling wreaths and spruce garland for his boy scout troop fundraiser. The wreath is on our front door, but we haven't put up the garland around our front porch just yet.

Julia is now walking and it is her primary mode of motoring around. Very little crawling now. She has done well with the Christmas tree and hasn't had too much interest in it. She does pull of ornaments every now and then, but I put safe, non-breakable, plastic or fabric ones on the bottom. She loves to ring one of the bell ornaments by batting at it while is sways on the tree branch.

Julia scoping out the Christmas goods.

Where have you been hiding all this cool stuff? (note the items on the floor to the right)

Julia assisting mommy with putting the lights on the tree

Julia "shaking out" any kinks in the strand of lights

Getting to her feet to walk around with the lights...she loved to parade around the room with them tangled in her arms and hands.

Putting an ornament on the tree with mommy

Now with daddy...

Tis the season to be ill...

Napping with Grandma

Someone found the pots and pans cupboard!



This is why Julia does not do the grocery shopping...

She loves to spill her play food all over the floor and "swim" in it on her belly.

What can I say, the girl LOVES the water!

Every day I work with sick people; they have pneumonia, H1N1, bacterial infections and other viral infections. Do I ever get sick from them? Nope. But I easily get sick from a 1 year old who seems to catch anything and everything. Yes, Julia already has her second illness of the year, this time, just a cold (thank goodness). I am feeling run down myself, my throat hurts and my ears feel like they are going to explode, so it is only a matter of time before the runny nose, cough, congestion and sneezing kick in yet again. We are hoping to all recover before the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us and we have to take a nice long trip to Wisconsin.

I was just remembering (not reminiscing in a good way that is for sure) that a year ago today, I was discharged from the hospital from my blood clot and Julia's surgery was a year ago on Tuesday, the 18th. How time does fly; seems so long ago. November 25th will mark her 1 year anniversary of coming home from Children's and being home for a full year.

In other, happier news, Grandma and Grandpa Mock visited us this past weekend. It is always great to have them here. Mike and I were able to get a bunch of stuff done around the house (I was a cleaning, organizing maniac) while they played with Julia. Unfortunately, after the grandparents leave, Julia is very sad, crabby and crazy! To combat these mood swings, we went to a local gym that had an indoor mini-water park with a walk in pool. Julia had a blast being able to crawl and then walk into the water. Of course, she didn't know her limitations in water depth and ended up with a face wash if she got a little too deep (I of course was hovering over her every second). They have one of those large, mushroom-shaped fountains and Julia loved going under it and through it only to be confused as to why the water was falling on the other side of us. Her favorite activity was when I was holding her and we would run into the water from shallow to the deeper area and make a big splash and "fall" into the water. We did this a bunch of times, until mommy was out of breath. Of course, when I walked out of the water holding her, she would give me the "more" sign language wanting to do it again and again. Julia was still crabby when at home after our pool trip and she ended up going to sleep at 5:30pm (extremely early for her). I think she was sad, overtired and just off from the fun weekend with grandma and grandpa. She for sure missed all the attention. Don't get me wrong, Mike and I pay plenty attention to her, just not as diligently as grandma and grandpa do. :)

October

We have been very busy this fall! In the beginning of October we celebrated Julia's 1st birthday! We had a big party and lots of guests! It was so much fun. Julia got lots of presents and ate lots of spaghetti and cake. We were so happy that so many people could celebrate the occasion and the fact that we made it through the year despite all the ups and downs we had.

The rest of October came and went quickly. Julia had her 1 year well-baby check on October 16th and all was well. Her stats are listed to the right of this blog. She is growing very well and is right on track with everything. She is saying a lot of words like: book, read, no, ma ma, bottle (ba, ba actually), go, this, come. She loves to read books which is great, except for mommy and daddy because she sometimes wants to read the same book about 5 times before moving on to another or something else. We will definitely get through it if it means she loves to read and learning her languages. She is also learning sign language at daycare. She knows how to sign "eat", "more" and "all done". It is great for us because now she can somewhat communicate what she wants. Mike and I have had to take the time to learn what the signs mean!

Julia loves to eat! She definitely has her likes and dislikes in foods. She does not like meat and we can't even get her to eat it if we trick her (she figures it out right away). She hates canned veggies and only likes frozen (a good thing I suppose). She is now off the bottle completely and drinks solely whole milk from a sippy cup. Here are some of her favorite foods:

Veggie: cauliflower and broccoli (surprising, I know) with corn as a close second. She loves all veggies mostly except asparagus
Fruit: Mandarin oranges with grapes as a close second (but she recently had apples and loved them too)
Cracker: Graham
Cereal: Cheerios or Kix
Meal: Spaghetti
Grain: Pasta
Dairy: I think it is a tie between yogurt and cheese
Breakfast: Pancakes

Julia has recently become a daredevil and is climbing stairs-we had to get another gate to put at the bottom of the stairs so she won't climb up. She is also taking a lot of steps on her own without assistance. She will be walking VERY soon for sure. She cruises around furniture a lot and walks around a lot with her toy shopping cart.

It's my birthday!
Happy by Grandma Mock

Presents!

Mmmmm...chocolate birthday cake!

I am one!

My birthday throne with my favorite meal...spaghetti!

Eating another favorite on my birthday....Mandarin oranges

My rubber ducky cake

My birthday present from mommy and daddy...a toy kitchen! I love it!

Cousin Ainsley and me playing with the kitchen set box (of course!)

A Halloween party at daycare....to the left is my boyfriend, Jayse.

Carving a pumpkin with mommy

Ready to trick-or-treat!

Eating my Halloween treats...yummy!